Yolo County Biographies


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William SANDROCK
 
Time has wrought manifold changes in the aspect and environment of Yolo county 
since first Mr. Sandrock arrived in this portion of the state.  The vast tracts 
of land that then awaited the first turn of a furrow now have been brought under 
cultivation.  Villages have been transformed into thriving centers of population 
and commerce.  Schools and churches betoken the mental and religious aspirations 
of the residents.  Into this work of upbuilding and development he threw the 
energies of middle age and by his own painstaking industry, by his progressive 
spirit and by his consistent uprightness he proved a valuable citizen to the 
community with whose destinies his own fate had been sealed.  Of late years and 
indeed during the greater part of his residence in the county he has been a 
business man of Blacks Station, where he still resides, occupying a comfortable 
home, but now to some extent retired from the enterprises that engrossed his 
energies and youth and early maturity.  
 
Born in New York City February 24, 1850, William Sandrock passed the years of 
youth at Boonville, Mo., and there learned the trade of a blacksmith.  Coming to 
California in 1869, he settled at Woodland, Yolo county, and secured employment 
in a shop.  Later, in 1881, he removed to Blacks Station and bought out a 
blacksmith�s business, establishing at that time a trade that developed with the 
enlarging population of the surrounding country.  The shop and his cottage were 
destroyed by fire, but he rebuilt the shop and bought another residence, so that 
he soon recovered from the heavy loss entailed by the catastrophe.  Until 1908 
he continued as proprietor of the shop, but in that year he disposed of the 
business and invested his funds so as to secure an income without heavy manual 
labor on his part.
For a few years after coming to the west Mr. Sandrock remained a bachelor, but 
in October of 1882 he was united with Miss Crona Rominger, who was born in 
Germany, but grew to womanhood in California and received her education in local 
schools.  The family of Mr. and Mrs. Sandrock comprises five children, namely:  
Freda, wife of Louis Schieman, a prosperous rancher of Yolo county; Henry W., 
employed as a fireman on the Southern Pacific Railroad; Arthur, bookkeeper for 
the Southern Pacific Railroad at Marysville, Cal.; Annie and Lawrence.  Ever 
since coming to California and attaining his majority Mr. Sandrock has voted 
with the Republican party in state and national elections.  In local campaigns 
he gives his influence to the men to whom he considers best qualified to 
discharge the duties of the offices in question, without regard to their 
opinions concerning the national problems.  While at no time solicitous for 
office himself, he has consented to fill positions of local trust, the most 
important of these being the office of justice of the peace, to which he was 
elected and in which he continued for a number of terms.  On several occasions 
the party organization has chosen him to act as delegate to county conventions 
and in such gatherings his influence has been given to measures for the benefit 
of the party in the county.  No question interests him more keenly than that of 
education and for some fourteen years he gave efficient service to the district 
in the capacity of director, meanwhile striving to promote the welfare of the 
schools and to surround the boys and girls with advantages enabling them to 
prepare for the responsibilities of active life.  While not identified with any 
religious movement he contributes to the Lutheran Church, to which his wife 
belongs and in which faith she was reared.  Many years ago he joined the lodge 
of Odd Fellows at Davisville, but of recent years he has held membership with 
the lodge at Blacks Station and has passed through the chairs up to and 
including that of past grand, while his wife for a time was very active in the 
work of the allied organization of Rebekahs.
 
Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source:  �History of Yolo County, California� by Tom Gregory.  Published by the 
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 840 � 842.