Plumas County
Biographies
Patrick Oglesby Hundley
is a native of Amelia county, East Virginia, where he was born April 13, 1822. In the fall of 1838 he went to Greensburg, Kentucky, and in 1846 was admitted to practice at law. He engaged in the practice of his profession, and in the fall of 1847 matriculated at the university of Louisville, from which he graduated in March, 1849, receiving the degree of B. L. In April, 1849, he left Green county, Kentucky, for California, arriving at Sacramento October 10, 1849. In November he went to the mines in Amador county, and remained at Drytown till June, 1850, when he removed to Deer creek, Nevada county. In the fall of 1851 he purchased an interest in the Rough and Ready quartz-mine, on Jamison creek, then in Butte county. He sunk all his means in this mine, and left the mountains in 1852. In 1853 he commenced the practice of law at Gibsonville, and in 1854 removed to Quincy. He was admitted to the bar of Plumas in May, 1855. In the fall of that year, September 2, he was married to Catherine T. Russell, daughter of Henry P. Russell, in American valley. Mr. Hundley served one term as supervisor from district No. 2, resigning in March, 1856. He then associated himself in the practice of law at Quincy with Thomas E. Hayden. He was the whig nominee for county judge in 1857, but was defeated at the election. In 1859 he was elected to the assembly on the Breckenridge democratic ticket, and in 1861 was elected by the democrats to the office of district attorney. In November, 1863, he resigned this office and went to Virginia City, Nevada, where he opened a law office. In 1869 he went to Oroville, and in 1875 was the democratic nominee for district judge, but was defeated by Judge Sexton. Upon the death of the latter in April, 1878, he was appointed to fill the vacancy, and in 1879 was elected superior judge of Butte county, a position he now holds.
SOURCE: Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties, with California from 1513 to 1850. –
Fariss and Smith, San Francisco, 1882. p 181
Transcribed by Craig Hahn, Dec. 2004
Peter Lane Hallsted
was born at Fayetteville, Brown county, Ohio, April 27, 1834. He was the son of A. A. and Jane B. Hallsted. He came to California, via Nicaragua, in 1854, and first engaged in mining at Stringtown in Butte county. In March, 1855, he came to Plumas county, and mined at 12-mile bar. He followed mining for a number of years. In 1864 he was employed by T. C. Kaulback as clerk and book-keeper. In 1874 he was elected county assessor, and served four years. In the fall of 1879 he was elected to the office of sheriff of Plumas county, which position he now holds. He was married in November, 1865, to Elizabeth Bishop of Cincinnati. Mr. Hallsted is a member of Plumas Lodge No. 88, I. O. O. F., and the Quincy Lodge No. 129, A. O. U. W.
SOURCE: Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties, with California from 1513 to 1850. –
Fariss and Smith, San Francisco, 1882. p 188
Transcribed by Craig Hahn, Dec. 2004
R. H. F. Variel
of Quincy was born November 22, 1849, at New Harmony, Posey county, Indiana. His father J. H. Variel was a native of East Minor, then Cumberland county, Maine, and was born August 7, 1816; married Miss Mary A. Casey of Indiana in 1847; and in 1852 crossed the plains with his family, and settled at Camptonville, Yuba county, in 1853, and is now living in Quincy, in this county. After acquiring a common-school education at the mining town in which he was reared, R. H. F. Variel began to teach school in September, 1868, which he followed in Yuba and Plumas counties until 1873, when he was elected district attorney in the latter county; to which position he has been three times re-elected, and is now serving his fourth term. Since 1873 his undivided attention has been given to the study of the law. In June, 1876, he was admitted to practice in the district court, and in May, 1879, to the supreme court. He was married in 1876 to Miss Carrie L. Vogel of Transit, Erie county, New York, by whom he has had one daughter.
SOURCE: Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties, with California from 1513 to 1850. –
Fariss and Smith, San Francisco, 1882. p 183
Transcribed by Craig Hahn, Dec. 2004
Robert Craig Chambers,
the third sheriff of Plumas county, is a native of Ohio, and came to California in the year 1850. His first mining in Plumas was on the east branch at Rich bar. He then tried ranching in American valley, and was afterwards in the service of Clark, Shannon, & Co., at Meadow valley. Mr. Chambers was the democratic candidate in the fall of 1856 for sheriff against J. D. Byers, the know-nothing candidate, and S. J. Clark, the first republican candidate in Plumas. Chambers and Clark were both defeated. Our subject again appeared in the field in 1858, and obtained the shrievalty over his opponent, L. C. Charles. He was re-elected in 1859, but was succeeded in 1861 by Elisha H. Pierce. He then resided in Meadow valley, being the assignee of the bankrupt firm of Clark, Shannon, & Co., and afterwards superintended the Plumas or Whitney quartz-mine until it proved a failure. He subsequently became identified with the Oroville and Virginia City Railroad Company, and remained in the state until it collapsed, and then went to Utah, where he now resides.
SOURCE: Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties, with California from 1513 to 1850. –
Fariss and Smith, San Francisco, 1882. p 186
Transcribed by Craig Hahn, Dec. 2004