USA > California > A memorial and biographical history of the coast counties of Central California > Part 51
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Mr. Barry is a well-informed man of ster- ling integrity, a successful farmer, a promi- nent Democrat and respected citizen.
AMES WOOD is one of the early settlers of the Pájaro valley. He came direct from the town of Monmonth, Illinois, crossing the plains with teams. He made the trip in company with a party of emi- grants and their ronte lay through Salt Lake, and Carson Canon. The company was made np of about 160 persons, who were under the direction of Captain Clapp. Typhoid fever and malaria, known in those days as mountain cholera, affected this party, of whom forty-seven died, and were buried along the route. The company had organized at Coun- cil Bluffs, where parties were usnally formed, some as small as four or five teams of oxen. Here it was that our party had their first glimpse of the " red meu," but as they be- longed to the friendly Pawnee tribe, the com- pany experienced no trouble from them, nor
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conld they complain of any of the savages along the entire route.
Upon arrival in California Mr. Wood spent his first winter at Placerville, but in February went to the Feather river mines and spent six weeks. Here he was compelled to pay $300 for a bag of flour, and all other pro- visions were proportionately high, and his mining tools were very expensive. The bed of the Feather river. at that time showed richi deposits of gold, but very few had time to stop to secure it, although it was in sight. They were bound for richer fields.
Mr. Wood went to Grass valley, and ar- rived there with a lame innle and twenty-five cents in cash as the extent of his worldly possessions. At this place he received $10 per day for his work, and soon opened and operated a miners' hotel. In 1853 he located in Pajaro valley, where there were but two houses, one of which, an old adobe, is now occupied by William Spiegles, a pioneer of Monterey county.
Mr. Wood purchased 300 acres of land in this valley, in 1855, and he now has a fine home of twenty-six acres at Pájaro Station.
Mr. Wood married, in 1884, Elizabeth (Gruewell) Taylor, a widow of William C. Taylor, deceased. She is a native of Indiana, and was born at Boonsville. She is a daugh- ter of Jonathan Gruewell. Mr. Wood and his wife have three children: James L., born July 6, 1885; Hazel, born April 19, 1887; and one born April 12, 1891.
ORNELIUS HICKEY .- This gentle- man is a native of Limerick, Ireland, born June 5, 1827. His father, John Hickey, came to America in 1829, with his family and settled in Susquehanna county.
Pennsylvania, where he reared his family of eight children and where all of the children, except our subject, settled.
Our subject came with James McMahon, now of San José, in 1850. He spent the year of 1851 and a portion of the following year in the mines of Sierra, and then located at San Juan, where he lived until 1875. He then spent six years in Oakland, and in 1882 located at Hollister, which has since been his home.
In 1854 he married Miss Ann Brum, who died at Oakland, in 1869, leaving two daughters: Ellen, now Mrs. John Welch, of Hollister; and Annie, who died at the age of eighteen. In 1874 Mr. Hickey again mar- ried Mrs. Jennie Pepper, of Hollister, and two daughters have been born to these two, namely: Lula and Annie.
Mr. Hickey is a carpenter by trade and has followed this calling for more than thirty years. He is held in high esteem as a citi- zen and takes a somewhat active part in the local politics. He owns a pleasant home in Hollister and is surrounded by a happy family.
ON FRANCISCO RICO is a native of Guadalajara, Mexico, born January 11, 1826. His father, Don Vicente Rico, was born in the same place, in 1781, was a soldier of the Mexican artillery, and a captain of his company. By trade he was a saddle- inaker. In 1830 he came to San Diego, Cali- fornia, and the following year to Monterey. The mother of our subject, nee Guadalupe Villarnel de Rico, was born in the city of Guadalajara, December 12, 1808. She was married to Vicente Rico March 7, 1824, and Francisco was the only son born to them. Two years after the father's death the mother
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married Theodore Gonzales, who was also of Mexican birth. He came to California in 1825, and lived at Monterey, where he was a man of political influence, and where he figured in 1836 as Alcalde. He was grantee of the Rincon de la Puente and Sur Chiquito ranchos, and was regarded as a man of wealth.
Francisco Rico was reared and educated at Monterey. In 1845 he was appointed by the Mexican Government second officer of the port of Monterey, under Pablo de la Guerre, being then about nineteen years of age. That responsible position he held until the American occupation. He also held the captaincy of a company of the Monterey cavalry for a time. After the change of government he was ex- tensively engaged in the stock business in Monterey county until 1849. Upon the dis- covery of gold he turned his attention to mining and merchandising, in partnership with the Hon. Thomas O. Larkin, in the Dry Creek diggings, their partnership continning a year,.after which he prosecuted the business alone. His mining operations were conducted with great vigor and on a large scale, and covered a period of about five years, during which time over $300,000 in pure gold Was secured. He then engaged in merchandising and stock-raising. The dry years of 1863 and '64 resulted in heavy losses of stock, which finally proved a financial calamity to him and to hundreds of other leading capitalists of California. Since that time Mr. Rico has re- sided quietly in Monterey, and for the past several years has been practically retired.
He was married in Los Angeles, in the the summer of 1847, to Tomasa Sepulveda de Rico. She died in Los Angeles, October 21, 1870, leaving a family of seven sons and one daughter. The names of the children born to them are as follows: Guadalupe, August 20, 1847: Vincent E., November 15, 1849,
died in 1852; Vincent E., November 15, 1850; Francisco, in 1851; Alexandro F., January 21, 1857; José, April 13, 1858, died in 1860; José B., June 5, 1859, now a resi- dent of Salinas; Thomas F., February, 1861; Maria, wife of Sostens Sepulveda, born in 1862; Berloldo E., March 29, 1867; and Fredrico, born in 1869 and died in 1870.
Don Francisco Rico is in the highest sense of the term an honorable gentleman. As a public officer and a private citizen his record is above reproach. He is a man of generous impulses, and in manner is genial and affable. Few men of the present day have figured more conspicuously and honorably in the past history of Monterey than he.
ILLIAM SNIBLEY. - Few men have seen more of frontier life than William Snibley, one of Hollister's old settlers. He was born in Warren county, Pennsylvania, son of Jacob Snibley, a Ger- man by birth, who came to America in 1832, with his wife and one child, a daughter. He located on a farm in Pennsylvania, where he lived about three years, and then emigrated to Du Page county, Illinois, where he re- mained until 1850, when, with the subject of this sketch, he crossed the plains via St Jo, Missouri, and Salt Lake, with a two-horse team. The trip occupied abont four months, and they arrived at Hangtown, now Placer- ville, August 4. Here they spent two years in the mines, and then returned home, where the father died. The mother had already passed away, in 1849. She left ten children to mourn her loss, of whom William was the second born and oldest living.
Our subject has passed through all the vicissitudes of pioneer life in a new country,
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His boyhood, youth and manhood have all been spent in the frontier settlements of the various States in which he has lived. Born with a strong constitution, he withstood physical hardships that would have wrecked a less vigorous man. After the death of his father, he returned to California and resumed mining, which he followed in its various branches until about 1869. During this time he spent much time in hunting wild game, and was known throughout the camp as a " crack shot."
He came to San Benito in 1869 and en- gaged in farming and stock-raising near Hollister. He now owns and condnets one of the livery and feed stables in Hollister.
Our subject was married, in 1890, to Nar- cissa Vargas, a daughter of Don Francisco Vargas, a native of Spain, who lived many years in Mexico, and later in Monterey county. He was prominent in the business circles of Monterey, and was an intelligent and enterprising man. Mrs. Snibley was born in Monterey, where she received a good education. She is recognized as a lady possessing fine domestic traits. She has pre- sented her husband with one daughter. Three brothers are mentioned elsewhere in this volume, and they are residents of Hollister.
UAN ETCHEVERRY, a successful busi- ness man and prominent rancher at Tres Pinos, San Benito county, California, is a native of France, born October 6, 1830. He lived in South America for a brief period before coming to this country, having left his native land in 1849. He came to Cali- fornia in 1851, and mined for three years at Murphy's Camp. He then purchased stock in Southern California, drove the same north,
and then sold at a profit in the mining dis- tricts. He lived for many years in the San Joaquin valley, engaged in stock-raising. Extending his business operations into 'San Benito county, he purchased land at Tres Pinos, and finally located thereon, where he has for many years resided. He owns 1,400 acres of fine land in and adjoining Tres Pinos village, which includes the Southern Pacific hotel stables and several rentable houses in the same block.
Mr. Etcheverry married, at Visalia, Miss Mary Amnastoy, a lady of French birth. They have one son, John Felix, born July 29, 1880. Mr. and Mrs. Etcheverry have a large number of friends and acquaintances in this vicinity, by all of whom they are esteemed for their many good qualities.
UAN INDART, a leading rancher of Tres Pinos, San Benito county, Cali- fornia, was born in France in 1826. He came to California in 1851, via South America, spending a brief time at Buenos Ayres. After bis arrival in California he was engaged for several years in mining in Calaveras county. He subsequently turned his attention to dealing in stock. With a partner, he bought cattle in Southern California and drove them north to the mines and sold them for beef. He ranched for several years in the King's River valley, and in 1873 located his present ranch near Tres Pinos, where he owns about 3,600 acres of the choicest farming and graz- ing land in San Benito county, it being a portion of the Santa Ana grant. Eight hundred acres of it are devoted to grain raising, and the rest to stock grazing.
Mr. Indart was married in 1863, in San Francisco, to Miss Mary Errica, also a native
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of France. Following are the names of their children: Peter John, Tillie, Mary, Domica and John l'eter; the last two being twins.
The Indart estate is one of the best in the county of SanBenito, and has been perpetuated by the frugal industry and business sagacity of its founder; and no family is more highly esteemed for their sterling qualities than that of John Juan Indart.
AMBERT IRELAN, M. D .- This ven- erable practitioner of the " healing art " was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, April 20, 1819. His parents were Japhet and Mary (Lambert) Irelan, natives of New Jersey and Kentucky, respectively. His father was a manufacturer and wholesale dealer in shoes at Cincinnati. His two sons, Japhet and the subject of this sketch, were educated in the public schools of that city, Lambert also tak- ing a course at the Cincinnati seminary. His first medical studies were with Dr. Daniel Drake, with whom he subsequently went to Cooper Medical society at Louisville, where he was granted matriculation papers. In 1845 he began the practice of medicine at Spencer, Indiana. He subsequently went to Chilli- cothe, Missouri, and thence across the plains to California. Of this camping-ont trip the Doctor laughs and relates many amusing in- cidents. He arrived in Weaverville, Trinity county, California, September 21, 1850, and remained there till December, when he went to Stockton. There he practiced medicine till 1864, when he located in Watsonville. Here he has built up a large and lucrative practice. He also had a fine drug store, which he lost by fire a few years ago, his fine library being consumed by flames at the same time.
Of his private life it may be stated that
Dr. Irelan was married at Fort Wayne, Indi- ana, in 1846, to Miss Martha McCashlan, by whom he had seven children: John Eberly; Amanda; Mary, deceased; Richard W .; Eliz- abeth, deceased; Laura, wife of Mr. McCasler; and Frances. His first wife died in Septem- ber, 1868, and in September, 1869, he mar- ried Mrs. Charlotte Johnson, by whom he has two children, Nellie and Lambert. She had eight children by her former marriage, who have grown up useful and highly respected citizens.
Socially, the Doctor is connected with the Masonic fraternity, having been a member of that order for many years. His residence is at the corner of Third and Carr streets, Wat- sonville, and he also owns other valuable property in the city.
EORGE M. BUTTERFIELD, of Bear Valley, is one of the substantial and most highly esteemed citizens of San Benito county, where he has made his home for so many years and become so justly popular with all his fellow-townsmen.
Mr. Butterfield is the third son of the revered Thomas Butterfield, an honored pio- neer of California, and a resident of Hollister. Our subject was born at Wilton, Maine, Au- gust 24, 1833. He came with his father across the plains, in 1833, to Califor- nia. He is now the owner of a fertile and productive farm in Bear Valley, and with his estimable wife and family is enjoying the fruits of years of patient industry and fru- gality.
Mr. Butterfield was married, in 1858, Feb- ruary 14, near the town of Alpha, in Nevada county, California, to Miss Cordelia C., daugh- ter of G. P. Hill. Mrs. Butterfield is a native
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of Vermont, and came with her parents to California, in 1857, and located in Napa county. Of her six children, four sons are living, namely: Oscar, George A., Elmer E. and Ebben Thomas. At this time, 1892, all are still single and are industrious, sober young men, prosperous farmers, popular throughout San Benito county,and are a credit to the honored name they bear. Mr. Bntter- field has cause to be proud of so promising a family.
EORGE W. ROADHOUSE isa native of the Badger State, having been born at Mineral Point, Wisconsin, April 18, 1847. His father, Joseph A. Roadhouse, was a California pioneer of 1849, a station tavern keeper by occupation. He built the Six Mile House on the old Sonoma pike, near Stockton, in San Joaquin county, in 1849, and conducted the same for three years. In 1852 he sold out and came to Monterey county and located in Pájaro township, abont six miles from Watsonville, midway between that town and Castroville. Here he also carried on farming and raised stock and con- tinued to reside until his death occurred, in 1871. He was a native of Yorkshire, En- gland, and married Charlotte E. Morris, who was born in London, England. Mr. Road- house was a veterinary surgeon and followed the same as a profession for several years dur- ing his earlier manhood. His widow still survives him, aged seventy-three years, at Westonville. She has two sons and three daughters, all living.
The subject of this sketch was the eldest of the family and was educated at the Univer- sity of the Pacific, at which institution lie graduated, December 18, 1863. He then read law on the farm, where he had spent his
boyhood and youth. Later he pursued his studies at Monterey and was admitted to practice in 1871.
Upon the death of his father he retired to the farm, where he spent four years. He was then elected Recorder of Monterey county, in 1877, and served two years. He has held the office of Justice of the Peace for eight years.
Mr. Roadhouse married, in Monterey, in 1868, Emma Rock, and five children are the result of this marriage. Mr. Roadhouse is a prominent member of I. O. O. F. and has held the honorable position of Grand Master of the State.
HARLES Mc FADDEN, one of the California pioneers came to the State as early as 1853. Mr. Mc Fadden was born in the north of Ireland, in 1822, and came to America with an uncle and aunt, who located at St. Johns. Here he spent his boyhood and youth, but came to Dane county, Wisconsin, and lived there about three years, when the attractions of the great West drew him across the plains to California, via Council Bluffs and Salt Lake City. Upon his arrival in California he went to the mines, but on ac- count of ill health he remained only three months and then removed to San Francisco, where he stayed a short time, but the milling business, in the redwoods of Santa Clara county offering attractions to him, he went to that locality and engaged in that business for about five years.
In 1859 he bought a portion of his present home, about 200 acres, to which he has added until he is now the owner of about 400 acres. Here he carried on a dairy for about three months, but since that time has engaged in general farming.
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In 1875 our subject married Miss Sophia, a daughter of John Tarby, one of the pioneers of the Salinas valley. Mr. and Mrs. Mc Fad- den have six children, namely: Frank, Thresa, Sarah, David, Mary S., and Charles J. Mr. Mc Fadden is a successful farmer and a re- spected citizen, who has seen much of pioneer life in Monterey county.
M S. BORDGES was born on the West- ern Isles, January 1, 1848. He
6 came to America, via Boston, Mas- sachusetts, in 1871, and after remaining at Boston about three months he engaged in farming in Massachusetts for a short time, and then came to California. After his arrival in this State he first worked for a short time on a farm at San José, and then made his way to the Salinas valley, about 1874, where he now owns a good farm of about 190 acres. He has gained an independent position in his community by his untiring industry, and has gained the respect of all who know him. Mr. Bordges has one brother, J. S. Bordges, who has been a resident of California for about nine- teen years. The two brothers live on farms adjoining. In addition to his farm already mentioned, our subject is the owner of 125 acres known as the Thomas Grove's place.
Mr. Bordges is married and has seven sons and one daughter. He is a prosperous and successful citizen, and enjoys the comfort his hands have gained for him.
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LONZO T. GARNER,a well-to-do farm- er and stock-raiser of San Benito, county, California, was born in Missouri, Octo- ber 28, 1843.
Mr. Garner was reared in his native State, and in 1861, when the Civil war broke out, he joined the Confederate army and fought for the principles he at that time deemed just. He served the cause until 1865, being held a prisoner at Indianapolis by the opposing forces six months of that time.
After the war closed Mr. Garner came across the plains to California, arriving at Placerville in September, 1865. He soon went to Nevada, where he spent two years, and then came again to California, locating at Stockton and engaging in the sheep business. It was not long before he purchased, of Hay- den H. Dondy, a squatter's right to the land on which he now lives, then unsurveyed land. To this he has since added, until he nowowns 545 acres of tilled land.
Mr. Garner was married at Stockton, in 1871, to Miss Mary Bett, a native of Merced county, California. They have three chil- dren: Leola, Georgia and Richard.
OBERT H. CLARK, of Soledad, is a son of Mark Clark, a resident of California since 1868, who now resides in Merced county. He came to California from Tennes- see, his native State, being born there Sep- tember 18, 1848. Here he married Miss Ellen Hunter, a native of the same State. Of their nine children seven are living, and of these seven Robert is the oldest. Mark Clark first located at Natividad, in Monterey county, and there lived until 1891. He opened the first blacksmith shop at Gonzales, and in 1886 sold the same to the subject of this sketch.
Robert H. Clark was born in 1862, August 27, in Washington county, Tennessee. He learned his trade of his father, and has pur- sned the same about twenty-one years.
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His marriage occurred in 1876, October 20, to Miss Hattie L., danghter of Joseph Smith. She is a native daughter of the State, having been born at Badago Corners, in So- noma county. They have two children, Ralph and Russel.
Mr. Clark is a Democrat in politics, but liberal in his views. He is a member of the Baptist Church of Gonzales, and he and his estimable wife are highly respected citizens of the place where they live.
ILAS CAMBRIDGE, a well-known and much respected citizen of Soledad, Mon- terey county, California, dates his birth in Johnson county, Indiana, February 4, 1838, son of John Cambridge, a farmer by occupa- tion. His parents had four sons and one daughter, he being next to the youngest. His mother died when he was an infant, and his father only survived her a few years, his death occurring in 1846, when Silas was eight years old. Thus, left an orphan at an early age, young Cambridge was "bound out" to a Mr. Isaac Bowen, an Iowa farmer, with whom he was to remain until he reached his majority. His educational advantages were meager.
In 1859, at the age of twenty-one, Mr. Cambridge came to California. The first four years of his residence iu this State he was em- ployed in San Francisco, driving a freighting truck. He then drove stage from San José to Santa Cruz for six years. He subsequently worked for Flint & Bixby, driving stage be- tween San Juan and San Luis Obispo, pass- ing through the Salinas valley many years before it was settled. It was at that time utilized as an open stock range.
Mr. Cambridge purchased his present prop- erty in Soledad in 1886, since which time he
has conducted a livery and feed stable here. He has been successful in his business, and being of a genial disposition, has made many friends. He is of German descent. In politics he is a Republican.
He was married, December 5, 1878, to Miss Katie Page, of Watsonville. They have three children, Mand M., Charles M. and George S.
R. MEYER, EsQ., a resident of San Benito, California, and one of the wor- o 12 thy pioneers of the Golden State, is deserving of more than a passing notice on the pages of this volume. It is a matter of regret that limited space in a work of this character will not permit us to publish in full the lives of these pioneers, many of which are replete with experiences as instruc- tive and interesting as they are thrilling.
F. R. Meyer was born in Germany, March 3, 1828, and accompanied his parents to Texas in 1844. His father was an educated man, and is supposed to bave been killed by the Indians who then infested that country. His mother died at Cedar bayon, Harrison county, Texas, in 1847, of yellow fever.
In April, 1846, after the annexation of Texas, young Meyer was in Galveston, when the report started that the Mexican fleet had effected a landing on Point Bolivar. This caused great excitement, and a call was issned for volunteers to man the Stephen F. Austin, a twenty-eight-gun war ship to be used for coast and harbor defense. He and many others responded, went on board of that ship, signed the articles, and served on board till September, 1846, at which time the ship was ordered to Pensacola, United States Navy Yard, and he was honorably discharged and paid off by the United States Commissioner.
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Young Meyer left Texas with three com- panies bound for California in February, 1849, via the El Paso route. They were driven back by the Indians and changed their course, coming by way of San Antonio. At this point they met Colonel Jack Hayes, who was under contract to furnish supplies to the United States army, at that time guarding the Mexican frontier and fighting Indians. Mr. Meyer engaged to superintend the butch- ering department of Colonel Hayes' enter- prise, stationed at El Paso. The Colonel was soon delegated by the Government to negotiate a treaty with the Apache Indians, and Mr. Meyer was chosen one of eighteen men to aid him in his mission, in which a period of four months was passed without seeing the face of a white man besides those belonging to his party. At this time Mr. Meyer was between twenty-one and twenty- two years of age. He then crossed the mountains into California, reaching Los An- geles in 1849. There he spent one month and then proceeded to Monterey, through the Salinas valley, thence via San Juan and Pa- checo pass into the mines of Mariposa county. After mining one year, he engaged in mer- chandising, traveling through the mining regions with his stock of goods on pack mules. That country was then full of hostile Indians. They raided the mining camps, killed 153 white men, stampeded Captain Meyer's pack train, stole $5,000 worth of goods, and as a result he, after vigorous effort to recover the same, abandoned this line of business. Then, after mining a few months, he went to San Francisco and joined the Lopez expedition to Cuba. As a disastrous result of that enter- prise he drifted to sea from the isle of Cuba on a whale boat, from which he was rescued by the steamer Falcon, and landed in New Orleans in August, 1851.
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