Lassen County
Biographies
A. U. Sylvester
He was born in Suffolk county, Massachusetts, July 29, 1814. Until 1849 his principal occupation was the manufacture of boots and shoes, in Stoughton, Massachusetts. In that year he came overland, stopping in Shasta county. He mined, clerked, and then merchandised till 1851. He then kept hotel in Yreka a year. He then mined in Shasta until July, 1856, when he came to Honey Lake valley and located a section of land four miles below Susanville. With the exception of four years spent in merchandising on the Humboldt, he has lived constantly in Lassen county. He now owns a farm, in partnership with Fred Hines, 3 ½ miles east of Susanville. In politics, he is a republican.
SOURCE: Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties, with California from 1513 to 1850. -
Fariss and Smith, San Francisco, 1882. p 499
Transcribed by Craig Hahn, Nov. 2004
Clarence G. Kelley
The latest addition to the bar of Lassen County was born in Rutland county, Vermont, in March, 1852. He came to California with his parents in 1859. In 1869 he commenced teaching school, and taught in Lassen and Marin counties for six or seven years. In 1876 he began the study of law in the office of W. B. Haskell of Petaluma, continuing there for about two years. He was admitted to practice in the supreme court in November, 1879, and in the following May he settled in Susanville, and began the practice of his profession. He has met with good success, and is bending his energies to reap the rewards and honors of his noble profession.
SOURCE: Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties, with California from 1513 to 1850. -
Fariss and Smith, San Francisco, 1882. p 378
Transcribed by Craig Hahn, Nov. 2004
Edward T. Slackford
This gentleman is a native of England, and was born in Suffolk, near Ipswich, November 4, 1849. In 1852 he came with his parents to the United States, settling in New York. Until 1861, he lived in that state, Ohio, and Iowa, when he came to California, and engaged in farming and mining in Lassen county. In 1867 he purchased forty acres of land three miles east of Janesville, on which he now resides. In 1881 he was appointed supervisor of the Janesville road district. Politically, Mr. Slackford is a democrat. He is a member of the Masonic and Workmen lodges of Janesville. December 25, 1872, he married Miss Alzina Leith, born in Waukesha, Wisconsin, in 1851. They have three children: Inez, born September 25, 1875; Edna Leona, April 16, 1877; Mary, September 12, 1879.
SOURCE: Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties, with California from 1513 to 1850. -
Fariss and Smith, San Francisco, 1882. p 500
Transcribed by Craig Hahn, Nov. 2004
Ephraim V. Spencer
The only member of the original bar of Roop county that has been spared by the hand of death in Mr. Ephraim V. Spencer, who is still practicing law at Susanville. He was born in Whitestown, Oneida county, New York, January 28, 1836, his parents being Luther D. and Mary (Van Buren) Spencer. In his youth he received such an education as was to be obtained at the common schools of that state. When still young, he learned the carpenter trade of his father, and later worked at this trade for himself in Michigan. He came to Lassen county in 1859, where he built and operated a saw-mill until he was admitted to the Roop county bar, in July, 1862. In 1864 he was admitted to the Lassen county bar, and has since been a constant practitioner. He is a careful student, and has stored a fund of legal information that has placed him in all the leading trials of this county. Starting with a limited education, he has, by close application and study, advanced himself to the front rank of his profession. In April, 1870, he passed a rigid examination before the supreme court at Sacramento, and his subsequent practice before that body has been attended with the highest success. In 1864 he was elected the first district attorney for Lassen county, again in 1871, and a third time in 1873. He is a member of the Odd Fellows lodge at Susanville. Mr. Spencer married Miss L. P. Montgomery, April 7, 1867. She was born in Ingham county, Michigan, August 11, 1847. They have three children: Iva Grace, born September 7, 1869; Gloddis M., March 27, 1872; E. M., October 14, 1874. Two orphan daughters of his brother Luther form part of his family: Jennie B., born April 10, 1866, and Mary J., born December 20, 1867. His father died in Michigan, in July, 1871, and his mother is now living with her son, at the ripe old age of seventy-six.
SOURCE: Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties, with California from 1513 to 1850. -
Fariss and Smith, San Francisco, 1882. p 377
Transcribed by Craig Hahn, Nov. 2004