YUBA COUNTY
Biographies
THOMAS EDWARD BEVAN
A history of Yuba County would be incomplete without the biographical resume of the lives of its men most prominent in the public life of the county, among whom must be mentioned Thomas Edward Bevan, now rounding out his thirty-third year in office as county assessor. Born in Clayville, Oneida County, N.Y., January 30, 1854, he is the son of Edward and Phoebe (Jones) Bevan, the former a native of Wales, and the latter of the State of Illinois, but also of Welsh parentage. The father was of sturdy Welsh stock, and at the early age of fifteen years was boarded out to the trade of blacksmith. In 1849 he came to the States with his brother, and in 1861 to California, via Panama, locating in Nicolaus, Sutter County, where he ran a shop until 1873, when he moved his business to Wheatland, Yuba County. He continued his blacksmith shop up to the time of his death, July 1, 1893, at the age of sixty-three. Three children were born to this pioneer couple: Charles, whose death occurred in 1887; Nellie, born in California in 1864, and died aged fifteen; and Thomas E., the only living member of the family. Edward Bevan was a man of great public spirit and prominent in the affairs of the pioneer community, among his other activities serving as town trustee of Wheatland.
On February 1, 1862, Thomas E. Bevan, with his mother and brother Charles, left New York for California to join the father, making the journey by way of the Isthmus of Panama. They arrived in San Francisco March 4, 1862, landing from the steamer Golden Gate, which was burned up on the return trip. Three days later they arrived at Nicolaus, coming up the Sacramento and Feather Rivers in the old side-wheel steamer. The two steamers on the river then were the Governor Dana and the Swallow, and daily trips were made from San Francisco to Nicolaus, the craft drawing sixty-seven inches of water when loaded. This was the year of the big flood in this district, and Marysville was four feet under water, and the surrounding country flooded. The lad attended the public school in Nicolaus, after which he learned the blacksmith business with his father, in Nicolaus and later in Wheatland, where the old shop, built in 1873, still stands. In 1871 he accompanied McNamara and Brewer overland through Nevada, Utah and Idaho to Montana with a herd of 486 head of horses, starting on May 1, 1871, and arriving in Helena, Mont., August 27, 1871, where the band was sold to Travers Bros., stage men, after which Mr. Bevan returned home.
After the death of his father, in 1893, Tom Bevan, as he is familiarly called, sold out the blacksmith business to D. O. Little. Having early in life made up his mind to enter a business career, he attended Heald’s Business College in San Francisco, graduating on May 17, 1875; and on his return to Wheatland he became salesman and bookkeeper for the Towle Lumber Company, remaining with them for twelve years. During this interval he served as city marshal of Wheatland in 1877-1878, and as constable in 1873. For a number of years also he was deputy sheriff under Hank L. McCoy; and for one term he served as mayor of Wheatland.
Coming to Marysville, in 1889, he continued his public career as under-sheriff under Jerry Saul for four years. He then became deputy assessor under W. B. Meek for two years; and in 1894 he was elected to the office of county assessor for Yuba County. He is now serving his eighth consecutive term in that office; and when the present term is completed, he will have been thirty-two years in the same office, from January, 1895, to January, 1927, a record seldom equaled in any county. In fact, he is the oldest assessor in public life for the past fifty-one years.
Fraternally, Mr. Bevan is equally well-known, as a member of the Masonic orders, including Nicolaus Lodge, No. 129, of Wheatland, of which he is a Past Master; Washington Chapter, No. 13, R.A.M., of Marysville; Marysville Commandery, No. 7, K.T.; Wheatland Lodge, No. 48, Eastern Star; and Islam Temple, A.A.O.N.M.S., of San Francisco. Prominent in Odd-Fellowship, he is a member of Sutter Lodge, No. 100, of Wheatland, and Marysville Encampment, No. 6; and he is the oldest living member of the local lodges in both the Masons and the Odd Fellows. He also is a member of Empire Lodge, No. 96, Fraternal Brotherhood, of Marysville; Silver Oak Camp, No. 185, W.O.W., of Marysville; and Court Pride, No. 34, Foresters of America, of Marysville, being a charter member of the latter, as he is, also, of the Eastern Star and the Woodmen of the World.
Mr. Bevan was first married , in 1877, to Sarah Shields, of Wheatland; and five children were born to them, all now deceased, as is the mother, her death occurring in 1886. In 1888, Mr. Bevan was married to Cameron May Mauzey, of Missouri; and five children were born of this union, two of them now living; Phoebe J., assistant deputy assessor; and Eleanor E., a trained nurse in St. Francis Hospital, San Francisco.
A typical Californian, Mr. Bevan numbers his friends by the thousands throughout this part of the State, his years of public service making him a well-known figure in this district, and his sterling qualities of character endearing him to all who come in contact with his genial and pleasing personality.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 467-468
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