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 59

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 59

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He was married in 1866, to Miss Mary Cun- ningham, a native of ()hio, who is now deceased; they had two daughters. Mr. Fisher was mar- ried again in March, 1878, to Miss Anna Rhoads, a native of Indiana, and by this mar- riage there have been three sons and one daughter.

LBERT SYDNEY JOHNSTON MCCOY. Among the many native sons of the Golden West, residing at Redding, Cali- fornia, none are more worthy of mention than

the gentleman whose name heads this sketch, nor can any claim a better ancestry. His great- great-grandfather was a Scotch judge, and his great-grandfather left Glasgow, Scotland, at the age of fourteen years, came to the American colonies, and settled in Virginia, where he re- sided until the time of his death. His grand- father, William W. McCoy, was born in Campbell County, Virginia, December 3, 1774. On the 26th of August, 1799, he wedded Nancy J. Goodrich, a native of Virginia. They removed to Boone County, Kentucky, in 1810, and the following year, on the 14th of June, their son William Wirt McCoy, was born. He was reared in his native State, graduated as an M. D., in 1835, and afterward commenced the practice of his profession at Shelbyville. Indiana. In 1839 he was elected a member of the State Legislature, and served until 1841. Then he resumed his practice until 1847.

In that year Dr. McCoy raised a company of volunteers to aid his country in the war with Mex- ico. The Fourth Indiana Regiment was organized and he was commissioned its Major. He partici- pated in the storming of the city of Huamantla, and the colors of his regiment were planted on its arsenal. He there so distinguished himself that General Lane tendered him his thanks and made honorable mention of him to the Secre- tary of War. While at Vera Cruz his skill as a physician was of great value to the soldiers, for, in addition to nis other duties, he fearlessly treated the victims of the much dreaded yellow fever. At the close of the war he was mustered out of service with distinguished honor. He returned to his home and the practice of his profession.

In 1852 he was a delegate at large for In- diana to the United States Democratic Con vention, which nominated Franklin Pierce for President.

He removed to California in 1852, and for some time turned his attention to the raising of fine cattle, on a large ranch in San Mateo County, his home being at that time in Santa Clara County. He afterward removed to San

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José, and, in 1858, was elected to the Califor- nia State Legislature. In 1867 be was one of the organizers of the San José Savings Bank; was a stockholder in the street railway between San José and Santa Clara. He also gave his influence and aid to the construction of the first railroad between San Francisco and San José.

In 1869 Major McCoy removed to the State of Nevada and settled at Eureka, where he pur- chased a large number of mining locations. He had the honor of successfully operating the first furnace in eastern Nevada for the reduction of rebellions ores. In 1869 he located and platted the town of Enreka, and originated a system of water works for its use. Ile was soon afterward elected a State Senator of Nevada, and at the next session of the Legislature the county of Eureka was created and Eureka became the county- seat. While in the Senate he received the complimentary Democratie vote of both bodies of the State Assembly for United States Sen- ator. The remarks of the members who nom- inated him were complimentary in the highest degree, alluding to him as a veteran soldier, ripe scholar and patriotic citizen. He was ap- pointed by Governor Bradley United States Centennial Commissioner for Nevada, and was elected vice-president of that commission. He was placed at the head of the Committee on Mines and. Mining, and his report on that sub- ject was a valuable accession to that industry.

Ile purchased the Bells Bridge rauch, 3.000 acres, in Shasta Connty, in 1879. On it he made many improvements and resided there until 1881, when his death occurred. He met with a railroad aceident, in which his hip was broken. After lingering for six months he passed away. Major McCoy was a man of rare ability, high moral character, and was pos- sessed of a kind and gentle nature. He was a true gentleman, a loving husband and a most indulgent father, and his death was deeply la- mented by all who knew him. This was the honored father of Albert Sydney Johnston McCoy.

His mother, nee Mary J. Walker, was a daughter of Hon. John Walker of Shelbyville, Indiana. She and Dr. McCoy were married July 2, 1839. To them were born nine ehil- dren, several of whom died in infancy. Two sons and one daughter still survive. Their daughter Frances, married H. W. Chappell, of Jefferson City, Missouri; and another daughter, Nancy, married A. L. Fitzgerald, a district judge of Eureka Nevada.

Albert S. J. McCoy was born in San José, in one of the original Spanish adobe houses, May 6, 1860. He received his education at the Pacific Methodist College and at the Boys' High School in San Francisco. He also took a commercial course at Heald's Business College. At the age of nineteen years he came to the farm which his father had purchased, and has been its manager since that time.

This ranch is a noted one in Shasta County. It was formerly a part of the Raneho Buena- ventura and was first settled in 1852 by J. J. Bell, who built and ran a ferry at a point near where Clear Creek emrties into the Sacramento River. In the fall of the same year he moved to where the McCoy mansion now stands, and built a hotel and toll bridge, the immense travel of the early days making it a valuable property. Mr. Bell leased from Major Redding till April 18, 1859, when he purchased 1,337.64 acres of land. In 1860 he erected the hotel that is now used as a residence by the present owners. The California & Oregon Railroad passes through this valuable estate. A short line is soon to be built to the sandstone quarry, a distance of three and a half miles, west to Texas Springs, which will further enhance its valne. Mr. McCoy has been raising cattle, sheep and Angora goats, but more recently he has turned his attention to horticulture. He has planted sixty acres to walnuts and chest- nuts, thirty acres to French prunes, and ten acres to Bartlett pears, and intends to extend. the work of tree-planting. All of his fruit trees are growing withont irrigation.

Mr. McCoy is practicing law in the city of

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Redding. He is Senior Past President of the Parlor of Native Sons of the Golden West, at Anderson. He is also a Knight of Pythias, and Past Chancellor of Mount Shasta Lodge, at Redding.

In 1887 he was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Klink, a native of Vallejo, California, daughter of the Rev. Nathaniel B. Klink. At the present writing (1890) he and his wife, his mother and his brother, Dr. J. W. McCoy, re- side in Redding. Mr. McCoy's political views are in harmony with the Democratic principles.

ILLIAM N. CAMPBELL is the senior member of the firm of Chambers & Campbell, hardware merchants of Red- ding, California. He was born in Sacramento, October 25, 1865. His father, W. L. Camp- bell, a native of Ohio, born in 1838, was for many years the manager of a large hardware business in Sacramento. He married Miss Alice Hatch, daughter of John Hatch, who crossed the plains with his family in 1849. His daughter Alice was one of the first white children there. He opened and conducted the pioneer jewelry business of that city.

The subject of this sketch is the only son in a family of three children. He was reared and educated in Sacramento; was a page in the State House during the Constitutional Conven- tion and in the Assembly for two terms. At the age of sixteen years he entered the house of Huntington, Hopkins & Co., and was with them until he was twenty-two. Mr. Campbell and his partner, Mr. Chambers, are consins and have been together all their lives. They were engaged in the cattle business in Butte County for two years. In 1888 they came to Redding and purchased their present hardware store from Garrett, Lyon & Co., and are doing a large business, their trade extending 275 miles to- ward the north. in several of the northern coun- ties and also into Oregon.

Mr. Campbell is secretary of the Parlor of

Native Sons of the Golden West, and is also a member of the National Guard of California. He is a bright, active and obliging business inan and is bound to succeed.

OHIN ALLYN, capitalist, in St. Helena, a truly representative and most highly re- spected citizen, has resided in this place for over twenty years, always taking a forward part in matters of public benefit, and standing promi- nently before his fellow townsmen. He is an nnusnally good instance of the self-made man,- one who by diligence, economy and rectitnde has made his way upward from narrow circum- stances to affinence, who has won a superior education by his own efforts and by the native force of his mind has taken a leading part in every position in which he has been placed. As a writer of polished and forceful English, in the domain both of poetry and prose, he has been much noticed and admired.

Dr. Allyn was born in 1820, in Litchfield County, Connectient, where his father was a respected but not wealthy farmer. In his six- teenth year the family removed to Ohio, where Mr. Allyn took the full advantage of his ednca- tional opportunities. After reaching the age of twenty he obtained a school, which he taught during the winter, working during the summers and all the time carrying on his studies at Oberlin College. He went thence to Illinois, and thence to Cincinnati, and graduated. at Lane Theological Seminary. At that time Dr. Ly- man Beecher was at the head of that institution, and Dr. Stowe was one of the professors. His health failing, young Allyn was forced to aban- don his intentions of entering the ministry of the Presbyterian Church, and he began to prac- tice law at Carrollton, Greene County. Illinois. He was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Illinois, May 5, 1846, his name being enrolled April 8. 1850. His health failing again, however, he decided to try a change of climate, and accordingly came to California in

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the summer of 1851, reaching San Francisco, September 1st of that year, after the great fire that devastated that city. He did not stop there but went on at once for Tuolumne County. Whilst in Stockton on his way, his money gave out, and he had to walk all the way to Sonora meeting while on the way three men with blankets on their backs who informed him that the dirt at Sonora had been worked over three, times already. He pushed on, however, and found that after the rains came many did well. Not being strong enough to mine, Mr. Allyn went into the manufacture of rockers, " long- toms," etc., and afterward engaged in store- keeping, at the same time paying some little attention to real estate. In 1858 he went to the Fraser River, following the excitement of that year. The rush was tremendons, a large proportion of those going losing money. There were no less than 10,000 people in Victoria in one day during that season. Mr. Allyn went up to Fort Yale and from there to Fort Hope, on the Fraser, and in the latter place stayed for the winter, going into business at that point. He then returned to Victoria, going into busi- ness first for a year, and afterward for the re- maining two years of his residence in that city, bnying and selling real estate. During the year 1861 he lived at Port Townsend and fol- lowed the profession of dentistry, for which he had fitted himself.

In 1864 he went to Oakland and located in that city, it having then a population of only 2,000 people. In the summer of 1870, as already stated, he came to St. Helena, bought a tract of twenty acres in the town, built his comfortable residence and set ont twenty acres of grapes. When the vines were six years old the vineyard yielded ninety-six tons of grapes, or eight tons per acre. The following year the return was $200 per acre in grapes. These facts show the value of vineyard land in the vicinity of St. Ilelena, and although fluctua- tions in prices have made a difference, yet there is always a demand for better varieties. To further illustrate the fertility of the soil it may

be stated that Dr. Allyn, in the presence of the writer, measured some gum trees which he had planted along Scott avenne in 1873. They ranged up to six feet and a half in circumfer- ence, or over two feet in diameter, with heights of over sixty feet, and tops cut off every three years; this is the growth of sixteen years without irrigation, the trees being simply planted and left to get along as best they might.

In his own person, however, perhaps Dr. Allyn is the best recommendation of California that can be given, as he is a splendid instance of what our climate is capable of. Although never a man of robust health, yet he has at- tained the age of seventy years with still a ca- pacity for close and continnous care to his multifarions business interests or to literary effort, and is never deterred by weather or cir- cumstances from going out to everything that may need his attention.

Dr. Allyn has never sought political life, hnt has always had the confidence of his fellow citi- zens. He has been School Trustee and a mem- ber of the Board of Town Trustees for eight years.

His first marriage was unfortunate and re- sulted in a divorce. In June, 1851, he married Miss Sophronia Scott, daughter of the late William Scott, of Peterboro, New Hampshire, with whom he still lives. Twins were born to them, but died in infancy. He has one son, living in Ventura.

In religion Dr. Allyn is liberal and a firm believer in a future life from his own investiga- tions of spiritual phenomena. He claims that he has repeatedly received fromn deceased friends directly into his own hands writings between closed and sealed slates in broad daylight!

AVID C. CHAMBERS, one of the proin- ising young business men of Redding, California, is a member of the tirin of Chambers & Campbell, hardware merchants. He was born in San Francisco April 4, 1866.

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His father, Horace B. Chambers, and his grand- father, David Chambers, were both natives of New York. They were stockholders in the bank of Page, Bacon & Co., San Francisco. The ancestors of the family came from the north of Ireland. Mr. Chambers' mother, nee Medorah Hatch, was born in Ohio. Her father, John Hatch, a native of Vermont, first came to Cali- fornia in 1834, in the interest of the American Fur Company. In 1849 he brought his family to this coast and settled in Sacramento, living in a tent. He opened a jewelry establishment there and made that city his home until 1888, when his death occurred.

The subject of this sketch was educated in the public schools of Sacramento and at a boarding- school in Oakland; he spent six years of his young life in the hardware store of Huntington, Hopkins & Co., Sacramento. With his cousin, William N. Campbell, his present partner, he engaged in the stock business in Butte County. Two years later they sold out and purchased the hardware business they are now successfully conducting in Redding.

Mr. Chambers is President of McCloud Par- lor, No. 149, Native Sons of the Golden West, at Redding. He is one of the building con- tractors of their Army Hall Building and Loan Association. On Admission Day, 1890, the Red- ding Parlor of Native Sons took sixteen Indians to San Francisco, under the charge of D. C. Chambers. They were dressed in their aborigi- nal attire, and formed an attractive feature of the procession.

DAM FATH, a general farmer near Liv- ermore, was born in Bavaria, Germany, November 20, 1821, and when twenty-one years of age he emigrated to America, the land of golden opportunities, and first found employ- ment in Buffalo, on board of a steamboat plying between that city and Chicago. At the end of two years he went to West Troy and enlisted in the United States army, serving five years in the

Ordnance Department, being discharged after he came to Benicia, this State, in 1852. After spending two years in the vicinity of that place, he was employed three years in the quarter- master's department, taking charge of stock by contract and not as an enlisted man. Then for two years he was engaged in the dairy business in Solano County, and then, in 1857, he came into Alameda County and was employed in stock-raising until 1864, when he unfortunately lost all his animals by starvation in consequence of the excessive drouth. In 1865 he went to Livermore and located 160 acres of land on a land warrant granted to him for services ren- dered to the United States during the Mexican war; and here he has since remained engaged in general farming. In his political views he is a Democrat, and has been active in local politics. He was sent as a delegate to the State Conven- tion, and has been county delegate a number of times; but he has never held office.

He was married in 1855, at Vallejo, to Miss Mary Fehily, and they have had eight children, five of whom are living, named, John A., Valen- tine, Mary M., Annie M. and Louisa L.

R. LEONARD F. DOZIER, first assistant physician of the Napa State Asylum for the Insane, has been a resident of Cali- fornia for the past twenty years, during fourteen of which he has held his present po- sition. Born in Williamsburg County, South Carolina, on his father's plantation, on the Great Pedee River, he received his primary education under private teachers at home, and graduated in 1856, at the South Carolina Military Academy at Charleston. Graduating at the Oglethorpe Medical College at Savannah, Georgia, in 1859, he practiced medicine in that city for one year, meanwhile occupying the chair of Materia Medica in the college. He then removed to Burke County, Georgia, where he continued in the practice of his profession until he entered the Confederate service as a private soldier in

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May, 1862. After serving in that capacity for a few months, he was appointed to the Adjutancy of the Twenty-first Regiment of South Carolina Infantry, C. S. A. He served as Adjutant of his regiment until after the siege of Battery Wagner, on Morris Island, Charleston Harbor, which was, at first, garrisoned exclusively by his regiment. In resisting the landing of the enemy, during the first day of attack, he was severely wounded in the right chest. Being confined through the long siege of sixty days in the fort of Battery Wagner, his wound developed a very severe case of pneumonia. His health remained so much impaired that the surgeon advised his giving up the active exposure of the line for a position in the medical service, and he secured an appointment as surgeon, and was ordered to General Longstreet's command. He joined Longstreet at Knoxville, and was with his corps during all his campaigns in Virginia from May, 1864, to the surrender at Appomat- tox in April, 1865. Immediately after the sur- render he returned to his native place, but a short residence there under the changed con- ditions of the country determined him to emi- grate to California, where he arrived in March, 1868. He commenced practice in Rio Vista, on the banks of the Sacramento River, in So- lano County, where he developed a good prac- tice and established a drug store, both of which he carried on successfully for seven years. In April, 1865, he removed to Napa, and was soon afterward appointed to the position he now holds.

He was married in May, 1859, to Miss Agnes Bona, of New Orleans. They had five children, two of whom survive; Dr. W. E. Dozier, of Susanville, Lassen Cour ty, and Thomas B. Do- zier, of the firm of Wiley & Dozier, attorneys at law, Redding, California. She died soon after their arrival in California. In 1874 he married Miss Mary Dudley, a native of Marlborongh County, South Carolina. They have had three children, of whom only one is now living, John Dudley Dozier, now attending the Oak Mound School at Napa. Dr. Dozier is a member of the

Masonic Order, Rio Vista Lodge, and of the California State Medical Society.

ICK WYCKOFF, deceased, formerly a prominent agrienlturist and wine-maker of Yolo County, dated his birth April 18, 1818, in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. His parents, Henry and Jane (Kline) Wyckoff, were both natives of that State. His first ancestry in this country were Swedes, who were among the first to settle Manhattan Island. His father, a farmer and blacksmith, removed in the fall of 1829 to Hamilton County, Ohio, purchased land, settled upon it and remained there until his death in 1847, when he was sixty-six years of age: and his wife died at the same place, at the age of seventy-one years. There were seven children in their family Henry Wyckoff, a brother of Nick, came to California in 1849 and the next year settled upon the land where the city of Woodland is now located, starting the first store there and the first blacksmith shop; but he soon went to Oregon, where he was at one time a treasurer of one of the southern counties of that State; he went thence to Ari- zona, where he was shot and killed in 1871 by an unknown assassin, in the village of Wicken- burg, while on his way with a train of mules to some of the mining camps, where he expected to start a trading post. But very little is known of the tragedy. Jacob S. Wyckoff, an- other brother, came to California in 1850, and now resides at 1512 Ninth Street, Oakland.

The subject of this sketch passed his early boyhood days in Ohio. At the age of eighteen years he became a teacher of the primary de- partment of Kerby's Academy, and the same time passed through a course of study. He next went to Rodney, Mississippi, and engaged as a teacher of the public schools there for five years; then returning to Hamilton County, Ohio, he remained there until April 3, 1852, when he started for California, by way of New York and the Isthummus, and landed at San Fran-

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cisco May 10. Two days afterward he went to Sacramento, and gradually worked his way into Yolo County, his health being poor at that time. In 1852 he located the land in Yolo County, three miles southeast of Woodland. His wife and two children followed him to this State by way of the Isthmus in December, the same year. Having acquired at school a con- siderable knowledge of civil engineering, he put it to good use in this county. After his set- tlement in that year he was in general a farmer, but in later years he gave more attention to alfalfa and grapes. In 1872 he was employed by F. T. Eisen and C. G. Frash to engage in wine-making. Frash is a prominent wine merchant of New York city, and from him Mr. Wyckoff obtained his knowledge of wine manufacture. The latter was also one of the twelve stockholders of the Yolo winery, which was built in 1885, with the view of handling only their own grapes. Their annual production on an average is about 55,000 gallons, which is sold at good prices. In respect to alfalfa, Mr. Wyckoff was zealous in extending its culture, and encouraging it in every State and Territory in the Union, he being one of the most exten- sive raisers of alfalfa seed.

Mr. Wyckoff was indneted into the Masonic order in Mississippi, in 1845. He was charter member of Yolo Lodge, of that order, and was afterward a member of Woodland Lodge, No. 156. Hle also passed all the chairs in the Knights Templar order; and joining the Odd Fellows, in Mississippi, as early as 1846, he became a member of Woodland Lodge, No. 111, having filled all the chairs to that of Noble Grand; and he passed all the chairs, also, in the encampment. He was at the time of his death President of the Masonic and the Odd Fellows associations. Ile was the oldest Free Mason left of the early members in Yolo County. Politically he was a Republican.

Lle was married December 20, 1848, to Miss Harriet Martin, a native of Hamilton County, Ohio, and they had seven children, all of whom are living, namely: Alice A., wife of H. S.

Deaner; David H., now Depnty Sheriff of Yolo County; James, on the home ranch; F. C., a resident of Woodland; Hattie J., wife of W. H. Kerson; Edward, on the home place; and Catherine E., at home.

AMES B. STEVENS, Secretary for the Napa State Asylum for the Insane, has held that position for nearly fifteen years. He was born in Hamilton County, Ohio, near the city of Cincinnati, in 1841. His parents were James H. and Ann F. (Glass) Stevens, his father a native of Kentucky and his mother of Ohio. His ancestors were among the very early settlers of Kentucky. His parents came to California in 1852, crossing the plains with their five children, James being the eldest. The family first settled in Santa Cruz, and later in Watsonville, removing in the fall of 1853 to Oakland, where they remained until 1854; when they removed to Ione, Amador County, where James acquired the most of his education. In 1857 he began to learn the blacksmith's trade, working at it for three years, when, receiving an injury, he gave up that business and returned to school. He entered the law office of John C. Geer in 1861. but the death of Mr. Geer dis- solved that arrangement after about one year. Following varions pursuits until 1865, he served as Deputy County Clerk for the next two years and then entered the office of Senator Farley, acting as Notary Public and searcher of records, and at the same time doing clerical duty for the senator. He filled the position of clerk of the board of port wardens, in San Francisco, for a time, and then returned to lone and engaged in the business of keeping a hotel. Ile was elected Minute Clerk of the State Senate for the session of 1869-'70, and again for the session of 1871-'72, meanwhile resuming his labors in the office of Senator Farley while not engaged in the Senate. In September, 1873, he was elected County Clerk of Amador County, and held that office until appointed to his present

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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 59

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