Contra Costa County Biography

JOHN C. ROUSE

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta, December, 2006.

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
                  John C. Rouse (Deceased) was one of the pioneer and 
representative business men of eastern Contra Costa County. He was an important 
factor in the upbuilding of various enterprises in Antioch and the surrounding 
country. He was a man of energy and great executive ability. His birth occurred 
in Watertown, New York, June 20, 1828. He acquired a common-school education, 
and early in life he was identified with the drug business. On January 3, 1853, 
he started, via the Panama route, to cast his lot in the Golden State. He 
arrived in San Francisco on February 3, 1852. He engaged in mining in Calaveras 
County for a brief period, after which he mined in Tuolumne County for eight 
years. In April, 1861, Mr. Rouse came to Contra Costa County, where he became 
foreman of the Pittsburg Coal Mine at Somersville for about three years. His 
next venture was to engage in the hotel business at Somersville for. He operated 
the Pittsburg Hotel for three years, when he again gave his attention to coal 
mining and worked the Central Mine for five years. In 1876, Mr. Rouse, in 
partnership with G. W. Hawxhurst, opened the Empire Mine, and the company built 
and equipped a railroad from Antioch to the mine. In 1881 Mr. Rouse purchased 
the Central Mine and extended their railroad to the same, and Mr. Rouse became 
resident manager of the company, of the name of Belshaw & Co. He also was senior 
member of the firm of Rouse, Forman & Co., an extensive lumbering firm of 
Antioch. On February 21, 1872, Mr. Rouse was united in marriage to Miss Alice 
Nichols, a native of Watertown, New York State. To this union have been born two 
children - Charles Rouse, deceased, and Collins Nichols Rouse, a graduate of the 
University of California with the class of 1910. No man has given greater 
efforts or accomplished greater results for the business prestige of Antioch. 
His death occurred in Berkeley on November 16, 1907, and his wife passed away on 
May 27, 1912. At the time of Mr. Rouse's death he was president of the Bank of 
Antioch; he was also associated with the lumber and hardware business of 
Antioch. In 1905 Mr. Rouse moved to Berkeley, and for a number of years he had 
retired from active business.
 
Source: "The History of Contra Costa County, California," Elms Publ. Co., 1918, 
pp. 604-605.