USA > California > A history of the new California, its resources and people; Vol II > Part 61
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On the 13th of May, 1885, in Sacramento, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Maltman and Miss Mary Galt, a native of Nevada City and a daughter of Alexander Galt, one of the California pioneers, who was mayor of Nevada City for fifteen years and was a most influential, prominent and highly esteemed citizen. He was descended from a Protestant Irish family, influen- tial in Belfast, Ireland, representing the aristocracy there. Two daughters have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Maltman: Annie M. and Clara A., who are now attending school. In his political views Mr. Maltman is an earnest Re- publican, but has never been an active worker in the party or sought political preferment. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, the Native Sons of the Golden West and the Union League Club, of San Francisco. In his business career he has wrought along modern lines of mining, keeping in touch with the progress which has characterized this great department of labor, and his efforts have resulted beneficially to himself and to those with whom he has been associated in his mining operations.
WILLIAM H. BICKFORD.
William H. Bickford, of Redding, is numbered among the old forty- niners, and he was one who tempted death and all the dangers and privations which were part and parcel of a journey, in that and in several succeeding years, across the great western plains. The argonauts who thus sought the route to the golden Eldorado of the Pacific coast comprise what is perhaps the most interesting and romantic class of American pioneers, and through the golden haze that envelops that period the gold-seekers seem truly of a fanciful and far-off race of men, endowed with extraordinary powers of endurance, wondrous generosity, and whose well steeled might was put to the test as no men have been before or since. All which things Mr. Bick- ford saw and was a great part therein, and nearly all the subsequent years of his life have likewise been spent in the Golden state, where in mining or in business enterprise he has gained a substantial place in material affairs and at the same time enjoyed the esteem and regard of his fellow men.
Mr. Bickford was born in Massachusetts, but his early life and train- ing were in the state of Ohio, whose public schools afforded him his educa- tion for the practical affairs of life. In 1849 he started from St. Joseph, Missouri, with an ox team, and six months later arrived in California. His first location was at the mouth of Deer Creek, on the Lawson route, now known as the Stanford ranch, and there he commenced prospecting for gold, and later on the Feather river where Oroville now stands. He also located and worked claims on Bidwell bar. From the spring of 1850 to 1853 he was engaged in mining in Butte and Nevada counties. He then returned to his old Buckeye home, but in the spring of 1855 once more came out to the coast and to the haunts which had become so attractive to him. In the fall of that year he located at the Buckeye diggings in Shasta county, and was mining there. off and on, until 1870. One year of that time he spent in Idaho and another along the Fraser river in British Columbia, but neither trip proved financially profitable.
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In 1871 Mr. Bickford was elected clerk of Shasta county, and re-elected in 1873 and 1875. In 1878 he once more took up mining and also the mer- cantile business, which he continued until his appointment, in 1885, by Presi- dent Cleveland, receiver of the land office of the Redding district, located at Shasta. He served in that capacity until 1890, when he moved to Red- ding and established an office as a land and mining attorney, in which line of practice he has since engaged. He is also a notary public. His office is in the McCormick and Saeltzer building, corner of Market and Yuba streets. Mr. Bickford is one of the oldest of California Masons, having joined the Shasta Lodge, F. & A. M., in the year 1856.
HENRY C. MCCLURE.
Henry C. McClure, of Redding and Los Angeles, is a typical California mining man, with the graces and freedom of manner of the true westerner, and likewise, as it is needless to say, endowed with the grit and force of char- acter which are the mainstays and the springs of success for the one who makes gold-seeking his quest in life. The world-famous gold discovery of California was made in January, 1848, and a year later found young McClure embarked on his truly argonautic journey across untold miles of waste and wilderness in search of the modern Golden Fleece, which to many forty-niners proved as elusive as that of which we read in ancient lore. But time and perseverance and well managed work have brought their rewards to this hon- ored gold hunter, and the eighties of Mr. McClure's long life find him well situated in all that tends to make living comfortable, with " troops of friends," and honor and esteem from all the associates of his long years.
Mr. McClure was born in Bath, Steuben county, New York, August 26, 1823. His father was General George McClure, who was a descendant of an old and long established Irish family, and who won his title of general by gallant service during the war of 1812. He was likewise one of the founders of the town of Bath, New York.
Mr. Henry C. McClure received his early training in the schools of New York and Illinois. The family had moved west to the Prairie state in 1835, and located in the immediate vicinity of the present city of Elgin. Mr. Mc- Clure therefore had some pioneer experiences in this country during his boy- hood, and one which required hardihood and endurance was the carrying of the mail between Dundee and Janesville. He continued working on his father's farm until the age of twenty-one, and then his father gave him a farm, which he operated until 1849. He caught the gold fever about as soon as any one in the neighborhood, and on March 8, 1849, he started with an ox team to drive to the golden west. He arrived in Sacramento in the fol- lowing November. He assisted Major Rooker in the government relief corps sent out to assist emigrants. At Sacramento he and his partners built a flat- boat, stocked it with provisions and all the implements and supplies needed for a winter's work, and then headed for Feather river. They went as far as Long's Bar, near Oroville, and spent the winter in mining. Mr. McClure during that season was taken with typhoid fever, and recovered only after a
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76 6 Millune.
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long and dangerous struggle with the disease. In the spring of 1850 he went to Yuba, where he furnished hay to the miners and packers, receiving almost fabulous prices for that product. In 1851 he moved to Nevada City and engaged in the hotel business, and in 1852 introduced the first sluice mining done in Placer county. The following year found him mining on Smith's flat, on Middle Yuba river, and in 1855 he went to the Buckeye placer mines in Shasta county. In 1861 he was at Pittsburg (now Delmar), and in 1865 went to Nevada and did quartz mining near Elko. In 1876 he returned to Shasta county, where he secured several mining properties, and since then has been engaged in the operation of these mines and is also owner of large interests in several mining companies.
In 1903 Mr. McClure established a residence in Los Angeles, but he is in Redding about half the time, employed in the supervision and management of his mining interests. But at this writing, after an active career of over half a century, Mr. McClure has closed out his holdings and is living a life of retirement. On April 12, 1902, he married Mrs. Myra Thompson, of Los Angeles, and a native of Cincinnati, Ohio.
JOHN L. CANNON.
John L. Cannon, of French Gulch, Shasta county, although a young man, has a long and varied mining experience to his credit. He has followed the leads of golden fortune ever since he was a boy of ten years, and with pick and shovel has traversed all the country between Mexico and British Columbia, now meeting with prosperity and again with adver- sity. He is a typical California miner, expert in his business, generous and hearty of manner, and, withal, has been generally successful and is now a substantial and representative citizen of Shasta county, where he has been located for the past ten years.
Mr. Cannon was born in Nevada county, California, April 17, 1864. His father, John L. Cannon, Sr., was a native of Burlington, Vermont. He served in the United States navy during the Mexican war and directly there- after went to California, in 1849. He was one of the pioneer locators at Placerville, and in 1852 moved to Murphy's Camp, and in 1854 to Nevada county, where he was engaged in the operation of mines until 1869. He then mined in various counties in the state, and finally, in 1878, located in Copper City, where he remained until his death, in 1884. He was mar- ried in San Francisco, in 1858, to Miss Julia McMartin, a native of Montreal, Canada.
Mr. Cannon received his education in the public schools of California, but at the age of ten years began working in the mines with his father. At the age of sixteen he began work for himself, and has since been busily en- gaged in prospecting and operating mines throughout the western country. He settled in French Gulch in Shasta county, in 1894, where he has been interested in various mining ventures, and is now operating the Three Sis- ters mine. He is considered an expert mine operator, which reputation is fully substantiated by his long and successful experience.
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In 1897 Mr. Cannon married Miss Anna E. Morgan, a daughter of John William and Mary ( Stockel) Morgan, the former a well known farmer of Shasta county. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Cannon : Harold, John L., George, Henry and Alvin.
HON. JOHN W. MOORE.
No history of San Joaquin county would be complete without mention of Hon. John W. Moore, one of its best known and most popular citizens. He is conducting extensive agricultural interests on Union Island, and, moreover, is representing his district in the general assembly, to which position he was called by his fellow townsmen, who, recognizing his worth and ability, have made him their leader in matters of legislation. His public career shows that the trust reposed in him has not been misplaced, for his official service has been characterized by unfaltering loyalty to the welfare and best interests of his district.
One of California's native sons, John W. Moore was born in Butte county on the 15th of June, 1855. His parents are Lucian B. and Matilda (Spalding) Moore, the former a native of Penobscot county, Maine, and the latter of Kentucky. The family history has it that one of the ancestors in the paternal line came to America in the Mayflower, and the progenitor of the Spalding family arrived about thirty-two years after the landing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock. Henry A. Moore, the great-grandfather of John W. Moore, was a valiant soldier of the Revolutionary war, and one of the maternal an- cestors, familiarly called Jack Spalding by his many friends, was also a mem- ber of the Continental army. He was connected with the Spalding who, with two other soldiers of the Revolutionary war, challenged Major Andre at Tarrytown and found concealed upon him the papers which had been given him by Benedict Arnold, and which were to betray the American forces into the hands of the British.
Lucian B. Moore, the father, came to California from Maine in 1849, making his way around Cape Horn on a sailing vessel, which dropped anchor in the harbor of San Francisco on the 15th of December. For several years he engaged in mining for gold and was quite successful in his search for the precious metal. During the '50s he served as Chinese tax collector in Marys- ville, Yuba county, California. He was very prominent in local political circles in that county, and was also a recognized leader in state politics. He gave his political allegiance to the Republican party, strongly championed its measures, and did effective service in its behalf. In his business career he likewise displayed qualities of leadership, and his marked enterprise, keen sagacity and unfaltering diligence made him a prosperous citizen. He died in the year 1882, and the state thereby lost one of its honored and valuable pioneer citizens.
Jolın W. Moore was reared in Yuba county, California, living with his maternal grandparents until fourteen years of age, at which time he began earning his own living at the old Jefferson mine in that county. He followed mining there for a short time, and subsequently went to Gold Run in Placer
Johnmoney
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county, California, where he continued his search for gold. Subsequently, however, he engaged in silver mining for a number of years at Virginia City, Nevada, and later turned his attention to mining and contracting at Bodie in Mono county, California, where he resided for some time. On the expiration of that period he came to Stockton and was connected with the Stockton Independent, a local newspaper, for three years. At the present writing, in 1904, he is engaged in general agricultural pursuits on Union Island, having located here in 1888, and through the intervening period he has successfully carried on general farming. He is most progressive in his methods of agri- culture, using the latest improved machinery and putting to the practical test the most modern ideas concerning farm methods. In all that he does he is eminently practical, and his efforts have resulted in winning for him a position of prominence among the leading representatives of this great department of business activity in San Joaquin county.
On the 9th of May, 1877, occurred the marriage of Hon. John W. Moore and Miss Susanna Hooper, of Bodie, California, and to them have been born four children, but only two are living: John W. and Hazel. Fraternally Mr. Moore is connected with the Native Sons of the Golden West, being one of the oldest members of the lodge in Stockton. He also affiliates with Morn- ing Star Lodge, F. & A. M., and with the Elks Lodge in Stockton. In poli- tics he is an unfaltering Republican, and for years has taken an active and helpful part in promoting the interests of the Republican party in San Joaquin county. His name is associated with important legislative measures.
On the 6th of November, 1902, he was elected to represent the twenty-fourth district of California in the general assembly for a term of two years. He introduced a bill for increasing the salaries of the attendants in the various asylums of the state, and for state institutions, but withdrew same, having compromised the matter with the governor and the president of the board of the Lunacy Commission, whereby an increase of twenty percent was guaran- teed them, which was satisfactory to all concerned. Conjointly with Hon. August E. Muenter he prepared and secured the passage of a bill for the pur- pose of securing the right of way for a canal to carry off the flood waters of the Mormon slough in San Joaquin county. Great benefit has resulted to the community through this measure, which passed both houses and became a law.
Mr. Moore is widely and favorably known throughout the community, his abilities well fitting him for leadership in political, business and social life. The terms progress and patriotism might be considered the keynotes of his character, for throughout his career he has labored for the improvement of every line of business or public interest with which he has been associated, and at all times has been actuated by a fidelity to his country and her welfare.
JAMES W. WARD.
Dr. James W. Ward, a distinguished surgeon and author who is ac- corded the position of leadership among the practitioners of medicine in San Francisco of the homeopathic school, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on the 14th of March, 1863. His father, William E. Ward, was a contractor
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and builder, who on coming to California located in San Jose, where he was closely associated with building operations for a number of years. His relig- ious faith was that of the Society of Friends.
Reared in San Jose, California, Dr. Ward acquired his early education in the public schools of that city and afterward continued his studies under the instruction of private tutors in New York city. Determining to make the practice of medicine his life work he matriculated in the Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital in New York, in which institution he was graduated with the class of 1883, taking the faculty prize for scholarship. His theoretical training was supplemented by the practical experience that came to him through appointment to a position on Ward's Island, New York. For two and a half years he was also connected with Hahnemann Hospital of New York as resident physician, and in 1885 he returned to California.
Opening an office in San Francisco, Dr. Ward entered upon a very large and successful practice, his success being immediate and most grati- fying. His broad and thorough experience and his close study have made him one of the distinguished representatives of his chosen calling on the Pacific coast. At least two-thirds of his time is occupied by surgical work, and he has most comprehensive and intimate knowledge of the component parts of the human body, of their relation to each other and the onslaughts made upon them by disease and their inherent tendencies. Seldom at fault in the slightest degree in the diagnosis of a case, his clear brain and steady hand make his services of the utmost value in the operating room and his profession accords him prominence in the great field of surgical practice. Dr. Ward is now the dean and a trustee of the Hahnemann Medical Col- lege of the Pacific, and also professor of abdominal surgery and of medical and surgical diseases of women in that institution. He has been a frequent contributor to the medical journals of the day. He belongs to the Ameri- can Institute of Homeopathy, to the California State Homeopathic Medi- cal Society, and is its ex-president, to the Southern California Homeopathic Medical Society and the San Francisco County Medical Society. He is also president of the health commission of the city and county of San Francisco, and is identified with many clubs and social organizations here.
Dr. Ward was united in marriage to Florence N. Ferguson, a daugh- ter of P. P. Ferguson, and like her husband Mrs. Ward is a capable phy- sician and surgeon, her aid and advice having been of great value to him in his professional duties. He has four daughters, Ruth, Aila, Dorothy and Jean.
ALEXANDER GORDON.
Alexander Gordon, California pioneer and prominent business man of Redwood City, is one of the most widely experienced and broadly success- ful men in this portion of the state. He has enjoyed a most interesting and busy career since he landed in San Francisco nearly fifty-five years ago, and has been connected with many important interests of the state, business, ag- ricultural, industrial and political. Mr. Gordon is already in the shadow of
ALEXANDER GORDON
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the eightieth year of his life, but although the period of his strenuous activ- ity is over he follows his business interests as closely as ever and still ranks among the foremost spirits in commercial affairs in Redwood City.
Mr. Gordon is the next to the youngest member of the sixth generation of the Gordons who found a home on American soil, and it is an interesting contrast that the first Gordon was among the early colonists of the Atlantic coast as Mr. Gordon was among the pioneers of the Pacific country. This first American Gordon was also named Alexander, and was a member of a Scotch Highlander family that, in the days of the English revolution, re- mained true to the Stuart cause. He was a soldier in the royalist army of Charles II., and the fortunes of the war threw him into the hands of Crom- well, by whom he was confined in Tuthill-fields at London, and in 1651 sent as a prisoner to America, being confined at Watertown, Massachusetts, until 1653. He married Mary, daughter of Nicholas Lysson. In 1663 he moved to Exeter, New Hampshire, and in 1664 the town gave him a grant of twenty acres of land and he became a permanent resident. He followed the occupa- tion of lumberman on the river at Exeter for some time. He died in 1697. leaving a family of eight children, six boys and two girls.
Daniel, the son of Alexander and of the second generation of the fam- ily in America, was born at Exeter, New Hampshire, and in 1708 married Margaret, daughter of Mathew Harriman, of Haverhill, and a granddaugh- ter of Leonard Harriman, who came from Yorkshire, England, and set- tled in Rowley, Massachusetts, in 1640. Daniel Gordon was a blacksmith, and lived at Kingston, New Hampshire. He had three children, two of whom were daughters.
Alexander, the only son, was born January 26, 1716, and followed farm- ing pursuits. He settled at Salem, New Hampshire. June 22, 1742, he mar- ried Susanna Pattee, of Haverhill, Massachusetts.
Daniel Gordon, the eldest son of Alexander and Susanna Gordon, was born March 15, 1743. He lived in Salem, Massachusetts, until 1790, when he moved to Windham, New Hampshire, and settled on a farm. He mar- ried Mehitabel Clark, and reared ten children.
Alexander, the youngest of this latter family, was born January 14. 1786. He lived on a farm at Windham, New Hampshire, and was very prominent in social and political circles. He married Mary Wilson, and he and his wife ended their days on the old New England homestead, leaving ten children.
Mr. Alexander Gordon, of Redwood City, was the ninth of his parents children, and was born at Windham, New Hampshire, June 2, 1826. He received his education in public and private schools, and lived on his father's farm until he was seventeen years of age. He then went to Lowell, Massa- chusetts, and entered into business with his brother. In 1848 he bought a store of his own, but in the following year the gold fever took possession of him, and he sailed for California by way of Cape Horn. He landed at San Francisco, April 1, 1850, and at once went to the mines in the southern part of the state. He followed mining until 1852, and then bought the Pleasant Grove Hotel on the Hangtown road-about eighteen miles from Sacramento.
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In 1853 he moved to Reed ranch (now Mill valley) in Marin county, and in 1855 moved to San Geronimo or White ranch. At the latter place he be- came one of the pioneer dairymen of the state. In 1859 he continued his dairy business at Olema, at the head of Tamales bay, in Marin county, and in 1863 located on the San Gregorio ranch in San Mateo county, where he did dairy farming and shipped milk and other farm products. In 1884 he leased this ranch and moved to Redwood City, where he has been engaged in the lumber and real estate business ever since.
Mr. Gordon's political career began in 1861, when he was elected to the legislature from Marin county, and he was later elected from San Mateo county. He was county supervisor of San Mateo county for one term, and served as town trustee for some years, being chairman of the board for about ten years. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masonic order.
April 22, 1852, he was married to Miss Phebe Lewis, a daughter of Samuel Lewis, of Littleton, New Hampshire, and of an old family of that state. They had one daughter, Gertrude A., who was born August 23, 1854, and died June 23, 1858. They afterward adopted a daughter, Gertrude, who was the wife of the late Robert Morgan, and is now living with her foster parents.
FRANK GRAY EASTERBY.
Frank Gray Easterby is a representative of an honored and prominent pioneer family of California, and because of this and also because of his own personal worth he is entitled to representation in this volume. A native son of the state, he was born in San Francisco, September 30, 1854, a son of A. Y. and Emily (Gray) Easterby, both of whom were natives of England.
His father came to California in 1849, arriving in San Francisco on the Ist of January of that year, and his mother became a resident of that city about 1853. Their marriage was celebrated in California. Mr. A. Y. Easterby became one of the prominent and distinguished factors in public life here, his labors proving a very important element in the substantial development and upbuilding of the city. He was a sea captain and the owner of a number of vessels. Subsequently he turned his attention to merchandising, and also conducted a warehouse in connection with his brother-in-law, Frank Gray, being in this business at a time when it was necessary for them to utilize vessels as warehouses because of a lack of other accommodations. They continued in this enterprise until 1855. On leaving San Francisco Mr. A. Y. Easterby moved to Sonoma, but after a short time came to Napa, arriving about 1856. Here he conducted his business as a merchant and warehouse man. In 1868 he became interested in Fresno lands and in farming. In that year he purchased the Sweem and Centerville ditches, one of which was used for the purpose of turning the wheels of a flouring mill. His share in the German Land Company, com- posed of the prominent Germans of the state, entitled him to select four sections of land equal to twenty-five hundred and sixty acres, and this he located at the sink of Fanshaw creek in Fresno county, about sixteen miles
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