Butte County
Biographies
CHARLES RABE
The gentleman whose name heads this sketch, was born in the kingdom of Hanover, July 12, 1836, and is at present forty-six years of age. He emigrated to American in 1856, and went to Madison county, Illinois, where he remained two years; after which time he came to the Pacific coast, arriving in Butte county in the fall of 1858. He was joined in marriage to Miss Catherine Fink in the year 1878. Mr. and Mrs. Rabe have been blessed with six children. Mr. Rabe’s ranch is situated four miles east of Biggs, a view of which may seen in this work. Farming has been his principal occupation for many years, and he has made a success of it.
History of Butte County, California: From its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - Vol. II - Harry L. Wells & W. L. Chambers - 547 Clay Street, San Francisco, Cal., 1882.
Transcribed by: Betty Wilson
CHARLES NEFF REED
CHARLES NEFF REED was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 29, 1849. At the early age of seven years he began the battle of life. At the close of the rebellion, in which he participated as drummer-boy, orderly and spy in the Union army for three years and five months, he went into the printing business, and has since been identified with the press west of the Rocky mountains. He came to Butte county in October, 1877, and was foreman and local editor of the Butte County Register from November, 1877, until October of the following year, when he assumed the editorial and business management of the Oroville Mercury. On the twenty-ninth of October, 1879, he established the Herald at Gridley, making a very successful venture, his paper being considered one of the newsiest and most enterprising journals of county. He is small in stature, but a hard worker, and ever on the alert to assist in any movement calculated to benefit the community in which he resides. He is a lineal descendant of General Joseph Reed, of revolutionary fame, inheriting much of the spirit of ’76, and is a worthy type of the self-made men of the Pacific coast. Mr. Reed is a member of the Oroville lodge No. 59, I.O.O.F.; also of the Oroville encampment No. 22, and of the Washington camp No. 15, P.O.S.A. He is a member and founder of the J. L. Ridgley lodge No. 65, degree of Rebekah, at Gridley.
History of Butte County, California: From its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - Vol. II - Harry L. Wells & W. L. Chambers - 547 Clay Street, San Francisco, Cal., 1882.
Transcribed by: Betty Wilson
GEORGE H. RILEY
GEORGE H. RILEY was born in De Soto county, Mississippi, October 21, 1847. In 1855, his parents came to California and stopped for a time on the Stanislaus river. In 1856, they came to Lovelocks, in Butte county, and the following year went to Forks of Butte, where they resided for five years. In 1863, they removed to Dogtown, where George has since resided., He has followed mining considerably, and is a blacksmith by trade. In 1875, he located the Scott’s bar claim, on Big Butte creek, and in 1879, the Mineral Slide, on Little Butte creek, both of which have proved to be fine mining property. Mr. Riley was married in 1870 to Miss Mary E. Orrell, of Dogtown, by whom he has had three children.
History of Butte County, California: From its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - Vol. II - Harry L. Wells & W. L. Chambers - 547 Clay Street, San Francisco, Cal., 1882.
Transcribed by: Betty Wilson
LAUGHLIN McB. ROSE
LAUGHLIN McB. ROSE was born in Columbiana county, Ohio, May 14, 1844, and is a son of James and Margaret Rose pioneer settlers of the same county, his grandfather Rose being one of the first five occupants. The family consisted of three children: David, now in the state of Kansas; John R., now with the subject of this sketch, and Laughlin McB. Their mother died in 1854, and their father in 1863. In 1861, Mr. Rose went to Wisconsin, and in April, 1865, came to California, across the plains. He clerked for George C. Perkins in Oroville for about five years, when he was married to Miss Ellen E. Carter, and removed to the Mountain house in Bidwell township, where he remained till late in the fall of 1873. In the spring of 1874, he settled on the farm which is now his present residence. It embraces 1,320 acres of excellent grain land. On the fifth of December, 1874, his wife died, leaving him three children: Isabel, William Laughlin and Bertha E. He was again married November 25, 1875, to Clara Ann Mallory, of Butte county. By this union there are two children, David McBain and Edwin Russell. Mr. Rose is a member of the Oroville lodge, No. 59, I.O.O.F., and of the encampment; also, of the lodge of United Workmen at Biggs. He is one of the successful farmers of Hamilton township, having accumulated a handsome property. He is a very skillful sportsman and delights in hunting. The result of one week’s hunting for ducks on his farm was the bagging of one thousand, having been assisted by his brother.
History of Butte County, California: From its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - Vol. II - Harry L. Wells & W. L. Chambers - 547 Clay Street, San Francisco, Cal., 1882.
Transcribed by: Betty Wilson
R. SHIPLEY
His parents were farmers in Sullivan county, Tennessee, where the subject of this sketch was born in the year 1827. When twenty years old, he volunteered as a soldier in the Mexican war, serving fourteen months. On his return from Mexico he went to Tennessee, but the spirit of unrest impelled him to seek for happiness and gold in California. He came overland in 1850, and mined for six months in Mariposa county; then at Bidwell’s bar and Rich bar in 1851, and again at Bidwell in 1852, and at Yankee bar in 1853. The year 1854 found him at Frenchtown. In 1855, he mined at Bolt’s hill, Trinity county, and on Mosquito creek; in 1857-58, at Frenchtown; and from that time to the present he has resided in Kimshaw township. Since 1863 he has lived in Dogtown.
History of Butte County, California: From its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - Vol. II - Harry L. Wells & W. L. Chambers - 547 Clay Street, San Francisco, Cal., 1882.
Transcribed by: Betty Wilson