Geo. W. Sirrine, later of Mesa, had an important part in the details of
the San Bernardino ranch purchase. Amasa M. Lyman and Chas. C. Rich went
to San Francisco for the money needed for the first payment. They
selected Sirrine to be their money carrier, entrusting him with $16,000,
much of it in gold, the money presumably secured through Brannan. Sirrine
took ship southward for San Pedro or Wilmington, carrying a carpenter
chest in which the money was concealed in a pair of rubber boots, which
he threw on the deck, with apparent carelessness, while his effects were
searched by a couple of very rough characters. Delivery of the money was
made without further incident of note. Sirrine helped survey the San
Bernardino townsite, built a grist mill and operated it, logged at Bear
Lake and freighted on the Mormon road. Charles Crismon, a skillful
miller, also a central Arizona pioneer, for a while was associated with
him. Crismon also built a sawmill in nearby mountains. Sirrine spent his
San Bernardino earnings, about $10,000, in attempted development of a
seam of coal on Point Loma, near San Diego, sinking a shaft 183 feet
deep. He left California in 1858, taking with him to Salt Lake a
wagonload of honey. In a biography of Charles Crismon, Jr., is found a
claim that the elder Crismon took the first bees to Utah, from San
Bernardino, in 1863. This may have added importance in view of the fact
that Utah now is known as the Beehive State.