YUBA COUNTY Biographies

THOMAS J. WILLIAMS, SR.

In both the paternal and maternal lines, Thomas J. Williams, Sr., is a representative of old pioneer families of California; and much of his life has been devoted to the development of the State’s great mineral resources. He is also a successful orchardist, and is the owner of the Maple Spring Ranch near Dobbins, which he has converted into a productive and valuable farm. He was born in Brandy City, Sierra County, March 20, 1863, and his parents were John J. and Elizabeth (Lewis) Williams, the former a native of Anglesey, North Wales, and the latter of Swansea, South Wales. In 1850 the father emigrated to the New World, locating at Utica, N.Y., where he opened a carriage shop; but he sold the business in 1853 and joined the rush of gold-seekers to California, following the Isthmus route. He first went to Camptonville, Yuba County, and later made his way to Sierra County, locating “pay dirt” on Cherokee Creek. He died in Downieville at the age of sixty-four years; and the mother passed on in San Francisco in June, 1920, aged eighty years. In 1849, when nine years old, the mother had accompanied her parents, Richard and Mary Ann Lewis, on the journey from Wales to Minersville, Pa.; and then in 1854, they came on to California via the Isthmus of Panama. They spent two years at Port Wine, Sierra County, and then removed to Brandy City. Mr. and Mrs. Williams were the parents of six children: Thomas J., of this review; Mrs. Anne Peck, deceased; Lewis and John R., both deceased; R. G. Williams, mining at Indiana Ranch; and A. L. Williams, at Oil Center, Cal.

Reared in his native city, Thomas J. Williams there attended the public schools to the age of sixteen, and then started out to earn his own livelihood, securing employment in mines and sawmills of that locality. He has always followed mining, and there is no phase of that occupation with which he is not familiar. After hydraulic mining was prohibited by enactment of the State legislature, he turned to quartz mining and in 1885 went to work in the Alaska Mine at Pike City. He has made a close study of process gold-finding, and has gained recognition as an authority on that subject. In 1888 he came to the Yuba foot-hills. He is owner of the Templar Mine, on the Indiana Ranch, where he has a two-stamp mill and cyanide plant. He has developed an orchard of fine varieties of fruit and a vineyard, using spring water to irrigate his land, which yields good returns for the care and labor expended upon it. He is an expert mineralogist and has a number of valuable mining claims on his homestead. The Templar Mine, in all probability, is the richest find in Yuba County within the past two decades.

At Marysville, on August 8, 1890, Mr. Williams was married to Miss Leanor Labadie, one of California’s native daughters. She was born on the Maple Spring Ranch; and her parents, Peter and Margaret Labadie, were pioneers of 1852. Her father was one of the most progressive men of Yuba County, and operated a sawmill on the Maple Spring Ranch, also conducting a general store on Indiana Ranch. Mr. and Mrs. Williams have six children: Elizabeth M., the wife of A. C. Clark, of Taft, Cal.; Charles Alford, who served over seas in the World War and is now the owner of a garage at La Habra, in Orange County; Lewis Andrew, who also served over seas in the World War, and who is engaged in the trucking business at Burbank; Clarice, the wife of I. M. Roberts, chief clerk of the Associated Oil Company at Ventura; Thomas J., Jr., a miner of Dobbins; and Eleanor, a graduate of Taft High School, class of 1923. Mr. Williams’ interest in his community is that of a public-spirited citizen who desires its advancement along all lines of substantial development and improvement. Self-reliant and efficient, he has won success as the logical outcome of tireless energy, determination of purpose and keen perception; and none can question his integrity and honor.

So much of the productiveness of California is due to the wonderful irrigating systems now in existence, more especially in the valleys, that it is almost impossible to estimate the value of this modern method of agriculture and horticulture when writing of the fertility of our far-famed State; and in the Sacramento Valley the older residents have witnessed a marvelous transformation in a comparatively short time, brought about by the modern methods used by the men engaged in this work in the county. Among these must be mentioned Charles E. Merriam, now ditch superintendent of the Hallwood irrigation system, and for many years engaged in construction work in Yuba County. Mr. Merriam is a native of the county, born at Dobbins, November 6, 1866, a son of Joseph and Marinda (Rugg) Merriam, pioneers of Yuba and Nevada Counties, the father as a miner and later as a rancher. Joseph Merriam died in the fall of 1921, aged eighty-eight, at the family ranch at Dobbins. The mother passed away in 1912.

Charles Merriam was the third in a family of six children born to these pioneers. After finishing his schooling he entered the stock business at an early age, following this ten years at Brownsville, and during the time worked on the flumes constructed by the Pacific Gas & Electric Company in that district.

In Brownsville his marriage occurred, to Miss Margaret Elizabeth McCrank, born in that town and a daughter of the late J. H. McCrank. Three children blessed this union: Margaret, Mildred, and Thelma. Several years were spent at Marysville, until April, 1920, when Mr. Merriam took up the irrigation engineer work at Hallwood. For about three years he has been engaged as superintendent of the irrigation system there, and during this time he has done a great deal to build up one of the most efficient and economical districts in the State, giving the work his entire attention. In this line of activity the knowledge gained in construction work has been of real value to him and to the ranchers dependent upon his management of the system. Fraternally, Mr. Merriam is a member of the Foresters at Forbestown. With his family, he has been for the past twenty-five years a part of the social and economic life of his community.

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