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 123

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 123

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riving August 14 following, and the remainder came afterwards. On arriving at the city of the Golden Gate, Mr. Millikin engaged for the first year in watering and ballasting ships, and in purchasing the lighters, water-boats, etc. At first this business was exceedingly profitable, but the cheapening of materials a.id the springing up of competion materially reduced the profits. He was fortunate in making the acquaintance of Frank Blake, of the firm of Blake, Robinson & Co., and also of Charles L. Taylor, both of whom gave good advice and encouragement. Then for two years, in company with Mr. Leavitt, he was engaged in mining and trading in Kanaka Valley, a mining district on the American River in the mountains in El Do- rado County. They then purchased the Tremont House in Sacramento, Mr. Leavitt transacting the business. Mr. Millikin came down about six months afterward to assist in running the hotel; but finding that in so doing he had to tend bar, which was disagreeable to him, he packed up and went to McDowell Hill, and es- tablished a trading post there and also engaged in mining. He continued there probably about a year. Closing out, lie came again to Sacra- mento and bought of Andrew Hall, southeast corner of I and Sixth streets, an interest in a hay-yard. The management of a hay-yard was at that time probably the most important busi- ness in the city. He sold out this business, at a profit of $2,000. Then his brother, Theodore J., came from the East, and they together pur- chased a yard on the southwest corner, directly across the street from the former place. They conducted business there until the summer of 1854, when the great fire burned them out. Soon Mr. John M. Millikin purchased another hay-yard, on the corner of Seventh and I streets, where he and his brother did the largest busi- ness in that line in the city during the three years they were engaged there. Theodore went east and brought out his wife, and also the wife of John M. The latter had just sold out his interest in this business on account of failing health, and on the return of his brother they

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began dealing in wheat, barley, flour, and also speculating, etc .; after continuing thus on J street, between Sixth and Seventh, they entered the general grocery business near that point on the same street. The great floods of 1861-'62 utterly destroyed their stock; but with charac- teristic pluck they renewed their supplies and continued trade there. John M. went to San Francisco and became purchasing agent, not only for his own house but also for others, especially Adams, McNeill & Co., and Mr. Elwell, of Marysville. During that period, namely, about 1867, they removed their business to the corner of Third and K streets, where they carried on the more extensive trade in their line, their sales amounting to about $750,000 a year for several years. Theodore died in the fall of 1874. In the spring of 1877 John M., again on account of failing health, sold out his busi- ness to Hall, Luhrs & Co., and retired from mercantile pursuits. Hall and Luhrs had been in business in his employ and learned the trade of him. In 1883 he engaged as manager for several companies in real estate and insurance. The insurance companies which he has since represented are the Sun, the Franklin, Williams- burg, City of New York, State and the American of Boston. In this line he is now conducting his business at No. 1010 Fourth street. Mr. Millikin has been one of the principal operators in mercantile pursuits in the city of Sacramento, has made immense amounts of money and lost also a great deal, by the disasters mentioned. He lost also about $40,000 in the experiment of a beet sugar mannfactory, and $8,000 in a street railway enterprise. The various houses with which he has been connected have always had the highest reputation for fair dealing and prompt fulfillment of all engagements. Noth- ing was ever heard against them, and never in the whole State of California was a mercantile firm of higher reputation. Mr. Millikin has never aspired to political situations, but in his principles he has always been a man of firm convictions. He was a Republican at a period so early that it cost something to be one, as the

few who had the nerve to espouse the cause of liberty were known only as " Black Republi- cans, thieves and miscegenators." He was therefore among the first to organize the Re- publican party in this county, along with the Crockers, Stanford, Hopkins, Huntington, Cole and a few others. As to religion Mr. Millikin is a member of the Congregational Church, in which body he is a trustee of the property. In the spring of 1856, Mr. Millikin returned to his eastern home and married Sarah A. Leavitt, a sister of his friend and business associate, and daughter of Brackett Leavitt, a farmer of Limer- ick, Maine. They have three sons and two daughters, who have grown up a credit to their parents. Three are married.

ILLIAM O. BOWERS .- The hotel par excellence of the Capital City is the "Golden Eagle," corner of Seventh and K streets, a location which has always been prominent in the annals of the city, and indeed has been the site of an hotel from the earliest period. Here in 1851 Dan Callahan erected his frame lodging-house (which he had pur- chased for one span of horses), with its canvas "annex," upon the flaps of which the jocose Wrightmire, with a piece of charcoal, drew the figure of an eagle with outspread wings and serious mien, and dubbed the place the " Golden Eagle Hotel," a name which through all the ups and downs of pioneer days clung to it with the tenacity of a happy thought; but it remained for the present proprietor to bring it up to the high standard of excellence for which it is so widely known to-day. It has been said by an eminent authority that " hotel men are born, not made;" and certainly, to conduct a large hotel successfully, requires both social and bnsi- ness qualifications of the highest order. That these qualities are possessed to an eminent de- gree by the subject of this biographical men- tion is shown both by his past record and by the most casual visit to this, the leading first-class

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house in the city. It contains about 100 rooms and accommodates comfortably about 250 people; but Mr. Bowers not infrequently finds it neces- sary to secure outside room accommodations for his guests, who have upon occasions numbered as high as 1,000 in a single day. The parlors, reading-room, office and dining-hall are all large, light, airy and commodious, excellently kept, and superior to any others in the city, while the genial proprietor, with a bland cour- tesy all his own, gives that personal attention to his guests which is the secret of his success. Mr. Bowers was born April 26, 1838, a native of the State of New Hampshire, and son of Thomas and Betsey (Conery) Bowers. His father died some years ago, but his mother still survives at the advanced age of eighty-nine years, in the full enjoyment of her mental facn]- ties, and in good health. The early years of Mr. Bowers' life were passed at Nashua, New Hampshire, his native place, where he received his preliminary education. At the age of six- teen he went to Northfield, Vermont, where he entered the railroad shops of the Vermont Cen- tral as an apprentice. He served his time and then went to Wilmington, North Carolina, where he resided and engaged in railroading during the war, and after those troublesome times were over he was commissioned to go abroad, having in charge the supervision of steamboat work in Europe for over a year, re- turning to New York in 1867. He came to the Pacific coast and entered theemploy of the South- eru Pacific Railroad Company for a time, and then for three years was engaged in steamboating. He returned to the Southern Pacific Railroad Com- pany and continued with them nntil 1878, when, coming to Sacramento, he became the proprietor of the " Union House," Second and K streets, where his extensive acquaintance and business qualities secured him a fair share of patronage. After leaving the Southern Pacific Railroad Com- pany he purchased a one-half interest in the Capital Ale Vaults on J street, between Third and Fourth streets. He continued the business about four years, when he became proprietor of

the " Union Hotel." After an experience of five years at the " Union," he rented the " Gold- en Eagle," securing in this way a location and accommodations more suited to his abilities as a "Boniface." Mr. Bowers belongs to the Masonic fraternity, being a member of Union Lodge, No. 332, of Glasgow, Scotland. He also belongs to the order of Elks, and to the Sacra- mento Turn-Verein. In 1859 he was united in marriage to Miss Eliza E. Kimball, a native of Barton, Vermont. Here, then, in brief outline, we have the history of one of the self-made men of the Capital City. But to fully appreciate thie qualities of head and heart which lie at the foundation of his popularity, one must become a guest at the " Golden Eagle."

ILLIAM ANDREW FOUNTAIN, elder brother of James B. Fountain, and senior member of the business firm of Fountain Bros., brick-makers, is the oldest liv- ing son of Joshua Fountain, a native of the State of Delaware, born near Milford in 1811, and Prudence Rebecca (Walton) Fountain, who emigrated to Beard's Prairie, Michigan, in 1835, where the subject of this biography was born in March of the following year (1836). As stated elsewhere in this volume, the family soon re- moved to Van Buren County, Iowa, where grandfather Andrew Fountain, who was a farmer, died in 1844. In the spring of 1850, onr subject, at that time just twenty-four years of age, his father, his uncle Loyd Rollins, a daughter of the latter, and three young inen, made up a party to cross the plains overland to the " land of golden promise." They left home on the 9th of April, crossed the Missouri River at Council Bluffs on the 29th, the north side of the Platte, and via Fort Hall, arrived safely at Grass Valley on the 15th of September follow- ing. They wintered there, and in the spring of 1851 started for Gold Lake mining district. Abandoning that project they mined on the Feather River during that summer, at Bidwell's

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Bar and at Oregon Gulch until November, 1852, when our subject came to Sacramento and worked for his father, who had started a brick- yard on Eighth and O streets. (For full par- ticulars of locations, which were changed from time to time to accommodate the advancing re- quirements of a growing city, see sketch of Joshua Fountain, the pioneer brick-maker). In 1859 Mr. Fountain started business on his own account, taking a contract to make brick for the building of the Hesperian College at Woodland. In the summer of 1862 he took a contract to make brick for the wine-cellar, residence and other buildings, for Mr. Bell, at Gold Hill, Placer County, and in 1862 and 1863 had a contract for constructing a portion of the levee near Freeport. In 1863 and 1864 he burned a kiln of brick at Auburn, and also made the brick for the court-house and jail at Woodland that year. In 1865 and 1866 he bought a farm ly- ing between Elk Grove and Georgetown, and was engaged in farming for two years, but in the meantime he burned a kiln of brick at Elk Grove. In 1867 the present firm was estab- lished. (For full particulars see sketch of J. B. Fountain). Mr. Fountain has always taken an active interest in local politics since the organi- zation of the Republican party, to which he be- longs, but has never been willing to accept any official position. He is a member of the Sixth Street Methodist Episcopal Church, and has had his residence on the corner of Fifteenth and P streets for twenty-three years. In 1877 he was associated with Hon. John Q. Brown in street contracting, cobbling and graveling the princi- pal streets, and they continued the business for several years. The latter gentleman was after- ward mayor of the city for six years, and is now president of the San Francisco Board of Trade. July 28, 1859, Mr. Fountain was married to Miss Abbie Louise Brewster, a native of Massa- chusetts, the daughter of Mr. Charles Brewster. a florist. She was a devoted Christian woman. Her death occurred September 13, 1879. The family consists of six daughters, viz .: Henrietta, now Mrs. Charles Lowell; Clara, now Mrs.

Charles Hockell, Grace, Anne, Lizzie and Abbie. In 1881 he was again united in marriage to Miss Helen Powers, an earnest Christian woman, a native of New York State. Her death occurred April 23, 1888. Of their private affairs, the home life, of the tender interests which cluster around the family altar, it is not our province to speak, but we must be permitted to say that the influence of such homes are far-reaching; the influence of such lives will ever remain a monument to enduring memory.

J. STEVENS, deceased. Thanksgiving day, 1889, a large and respectful assem- bly of the citizens of Sacramento and vicinity were present on the plaza to witness the unveiling of a magnificent monument erected to the memory of this truly great man, who had been master mechanic at the Sacramento rail- road shops for many years. Like many others, he was greater in merit than in notoriety. In fact, he was probably a greater favorite among the employés and his fellow laborers than any noted man could be. The signal traits of his character were loyalty to his calling and pro- found respect for the man who achieves by vir- tue of devotion to the branch of labor in which he is engaged. Himself a prolific inventor, he was the counselor and kind adviser of all the others engaged in mechanical research, and la- bored to lighten human toil. He abhorred the sluggard and the idle man. By his life and example he encouraged every toiler, by his genius he evolved and brought to the forge and bench and the workshop, the appliances that most augment the capacity of the worker to produce without increasing the burdens of his toil. A governor over thousands of men for a long term of years, he commanded from all of them the regard that true worth and manliness always receive. While it was his duty to con- serve every interest of his employers, he never lost sight of the human rights of the men ein- ployed. lIe held the balance evenly between

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forces sometimes driven to antagonism in the fields of labor. He was a disciplinarian with- out the severity of the exacting master; he was a master without the austerity of the mere dis- ciplinarian. He believed that men are more easily led than driven, and that they respect the authority that deserves it. All his princi- pals and those who served nnder him mingled their mourning in common over his remains, and it was they who consistently incurred the expense of a $5,000 monument and statue sacred to his memory. Mr. Stevens died February 11, 1888, leaving a widow in this city; and the Stevens Statue Association was organized July 11 following, at a meeting of the employés of the railroad company held at the old Pavilion. The granite work of the monument was done by the Carlaw Brothers of Sacramento; the stone was from the quarries of Fresno and Rocklin; the statue, of bronze and nine feet high, was designed by Albert Weiner of San Francisco. At the unveiling, the statue was presented to the city by E. B. Hussey, president of the associ- ation, and was accepted by Hon. E. J. Gregory, Mayor, in behalf of the city. Nearly all the fraternal orders of the city and most of the em- ployés of the railroad company turned out in grand parade. Addresses were delivered by President Hussey, Hon. Joseph Steffens, Mayor Gregory, Governor Waterman and William H. Mills, and a eulogy was read which had been composed for the occasion by Ralph Turner.

E. ALEXANDER .-- One of the best known lawyers who have practiced at he Sacramento bar is the gentleman with whose name this sketch commences. He is a native of Jackson, Mississippi, born Feb- ruary 7, 1845. His mother, whose maiden name was Caroline W. Hiveley, was born in Tennessee. Benjamin Franklin Alexander, his father, was a native of Sonth Carolina, who afterward located in Mississippi. He was a car- penter by trade. In 1849 he started to Cali

fornia via Panama, but not being fortunate enough to seeure passage on a steamer on the Pacific side, he with others became passengers on an old sailing vessel. They became lost on the Pacific, but reached San Francisco, event- nally, in 1850, after a terrible experience with hunger, thirst and exposure. Mr. Alexander went to the mines, and there had a varied ex- perience. He followed mining in Amador and Calaveras counties, and was one of the original owners of the Woodhouse quartz-mill, at West Point, then remote from civilization. In 1853 he came to Sacramento and engaged at the car- penter's trade, and followed contracting in that line nntil 1875. In 1883 he removed to the vicinity of Menlo Park, where he has an orchard and vineyard. D. E. Alexander, the subject of this sketch, came to California in 1854 (with the family) to join his father, commencing the journey by water on the El Dorado, landing at San Francisco from the steamer California on the 20th of September, 1854, and proceeding at once to Sacramento. He received his edu- cation in this city, and was graduated at the Sacramento high school in the class of 1865. He commenced the study of law with Morris M. Estee, and continned his reading with Moore & Alexander, and afterward, with Coffroth & Spanlding. On the 5th of February 1866, he was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of California. He remained in Coffroth & Spaulding's office for several months after his admission, then went to Nevada City, and opened an office. After four or five months, he returned to Sacramento, and has resided here ever since, his practice being in all State courts, and in United States land cases, and before the Interior Department. Mr. Alexander was mar- ried at Stockton, to Miss Emma Miller, a native of Pennsylvania. Her father died in Iowa; her mother is a resident of Sacramento. Mr. Alex- ander is Past Chief Ranger of Sacramento Court, A. O. F., and is Past Grand Represent- ative to the subsidiary High Court of the United States. Heisa Democrat politically, takes an act - ive part in the party organization, and has done

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his share of service on the city central committee. Mr. Alexander is an able lawyer, and a popular man in his profession.

UDGE ROBERT C. CLARK, deceased. In the chapter of this work devoted to the Bench and Bar of Sacramento County, many names appear whose owners have achieved dis- tinction and even National reputation, but none more honored than that of the late Judge Rob- ert C. Clark, with whose name this sketch commences. He was a native of Kentucky, born in 1821, and came of one of the most dis- tinguished families in the Blue Grass State. His father, John Clark, was among the most eminent men the State of Kentucky has pro- duced. He rose to the front rank at the bar of that State, and as a member of the Supreme Court of Kentucky, rendered decisions in some important cases, which were at variance with the sentiment of a large proportion of the people of the State. He was right, however, and when time proved the wisdom and the justice of his course, he was as freely vindicated as he had been condemned, and the people of the great commonwealth of Kentucky elected him as their Governor, the last position of public honor and trust he ever held, as he died while in the chair. He had also represented his district in the national Congress. His second wife was a member of the Washington family, to which had belonged the " Father of his Country." Of such stock was Judge Clark, of Sacramento. He was educated in Ohio and in Kentucky, and in the latter State was prepared for the profession of the law. lle went to St. Louis to commence practice, and there remained until coming to the Pacific coast. In 1852 he came across the plains to California, and located in Sacramento, where he soon took front rank as a lawyer. In the Lincoln-Douglas campaign, he came out as a Douglas Democrat, and made the race against Bob Robinson for judge. lle received the fa- vorable verdict of the people at the ensuing

election, and so strongly did he endear himself to the people of the county by his legal learn- ing, his strong sense of justice, and his high character for integrity, that for twenty succes- sive years lie held the office of judge against all comers, and at the time of his death had yet two years to serve of the term to which he was elected. He was married in Kentucky to Miss Mary Wilcox, a native of northern Ohio, and a sister of Mrs. General Sturgis, of the United States army. She preceded him in death by several years. Three children survive them, viz .: Lora, wife of Charles McCreary; W. C., of San Francisco, now the head of the Electric Light Company, and Minnie C. Judge Clark achieved a splendid reputation while on the bench, as well as making a record which has hardly been equaled in the history of jurispru- dence in this country; i. e., in twenty years he had only one case reversed on appeal to the Supreme Court. He was the preceptor of many lawyers who afterward made distinguished names; in fact, it was said that he would not take a young man into his office who did not give promise of making a successful lawyer. Among his pupils were the Hon. M. M. Estee and Henry McCreary, whose early death shut out a career which gave every promise of a brilliant future.

OHIN KING ALEXANDER is one of those who, while not now residents of Sacra- mento, still have figured prominently as members of the bar in the past. IIe is a brother of D. E. Alexander, and was born at Brandon, Missouri, October 10, 1839. He was educated at Sacramento and is a graduate of the High School. He read law with George R. Moore, and a year after his admission to prac. tice in the Supreme Court, he formed a partner- ship with that gentleman, which continued until the latter's death in 1868. Some years later he became associated with John W. Arm- strong (now Superior Judge), and afterward

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with Add C. Hinkson. This partership con- tinued for three years, when it was dissolved, and Messrs. Alexander and A. C. Freeman were then associated until 1875, when Mr. Alexander left Sacramento. While here he held the office of district attorney one term. He removed to Salinas City, where, although a prominent Democrat, he, in 1879, at the first convention of the Republican party, after the creation of the office of Superior Judge, received the nomi- nation of the party for that high position, and was subsequently indorsed by the Democratic convention and elected. He was again chosen at the next election, this time on the straight Democratic ticket. His term expires in 1890. Judge Alexander's reputation as an able jurist is among the best, and as an evidence of that fact we quote from a decision of the Supreme Court of this State in the case of People vs. James, which was tried before him in the lower court, reported in the 57th California Reports, page 130, as follows: "The last point in- volves the correctness of the charge of the court, and the instructions to the jury: We have examined that part of the transcript with great care, and are obliged to say, in justice to the learned Judge who presided at the trial, that the charge to the jury is a very clear and able state- ment of the law of homicide. It is a long charge, completely covering all the points of the case, and is in our opinion entirely correct."

ERBY H. CANTRELL, a rancher of San Joaquin Township, was born in Ruther. ford County, Tennessee, April 30, 1818, the son of Ota and Eleanor (Cummins) Can- trell, natives also of Tennessee, who moved to Missonri,, near Kansas City, then called West- port, in 1830, and there followed farming. The father died there in 1846, aged about forty six or forty-seven years, and the mother lived there some eighteen years, and died about 1867. They had three sons and three daughters, three of whom grew up. Their grandfather, Stephen

Cantrell, served in the Revolutionary war, and their father in the war of 1812. In Stephen's family were four sons and three daughters, most of whom remained in their native county, Stephen and Ota being the only ones to leave there. Ota Cantrell went to Missouri in De- cember, 183-, with two sons. Shortly afterward they returned to Tennessee on horseback, and next spring he came by water, bringing the re- mainder of the family. Mr. Cantrell was brought np near Kansas City. When twelve years of age he helped to cut the first brush on the site of that town, in preparing to build a cabin. He remained with his mother until he was twenty-five years of age, during which time he made two trips to Mexico, being sent as captain of wagon trains with goods. He also made one trip to Omaha, at which point his nnele, Richard W. Cummins, was Indian agent. During the twenty-four or twenty-five years residence in Missouri he made frequent trips into what is now Kansas. Went once to Coun- cil Grove with provisions in 1848, on sleighs, passing the Shawnee agency; there were then no settlements in that region. They brought back some frozen men. In 1853, leaving their Missouri home on April 20, with about fifty head of cattle, mules and horses, two wagons and a family of four daughters, they came to California by way of the Platte River, Fort Kearney, south side of the North Platte, Fort Laramie, Sublette's cut-off, etc. Mrs. Cantrell was sick with a fever for a month during the latter part of the journey. After arrival here Mr. Cantrell purchased a squatter's claim to a ranch in San Joaquin Township, where he has ever since remained. On the claim there was only a small adobe house. Here he now has about 800 acres of land, where he prosecutes a good business in general farming, but more especially in stock-raising, having some fine horses, cattle and mules. Of cattle he has abont 250 head, of which fifty are graded stock. Thoroughbreds he thinks are better lett to specialists. He has also made some money in sheep. In this direction he made his first start

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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