HOW LUTHER ROAD GOT ITS NAME

The Luther's lived near the intersection of Luther Road and Bowman Road, just west of I-80.

Luther Road is a connector for Bowman Road and Hwy 49.

Lewis Eugene Luther was born December 4, 1860 in Warren R. I. At 19 he shipped out of New York as a cabin boy on the sailing ship Sovereign of the Seas IV. After four round trips from San Francisco and :Portland to New York and Europe–8 times around Cape Horn–the ship was sold while docked in Antwerp. The Capt. and then, second Mate Luther and the rest of the crew returned to New York by steam boat. He moved to California in 1884, worked for Capt. Wood on his ranch in San Jose for awhile and learned the carpentry trade. He married Sarah Minerva Breakenridge on August 1, 1889 and settled in the Auburn area on 5 acres that he had acquired, cleared and built a home on. He raised berries and did carpentry from Colfax to Newcastle including work on the Auburn Opera House. In 1893, he took a permanent job with the South Yuba Water Co., as a ditchman with duties primarily to patrol portions of the Boardman and Fiddler Green canals and the Bowman pipeline and secondary lines from these major canals. He was on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In the winter he would be out long hours opening and closing spillways and gates to prevent the overflow of banks and canals from the runoff of storms. In emergencies, such as fires in Auburn, he would see that extra water flowed to the reservoir at Auburn. Because of his carpentry experience, he was shifted from ditch tending to building or repairing flumes and when Halsey and Wise power houses were built, he supervised the building of three homes at each site for the families of the three resident operators of the plants. He retired in 1930.

Sarah Minerva Breakenridge was born October 8, 1865 near Simcoe, Ontario, Canada. At 19 she became a housekeeper for a prosperous family in Belmont, CA. After moving to Auburn, the couple had four children, Ethel May, Ada Elizabeth, Lewis E., Jr. and Chester Francis. She loved her family and home. She raised beautiful pansies, petunias, verbenas, roses lilacs, camellias and red bud which caught the attention of those who passed by on the road.

She believed in the feminist movement and participated in several groups–the WCTU; the State Farm Extension Programs and groups providing extra supplies for Ackerman (Bowman) Grammar School. She died July 20, 1944.