Alameda-San Francisco-Humboldt County CA Archives Biographies.....Brackett, Edward Arbor Burr 1854 - March 17, 1931 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com October 31, 2010, 7:26 pm Source: California and Californians, Vol. IV, Published 1932, Pages 109 - 111 Author: The Lewis Publishing Company EDWARD ARBOR BURR BRACKETT. Californians far and wide mourned the passing on March 17, 1931, of Edward Arbor Burr Brackett, pioneer the greater Oakland district, charter member of the Native Sons of the Golden West, and one of a distinguished family of pioneers, builders, notable citizens of the Pacific Coast. The Brackett family was transplanted to the shores of the Pacific soon after the original gold discoveries. They had been in America from the earliest Colonial period and supplied many personages of distinction to both New England and old England. The ancestry of the family runs back to Sir John Brackett, who was born in Westhamstead, Hertfordshire, England, in 1470, and who was sheriff of Herts and Essex in 1507. The Brackett crest-of-arms is described as follows: "A shield of gold with a moline sable cross with the ends engrailed with the crest above it, a young stag or Brackett lodged." Members of the family crossed the ocean in the early Colonial period of New England. One of the most historic sites in old Boston is that of the Crosby's restaurant, formerly the Cromwell's Head Tavern. It is rich in Colonial and Revolutionary memories and for the greater part of two hundred years has been a place of public entertainment. One of its owners was Joshua Brackett. In 1755 Col. George Washington, then twenty-four years of age, sojourned two weeks at Cromwell's Head while on a visit to the royal Governor Shirley for the purpose of obtaining a commission in the King's army. The chief glory of the old tavern passed with Joshua Brackett in 1794, but the site has been occupied as a restaurant ever since. On the wall of the modern restaurant hangs a souvenir of a visit of the great Massachusetts Revolutionary character, Rufus Putnam, in the form of a bill for a week's board. Lafayette was at Cromwell's Head just before his departure for France at the end of the Revolution. Mrs. Brackett of Berkeley has in her possession a facsimile of a bill head engraved in copper plate by Paul Revere, hero of the midnight ride, who was a bosom friend of Joshua Brackett. The Bracketts for three generations were soldiers in Indian and Colonial wars around Casco Bay. Several of the Bracketts were killed in these wars. All of the family who were old enough fought in the war for independence. Capt. John Brackett raised a company and marched to Cambridge to join Washington's army. Among the pioneer Californians of the Brackett family were John B. Brackett, and his three brothers, Nathaniel, Alfred Bruce and Joseph Brackett, all of whom were early settlers in California. John B. Brackett came from New Hampshire and was a carpenter by trade. He built the old Lick Hotel in San Francisco. His wife was Elizabeth Burr, a native of Vermont. Members of the Brackett family have been participants in many historic occasions on the Pacific Coast. At the celebration of the eighty-ninth birthday of Mrs. N. Brackett, an American flag was raised which had been made in San Francisco in May, 1859, by Mrs. Clough (then Mrs. J. Brackett) and her sister-in-law, Mrs. N. Brackett. The flag was raised the first time on the 4th of July, 1859. It was raised again September 16, 1859, in honor of Gen. Winfield Scott, who stopped and saluted the flag as he passed it in a barouch. Mrs. Clough (Mrs. J. Brackett) was born in Vermont, in 1825, and came around the Horn in the ship Brutus, leaving Boston in February, 1850, and arriving in San Francisco in November of the same year. The late Edward Arbor Burr Brackett, a son of John B. and Elizabeth (Burr) Brackett, was born in San Francisco, in 1854. On July 5, 1875, he was one of the four hundred young men who marched in a parade which featured the founding of the Native Sons of the Golden West. He was himself founder of the Piedmont Parlor of the Native Sons and later aided in the organization of the Berkeley Parlor. Mr. Brackett acquired his early education in the old Lincoln School of San Francisco. As a youth he removed to Eureka in Humboldt County, was mail carrier from Ferndale to Petrolia, and after returning to San Francisco took up the blacksmith's trade. He worked for his step-father, John W. Clough, for a few years. On September 9, 1878, he entered the service of the Southern Pacific Railway Company at Oakland and in the same year established his home in that city. His service with the Southern Pacific Company was continuous for forty-five years, until his retirement on September 1, 1923. His first work was in connection with the filling in for the old Brooklyn trestle at what is now East Oakland. While thus engaged he fell and lost his arm, September 21, 1878. Afterwards he was for twenty-nine years chief operator at the Oakland pier. He was a member of the Berkeley Lodge of Elks, of the Woodmen of the World, and in his long and busy life he formed innumerable friendships and was loved by thousands. He is survived by his daughter, Mrs. John B. Baker, who resides at 915 Contra Costa Avenue, Berkeley. Mr. and Mrs. Brackett were members of the Golden Wedding Club of San Francisco. On December 30, 1930, at their home on Contra Costa Avenue, they celebrated their fifty-seventh wedding anniversary. The celebration was attended by members of their own family and by many old friends, and the occasion brought forth many stories of pioneer days, told by members of the family on both sides. Mr. Brackett married in 1873, at San Francisco, Miss Sarah E. McDougald. Mrs. Brackett was born at Hangtown, a famous old settlement in the days of gold, later known as Placerville. Her parents were John and Jeanette (Ousterman) McDougald. Her father came from New York State and her mother from Newark, New Jersey, and they crossed the plains, arriving in Hangtown in the early part of 1850, a few months after the parents of Mr. Brackett had completed their wagon journey from the East. Mrs. Brackett's brother, the late John Edmond McDougald, was grand treasurer of the Native Sons of the Golden West. His career was also distinguished by twenty-six years of faithful service as city and county treasurer of San Francisco. Thousands of his friends knew him as "Honest John." He was born at Coloma, Eldorado County, June 5, 1853, and had lived in San Francisco from early youth. Mrs. Brackett was a member of the Alta Parlor of the Daughters of San Francisco and of the Pioneer Women and Daughters of Oakland. She died April 16, 1931. Fifty-seven years of wedded life never dimmed the romance of Mr. and Mrs. Brackett. They were childhood sweethearts while San Francisco was a straggling village, and years and experience merely strengthened the ties and bonds that united them in companionship and loyalty. Mr. and Mrs. Brackett had two children. The only son, Alfred John Brackett, was born at San Francisco and died at the age of forty-three. He was a soldier in the Spanish-American war, was a member of the Joseph McCoit Camp of Spanish-War Veterans, and during twenty-five years of residence in Berkeley he was known as Captain Brackett of the South Berkeley Minute Men. He was also active in Home Defense Corps work. Mrs. Brackett's only living child is Lelia California, now Mrs. John B. Baker. Mrs. Baker has a daughter, Elelya Brackett Baker. Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/alameda/photos/bios/brackett1079gbs.jpg File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/alameda/bios/brackett1079gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cafiles/ File size: 8.1 Kb