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 42

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 42

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Sonora, and thus won their friendship. One day a soldier came to him with a piece of rock, asking what it was. It proved to be ore of al- most fabulous richness. Guided by the soldier, he went to the spot and saw that it was truly rich as a dreamı. Later he located the mine, calling it the Dos Hermanos, erected smelting works and began operations. The mine was equal to its promise and he made inoney, carry- ing his bullion to Hermosillo, where it was turned into coin. Of course, it was necessary in that lawless country to exercise the greatest cantion lest a band of roving Yaqui Indians or bandits should find out he had money and raid him. All went well, however, until one day the Doctor befriended two deserters from the Amer- iean army. They must have leagued themselves with the Yaquis; for one afternoon when A. A. Light, the Doctor's brother, had gone to a dis- tant stream to bathe and the Doctor was seated at his door with his nephew, a band of Indians appeared and began to speak to him. Suddenly he was seized from behind and at the same time felt the sting of a bullet wound. A tussel be- gan, for the Doctor is a man of nerve and sinew like steel. Again and again he was wounded, when he made his way to the door, thrust it open against the efforts of the deserters inside, and found that his weapons had been thrown upon the floor from the wall where they had hung. Groping for them with eyes half blinded by blood, he fortunately found a rifle and car- tridges, and then began a terribly uneqnal bat- tle. The roof of the adobe was set on fire and other damage done, but in the end victory remained with the Doctor, though he was wounded in five places and was there alone. His nephew had been stretched dead at the first vol- ley, and the brother had been killed at the river; but five of the Yaquis fell to the Doctor's unerring aim, and his fame as a marksman de- terred the wretches from another attack. The burned roof fell in upon the house, covering up money and all other valnables, and a rain next day converted all to ruins. Undaunted, Doctor Light stayed by the place, although suffering

Howells Clark

Anna & black

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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.

painfully from his wounds and having to keep his gun beside him night and day and be inces- · santly watchful. Ile had an Indian hoy, who alone remained with him, gather up the rubbish in the house which contained his money and valuables, and wash away the dirt; and even him he had to threaten with death and make him strip naked to keep him from stealing. Dr. Light finally left the mine to be worked by others on commission, who remained however but a short time. He came to Sacramento to form a company of trusty people and return to his mine; but, failing to find men he wanted, he abandoned the enterprise. He was the more readily induced to do this as our Government was then preferring claims against Sonora which it was thought would lead to the annexation of that State. Amongst these is Dr. Light's elaim, reckoned at $500,000. Dr. Light was married to Mrs. C. M. Weber, a lady of unusual talent as a writer, artist and botanist. Unfor- tunately, a considerable portion of the fruits of the labors both of the Doctor and his lady were destroyed by the fire of 1852. She died in Mexico. Dr. Light is a man of peculiar and independent views, a true friend to the suf- fering and the poor, for whom many an act of charity has been performed, quietly and unosten- tationsly. He is a capital story teller. His snug home on I street is a museum of curious and instructive things. He is a member of the Masonic order, and holds pronounced views against the use of tobacco and liquors, and is a believer in "free-thought."

OWELL CLARK, a prominent member of the Sacramento Society of California Pio- neers and an eminent citizen of the Capi- tal City, was born in Genesee County, New York, June 3, 1811. His father was a farmer and when the subject of this sketch was but two years old the family removed to Ohio, and two or three years afterward to Wood County, in West Virginia, on the Ohio River, where they 18

lived four years. Subsequently they moved to Fountain County, Indiana, among the earliest settlers on Osborn's Prairie, at the same time that Jesse Osborn first settled there. Later they removed into Vigo County, near Terre Hante. Young Clark, the second son, contin- ned to work on the farm and in a saw and grist mill until he became of age. Abont this time his uncle, Chester Clark, of Philadelphia, started extensively in the mercantile business, having at one time seven stores along the Wabash River; and in one of these he gave his nephew a position as elerk and soon afterward the entire management of the business of that house. Two years afterward he and a man named Asa Geer bought an interest in one of these stores, and fin- ally Mr. Geer retired from the business. Mr. Clark then continued the store alone, and also shipped produce, principally corn, on flat-boats to the New Orleans market. These and other enter- prises occupied his attention during the years 1846-'48, when, his health becoming impaired, he secured his brother, Jere Clark, to take charge of his business affairs, and started for California, hoping to improve his health. The party which he joined was made up in Clark County, Illinois, consisting of fifteen persons, with five wagons and two yoke of oxen to each wagon; and they left Darwin, that county, April 2, 1849, for the golden West. At St. Louis they purchased their provisions, and also at the United States Arsenal at that city ear- bines and holster pistols for their five horses, fit- ting themselves out as dragoons, for defense in case of emergency. They journeyed up the Platte River and through the South Pass to the north of Salt Lake by what was called the Sublette cut-off, thence by the head-waters of Snake River to those of the Humboldt and down the latter to the Lassen cut-off, which led to the head- waters of Pit River, near the Oregon line. Thus far they had no serious trouble with the Indians; but here, after getting over the backbone of the mountains, the Indians one dark night stole or killed about half of their oxen. To this point they had hanled a good supply of side bacon,

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coffee, flour, etc., which they could take no further in its entirety. They therefore took what they conveniently could and stacked up the rest by the side of the road, putting a notice upon it for all persons to help themselves. The company had from the start a captain and a treasurer -- offices held by the subject of this sketch-and their general method was to stop each day early enough to give their cattle time to eat before dark. They formed their wagons in a circle around their camp, and at dusk they brought their oxen in and tied them to the out- side wheels of the wagons. One man would guard the cattle until midnight, another until morning, and then a third while they were feed- ing. Two men did all the cooking for one week, and two others the next, and so on. After their loss on Pit River they proceeded southward by the foot of Lassen's Peak, emerging from the monntains at Deer Creek near Peter Lassen's, in the Sacramento Valley, October 13, 1849, after having been six months on the journey. After resting and feasting a few days on tender beef, etc., at $1 a meal, the company dissolved. Mr. Clark with one or two others went to Long's Bar, a short distance above where Oro- ville now is, on the Feather River, where they stopped during the winter and spring of 1849- '50, following mining along the banks of the river. In the spring Mr. Clark went seventy- five or 100 miles up into the mountains, near the middle fork of Feather River, and estab- lished a trading post and herding ranch in American Valley, where now is located Quincy, the county seat of Plumas County. In this en- terprise a partner from Missouri named Thomas Thing took what money Mr. Clark had and a horse, and went down the Sacramento to pur- chase supplies,-which was the last ever known of him or the horse. Mr. Clark had paid $200 for the horse. He conducted the business alone, and in two or three months cleared about $1,000. Ile was the first and only resident of that valley in 1850. Returning to Long's Bar on the Feather River, he entered mercantile business with one J. T. Elliott for that winter. The

next spring he formed a copartnership with a cousin, Lewis Clark, from Beloit, Wisconsin, and established a store at Gray Eagle, on the middle fork of the American River, in El Do- rado County, and later at Battle Hill, near Georgetown, saine county. They purchased considerable real estate in and near Sacramento, and in 1856 they closed business and returned East by the Isthmus of Panama to New York. A year and a half afterward Mr. Clark came again to California, and has made his home here ever since. He has been twice married, first to Miss Marietta Parsons, in 1844, and again to Anna E. Galloup, a native of Rhode Island, and brought up in Leominster, Massachusetts. His elegant house was built six years ago on ground which he has occupied ever since 1856. Thirty years ago he set out with his own hands a mag- niticent vineyard here, mostly of Mission grapes, which is still in its prime. He is now seventy- eight years of age, and though his life has been a checkered one, he is as well preserved and active as most men who are twenty years younger. Since he came to California he has held many positions of trust, although never a politician. He has been a deputy United States Marshal and a member of the commission to secure lands for the building of the railroad shops. On his father's side his genealogy can be traced six generations back, to one Edmund Clark, who came from London in 1635, in the ship Speedwell (inate of the Mayflower, Joe Chapell, master), and settled in Lynn, Massa- chusetts.

ON. JOHN W. ARMSTRONG, Judge of the Superior Court of Sacramento County, was born in 1834, in Fountain County, Indiana, and his parents moved to Missouri in 1839. His schooling was obtained during the short sessions of a country school and from the careful training of good parents. Having in- herited a somewhat rheumatic tendency in his right leg, he soon perceived that a farmer's

RESIDENCE AND PROPERTY OF HOWELL CLARK, ESQ., SACRAMENTO.

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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.

life, which was that of his father, could never serve him as a calling, and accordingly, when twelve years of age, he bound himself as an apprentice to a blacksmith in the neighbor- hood, his father having died in the meantime without leaving much property. His master in the shop proved to be an unpleasant one and picked a quarrel with young Armstrong; and the latter was too independent and self-reliant to submit to such an ill-nature. On the follow- ing morning his mother gave him a lunch and he started afoot for St. Joseph, the nearest large town. Reaching there, he seated himself upon the railing of the public fountain, ate his lunch, washing down with a basin of water, and, hear- ing the ring of a blacksmith's anvil near by, songht out the shop and in an hour had his apron on and was at work. Later he learned plow- making at another shop, was engaged at iron- ing wagons at a third place, and in the summer of 1851 was employel at mill work at Colum- bus. He then determined to come to Cali- fornia, although he had but $10 money besides what he had packed upon his back, and started afoot. Reaching the month of the Platt River, he found a drove of some 500 head of cattle belo iging to Martin Pomery & Co., waiting to cross. Drivers being wanted, he was employed to drive loose cattle. Reaching the North Platte it was necessary to cross that river by making the cattle swim; but they would not enter. Young Armstrong then proposed that he should be given a yoke of oxen with whichi to swim the river first, when the rest of the cattle would follow. The plan was successful, young Arm- strong swimming the cold river no less than twenty-one times! That night he lay out on an island, and in the morning woke witlı a dis- abled right leg. He was therefore carried in a wagon or rode upon a mule until they came to Truckee, where most of the men, including Mr. Armstrong, were discharged, without provisions or means to buy any. Mr. Armstrong's leg had swollen to a great size, and to ease the continnal pain he opened it with his knife, while on the Mary's river (now the Humboldt), letting out a

great volume of morbid matter. Desperate, he set out with two companions, John Scott and John Hannan, over what they understood was a short ent to Marysville. After two days' travel- ing, without meeting any one, he was so exhausted and the pain so unbearable that he threw him- self on the ground and begged the others to leave him! They manfully refused, declaring they would carry him first. Nerved by this, he started again, and to their joy soon after they saw a flag appearing over the trees, and were soon at the hotel at Rough and Ready camp, kept by John Magruder. He was generous and took care of the penniless wayfarer until he was able to go out. He first secured a job as dishwasher in a mine boarding house, but in a short time was promoted to be blacksmith, taking the place of a man who had gone off on a drunken spree. With $40 earned there, he came by way of Marysville to Sacramento, ar- riving in the fall of 1852. After a time he obtained employment at his trade of plow- making, at a shop at the corner of Sixth and K" streets; but the flood of that year drove him both out of work and out of the city. He then worked at his trade in San Francisco for a time. The disadvantages of his imperfect early educa- tion were very manifest to him, and, like Elihn Burritt, he had set himself to study while an ap- prentice boy by his forge, perfecting himself in English branches and gaining a fair amount of Latin. Having fortunately discovered his elder sister in San Francisco, who had preceded him to California in 1844, with the famous Murphy party, and was happily married, by her assist- ance he was enabled to go to Santa Clara and take a course of study at the University of the Pacific. The name of his sister appears in the first census ever taken of San Francisco, in 1846. She was married first to a Mr. Mont- gomery in Missouri and later to Senator Wallis, of Santa Clara. Her son, T. H. Wallis, is now State Librarian at Sacramento. Return- ing to San Francisco, Mr. Armstrong began the study of law, spending portions of his time in different offices, among others those of F. A.

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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.

Fabeus and Oscar L. Shafter, a former Judge of the Supreme Court. In 1855 he was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of this State and for a time practiced with some success in San Francisco. He then followed his rofes- sion for over eleven years in Jackson, Amador County, with signal success, for a portion of the time with the late Senator Farley; and finally, in the fall of 1868. he came to Sacramento where he has since resided, building up a good practice, establishing himself firmly in the esteem and confidence of the people. He was first appointed judge in 1883 by Governor Stoneman to fill an unexpired term, and in 1886 he was appointed to fill the same po- sition It is a coincidence worthy of notice that he was first appointed by the first official act of Governor Stoneman and the second time by his last official act. The Governor then remarked, " The first shall be last and the last shall be first." At the last election Judge Armstrong was chosen by the people for the same position. As a judge he is dispassionate and irreproachable. Politically he has always been a consistent Democrat; but to his present position he was practically elected by Republican votes, as the county has a Republican majority of 1,500, thus showing. his great popularity. He was, first married Angust 29, 1863, but during the succeeding year his wife died. September 29, 1866, he married Miss Annie E. Hinkson, a native of Missouri. They have no children. It should be further stated that Judge Armstrong served for twelve years as trustee of the State library, which institution he was chiefly instru- inental in building up.

EORGE WASHINGTON HACK is a na- tive of the State of New York, born April 25, 1846, his parents being George and Mary . (Jenkinson) Hack. His parents emi- grated from England immediately after their marriage in 1844, and were residents of New York State for about four years. In 1849 they

moved to Calhoun County, Michigan, where Mr. Hack bought eighty acres of land which he cultivated until 1852, when he came to Califor- nia, leaving his family behind until he should have tried his fortune here. He followed min- ing for two years, and then went to making shingles in the redwood country one year. In 1855 he bought forty acres of fruit lard on the Sacramento below Freeport, and brought ont his wife and three children. Four children were born to them in this county. The mother died in 1882, aged sixty-two years; the father, born in 1818, is still living. George W. Hack re- ecived a rather limited education in the district school, as he began to assist upon the farm at an early age. He has plowed more or less from the age of eleven. At twenty-one he was placed by his father in charge of 160 acres bọnght in 1865, near the Six-mile House on the Lower Stockton road, which he has since paid for and enlarged by other purchases to 515 acres, to which he has given the name of Pleas- ant Farm, and on which he has erected a hand- some two-story brick residence. He does a general farming business, in which wheat is the chief product. Mr. Hack was married in No- vember, 1869, to Miss Berdenia Frances Keys, a native of this county, daughter of William and Harriet (Beach) Keys, both families being American for several generations. Her father died in 1870, aged forty-nine; the mother, born in 1827, is still living. Grandfather Beach lived to the age of eighty-one, and grandmother Beach was about eighty when she died. Mr. and Mrs. Hack are the parents of one daughter, Clara E., born in 1870. She has received a dis- triet school education, and private lessons in music. Instead of a higher school education she prefers the quiet bnt effective tutelage of her parents.in the calm seclusion of her happy home. Mr. Hack has more than supplied the deficiency of his early education by private study and extensive reading, and is to-day a well educated man much above the average. Ile is a member of Sacramento Grange, No. 12, meeting in Grangers' IIall, Sacramento; also

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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.

of Sacramento County Pomona Grange, No. 2, which meets in the same hall. In the former he has held four offices ranging from the lowest to the highest, having been master in 1886, and district lecturer in 1888; and has also been dis- trict lecturer of Pomona Grange. He is now a director of the Co-operative Business Associa- tion of Sacramento Valley, which has its head- quarters at Tenth and K streets, Sacramento, having been elected to that office in Jannary, 1889, for three years; and of the Farmers' Mn- tal Fire Association of Sacramento Connty, serving his second term. The family are mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which meets every Sabbath in the Pacific School build- ing, five miles south of Sacramento on the Lower Stockton road; and in its Sabbath- school Mr. and Mrs. Hack are zealous teachers.

RS. PRISCILLA POLLOCK, ranch- owner, in Cosnmnes Township, was born in Pennsylvania, June 22, 1828, her parents being David and Mary (McMillan) Mc- Kee-Scotch-Irish by birth or descent. Both grandmothers of Mrs. Pollock were quite old when they died. In 1833 the family moved to Illinois, and in 1835 to Iowa, where they settled on a farm near Montrose. In 1845 they moved to Conncil Bluffs, where both parents are buried. The subject of this sketch was married at Conn- cil Bluffs, December 3, 1846, to James Pollock, born in Ireland about 1810, his parents being Thomas and Rebecca (Simpson) Pollock. The father died in County Tyrone, Ireland, and the mother, in Stark County, Illinois, in 1841. James Pollock has been twice married and had one surviving child by each wife. Mr. and Mrs. Pollock remained one winter in Council Bluffs, and in 1847 set out for California, but spent some months in Salt Lake City, where their first child, John, was born, December 4. 1847. When the babe was two months old they resumed their journey and spent the win- ter of 1848-'49 at what is now Placerville. In

1849 they went to Mormon Island, where Mr. Pollock was engaged with others in digging the race or new channel for the American River. The winter of 1849-'50 was spent at the new diggings in Amador County. He had by this time accumulated $16,000 in gold dust, which he loaned to Mayor Bigelow with Barton Lee as security. By the untimely death of the for- mer and the failure of the latter, Mr. Pollock lost his money. He tried mining again on Mormon Island without success, and in 1851 went to farming on a portion of the Sheldon grant, where he remained about four years. In 1855 he bought the ranch, 200 acres of which are still owned by Mrs. Pollock, on the Ply- month road, twenty-three miles from Sacra- mento, extending back to the Cosumnes. In 1858 he built near the river a two-story stone residence of nine rooms, and a large barn with stone basement, nsed at present by the renter of the ranch. There are about ten acres of orchard, and the rest is devoted to grain and alfalfa. The family resides in a modern two- story frame honse of nine rooms, built by Mrs. Pollock in 1886, and surrounded by a nice flower, fruit and vegetable garden. Mr. Pol- lock died February 28, 1875, leaving five chil- dren by this marriage; and their mother, whose oldest child, John, had died Jannary 13, 1868. The surviving children, all born in this State, are: Mary Jane, born March 14, 1849, now Mrs. Philip Waggoner, of this township, has two children, Elizabeth, born June 25, 1879, and Philip, born December 20, 1883; Robert, born May 13, 1851, was married to Miss Alice Goodwin, a native of Oregon, and has one child living, Frank, born December 25, 1878, now living with his grandmother; Rebecca M., born February 10, 1854, now Mrs. William Frank McFadden, of Sacramento, has one child, Mabel, born April 14, 1877; William Henry, born February 20, 1856, died unmarried January 26, 1884; Priscilla Ann, born July 13, 1862, lives at home, a very special help and comfort to her mother in her declining years; IIughjene, born January 16, 1866, also makes his home with

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his mother, varied with occasional employment elsewhere. One child, Samuel, born January 30, 1861, died in his infancy, February 15, 1861.

LIVER SANDERS was born in Wood- stock, Connecticut, December 25, 1825, his parents being Oliver and Nancy (Paine) Sanders. His grandfather Sanders was also named Oliver, and a native of Rhode Island, where his father also was born, in Glou- cester. His maternal great-grandfather fought in the Revolutionary war, and his grandfather, Amos, was known as Major Paine. He died about 1842, aged eighty-two. His father was a farmer in Connecticut, and the subject of this sketch lived on it, with occasional absences on coasting voyages, until 1849. He received a common-school education, supplemented by a course in the local academy. February 17, 1849, he left New York city for California, by way of Cape Horn, in the ship Henry Lee, of the Hartford Union Mining and Trading Com- pany, and arrived in San Francisco on Septem- ber 17, being seven months, less four days, at sea. He mined only one month, when, being in what is now Sacramento, on an errand, he was . offered by Charles Howlett, a comrade of the late voyage, $300 a month to join him in the butchering business for Robinson, Van Cott & King. Robinson after ward died Supreme Judge, at Honolulu, Sandwich Islands. The flood of that winter closed the deal, and he then joined two others, one being John Gilbert, another comrade of the voyage, all three engaging in the business of draying, with two or three teams, according to the pressure of business. They hauled more lumber and other building material than any concern in that line. He went through the cholera of 1850 in safety, but not being very well he was advised to go to the Napa Valley Mountains for the benefit of his health. He went, accompanied by seven others, of whom one, George Davis, died of cholera, and brought back a lot of venison for Thanks-

giving, November 29, 1850, besides a slangh- tered bear, for which they received $375, and 88 apiece for the four quarters of the skin, which were bought at that price, merely to or- vament the harnesses of some opulent draymen. Once they brought in a load of nineteen deer, most of which was thrown into the Jack River, there being no sale on account of cholera, the city being deserted. Money was so flush that on July 4 of that year he and one of his part- ners were paid $50 for the forenoon's work in nnloading and hauling for Webster & Co. It was said that the cashier of that firm was paid $1,200 a month for his services. Mr. Sanders and his brother were paid $100 for playing their violins for one night for a dancing party at "Buckner's." In 1851 Mr. Sanders sold out his interest in the teaming business, and came out to the Cosumnes, expecting to go into partnership with Reynolds, a rancher, in the hay-cutting business. That arrangement having fallen through, he went to work for $150 per month wages, and received a possessory title to 160 acres for his pay. The title was contested and he sold out to the owner of the land-grant title, Emanuel Pratt, being promised $1,000, but actually receiving only $600. In 1853 he went to butchering at Michigan Bar, where he remained until 1857. He was a member of the police force of Sacramento for about two years. He had bought a sqnatter's possessory right to 160 acres in the Hartnell grant, and in 1858 he bought of Hartnell's agent, for $1,000, one-half mile by four miles (more or less) frontage on the Cosumnes, and four miles deep, covering the 160 acres already bonght. His father having died in May, 1858, he went East in April, 1859, and returned by way of the Isthmus, leaving New York about February 5, 1860, and arriving in Sacramento in March, 1860. Mr. Sanders was married in December, 1862, to Miss Emina Sanzé, a native of London, her father being French and her mother English. They had emigrated to Salt Lake City in 1854, Mrs. San- ders being then only seven years of age. Find- ing themselves deceived, the father stole away,

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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