Yuba County
Biographies
CYRUS E. TRAVIS
Success has accompanied Cyrus E. Travis in his work as a miner of Yuba and Plumas Counties. Mr. Travis is the owner of the old Travis home place, which came into the possession of this family in 1865. The place consists of 160 acres of land forty-seven miles northeast of Marysville on the old La Porte road. This place was located by two Frenchmen who conducted a public house back in the fifties. The old building was constructed of whip-sawn lumber, tongue and grooved by hand, and not a nail in the whole structure. For many years this property was in the hands of a man by the name of Miller who raised raspberries, strawberries and melons, which were readily sold at high prices to the miners. Cyrus E. Travis was born on this ranch in Strawberry Valley, July 17, 1878, the youngest of nine children of Nathaniel Selig and Mary Louise (Stokes) Travis. Nathaniel S. Travis was born in New York and from there removed to Michigan. He was a Forty-niner in California, and mined in Yuba and Plumas Counties. In 1850 he returned to Michigan and was married to Miss Stokes, who was born in Michigan; and the young couple came via Panama to California, where Mr. Travis continued his mining operations. He was one of the men who located the Plumas Eureka Mine, which proved of great value to subsequent owners. The nine children born to Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel Travis were as follows: Frank P., Victor and Charles; Mrs. Mary B. Patterson and Mrs. Josephine Robinson, both of Los Angeles; Allen Barnard, a miner in Strawberry Valley; Emily, who studied art in Europe and followed her profession in San Francisco, passing away in 1918; Edith, also deceased; and Cyrus E., of this review. Nathaniel S. Travis passed away at the home ranch in the spring of 1896. After his death his widow continued to reside on the home place for years, but passed away at her daughter’s home in Los Angeles in 1917.
Cyrus E. Travis attended the public school in Strawberry Valley, and his entire lifetime has been spent in the mines of this vicinity. He owns valuable mining property here, and a desirable claim on the south fork of the Feather River. On August 12, 1901, at Reno, Nev., Mr. Travis was married to Miss Elizabeth McCarthy, a native of San Francisco, and the fifth of six children born to Daniel and Ellen (Downey) McCarthy, both natives of Ireland. Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Travis: Mary Louise, a graduate of Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Oakland, and now a student at Stanford University Hospital, San Francisco, preparing for her work as a nurse; Nathaniel Allen, a patrolman in the United States Forest Reserve in Plumas County; John Westcott, a miner, and associated with his father; and Paul Edwin, Josephine Emily, and Stanley Patterson. Mr. Travis has served as justice of the peace at Strawberry Valley, and also as school trustee. Mrs. Travis is now serving on the board of trustees of the Strawberry school district.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p. 988-991
WILLIAM R. BURROUGHS
The enviable status of Marysville among the highly progressive towns of Northern California is undoubtedly due, in part, to the successful operations of such enterprising and reliable industrial leaders as Messrs. McDaniel and Burroughs, the well-known general contractors of Marysville, ably represented by William R. Burroughs. A native son, he was born on June 6, 1886, at Marysville, and is well acquainted with conditions in Yuba County. His father, W. C. Burroughs, is also a native son, having been born in Sierra County; he married Miss Mary Poole, of Sierra County, and the worthy couple have never wanted for the esteem of their fellow men.
Will Burroughs attended the schools in Marysville, and then entered the more exacting school of actual, practical experience. He worked at the Feather River Boat House for Charles Young for five years; and then, for another five years, he was with C. J. Miller at Hammonton City. Next he joined Messrs. Burnight & Cobb, of Oroville, for a year, during the flood season of 1907; and then, going to Sacramento, he followed the carpenter’s trade for three years. Returning to Marysville, he took up contracting, with what success his extended activity on various commissions will show. In 1916, with G. E. McDaniel, he formed the partnership noted above, and they have for some time taken the lead in general contracting, successfully completing contracts such as would do credit to a municipality of much greater population. In national politics, Mr. Burroughs is a Republican; but in local matters he exercises his franchise regardless of partisan ties.
In 1906, at Marysville, Mr. Burroughs was married to Miss Mable Case, of Mendocino County. She was born at Ukiah and is a daughter of William and Tryphena (Davis) Case, of old pioneer stock, Grandfather Case having brought his wife across the great plains to California, where he was a teamster in the early days. Three children have been born of this union: Leona, Eleanor, and William E. Mr. Burroughs is a member of Oriental Lodge, I.O.O.F. He is an enthusiast for hunting and fishing, and belongs to the White Mallard Outing Club.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p. 992