USA > California > Addresses delivered before the California Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, 1913 > Part 10
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Well, Mr. Guggenheim got up, and went off into a description of his own, much in the same lingo. And then somebody else. Fi- nally, I could sit still no longer. I hadn't heard the English lan- guage really spoken at all, so I said, "Mr. Speaker." "Sure," was the response. I said, "Can I say a word?" "Sure. Where you come from?" That gave me my chance. "Why" I said, "I come from the uttermost periphery of the national wheel whose"-and he said "Hold on there. We will make you chairman." And they made me chairman because I could speak English.
Then we got busy on the Fourth of July celebration. Two gentle- men came to me and said, "Mr. Redding, Colonel Carter is here"- that might not have been his name, but a good, fine name like that-"and we must have him at the banquet." I said, "I am de- lighted to hear that he is here. We have Mr. Guggenstein and Mr. Eisengills and Mr. Ingoldsky, and I would like to have Mr. Carter." So I went down, and I saw a typical, fine, distinguished Virginian sit- ting under a bough of a tree on a bench. I said, "Colonel Carter ?" and he said, "Yes, sir." I said, "I am Mr. Redding. I happen to be the chairman of the dinner tomorrow, and I trust that you will favor us with your presence." He said, "Mr. Redding, I shall be de- lighted to come, dee-lighted, and I am here with my wife and mother- in-law and my two daughters. . We shall come with great pleasure, sir." I said, "Thank you, Colonel. Thank you." And I bowed out. The next day at about eleven o'clock, up came the man who had been chairman and said to me, "Mr. Redding, Colonel Carter isn't coming." I said, "My God, not coming? Why, he was to come with his wife and his mother-in-law and his two daughters. Heavens and earth, if Colonel Carter doesn't come tonight, we won't have any Fourth of July. What's the matter ?" So I went down and I found Colonel Carter sitting under the same tree. I said, "Colonel Carter, I have heard, and I know it must be an ill-founded rumor, that you are not coming tonight." He said, "I had the intention of coming tonight,
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sir, but I have declined the honor, if I may so term it." I said, "What has happened ? What is it?" He said, "Mr. Redding, I observed the list of music that is to be played tonight, sir, at this banquet. I saw it published in the Carlsbad Bazaar, and I don't find thereon, sir, the melody of Dixie." "Why," I said, "Colonel, I have arranged this music program myself, and Dixie occurs in the center of a magnifi- cent medley of American melodies." He said, "Mr. Redding, Dixie is no medley. Dixie stands alone, and should be played, alone, sir." I said, "It is easily arranged. Will you come if I can have the pro- gram so arranged ?" And the reply was the affirmative. I rushed up to the printer, I had the whole blooming list recast, and had Dixie in big type; I packed it down and laid it on the bench. "No. 3. Dixie." I said, "Colonel Carter, are we to have the pleasure of your company tonight?" He replied, "Mr. Redding, sir, I desire to inform you, sir, that Colonel Carter will be there tonight, his wife will be there tonight, and his mother-in-law and his two daughters, with very great pleasure." He was a fine type and it was most refreshing to see him among those other Americans.
So many things happen to us in our wanderings, that I might re- call with which to take your time. I simply want to say this, gentlemen. I have often wondered what would have happened had the Pilgrim Fathers and the pioneers of Virginia and the Carolinas come into the Golden Gate instead of coming upon the rock-ribbed shores of Mas- sachusetts, and into the Potomac, and along the Atlantic Coast. When we think of the extraordinary types of people and the extraordinary circumstances that brought those types over to these shores three hundred years ago, and how they wrested from sterile nature first shelter, then a frugal living, then abundance, and then luxury, I wonder what would have happened to them had they found this haven, Cali- fornia, instead of the Atlantic Coast. The only way we can ask that question and answer it is to see the effect it has had upon those who have come here. We all know that California first was peopled by a very noble, spiritual, temperamental class of Caucasians, namely, the Spaniards. They were very fine types. They had the gallantry, they had the adventure, they had the bravery, that goes with the Latin race. They came, they enjoyed the vast possessions of this wonderful State of ours, and then in came another' strain, and gradually their hold was weakened and loosened. Sometimes it occurs to me it was loosened from an indifference to contest or to compete against the material, accumulative sense of the Anglo Saxon. Anyway, the first that came here, gallant as they were, splendid as they were, ro- mantie as they were, could not withstand the onslaught of another
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strain of people-namely, the strain that we represent, the Anglo Saxon.
Now, the curious thing about the incursion of the Anglo Saxon on the Atlantic Coast, is that they came to this country imbued with a zealous fanaticism. They came to get away from beauty.
They took the stops out of the organ. They took the color out of the stained glass windows. They changed the color of their clothes to white and black. And you will find percolating all through this country, even reaching out here into free-and-easy San Francisco, a remnant of the impulse that brought them from the old country to the Atlantic Coast. There is hardly a man in this room, when he is about to do something real naughty and let himself swing free with his physical emotions, who is not held back by a kind of an ancestral string in the shape of one of those old forefathers of ours, who says, "Oh, my God, you can't do that-that's wrong." And they still, along the Atlantic Coast, have holding them back what I may call the smug morality. It is not honest, it is not the impetus, the spontaneous feeling of what they want to do, but it is a kind of a fear, a sub- conscious fear, that it is fore-ordained that they will sizzle in hell if they do any particular thing they would like to do. And I think that one of the finest signs of the future is, that you get this bunch of Anglo Saxons out in California, and they fly free from that enthrallment.
Therefore, if our Pilgrim Fathers and our Virginia ancestors and all those splendid types who came over here at the time England was having so much internecine and religious strife, had come to Cal- ifornia, I think we would have saved about two hundred and fifty years of the most uncomfortable time that any people ever had in the history of civilization.
So I think we ought to be congratulated that there is in California a Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. I think that we can do more out here than in any other locality. We can live more com- fortably, we can worship God in a more beautiful way. We can re- tain our faith, adoration, and all the tenets of our ancestors, and we can just let God Almighty, in His grace, leaven our lives with a spiritual uplift in the beauty of our home, than which no other on God's footstool so beautiful was ever given unto mankind.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
By Thomas A. Perkins, Historian.
BABCOCK.
John Breckinridge Babcock was born in New Orleans, La., Feb. 7, 1843. The son of Ann E. (Benison) and Giles Babcock, and great-great-grandson of Joshua Babcock, a graduate of Yale Col- lege in 1724, and Major General of the "Colony Brigade," R. I., in May, 1776.
He enlisted as a private in Company "G," 37th N. Y. Militia, May 29, 1862, and was honorably discharged as Sergeant. He again enlisted and served in the 174th N. Y. Infantry as 1st Lieu- tenant, was transferred to 162nd N. Y. Infantry, promoted to Major, and resigned his commission July 23, 1865.
He was appointed 2nd Lieutenant in the 5th U. S. Cavalry Jan. 22, 1867, and promoted to Lieut. Colonel. He was appointed Brig. General of Volunteers Jan. 3, 1898, and honorably discharged Nov. 30, 1898. He was retired from active service Aug. 8, 1903, as Brig- adier General, U. S. A.
During 1864 he took part in the Shenandoah Valley campaigns under Gen. Sheridan and was engaged in many battles. After his appointment to the regular army he served in several campaigns against the Indians.
In 1898 he won an excellent record in the Philippines as Assistant Adjutant General on the staff of Gen. Merritt.
He filled every position to which he was assigned, from private to Brigadier General, with credit to himself and the service.
He was a member of the Military Order of Loyal Legion, Com- mandery of California.
On his return from a trip to Europe he died crossing the Atlantic Ocean, April 26, 1909. A widow and children survive him. His last residence was Ballston Spa, N. Y.
BAILEY.
James Dyas Bailey was born in Boston, Mass., the 16th day of July, 1839. He was the son of Margaret M. (Dyas) and Edwin Bailey, grandson of Paul Bailey, and great-grandson of Paul Bailey,
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a captain of the Coast Guard from Marshfield to "the Glades," Massachusetts, in July, 1775.
He came to San Francisco in a sailing vessel via Cape Horn in 1862, and was engaged in the insurance business in San Francisco from 1865 until his death. He was secretary of the Union Insur- ance Co. for 18 years and manager of the Insurance Company of North America for 18 years.
He was treasurer of the Unitarian Church for thirty years. In business circles his standing was of the highest.
He married Maria E. Sweetzer, daughter of Samuel D. Sweetzer, in San Francisco, Oct. 3rd, 1871.
He died in San Francisco February 6, 1910. A widow, Maria E., two sons and a daughter-Albert E. of Portland, Ore., Milton D. of San Francisco, Florence M. Mohr of New York City; two brothers and a sister-George W. of San Francisco, Frank of Vancouver, B. C., and Harriet Newell Clark of Boston, survive him.
BAILEY.
William Hervey Bailey was born in Wailuku, County of Maui, Hawaiian Islands, Jan. 24, 1843. He was the son of Caroline (Hub- bard) and Edward Bailey, and great-grandson of James Bailey of Cold Spring, N. Y., a sergeant in Mass. Militia during the Revolu- tionary War. He was in the oil business in Oakland and Los Angeles, Cal.
He died Jan. 1, 1910.
BARKER.
Timothy Leonard Barker, son of Martha Leonard (Griswold) and Timothy Barker, and grandson of Irene Barker and Timothy Barker, a private in Col. David Wooster's Regiment, Connecticut Militia, was born in Bradford, Conn. March 13, 1828, where he was reared on his father's farm and attended the public schools till he was 14 years old, when he entered the academy at Auburn, N. Y., where he grad- uated. Soon after graduation, as one of the Cayuga Joint Stock Company he embarked on the "Belvidera" for California, via Cape Horn. After 226 days he arrived in California, Oct. 12, 1849, and immediately went to the mines in Mariposa County, where he re- mained several years.
He farmed a ranch near Hayward, Alameda County, for 2 years.
From 1856 to 1863 he was a member of Booth & Co., Grocers, in Sacramento, and a member of the firm of Wellman, Peck & Co.,
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wholesale grocers, San Francisco, from 1868 to 1887, when he re- tired. He resided in San Francisco from 1856 to 1874 and in Oak- land from 1874 till his death. He was councilman from 1885 to 1889, and trustee of the Deaf, Dumb and Blind Asylum.
He was a member of the Society of California Pioneers and San Francisco Lodge of Odd Fellows.
Mr. Barker was characterized by a sweetness of disposition, a fine courtesy, a geniality and a kindly spirit, which made him beloved by all who came in contact with him. He grew old gracefully and wore his silver crown with dignity and radiated sunshine to the last.
His business life is expressed fully in an editorial of an Oakland paper : "He was a real pioneer, an argonaut who cast his lot with California three score and one years ago, when this was a virgin land. By his energy and enterprise his fortunes rose with the prog- ress of the state, and all that he gathered and gained was not at the expense of another. All his long business record is as stainless as a star. His personal characteristics were especially charming."
He married Mary R. Simpson in Oakland. She was a native of New York City. He died in Oakland Jan. 31, 1911.
His widow and a daughter, Mrs. Wallace M. Alexander of Oak- land, survive him.
BOARDMAN.
George C. Boardman was born in Hartford, Conn., May 20, 1828. During the earlier years of his life he resided in his native city. He lived for a short time in New York, and also near Lecompton, Kansas, where he took some part in the Territorial political excite- ment of those days. He returned to Hartford, and in 1855 became associated with the Merchants Insurance Co. of that city. During the same year he was appointed a special agent for the Company and traveled in the southern and border states prior to the Civil War.
In 1860 the Company sent him to California. The following year the San Francisco Insurance Co. was organized-the first incor- porated fire insurance company of California. Mr. Boardman was elected its first secretary, and in 1863 he became its president. In 1868 he resigned the presidency of the Company to accept the gen- eral agency for the Pacific Coast of the Aetna Insurance Co. of Hartford. This position he held until his death-nearly forty-one years.
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In 1865 he married Annie Julia Hort, daughter of Samuel Hort, a merchant of San Francisco. He was an active member of the First Congregational Church. His character is shown in the follow- ing quotation from an insurance journal of San Francisco: "The late George C. Boardman was a modest and unpretending man, but his gentle manners and cordial greetings were wholly misleading if they suggested anything but ruggedness of character and firmness of nature. The dean of the profession was a strong man, who had no enemies. He was always rock-firm for the right and could not be shaken by motives which appeal too strongly to weaker men. He reflected the character and followed the sound traditions and prac- tices of his Company, and was at all times dignified and conserva- tive, just and fair."
He was the son of Elizabeth Bidwell (Lewis) and Thomas Dan- forth Boardman, and grandson of Sarah (Danforth) and Oliver Boardman, a soldier in the Revolutionary Army from Connecticut, in the expedition against Burgoyne in 1777.
He died in San Francisco April 24th, 1909. He is survived by his widow and three sons, Samuel H., George C. Jr. and Thomas D., of San Francisco.
BONNELL.
Edwin Bonnell, son of Catherine Hugh (Looker) and Allison Clarke Bonnell, and grandson of Aaron Bonnell, private in Bald- win's New Jersey Regiment, Continental Army, was born in Cin- cinnati, Ohio, Sept. 23, 1836, and died in San Francisco, Nov. 28, 1912.
Allison C. Bonnell came to California in 1849. Soon after he located in Portland, Oregon, where he owned and operated a lum- ber mill. His son Edwin went there in 1852 and worked in his father's mill, and later was a clerk in the firm of Tilden and Ladd, in Port- land. His father's mill was burned and in 1856 they both located in San Francisco, where Edwin spent the remainder of his life. When a boy in Ohio he worked in a drug store. After coming to San Francisco he was an accountant.
In 1873 he accepted a position in the Savings and Loan Society, San Francisco-the first savings bank in the State-where he re- mained nearly forty years and became cashier and secretary. He was secretary of the California School of Mechanical Arts and the Unitarian Club, and held many positions of Trust. He was an active member of the Society of California Pioneers. He was one of the
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earliest members of the First Unitarian Church. He was a charter member of the Olympic Club, in 1860, and its first secretary. He was very much interested in art and painted in oil, many of his canvases showing marked ability. He studied under the late William Keith; they were devoted friends for more than fifty years.
He was a companionable man, with a keen sense of humor, and :was known for his strict integrity. He had a host of friends, both old and young, and was respected and trusted by all. He always had a pleasant word for every one he met. In San Francisco, Dec. 22, 1861, he married Mary A., daughter of James Haley of New York. Thomas Starr King officiated at the wedding. He is sur- vived by a widow, a son, Allison C., and a daughter, Mrs. Edith B. Dunne, all residing in San Francisco.
BROMLEY.
John Lewis Bromley was born in Baltimore, Maryland, December 24, 1820. He was the son of Ann Catherine (Innis) and Lewis Bromley, grandson of Eliza (Palmer) and John Bromley, and great- grandson of William Bromley, Sr., a member of the Committee of Safety of Danby, Vt., 1777-78. His ancestors came to America in 1634.
He was educated at Harford College, Md. He also studied mili- tary science at a military school. He began the study of medicine, but abandoned it for mercantile pursuits.
At the outbreak of the Mexican war he enlisted as orderly ser- geant, served through the war under Gen. Winfield Scott, and was promoted to captain. At the close of the war he returned to Balti- more and entered business again.
He married Miss Anna Levering in 1851, and in 1852 sailed for California via Cape Horn, arriving in San Francisco in May, 1853.
He again followed the wholesale merchandise business in the firm of Bromley, Booth & Co. A few years after he settled in Contra Costa County and engaged in farming and cattle raising. He was justice of the peace, tax collector and county assessor. He moved to Oak- land in September, 1873.
He was brave in battle, in civil life he dared to do right, and always practiced the golden rule.
His wife died Sept. 18th, 1909. He is survived by his children, Thomas L., Martha, Marion, Virginia and Roscoe, of Oakland; Annie Murry of Hayward, and R. I. of Sonora, Cal.
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BUCKINGHAM.
George H. Buckingham was born in San Francisco, Cal., Sept. 16th, 1857, the son of Ellen Proctor (Smith) and Aurelius A. Buck- ingham, and great-great-grandson of Daniel Smith, who marched on the Lexington alarm of April 19, 1775. He was a member of the Stock and Bond Exchange. He married Mary G. Eldridge of San Francisco. He died in Sonoma County, Cal., August 8th, 1910. His widow and one son, Eldridge B., survive him.
BUSH.
Walter Nelson Bush was born in Fall River, Mass., Nov. 11, 1856. He was the son of Abbie Maria (Nelson) and William Read Bush, and great-great-grandson of Aaron Childs, who marched on the Lexington alarm, April 19, 1775, and served as a private in the Mass. Militia, 1777-78.
He prepared for college in Fall River High School and graduated from Harvard University in 1882. For five years before preparing for college he was a clerk in one of the mills in Fall River.
After graduation he was a teacher in the High School in Peoria, Ill., for a year, and in a business house in Chicago for a year. In 1884 he came to California and taught mathematics in Oakland High School three years, and took a course in the University of California. He taught mathematics in the Boys' High School, San Francisco, and was Principal of the Polytechnic High School, San Francisco, from 1889 till a few months before his death.
In 1887 he married Grace L. Moulton of Oakland. She and their only child died in 1894.
In 1907 he married Georgia A., daughter of Frederick Harris, of San Francisco. Their only child, Walter Nelson, was born Sept. 3, 1911. In collaboration with J. B. Clarke, of the University of California, he wrote a geometry published by Silver, Burdett & Co.
He was a member of Occidental Lodge No. 22, Free and Accepted Masons, of San Francisco. He died in San Francisco May 21, 1911, and is survived by his widow and son, of San Francisco; father, of Baltimore, Md .; a sister, Elizabeth L., of Boston; two brothers, George B. of San Francisco, and Arthur R. of Schenectady, N. Y .; one sister, Annie R., died recently.
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CARPENTER.
Samuel Walker Carpenter, son of Betsy Hull and Joshua Carpen- ter, and great-grandson of Caleb Carpenter, a private in Mass. Militia, was born in New Britain, Conn., Sept. 3, 1830, where he was edu- cated, and later entered the employ of Russell Erwin Manufactur- ing Co. On the 29th day of March, 1849, he left New York City and arrived in San Francisco in Sept., 1849, having made the trip by water to Vera Cruz, thence overland across Mexico, and by water the rest of the way. He worked in the mines a few years and returned to New Britain in 1855, where, on the 10th day of May, he married Emma, daughter of Ambrose Sloper.
They had one child, Emma Grace, who married William E. Has- sett, Dec. 17th, 1883.
At the beginning of the civil war he enlisted as 2nd Lieutenant in the First Connecticut Infantry, April 18th, 1861.
He served until late in July, 1861, when he was mustered out with the regiment at New Haven, Conn. He again volunteered in the 14th Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers, and was mustered in as Captain of Company "C" at Hartford, Conn., August 20th, 1862. He served with that regiment until the Battle of Fredericks- burg, December 13th, 1862, when he was wounded in the foot in the charge made on Marye's Heights. He was in command of his regiment, his superior officers all having been killed or wounded. His wound having disabled him for active service, he was transferred as Captain to the United States Veteran Reserve Corps, in which he served until December 31st, 1865, when he was assigned to duty in the Freedman's Bureau, where he remained until December 31st, 1867, when he was mustered out.
He then went to Chicago, where he engaged in the hardware busi- ness until he returned to San Francisco, Cal., in 1890, where he was engaged with the Pacific Mailing Company and the Buswell Company, Book Binders, until the fire of April, 1906, after which he retired from active work.
He was a member of the Masonic Order, Loyal Legion, and Past Commander of Lincoln Post of the Grand Army of the Republic. He died in San Francisco June 12, 1910, leaving one granddaughter, Jessie Hassett, wife of Thomas A. Mahoney of San Francisco.
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CHILDS.
George Childs was born in Lancaster, Mass., Oct. 13, 1829, the son of Polly (Kimball) and Isaac Childs, and grandson of Moses Childs, commissioner to Nova Scotia in 1775.
He was educated in his native town. He married Louisa S., daughter of Ann Harmon and George Edwards, in San Francisco, Cal., Sept. 4th, 1858. By this marriage he had two children, Annie M. and Rufus H.
His second wife was Mrs. Annie M. Ladd, daughter of Mary Morris (Hancock) and James Cannon Zabriskie. They were mar- ried in San Francisco April 25th, 1891. There are no children by the second marriage.
He was a member of California Lodge No. 1, Fred and Accepted Masons, and was elected Master of the Lodge in 1884, and was a member of Golden Gate Commandery, Knights Templar. He was a member of the Vigilance Committee and the old National Guard of San Francisco, and at one time was a clerk in the Sheriff's office. The greater part of his life was spent in the insurance business, with the old Pacific Insurance Co., and the Liverpool & London & Globe Insurance Co., in San Francisco.
He died at his old home, 260 Fair Oaks Street, San Francisco, May 1st, 1910. His second wife and children survive him.
COGSWELL.
Thomas Cogswell, son of Judith (Peaslee) and Joseph Badger Cogswell, and grandson of Dr. William Cogswell, hospital surgeon's mate in the Continental Army, was born in Atkinson, N. H., May 12, 1835. He crossed the plains and was one of the early pioneers to Pike's Peak. He went to Boston, Mass., studied dentistry, re- ceived the degree of D. D. S., and practiced his profession in Boston for more than twenty years, and in San Diego, Cal., twelve years. During the latter years of his life he was President of the Humane Society in San Diego. In 1862-3 he served on the medical staff of the 50th Massachusetts Volunteers, of which his brother, William, was surgeon.
He married Hannah Elizabeth, daughter of Abigail G. (Fuller) and Benjamin Judkins of Boston, Nov. 24th, 1870. She died in San Diego Feb. 9, 1901. He died in Los Angeles April 7, 1912.
Their only child, Mary Goddard Cogswell, resides in Los Angeles.
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DAGGETT.
Henry Daggett was born in New Haven, Conn., July 12, 1841, the son of Laura (Gilbert) and Alfred Daggett, and great-grandson of Naphthali Daggett, President of Yale College, who was mortally wounded in battle July, 1779, when the British took New Haven.
He received his early education in New Haven, followed the sea for a short time, became a druggist and owned a drug store in San Diego, Cal., at the time of his death. He was a Free Mason and Knight Templar.
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