Briarmont, CA
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The Thayer Family

The Thayer Family

By Briarmont Township Archives

Family Tree

A Brief History

After the Hartwells, the Thayers were the richest family in town. Lyman Thayer arrived from Massachusetts in 1859 as clerk and timekeeper of Hartwell Timber Co., kept its time book, paid its crews and in time became its treasurer. His wife, Lavinia, outlived him and kept their house. Their son Everett ran the mill as superintendent from 1896 and was the company's largest creditor when it was sold.

When the town's trust opened the Institute in 1918, Everett became the trust's first treasurer. His son Prescott later held the same post and helped carry the torch at the first Founders Festival in 1957.

Family Timeline

  1. 1862

    The Landing

    From that year Lyman paid the crews, after first squaring their store accounts with Orrin Lathrop, whose store had opened on the mill road as the mill began cutting.

  2. 1882

    The Steam Donkey

    In Lyman's books from these years, the same crews on the same day rates cut more lumber every month.

  3. 1896

    The Old-Growth Survey

    Elias Hartwell slowed the cutting and put the crews on shorter hours. Everett Thayer, then thirty, took charge of the mill as superintendent and ran it at the slower pace.

  4. 1911

    Hartwell's Will

    Everett's loans to the company were secured on the mill and the works, so he was paid first from their sale. At that sale he bought the timberlands.

  5. 1918

    The Institute

    Everett became the first treasurer of the town's trust, which opened the Institute on the Hartwell estate that year. He had spent the years since the will arguing that the estate should be sold.

  6. 2026

    Briarmont Today

    Curtis Thayer, Lyman's great-great-grandson, is mayor of Briarmont.

Legacy

Lyman's time book, rain days and stoppages included, is in the college archive. The trust's ledgers are kept with the county clerk at Town Hall, signed as treasurer first by Everett and later by Prescott.

Out of character. A player may play a descendant or in-law of the Thayer family with the owner's OK; ask staff first. Curtis Thayer is an NPC role cast by staff, and Lyman, Lavinia, Everett, Prescott and Ronald Thayer are NPCs.