Plumas County
Biographies
Robert S. Flournoy,
son of Roland and Margaret Flournoy, was born June 26, 1830, at Independence, Missouri. He received his education at private schools, there being very limited facilities for education at public schools. In 1849 he came to California, leaving home in the fall, and arriving at San Francisco April 8, 1850. He went to Bidwell’s bar, Butte county, and mined in that vicinity for three years. In December, 1853, he came to American valley, and began mining at Elizabethtown, two miles north-west of Quincy. He remained here, mining and carrying on a liquor business, for about four years. In the fall of 1858 he went to Indian valley, where he rented the Blood ranch, and worked it one season. He then bought the Cook ranch, now the Evans ranch, and lived on it four years, when he sold it in the fall of 1863, and bought the Madden, now the Drodge ranch. This he finally sold, and in the spring of 1865 removed into Taylorville, ran a pack-train for a while, and then bought the Mead ranch, in Genesee valley, where he now lives. He was married November 28, 1855, to Miss Angelina Varner, at Elizabethtown. They have had seven children as follows: Maggie, Fannie, John, Lucy, Harley, Timey, and William; Lucy, John and Fannie died in 1865, within a few days of each other.
SOURCE: Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties, with California from 1513 to 1850. –
Fariss and Smith, San Francisco, 1882. p 301-302
Transcribed by Craig Hahn, Dec. 2004
Charles Gregory Rodgers,
son of Charles and Rebecca Rodgers, was born at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, August 16, 1837. When he was four years old his parents removed to Bellville, Mifflin county, Pennsylvania. He attended school at Bellville for seven months, and the remainder of his education has been gathered in the school of life. At the age of thirteen he commenced work in a general merchandise store in Bellville, for his board and clothes. Through his energy and attention to business he advanced step by step, from errand-boy to manager of the business. In the spring of 1858 he started for the west, and traveled through Missouri and Kansas, spending that winter in Illinois. In April, 1859, he started for California with a mule team, arriving at Inskip, Butte county, in August. He went to work on what was called the Miners’ ditch, for three dollars per day, half in cash and half in water scrip. In a short time he bought a mining claim that was considered worthless, on the line of the ditch he had been working on. The scrip procured water for his mining claim. He went to work on it with a man by the name of Carroll, working with a rocker. It paid them about five dollars per day each for about a month. The winter coming on, they were compelled to quit work. They wintered at Inskip, and in the spring went to work on their claim again, ground-sluicing, until that fall, making $8.50 per day to the man. By this time he concluded that the claim was worked out, and they abandoned it. He spent the winter at Wyman’s ravine, and in the spring of 1861 started for Plumas county on foot, not having money enough to buy a mule. He got to Wolf Creek in July, and began prospecting. He worked there for two years, but with little success, and at the end of that time was in debt to a fellow-miner ten cents for postage. From there he went to Crescent Mills, feeding in that for Blood & Pulsifer for about six months. He worked at various mills in that vicinity, and at mining, until October, 1876, when he was appointed superintendent of the Green Mountain Gold Mining Company’s properties. He has always been engaged in prospecting and endeavoring to develop mines, at times being heavily involved on that account. When he was most involved, to the amount of $15,000, his health gave out, and he was sick for nearly a year. At times the future looked very dark to him; but he kept his courage up, and finally paid all his liabilities, and to-day is in easy circumstances. Through energy and skill he has made the Green Mountain one of the best paying mines in the state, and for himself an enviable reputation as a mine and mill manager. August 16, 1876, he was married to Miss Libby M. Hamler of Utica, Licking county, Ohio. They have had two children: Philip James, born September 4, 1877, and Oscar Charles, born April 4, 1879, both at Green Mountain. He is a member of Greenville Lodge, I. O. O. F., and Greenville Lodge, A. O. U. W.; in politics a democrat.
SOURCE: Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties, with California from 1513 to 1850. –
Fariss and Smith, San Francisco, 1882. p 303
Transcribed by Craig Hahn, Dec. 2004