An illustrated history of Sacramento County, California : containing a history of Sacramento County from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future portraits of some of its most eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also prominent citizens of today, Part 110

Author: Davis, Winfield J., 1851- 4n
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 916

USA > California > Sacramento County > An illustrated history of Sacramento County, California : containing a history of Sacramento County from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future portraits of some of its most eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also prominent citizens of today > Part 110

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apples on the line of the Erie Canal. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to L. B. Thomas, of Pulaski, to learn the trade of black- smithing, and he became an expert wagon ironer. He then went to Rome, New York, where he worked two years as a journeyman blacksmith for Deacon Peggs. In 1848 he went to Sandy Creek and started business for himself in a small shop, where he continued until the fall of 1852, when he set out for California. The year previous he married Sarah Dennison, a native of New York, and a daughter of Robert Dennison. His brother, J. J., had come to California in 1849, and when George O. arrived on the coast in January, 1853, he went imme- diately to join him in the San Joaquin Valley, and remained there about two years. The grass- hoppers of 1855 drove them out, and they went to Amador County and engaged in the butcher business until 1858. This year they moved to the Laguna, Sacramento County, and engaged in cattle-ranching. In 1859 Mr. George O. Bates went East for his family, going and re- turning overland. Returning, he bought at Salt Lake a herd of oxen, and drove them across the mountains, reaching Sacramento in safety. He continued farming on the Cosumnes some thirteen years, and engaged somewhat in specu- lating until 1873. He and his brother were engaged in speculating in live-stock, being to- gether twenty-three years. Their parents came West in 1859, and were in George's care, and he moved his family from the ranch into the city. His mother died in 1874, and his father in 1883. While he has not been a politician, Mr. Bates was induced by his friends in 1885, to accept the nomination for County Supervisor, and was elected; he served four years, and in the fall of 1889 was re-elected for another term; he now holds his office. In 1882 he became inter- ested in the trading steamers El Dorado and Clara Belle. Three years ago he bought the steamer Neponset No. 2, and is now running her as a trading boat. Mr. Bates has a wife and three children. One of the latter is the widow of Mr. Devine, of Galt; the name of the second

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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.

daughter is Matie, and that of the son is Egbert W. Mr. Bates' residence is No. 2229 ( street.

NDREW CARBLY BLOOM was born November 13, 1849, near Bonaparte, Iowa, his parents being William Henry Harri- son and Delila D. (Dye) Bloom. The grand- parents were Christopher and Elizabeth Bloom. The children of these in the order of their birth were Lewis, Anna, Emma, William H. H. and Samuel. " Harrison " was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, February 25, 1815, and was married at Windsor, Indiana, April 29, 1839, to Miss De- lila D. Dye, born in Miami Connty, Indiana, August 27, 1823. Mr. and Mrs. Harrison Bloom, with the children they then had, left Bonaparte, Iowa, March 31, 1850, and arrived at Diamond Spring, California, September 12, where they remained about eighteen months. Mr. Bloom built the second house that was erected at that place, and there kept a hotel and bakery. In the spring of 1852 he bought a claim of 480 acres on the Hubbs ranch on the Cosumnes, but the title proved worthless, and in 1854 he re- turned to Diamond Spring, where he resumed his old business, with the addition of a dairy, hay-yard and general store. March 25, 1855, he sold out and moved to the Pioneer House on the Lower Jackson River, nine miles east of Sacramento. Here he bought a half interest in the hotel and 320 acres of the Norris Grant, only to lose both when the land came to be sur- veyed a few months later. He then rented the Keystone House, seven miles from Sacramento,

for two months. October 25, 1855, Mr. Bloom bought 480 acres, since known by his name, and where the subject of this sketch now resides, about two und a half miles southwest of Frank- lin. Later on he bought some more land in the neighborhood, and afterward sold some, the

present ranch being about 340 acres. The

children of Mr. and Mrs. Harrison Bloom, who reached their majority are: Hetty, born in Iowa, July 1, 1842, was married to Joseph Morrow,

and died March 17, 1863; Arsinve M., born in Iowa, July 26, 1844, was married March 22, 1862, to Stephen J. Dillon, who diel in Sacra- mento, May 29, 1879, leaving two children, Albert L. and Stephen J. Mrs. Dillon was married to Thomas P. Taylor; they are the parents of one boy, Arthur Bloom Taylor, born June 7, 1882. Adaline, now Mrs. Solomon Runyon (see sketch of Mr. Runyon); Andrew C., the subject of this sketch; Sierra Nevada, born at Diamond Spring, California, Novem- ber 12, 1854, by marriage, Mrs. William Lock- hart, of Richland, in this county; Pacific Ellen, born also at Diamond Spring, Angust 29, 1854, by marriage, Mrs. James Riley, of Sacramento; Eliza Oceana, born in Franklin Township in this county, July 10, 1856, by marriage Mrs. A. M. Cain, died April 23, 1888. Harrison Bloom died March 10, 1881, at his home near Franklin, and was buried in the Franklin cemetery, after a residence of over twenty-five years. He had been constable for many years, and was a deputy sheriff at the time of his death. He enjoyed the respect and esteen of a large circle of friends, and was universally regarded as an estimable citizen and kindly neighbor. His widow is now living in Sacramento. Andrew C. Bloom, the only son, was married April 15, 1872, to Miss Sarah Ellen Vannatta, a native of Grant County, Wisconsin, where she was born June 23, 1853, daughter of George Phillip and Mary Elizabeth (McCormack) Vannatta. Her father came to Cali- fornia in 1857, and settled at Placerville. The father was born Jannary 8, 1925; the mother, Jan- uary 29, 1833; were married September 20, 1852. The mother died in 1865; the father is living near Stockton. The grandfather, Henry Van- natta, a farmer in Wisconsin, died in 1884, at an advanced age. Grindmother McCormack came to California with the Vannatta family, and died at Placerville, aged abont sixty-five. Mrs. A. C. Bloom has one living sister, Susan M., a native of this State, now Mrs. Tharon Hollenbeck, of O'Neals, Fresno County. Mr. and Mrs. Andrew C. Bloom are the parents of three living children: William Harrison, born

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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.

February 26, 1873; Andrew Carbly, February 25, 1877; Clarence Laurel, September 1, 1879.

BESAGNO was born in Italy March 21, 1852. His father, Thomas John Be- sagno, was a farmer by ocenpation. Our subject was brought up on a farm, and in 1873 eame to California. After residing nine months in San Francisco he came to Dry Creek Town- ship, this county, and rented his present place, which in 1882 he purchased, and which he has greatly improved. It is two and a half miles from Galt. Here he follows general farming and also raises some vegetables; and he has a thrifty orchard and vineyard. In 1880, in Stock- ton, he married Miss Mary Maringo, and they have two sons and four daughters, whose names are Johnnie, Andy, Amelia, Ida, Tersa and Pal- meda. Mr. Besagno has no other relatives in this country.

ILLIAM FLETCHER BRYAN, the youngest son of Hon. William E. Bryan, was born in El Dorado County. When he was about six. years old he began to work on his father's farm, driving teams long before he was able to harness them, and doing all sorts of farm work. From that time to the present he has made his home on the ranch. He has in former years been largely interested in sheep- raising, having, in company with other mem- bers of the family, about 3,000 sheep to start with. He carried on this enterprise for abont eight years, but is now devoting his attention to farming principally. He has in his own name 1,322 acres of choice land, well improved. He was married November 30, 1879, to Miss Annie A. Criswell, a native of Santa Clara County, born November 30, 1855, and daughter of A. F. Criswell. Mrs. Bryan lived in her native place till she was about nine years old, and in the fall of 1864 came to Sacramento

County, where she has since made her home. They have one child, Macie Mabel, born De- cember 28, 1882. They have lost two children : Clinton Evermont, born April 18, 1881, and died March 29, 1888; Nellie M., born August 7, 1887, died January 4, 1889.

ETER BOHL, real estate and insurance agent, 325 J street, Sacramento, is one of the most substantial citizens of the State, inheriting as he does the highest qualities of the German-American character. His father, George Bohl, was a Bavarian by nativity, and came with his family to this country in the early days, set- tling first in Pennsylvania and afterward in Cin- cinnati, Ohio, where the subject of this sketch was born, October 23, 1830, the fourth of five sons and the first American born in the family. Subsequently the father moved to Brown County, near Georgetown, on a farm, where he reared his family, and finally to Covington, Kentucky, where he died at the advanced age of eighty- eight years. It is a conspicuous fact that a large proportion-perhaps the largest propor- tion-of men who achieve success in life are born and reared upon the farm, spending their early life only amid rural scenes. Mr. Bohl was twenty years of age when he left the farm and started out in commercial life for himself, engaging in Peoria, Illinois, as a elerk in a mercantile house. An older brother having come to California in 1851, and located in Sac- ramento as a baker, and afterward as a merchant, Mr. Bohl followed his example in 1853. Em- barking on the Oregon, he had a narrow escape from the yellow fever, which prevailed on board. Arriving in San Francisco on February 6, he came at once to Sacramento, clerked a few months for his brother, and then bought an in- terest in a stable and hay yard on J street, be- tween Tenth and Eleventh streets, known as the Central Hay Yard. Shortly after he purchased his brother's interest in the bakery, and was en- gaged there for a period of eight years. For the

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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.

next five years he was a dealer in groceries and grain. Early in 1873 he embarked in the real estate and insurance business, associated with the house of W. P. Coleman, the banker, and in this relation he has operated up to the present time. His connection with the Methodist Epis- copal Church began twenty three years ago, since which time he has ocenpied many posi- tions of trust and responsibility in the society, leading in all local measures of the church for the advancement of Christianity. First, in 1867, he was elected steward and trustee. Subse- quently, in 1876, he was a delegate to the Gen- eral Conference of his church, held in Balti- more, Maryland, during which season he also visited the Centennial Exhibition at Philadel- phia; and he was an alternate to the General Conference of May, 1888, held in New York city. He was active in the establishment of the Y. M. C. A. in Sacramento. For fifteen years he has been a trustee of the University of the Pacific in Santa Clara County, being re-elected every four years. This institution of learning has grown to large proportions, so that it now contains between 500 and 600 students, and has magnificent buildings, including an observatory with all its appliances. The money used for the erection of all these magnificent buildings was donated by liberal and generous-hearted men and women. It is now the most extensive institution of Christian education on this coast. Mr. Bohl's residence on N street, opposite the State Capitol, is one of the most commodious and tasteful in the city, and here lie is spending the golden years of his life.

AMES S. BOWLES, deceased, formerly a farmer of Brighton Township, was born March 20, 1822, in Hanover County, Vir- ginia, and was reared to manhood in Richmond, that State. His parents were William S. and Mary Bowles. In 1849 he went to New York and thence sailed by way of Cape Horn to San Francisco, arriving in September. He spent

the ensuing winter in the EI Dorado County mines, and in the spring came down to Sacra- mento. On the last day of February he mar- ried Martha A. Winters, who was born Jnne 14, 1825, a native of Perry County, and daugh- ter of John and Elizabeth Winters, the former a native of Pennsylvania, and the latter of Ken- tucky. When she was two years old her par- ents moved to the small town of Elizabeth, near Galena, in Jo Daviess County, Illinois. In April, 1849, they came to California with horses and oxen across the plains, arriving at Lassen's on the 13th or 14th of September, and the next month in Sacramento. For a while they resided six miles above Marysville, then worked at Cox's Bar for a time, and then kept hotel at Forest City in Sierra County. Being a millwright by trade, Mr. Winters built a mill at Forest City and ran it three or four years. In the course of a number of years he became blind, and was taken by one of his sons to San Jose. After a time he went to Stockton, where he died Janlı- ary 15, 1870. His widow afterward died at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. Bowles, March 14, 1875. In their family were five children, all of whom are living, namely: Theodore, now residing at Washoe, Nevada; John D., in Car- son City, Nevada; Joseph, at Los Angeles; Mrs. Harriet Reede, Washoe, Nevada, and Mrs. Bowles. After his marriage Mr. James S. Bowles settled on 160 acres of fine productive land in Brighton Township, where he made his home until he died, January 16, 1865. He had seven children, as follows: Emma, born January 14, 1851; William E., September 30, 1852; Sarah E., September 21, 1854; Arthur W., June 20, 1856, and died July 27, 1882; John D., January 10, 1859, and died July 21, 1878; Hattie E., born December 10, 1860, and died November 10, 1880; and Theodore S., Febru- ary 8, 1863, and died February 5, 1881. Emma married George Baker, and resides in Brighton Township; William E. lives on the home place, and Sarah E. married T. C. Dolan, and resides in San Francisco. William E. was married May 6, 1880, to Katie McDonald, danghter of

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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.

Joseph and Mary McDonald, born in New Haven, Connecticut, and they have one son, William E., Jr., who was born January 24. 1881.

AMES BASCOM BRADFORD, San Jos- quin Township, was born in Washington, Daviess County, Indiana, in 1826. His father, George Bradford, was born in Middlesex County, Connecticut, in 1787. He left home at an early age, went West, and upon reaching manhood settled in Washington, Indiana, and engaged in merchandising; he, like other pioneers of the West, engaged in flat-boating to New Orleans, making his first trip in 1818. The Bradfords are of New England stock for several generations. James' mother, nee Mary F. Bruce, was born in Mason County, Ken- tucky, in 1793. The Bruces were among the early settlers of that State. James Bruce's paternal grandparents were Charles and Diana Bradford, and their children were Lucretia, George, Robert, Charles, William and James. The grandmother's maiden name was Diana Stevens. whose brother was Colonel of a cav- alry regiment in the Revolutionary war, and fed and clothed his regiment at his own expense during one winter. James Bruce's maternal grandparents were Alexander and Sarah Bruce, and their children were John, Charity, Joseph, Catharine, Mary F., Squire, Sarah, Kizialı Alexander, William and Rachel. James B. re- ceived the usual district-school education of the period; came to California in 1850 and engaged in mining for about a year in Placer and Shasta counties. He then established a trading-post at Yankee Jim's, a flourishing mining camp in Placer County. He put up his buildings and kept a general supply of all things needed by miners, keeping six or seven mules to make daily trips to the claims, delivering goods with- in a radius of ten miles. He continued in that business for two years. In 1855, with his brother, William B., went into business in Sac-

ramento, keeping a feed and sale stable. In 1858 he resumed the mercantile business at Michigan Bluffs, Placer County. In 1860 he moved to Downieville, Sierra County, furnish- ing supplies as before. In 1862 he went to Aurora, Nevada, where he engaged in trading and mining for several years. In April, 1866, he located 160 acres of Government land, and built a house on it where he still lives. His brothers, W. B. and P. B., occupy adjoining farms, all devoted to vineyards, for which they are found to be well adapted. J. B. Bradford was married to Miss Sarah G. Kilbourne, Sep- tember 20, 1871, at Danville, Illinois, by Rev. A. L. Brooks. Mrs. S. G. Bradford was born in Venice, Ohio, in 1842, and was the daughter of Jonathan and Susan M. Kilbourne, both of whom are still living in 1890, aged respectively seventy-three and seventy. Mrs. Bradford's paternal grandparents were Joseph and Rebecca Kilbourne, of Vermont. Her maternal grand- parents were Isaac and Elizabeth Johnson Lutes, of New Jersey. Grandmother Lutes is ninety- four years old, and loves to hold reunions of her descendants on the anniversary of her birth, at her home near Cincinnati, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Bradford are the parents of two boys: Perley Kilbourne born July 8, 1872, and George Bruce, born April 5, 1875.

APTAIN WILLIAM H. BRADLEY. The lives of some men are peculiarly rich in incident, and especially is this the case with those who in early life, have followed the sea. To write the history of such lives would be to fill volumes. The subject of this sketch has a life history well worth writing; but in a work of this character, where only a limited space is allowed to each individual, the question is not what to include, but what to leave out of the interesting narrative. Captain Bradley was born in Yorkshire, in the north of England, in 1847. He received a common-school education, and at the age of fourteen years entered upon

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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.

his sailor's apprenticeship of three years, under Captain Harrison, of the brig Daring, of Whitby. Finishing his term of apprenticeship, he made two short voyages before the mast; then a voyage to the Black Sea, as second mate of the Ariel, of Stockton; and on the re- turn voyage he was wrecked. "Never shall I forget the peril of that time," says the gallant Captain. " We were going through the Bay of Biscay, our vessel laden with grain, and in a gale, and in order to avoid a collision with an- other vessel the Ariel was . brought to' sud- denly, shifting the cargo and springing a leak; for three nights and two days we manned the pumps, but our utinost efforts were not sufficient. Inch by inen our doom approached, and after many weary hours a sail was descried to wind- ward. She bore down upon us. Hope became a certainty; but alas! she proved to be an Italian trader, and seeing our signal of distress-the reversed Union Jack - she, with heartless cruelty, passed us by on the other side. The sea was running high, but we had no other choice-we must leave the sinking ship. First one and then another of our boats were swamped, in attempting to launch them, but the life-boat was successfully launched by cutting away the bulwark and rail, and in it our fifteen men were crowded, at the mercy of the raging sea. Happily a Welsh schooner bore down upon us and threw out a life-buoy with 100 fatlı- oms of line attached, and we were drawn safely to her deck. In that moment of safety, look! the gallant Ariel, poised for one moment upon the crest of a mighty wave, the next gone for ever!" Such is life on the sea. The wrecked crew was well treated by the strangers, and on the following day they were landed safe at Queenstown. After a few weeks rest at his home in Yorkshire, the young sailor shipped once more before the mast, in the ship Manfred, Captain Scott, bound with a cargo of coal for Colombo, Ceylon, and to Burmah, in British India, for a cargo of rice for Rotterdam, Hol- land, and home. The English merchant marine service has no cqual in the world, its efficiency

being due largely to her system of thorough ex- aminations instituted by Government. When the subject of this sketch finished the voyage above described, he went to Sunderland and passed his examination before the Board of Gov- ernment Examiners, both as to seamanship and navigation, receiving a certificate which en- titled him to the position of second mate, on any English vessel. And he at once secured such a position on the Regina, a sister vessel to the Ariel, and sailed away on a voyage to the Black Sea. After twelve months' service, came another examination before the Board, and again he passed with credit, secnring this time a cer- tificate as chief mate, and secured a position on the new bark Hannah Hodgson. Eighteen months later he was passed as Captain. Thus step by step we find him gradually rising, steadily onward and upward, until he is in command of the bark Dorathea, engaged in the Mediter- ranean trade; later on he was transferred to the steamers Polino, Aagean and Nio, and was chief inate on these vessels, making his first trip to the United States in the latter with Captain Turn- bull Potts-now a shipowner-as master. After two more trips in the Nio, to the Mediterranean, be came again to New York, as Captain of the steamer Charles Townsend Hook, when one of those experiences befell him, which can be best related in his own words: "We had come to New York, in ballast, taking on a general cargo. I remember that sixteen vessels left New York and Baltimore on that day. On the 24th of December we ran into a cyelone. My exper- ience and observations of the laws governing storms enabled me to ascertain that we were running into the center of the cyclone, and that by going about' we could steer clear of its greatest violence; in doing this, however, we ' shipped-a-sea,' and were very nearly lost. But the air-compartments, or water ballast tanks in the bottom of the ship, with which she was pro- vided, brought her afloat, as I knew they would, the only question being, would she be right side up. That she did come right side up, the sequel shows, for she came riding safe into London,

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twelve days from New York, being the second to arrive ont of the sixteen to start, eight of which were never heard fromn." After a short rest he was again afloat, this time on a voyage to the White Sea-the northernmost point of Russia-where he first learned that the latitude could be found by an altitude of the sun at midnight. On his next voyage he took com_ mand of the Silbury, the finest steamer of the Chapman's fleet of ten vessels, running from London to Havre, Hayti and Jamaica, a voyage of three months' duration. When the Charles Townsend Hook, their new steamner, was com- pleted, he was complimented by being trans- ferred to her, extending the line from Jamica to New Orleans, where they took a cargo of cotton for Rotterdam. Afterward the C. T. Hook was chartered for two years in the China trade, by Katz Brothers, Singapore, running with passen- gers and freight from Hong Kong to Saigon. Cochin China, Bankok and Manilla. Later on, and while at home recruiting for another voyage, he was sent to Glasgow to superintend the load- ing of vessels for the West Indies, and upou his return to Sunderland, he was to look at the steamer Madras, then lying at Shields, with a view of her purchase for the China trade. She was a 3,000-ton vessel, of which he was afterward commander. In 1883, being then in the China coasting trade, he left Hong Kong, with 600 Chinamen, a crew of thirty men and twelve China doctors. On the eighth day out chicken- pox was reported, which was later found to be the dread small-pox, and for sixty-four days they were detained by the Hawaiian Government officials before being allowed to discharge their cargo at Honolulu and proceed to Vancouver's Island. For fourteen days more they were de- tained there before being allowed to dock and discharge cargo. Ile then steamed away for Tacoma, Puget Sound, for coal; but finding they would be delayed, he went to Seattle, and so on to San Francisco, where they arrived in August, 1883. The Captain left the steamer there, de- termined to take no more chances on the sea but to build a home, and to enjoy a- least some

of the rewards so richly earned, to live with his family henceforth and to enjoy the society of his children; for, out of the entire fourteen years of married life in which he had followed the sea, only abont six months had been spent on shore. He purchased a farm near Ione, sent for his family, disposed of his interest in the va- rious vessels which he had acquired by patient industry, and in the following February he be- came a farmer in the golden State of California. Here he remained until March 1, 1898, when he moved his family to the city of Sacramento and engaged in the grain business on J street. The Bradley family is an old one, his father, John Bradley, having been master mechanic for Will- jam Lund, of Keightley, for twenty-five years. Mrs. Bradley is a lady of culture and refine- ment, the danghter of Captain John Openshaw Cormack, of Sunderland, England.

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Author: Davis, Winfield J., 1851- 4n Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 916

Author: Davis, Winfield J., 1851- 4n
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 916