Willard Brigham Farwell, born in Marlboro, Massachusetts January 26, 1829, left his job in Boston (jan. 12, 1849) for California, organizing 150 men (Boston and California Joint Stock Mining and Trading Company) on the "Edward Everett". Stopping in Valparaiso, arriving in Benicia July 12, 1849, Farwell left on the first steamboat to navigate the Sacramento Rive (Aug.17, 1849). He went to Bidwell's Bar but failed at mining. Returning to Sacramento, then to S.F. with his brother and a shipmate, they left for the southern mines (1850). Having no luck in Wood's Creek, nor Angel's Camp, they returned to S.F., and bought land (Mission Lands) in San Jose. In 1852 Farwell helped found the S.F. newspaper "The Daily Whig". In 1854-55, he served in the State Legislature, and was nominated for State Senate (Whig) in the fall of 1855, but was defeated. Farwell was Editor-in-Chief of the "Alta California" in 1860 and moved to Washington D.C. to work for U.S. Senator E.D. Baker (Oregon). Appointed Naval Officer in the Customs House of S.F. (1861-65), he also was elected President of The Society of California Pioneers (1863). Appointed "Resident Agent - Abroad" of the U.S. Treasury Dept., he traveled in Europe, but resigned in 1870 to begin the "The North Atlantic Express Company" as Gen. Supt. for 3 years. In 1884, Mr. Farwell was elected Sup. of the Calif. State Central Committee.
From the description of Autobiography and Reminiscence of Willard Brigham Farwell, San Francisco, 1901. (The Society of California Pioneers). WorldCat record id: 56125349
