REltDING, Benjamin Barnard, pioneer, born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, 17 January, 1824; died in San Francisco, California, 21 August, 1882. He was educated at Yarmouth academy, and in 1840 went to Boston, where he became a clerk and afterward entered the grocery and ship-chandlery business. In 1849 he organized a company of men who sailed from Yarmouth for California, where they arrived on 12 May, 1850. He went to the Yuba river diggings, and afterward to the Pittsburg bar, working as a laborer. Subsequently he was employed in drawing papers for the sale of claims, acted as arbitrator, was elected a member of the assembly from Yuba and Sierra counties, and during the session wrote for the San Joaquin "Republican" and the Sacramento "Democratic State Journal," of which he was an editor and proprietor. In 1856 he was mayor of Sacramento, and from 1863 till 1867 he was secretary of state. From 1864 until his death he was land agent of the Central Pacific railroad. Mr. Redding was a regent of the University of California, and a member of the California academy of sciences, and of the Geographical society of the Pacific. He was also a state fish commissioner, holding this office at the time of his death. He was interested in all scientific work, especially in the paleontology of the coast, and collected numerous prehistoric and aboriginal relics, which he presented to the museum of the academy. He contributed a large number of papers to various California journals.