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 71

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 71

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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.

tion of the mules he decided to walk. It was during the rainy season and his journey can be better imagined than described. On reaching the coast he took passage on the steamer Cor- tez for San Francisco, where he remained but eight days, then came to Sacramento by boat, remaining here during 1852-'53, engaged in the wood business with his brother, Henry Stewart. He was here during the flood and re- members it well; they used their ox team and wagon as a ferry-boat to transfer people, as well as merchandise, about the city. In the spring his brother purchased a ranch and employed him for the following year at $675. In January, 1854, he took up 320 acres of land, where he now lives, fourteen miles from Sacramento, on the upper Stockton road, which at that time was a vast plain covered with the roving herds of Spanish cattle. After being in California twenty-one years he returned East on a visit to his old father and mother, seeing them for the last time, as he has never been back since. His ranch is now one of the best ranches in the county. Ile does a general farming business and has five acres in vineyard. He was married November 4, 1858, to Miss Jane E. Thompson, daughter of Thomas J. Thompson, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this book. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart have seven children, viz .: Mary, born October 28, 1860; Henry C., February 2, 1865, and died July 23, 1884; Samuel P., born De- cember 1, 1867; Fannie, born May 30, 1869, died February 11, 1888; Jennie, October 14, 1873; Norman I., April 9, 1877; and John II., October 30, 1884.

H. STEWART was born in the town of Williamstown, Massachusetts, April 28, 1823, of Scotch parents. He learned the carpenter's trade at Oswego, New York. In early manhood he married Miss Charlotte Woodworth, and made his home at Rockford, Illinois, until 1850, when he came to California. After remaining two years in the upper part of

the State he went East for his family, and re- turned with them to his new home. Subse- quently he removed to Cloverdale, Sonoma County, where his wife died, leaving him two sons, Clarence and Richard, who are now citi- zens of this county. In 1858 he married Miss Martha D. Kenfield, the good wife who for twenty-nine years, with incessant affection, has ministered to his every want during his abiding affliction,-paralysis of the lower limbs, render- ing him a cripple for life, unable to walk with- out aid,-which came upon him in 1859, the effect of hardships endured in early manhood. In 1865 he came to San Bernardino and pur- chased a valnable property, and from that time has been one of the foremost workers in the ad- vancement of the material interests of that county. He was one of the projectors of the Silk Center Association, by which the water of Santa Ana River was diverted upon the then barren plains of Jurupa at Riverside, where are now nestled among the orange groves thousands of happy homes. While acquiring for himself that com- petence he has enjoyed and now leaves to his family, he has at the same time enabled others to do that tending to their prosperity. As a friend he was steadfast and true in fair weather and foul; as he was tender in sympathy for the misfortunes of his neighbors, so was he cheerful in their prosperity. With him, in all the rela- tions of husband, father and friend and brother, the whole flow of years has borne a uniform flow of affectionate regard and unselfish love.

OHN B. WILLIAMS, proprietor of the Michigan Bar Pottery, was born in Eng- land April 7, 1844, his parents being J. S. B. and Hannah Elizabeth (Pawsey) Williams. The father was a physician, and the family is well connected, more especially on the mother's side, several of her immediate relatives ranking pretty high in the East India Company. One of Mr. Williams' cousins, a certain Mr. Simp- son, who was in California in 1847, and went

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from here to Australia, is now the owner of many millions in England. J. B. Williams ran away from home in 1854, and went to sea in a vessel bound for St. John's, New Brunswick, and went back in April or May, 1856. He was then apprenticed to an uncle, George J. Pawsey, a brick-mason and builder. Early in 1858 he again ran away and went to New Zealand. Re- turning to England and his trade, he became a skilled workinan in that line. Yielding once again to his roving disposition, he camne to this country in 1861, but with no intention of mak- ing his home here, and after some wanderings went back to his home and settled down to work. Mr. Williams was inarried in England, Angust 21, 1866, to Miss Susannah Sach, a daughter of John and Mary Ann (Bowtell) Sach. The father is still living in England, aged sixty-four, and the mother died there at the age of forty-seven. The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Williams, Emma L., was born in England May 2, 1867. She is now doing business as dressmaker on her own account in San Fran- cisco. Mr. Williams set out for America with a view to make it his permanent home in 1869, arriving in New York the day after Christmas, and getting to Chicago, January 2, 1870. He worked at his trade in that city, and was there joined by his wife and child in June, 1870. He grew with Chicago, and took contracts of vari- ous kinds in brick-work. The rebuilding of that city after the great fire of October 9, 1871, increased his opportunities, and he profited by them .. In August, 1874, he left Chicago for California, and went into business in San Fran- cisco in 1875 as contractor for sewer pipe and brick-work, and agent for supplies in those lines. Among other interests he became agent for the sale of the products of the Michigan Bar pottery and sewer-pipe manufactory, then owned by Mr. Addington. He leased the work in 1881, and bought them toward the close of 1884, coming to Michigan Bar as owner thereof on January 1, 1885. In April of that year he was serionsly hurt in his left arm, which is still somewhat weak, and he occupies himself chiefly

with the sale of the stoneware product of the pottery in the cities and villages of this section. The sewer pipe department he has leased to the San Francisco Sewer-Pipe Association. In 1888 he discovered a valuable surface deposit of fire- sand on an adjoining piece of land, and bonght forty-five acres, of which twenty-five acres are covered with the deposit. He also owns ninety- five acres, including the Orr bank, which is thought to be the best clay in the State for the mannfacture of stoneware. With his recent acquisition of fire-sand he is well equipped as to materials for sewer pipe, stoneware, fire-brick, as well as white and yellow ware. He will probably form a corporation for the more ex- tensive production of those commodities in the near f.ture. He owns twenty-two acres ad- joining his other realty, but situated in Ama- dor County: Of the 162 acres about eighty are devoted to general farming, a little fruit and the raising of some cattle and horses.

J. SMALL, superintendent of inotive power and machinery at the railroad shops in this city, was born at Cobourg, Canada, in 1848. His father, Benjamin Sınall, was the superintendent of the rolling mills at Toronto, and prominently connected with the building of the Grand Trunk Railroad of Can- ada. He grew up in the city of his nativity, and was taught "pattern-making" in the shops under the supervision of his father. He be- came an iron-worker in the shops of William Hamilton & Sons, where he also acquired the machinists' trade. He spent three years in the shops of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad at Chicago, and afterward went to Wyandotte, Kansas, with the " Kansas Pacitic Road " (now part of the Union Pacific). After staying with that company two years he received the appoint- ment of chief draughtsman of motive power in the shops of the Northern Pacific at St. Paul, Minnesota. After two years he was called to the Wabash road as chief dranghtsman. Two

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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.

years later his services were transferred to the International & Great Northern Railroad, and he was with them when their shops were re- moved to Palestine, Texas, and when the Galves- ton, Houston & Henderson was absorbed by the International & Great Northern, he was made master mechanic by General H. M. Hoxie (since deceased) at the time when the gauge of that road was changed to standard. Two years later he was offered the position of gen- eral master mechanic of the Texas Pacific road, with headquarters at Marshall, Texas, filling that position for three years. For five years he was assistant superintendent of machinery at Brainerd, Minnesota, for the Northern Pacific system, and in 1887 held a similar position with the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad at Read- ing, Pennsylvania. He left that position one year later to accept the position which he now holds with the Southern Pacific. Mr. Small was united in marriage, in 1880, at Marshall, Texas, to Miss Mary Blanch, daughter of Major E. A. Blanch, who for years was the chief engineer of the original Sonthern Pacific Railroad. Their family consists of four children, three of whom are girls.

LFRED GREENE McMANUS was born April 28, 1828, in Murray County, Ten- nessee, his parents being Jonathan and Susan (McCaslin) McManus, both natives of the saine State. The subject's great-grandfather was an Irishman from the north of Ireland, and his grandmother on his father's side was a Scotchwoman, and a consin of General Greene, of Revolutionary fame. When the subject of this sketch was four years old his parents reinoved from Tennessee to Illinois, locating in Madison County, where his mother died in 1836, leaving fonr children, one son and three daughters. His father was inarried again, to Elizabeth Kell. They moved to Texas, locating on Trinity River, where the father died in 1862. By his second marriage there were four children, one

sun and three daughters. Alfred G. McManus remained with his parents in Illinois till he was twenty-two years of age, then worked in various places in that neighborhood. When twenty- one years old he bought eighty acres of Govern- ment land in Madison County, borrowing the money for that purpose, and giving a mortgage on the property as security, which he paid by hard work at $12 a month. He made improve- ments on it and rented it. October 6, 1853, he was married to Clarissa Clementine Best, a na- tive of Madison County, Illinois. In the spring of 1854 they moved npon his farm, and lived there until Angust 22, 1875, when they started for California, renting the farm for the next two years; they afterward sold it. They arrived in Sacramento on the 5th of September, entire strangers in a strange land. Ile rented the Van Trees ranch on Deer Creek for one year, and in April bought his present ranch of 320 acres in Brighton Township, on the Jackson road, twelve miles from Sacramento, which is chiefly devoted to general farming. Politically he is a Democrat. Mr. and Mrs. McManus have two children: John Franklin, born Oc- tober 26, 1861; and Albert Greene, born Janu- ary 16, 1858, who married Emily Lee April 22, 1880, a native of Sacramento County, California, daughter of Dr. Richard Henry Lee. Albert Greene married Emily McManus, and they have one son, born December 31, 1880, named Albert Wesley.

OEL D. BAILEY .- Joshua T. Bailey, the father of the subject of this sketch, was a native of Virginia. For a time he resided in Ohio, and in 1832 emigrated to Wisconsin, where he carried on the business of smelting for six or seven years. IIe was married at Fort Mineral Point, Ohio County (now Fayette County), January 13, 1833, to Miss Susan Hughes, daughter of David and Sarah (Pense) Hughes, who born February 28, 1815, in Licking County, Ohio. Her father emigrated

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from Ohio to Illinois in 1818. He served under General Harrison in the war of 1812, and died in Illinois in 1823. In 1828 Mrs. Bailey went to Wisconsin with her mother and step- father, Samnel Townsend, who has been dead several years. Her mother is still living in Grant County, Wisconsin, at the age of ninety years, where she was a pioneer. She has had many experiences in pioneer life; she has gone ont into the harvest field with the men and held her own, cutting grain with sickles, although a small woman, for she had a strong constitution and great strength. Mr. Bailey, with his son Joel, came to California in 1849. In 1853 he went back to Wisconsin after his family. His wife and two daughters, and Mrs. Bailey's sister-in-law, Susan Hughes, came with a party of twenty-two men, bringing with them some large heavy stock, such as horses, oxen, mules and cattle, also seven wagons to hold provisions; as soon as one wagon was emptied they dis- carded it. They were seven months in coming across, having to stop in order to allow their cattle to feed by the way. On arriving, Mr. Bailey bought land on the little dry hill close to where the family residence now is. The house was put up in 1854; it was built by degrees, a small portion being put up first in order that they might occupy it. He set out a fine vine- yard of wine grapes in 1862. He died June 11, 1886. Mrs. Bailey is still living and enjoy- ing good health at the present writing. She is seventy-two years old. They had eleven chil- dren, viz .: Mrs. Belle Plumer, resident in Lee Township, Sacramento County; Rachel Ann (deceased), wife of Mr. Ross, of this county; Joel D. Bailey, Joseph James (deceased), George W., resident in Templeton, San Luis Obispo County; Frank, resident in Arizona; William Henry (deceased); Mrs. Nellie Blair, wife of Albert Blair. of Sacramento; Charles H., resi- dent near Hicksville, Sacramento County ; Joshua T., resident in Brighton Township; and Edwin, who died young. Mrs. Bailey, in her girlhood, was in Wisconsin during the Indian troubles, and had to go to Fort Funk for protection in

the month of April, and did not get out until the following October. She and another girl made cartridges for the garrison when the am- munition was exhausted. Joel D. Bailey, the subject of this sketch, came to this State in 1849 with his father, landing in Placerville the 10th of September. From that time he wan- dered about from place to place in the northern part of the State. When his father located on White Rock Spring, in Sacramento Connty, he was with him and remained there for about six months. Then he went to Yreka. In the winter of 1851-'52 he started for Wisconsin via Panama, stopping at Tehama on the Sacra- mento River. In 1853 he returned to Califor- nia, crossing the plains with cattle and bringing them to this county. In 1857 he took up 160 acres adjoining his father's ranch. He was married September 27, 1871, to Nancy New- ingham, a native of Hancock County, Illinois, born January 18, 1844. In 1852 she crossed the plains with her parents, Absalom and Mary Newingham, one sister and a brother. On the journey her father died of cholera. Arriving at Portland, Oregon, the family stopped there a short time, then came to Sacramento County in December, 1852. Her mother is now the wife of R. HI. Lee, and resides in Brighton Town- ship. She started for the East in 1854, on the Yankee Blade, and when twenty-four hours out the steamer struck a rock and was wrecked; thirty lives were lost, but Mrs. Newingham and her family were saved. Mr. and Mrs. Bailey have two sons: William Francis, born Septem- ber 27, 1872, and Charles Augustus, born Octo- ber 17, 1874.

ARON DOTY OAKLEY, a rancher of Natoma Township, Sacramento County, about eight miles from Folsom, was born in Essex County, New Jersey, June 25, 1817, his parents being Aaron and Sarah (Doty) Oak- ley, both natives of that State. The father, born August 5, 1783, died in 1858, and the

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mother, born August 20, 1788, died in 1863. The grandfather, Joseph Doty, born in 1751, was a soldier of the Revolution. a member of the Washington Life-guard cavalry, and lived to be ninety-three. His wife, Martha (Allen) Doty, also born in New Jersey, in 1755, lived to be seventy-seven. They had been over fifty years married at her death. Grandfather Thomas Oakley had come from England with his father, and was married to Nancy Clark, a native of Hol- land. He owned a sawmill on the Passaic and was drowned in his own mill-pond about 1812, but his wife lived to the age of ninety-three, dying in 1838. The great-grandfather, also Thomas Oakley, of Oakley Hall, England, was twice a widower, with children by both wives, when he emigrated to America some time before the Revolution and settled at Huntington har- bor on Long Island. A. D. Oakley learned bricklaying and plastering from 1834 to 1837, earning two dollars a day as early as 1837. He located in Brooklyn in 1837, and there worked at his trade, but after the great fire in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1838, he worked at the re- building of that city for about three years. Meanwhile he was married in Brooklyn, July 16, 1839, to Miss Sarah J. Housey, born in Brooklyn, April 16, 1819, daughter of John and Maria (Ackerman) Housey, the former a native of England, and the latter of New Jersey, of Dutch descent. Returning to Brooklyn in 1841, he. continued his business of brick-laying and plastering in that city for seven years. Having lost his first wife, December 16, 1842, he was again married in Brooklyn, July 14, 1847, to Miss Sarah A. Minich, born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, April 20, 1827, daughter of Jacob and Anna (Gamber) Minich. The mother died at the age of forty nine years, and the father at sixty-six. Mr. Oakley moved to St. Louis in 1849, and left there for California April 20, 1850. Taking 141 days to cross the plains, he arrived in Sacramento September 13, 1830. He first followed the dairy business in a small way for one year, working occasionally at his trade at twelve dollars a day, and acting as policeman

for six months. He then went into the team- ing business between Sacramento and "Hang. town," keeping at one time seventeen teams on the road, and running a general store at Placer- ville in 1852 and 1853. His teamsters took orders and delivered goods all along the ronte. May 10, 1854, Mr. Oakley " squatted " on the place he now owns, which was not then sur- veyed. It was not in the market until eight years later. From 1864 to 1885 he has been acquiring land and now owns 880 acres. Mr. Oakley has been a school trustee and clerk of the board twenty-eight years, and justice of the peace from 1868 to 1884, except one term of two years. Mrs. Oakley died May 29, 1880, leaving four children, all born in California: Eugene Minich, born November 16, 1850, was inarried December 20, 1883, to Miss Eveline Saul, a native of this State, and daughter of Charles Saul, of Natoma Township, and has two children, a boy and a girl; Henry Lonis, born January 1, 1857, superintends the cattle and farming interests on his father's place; Carrie Belle superintends his household and cares for his personal comfort. His youngest child, Miss Bonnie, is a school teacher by profession, hav- ing received her diploma or certificate from the Normal School at San Jose in 1886. Besides these there is his oldest son, the only child of his first wife, A. D. Oakley, of San Francisco. He was born in Brooklyn, April 29, 1840, was married in this county in 1873 to Miss Marion Van Trees, born in California in 1854. They have four children-two sons and two daughters.

OHN A. GILMORE was born in November, 1825, in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, a son of Samuel and Rebecca (Wilze) Gil- more; the father a native of Ireland and the mother of Pennsylvania. As a boy John was raised on a farm. In 1861 he went to Ashland County, Ohio, where he remained eighteen months, then, in 1863, started for California, crossing the plains and bringing horses, which

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were sold at San Francisco. He reached Sacra- mento July 10, 1863, and remained there two years, working at the blacksmithis' trade. In 1864 he crossed the mountains to Carson City, where he was engaged at his trade; he after- ward sold ont and went to Belcher Orchard. He next ran a threshing-machine, with success, for about twenty years. He then purchased 160 acres of land in San Joaquin Township, May 6, 1876, and in March, 1879, 240 more acres, the whole situated twelve miles from Sacramento on the upper Stockton road. As a farmer he is very successful. He has been a member of Elk Grove I. O. O. F., No. 274, for seventeen years.

AMES O. COLEMAN was born at Hop- kinsville, Christian County, Kentucky, in 1845, the son of H. H., a brother of W. P. Coleman, pioneer banker of this city, and Barbara A. (Hopper) Coleman. Her father migrated from Kentucky during the early days to Illinois, and settled in Warren County. When in 1863, through the advice of his physi- cian, young Coleman was compelled to seek a milder climate and a change of scene, he first went to Washington Territory, but soon came to Sacramento. Securing a clerkship in a mercan- tile house, he remained here until 1866, then he returned to his native town on a visit and was induced to remain, which he did for seven years, engaging in the hardware business; but the de- lightful climate and pleasant associations finally induced him to return, when, with a view to permanently locating, he traveled extensively throughout the Golden State, and after thorough investigation decided to settle in the Capital City. He opened an exchange and brokers' office on J street, where he has been since en- gaged in business. He is a man of marked financial and executive ability, enterprising and public-spirited. It was he who first proposed the plan of the " Festival of Flowers," which in May, 1885, was tendered to Margaret E. Crocker, in recognition of her magnificent gifts to the

city. He it was, in connection with William Ormshy, who eight years ago organized the open-air concerts which have been so popular, and continue to be a distinguishing feature of the city. It was he who was largely instru- mental in organizing the Sacramento Improve- ment Association, of which he was the first secretary, and Dr. Simmons the first president. When in 1886, at the grand banquet held at the pavilion in honor of the meeting of the G. A. R., when 1,800 people were seated, he, being on the executive committee, did much to make the occasion the success that it was. These in- stances are well known, and others might be cited, for so fully has he established a repnta- tion in this direction that no occurrence of this character would be considered complete without his aid and counsel. His friends feel assured that if called to the broader field of public use- fulness, his ability to organize, originate and control will be brought forward to the lasting benefit of the department under his control, and to the material advantage and advancement of the interests of his friends and constituents.

HARLES AUGUST WICKSTROM was born in Sweden, in 1855, his parents being Zacris and Katrina (Klaus) Wickstrom. They came to America in 1878, and are now living in Clay County, Dakota, being owners of 480 acres in that State. They have four sons there and one daughter in Sweden. Grand- parents Wickstrom lived to a good old age, the the husband being over eighty and the wife being over seventy when they died. Charles A. preceded the other members of his family, ar- riving in California in 1875. He first went to mining near Gibsonville, Sierra County, and afterward in Nevada County. He spent about five years in mining, and at one time had accu- mulated quite a sum, but lost it again. In 1881 he came down to San Francisco and went into the theatrical business, running the Coliseum with its accessories, in which he has been suc-

M Albert Hoster C

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cessful. He exchanged the Coliseum theatre for other property in 1884, and on September 9, 1885, he bought 100 acres on Grand Island, about five miles above Isleton. He has six acres in fruit and raises some vegetables, chiefly beans. He has a comfortable home on the place, and enjoys a country life, busying himself with various improvements, and spending on his place all the time he can without prejudice to his business interests in San Francisco. Mr. Wick- strom was married in 1881 to Miss Liesetta Huth, born in Germany 1861, daughter of Johan- nes and Ann Margareta (Rudolph) Huth, now of San Francisco, where they have three sons and three daughters besides Mrs. Wickstrom. Mr. and Mrs. Wickstrom are the parents of two children: Charles Gottfried, born June 12, 1882; Lillie, September 22, 1887. Mr. Wiek- strom is a member of Druid Grove No. 15, in San Francisco, and of the Swedish Society of that city.

APTAIN ALBERT FOSTER, one of the best known residents of Sacramento city, was born in Kennebec County, in the town of Waterville, Maine, October 16, 1826. His parents were Samuel S. and Mary (Smith) Fos- ter. His father, a millwright, was a native of Sumner, that State, and his grandfather was also a native of Maine. His mother was a na- tive of Steuben, Maine. Captain Foster was reared at Waterville, and when he arrived at the age of fourteen years his parents removed to Clinton, that State. He served an apprentice- ship at edge-tool and mill work in Maine. The man he worked for, Noah Boothby, moved to Waterville, and after learning the trade young Foster worked a year at Fairfield. Ile eame to California with a party of eight, one of whom was Captain Greenleaf T. Page, now deceased; also Dr. Guptel and Rufus Kendall, Gardner and Charles Waters, Henry Gullifer and Will- iam II. IIndson. They sailed from Newbury- port on the brig Charlotte, Captain Bartlett, 80

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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