USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > A history of California and an extended history of Los Angeles and environs, Biographical, Volume III > Part 58
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There is a tradition in the Bouton family re- garding the origin of the name, which relates that in the twelfth century an ancestor serving as chorister in the chapel of the Duke of Burgundy founded his name and fortune and that of his
family by striking down with his official baton an assassin who made an attempt on the life of his master. This act raised him in the ducal chapel to the position of page of honor to the Duke of Burgundy, and his gallant achievement was prop- erly commemorated by heraldic inscription on a shield which the family have ever since borne, viz .: De Gules a la Fasce d'Or, with the surname of Baton (since corrupted into Bouton ) bestowed upon him by the duke. The change of Baton to Bouton was, it was said, in allusion to the bright- ness of the buttons with which as a page his coat was adorned. Despite this tradition, however, there were officers by the name of Bouton in William the Conqueror's army in 1060, a century earlier than the incident related of the chorister in the Duke of Burgundy's chapel, this being the first advent of the Boutons into England.
Honors came to the family in their new en- vironment and in the civil, political and religious life of England they early played a prominent part ; under the names of Boughton, Rouse and Broughton, two members were at the same time peers of England and six others represented seats in the English Parliament. Rouse Boughton's ancestors were of very high antiquity in the counties of Surrey, Worcester, Warwick, Glou- cester and Hereford; in a history of Worcester it is mentioned that its patriarchs of that shire accompanied the Conqueror to England, and the statement is confirmed by the Battle Abbey Roll. The name of Boughton became merged into Rouse by Thomas Philip Rouse Boughton, who assumed the name of Rouse and took up his residence at Rouse Leach. This gentleman, as Thomas Rouse, Esq., served as high sheriff of Worcester in 1733. Charles William Boughton, Esq. (second son of Schuckburgh Boughton, Esq., of Poston Court, County Hereford, and grandson of Sir William Bonghton, fourth baronet of Lawford, County Warwick), assumed the surname of Rouse and represented the boroughs of Eversham and Bram- ber as Charles William Boughton Rouse, Esq. Boughton Rouse was chief secretary of the board of control and was created a baronet June 28, 1791, but soon afterward he inherited the baronet- age of his own family, the Boughtons. Sir Ed- ward Boughton, of Barchester, County Warwick, was created a baronet August 4, 1641. The Boughtons held baronetcies in England for eleven generations. To go back to an early descendant
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of the first English Bouton, we find William Bouton, who, according to tradition and history, was a Burgundian soldier of fortune who served in the army of Edward III of England when he invaded France in 1356. He attained the title of Sir William Boughton, having won the personal favor of King Edward at the battle of Portiers, ever afterward followed his fortunes, and at the close of the campaign returned with him to Eng- land. His estates were situated on the banks of the river Avon, and the manor house was known as Lawford hall, and was built by Edward, son of Sir William, during the reign of Queen Eliza- beth. Edward Boughton was high sheriff of the county and member of the shire, and after death his body was consigned to the family vault under the church at Newbold.
The ancestor who located the name on Ameri- can soil was John Bouton, a lineal descendant of Count Chamilly. In July, 1636, at the age of twenty years, he embarked at Gravesend, Eng- land, in the barque Assurance, and landed at Boston, Mass., in December of the same year. Early in the settlement of Hartford, Conn., he moved to that place, and in 1671 and for several years subsequent, he was a representative in the general court of the colony of Connecticut. Sev- eral succeeding generations were born in Con- necticut, a son of the English emigrant, John Bouton, Jr., being a native of Norwalk, born September 30, 1659. He married and reared a family, among his children being a son, Nathaniel, who was also born in Norwalk, in 1691, while his grandson, Daniel, son of Nathaniel, was born at New Canaan, township of Stratford, Conn., October 24, 1740. Daniel Bouton became captain of a company of Connecticut volunteers during the Revolutionary war and distinguished himself in the long and arduous struggle, while his son, Russell Bouton, served his country well in the war with England in 1812. Russell Bouton was also a native of Connecticut, born at Danbury, October 31, 1790; at Reading, Conn., May 16, 1814, he married Mary Hinsdale, a daughter of Moses Hinsdale, who rendered valuable service in the Revolutionary war by the manufacture of one hundred cannon for the colonial troops, from metal mined, smelted and cast by himself, and for which he received nothing, simply because of the inability of the infant government to pay. Russell Bouton and his wife remained residents of Con-
necticut until 1821, and then moved to the town- ship of Howard (now Avoca), Steuben county, N. Y., where Edward Bouton, the subject of this sketch, was born April 12, 1834.
The years of youth and young manhood of Edward Bouton were passed upon the paternal farm, where he interspersed an attendance of a country school at Goff's Mills with the duties incident to his home life, as his elder brothers had left home to start in life for themselves and his father was an invalid. He was thus early trained in self reliance and habits of industry, working in his father's fields from the age of thirteen years to the age of seventeen. He subsequently studied in Rodgersville Academy, where, as an evidence of his industry as a scholar, it may be cited that during a full term there were but two recitations that were not marked perfect, and also at Haver- ling Union School, at Bath, N. Y.
Commercial activity, however, attracted the young man, and his twentieth birthday found him head clerk in the extensive dry goods store of Joseph Carter at Bath; this interest was later consolidated with the store owned by Martin Brownwell, and this immense stock of goods was sent to LeRoy, N. Y., there to be placed in a store and closed out. Mr. Bouton was given entire charge of this enterprise, and so well did he execute the task that it was completed the first of March, 1855, when he returned to Bath. There, with his former employer, he entered into partner- ship and established an extensive grocery, pro- vision and produce business, buying and shipping wool, grain and produce of all kinds. Two years later he purchased his partner's interest in the business and built the largest store in Steuben county, locating purchasing agents at all the stations on the main line of the Erie Railway from Corning to Dunkirk, and on the Buffalo branch from Corning to Buffalo. For two years the superintendent of the Erie Railway reported that over half of the wool, grain and produce passing Corning eastbound on the road belonged to Ed Bouton, as he was familiarly called. When the great panic of 1857 struck New York, closing every bank in the state except the Chemical Bank and John Magee's Steuben County Bank at Bath in twenty-four hours, Mr. Bouton had about $1,250,000 invested in wool stored in Pine street, the decline in the price of which in one day amounted to fully $100,000. The Erie Railway
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required consignees to pay freight and remove goods in twenty-four hours, but at this time Mr. Bouton's shipments filled. and blocked the entire Duane street pier in two days, and there was not a commission merchant in New York City who could receive the goods and pay the freight. Mr. Moran, the president of the Erie Railway, au- thorized Mr. Bouton to move his goods and pay the freight at his convenience. He rented and quickly filled a large storehouse on Dey street. All business was paralyzed and nearly all shippers but Mr. Bouton ceased trying to do business. Soon the hotels, boarding houses and private families were seeking supplies of butter, eggs, cheese and kindred articles, of which Mr. Bouton held the principal available supply in the city. John Magee, who left an estate valued at $80,000,- 000, had such implicit confidence in Mr. Bouton's great energy and strict integrity, and deemed his business so beneficial to the community that he promptly rendered financial aid, requiring no security except that all advances should be paid in a reasonable time. In 1859 Mr. Bouton sold out his business in Bath, and going to Chicago, engaged in the grain commission business, owning vessel property on the lakes, and doing a grain and lumber shipping business.
Mr. Bouton had in his family records number- less examples for his action in 1861, when he closed up and sacrificed his newly established business to engage in the War of the Rebellion, for it is said that of the many Boutons through- out New England during the Revolutionary war there was not an able-bodied man who was not serving his country, and the records of the War Department show that every northern state and over half of the southern states were represented by Boutons in the Union army during the War of the Rebellion, three of them attaining the rank of brigadier-general. It is undoutedly a historical fact that for some fourteen centuries members of this family have proven themselves valiant sol- diers on many of the important battlefields of the civilized world, and always on the side of loyalty, religious liberty and better government. Mr. Bouton at once raised a battery for service in the Civil war, familiarly known as Bouton's battery, its official designation being Battery I, First Regi- ment, Illinois Light Artillery. At the time he organized this famous battery it was costing the state of Illinois $154 per capita to recruit, trans-
port and maintain troops previous to being mus- tered into the United States service. Bouton's battery cost the state only $13.20 per capita, the balance of the expense being paid out of the private purse of General Bouton. This battery rendered important service throughout the entire struggle, from the battle of Shiloh to those of Nashville and Franklin, three years later, in the first named conflict performing deeds of valor which meant no little in the winning of the Union forces. A detailed account of the participation of Bouton's battery is herewith given, inasmuch as its action during the first day of the conflict was one of the most important factors in giving the victory on the following day : At about three in the afternoon of the first day the Union forces were compelled to retire from a timbered ridge about a third of a mile out from Pittsburg Land- ing. Some eight hundred yards in front of this ridge was the green point where the Hamburgh and Purdy Roads formed a junction. Here was concentrated a large Confederate force. When the Union forces fell back from this ridge, Bouton's Battery, having a commanding position, held its ground and a detachment of the Fifty- third Ohio Infantry remained in supporting dis- tance in the rear. If the Confederates gained the ridge their guns could sweep the Landing and the intervening space, and necessarily the fate of the Union army depended upon the possession of this ground, until night, or until Buell came. A Rebel battery of six six-pounder guns took position well in front and opened fire at about six hundred yards distant on Bouton's left front, which was promptly answered. It seemed that all other firing in the vicinity for the time was suspended, and the two opposing batteries occupied all atten- tion. For a half hour the combat raged furiously, when a Mississippi battery of four twelve-pounder howitzers took position and opened fire on Bou- ton's right front at short range, thus bringing him under a heavy cross fire. The latter then wheeled his right section of two guns under First Lieut. Harry Rogers, and brought it to bear on the Mississippi battery. The failure of both batteries to drive him from the ridge called for Jackson's Brigade of Mississippi Infantry, which charged his battery in front, advancing between the two batteries on the right and left. This charge was met with guns double shotted with canister, which sent them back in broken disorder. The fight
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between the batteries went on until the approach of night, just as Bouton fired his last round of ammunition. Then he fell back to the main line in front of the Landing, taking off two guns (one disabled) by hand, with the aid of men from the Fifty-third Ohio, the horses on these guns having been killed. Bouton's Battery had been reported captured some two hours before, and when he turned up all right and it was ascertained that he had held the ridge against such odds, such a cheer of triumph was given as made the welkin ring. It meant victory for the morrow. The next day, with five guns re-supplied with ammunition, Bouton's Battery made a dash across an old cotton field, under a terrific fire of both infantry and artillery, and occupied and held a position from which two batteries had been driven, and with canister at short range materially aided in driving Breckenridge from nearly the same ground occupied by Sherman's division at the commencement of the battle. In this famous artillery duel Bonton's Battery fired five hundred and forty rounds of ammunition, being more than reported by any other Union battery during the entire battle. In has been stated by General Hal- leck that in his opinion one thousand men saved the day at Shiloh, most conspicuous in the number being Bouton's Battery of Chicago.
Captain Bouton, commanding his battery in person, first attracted the attention of his superior officers and brought to him another honor of distinction. In consultation with General Thomas on the one hand and his six division commanders on the other, Gen. Stephen A. Hurlburt, com- manding Department of West Tennessee and Northern Mississippi, made choice of Captain Bouton, at that time chief of artillery of the Fifth Division of the Sixteenth Army Corps, Sherman's old Shiloh Division, to command one of six colored regiments which had been organ- ized in May, 1863. It was a happy choice that placed Captain Bouton in this position, for he brought to bear the same thoroughness, capacity for discipline and general ability which had dis- tinguished him thus far in his military career. Less than two years later General Marcy, inspector-general of the United States army, after a thorough personal inspection, pro- nounced three of the colored regiments in General Bouton's command, "in drill. discipline and mili- tary bearing equal to any in the service, regular or
volunteer." Another instance of his courage on the field was an occurrence of July 13, 1864, a month after the disaster to the Union troops at Guntown, Miss., when in command of about four thousand, five hundred men, white and colored, he made a march of twenty-two miles in one day, from Pontotoc to Tupelo, Miss., guarding a heavy train of three hundred wagons and fighting at the same time four distinct battles, each successful and against superior odds. Generals A. J. Smith and Joseph Mower, commanding corps and divi- sion, respectively, declared this achievement un- surpassed within their knowledge.
During his army career General Bouton was several times mentioned in terms of commenda- tion, especially for strict integrity, by both Presi- dent Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton, on one occasion Secretary Stanton saying that he was one of the few army officers who had been able to handle Confederate cotton without being contaminated. In recommending General Bou- ton's promotion to brigadier-general, General Grant said: "I consider General Bouton one of the best officers in the army, and there is not one whose promotion I can more cheerfully recommend." Generals Halleck and Sherman pronounced him the best artillery officer in the army, General Halleck saying that he had never seen a better battery than Bouton's either in Europe or America, and that less than a thousand men had saved the day at Shiloh, most con- spicuous among the number being Bouton's Bat- tery of Chicago. General Sherman said on one occasion : "Bouton was as cool under fire and as good an artillery officer as I ever knew, and there is no living man whom I would rather have handle my artillery in a hard fight." General Washburn said that General Bouton's defense of the rear of the vanquished Union forces, under General Sturgis, on their retreat from Guntown, Miss., to Germantown, Tenn., for two days and nights, a distance of eighty-one miles, with but a handful of men against the incessant and im- petuous attacks of General Forrest's victorious army, constituted one of the most heroic deeds recorded in history. Generals A. J. Smith and Joseph Mower both pronounced him the best brigade commander they had ever seen. When General Smith's veterans of the Sixteenth Corps were, for the third time, repulsed before the Spanish Fort at Mobile, he said to Colonel Ken-
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drick: "I wish to God Bouton were here; he army, came in to take the prescribed oath of al- would go in there like a whirlwind."
To show how the general was regarded by the Confederates, the following incident may be nar- rated : Soon after his promotion to be a brigadier- general, and when thirty years of age, he had some pictures taken at Oak gallery in Memphis, Tenn. One of these was obtained by the Con- federate General N. B. Forrest from one of Bouton's officers, who was taken a prisoner of war. This picture General Forrest sent to Mobile, where hundreds of copies were made and distributed among the Confederate soldiers in the southwest. When Mobile was captured, both Gen. A. J. Smith, commanding the Sixteenth Corps, and Colonel Kendrick, formerly of General Bouton's command, reported finding many of the pictures with the order endorsed upon them to kill or capture this officer at any cost or hazard.
General Bouton's business ability, however, was not lost during his service in the war, and it was brought into play at a time when his coun- try had most need for it. Memphis, an important river port, and geographically central to a large and wealthy cotton-growing country, was a point not easily controlled satisfactorily to the general government and in the interest of the people. After many failures and losses, and when con- fusion and distrust had long run riot, General Bouton was appointed provost-marshal of the city. which made him, for the time, dictator in affairs military and civil, including all trade privi- leges and care of abandoned property, of which there was much; prisons, scouts, detectives, the police and sanitary regulation of the city ; in short, everything in and immediately adjacent to the city. With the most careful management an expenditure of $9,000 a month was necessary to efficient government. In the exercise of his usual fidelity and the appointment of only the most trustworthy subordinates in every department, he soon introduced order; collected and disbursed moneys ; paid all past indebtedness, heavy as it was. and current expenses ; and at the end of six months handed the government of the city over to the newly elected municipal officers and turned over several thousand dollars to the special fund of the War department. Another service which marked General Bouton as a man of unusual business sagacity was an act of his while serving as provost-marshal. Col. Sam Tate, of the Rebel
legiance, and having done this he expressed a desire to recover control of the Memphis & Charleston Railroad, of which he was president. The government, no longer needing the road for military purposes, General Bouton drew up a plan or agreement at the suggestion of Gen. John E. Smith, by which not only this but other south- ern roads in this section, were finally returned to their owners. One of the first and principal stipulations in the agreement was that no claim should ever be made against the government for the use or damage to said roads while they were being used for military purposes. All parties in the interest of the company having signed the agreement, General Bouton proceeded in person to New Orleans and to Nashville and secured the approval of Generals Canby and Thomas, depart- ment commanders. Colonel Tate then went to Washington to complete with General Grant, the secretary of war, and the quarter-master-general, all arrangements for the transfer of the property. No sooner had he done this than he presented a claim against the government which President Johnson, an old friend of his, ordered paid. Ene- mies of General Johnson charged that he received a part of this, and during the impeachment trial desired General Bouton's evidence on the con- tract. But, at the suggestion of General Grant, he never appeared. After Johnson's death it developed that he had never received a dollar of Tate's money.
On February 28, 1866, on the voluntary recom- mendation of Generals Grant. Sherman and Rol- lins, General Bouton was offered a colonelcy in the regular army, which he declined. This was over five months previous to Gen. Nelson A. Miles' appointment to a colonelcy in the regular army, so that the acceptance of this position would have enabled General Bouton at the pres- ent time to occupy the position of retired com- mander-in-chief of the army.
It was in August, 1868, that General Bouton first came to Southern California to make his home and ever since has assisted materially in the development and upbuilding of the section. He first engaged in the sheep raising industry, and the following year his ranges covered the Boyle Heights country, while in 1870 he had a camp on the ground now occupied by the thriving little city of Whittier. In 1874 he purchased land in
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the San Jacinto valley and ranged his sheep over the present sites of Hemet and San Jacinto. Among his other possessions he for many years owned the ocean front at Alamitos bay from Devil's Gate to the inlet of the bay. while the famous artesian wells north of Long Beach were bored by him, and what is generally known as the Bouton water introduced into Long Beach and Terminal Island. It was in the early '70s that General Bouton experimented with and succeeded in producing on his old place, at the corner of College and Yale streets, what became known as the Eureka lemon, a fruit of superior growth and quality, the buds of which he at that time dis- tributed to several nurserymen. For a number of years General Bouton has been extensively engaged in mining in Arizona and that portion of San Bernardino county bordering on the Colorado river, and in this line has met with the success which has characterized all his other efforts. He has, too, remained a potent factor in the develop- ment of the city of Los Angeles; has perfect confidence in its future ; and in his efforts gives freely of time and money to further every move- ment advanced for its welfare. The General has been twice married, his first wife being Miss Margaret Fox, whom he married January 20, 1859; she was born in Avoca, N. Y., and died in California August 14, 1891. In San Diego, Cal., March 22, 1894, General Bouton was united in marriage with Miss Elsa Johnson, who is con- nected with some of the best families in Sweden. One child, a son, has been born to them.
The characteristics of a warrior are to a cer- tain extent those of a pioneer, and both these opportunities have been in large measure General Bouton's to exercise. When he came to South- ern California there were but two houses on Boyle Heights where he ranged his sheep; throughout this portion of the state was the same wilderness lands. To him and others of like cal- ibre is owed the present-day greatness of this section, for no burden was too heavy, no under- taking too difficult for these hardy pioneers, and in their achievement is the unparalleled develop- ment of Southern California. A story which il- lustrates the daring of General Bouton is the fol- lowing, which appeared in the St. Louis Repub- lican January 8, 1891, in an article entitled, "Stories of Pioneer Daring:" "An equally re- markable display of pure nerve was the exploit
of Gen. Edward Bouton in a lonely pass in Southern California in 1879. A quiet, gentle- voiced, mild-mannered man, one would hardly suspect in him the reckless daring which won him distinction in some of the most desperate engagements of the Civil war. It was he of whom General Sherman said in my hearing : 'He was the most daring brigadier we had in the west.' The terrific artillery duel between General Bouton's battery and two rebel batteries at Shiloh, and the desperate three hours at Guntown, Miss., when he and his brigade stood off the savage charge of nearly ten times as large a force, with the loss of nearly two-thirds of their number, will be remembered as one of the most gallant achieve- ments of the great war. And the courage which does not depend on the inspiration of conflict and of numbers is also his.
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