Solano County
Biographies
JAMES W. COTTEN
born in Polk county, Illinois, December 28, 1832. In that State he received his early education, which he finished in Mills county, Iowa. In 1851 he went to St. Joseph, Missouri, where he remained one year, and then proceeded to St. Louis, and there learned the trader of a sawyer. October 22, 1855, Mr. Cotten life for California, by way of Panama, landing in San Francisco December 11th of that year. On his arrival he proceeded to Amador county, where he passed that Winter, and in the following Spring started for the mines in Placer county, where he stayed until 1857, and then repaired to the Suisun valley, there farming for one year, on a location near Dixon; on the expiration of which he transferred his labors to San Jose, where he engaged in the lumber trade. In the Fall of the year 1859 Mr. C. returned to Illinois, and there embarked in the like business, which he gave up at the end of two years and went back to his former home in Iowa. In 1864 he started for Idaho Territory, in company with George Russell, and went into the hotel business on the Weiser River. In the following year he again began farming, which he continued till 1868, when he returned to Dixon and re-engaged in agricultural pursuits, which he gave up in 1872, and opened agencies for real estate and insurance. Was appointed a Notary Public, October 31, 1874, and on March 6, 1878, was commissioned a Justice of the Peace for Silveyville township – positions which he still continues to hold. Mr. Cotten married, November 29, 1873, Miss Priscilla J. Evans, who was born in Amador county, California, April 24, 1857, and has an only child, Lucy May, born January 2, 1875.
History of Solano County…. – San Francisco, Cal. - Wood, Alley & Co., East Oakland, pub 1879
pp 495
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
ROBERT J. CURREY
is a native of Benicia, Solano county, California, having been born there December 30, 1851, where he remained until the Spring of 1860, when he went to New York and stayed one year. In 1864 he was sent to Santa Clara College for two years, and from there to a seminary in Oakland, Alameda county, where he studied for three years. In the Fall of 1870 he entered Yale College, New Haven, Connecticut, and graduated in 1873; after which he returned to the Pacific Coast, and in the following Spring was appointed Aid on the United States Coast Survey, which position he resigned in 1875, and located on a farm four miles north of Dixon, where he now resides. He is the owner of 640 acres.
History of Solano County…. – San Francisco, Cal. - Wood, Alley & Co., East Oakland, pub 1879
pp 495
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler