Marin County
Biographies
UPTON McREA GORDON
UPTON McREA GORDON. Was born near Shady Grove, Franklin Co., Penn., November 10, 1831, where he resided on his father’s farm until he attained the age of fifteen years, when he went into the store of Snively & McCauley at Shady Grove, and with them remained for two years. In 1841 he went to Chambersburg, the county seat, and there engaged in the general merchandise store of Joseph Kausler of that city, where he was employed until July, 1850, when Kausler going out of business, Mr. Gordon removed to Philadelphia, where he engaged in the wholesale dry-goods house of Eckle, Raiguel & Co., one of the largest houses in the city with whom he continued until December, 1851, when he returned home, and on March 17, 1852, sailed from New York for California, via the Isthmus of Panama, arriving in San Francisco on April 30th of that year. On the same day he came to San Rafael, Marin county, from which place he went to the Lagunitas, where he joined his cousins, H.S. and S.S. Baechtel, with whom he remained until recovered from an attack of the Panama fever, when he started for the mines at Coloma and from there to Georgetown, near which , in Empire Cañon, he engaged in mining, an industry he prosecuted until the middle of August, when he removed to the North Star House in Placer county, on the divide between the North and Middle fork of the American river, where he engaged in butchering with Cyrus Crego, now of San Francisco. After that, in December, he returned to San Rafael, and in that month, in company with H.S. Baechtel, went to Bolinas, and in the following February commenced farming operations, which he continued until the Fall of 1854—in the mean time Mr. Baechtel, engaging in the lumber business and Mr. Gordon attending to the farm work. That Fall Mr. Gordon returned to San Rafael and bought out Judge Ai Barney in the general merchandise business and continued it until 1859; in June 1858, however, Mr. Gordon proceeded to Victoria, B.C., during the Frazer river excitement, to which place he transported a stock of goods and opened a store, and there remained until the goods were disposed of in October , and then returned to San Rafael, closed out the business in that town, and built the saloon on the corner of Fourth and C streets, and opened it in July, 1859, and continued it until December, when he rented it to a man named Chapin. Mr. Gordon next built the livery stable now occupied by Jewell Bros. for Reynolds & Collister, of the Stage Company. In 1859 was elected to represent the county in the Legislature, after the adjournment of which did not engage in any particular business for eighteen months, when in April 1862, he went to Idaho and there engaged in mining for seven months and returned to San Rafael, and in 1864 went into the wholesale liquor business in San Francisco, which he continued until 1868, when he sold out to A.P. Hotaling & Co. He then returned home for the first time since 1852, after an absence of sixteen years, and on his return to San Rafael engaged in the real estate business until 1869, in the Fall of which year he was elected County Treasurer, in which office he served for two years, and then established, in connection with A.P. Hotaling, the banking business which he now conducts. Married, April 30, 1856, Elizabeth M. Merriner, a native of Missouri, who came to San Rafael, Marin county, in 1846, by whom he has had four children—Olivia Agnes, Susan Elizabeth, Harry Jeremiah and Alice Jane, the two last of whom are dead.
History of Marin County, California; Including Its Geography, Geology, Topography and Climatology; by J. P. Munro-Fraser, Historian; Alley, Bowen & Co., Publishers, San Francisco, California, 1880
Transcribed by Betty Wilson
C. GROSJEAN
C. GROSJEAN. Son of J.B. Grosjean and Jeanne Comtet, was born in Albertville, Haute Savoir, France, April 28, 1839, where he received his education and resided until August 15, 1854, on which date he sailed for America, and arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana, on October 24 of the same year. Until 1862, not having learned a trade, he occupied himself in various ways. In that year, however, he moved to New Iberia, in the same State, and after seven months proceed to Houston, Texas, and there sought and obtained employment in a confectionery store. Soon after he was engaged by Weyman Parisat to convey certain goods to New Iberia, and having sold the goods on arrival, with the proceeds he purchased a quantity of rum, and then returned to Houston; almost immediately thereafter was dispatched by the same firm with a tram laden with cotton to Brownville, Texas, where he arrived after a protracted journey of forty-five days. We next find M. Grosjean working as steward in a hotel at Matamoras, Mexico, but, remaining there only four months, he obtained employment from the firm of Victor Pretat & Co., of that place, and was by them dispatched to Laredo, a distance of two hundred miles, with an assortment of goods which he exchanged for cotton, and with this commodity retraced his steps to Matamoras. We now discover M. Grosjean as a partner in the wholesale and retail business of Claude Collet at Bagdad, fifty miles below Matamoras, where he continued for fifteen months, at the expiration of which they sold out and went back to New Orleans; but, sojourning there only two months, he returned to Houston, Texas, and commenced a grocery business, which he continued until 1872, when, disposing of his interest, he came to California, and soon after opened his liquor business in San Rafael, Marin county.
History of Marin County, California; Including Its Geography, Geology, Topography and Climatology; by J. P. Munro-Fraser, Historian; Alley, Bowen & Co., Publishers, San Francisco, California, 1880
Transcribed by Betty Wilson