Education
Born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia in 1824, Redding was educated at Yarmouth Academy. The family later joined him in California after his first mining work was finished.
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Benjamin Barnard Redding
Edit ProfileCareer
He also worked as a journalist and editor in northern California and Sacramento. As a businessman, he worked as the and land agent with the Central Pacific Railroad, which named the town of Redding, California after him. In 1840 at the age of 16, he immigrated to Boston, Massachusetts, where he worked as a clerk.
He entered the retail grocery and ship chandlery business in 1843.
1856; and Joseph Doctorate. Redding (born 1859 in Sacramento) were both born there. In 1849, Redding organized a company of young men and sailed from Yarmouth for the gold rush in California.
They reached San Francisco on May 12, 1850. Redding went to the Yuba River diggings and afterward to the Pittsburg bar, working as a mining laborer.
He subsequently was associate editor of the Shasta Journal, was employed in drawing up papers for the sale of claims, and acted as arbitrator.
During the session, he wrote for the San Joaquin Republican and Sacramento"s Democratic State Journal,of which he was an editor and proprietor. His family joined him from Massachusetts when he could provide a more settled life, and his two younger sons were both born in California. In 1856, Redding was elected mayor of Sacramento.
From 1863 to 1867, he served as Secretary of State, appointed by the governor.
With a change in administrations, Redding left state government in 1868, becoming a land agent of the Central Pacific Railroad. When the Central Pacific reached Shasta County in the summer of 1872, the railroad company named the town of Redding, California, in his honor.
In other public service, Redding was appointed a regent of the University of California to fill the unexpired term of Regent Frank M. Pixley, 1880-1882. He was reappointed in 1882.
He was interested in all scientific work, especially in the paleontology of the coast.
He collected numerous prehistoric and aboriginal relics, which he presented to the museum of the academy. He contributed a large number of papers to various California journals. He was also appointed as California Fish Commissioner, holding this office at the time of his death.
Benjamin B. Redding died at age 58 of apoplexy (stroke) in San Francisco.
Redding is interred in the Sacramento Historic City Cemetery in Sacramento, California.
Membership
Having established a local reputation, Redding was elected as a member of the California State Assembly, 1853–1854, from Yuba and Sierra counties. He was a member of the California Academy of Sciences, and of the Geographical Society of the Pacific.
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Born
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Died
August 21, 1882 (aged 58) -
Nationality
United States