USA > California > A Volume of memoirs and genealogy of representative citizens of northern California, including biographies of many of those who have passed away > Part 45
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spoke several languages and was a gentleman of talent and ability, capable of filling almost every position in life.
In his political views he was a Democrat, and his fitness for high official honors was regarded by the public when, in 1872, he was chosen a member at The assembly. He left the impress of his individuality upon the legislation di California and Had marked influence upon public thought and opinion. his fellow townsmen having a great respect for his ideas and views. He had been the editor of the Register, established at San Andreas. His edi- torials indicated marked ability, keen discrimination and logical thought. He Mis the author of a history of Calaveras county, which he wrote in 1880, and it was published in be San Francisco Call, being spoken of as a production of superior merit. He departed this life on the 7th of February, 1883. at his Golden Gate ranch, where he had so long resided. He had been an invalid for twenty years and was confined to his bed for twenty-seven months before his death, during all of which time he was faithfully attended by his devoted wie, whose care for him did much to alleviate his suffering. His influence m joiblic affairs was always of a beneficial character and proved a potent element in the upbuilding and material advancement of the community with which He was connected. He had attained the age of sixty-four years, six months and twelve days, and his loss to the community was one widely and deeply felt throughout his section of the state.
In September. 1852. he had returned to the east for his wife. and in 1853 they came to California together by way of the isthmus of Panama, bringing with them their first born, a daughter, Nellie, then in the third year of her age. She is now the wife of Julius Toda and resides on a ranch adjoin- ing the old homestead. There were born to them in California eight children, namely : James B., who died in his twenty-sixth year and was laid to rest in their private burying-ground on the ranch : Blanche, who is the wife of Julius Milton and resides in Fresno county, California: Annie, who died in infancy : Henry Clay, who is at home with his mother; William, who died at the age of nineteen years ; Albert J., who died when a year old : Jefferson D., who also is at home: and Maud, now the wife of Frank Washburn, a resident of Valley Springs.
Mrs. Schrack is now in the seventy-third year of her age and is one of the most highhy esteemed pioneer women of the state. She experienced all the hardships and trials incident to the establishment of a home on the frontier. At first they lived in a tent, with canvas windows and a dirt floor, which in the rainy season became saturated with water so that her shoes were often very net. Afterward, however, they erected the house in which they entertained the traveling public. She cooked for the teamsters and bravely did her part in helping her husband to gain prosperity. In those early days Joaquin Murictta, the Mexican highwayman and desperado, with his band had a cave in the mountains not far from their home, and he and his followers often came to their house for a meal. Every one stood in terror of the band, but Mrs. Schrack prepared the meal for them and Murietta usually gave her twenty dollars and would accept no change.
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On one occasion when Mr. Schrack was returning home through a narrow path on a dark night he was stopped by the Mexican, who drew his revolver. Mr. Schrack was surprised, but said Amigo, which means friend. Murietta then got off his horse, offered him a purse and made all kinds of apologies and ordered his men to dismount and take off their hats while Mr. Schrack passed on his way. He declined the gold and was glad to escape with his life. It was believed that Murietta was captured, and on one occasion the authorities thought they had his head in a jar of alcohol; but Mrs. Schrack has been informed that he is still living, in Mexico, where he has a large stock ranch and fifty ponies. As the years passed such wild scenes became less frequent and civilization replaced the chaotic condition of the early times.
Prosperity also came to the farmer of whom we write; but in 1878 their large, two-story log house in which they had resided for twenty-five years was destroyed by fire with all its contents. It was replaced, however, by their present good frame residence, which stands in the midst of beautiful forest trees planted by Mr. Schrack. He had the first peach orchard in the county and also had a fine vineyard on his place, for which he was at one time offered twenty thousand dollars ; but he declined to make the sale. Another year they lost considerable wood and much of their farm products by fire, and on a third occasion their barn and two horses were burned ; but with charac- teristic energy the family have prosecuted their labors and have eventually gained a comfortable competence. Mrs. Schrack still resides on the Golden Gate ranch, esteemed and beloved by her children and held in the highest regard by their acquaintances. Their pioneer record forms an integral part in the history of Calaveras county, for they aided in laying the foundation of its present prosperity and promoted its progress along many substantial lines of development.
LA FAYETTE JACKSON MADDUX.
That good old stock of Virginia and Maryland which has been so potent a factor in the citizenship of the United States produced the subject of this sketch, a prominent lawyer of Modesto, Stanislaus county, California, an account of whose useful and busy career it is the purpose of the editors to include in this work. La Fayette Jackson Maddux was born at Pineville, McDonald county, Missouri, August 14, 1854, and was brought to California when he was between two and three years old. He is descended in the pater- nal line from early settlers and active participants in the pioneer history of Virginia. His grandfather, George Nathaniel Maddux, was born in Virginia and was a pioneer in Tennessee, where his life was successful and he lived to a good old age. He married Miss Rebecca Parker, a native of Virginia, and a daughter of Dr. John Parker, who was born in Maryland and took a patriot's part in the Revolutionary war.
John Parker Maddux, a son of George Nathaniel and Rebecca ( Parker ) Maddux, was born in Tennessee and went at a comparatively early period in his life to Missouri, where he married Miss Serena Gibson, a native of Fay-
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etteville, Washington county, Arkansas. He became a well-to-do farmer in Missouri and 10 1855 took a drove of cattle overland to California, where he sold them to po ff advantage. Ile returned to Missouri and in 1857 started agam across the pams to California, this time accompanied by his wife and two children, one of them, La Favette Jackson Maddux, the subject of this sketch. He located at Healdsburg, Sonoma county, where he bought a farm and acquired other property and won success as a farmer and as a business man. He was one of the organizers of the Santa Rosa Bank, at Santa Rosa, Sonoma county, and of the Ukiah Bank, at Ukiah, Mendicino county : he was for many years a director of the former, and was connected with other prominent inter- ests. Ile died in 1895, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, and his widow, a woman of many virtues who is highly regarded by all who have the pleasure of her acquaintance, is living, aged sixty-three years, on the family homestead near Santa Rosa. They were the parents of twelve children. two of whom were born in Missouri and ten in California, and Mrs. Maddux has a sorrowful memory of the death of her second child during the slow and perilous journey of their then little family across the plains, which consumed six months. She remembers, too, that they were ambushed by Indians at one point and narrowly escaped with their lives. Seven of their children are now living in California. Charles P. Maddux is a practicing physician at Santa Rosa, where his brother, Dr. James E. Maddux, is also located. Loretta is the wife of Dr. Graves, of San Francisco. Her other sons, excepting the subject of this sketch, are members of her household near Santa Rosa.
La Fayette Jackson Maddux was educated in the public schools and the Methodist College at Santa Rosa, and was graduated in law at the Harvard Law School in the class of 1878. He began the practice of his profession at Winnemucca. Nevada, where he remained about a year. In 1880 he located at Modesto, where he has won a signal success professionally and is recognized as one of the leading men of Stanislaus county. In 1896 he was the candidate of the Democracy of his district for representative in the congress of the United States. Ile is active and influential in political work and his public spirit has led him to labor efficiently for the advancement of many interests affect- ing the welfare of his fellow citizens. He was appointed by Governor Budd one of the directors of the state reform school for boys at lone, Amador county.
In 1879 Mr. Maddux married Miss May Blyth Simmons, a native of Mariposa county, California, and a daughter of the Rev. J. C. Simmons, of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, who has taken a prominent part in making Methodist history in this state. Mr. and Mrs. Maddux have two chil- dren, named Parker S. and Esther, who are attending school at Berkeley, Alameda county.
HIRAM A. MESSENGER.
The family of Messenger, of which Hiram Ashley Messenger of Gwin- mine. Calaveras county, California, is a representative, is descended from English ancestors, who came to America before the Revolutionary war : and Mr. Messenger's grandfather, Cyrus Messenger, was a colonel in the colonial
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army. Mr. Messenger's father. also named Cyrus, was born in Berkshire county, Massachusetts, and married Hannah Case, a native of Canton, Con- necticut, and a member of an old and honorable New England family. He was a farmer and a member of the state militia and a reliable and worthy citizen, who lived to the age of seventy-eight years, his wife dying at sixty- seven. They had nine children, of whom only three now live and of whom Hiram Ashley Messenger is the only one in California. One of his brothers fought for the preservation of the Union in 1861-65.
Hiram Ashley Messenger was born at Peru, Berkshire county, Massachu- setts. July 27, 1832, and was educated in the public schools of his native county. In 1852, when in his twentieth year, he started overland for California with a company from Michigan, paying seventy-five dollars for his board and other privileges; but when he arrived at Green river he exchanged his chance to come with that party to California for an opportunity to go to Ore- gon with another party, with whom he traveled only a week, however, when he obtained a job of driving an ox-team, hauling freight between St. Joseph and Salt Lake, Utah.
He came on to California and from Lathrop packed his blankets to Stock- ton. The next day after he arrived at Stockton he went to Latimer's, now North Branch postoffice, and from there to Mokelumne Hill, then a big mining camp with a permanent gallows on which undesirable citizens were hanged from time to time! He worked for a time for the "water company" and dur- ing the succeeding winter he mined with some success. He entered the employ of the water company in the following spring and next winter "tended ditch" near Cape Horn. In the spring following he worked for Andrews and Cadwaller "driving" lumber for the com- pletion of the flume then under construction to Mokelumne Hill. Then for two years he sold lumber in the Mokelumne lumber yards and afterward was employed on the Chili Hill ditch at Campo Seco, and then he sold water for the water company until 1857. when he was employed on the Calaveras ditch at Murphy's under "Cap." Hanford. Later he mined on his own account at Campo Seco, at Oregon Gulch and at Lancha Plana, where he was suc- cessful enough to take out about forty dollars a week. Later he mined at Jenny Lind, Whisky Hill and South Gulch, where he went with a family named Copeland. In 1861 he discovered copper mines and did the first copper-mining in that locality. In 1864 he sold out his interest, for five thousand dolars, and raised a company, at his own expense, and spent a year fighting Indians in Ari- zona, his command having been duly mustered into the United States service and mustered out the last of June. 1866, at the presidio at San Francisco. He rendered the government good service. for which he was paid in greenbacks that netted him forty cents on the dollar when he exchanged them for provisions. Returning to Campo Seco he associated himself with W. C. Whetstone and bought the Cosgrove ranch, consisting of one thousand acres, and began rais- ing hay and grain. In 1884 when the railroad was built, he sold a part of his interest, but still retains a fine tract two and a half miles from Valley Springs,
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where he has # good orange grove and raises many olives, the place being under the management of his son-in-law.
In 1804 Mr. Messenger removed from his ranch to Gwinmine, where he conducts an extensive boarding-house and fills the office of postmaster. Polit- ically he has been a lifelong Democrat, but enough has been said of his record during the war to establish the fact that he was a stanch Union man. From the office of lieutenant in the home guard he was advanced to that of captain in the United States service, and he won the title worthily and bears it honor- ably. He was made a Master Mason in 1862 and is thoroughly posted in the work of the order, and has for many years been the master of Campo Seco Lodge, No. 100, F. & .A. M. His sons are also Masons, and Mrs. Messenger and two of their daughters are members of the Order of the Eastern Star. He has been an Odd Fellow for twenty years, was active and prominent in estab- lishing the order at Mokelumne Hill and has passed the chairs in both branches. In 1879 and 1880, just after the adoption of the new state constitution, he was a member of the California legislature and has always done everything in his power to advance the interests in his state and county. A friend of agriculture and horticulture, he has been a director in the San Joaquin County Fair Asso- ciation and in the organization promoting fairs in Amador county. With Senator Vorhees and Mr. Downs he is a stockholder in the Lincoln mine.
In 1859 Captain Messenger married Harriet L. Wilkins, a native of Nashua, New Hampshire, who came to California in 1854, and they have had five children. Their son, Nelson C., is married and lives at Angel's Camp. Their daughter Mary Frances married Edward Maher and lives at Campo Seco. Maud W. married William Putnam, who has the management of her father's ranch. Hiram H., a man of a family, is a worthy citizen of Gwinmine. Harriet Marion is a student at the state normal school. Mr. and Mrs. Mes- senger and their family are well known and respected, and to the Captain and his good wife is accorded the especial honor due to California pioneers.
WILLIAM II. SMITIL.
In the history of the commercial progress and material development in the town of Grass Valley, William H. Smith deserves mention, for during many years he has been an active factor in the business interests of the town where he is now successfully engaged in conducting a wholesale and retail confectionery establishment on Mill street.
Mr. Smith is one of the native sons of Grass Valley, his birth having occurred here on the 22d of July, 1867. His father, William H. Smith, was a native of England and an attorney by profession, who, on coming to Amer- ica, located in New Orleans, Louisiana, whence he removed to San Francisco in 1852. Here he engaged in the practice of law for a time and later formed a partnership with Joseph Hamilton, at Auburn, California. For many years he was a justice of the peace in Grass Valley and discharged his duties with out fear or favor, winning the high commendation of all citizens who have regard for law and order. He was married to Miss Jane Trim, a lady of
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culture and refinement, who was born in New Orleans and is now residing with one of her sons in Grass Valley.
In the family of this worthy couple were eleven children, William H. being the tenth in order of birth. He was reared and educated in Nevada county and at an early age entered upon the practical duties of life, since which time he has depended solely upon his own efforts. He is now at the head of one of the oldest candy factories in the state, having established the business in 1889. He successfully conducted this for a time and then sold out to W. Williams, after which he removed to San Francisco, where he was connected with the same line of trade. Later he became the traveling repre- sentative for Robert Green, a soda-fountain manufacturer of Philadelphia, and subsequently he traveled for some time in the interest of the firm of Scott & Gilbert, of San Francisco. After resigning that position he returned to the home of his boyhood and embarked in the real-estate and insurance business, meeting with a high degree of success. Within a short time he wrote policies to the amount of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the Home Fire Insurance Company, of New York; but in 1896 he returned to the confectionery business, purchasing his old store. He employs two expert candy-manufacturers and has both a large wholesale and retail trade, making extensive shipments to various towns in this section of the state. The excellent quality of the products, his reasonable prices and his thorough reliability have made his business a profitable one, and his trade is steadily growing in volume and importance.
On the 12th of August, 1892, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Smith and Miss Mattie Nile, a native of Missouri, by whom he has one son, Cas- well. Mr. Smith is an advocate of Democracy, being allied with the pro- gressive wing of the party. He is a member of the Native Sons of the Golden West, the B. P. O. E. and the Grass Valley fire department. He withholds his support from no movement or measure which he believes will contribute to the substantial welfare and development of this section of the state. He is widely and favorably known by the citizens of his native county and merits honorable mention among the leading and representative busi- ness men of northern California.
CHRISTIAN RUNCKEL.
. Christian Runckel, the superintendent of schools at Dutch Flat, is one of the prominent educators of Placer county. A sketch of his life is there- fore of interest in connection with biographical mention of other leading and representative citizens of his town and county, and, briefly, is as follows :
Christian Runckel was born in Dutch Flat, Placer county, California, July 27, 1868. and is of German descent. His father, Justus Henry Runckel, was born in Germany, January 13. 1832. of German parentage, and belonged to a mercantile family, generation after generation, for a period of one hun- dred and fifty years, having been engaged in business at the same stand.
In 1852. leaving the business and home of his forefathers, Justus H.
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Runckel emigrated to America, landing at New York, where he remained until 1856, and that year came to California, making the journey by way of the isthmus of Panama. Upon his arrival in California, Mr. Runckel engaged in mining on the middle fork of the American river, where he was fairly successful. Mining, however, was not suited to his tastes, and in 1857 he came to Dutch Flat and established himself in a bakery and mercantile busi- ness, which he conducted successfully until he retired in 1892. Also he was interested in fruit-growing on lands which he owned in the town site, apples und Bartlett pears being his specialty, and most of his trees having been planted by his son Christian. An ardent Democrat, the elder Runckel was an active participant in the politics of the county, and fraternally he for years maintained membership in the I. O. O. F., being identified with both branches of the order and also with the order of Rebekahs. In 1859 he married Miss Louisa Held, like himself, a native of Germany, and of the eleven children born to this worthy couple nine are still living. The mother also i still living, and is in the enjoyment of excellent health. The father departed this life in 1896, at the age of sixty-four years.
Christian Runckel was educated in the public schools of his native town and in a private normal school in Auburn, and began his life work as a teacher, when only nineteen years of age, at Lowell Hill. For the past ten years he has taught at Dutch Flat, where, at this writing, he holds the position of superintendent of schools. Here, with the valued assistance of the school 1: ard. "e has been instrumental in bringing the school interests of Dutch Flat up to a high standard. A new schoolhouse has been built, equipped with all the modern appliances found in the up-to-date schools, and the teachers work 'n harm my with their superintendent. It is a fact worthy of note that the county superintendent paid Dutch Flat the compliment of having the best -Che I building in the county.
Like his father before him, Mr. Runckel has taken an active interest in the politics of the county and keeps himself as well posted in political matters as he does in educational affairs. He was at one time the candidate of the Democratic party for the office of representative of his county in the state assembly. Another honor conferred upon him by his party, and one which he esteemed more highly, was his nomination for state superintendent of edu- cation, but, although he made a satisfactory run, he, with the rest of the ticket. was defeated. A county office which he now holds is that of president of the board of education.
Mr. Runckel was the originator and organizer of the Order of the Ameri- can Flag, which has received a state charter. The object of the organization is to inculcate patriotism and a love for the civil liberty which the flag repre- sents, and also to inculcate a more thorough knowledge of the grand princi- ples on which a government by the people and for the people rests.
In the midst of his other work Mr. Runckel was for three years the editor of the Colfax Sentinel. Nowadays, when not occupied with his educational work. Mr. Runckel busies himself among his fruits and flowers. He owns tlle pleasant home he occupies and a fruit ranch.
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He was married in 1894 to Miss Sophia Cadwallader, a native of Nevada county and a graduate of Napa College. Previous to her marriage Mrs. Runckel was a successful teacher. They have a pleasant home in which interest centers around two little ones, a son and daughter, Christian, Jr., and Martha. Mr. Runckel and his wife are identified respectively with the Native Sons of the Golden West and the Native Daughters of the Golden West ; he helped to organize the parlor in Dutch Flat, and was its first president. He is also a member of the 1. O. O. F., and has passed all the chairs in both branches of the order.
JOHN ADAMS.
Among the representative citizens and city officials of Auburn, Placer county, California, is John Adams, who was born in Delaware county, Ohio, June 28, 1841. The Adams family, of which the subject of this sketch is a member, is of German origin and has long been identified with this country. Abraham Adams, the grandfather of John, was born in Luzerne county, Penn- sylvania, and was reared and married there. In 1812, with his wife and chil- dren, he moved to what was then called the Western Reserve, and in Delaware county, Ohio, took claim to a tract of land and established his home on the frontier. He became one of the prominent early farmers of Delaware county. John Adams, his son, the father of our subject, was born in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, in 1800, and was twelve years old when he went with his father's family to Ohio. In the latter state he grew to manhood and married Miss Desire Cook, who was born in 1803, a daughter of Benajali Cook, one of the pioneer settlers of Delaware county. This union was blessed in the birth of eight children, five sons and three daughters, and four of the family are still living. The parents were devoted members of the Methodist Episcopal church and in their hospitable home was entertained many a traveling minister of the gospel. Mr. Adams donated the ground on which their church building was erected, helped to build it, and during his life aided substantially in the sup- port of the church. Indeed, he was one of its most liberal and active members. He and his wife continued their residence in Delaware county while they lived. Both reached a ripe old age, he being in his seventy-second year and she in her seventy-sixth year at the time of death.
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