Biographical Sketches.
CHAPTER XII.
B.C. EPPERSON.
Brutus Clay Epperson is a native of Estell County, Kentucky, born October 27, 1830. When quite young, he lived in Bourbon County, Kentucky, for a short time, when the family moved to Coles County, Illinois, and settled almost ten miles east of Charleston, the county seat. On the 1st of February, 1852, Mr. Epperson, accompanied by his brother, C.C. Epperson, sailed in the ship Prometheus, of the Vanderbilt line, via Nicaragua for California. On the Pacific side he took the steamer North America for San Francisco, but the vessel was wrecked some eighty miles below Acapulco. After encountering many privations and deaths among the passengers, caused by a malignant fever which then raged in and around Acapulco, relief came after two months of weary waiting, and Mr. Epperson was soon aboard the clipper Northern Light, bound for San Francisco. Arriving in the State, he set to work at various occupations, such as laboring, working on a ranch, or in the mines, or keeping a hotel in Yuba County between Marysville and Foster Bar. He was also interested in hauling freight to the mines from Marysville. Between 1856 and 1859 he was engaged in the cattle trade, when he returned home to Illinois. Shortly after his return, he was united in marriage to Miss Lucretia Lawson, by whom he has a family of four children.
On April 1, 1864, Mr. Epperson, accompanied by his family, set out again for California by the overland route. He took with him a drove of brood mares, jacks and jennets, which afterwards did much in improving the stock of the county. On September 16, 1864, his party arrived at South Buttes, Sutter County, California, where Mr. Epperson's brother resided. He remained here engaged in farming and stock-raising till the fall of 1868, when he bought a stock ranch in Bear Valley, Colusa County, where he now resides. He was largely instrumental in the formation of the Bartlett Springs and Bear Valley Toll-road Company, of which he is now the chief owner. He also built a road across the central part of Bear Valley, leading to the towns now on the railroad. It is known as the Epperson grade and was made free to all.
COLUSA COUNTY
ITS
HISTORY TRACED FROM A STATE OF NATURE
THROUGH THE EARLY PERIOD OF SET-
TLEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT,
TO THE PRESENT DAY
WITH A
DESCRIPTION OF ITS RESOURCES, STATISTICAL
TABLES, ETC.
ALSO
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PIONEERS AND
PROMINENT RESIDENTS
by Justus H. Rogers
Orland, California
1891
Page 343-465
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 7/9/2009
Colusa County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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