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 96
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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.
San Francisco. Miss " Minnie" is making the Inost industrions use of the local district school, to be followed in due time by a higher educa- tion.
ICHARD J. MURPHY, Captain of the guard at the Folsom State Prison, was born in San Francisco, September 4, 1854. His father, James Murphy, was a native of Ire- land, who emigrated to the State of New York about 1845, and resided in Troy. In 1854 he came to California by the Nicaragua route, landing in San Francisco in February of that year. After remaining there for nearly a year he went to the mines, first at Prairie City for a short time, and then to Weber Creek, El Dorado County, about five miles from Coloma. He fol- lowed mining and raising cattle, taking land under the homestead law and also buying some from the railroad company. He is still raising cattle, and even mining to some extent. He and his sons are the owners of about 1,000 acres of land altogether. He was married in 1852 to Catharine O'Connor, who was born'in Ire- land, but bronght up in New York. She died in El Dorado, in June, 1872, at the age of forty- three years. In their family were five children, viz .: Richard J., George Henry, James, Mary and Francis. Mary is the wife of Henry Kipp, guard at the Folsom State Prison, and the others are residents of El Dorado County. After the death of his mother, Mr. Richard J. Murphy was clerk in a grocery in this city about two years, and for the next five years was employed at the railroad shops, in the boiler department, under Charles Shields, foreman, and completely learned the trade. When work in the shops became slack he went to mining in El Dorado County and working on the ranch, having an interest in two pieces of land, amounting to 160 acres. In July, 1880, when the State Prison at Folsom was completed, he took the position of guard, and served in that relation all through Thomas Peckman's administration, then warden.
When McComb had charge of the prison he was made driver of the prison wagon between Folsom and the prison; next for about two months he was gate-keeper; then turnkey for three or four months; next Lieutenant of the guard two years; finally, when Charles Aull be- came warden, he was promoted to his present position as Captain. He is a member of the order of Native Sons, and of the Young Men's Institute. Politically he is a Republican, taking an active interest in public affairs. He was married in March, 1883, to Mrs. Mary Milroy, a native of Canada, who has lived the most of her life in Folsom. She had one son by her former marriage, Arthur Milroy; and by the present marriage there is one danghter, Martha.
HOMAS MOORE TAVERNER was born in England, April 5, 1833, his parents being George and Susan (Moore) Taver- ner. The father lived to the age of eighty-five. Reared on his father's farm, Thomas received a limited education. In 1856 he emigrated to Canada, and went to work on a farm. In 1859 he came to California, and hired ont on a farm near Elk Grove, remaining in that neighbor- hood until 1865. In the spring of that year he engaged in sheep-raising, in partnership with John Richards. In 1867 they divided the stock, and Mr. Taverner bought 1,100 acres of the Hartnell grant, and took his brother George into partnership in the sheep-raising business. In 1871 he purchased 1,700 acres, also of the Hartnell grant, and in 1874 they divided and traded some lands, leaving Thomas M. abont 2,200 acres in one body, with about twelve miles of outside fencing. Early in 1888, in partnership with Edward Lyons, he bought the Cave place of 544 acres, making him owner of about 2,500 acres. This partnership still con- tinues, and he conducts the sheep industry and raises all kinds of grain crops and alfalfa. He could raise fruit, but not to advantage, through lack of railroad facilities to take them to mar-
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ket. Mr. Taverner was married in England in 1854, having by that marriage one son, who afterward came here, but was accidentally killed in 1878, being run over by a loaded truek he was driving. On September 26, 1874, Mr. Taverner was married in Sacramento to Miss Anne Hirst, a native of England, and daughter of Robert Hirst, an engineer. Mrs. Taverner's maternal great-grandfather, Richard Scholfield, of Burnley, lived to the age of 101 years and nine months. He was at one time a sea-cap- tain, and later in life a book-collector. She has in her possession one of those old treasures from his library, Josiah Burchett's "Complete History of the Most Remarkable Transactions at Sea." London, 1720. Mr. and Mrs. Taver- ner are the parents of four children: John Thomas, born in 1875; George Moore, in 1877; Mary Ellen, in 1879; and Effie May in 1881.
EORGE TAVERNER, a prosperous and worthy farmer of Lee Township, was born in Devonshire, England, in 1841, being the son of George and Susan (Moore) Taver- ner. He received but a limited education, cu- gaging at the age of seventeen in the trade or business of a butcher, which he followed in England until he was twenty-three. In the spring of 1864 he emigrated to America, and went to Lawrenee, Massachusetts, where he followed his old line of business for one year. In 1865 he was employed in the Pacific Mills, where he worked at running a printing ma- chine for about two years. In 1867 he came to California by the Isthmus route, and again re turned to his original business in Sacramento for one year. The next two years he tended sheep for Martin Monsch on the Laguna, work- ing for wages. In the spring of 1870 he pur- chased a half-interest in his brother's flock of 1,400 sheep. They also bought 2,144 acres of uplands for grazing. In the fall of 1873 he sold his share, 2,400 sheep, and his half of the land. For eight years he traded in mutton and
beef, renting his present ranch for the last half of that term. In 1881 he purchased it, being 900 acres, which he has since increased to 1,600, all in one body. He also rents three sections of land from Mrs. Monsch, and 1,100 acres from Mrs. Miser,-all for sheep pasture, having generally from 3,000 to 4,000 head, and has had twice as many in years past, when the business was better. He also raises horses, keeping seventeen to twenty head. In 1888 le sold off his cattle, finding they did not do well with sheep. Of the home ranch 180 acres are bottom lands on the Cosumnes, on which he raises alfalfa and corn for feed. He employs five shepherds and farm hielp as needed. In 1883 he went to England, and was there mar- ried, in August, to Miss Mary Elizabeth Berry, a daughter of Nathaniel Berry, of Westcot Farın, Devonshire. Mr. Berry is still living, at the age of seventy-one, and has one sister liv- ing, who was born about 1815. Mr. and Mrs. Taverner are the parents of two children: Mary Josephine Victoria, born September 30, 1884; and Frances Kate, born February 13, 1889. Mr. Taverner has been since 1883 a trustee of the Wilson school district, in which he resides, and he is also clerk of the board of trustees.
ILLIAM H. NICIIOLS, of Folsom, was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, July 16, 1848. In 1856 the family re- moved to New York city, and lived there five years, and then came to Placer County, in this State, and soon afterward to Folsom, where William H. was engaged by the Sacramento Valley Railroad Company, headed by L. M. and J. P. Robinson. He was in their employ twenty years. Since then he has followed blacksmith- ing and draying. In his shop he employs four men, one wagon-maker and three horse-shoers. Eli L. Nichols, father of William, was also born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and died in Folsom April 6, 1888; and his mother, Lucy N., was fifty-six years of age when she died, in March,
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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.
1881, also in Folsom. August 21, 1869, Mr. Nichols, the subject of this paragraph, married Christina Wagner, a native of Pennsylvania. The names of their seven children are, Lena W., Willie, Charlie, Maud, Lawrence, Bertie and Minnie.
DWIN C. HOPKINS, referred to in the following sketch, is a gentleman of ster- ling integrity and marked business ability. He was born in Cambridge, Vermont, where lie received his early education in the common schools. He started out in life as a farmer, but soon afterward became a clerk in a general store. February 22, 1869, he came to Sacra- mento and joined his brother in the news and book store, and was his successor at the same stand until 1886, when the present partnership was formed. He takes a prominent part in social affairs, being a Freemason, a member of Sacramento Lodge, No. 140, also of Royal Arch Chapter, No. 3, of Council No. 1, of Com- mandery No. 2, of Unity Lodge, No. 2088, K. of H., of Sacramento Lodge, No. 11, K. of P., of Capitol Lodge, No. 87, I. O. O. F., and of Red Cloud Tribe, No. 40, I. O. R. M.
S. HOPKINS, senior member of the firm of Hopkins & Bro., dealers in wood and willow ware, 311-313 J street, Sacramento, is a veritable son of New England, possessed of all the versatility, energy and pluck so charac- teristic of New England people. He was born March 21, 1837, at Cambridge, Vermont; his father, S. F. Hopkins, was a merchant; his mother's maiden name was Harriet Anstin. The family is clearly of Welsh origin, and the direct line of ancestry can be traced back to the May- flower. Stephen Hopkins was one of the sign- ers of the Declaration of Independence. The subject of this notice was educated at Georgia, Franklin County, Vermont. At the age of six-
teen years he began teaching school, in his na- tive town, and later at Grand Isle. In 1854 he emigrated to Crete, Illinois, a few miles south of Chicago, and taught school there four years. Thence he went to Blackjack and Cottonwood, Kansas, and was on hand to participate in the Kansas troubles in 1856-'57, between the settlers and the border ruffians. Returning to Vermont, he was employed in a bookstore at Burlington, and in 1861 enlisted from Burlington as a pri- vate in the First Vermout Infantry, going out with the three-months men, to Newport News. He participated in the disastrous battle of Big Bethel, and at the expiration of his term of en- listment was honorably discharged and returned to his home in Vermont. In 1862, when twenty- five years old, still unmarried and unsettled in life, he determined once more to strike ont for the far West, and came to the Golden State. Embarking on the steamer Ariel, he came by way of the Isthmus, arriving in San Francisco June 30, 1862. His first enterprise was the management of a dairy ranch which he owned in Marion County. This he sold in 1863, and he went to the Forest City mining district and engaged in dairying, saw-milling and mining. After a time he quit all these and resumed school-teaching, first in Solano County and afterward in Bloomfield, Sonoma County. In 1865 he became a member of the Maine Prairie Rifles in Solano, and was First Lieutenant of that organization. Was justice of the peace in 1866-'67. February 4, 1868, he came to Sacramento and started a news office and book- store, and continued in this line for ten years; then, in 1878, he sold out to W. A. and C. S. Houghton, who contiuned the business. Soon afterward he engaged in the wood and willow ware trade, in company with U. C. Billings- by. In 1886 his brother, E. C., succeeded Mr. Billingsby. Mr. Hopkins entered public life in 1876, as county supervisor for the unexpired term of J. A. Mason. Was a school trustee until 1888, and a director of the Free Library for five years. Is a member of Eureka Lodge, No. 4, I. O. O. F .; a past president of the Society of
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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.
Veteran Odd Fellows; a member of Sumner Post, No. 3, G. A. R .; of Sacramento Lodge, No. 80, A. O. U. W .; of Unity Lodge, No. 2088, K. of II .; was president of the first Ini- migration Society, which was organized in 1878, and two years afterward was merged into the Central and Northern, and of which he was president for two years; was also, in 1886, one of the founders, and has been a director up to this time, of the Sacramento Improvement As- sociation; and also was one of the original members and directors of the Sacramento Board of Trade, and since then chosen to the same position. Mr. Hopkins was married April 17, 1868, to Miss Harriet Hewes, danghter of Jona- than Hewes, of Vermont, and a descendant of Cy- rus Hewes, whoalso was a signer of the Declara- tion of Independence. Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins have three children: Stephen I., Grace E. and William. Such, in brief, is the outline of the busy life of one of New England's sons.
ROFESSOR CHARLES A. NEAL, leader of the First Artillery Band, is a native of London, England, where he was educated. Very early in life he exhibited a peculiar fond- ness for music, and when at the age of fifteen he came to America he was already a trained musician. He spent one year in Savannah, Georgia, where he played in the local band of that city, and later on spent one season at St. Augustine, Florida; then near Charleston, South Carolina, taught school and tried his hand at farming. In August, 1876, he received the appointment of Leader of the Marine Band on the flag ship Hartford, .of the South Atlantic Squadron then lying at Norfolk; and for three years occupied that position. In 1880 he went to Colorado and tried mining for one year; at the expiration of that period he came to Sacra- mento, December, 1881, and at once became the leader of the Artillery Band, holding that po- sition easily by his superior attainments as a musician. The First Artillery is, it is hardly
necessary to state, as it is so well known in Sac- ramento, attached to and a part of the First Artillery Regiment, N. G. C .; it was organized in 1879, -- the first leader being Mr. A. Davis, and is composed of twenty-one members, -about one-third of whom are professional musicians, while the balance are engaged in various avoca- tions and play in the band from their inherent love of the art. Under the leadership of Pro- fessor Neal, the band has attained a very high degree of excellence and has become one of the attractive features of the Capital City, their summer concerts in the capital grounds at- tracting immense crowds of pleasure seekers; and during the winter it is the custom to hold a series of concerts at the Opera House, which are attended by the elite of the city.
OHN NEAL, hop-raiser, Sutter Township, was born in Kennebec County, Maine, Feb- ruary 13, 1813, a son of Nathaniel and Betsy (Baker) Neal, the former a native of New Hampshire, and the latter of Maine. Both the parents died in Maine, at the age of eighty years. As a remarkable coincidence, both the parents of Mrs. Neal also died at the age of eighty years, and all four of these parents men- tioned died within five years of each other. Mr. Neal, our subject, was born in the township of New Portland, "away np the woods," where he passed his boyhood. When he was fifteen years of age, the family removed to New Sha- ron. Before he was twenty-one he went upon the Penobscot River and became engaged in building mills and bridges, and " river driving," that is, driving logs from the camp down to the boom above Oldtown, where a crew of 100 to 300 men were employed in separating the logs and forming them into rafts. Every owner of logs had to pay a certain amount for " boom- age." After an engagement in this line for six years, in somewhat different capacities, he, in 1838, came to Illinois; and he was a resident of Dixon, that State, when General William Henry
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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.
Harrison was elected President; but Mr. Neal was at that time a Democrat, and does not boast now, as some do, of voting for that General when he did not; he, however, did vote for his grandson for his present position as President of the United States. Mr. Neal took Government land in Lee County, Illinois, and followed agri- cultural parsnits thereon until 1848; then he resided four years in Rock County, Wisconsin; then selling ont, he left there May 3, 1852, for California, starting with oxen, thinking they would stand the journey better, but, finding a party who desired a greater speed of travel, he exchanged his oxen for horses. They took the old Fort Hall route, and after a quiet and com- fortable journey arrived in this county October 8. Mr. Neal claims to be a Yankee; at any rate he has the Yankee genius,-the ability to turn his hand to almost anything. He has made wagons, followed farming and hop-raising, etc., and like every body else has had his " ups and downs." He is a genial, whole-souled gentle- man, and, notwithstanding his advanced age, is still in good health and active, able to make a full hand at manual labor. He has made his home on his present place ever since he pur- chased it in 1854; it is now all in hops. He had at one time eighty acres in this crop, and one year he raised eighty tons of hops, about twelve or fourteen years ago, and that was especially remarkable for that time. In his political views he has been a Republican ever since 1852. He married his present wife in 1843. They have had two children: Charles, who died in his fourth year, and Edwin, who died in infancy. They have also two adopted children,-William and Benjamin.
OHN NICHOLAS, farmer, has born in Arendal, Norway, November 27, 1828, a son of Terg and Karen Nicholas. In his father's family were four sons and oue daughter, of whom two are now living: Aaron, a brother, who resides in Norway; another brother camne
to the United States when a young man and died in Chicago two months afterward, in 1851. John's father died in 1851, and his mother sev- eral years previously. He, the subject of this sketch, lived with his parents until he was four- teen years old, when he was confirmed by the priest, according to the customs of his country, and he struck out into the world for himself, going to sea as a cabin boy. He worked his way up from that to the position of an able-bodied seamnan during the ten years he was on the ocean. His vessel made trips to nearly all foreign countries. In 1849 or 1850 he ob- tained from the authorities of his native country a passport that would enable him to travel in any country without being molested; and then he visited Havre, France, and then shipped as a seaman to New York; returned to Amsterdam, then to New York again, and Mobile. In the latter place he remained until the following spring, when, having learned of his brother, Nels Nicholas, being at New Orleans, he went there in search of him; but upon arrival found that he had left there three days before. His brother died in Chicago that year. John then spent a summer in Boston, and visited Phila- del phia, then New Orleans again, and then spent another winter at Mobile. Then he went np the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to Cincinnati, thence to Cleveland and Buffalo, and then to Chicago to learn the particulars of his brother's death. Ile returned to Buffalo and New York, and to Mobile for still another winter. In the summer of 1853 he had a siege of the yellow fever. In 1854 he came to California, by way of New York and the Isthmus, arriving in San Francisco in October. For three years he fol- lowed mir.ing at Iowa Hill, El Dorado County, and around Grass Valley in Nevada County, etc .; and ever since 1857 he has followed farm- ing on a tract which he then purchased. All the improvements that exist upon it he himself has made. The place is well improved and in good condition; contains 160 acres; is six miles from Sacramento and between the upper and lower Stockton roads. Mr. Nicholas is'an in-
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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.
dustrious and honest man, a faithful and useful citizen. He was married first in 1852 to Eliza- beth Ourkirk, a native of Holland, who died in 1879, the mother of two children, both now de- ceased. In 1883 he married for his present wife Louisa Sorensen, a native of Norway, born November 19, 1851, and came to California in 1881. By this marriage there are two children; Elmer, born December 20, 1883, and Edwin, July 19, 1887. They also lost a daughter, Sarahı Elizabeth, who died October 13, 1886, aged one year, eight months and twenty days.
J. NAGELE was born in Rhenish Bavaria, February 5, 1846, his parents being Leon- ard and Susannalı (Roedinger) Nagele; educated from six to fourteen in the town of Siebeldingen, near Landau; he grew up to man- hood there, and then left with the intention of being absent but fourteen days on a visit to his brother near Paris; but in the meantine decided to come to America. Taking passage at Havre on the C. R. Winthrop, after a voyage of seventy- one days he arrived at New York December 5. There he engaged in the ship-chandler house of I. F. Chapman. Leaving New York May 23 of the following year, embarking at Pier No. 11, on the ship I. F. Chapman, he started for Cali- fornia. The voyage was somewhat uneventful until they had rounded Cape Horn, when the vessel sprang a leak and they had to return to Rio Janeiro for repairs. They were there three and a half monthis; and on starting again they encountered foul weather, ran out of provisions and had to turn into a Chilian port and obtain supplies; again putting to sea, they arrived at San Francisco May 4, 1864, being 351 days on the trip. In that city he went to work for Will- iam B. Cook & Co., wholesale stationers in Montgomery Block, remained with them nearly two years, and then started in business for himn- self, in partnership with George W.Wright, on Stockton strect, between Vallejo and Broadway.
employ of a paper-house, having two routes on the Chronicle and one on the Bulletin, one of them including the whole of Alameda. For the next five years he was brakeman on the western division of the Central Pacific, and then entered the sheep business back of Haywards, which he prosecuted one year with loss, on the Stony Brook ranch. He then went to railroading again on the North Pacific Coast road between San Francisco and Duncan's Mill. June 15, 1877, he came to Sacramento, engaging with Mr. Meinke; he then bought the Five-Mile House at Brighton, which took the name of Jake's Five-Mile House. He returned to Sacramento again in 1881, and opened business at his present location on J and Third streets. At first he was alone, then in partnership with Mr. Steger, the latter being succeeded by his present part- ner, Svensson. Mr. Nagele married Agnes Free, who died in Alameda in 1874, leaving two chil- dren, -- William F. and Mamie Agnes. He has been a member of the I. O. R. M. since 1870, is now Past Sachem, and is Grand Mishmana of the Grand Council of California; and is also Keeper of Wampum in Red Jacket Tribe, No. 28, which office he has held three years. He is also treasurer of Capital Lodge, No. 66, A. O. D., and a trustee of Council of Chosen Friends, and a member of the Turn-Verein. Politically he is a Republican. Ile has educated himself in the English language, never having had any one to teach him even to the slightest degree. He also taught himself how to write. Ile is a genial, popular man, and his ale vanlts where he is employed are first-class.
ARL MUNGER, the well-known deputy assessor of Sutter Township, was born in the Territory of Utah, July 27, 1852, and was but nine weeks old when his parents removed with him to California. They were a portion of a party of nine who came across the plains in wagons, being three months on the He retired from this business and went into the ; road. The only special trouble they had was 40
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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.
among the members of the party themselves soon after starting, resulting in a separation. Packing their mules, the most of the family walked across the Great Desert. Calvin Mun- ger, the father of Carl, was born at Saratoga Springs, Saratoga County, New York, in April, 1822, and died in July, 1875, at the residence of his son Carl, four miles from Sacramento, on the river road. Carl's mother is a native of Massachusetts, and was born in 1822. When the family arrived at their destination here, near where they now reside, they had but seventy- five cents left in the purse, and the price of one meal was $1. They immediately began mining, at the point called Golden Hill, and made money rapidly. They also kept the Oak Hall House, near their present residence. This place now comprises 135 acres, devoted principally to the raising of hops and a small portion to hay. Calvin Munger had three children. The two who are still living are Carl and Mary.
ENRY SEYMOUR HILL, miller, Elk Grove, was born in Litchfield County, Connecticut, September 11, 1825. His father, Samuel Hill, was born near New Orleans during the war of the Revolution and the strug- gle with the British in that locality, his father being a soldier in the British service at that time. The maiden name of the mother of Mr. H. S. Hill was Laura Pitcher. Samuel and his family moved to Pennsylvania in 1828, where he died about 1845; his widow lived until 1852. They had located in Susquehanna County, on the line between that and Bradford County. Mr. Hill, the subject of this notice, the youngest of five children in the above family, was brought up in Pennsylvania and lived there until 1851. September 24, that year, in company with a man named Brown, a young physician just starting out in the world, he left Bradford County and took passage at New York on the steamer Brother Jonathan, on the first trip ever made by that vessel in the California trade. She was
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