Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Benjamin Barnard Redding was a Canadian-born state official of California, politician and land agent with the Central Pacific Railroad. The town of Redding, California, was named for him. Born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, he was educated at Yarmouth Academy. In 1840, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where he worked as a clerk. He entered the retail grocery and ship chandlery business in 1843. In 1849, Redding organized a company of men and sailed from Yarmouth for the gold rush in California, where they arrived on May 12, 1850.