Lewis Burnham Rock was born in Drummondville, Canada on August 13, 1825. He left home at age 11 and found work, eventually leaving Canada in 1844 and walking to Bristol, New Hampshire. Rock worked in a hotel and cloth store for four years, moving up in responsibility until he became clerk of a branch store. He later became a clerk and barkeeper at a hotel in Lowell, Massachusetts, and it is from here that he began his journey to California to join the Gold Rush on December 29, 1849. Setting sail from Boston, Lewis experienced months at sea, traveling around Cape Horn, before arriving in California in August 1850. Later that month, he began prospecting near Sacramento, California. During his four years in California, Rock continued mining, built dams, and sold merchandise, after which he returned to Massachusetts. A former employer recruited Rock to Milwaukee to be employed at the Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad where he moved up through the ranks, spending 15 years as a train conductor, eventually becoming superintendent of the northern division of the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad. He married Hannah W. Sanborn in 1854 and they had three sons. Lewis B. Rock died May 28, 1888 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.