Sacramento County Biographies

H. C. TRAINOR

Transcribed by: Nancy Pratt Melton

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

      

SACRAMENTO TOWNSHIP.
Page 291.
 
	of Green & Trainor, proprietors of the Empire Market; was born 
in New York city, June 1, 1830, and remained till 1851, engaged in butchering. 
He then came to California by the Isthmus. He came to Sacramento in June, 1852, 
and embarked in time butchering business for himself in 1855, forming a 
partnership with Christopher Green. They have always occupied the present 
location. In connection with this business they have a ranch of 9,000 acres on 
which they raise grain and many of the cattle for their market.  In 1858, he 
married Rose Toland, a native of Ireland. They have had seven sons, of whom five 
are now living. 

Source: History of Sacramento County, California With Illustrations 1880 by 
Thompson & West.
 

	Prominent in the livestock trade, is a resident of Sacramento.  
He was born in New York city, June 1, 1830, and while yet small he was a �fly 
boy� in the Herald office, of that great metropolis.  That was the day of 
old-fashioned presses.  Arriving at the age of fifteen years, he was employed by 
his uncle, Robert McKinnin, in the old Catharine Market in that city.  Seven 
years later, namely, in January, 1852, he came to California in the ship Ohio, 
Captain Whitney, by way of Panama, arriving at San Francisco April 8.  His first 
work there was in the employment of William Montgomery.  Subsequently, being 
acquainted with Bishop Goodrich, of Sacramento, who kept the Queen City Market, 
corner of Seventh and J streets, he came here in June, 1852, and was employed by 
him until November, when the market was burned out.  They at once bought a 
ready-made house, and in ten or twelve days resumed business at the old stand.  
Mr. Trainor afterward associated himself with Andrew Weston and Christopher 
Green (whose sketch as one of the mayors of Sacramento appears in this volume 
elsewhere), in a little shop on J street, between Front and Second, where the 
Tremont House now stands, and where they were at the time of the great flood.  
In September, 1853, in company with Mr. Goodrich, he went first to Shasta, and 
January 1, to Yreka, near the Oregon line, and in May returned to Sacramento.  
Mr. Trainor then began in business for Rolla & Werner, for whom Mr. Green was 
then book-keeper.  In 1856 he formed a partnership with Mr. Green, purchasing 
the interest of Rolla & Werner, and this business they continued for many years. 
 About 1860 they acquired ranch property in Yolo County, eight miles northeast 
of Dixon, in what was called �the pocket,� and there they had at one time as 
many as 5,000 sheep.  The native breeds were crossed with the Spanish and French 
Merinos.  The firm continued in sheep-raising, in connection with the market, 
until about 1874-�75; but in the meantime, in 1869 or 1870, they bought a ranch 
in Placer County, where they had 5,000 sheep, and also had some 1,600 acres of 
land in grain, Mr. Trainor being the active outside business man of the firm, 
while Mr. Green attended more particularly to the interests of the market.  They 
are still engaged in the live-stock business in Arizona, where they now have 
5,000 head of sheep and 2,000 head of cattle.  In 1867 Mr. Trainor built a house 
on H street, where R. S. Carey now resides, and lived there many years.  He now 
resides at 1222 Tenth street.  He is a prominent member of El Dorado Lodge, No. 
8, I. O. O. F.  Being one of the �boys,� he took an active interest in the 
volunteer fire department; became a member of the Exempt Firemen�s Association.  
He was also the chief organizer of the Washington Guards, a Yolo County 
organization, Captain Mathews, which in 1862 was attached to the Sacramento 
Battalion, and served during the war.  Mr. Trainor was early an active Democrat, 
a member of the County Central Committee, and chairman of the same; but he was 
never an office-seeker or an office-holder.  His father, Charles Trainor, was a 
native of Donegal, Ireland; was a �freelander,� and compelled to emigrate to the 
�land of the free,� America.  The maiden name of the mother of the subject of 
the foregoing sketch was Mary McKinnin, and she was a native of the city of New 
York.  His grandmother was a Quakeress, a native of Dublin, who came to New York 
in the year 1799.  In 1858 Mr. Trainor was married to Rose Toland, daughter of 
George Toland, of Sacramento.  Their children are named Daniel, Isaac, Charles, 
Frank, Alfred and Walter.
 
Source: Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, 
California. Pages 482-483. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890. 

Transcribed by Karen Pratt.