Plumas County
Biographies
Robert I. Barnett
Mr. Barnett was a native of Richmond, Kentucky, but at an early age removed to Missouri. He served in the Mexican war under Colonel Doniphan of Missouri. In 1849 he emigrated to California, and came to the Plumas part of Butte before its organization into a county. Immediately after the organization he settled in Quincy, and assisted County Clerk Harbison in his office during the summer of 1854. He had been admitted to the bar in Missouri, and on the nineteenth of June, 1854, was admitted by Judge Joseph W. McCorkle to practice in the court of this district. He was elected district attorney in the fall of 1856, and served two years. He was married at Spanish Ranch, October 26, 1857, to Miss Caroline F. Doggett, by whom he had four children. Mr. Barnett resided in Quincy until 1860, when he went to San Jose, where, on the eighth of January, 1880, he committed suicide.
SOURCE: Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties, with California from 1513 to 1850. –
Fariss and Smith, San Francisco, 1882. p 182
Transcribed by Craig Hahn, Dec. 2004
Stephen J. Clark
came from New York, and settled in Elizabethtown, where he engaged in mining. He was not successful, however, and turning his attention to politics, he sought and obtained the republican nomination for county treasurer in 1861, and was elected over C. T. Kaulback and W. S. Ingersoll: the former unconditional union, and the latter democratic. Clark was perhaps the best political organizer the county ever had, and no politician ever had more devoted friends or more inveterate enemies. The fusion between the two wings of the union party was ruptured at the union convention in Quincy in the summer of 1865, when Clark became the nominee for sheriff, defeating Elisha H. Pierce, who led the other wing. The result was a bolt, with another ticket, on which L. F. Cate’s name appeared for sheriff. Clark was defeated by Yeates, the democratic nominee, through a sell-out by others on the ticket. Clark was again pitted against Yeates in the fall of 1867, and was defeated through the action of Overton, candidate for county clerk, who traded him off a second time. Soon after his retirement from office, Clark went to San Francisco, but returned in the campaign of 1869 to defeat Overton’s deputy, who was running for clerk, which he accomplished by hard work. He then went back to San Francisco, and obtained a position in the custom-house, where he remained several years. He is still residing in the city. Clark was as true to his friends as the needle to the pole, and the fidelity of his friends to him has never been excelled in the history of parties.
SOURCE: Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties, with California from 1513 to 1850. –
Fariss and Smith, San Francisco, 1882. p 187-188
Transcribed by Craig Hahn, Dec. 2004
Thomas Cox,
the first district attorney of Plumas county, failed to secure the nomination for a second term because of his extremely intemperate habits. A reminiscence of him is given in the history of the court of sessions. He was born in North Carolina, and at an early age removed to Nashville, Tennessee, where he married a most estimable lady, by whom he had at least one child, a son. Some reckless act committed in or near Nashville induced him to remove to California. He was nominated for congress in 1860, but was withdrawn from the ticket by the central committee before the election. One night in 1862 he was on a big drunk in Quincy, and walked into William Schlatter’s beer-saloon, where he deliberately fired his pistol at the proprietor, who was standing quietly behind the bar and had in no way offended. The ball struck the intended victim in the forehead, and he fell to the floor apparently dead. He was picked up, when it was found that the bullet had not penetrated the skull, but was lodged in the bone. It was extracted, and the man recovered in a short time. Cox was indicted, obtained a change of venue to Butte county, and there the indictment was dismissed. Cox afterwards removed to Nevada, and is now practicing law in Virginia City. He left Plumas, regretted by none, and seemed to have few friends even among his political associates.
SOURCE: Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties, with California from 1513 to 1850. –
Fariss and Smith, San Francisco, 1882. p 180-181
Transcribed by Craig Hahn, Dec. 2004
W. N. De Haven,
a Pennsylvanian by birth, upon his arrival in Plumas county, engaged at hotel-keeping at Onion valley. From there he went to Spanish Ranch, in the service of Isaac J. Harvey, having charge of the caravansary at that place. He was the unconditional-union candidate in 1861 for county clerk, against L. G. Traugh, republican, and John D. Goodwin, democratic, over both of whom he was victorious. He served until the spring of 1864, when he was succeeded by W. W. Kellogg. Captain De Haven was a warm personal friend of both the old clerks, Harbison and Goodwin, and made them his deputies, the latter appointment being distasteful to his radical supporters. After the close of his term, he clerked at Hosselkus & Harvey at Taylorville. He finally went to Chico, and became one of the proprietors of the Chico Enterprise. He served a term in the legislature from Butte county, and died a few years since at his home in Chico.
SOURCE: Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties, with California from 1513 to 1850. –
Fariss and Smith, San Francisco, 1882. p 184
Transcribed by Craig Hahn, Dec. 2004