Plumas County Biographies

Robert M. Blakemore

Transcribed by Craig Hahn, Dec. 2004

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Among the thousands whom the golden magnet drew to this coast, none had more 
true nobility of character than Blakemore. He was a Virginian by birth, received 
a fair English education in his native state, and in the company of B. F. 
Washington and J. E. N. Lewis, came to this state in 1849. He was unsuccessful 
in mining, and began packing goods to the northern mines. In 1855 he formed a 
partnership with Richard Irwin, and purchased the mercantile establishment of 
Clark, Wagner, & Co., on Rich bar, east branch of Feather. While in business 
here, one of his former schoolmates came from Nevada, took sick, and died. 
Blakemore was very much attached to his friend, and after the burial, took a 
mule and went eight miles up the river, where he quarried out several slabs of 
slate. These he packed back, and with chisels made by the village blacksmith of 
the period, he worked out a tombstone to mark the last resting place of the 
deceased. Three weeks were consumed in this part of the work. The slabs were 
carefully bolted together with iron bolts, and on the face was inscribed, 
“Edward Davis, of Jefferson Co., Va.” Around the grave Blakemore constructed a 
stone wall and wood palings before the last offices prompted by friendship were 
completed. Some years later a stone-cutter came along that way, and remarked to 
his friends, “Boys, the man is a master of his art.” Blakemore went back to 
Virginia in 1865. Upon his departure, he gave all his business interests to his 
partner, instead of selling out. In 1866 he was in New Orleans in business, when 
he took the yellow fever and died. 
 
Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties, with California from 
1513 to 1850. – Fariss and Smith, San Francisco,  1882. p 250