Napa-Santa Cruz County CA Archives Biographies.....McBain, Thomas 1849 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 18, 2006, 3:36 am

Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1891)

THOMAS McBAIN is the proprietor of the extensive tannery, situated on McKenstrie
street, Napa, and covering about the space of one and a half city blocks. There
are used in the business four large buildings, besides the yard space for
drying. The main building is 80x75 feet, and three stories in height. On the
floor of the first building are the engines and machinery, also some of the
tanning vats and steaming tanks. The upper floors are devoted to currying and
finishing the leather. The next building is 50 x 100 feet, one story high, and
is occupied by tanning vats. A third, 50 x 100, is used for the storage of bark;
and the fourth building, 26x50, is devoted to the drying and finishing of sole
leather. In addition are buildings containing the steam boilers, offices and
stables. The product of this tannery is mostly harness, skirting and sole
leather, and amounts to about 2,000 sides per month. The hides come mostly from
San Francisco, and the leathers manufactured are shipped to the trade at that
point. The bark used comes from Mendocino County.

  Mr. McBain was born in Pictou, Nova Scotia, in 1849, where he attended the
usual public schools until sixteen years of age, when he began to learn the
tanning business, serving the ordinary apprenticeship. He then worked at his
trade as a journeyman in his native place, and for a short time in Woburn,
Massachusetts, until he came to California. Working in Santa Cruz for some three
years, he came to Napa, and purchased the property previously used as a tannery
by T. H. Algeo & Co., a small establishment run by horse-power. This business
has grown in his hands to its present proportions, and is still being gradually
extended as the increasing trade will warrant. Mr. McBain was married in 1877,
to Miss Mary Stewart, a native of Boston, Massachusetts, and daughter of Robert
Stewart, of Benicia. They have two children, Grace and Adele. He is a member of
the A. O. U. W., Lodge Fortune, No. 13, and of the Knights of Honor, Lodge No.
—, both of Napa. His parents were Alexander and Grace (McKenzie) McBain, natives
of Pictou, Nova Scotia.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California.

Illustrated, Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast
from the Earliest Period of its Occupancy to the Present Time, together with
Glimpses of its Prospective Future; Full-Page Steel Portraits of its most
Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers and also of
Prominent Citizens of To-day.

"A people that takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendents." – Macauley.

CHICAGO
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1891.


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