Contra Costa-Alameda County CA Archives Biographies.....English, Warren B. 1846 - 
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Author: W. A. Slocum & Co., Publishers (1882)

WARREN B. ENGLISH.—The subject of this sketch, whose portrait appears in this
work, is the son of John M. and Anna (Martin) English, and was born in
Charlestown, Jefferson county, West Virginia, May 1, 1846, where he resided,
being educated at the Charlestown Academy, and was afterwards engaged in his
father's store until the year 1861. Being then fifteen years of age, he joined
the Confederate army and served in Company B, Twelfth Virginia cavalry, army of
Northern Virginia, all through the war, and at its end returned to his
birth-place, where he engaged in general merchandising until the year 1866. In
December of that year he sailed from New York in the steamer Montana, via
Panama, and arrived at San Francisco in the early part of the following month.
On his arrival there, after a few weeks spent in the city, he entered the
McClure Military School at Oakland, Alameda county, where he remained two years,
during which time he assisted in the organization of the Oakland Cadets. On
leaving the school he received the appointment as Secretary to the Silver Peak
and Red Mountain Gold and Silver Mining Company, of Esmeralda county, Nevada, a
position he held for eighteen months, when, at the end of the Summer of 1871, he
went to Columbus, in the same county, and there carried on a business in general
merchandise until November, 1872, and then returned to Oakland and was joined in
wedlock. Mr. English soon afterwards went back to Esmeralda county, and engaged
in the manufacture of borax, at Tiel's Marsh, for one year, when he again
returned to Oakland to settle up the business of the mining company of which he
was the Secretary some years previously. In October, 1875, our subject came to
Contra Costa county and engaged in farming with his brother, William D., and
Frederick Kapp, on the well-known Government ranch, until September, 1877, when
he entered into a partnership with William D. Shaver, and carried on the lumber
business until June, 1881. About this time, Mr. English built a dredger and took
a Government contract to dredge Humboldt Bay, in which he is at present engaged.
In the Fall of 1878 he was elected one of the Board of Supervisors of Contra
Costa county, for Township Three, which position he has the honor of holding at
the present time. In Mr. English's case, success has been the test of merit. He
has won fortune and position by solitary, unaided study and effort. He came to
California a comparative boy, without means or experience. By patient industry,
and the pursuit of an honest, straightforward course, he has battled with the
disadvantages and checks of youth, poverty and inexperience, and conquered them.
Few men have overcome greater obstacles—none are more worthy of achieved
success. Mr. English married in Oakland December 2, 1872, Clara Norris, a native
of St. Louis, Missouri, and a grand-daughter of Hon. H. S. Geyer. By this union
there are four children, viz: Hattie, born October 27, 1873; Norris, born
November 12, 1875; Warren B., born May 19, 1878; Hancock, born January 9, 1880

Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY,
CALIFORNIA,
INCLUDING ITS GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, TOPOGRAPHY, CLIMATOGRAPHY AND DESCRIPTION;
TOGETHER WITH A RECORD OF THE MEXICAN GRANTS; THE BEAR FLAG WAR; THE MOUNT
DIABLO COAL FIELDS; THE EARLY HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT, COMPILED FROM THE MOST
AUTHENTIC SOURCES; THE NAMES OF ORIGINAL SPANISH AND MEXICAN PIONEERS; FULL
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF THE COUNTY; SEPARATE HISTORY OF EACH TOWNSHIP, SHOWING
THE ADVANCE IN POPULATION AND AGRICULTURE;
ALSO,
Incidents of Pioneer Life; and Biographical Sketches
OF EARLY AND PROMINENT SETTLERS AND REPRESENTATIVE MEN;
AMD OF ITS TOWNS, VILLAGES, CHURCHES, SECRET SOCIETIES, ETC.
ILLUSTRATED.
SAN FRANCISCO: W. A. SLOCUM & CO., PUBLISHERS
1882.

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