Orrin M. Peck was born in Hobart, New York in 1860, the son of James and Margaret H. Peck and brother to Helen P. Sanborn and Janet M. (Janet Moore) Peck (b. 1878). His mother Margaret befriended Phoebe Apperson Hearst (1842-1919) on a steamship...
Moses Ayers McCoid was born to Robert McCoid and Jean Bain McCoid near Bellefontaine, Ohio, November 5, 1840. He attended Fairfield University, Iowa and Washington College (now Washington and Jefferson College) in Washington, Pennsylvania. He...
Key figures in the banking history of Tucson and Tombstone, Barron and Lionel Jacobs initially began their financial careers as merchants and suppliers. In 1867 they partnered with their father, Mark Israel Jacobs, to expand the family's mercantile...
Manly M. Chase was born in Wisconsin on October 8, 1842. Before founding the Chase Ranch, Chase and his father worked as merchants who sold beef and other goods to miners. Manly Chase and his wife Teresa settled in New Mexico in 1867 and purchased...
Edmund Morris Pease was born on December 6, 1828 in Granby, Hampshire County, Massachusetts to Asa and Abigail Pease. Early in his life, E. M. Pease desired to become a medical missionary. In his pursuit, Pease graduated from Union Seminary, New...
Ralph Henry Cameron was born in Southport, Maine, in 1863. He moved to Arizona in 1883, and operated a sheep ranch with his brother Niles in Flagstaff. In 1890, he and his partners turned to mining and filed numerous mining claims in and around the...
Jefferson Martenet was born on July 24, 1828. He left Baltimore Maryland on September 16, 1852 to northern California with plans to get rich quick off the California Gold Rush and return home within a few months. He arrived via steamer to San...
Ebenezer Howell was born at sea en route to Delaware from Wales in 1725. The Howells, who were Quakers, made their home in Gloucester County and Cumberland County, New Jersey. Ebenezer and his wife, Sarah Bond, had eleven children. Their twin sons...
The Virginia & Truckee Railroad was incorporated in Nevada on May 8, 1867, but construction did not get fully underway until March 5, 1868. This standard gauge railroad went from Minden, Nevada to Reno where it meets the Central Pacific Railroad....
James De Barth Shorb (1842-1896) was born in Frederick County, Maryland, a son of Dr. James Aloysius Shorb (1798-1867) and Margaret McMeal Shorb. He came to California in 1863 looking for oil in Ventura County, and married Maria de Jesus "Sue"...
Born in Carnide, Portugal in 1778, Francisco Xavier Monteiro de Barros initially pursued the study of mathematics and science at the University of Coimbra. After serving as cosmographer of Santarem between 1802 and 1808, he worked for the Lisbon...
Stephen Tomaske (1956-2002) was an avid Pynchon fan and scholar. A student assistant and later a staff member in reference services at the library at California State University Los Angeles, he researched Pynchon's family history, youth and...
The Moore, Seltzer, Lash, and Miller families lived in Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania and Redlands, California. The men on the Seltzer-Moore side of the family worked largely in the livestock trade, and often worked together in their horse-and...
Walter S. Adams was one of the original staff members of the Mount Wilson Solar Observatory when it was formed in 1904. He became assistant to George Ellery hale in 1917 and Director of the observatory in 1923, a position he held until his...
The Sierra Nevada Silver Mining Company, one of the mines of the Comstock Lode at Virginia City, Nevada, was actively worked during the boom years of the 1860s and 1870s but never produced great yields. The company continued to produce ore until...
Don B. Skinner was the recreational director for Los Angeles from 1933-1939. He entered the Los Angeles City School District as a gardener in 1939 and then was transferred to the Secondary Agriculture Department in 1947. He and his wife Murray were...
Robert Silverberg was born in Brooklyn, New York on January 15, 1935 to Michael and Helen Silverberg. He was an only child. At an early age Silverberg began writing and by the time he entered his teenage years he was submitting stories to science...
Gurdon Wallace Wattles was born in 1855 in Tioga County, New York. His family moved to Iowa in 1868. He taught school and graduated from Iowa State University in 1876. He married Abigail Jane "Jennie" Leete in 1882 and started his banking career....
Burke Eugene Casari, a resident of Lincoln, Nebraska, worked as an administrator for environmental programs at the State Health Department. He became interested in Richard Burton in 1962, while teaching in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Casari has...