Plumas County Biographies

R. H. F. Variel

Transcribed by Craig Hahn, Dec. 2004 

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

 
of Quincy was born November 22, 1849, at New Harmony, Posey county, Indiana. 
His father J. H. Variel was a native of East Minor, then Cumberland county, 
Maine, and was born August 7, 1816; married Miss Mary A. Casey of Indiana in 
1847; and in 1852 crossed the plains with his family, and settled at 
Camptonville, Yuba county, in 1853, and is now living in Quincy, in this county. 
After acquiring a common-school education at the mining town in which he was 
reared, R. H. F. Variel began to teach school in September, 1868, which he 
followed in Yuba and Plumas counties until 1873, when he was elected district 
attorney in the latter county; to which position he has been three times 
re-elected, and is now serving his fourth term. Since 1873 his undivided 
attention has been given to the study of the law. In June, 1876, he was admitted 
to practice in the district court, and in May, 1879, to the supreme court. He 
was married in 1876 to Miss Carrie L. Vogel of Transit, Erie county, New York, 
by whom he has had one daughter. 
 
Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties, with California from 
1513 to 1850. � Fariss and Smith, San Francisco,  1882. p 183
 
Robert Craig Chambers, 
 
the third sheriff of Plumas county, is a native of Ohio, and came to California 
in the year 1850. His first mining in Plumas was on the east branch at Rich bar. 
He then tried ranching in American valley, and was afterwards in the service of 
Clark, Shannon, & Co., at Meadow valley. Mr. Chambers was the democratic 
candidate in the fall of 1856 for sheriff against J. D. Byers, the know-nothing 
candidate, and S. J. Clark, the first republican candidate in Plumas. Chambers 
and Clark were both defeated. Our subject again appeared in the field in 1858, 
and obtained the shrievalty over his opponent, L. C. Charles. He was re-elected 
in 1859, but was succeeded in 1861 by Elisha H. Pierce. He then resided in 
Meadow valley, being the assignee of the bankrupt firm of Clark, Shannon, & Co., 
and afterwards superintended the Plumas or Whitney quartz-mine until it proved a 
failure. He subsequently became identified with the Oroville and Virginia City 
Railroad Company, and remained in the state until it collapsed, and then went to 
Utah, where he now resides. 
 
Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties, with California from 
1513 to 1850. � Fariss and Smith, San Francisco,  1882. p 186