Solano County
Biographies
SIMON S. DRAKE
farmer, Section 16, post-office, Vallejo; was born in Chichester, New Hampshire, September 15, 1831, and remained there till 1848, but did not leave the State till the Spring of 1854, when he moved to Fillmore County, Minnesota, there engaging in general merchandising, pre-empting land, and farming, until the early part of 1857, when he returned to the Eastern States and settled in Massachusetts, but remained there only two years. On January 6, 1859, he sailed from New York, via Panama, arriving in San Francisco in February, and immediately went to Sacramento, and there worked on a dairy farm till the following September, when he proceeded to South San Francisco and entered the employment of John J. Haley, then proprietor of the International Hotel. In the Spring of 1860 he moved to Contra Costa County, and rented a farm from Victor Castro, but in the following Spring he left that portion of the country and sought employment in the Mare Island Navy Yard, in the plumbers’ department. Leaving Mare Island in the Fall of that year, he proceeded to Idaho Territory, and commenced mining on Newsom Creek, which he prosecuted till November, 1862, keeping also a miners’ store, when, at that date, he once more returned to San Francisco. In February of the following year Mr. Drake proceeded to Austin, Nevada, and was employed as engineer at different mills till 1865, when, on February 10th, he once more went to San Francisco, from which city he proceeded to his home in the East, on the 15th of the month. While at Lynn, Massachusetts, he engaged with his brothers in the grocery and provision business, which he continued till April, 1866, when he left for Minnesota, and from thence went to Kansas City, Missouri, arriving there July 4, 1866. He next proceeded to Ray County, Missouri, where he worked as an engineer for two years. On October 7th, 1868, he was married to Miss Mirza C. Craven, and soon after left for California, but after a few months returned to Missouri for his wife, coming back to California in November, 1869, and settled on his present farm of 360 acres. Mr. Drake is a member of the Grangers, as well as of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He has by his wife three children – Walter Frank, born in Ray County, Missouri, September 18, 1869; Harry Clyde, born April 14, 1871, at Vallejo; and Joey Howard, born September 23, 1872.
History of Solano County…. – San Francisco, Cal. - Wood, Alley & Co., East Oakland, pub 1879
pp 346-347
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
WILLIAM P. EDWARDS
was born in London, England, on July 8, 1821, and in 1837 came to New York, to which place his father had preceded him. Was employed in different mercantile houses in New York and Philadelphia until May 5, 1849, when he set sail from the latter city in the bark “Ralph Cross” for San Francisco, where he arrived November 5, of the same year. Mr. Edwards had brought with him a machine for cutting shingles, which he erected on what was known as the Widow Reed’s Ranch, in Marin county, but he was forced, after giving it a trial, to succumb to the want of experience in this particular industry. Mr. Edwards thereafter went to the Middle Fork of the Yuba River, to a place called Snow Camp, in the summer of 1850, but returned to San Francisco in the fall of the same year, and after a time engaged in mercantile pursuits, which he continued until 1865, when he settled in Vallejo. Has been Secretary of the Association of California Pioneers since its formation, with the exception of two terms, he is also a member of Vallejo Lodge No. 64, I.O.G.T.
History of Solano County…. – San Francisco, Cal. - Wood, Alley & Co., East Oakland, pub 1879
pp 347
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler