I saac Lawrence Requa was born in 1828 in the township of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York. Isaac's ancestors as his name suggests were the Huguenots, who fled from France into England in 1681. In addition, by 1689 came to America and settled in the Westchester County. Both of his parents were well Connected, Requa's grandfather served in the Revolutionary War as a captain. On his mothers side, the Lawrence's, of Westchester County, all descended from three brothers who came from Holland to the New Colony of New Amsterdam in 1641.

H e obtained his education at the Newman Academy in the schools of Tarrytown. Leaving home at eighteen, he ventured to New York City where he remained until 1850. Upon hearing of the riches in California, later that year he embarked on a voyage to San Francisco. Destine by clipper ship around Cape Horn, he followed his ambition to try mining. Isaac's first direction was in that of Sacramento, and after a period in the "City of the Plains," he aimed at the mountains and employed himself in placer mining. Soon this proved to be very unprofitable, so Isaac centered his experience on river mining. By the summer of 1856, Isaac flumed the American middle fork at Big Bar with great success. In the early part of 1861, he traveled to Virginia City, Nevada, with his newly acquired experience to leave his mark upon the Comstock Lode. Over the next eighteen years, he was the superintendent of the Chollar-Potosi mines. During that time, two years of which he was also the superintendent of the Gould & Curry mine plus ten years the manager of the Union Mill and Mining Company. His strongest suit was his characteristic habit of sticking to his undertaking with great tenacity of purpose.

T hough Requa has never been a politician, he has always taken a very active part in the public affairs of the State of Nevada. He was originally an old-line Whig. Since 1860, he has been identified with the Republican Party, and has worked efficiently for its success. He was elected to represent the soon to be State of Nevada in the Territorial Legislature, and then after Statehood was nominated for the Republican Party for the Senate. Requa was obliged to resign due to his pressing business engagements. Still for many years, Chairman of the Republican State Central Committee of the State of Nevada, and during the Rebellion was an ardent worker in the ranks of the Union party. He devoted twenty years service on the staff of Governors and Generals in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

I saac L. Requa was married in 1863, in San Francisco, to Sarah J. Mower. About the late 1870's, Isaac selected a site for a homestead at Piedmont, Alameda County, California, where they live the rest of their life. In 1878, a crowd of friends gathered at the Requa home in Piedmont to witness a strange wonder. Isaac was actually going to talk by telephone to a man all the way across the bay at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. The question was, would the new device work, or not. The wires were run across lake Merritt, and some times in bad weather the wind would blow the lines down. This would require a telephone man to row out and fish the wires out of the Lake. Only two years after Alexander Graham Bell had patented the telephone, Oaklanders started being acquainted with the mysteries of the strange device.

B y the time Requa built his home, there were only seven houses where the City of Piedmont is now. The Gamble house and gardens filled up a whole block, but his house was not the biggest. The biggest house in Piedmont was owned by Isaac and Sarah Requa. It was a yellow three-story, twenty-two room Italian villa that sat on eighty acres that also included an Illuminating gas plant, schoolhouse, and orchards and cattle farm. Because of the lack of trees on the hill, it could be see from San Francisco Bay. Isaac called the mansion "The Highlands" for which Highland Avenue is named after. Requa road was named after Isaac himself. Isaac and his wife, Sarah, were host and hostess often in the mansion, throwing frequent theatrical events and parties for the young children of the elite.

I saac and Sarah had two children, Mark Lawrence born in 1861 and Amy born 1876. Mark grew up and married Florence Herrick, and Amy would marry Oscar Fitzalan Long. Mark later on in life, told his family how after the great earthquake in 1906, he stood out front of the old house and watched the fires burn.

A ll this made possible from the fortune he made in the Comstock and railroads.

O f the railroad adventures, Isaac formed the Eureka and Palisade Railroad Company in 1873 to support the mines in the Eureka Mining District in central Nevada. The narrow gauge began in Palisade, Nevada and by 1875 was run some 87 miles south to Eureka. When William Chapman Ralston first founded the Bank of California, he needed capital to back it. He found this capital in the local businessmen of the city. The associates of the Bank of California were, Isaac Requa, D. O. Mills, William Sharon, Thomas Bell, and Edgar Mills. The associates took great interest in the small railroad soon after its inception. Everything ran smooth until about 1885 when mining in the district subsided. The Eureka-Palisade fell into bankruptcy and ceased as a company in June of 1900.

T he railroad property was transferred, Feb 1902, to a new company formed in Utah that was established in June of 1901. The new company being named the Eureka and Palisade Railway with Isaac's son Mark, the leading trustee. With a renewed boom in the Eureka district, the railroad did well for a few years. The severe floods in 1910 damaged miles of Eureka and Palisade track and equipment. This would cause financial setbacks and a stop to service, once again.

1 911, stockholder George Whittell bought up the railroad property and the railroad was once again running. Whittell by 1912 organized the Nevada Transportation Company of California and the Eureka-Nevada Railway Company in Utah. He then leased the railroad to the Nevada Transportation Company, with the exception of the Ruby Hill branch. The Nevada Transportation Company lasted until April 1917. John E. Sexton, general manager, steered the Eureka-Nevada Railway through stormy years. After his death, in 1927, his brother Charles B. Sexton assumed the title of general manager in charge of operations. The railroad ceased operations in September 1938,

T he Central Pacific Railway Company records show that;
Isaac L. Requa, President
Headquarters City: Sacramento
Incorporated: 7/29/1899
Operated: 7/29/1899 to 6/30/1959
Disposition: merged into the Southern Pacific Company on June 30, 1959
Predecessors: Incorporated
Central Pacific Railroad
Central Pacific Railroad Company
California & amp; Oregon Railroad Company
San Joaquin Valley Railroad Company
Western Pacific Railroad Company
The Central Pacific Railroad Company of California
Central Pacific Rail Road Company of California
Fernley & Lassen Railway Company
Modoc Northern Railway Company
Goose Lake & Southern Railway Company
Oregon Eastern Railway Company
Nevada & California Railway Company
Central California Railway Company
Sacramento Southern Railroad Company
Chico & Northern Railroad Company
Nevada-California-Oregon Railway

B oth Mark and his father Isaac were active members of the Union Pacific Club of San Francisco. Mark was also very active in the government, during the Hoover years. Mark in later years wrote several books about Nevada mining and a few on government subjects.

A GUIDE TO THE RECORDS OF
Isaac Requa's History

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~npmelton/sfbreq.htm
http://www.mountainviewcemetery.org/5_history/famous2.html
http://www.oaklandnet.com/parks/news/121103a.asp
http://http.cs.berkeley.edu/~randy/Courses/CS39C.S97/telephone/bayarea.html
http://holabirdamericana.com/americana2002/archive/auction13/a13h.html
http://www.ci.piedmont.ca.us/html/history.htm
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0870043854/centralpacificra
History of Nevada, By; Russell R. Elliott_University of Nebraska Press
Nevada History 1881By; Thompson and West, Published by Howell-North (D Myrick) 1958.
History furnished by; Kristine Requa Snyder, Great Grand-daughter of Mark Requa