The Mizner Family

The Mizner Family was one of Benicia's most interesting of all the pioneer families. They arrived in the dawn of Benicia's life and Lansing B. Mizner was involved in many aspects of the cities growth.
Mizner was a native of Illinois where he studied law. He served in the American Legation in Nueva Granda in Columbia where he learned to speak Spanish. He pioneered Vacaville as well as Benicia and became a prominent San Francisco Attorney. He was appointed Collector of Customs for the Northern District of California which was all the way from San Francisco Bay to the Oregon border. He was elected to the state senate in 1865 and served as the Chairman of the Commerce and Navigation and the Swamp Land Committees.

The Mizner Clan

In 1848-49 he joined William Robinson, John S. Bradford and Robert Semple in a general merchandise company called Semple, Robertson and Company. He later joined with Dr. SK Nurse in starting a stage line which failed after several months due to the increase in deepwater ships traveling up the Sacramento River. He also worked very hard to try to establish the Benicia-Marysville railway line but while it passed in the house, it failed in the senate.
In 1850, Mizner along with Nurse, Bynum and Benjamin D. Hyam were instrumental in founding the Benicia Masonic Temple, the first in California.

Lansing's wife, Ella Watson Mizner, was reported to be the most beautiful girl in San Francisco in her day. She survived a shipwreck on her trip to California with her parents. She was a tender hearted woman who could not bring herself to punish her children so she left that task to her mother, Grandma Watson. She was more than a match for the Mizner boys. She once caught two burglars and marched them down Benicia's streets at the point of a revolver. She fired a shot but when no one came, she rang the fire bell to draw a crowd for help. When she admitted that she had fired the only bullet in the gun, the two burglars were understandably upset.

It has been reported that Ella had high hopes for her sons and as many mothers, had dreams of one of them becoming President one day. It was her wish that Addison and Wilson would be bishops or ambassadors. As they grew older, she was reduced to praying that they at least stayed out of prison! Wilson, at 16 ran away from home and when he sent a telegram to his mother for $50, she sent the reply "Sorry, I did not get your telegram". This is one of many stories told about the Mizner Boys, especially Wilson and Addison.

The Mizners put up their cousin Edgar, a general in the Army and his wife Emma along with their two children, for the eternity of 19 months. When they finally left he repaid the Mizner's hospitality with a gift of a silver tureen. They boys promptly turned this into a bomb with their fathers black powder. They placed it in the trellised grape arbor and threw matches at it until it blew up, sending grapes flying as far as St. Mary's.

When Mr. Mizner installed the first modern toilet in Benicia, the boys gave demonstrations to their neighbors. They were fond of putting on plays and circus' in the barn, charging pins for admission. It was thought that Henry would be an actor, however his mother had different idea's and tried to steer him towards a career in the church.
Wilson, having access to one of the ex-Army Camels, gave rides to his friends, charging from 1 cent to sit on the Camel up to 10 cents to ride it around the block.

The only daughter, Min, was a handsome girl and the boys enjoyed torturing her suitors and would make the young men pay before they would relent and go away. All of them did except one, an Arsenal lieutenant, managed to keep his wallet shut and win the grudging admiration of the Mizner boys. Min married Horace Blanchard Chase in 1888 who later became famous for his Stag's Leap Vineyards.

Wilson and Addison both became famous in their own circles, Wilson as an American Wit and Wilson as an architect, most noted for his development of Boca Raton, Florida.
Some of Wilson's famous sayings were attributed to other's such as "Never give a sucker an even break" which was thought to have been said by his friend W.C. Fields. Some of his more famous sayings are "I would be satisfied with more money and less prospects", "Be nice to people on the way up because you'll need them on your way down", and "The most efficient water power in the world is women's tears". In the first twenty years of the Twentieth Century, Wilson gained fame as a New York dilettante, quipster and Broadway playwright. He also managed several boxers.