A memorial and biographical history of northern California, illustrated. Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy...and biographical mention of many of its most eminent pioneers and also of prominent citizens of today, Part 52

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1000

USA > California > A memorial and biographical history of northern California, illustrated. Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy...and biographical mention of many of its most eminent pioneers and also of prominent citizens of today > Part 52

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

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nia, where he did a large practice for about three years. His health failing, on account of the unhealthfulness of the climate, together with overwork, he removed to Santa Rosa, Cali- fornia, and remained three years, and in Jann- ary, 1881, came to Livermore in hopes of re- cnperation by change of climate, which he par- tially realized. Since his arrival here he has practiced dentistry only, in which he has a good patronage.

He was married March 18, 1867, to Miss Delia C. Hempstead, of Virden, Illinois, and has three children living, namely: Frank L., Emma A. and May L. He is a member of Mosaic Lodge, No. 218, F. & A. M., of Liver- more, and Sutter Lodge, No. 100, I. O. O. F., of Wheatland.

T. TEALE .- It is not always the life of most variety and incident that is of the a most value to the country, but rather that of the man who honestly and diligently conducts his affairs, doing fairly and honorably by himself, his fellow man and his Maker. Yet it is hard for any man who came to California in the early days not to have seen and ex- perienced a very great deal, as will be seen in this short sketch of Mr. P. T. Teale, a worthy and respected pioneer of Napa Valley. He was born on the island of Santa Cruz, in the West Indies, in 1826, his father being a man- ager of a sugar estat : on that island, and of English descent. His mother was a native of France. In 1832 the family removed to Amer- ica, settling at Lachine, near Montreal, in Can- ada, being induced to do so by two uncles, Colonels Anderson and Viscount, formerly of the British army, serving in the war of 1812, who had settled in Montreal. After six years in Canada, the family went to Cleveland, Ohio, and two years later to Coshocton County, same State, where Mr. Teale resided until he set out for California, fifteen years later. Here he was married in 1848, to Miss Mary A. Tucker,

daughter of R. P. Tucker, the old California pioneer of 1846, mention of whom and her brother, especially in connection with their rescne of the survivors of the Donner party, will be found elsewhere. They had two chil- dren when in 1852 they crossed the plains to California, meeting with the usual hardships and difficulties, but fortunately coming through safely. Mr. Teale brought cattle ont with him, and came on directly to Napa County, taking only an interesting look at the inines as they passed through.

He settled at a point first about three iniles below his present place, but nine years later came up within a mile of Calistoga, and pur- chased a ranch of 300 acres of as fine and fer- tile a soil as any in the world. He still retains 170 acres where he resides, and is passing the remainder of a useful and well-spent life in a comfortable home, tree-embowered, and the grounds handsomely adorned by flowers, in one ot the most beautiful parts of the county, sur- rounded by his children, and respected and esteemed by the entire community. The spot where his house stands, by the way, is the site of the oldest building in the upper end of the county. The spot was chosen by the old pio neer, John Fowler, as the place to put up his cabin in 1844. Ben Kelsey, John York and the old pioneers have all lived there. Mr. Teale relates that it was a famous place for game. He has often seen bear tracks on the road before his house, and up to twenty-five years ago they used frequently to kill his hogs. When the first house was built there four deer were killed within an hour quite near the place. Mr. Teale himself has killed two California lions inside of a week. He has paid as high, in the early days, as $30 for a hog, 25 cents a pound for flour, $1.50 a dozen for eggs, 84 apiece for liens, seed wheat 10 cents a pound, etc. Such prices did not last long, however.

Mr. Teale is a Republican of decided prin- ciples, and has frequently been urged by his many friends to permit himself to be brought forward as a candidate for office. He has, how-

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ever, always consistently refused, preferring rather to serve his country by attending faith- fully to the duties of private life. One of his brothers is a clergyman in the Baptist Church in Washington, and another still resides in Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Teale have five children, viz .: W. R., living at home; George W., farm- ing across the valley; Charles, farming near home, and married; James, farming near home, and Emma, the wife of E. F. Pratt, of Knight's Valley.

ONAS CLARK, M. D., Woodland, was born in Waltham, Massachusetts, Septem- ber 23, 1853. His father, also named Jonas Clark, was a native of the same State, while his mother, whose maiden name was Rachel S. Bagley, was born in Brookfield, Ver- mont. He was educated at the Waltham school and at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology, where he remained three years. He completed his inedical course at Harvard Uni- versity, where he graduated in Jnne, 1875. In 1874 he received the appointment of Interne of the Massachusetts Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary, which position he filled until 1877, thus obtaining special opportunities in the treatment of the eye and the ear. He arrived in California in March, 1877, and in June fol- lowing located in Yolo County, where he has since been engaged in his chosen calling. He first settled at Dunnigan's, then at Yolo and Knight's Landing, and finally in 1881 opened an office in Woodland. His competency is well attested by an extensive and lucrative practice. On the first of August, 1889, he formed a partnership with Dr. L. M. Gray, under the firm name of Clark & Gray. During his residence here he has also paid considerable attention to citrus culture, having a ranch of 160 acres in Colusa County, where he had at one time a nursery of 5,000 orange trees; but they were destroyed by the rabbit pest two years ago. During the present year (1889) he

set out on his land about thirty acres of peaches. He also has ten acres of choice land at the town of Escalante, at the month of Capay Valley, which was planted in 1889 to citrus fruits.

The Doctor is a member of the orders of Knights of Pythias, Chosen Friends, Foresters and United Workmen,-all at Woodland. He is also a member of the Medical Society of the State of California, the Yolo County Medical Society, and for a number of years has been secretary of the Yolo County Board of Health.

Dr. Clark was married in June, 1876, to Miss Nora Tiernay, of Boston, Massachusetts, and they have two children, John and Marie, aged ten and twelve years respectively.

ALBERT TAUZER, a farmer eight miles southeast of Woodland, was born June 25, 1834, in Pennsylvania, a son of Andrew and Martha (Bowser) Tanzer, natives of Penn- sylvania. Andrew Tauzer was a foundryman and iron worker by trade all his life. He moved to Illinois in early day, settling in Har- din County upon land he purchased there, and remained nntil death. Albert was brought npon a farm and was twenty-two years of age when in 1857, he came overland to California, leaving Illi- nois April 2, and arriving at Georgetown August 31. The trip was a pleasant one. He was only one day ahead of where the great massacre oc- curred on the Humboldt River. After mining in El Dorado County four years, with moderate success, he went to Yolo County, and November 27, 1861, homesteaded his present property, 160 acres of choice farmning land. He found it entirely wild and has made of it a complete home. He has now 960 acres, all in one body. Does a general farming business. He has, like nearly all other men, had his drawbacks and disappointments. but his energy and good sense have carried him victoriously through. In 1887 he suffered a total loss of his residence by fire.

He was married February 11, 1857, to Miss

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Mary Scroggins, who died December 21, 1874. They had five children, four of whom are now living, namely, Anderson B., Ellen, George, John Albert and Andrew, deceased. Mr. Tau- zer was again married in 1880, to Miss Caroline Guy, and by this marriage there are two chil- dren,-Pearl M. and Eleanor R., both of whom are living. Mr. Tanzer has a sister in Califor- nia, who is the wife of J. R. Jones, residing in Yolo County.

ON. D. B. CARVER, banker, St. Helena, who is the founder and head of the Carver National Bank. Probably no resident of this town is more widely or favorably known than Mr. Carver, as he has held a semi-official position during the greater part of the twenty- six years of his residence here, having been Postmaster continuously for about twenty years, and retiring ouly because of the pressure of duties involved by the establishment of the bank. He was also one of the first to under- take the manufacture of wine at St. Helena, being associated for five years, from 1866 to 1870, in partnership with Mr. H. A. Peller. Mr. Carver is a native of Harrison County, Ohio, where he was born February 9, 1831. Early in 1852 he set out for California, via New Orleans and the Nicaragua route, arriving in San Francisco, June 4 of that year. For six years he inined in Yuba, Placer, and Sacra- mento counties, meeting with a fair share of success. His name is still remembered in the neighborhood of the town of Folsom, where he mined for some time. After a visit to the East in 1858, he returned to Tehamna County and was engaged in milling until in 1863 he removed to Napa County and shortly afterward engaged in a general mercantile business, which lie continued until he established the bank six years ago. It was conducted first as a private banking house until August, 1887, when it be- came the Carver National Bank. Mr. Carver was married August 1, 1860, to Miss Annie

Webber, of Penobscot County, Maine. One son, D. B., Jr., now a promising lad of sixteen years, is the only living child of this union; another son, Henry, and a daughter, Laura, being deceased. Mrs. Carver died on June 20, 1884. Mr. Carver married for the second time in Feb- ruary, 1886, to Miss Minnie A. Logan, the eldest daughter of Mr. J. I. Logan, of St. Helena. They have two sons, the eldest, Ervin L., born January, 1887, the youngest, Joseph W., born August, 1889. Mr. Carver is a inan of great energy and of decision of character, public-spirited and in every sense a model busi- ness man and citizen.

AMES ACHILLES DOUGLAS. - The Douglas family are of Scotch origin. The great-grandfather of our subject, James Douglas, came from Scotland to the United States long before the Revolutionary war, and after the war settled in Albermarle County, Virginia, at the foot of the Blue Ridge Moun- tains, five miles from Charlottesville, and near what was afterward known as the residence of Thomas Jefferson. The grandfather of the subject of this sketch was a soldier in the Revo- lutionary war, and he also had two brothers in the war. The Douglas family continued to make that section of Virginia their home until 1839, when the grandfather, with a part of his family, emigrated to Missouri, two of the sons locating in Cooper County, and a daughter also in that county, while the grandfather, Jaines, and William J., the father of our subject, and John J. Douglas, located in Howard County. William J. and John J. were in the war of 1812, and participated in the battle of New Orleans. Thomas Douglas, one of his grandfather's broth- ers, went from Virginia to Tennessee in the carly settlement of that State and remained there. Beverly Douglas, his grandfather's brother, also at an early date settled in Ken- tucky. William J. Douglas, his father, was a farmer in Missouri, and raised hemp and to-

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bacco, and died in Howard County in 1875, at the age of eighty-seven years, and his father was ninety-four years old when he died, never having had a day's sickness during his life, never eating more than two meals a day and some days but one mneal; he was strong and active, never lost a tooth, and at the time of his death did not have a gray hair in his head. In William J. Douglas' family there were three daughters and one son.

The mother of the subject of this sketch, whose maiden name was Ann Bridgwater, was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia; and her family is probably of German descent. She died in Virginia in 1827.

James A. Donglas, the subject of this article, was born in Albermarle County, Virginia, on the old plantation, near Charlottesville, March 24, 1827, and therefore was a babe when his inother died. His father, being a farmer and a slave-owner, gave James into the care of a favorite black nurse, who cared for his wants, etc. His father and grandfather moved to Mis- souri in 1839, while young James was left be- hind and went to school in Virginia until 1842, when he also went to Missouri. At length he served an apprenticeship of two years and nine months learning the saddlery business, becom- ing a competent journeyman. He did all the fine work of the shop, some of which was placed on exhibition and drew the first premium in St. Louis; but he soon abandoned the trade. went to St. Louis and took a position on a river steamer as second clerk, and at the same time began studying the science of river piloting. He was promoted through the clerkships to the position of pilot, where he commanded a salary of $250 a month. At the end of five years he bought a drove of mules in Missouri and drove them to Texas and sold them at a profit; and while he was in that State he saw the first gold dust from California, brought there in a goose- quill, and he immediately resolved to come to the mining region here. Returning to his home in Howard County, he found his train had been gone eight weeks; he started in company

with John Lowrey, now of Sonoma County, and hurried on until they overtook the train this side of Fort Hall, in Montana Territory. In Mr. Douglas' mess were nine men, all young and unmarried, and full of life. They landed at Sacramento, Angust 14, 1849. During the following autumn they built a cabin at Hang- town and followed mining there that winter. In the following spring the company divided, several of them going over on the Middle Yuba at Washington and mining there during the summer.

In October Mr. Douglas went down to the bay with a brother-in-law who came a little later, and another gentleman named Lewis Walker. His brother-in-law, Allen Rains, dis- liked this country, and started back to the East. While waiting for the steamer at San Francisco, and on the very day it was to sail, the subject of this sketch was tempted also to buy a ticket and go with him; and all three went back to- gether. On board the vessel Mr. Douglas was taken sea-sick, and at Acapulco they all three left the ship, bought mules and started across Mexico, a distance of 700 miles; while at the city of Mexico they stopped ten days, and hired a guide to take them all over the old battle- grounds. At Vera Cruz they boarded a little schooner, which took them and thirty-seven other passengers to New Orleans, being seventeen and a half days on the way. In February, 1851, Mr. Douglas left New Orleans again for Cali- fornia, visiting en route his people in Missouri and coming by way of ship to Acapulco, at which place he and another party bought a hotel and conducted it for seven months, making considerable money -- $14,000. Coming on to Yolo County he spent the ensuing winter on Cache Creek. In March he and three other men went to German Bar on the Middle Yuba, where they had a fine supply of water and fol- lowed mining; and while thus engaged news reached them of a new place called the Minne- sota Diggings, whither 5,000 people congre- gated within ten days after the discovery of gold there.

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In 1852 Mr. Douglas quit mining, came down to the valley and again entered the mule trade. He again went back to the Atlantic States in October, and in the spring of 1853 brought a drove of horses and mules across the plains to California. In 1854 he went to Oregon for the purpose of mining. but changed his mind, and, in company with another man, went to packing, making journeys from Crescent City, in Ore- gon, to Jacksonville, and at that time there was a hostile Indian behind every tree on the trail. Although he made considerable money in this business, yet it was accompanied by much hard work and exposure, and within five months he returned to the Sacramento Valley. In 1855 he was elected Sheriff of Yolo County, and served four years, and on October 24, 1860, he married and settled on Cache Creek; but his place there he at length sold, and. he bought a quarter section of land a mile northwest of Woodland, put up a fine, large residence on it and made it his home for about seven years. He sold out again, at a good advantage, and moved to Woodland, in 1878, where he has since resided. His homestead on Third street con- sists of five acres. His residence, which he put up in 1884, cost $10,000, including the ground, and is one of the most elegant in the city. Mr. Douglas is a true type of a Southern gentle- man,-hospitable, genial, social, and a good financier. In politics he was a sound Democrat. He was arrested April 5, 1865, as a citizen prisoner by sixty United States soldiers and taken to Fort Alcatraz in the bay of San Fran- ciseo, and wore a ball and chain twenty-four days for expressing his Constitutional rights' and was released on May 4, 1865, without any trial by court either martial or civil, and with- out any charges being preferred against him, or withont taking the iron-clad oath. O, justice, what a jewel!

October 24, 1860, is the date of Mr. Doug- las' marriage to Sallie A. Moore, who was born in Platte County, Missouri, March 24, 1842, and came to California in 1853, with her parents. They settled first in Sacramento County, and

moved to Yolo in 1857. Mrs. Donglas died May 24, 1889, the mother of four daughters, the youngest of whom is deceased. Her death is a great loss to the family,-a severe one in every sense of the word.

HOMAS B. SMITH, a well known and prominent citizen of Shasta Connty, came to California in 1853. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, March 10, 1844. His parents, Asa and Jane Smith, were natives of Tennessee. His father died when he was a child, and his mother married a second husband, with whom she and Thomas B. came to California. He was only nine years old at that time. Three years afterward, in 1856, his mother died. He remained with his step-father two years after her death and then started out in life for him- self. The family had settled in Jackson, Amador County, and Mr. Smith was reared in the mines. Much of his life since then has been spent as a miner. After leaving home he mined in the summer, in Nevada County, and went to school in the winter. With others he became interested in the Hudson River Mining Company, went in debt, and, as the enterprise proved a failure, he lost not only the money he had invested but also a year and a half's time.

In 1863 he enlisted to help put the rebellion in Company I, Seventh California Volunteer Infantry, for three years or during the war. After they were drilled they were ordered to Arizona to fight Indians, to their great disap- pointment, instead of being sent to participate in the war for the Union. In 1865 they were returned to San Francisco and honorably dis- charged. Mr. Smith then went to Moore's Flat, Nevada County, and engaged in hydraulic mining, continuing there until March, 1867. At that time he came to the western part of Shasta County, and engaged in mining.

December 5, 1867, Mr. Smith wedded Miss Martha A. McFarlin, a native of Wisconsin, and a daughter of Mr. George MeFarlin, a Califor-

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nia pioneer. Their union has been blessed with five sons and two danghters: George T. and Samuel E., born in French Gulch, Shasta County; Burton L., Hattie, Fred, Nellie and Harvey were born in western Shasta.

Mr. Smith takes a prominent part in frater- nal societies. He has been through all the chairs in Odd Fellowship; a D. D. G. M., and as such instituted Lodge No. 271, at Redding, and No. 254, at Anderson. He has been a member of the Grand Lodge for sixteen years. He is also Past Patriarch and a member of the Grand Encampment. Is Past Master of Clin- ton Lodge, F. and A. M., and a member of Shasta Chapter. Royal Arch Masons. He is also a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Grand Army of the Re- public. In politics he has been a life-long Republican. In 1880, 1881 and 1882 he was County Deputy Assessor under W. S. Kidder. In 1882 he was elected County Clerk, and in in 1884 he was re-elected for a second term, by a majority of 443. After having served two terms he was succeeded by Albert F. Ross, and was appointed his deputy, which position he now (1890) fills. At the general election held November 4, 1890, he was elected to the office of County Assessor.

Mr. Smith is a man of excellent habits and good business ability. Two of his sons have grown up to be honorable young men, and hold positions of trust and responsibility in the city of Redding.

H. PAGET, proprietor of a boiler and machine works and blacksmith shop at Livermore, was born at Keokuk, Iowa, October 1, 1852, and in 1854 came with his parents to San Francisco, where he learned the machinist's trade in the Stoddard Iron Works. Desiring to travel around and see the world, lie went in 1874 to the Black Hills of Southwestern Dakota, being among the first prospectors to enter that country. He spent two years there,

with bnt little fortune, however. He became then a courier in the military service of the United States Government, and was in the immediate vicinity of General Custer's massacre in June, 1876; thence he went to Brainerd, Minnesota, thence to Leadville, Colorado, and in 1880 he returned to California and settled at Oakland, where he followed his trade as a journeyman for about three years. In 1884 he went to Livermore and worked in the shops of N. B. Holmes until 1889, when he bought him out and has since operated the works in all depart- inents of blacksmithing, boiler and machine re- pairing and mill work.

He was married in Oakland, August 10, 1881, to Miss Mary E. Thomson, of Berkeley. who died September 5, 1889, leaving two chil- dren: Gracie E. and Howard. Mr. Paget is a member of Live Oak Lodge, No. 17, K. of P., at Oakland, and he takes also a prominent part in local politics and in the general welfare of the community where he resides.

ROSEBERRY .- The Roseberry farm, at the head of Chiles' Valley, is one of the finest places in Napa County. It com- prises 1,200 acres, including the whole of the valley and the mountain land on either side. It is carried on at present as a general farm, with stock and sheep raising, etc., but Mr. Roseberry is setting out trees and will soon have a fine orchard. He intends shortly to put up good improvements in the way of a stone barn, dwell- ing-house, etc., the plans of which are very artistic.

Mr. Roseberry is a native of Western Penn- sylvania, near Pittsburg, born in 1836. He is the son of Hon. Thomas H. and Mary (Hill) Roseberry, the father being still a hale and hearty old man in Kansas. He was born in 1806, and in early days removed with his fam- ily to Clark County, Missouri, of which he was elected County Judge for twenty seven years, although he served only twenty-one, being leg-

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islated out. His people were of the substantial old Dutch stock of Pennsylvania, probably of Jewish descent. His mother, Mary Hill, was the daughter of Colonel Reese Hill, a hero of the war of 1812, who traced his ancestry back to old Governor Reese, of Virginia, her great- grandfather. Colonel Reese Hill was afterward elected to the Pennsylvania State Legislature, of which he was Speaker. Mr. J. Roseberry came California in 1862; B. Hughes Roseberry came in 1854 and now of Yolo County. He started a store in Yolo County, remaining there until 1867, but his health failing him he went to San Francisco, and, as he had been brought up to the business of flour-milling when a boy, started the Yolo Mills, on the corner, originally of Beale and Market streets, but moving it in 1879 to the corner of Main and Mission streets, where it still stands, and a successful and pay- ing business is conducted under the firm name of Roseberry & Co. In 1881 he sold out to Hinz & Plagemann, who still operate it, and began the grain business in the city, operating on the exchange until 1885, when he purchased his present place, and began its improvement. Mr. Roseberry is a man of great originality and enterprise, large-hearted, plucky and energetic. He was formerly extensively interested in Oak- land, having built in that city many fine houses. He built and owned for a time the fine building now used as a home for foundlings in West Oakland.

Mr. Roseberry was married January 1, 1871, to Miss E. J. Adamson, in Sonoma County, a brother of whom, Professor W. H. Adamson, lives at Lower Lake, California, and is condnet- ing the Clear Lake Press, one of the most in fluential newspapers in Lake County. Mrs. Roseberry was born in Iowa, but came to Cali- fornia when a child, in 1854. Her father, Jacob Adamson, was of Scotch descent, and born in Tennessee; but his father was from Virginia, and the name will be recognized among the roll of Revolutionary heroes. Mr. and Mrs. Rose- berry have five children: Mary Eva, the oldest, is attending school at Oakland; the others are

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A memorial and biographical history of northern California, illustrated. Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy...and biographical mention of many of its most eminent pioneers and also of prominent citizens of today, Part 52

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 1000

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1000