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 57

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 57

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now, however, connected with the military. Judge Starr was married in Iroquois County, Illinois, July 20, 1845, to Miss Sarah Ann Ship- ley, a native of Burgettstown, Washington County, Pennsylvania. They have three living children, viz .: Albert (now inspector of build- ings, and sanitary inspector of Sacramento); Clara (wife of Seneca B. Wood), and Charles, a resident of this city. Judge Starr takes an act- ive interest in politics. From 1840 to 1860 he was a Democrat, and was elected to the Legis- lature as a Douglas Democrat, being the only one elected on the Legislative ticket. Since that time, however, he has been a strong and active Republican. Judge Starr is an able, forcible writer, and many of his newspaper ar- ticles have attracted wide-spread attention, nota- bly one on the subject of the annexation of Canada to the United States, which brought out some salient points which had been entirely overlooked, in favor of the position, and a copy of the article was called for by a leading East- ern member of Congress who is agitating the question.

JOL. PERRIE KEWEN, Assistant Adju- tant General of California, is a native of St. Louis, Missouri, born October 10, 1857, his parents being Col. E. J. C. and Frances (White) Kewen. The Whites were one of the oldest families of Virginia. The mother of the ma- ternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was an aunt to President Jefferson. Dr. Thomas Jefferson White, father of our subject's mother, was one of the most eminent and distinguished surgeons of his time, and a prominent public man. He had two brothers, Joseph M. White, Congressman from Georgia and honorary mem- ber of the Georgia Historical Society, who was appointed by President Jefferson to compile the laws for the government of the Mexican terri- tories subservient to the laws of the United States; the other brother, Philip White, repre-

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sented Florida in Congress for seventeen years, consecutively, and died in his seat in the House of Representatives. Dr. Thomas Jefferson White was one of the founders of the medical department of Jefferson (now Lee) College, and was the first surgeon to successfully transplant flesh. He came to California with the troops in 1849, and was in Sacramento in December of that year. He was a member of the first constitutional convention, and was Speaker of the House in the first Legislature. IFis wife was Frances Jane Perry, of Richmond, Vir- ginia, a daughter of John Perry. Dr. White died at Los Angeles, December 17, 1859. Col- onel E. J. C. Kewen, father of our subject, was a son of Captain Edward Kewen, of the Royal English Navy, who served in the Irish depart- ment of the channel squadron. He came to this country and was appointed on the staff of Gen- eral Andrew Jackson. He served with distinc- tion under that commander in the war with England, and was decorated for gallantry at the battle of New Orleans. He afterward became an Indian merchant, and later, was killed in a duel in Tennessee. He left three sons, the old- est of whom was the father of our subject. Colonel Edward J. C. Kewen, father of our sub- ject, was born at Columbus, Mississippi, No- vember 2, 1825. At thirteen years of age he became a student in the Wesleyan University, located at Middletown, Connecticut. He had been there some three years when the untoward speculations of his guardian hurried him to his Mississippihome; and on his arrival there to learn that his onee princely inheritance had dwindled down to a mere pittance. Thus reduced from affluence to comparative poverty, with his two younger brothers dependent upon his exertions for subsistence, he resolved upon the profession of the law. Ile betook himself to solitary study, with a persistenee and assiduity almost unpre- cedented in those of his extreme youth. He had reached the age of nineteen, with but few acquaintances and associations in his native town. This was in 1844, in the middle of a most exciting political contest. By some means

he was selected to deliver the opening address before what was then styled a "Clay Club." His primal efforts on that occasion acquired for him at once an extraordinary reputation for ora- tory. His extreme youth, peculiarity of style, copiousness of diction, earnestness and polish of inanner, gave him sudden and unwonted fame. He was seized npon by the leading spirits of the party to which he belonged, in a section of country distinguished for its eloquent men, as one of their most efficient speakers, and dis- patched to remote sections. The writer of the present notice has heard an incident illustrative of young Kewen's daring and fervid eloch- tion. At a prominent point in his native State the people of both parties had massed together to enjoy barbacned provisions and the attrac- tion of oratory. Two wbole days had passed away in social and political revel, but very mueh to the discomfiture of Whig doctrines. Such giants as George R. Clayton, and H. L. Harris, and John B. Cobb, from unaccountable reasons, had failed to present themselves to effulge upon the beanties and strength of a protective tariff and other germane Whig topies. In de- spair, and at the very finale of the meet- ing the young stranger Kewen, a beardless boy, was reluctantly thrown before them. He had now some experience, it is true, in public dec- lamation; and youth has its magnetism and sympathies; yet, they say, astonishment soon melted into earnest admiration, and the com- parative boy ran away with the hearts and the judgments of the serried crowd. Regardless of party discrimination, they did a strange thing for that region. They seized hold of the juve- nile orator as he finished his glowing peroration, and bore him aronnd upon their shoulders, and would not be content until he had given thein another specimen of his eloquence the same night, in a neighboring court-honse. Such tri- nmphs are very rare. After the election of 1844, Mr. Kewen became the editor of the Columbus Whig, and remained in that ocenpa- tion for two years. Removing to St. Louis, Missouri, for the purpose of practicing law, and

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meeting with peculiar success, we find him again upon the hustings after the nomination of Zach- ary Taylor for the Presidency. The papers of that day teem with the most extravagant en - cominms upon his oratorical abilities. In com. mendation of his forensic efforts, partisanship lost its rancor, for praise flew equally from his opponents and his friends. In his fervid pil- grimage he traversed several of the Middle and Sonthern States. The reader of this sketch has already detected in its subject a peculiar restless- ness so characteristic of men of his ardent tein- perament, and will not be surprised to learn that he became one of the innumerable throng that hurried to this western El Dorado forty years ago. Perhaps the blind boy, Dan Cupid, was one of the impelling causes of his sudden migration. It is very certain that he fell in with the caravan of Dr. Thomas Jefferson White and family, and meandered across the " plains " in their companionship and became the fortu- nate husband of the Doctor's accomplished daughter upon their arrival at Sacramento, De- cember 10, 1849,-this being the first Ameri- can wedding in California. It seems that his fame as an orator liad anteceded him. Some occasion prompting it, he was summoned to the rostrum the very day his weary footsteps first traversed the then primitive city of Sacramento; and his instantaneous popularity was evinced by his election to the responsible office of Attorney General, by the State Legislature soon after his advent upon our coast. This office he resigned, as it compelled his residence at a distance from his adopted city, in which he had sprung into a lucrative practice in his profession. If other evidence of moral and physical courage were wanting, his character in this respect was espe- cially manifest in his enlistment against the squatters, who, at that early period of our his- tory had banded in murderons clans. Under threats of assassination he boldly repaired to one of their convocations on the levee and snc- ceeded by the andacity of his tongue in dis- persing the threatening and insurrectionary crowd. In May, 1851, he was nominated as a

candidate on the Whig ticket for Congress, and it was in that canvass that he displayed the full maturity and strength of his peculiar powers. Often speaking several times during the same day, he seemed exhaustless in mind and body ; though successful, the small majority obtained by his opponent was a high compliment to the zeal and eloquence of Colonel Kewen in a State Democratic at the time by many thousand. Leaving Sacramento in the summer of 1852 for San Francisco, he practiced his profession in the latter city with eminent success, until his rest- less and daring mind drove him into a new career. His brother, A. L. Kewen, second in command to General William Walker, was shot and killed in the first battle of Rivas, Nicara- gua, in June, 1855. Thomas, the youngest of the three, had died the preceding year on the island of Tobago, in the Province of Panama. Alone in the world, and we may naturally sup- pose brooding in deepest melancholy over the early death of his only and loved kindred, it is not surprising that one of his ardent and gener- ous impulses would seek relief in the first dar- ing enterprise that offered. He was an intimate friend of General Walker, and had hitherto re- sisted his earnest importunities to embark in his wild adventure. Walker, now the military head of the new government, welcomed him with open arms, and at once commissioned him as the financial agent of the republic as well as judge advocate general on his staff; and it was not long before he became a member of a jndi- cial tribunal organized to adjust the rival claims of Vanderbilt and Garrison & Morgan. The result of the deliberations of that body was that Vanderbilt was indebted to the Rivas- Walker government to the amount of one-half million of dollars. Pending the decision, were fought the memorable battles of Rivas, Massaya and Granada, in each of which Colonel Kewen took an active part as aid to General Walker. Though disapproving the measure, Colonel Kewen was instructed to take possession of the steamers belonging to Commodore Vanderbilt, plying in Lake Nicaragua. That arbitrary and

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impolitic act, in which he was made the un- willing agent, resulted in the disastrous conse- quences that he predicted to his superior. It drove the powerful capitalist to collide with the authorities of Costa Rica, and eventually caused the ruin of the Walker dynasty. The Colonel was now dispatched upon an embassy to the Southern States of our Union for additional means and forces. Establishing his headquar- ters at Augusta, Georgia, he soon succeeded in rallying about him a force of eighty men, com- pletely equipped, with ample supplies of pro- visions. The enthusiasm with which he was greeted and the ready response made to his per- suasive appeals, are part of the history of our country. He had just negotiated with his former friends, Garrison and Morgan, the con- veyance to their destination of his forces and implements, when the news reached him of the capture of Walker by Commodore Paulding, under instructions from Washington, and so terminated the Rivas-Walker government, and with it were dashed the hopes of its most efficient and brilliant supporter. In December, 1857, the Colonel returned to San Francisco, and in January of the succeeding year became a citizen of Los Angeles, where he resided up to the time of his death. In his new abode the people have once elected him to the office of District Attorney, and have twice dispatched him to the lower branch of our State Legisla- ture. In the Presidential campaign of 1868 he was complimented with the highest number of votes as an elector on the Democratic ticket. We have thus sketched in brief the leading in- cidents in the life of one of our most prominent citizens. Perhaps no man is so thoroughly known within our State limits as Colonel E. J. C. Kewen. Of manners peculiarly genial, and a temperament ardent, enthusiastic and restless, and impulses generous and noble, and a tested courage more often mettlesome than discreet, charitable to profusion, he is essentially the finest type of his combined Celtic and Missis- sippi origin. Such men often provoke enmi-

ties, but only melt intu enduring friends. His oratorical abilities, so eminently peculiar. have often been condemned by those most fascinated by their display. Criticism has always been launched at eccentricity. The scholar, while he wonders, condemns the strange affluence of dic- tion that floats before him in such luxuriant profusion. Seldom before did man have such command of language. It is as exuberant as the monthly growth of the tropics, as gushing as the warble of the wild bird. Under proper control, and with the woof of logic, it is the richest gift of intelligence. Those that heard the Colonel some years since, wondered at and deplored this wild Inxnriance, did in later years admire how he had subjected this verbal wealth to logical control. Had Colonel Kewen con- fined himself, withont political and otl er devia- tion, to his profession, there is no doubt he would have attained in it the rarest eminence. He had not reached the full frnition of his powers, though he had the reputation un- « qualed upon our coast as an advocate and a public declaimer. The storms of his life are over. Colonel Kewen died of paralysis, on the 26th of November, 1879, at his beautiful home . El Molino," Los Angeles County, surrounded by his family. His accomplished wife survived him but a few months. Mrs. Kewen was a woman of the rarest qualities of mind and in- tellect, who endeared herself to all with whom she came in contact. She merited and received the highest tributes that loving friends could bestow upon one of the noblest works of God, "a perfect woman." Two children, a son and danghter, are all the family that survived them.

Colonel Perrie Kewen, with whose name this sketch commences, was but four months old when he accompanied his mother to California. Ile attended college at Santa Clara, and after- ward at St. Augustine Military Academy, but in 1876 he returned home, on account of his father's illness, to take charge of El Rancho del Molino. After his father's death he removed to San Francisco for the purpose of earning his

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own livelihood and that of his baby sister, and also to pursue the study of law. In the settle- ment of his father's estate, which was heavily encumbered with debt, and owing to the de- pression in real estate and the number of fail- ures at the time, he realized nothing from what was supposed to have been a rich inheritance. Shortly after his arrival in San Francisco he accepted the position of bailiff of the Supreme Court, which he held but a short time, having been appointed private secretary to Chief Jus- tice R. F. Morrison. He held this position five years, and resigned it in 1886. In the meantime, and in conjunction with that posi- tion, he had studied law and was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court of California, on the 24th day of July, 1881, and in 1883 was appointed Registrar and acting Dean of the law department, University of California, which post he resigned November 27, 1886. His military career is quite extended. He enlisted as a private in Battery A, Second Regiment of Artillery, March 13, 1882; promoted Corporal May 1, 1882; First Lieutenant, June 26, 1882; promoted Captain and Aid-de-Camp, staff of General W. H. Dimond, Second Brigade, Feb- rnary 24, 1883; promoted Colonel and Assist- ant Adjutant-General of California, May 12, 1886. He has served on the staffs of General Stoneman, of Governor Bartlett, and of Gov- ernor Waterman, and has also served as Acting Adjutant-General at various times since 1886. Colonel Perrie Kewen has inherited many of the traits and characteristics of his father. Perhaps no young man is so well known within our State, possessing as he does the secret of popularity, whereby he makes friends easily and retains tliein. Of manners polislied and refined, peculiarly genial, a temperament ardent, enthu- siastic, with impulses generous and noble, he is ever found the amiable and hospitable gentle- man. Colonel Kewen is a member of the San Francisco Society, California Pioneers. In Sac- ramento he is a member of Eureka Lodge, No. 4, I. O. O. F., Union Degree Lodge, No. 2, and Pacific Encampment, No. 1. Colonel Kewen

comes of a historic family, inany of whose mem- bers have figured prominently and with honor in State and National affairs.

JOHNSTON, one of the well-known old Californians now and for many years resident in Sacramento, is a native of Kittanning, Pennsylvania, born June 30, 1827. His father, J. R. Johnston, was a native of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, a fariner and a tanner by trade. His mother, whose maiden name was Isabella Matthews, was also a native of Pennsylvania. David Johnston, the subject of this sketch, was reared at Kittanning, there read law, and for a time served as clerk of the Orphans' Court of the county. On the 14th of October, 1852, he was married, and on the same day started for California. The next week he was in New York city, and on the 21st they left there on the steamer Cortez. He was de- tained at Panama a week, waiting for the steamer on the Pacific side, and landed at San Francisco November 23, 1852. The great fire had occurred at Sacramento while they were on their way, and in December came the great flood here. Mr. Johnston remained in San Francisco that winter, and the following spring came to Sacramento. From here he proceeded to Bear River, in Nevada County, fourteen miles below Grass Valley. As the children grew up it was thought proper to remove the family to the vicinity of educational institu- tions, and in 1868 they came to Sacramento, where they have since resided, and where Mr. Johnston has his headquarters for the transac- tion of his business as a mining and United States land claim attorney. The field of lis operations covers this land district, including Amador, Placer, El Dorado, Calaveras and Ne- vada counties. Mrs. Johnston was, before her marriage, Miss Nancy S. Glass, a native of Pennsylvania. Her father was a prominent man and had been treasurer of Alleghany County, Pennsylvania. Her second brother,

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J. P. Glass, was a Colonel in Siekles' celebrated corps during the war of the Rebellion. Both of her parents died in Pennsylvania. 'Mr. and Mrs. Johnston have three living children, viz .: Robert G., who is with Wells-Fargo Express Company, Sacramento; A. J., of the large printing house of A. J. Johnston & Co., Sacra- mento, and Belle, wife of W. H. Prouty, of Truckee. Mr. Johnston had a brother among the pioneers of California,-J. R. Johnston, who came here in 1849, and died in Placer County, January 6, 1888. His parents also came to this State, and his father died in Ne- vada County, August 12, 1860. His mother is yet living. She was born in the summer of 1809. Mr. Johnston has passed the chairs in Eureka Lodge, I. O. O. F., and Pacific Eneamp- inent, No. 2; is a veteran Odd Fellow, and has been a member of the Grand Lodge. He has a tract of land about three miles from Auburn, embracing 700 aeres, and there pays considera- ble attention to fruit-growing. He has 7,000 fruit trees, among them 1,000 olives and pears, the remainder being peaches, cherries, oranges, etc. Ile also has about 12,000 vines of table grapes, among them White Muscat, Rose of Pern, Flaming Tokay, and Black Moroeco. Mr. Johnston was elected a member of the Board of Education of Sacramento city, and served for two years.

UDGE GEORGE A. BLANCHARD .- Among the representative members of the bar of Sacramento to-day is the gentleman with whose name this sketch commences. He is a native of Erie County, New York, born April 15, 1848, and son of George G. and Phi- linda (Keyes) Blanchard. The latter was a native of New Hampshire, and her grandfather, an Irish Presbyterian, settled in the town of Derry in that State. The Blanchardg are an old New England family. The paternal grand- father of the subject of this sketch, a Massachu- setts man, removed after his marriage, to Antrim,

New Hampshire, thence afterward to Aurora, New York, and finally to Jamestown, Chantau- qua County, New York, where he bought from Mr. Seward, agent, a farm of the Holland Pur- chase, early in the '50's. He still lives at the farm, at an advanced age. George G. Blanch- ard, father of the subject of this sketch, was educated at Jamestown Academy, but his brothers were all Dartmonth graduates. Ile was married at Jamestown, and moved to Erie County, where he taught school. His wife died while he was there, and soon after he left there and went Sonth, where he resumed teaching. He afterward migrated to Wisconsin, and from there came to California across the plains. Ar- riving in this State, he first engaged in mining in Nevada County, and afterward removed to El Dorado County, where he mined and followed saw-milling and lumbering. He finally em- barked in the legal profession, made his mark as a lawyer, and is now one of the leading mem- bers in the profession. George A. Blanchard, subject of this mention, was reared at James- town, New York, to the age of twelve years, when he came to California via Panama, taking passage at New York on the Northern Light, and landing at San Francisco from the Golden Gate in May, 1861, just after the breaking ont of the civil war. He went to the town of El Dorado and was there prepared for college by sundry learned college men from Yale, Am- herst, and other celebrated institutions of learn- ing, all of which contributed their quota to the personnel of the California mining eamps. At the age of sixteen years he went to Dartmouth College, was matriculated, went through the four years' academic course, and was gradnated in the class of 1868. He then went to Buffalo, New York, and there studied law with Ainos A. Blanchard, who had studied law with Millard Fillmore, in the firm of Fillmore, Hall & Haven. During this time he was deputy clerk of the Superior Court of Buffalo, in which Grover Cleveland had practiced. Ile was ad- initted to the bar on examination, in the eighth judicial circuit of the Supreme Court of New

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York, Judge Richard P. Marvin, presiding judge, in November, 1869. The next spring he came back to California, and in 1871 he came to Sacramento by invitation of Attorney- General John Lord Love, to take the position of Assistant Attorney-General in his office. He so continued during four years, and for a con- siderable portion of the time was acting Attor- ney-General. At the expiration of General Love's term of office, and after one month with his successor, Jo. Hamilton, Mr. Blanchard opened an office on the corner of Second and K. streets, Sacramento, and soon afterward formed a partnership with W. C. Van Fleet (now judge), and the firm of Blanchard & Van Fleet moved into the office vacated by Henry Edger- ton, corner of Sixth and I streets. That was in 1875. Mr. Blanchard was elected District At- torney in 1878, and Mr. Van Fleet conducted the civil business of the firm until 1880, when the partnership was dissolved. At the expira- tion of his term as District Attorney Mr. Blanchard was appointed Assistant Attorney- General by General A. L. Hart, and served first in this capacity under the new constitution. About a year and a half later he was appointed by Governor Perkins to fill the vacancy on the Superior bench of Colusa County, caused by the death of Judge Hatch. He served out the unexpired term, was nominated for the position by the Republican convention, and at the en- suing election failed of being chosen for the position by 140 votes, though there was a Democratic majority in the county of 1,000, and this though he had never been in the county previous to his appointment as judge. Ile practiced law there until January 1, 1888, when he came to Sacramento and formed the present partnership with Judge Amos P. Cat- lin. Judge Blanchard was married to Miss Annie L. Hatch, daughter of Dr. F. W. Hatch, deceased, mention of whom appears elsewhere in this volume. Judge Blanchard has always taken an active part in public affairs and in the Republican party organization. He was a mem- ber of the State Central Committee for Colusa

County, and was a member of the State Con- vention of 1886. It is generally conceded that he could have had the nomination for Attorney- General had he so desired. His record on the bench and at the bar place him in the front rank of the legal profession.

ANDWIN H. McKEE, auditor of the city of Sacramento, has been a resident of the city since 1855. He is a native of Ver- mont, born at Essex, Chittenden County, on the 16th of May, 1847. His father, George McKee, a native of Ireland, came to America with his parents when a mere child. He was reared in New York State, and in Vermont, and in the latter State was married to Miss Mary M. Curtis. In 1852 he joined the throng of emigration to California, making the journey via Panama, and landing at San Fran- cisco. He was soon engaged in mining, and followed that occupation at Mokelumne Hill, Hangtown, Michigan Bar, and other places. In 1855 he was joined at Sacramento by his wife and two sons, Homer L. and Edwin H. Ed- win H. McKee was reared to manhood in Sacramento, and was educated in her schools. At the age of seventeen years he commenced the moulder's trade in the shops of the Cen- tral Pacific Railroad, and when he had reached his majority. was a journeyman. He con-

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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