Jabez Champlin ¹

  Noted events in his life were:

1. Book: Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, 1891. ¹
GEORGE CHAMPLIN.-Among the representative citizens of Northern California, and especially of Tehama County, this gentleman holds an honorable place. He is a native of Rhode Island, born at Providence June 14, 1827, his parents being Jabez and Sarah Ann (Cole) Champlin.

His father, a descendant of an old New England family and a farmer, was born in Mystic, Connecticut. He learned the shoemaker's trade when young, but later became an engineer and held that position on the renowned Robert Fulton. He also ran on the steamer lines from New York to Norwich, Providence and Newark. He was so engaged about fifteen years, during which time his residence was by turns in New York, Providence and Newark. While in the latter city he contracted malarial fever, and in consequence removed to the country, locating on a farm in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, in 1832. There he resided with his family until about 1854, when he traded his farm for another situated about two miles from Owego, New York, and removed thither. There he lived until 1868, when he went back to Providence, invested in some houses and lived there until his death, which occurred in 1888, at the age of eighty-seven years. He was a Democrat politically until the breaking out of the civil war, when he allied himself to the Republican party. His widow, who was also born in Providence, is yet living, and resides again at her birthplace with her youngest son, aged eighty-six years in 1891. Her father was Horace Cole, who also sprang from one of the old families of New England. He was a seafaring man, as were most of the Coles. Mr. and Mrs. Jabez Champlin were the parents of eleven, children, as follows: George, whose name heads this sketch; John, who resides in Oakland, where he is a merchant in the boot and shoe trade, doing business on Broadway; Ira, who going to New York for the purpose of shipping on a steamer for Lake Erie, since which time he has never been heard of; Abbie, who married William Woodward, and died in 1870; Eliza (Mrs. Barnes by marriage), who, with her husband, bought the old homestead near Owego, of which place they are now residents; Hester, who came to California in 1858, lived with our subject on a ranch in Sutter County, near the Buttes, for about a year, then taught school two years in Yuba City and two years in San Francisco, then was married to Charles Waldeyer, of Cherokee, Butte County, and now lives with her husband and family in Oroville; Horace, who, after serving as a Union soldier in the war of the Rebellion, made a trip to California, then went East again, and now resides in Massachusetts not far from Providence; Hanson, who lost his life in defense of his country's flag, being killed at the battle of Fredericksburg; Martha, formerly a school-teacher and instructor of music, but now a graduated physician, and engaged in the practice of medicine in Boston; Lester, another soldier of the Union, who returned from the war broken in health, and came to California about 1869, where he now resides with our subject on a sheep ranch, and who has made three trips across the plains and mountains from this State to Montana and Colorado with large bands of sheep; and Irvin, the youngest son, a resident of Providence, Rhode Island, who took up the study of law, was admitted to the courts of his State, and now enjoys a large and lucrative practice which his high reputation has brought him.

Transcribed by Betty Wilson. (Thanks, Betty!).

Jabez married Sarah Ann Cole, daughter of Horace Cole and Unknown. (Sarah Ann Cole was born in 1805 in Providence, Providence, RI ¹ and died after 1891 in Providence, Providence, RI ¹.)