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Sunday, January 23, 2011

ONE OF 'FORTY-NINERS' -- Sunday Obituary

From: The Bay City Tribune - March 16, 1914


WM. WESTOVER ONE OF HERE DIES SUNDAY
FORMER PROMINENT BUSINESS MAN HERE DIES IN ALAMEDA, CAL.
ONE OF 'FORTY-NINERS'


Had Distinquished Career as Active Lumberman and Banker.
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Older residents of Bay City will be pained to learn of the death of William Westover, which occurred in Alameda, Cal., March 15 at 5 a.m.


Mr. Westover was one of the pioneer residents of Bay City, coming here in 1864. For several years he was prominenly connected with the lumber industry, but later turned his attention to banking, being president of Second National Bank until he changed his residence to California. He built and owned the Westover block, which stood on the site now occupied by the Phoenix building, and which in its time was the principal business block in Bay City.


Gold Hunter in Forty-nine.


William Westover was born in Sheffield, Bershire county, Mass., in 1827, having passed his eighty-sixth birthday anniversary last November. His early life was passed on a farm. At the age of 22 he joined the argonauts who invaded the California gold fields in 1845, and devoted nearly two years to placer mining, at which he was fairly successful. Upon his return east he soon became interested in the lumber business, his first endeavors in this line being in Canada. It was at this time he met and married Mary D. Calver, of Simcoe, Ont., who, after more than 60 years of married life, still survives him.


During the early nineties Mr. Westover moved from Bay City to California, where he had prviously made large investments in redwood timber. For several years he engaged in lumbering near San Francisco and in the foothills of Mt. Shasta, but later he retired from lumbering and again took up the banking business, being at the time of his death at the head of two banks, one in Alameda and the other in Fruitvale.


Mr. Westover was the last survivor of his family generation. Besides his widow he leaves two sons, Delbert I. Westover of San Francisco, and William Westover Jr. of Alameda.


Note:  William Westover was my 2nd cousin, 5 times removed. I am always on the lookout for Westover ancestry, as I've over 900 of this name in my tree. Another reason for posting this is because he died in Alameda, California, and I lived there for 10 years. He was born in Massachusetts and this is where I now live.