Plumas County Biographies

Thomas B. Shannon

Transcribed by Craig Hahn, Dec. 2004 

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

 
is a native of Pennsylvania. In early life he emigrated to Illinois, where he 
worked at the tinsmithing trade. In 1849 he came to California, and worked at 
his trade for E. C. Ross in Marysville. From there he removed to the upper 
Sacramento region, and engaged in gaming and sporting. In 1865 Shannon came into 
Plumas county, and with James A. Blood started a store at Elizabethtown. Under 
the law creating the board of supervisors, Shannon was elected a member of the 
Plumas board April 9, 1855, from district No. 2. He was re-elected that fall, 
but resigned in October; at the same time sold his business at Elizabethtown, 
and purchased a one-third interest in the firm of Clark, Wagner, & Co., at 
Meadow valley�Shannon assuming control of the business. Injudicious speculation 
caused the firm to collapse in 1861, with liabilities amounting to $50,000. 
Shannon was elected to the assembly in 1858 over Dr. Walker, and re-elected in 
1859 as a Douglas democrat, over Parsons, the Breckenridge candidate. He was 
again run for the assembly in 1861, appearing on the political turf as the 
unconditional-union candidate, and was elected, defeating William Wagner and 
William Jacks. Shannon became an intense war man from this period, and declared 
in favor of the emancipation as the best means to preserve the union. In 1862 
Shannon was pitted against Richard Irwin for the state senate, and beat him by 
261 votes. He now gave up his residence in Plumas, and in the canvass of 1863 
was elected to congress from the third district. He has since served as surveyor 
of the port of San Francisco, a member of the assembly from that city, speaker 
of the assembly, and collector of the port of San Francisco. He was married in 
August, 1856, to Miss Avis Folger, at Meadow valley.
 
Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties, with California from 
1513 to 1850. � Fariss and Smith, San Francisco,  1882. p 196