Lake County
Biographies
CAPTAIN R.W. CRUMP
CAPTAIN R.W. CRUMP, an attorney at Lakeport, was born in Greensville County, Virginia, September 25, 1828, and when about fifteen years of age he moved with his mother and the family (his father having died several years previously) to Shelby County, Tennessee, near Memphis; and during his residence there he was married to Miss Caroline Pierce, of Halifax, North Carolina. In the fall of 1851 he moved with his wife to Poinsett County, Arkansas, and there he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1855. In the early part of 1860 he moved to Panola County, Mississippi, and was a resident there until June, 1875, when he came to Santa Rosa, California, and moved thence to Lakeport, in the fall of 1877. He was admitted to the practice of law in the courts of Mississippi in 1860, and in the District Courts of California in Santa Rosa in 1875. Having seriously impaired his voice before coming to California, he did not make the law a specialty until he was elected District Attorney of Lake County, in 1879. Before that date he was for about two years engaged on the staff of the Santa Rosa Democrat as city editor; then took charge of the Lake County Bee, and was its principal editor until the spring of 1880. He remained in the District Attorney’s office until December, 1883, having been re-elected in 1881; in the fall election of 1886 he was again chosen for another term of two years.
Though actively engaged in the practice of law since 1858, he has also engaged in cotton-planting from the time of his majority until the close of the war, when his negroes were emancipated.
Captain Crump has been twice married. His present wife was Mrs. Leonora B. Clanton, in Sardis, Mississippi, and they were married in the fall of 1871. He has seven living children.
TURNER W. CRUMP, son of Captain R.W. Crump, was born in Sardis, Mississippi, in 1865, and came with his parents on their removal to California. In 1887 he engaged in the real-estate and insurance business, in company with his father. He is now (April, 1890,) serving as City Clerk of Lakeport, having been elected to that office by the Board of Trustees, in February, 1890.
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
Transcribed by Betty Wilson
GEORGE H. FOREE
GEORGE H. FOREE, a Lakeport merchant, was born in Solano County, California, in July, 1853, and was early left an orphan. He first graduated at Lincoln Grammar School in San Francisco and afterward at Heald’s Business College in the same city. He was then for several years engaged in various occupations,—bookkeeping, clerking in a store and mining; in the latter he was employed about seven years, in Siskiyou, Klamath and El Dorado counties. In 1883 he went to Lakeport, Lake County and bought the hardware store of Tate & Co., and has ever since been engaged in that trade, with varying fortune. His store has been twice burned,—in 1885 and 1887; and his dwelling was burned in August, 1888, the fire in each case catching from adjoining buildings. He is still a bachelor, but his sister has resided with him since his first arrival in Lakeport.
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
Transcribed by Betty Wilson
J.S. DOWNS, M.D.
J.S. DOWNS, M.D., one of the oldest practicing physicians of Northern California, was born in the city of Haverhill, New Hampshire, April 14, 1831. He received his early education in the schools of Newbury, Vermont. At the age of fourteen he went to Battle Creek, Michigan, where he studied medicine with Dr. Edward Cox, for five years. In 1847 he went to Chicago, where he attended one session of the Rush Medical College. He then went to St. Louis and entered the St. Louis Medical College, where he graduated in 1848. In the spring of 1849 he crossed the plains to California, arriving at Sacramento in July, where he engaged in the practice of medicine, uninterruptedly for the following ten years. In 1859, having lost his health, through over-work and exposure incidental to the practice of his profession, he went to Lakeport, Lake County, where he practiced for three years. Having regained his health, he then went to Napa City where he engaged in practice with Dr. W.W. Stillwagon until 1864. His health again failing him, he returned to Lakeport, where he has since resided and followed his profession, and where he has established a very pleasant and comfortable home. He was married, in 1858, to Miss Kate Sheridan, a daughter of Hon. James E. Sheridan, who has served in both branches of the California Legislature. He was a cousin to General Phil H. Sheridan. They have three children: Frank, Charles S. and Ernst.
Frank is in business in San Francisco, Charles S. in the drug business in Oakland, and Ernst, the youngest, is reading medicine with his father.
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
Transcribed by Betty Wilson