by Bill Wilson
October, 1996 Auburn Journal
Filcher had been a freight hauler, a school teacher in Auburn, half owner of the Herald with Lt. Governor Joseph Walkup, a member of the California State Convention and one of the framers of the of the State Constitution, a State Senator, a state prison director president of the California Press Association, manager of the California State Board of Trade and secretary to the State Agricultural Society, and a Past Great Sachem of the Order of Red Men. His contact with European nobility came when he was appointed state commissioner to the Horticultural Exposition in Hamburg, Germany, in 1897 and was a California representative to the Paris World Exposition in 1900. He also was a commissioner to the Cotton State Exposition in Atlanta Georgia, in 1895 and commissioner to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri.
He was nominated to run for the Senate in 1880, but was defeated. In 1882 he was nominated again and he defeated fomer Placer County District Attorney, John M. Fulweiler.
He had a fantastic memory and recalled 60 years later the detailed incidents when at age 14 he traveled from his birthplace in Burlingame, Iowa across the plains with his parents. He remembered when the family wagon train met others traveling west at Council Bluffs, Iowa and he heard some of them singing “Haw gee Buck, Jake take the team, God Bless your soul dear Mary, These horned oxen that you see, Are going to cross the prarie”.
Filcher’s family settled in Yuba County in 1859. He moved to Auburn in 1870 where he was principal of the Auburn Union Grammar School. . .
He wrote two years before he died about the legendary stage driver, Jim McCue who raced another stage driver from Newcastle to Grass Valley and won a $100 dollar bet. Filcher said McCue drove recklessly and without abandon, only concerned about winning the wager, “when the other driver arrived at Grass Valley, McCue was sitting on the sidewalk with his feet up against a post and smoking a cigar, With a twinkle in his eye, he asked his dejected rival “Where the devil have you been all day?”
Filcher wrote about his memories called “Looking Back” and subtitled “The Recollections and Experiences of an old Placerite”.
He married Clara Tinkham in Sheridan in 1873.
He was depicted as one of the best known men in Northern California by writers who chronicled his leadership roles.
Before Filcher signed off his column with “the end” he offered some sound advice to the young people who followed him. “Boys, whatever you undertake to do, do your best. Be honest with your self and others. Tell the truth and never lie".