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 99

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 99

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OSEPH HANLON was born in West Meatlı, Ireland, in 1837, his parents being James and Catherine (Garrity) Hanlon They were the parents of four sons who grew to manhood, of whom three emigrated to America, and one remained at the old home, and another has lately returned there. The maternal grand- mother lived to the age of ninety-seven, the only relative known whose age extended beyond seventy. Joseph Hanlon arrived in New York in 1854, and soon afterward went West, going to work near La Porte, Indiana, in that year. In 1857 he came to California, and went to mining at Iowa Hill, Placer County, but with only moderate success. In 1858 he came down into the plains and went to work for the owner of the place he now owns. In 1859, he and his partner, Timothy MeEnerney, rented 160 acres of the same, and in 1862 they bought eighty acres, to which they added by later purchase

until they owned 760 acres in 1875. They ran a dairy and did general farming besides raising cattle and horses. In 1881 Mr. Hanlon paid a visit to Ireland, returning in 1882; and in 1883 he bought out his partner's interest, becoming sole owner of 760 acres of land. September 21, 1884, Mr. Hanlon was married, in San Fran- cisco, to Miss Catherine Callahan, a native of Rhode Island, the only child of Michael and Julia (Gavegan) Callahan. The father, who was an assistant railroad superintendent, was acci- dentally killed at the age of twenty-nine years. The mother, who was fifty-five years old in January, 1889, resides with her daughter in the placid enjoyment of the health and vigor of well-preserved womanhood, with a fair promise of reaching the age of her father, who was ninety- eight years old at his death in 1883. Her ma- ternal grandparents, who were also named Gave- gan,-Matthew and Ann,-died at the ages of eighty-one and seventy-seven, the husband being two years older than the wife and surviving her two years. He was a leather merchant in Strokestown, County Roscommon, Ireland. Mrs. Hanlon is an accomplished pianist, and a singer of marked ability. Before her marriage she was a teacher of vocal and instrumental music in San Francisco, where her musical talent was in freqnent demand for charity concerts and enter- tainments, her generosity and self-sacrifice being widely known to the benevolent projectors of such enterprises. Mr. and Mrs. Hanlon are the parents of two boys: Joseph Aloysius, born December 28, 1885, and James Ignatius, born August 24, 1887.

AMES II. HAMILTON, a rancher of Sut- ter Township, was born May 9, 1832, in Kentucky, and is the son of James and Sarah (Lewis) Hamilton, natives also of Ken- tucky. The grandfather of James II., also named James, was a native of Scotland, came to America before the Revolutionary War, in which he served as a soldier. In his family

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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.

were three children: William D., Mary A., wife of Boone McDonald, and they resided in Kentucky until their death, and James. In the family of the father of the subject of this sketch were thirteen children, six sons and seven daughters. The sons were: William, Jolın, Andrew, McCrager, Matthew and James H. The latter was brought up on a farm in Kentucky until he was seventeen years of age, when he learned the carpenter's trade, and fol- lowed it some three years in Kentucky, and eleven years in Callaway County, Missouri; he and his wife and one child, in 1864, came to Cali- fornia, overland, with mule teams, consuming four and a half months' time. Going direct to the Cosumnes River he commenced farmning fo. himself, and was engaged in that pursuit two years. He then tried his hand at gold-mining, and found that, after a six-months trial, it took two dollars to make one. Quitting that he went to Sebastopol, in Sacramento County, and pur- chased land from the State, commenced stock- raising, and continued that business until 1881, with marked success. In that year he sold out and bought his present property of 120 acres, five miles south of Sacramento and one mile east of the Freeport road. This land is specially adapted to fruit. Four acres are in straw- berries and five acres in choice varieties of peach, plum, French prnnes, Hungarian prunes, silver prunes, apricots, apples, Bartlett pears, nectarines, almonds, persimmons, English and black walnuts, and some of the finest grafted orange trees in this part of the country. Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton have made one visit to his old home in Kentucky, and to his mother, who is still living in St. Charles, Missouri, at the age of ninety-one years. After making that visit he was glad that he had a home in California, to which he might return. Mr. Hamilton has been a member of Callaway Lodge, No. 105, I. O. O. F .; is now a member of Sacramento Lodge, No. 2, of the same order, and also of Sacramento Grange, No. 12. In 1856 he mar- ried Miss Rebecca La Rue, a native of Vir- ginia, born November 11, 1834, and a daughter

of Jacob and Elizabeth La Rne, both deceased; mother died in 1867. Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton have two children: the daughter, Annie E., born in Callaway County, Missouri, June 14, 1861, is the wife of H. W. Foster; and the son, George L., born November 13, 1871, is now at- tending the Sacramento Business College.

ERRITT C. PIKE, of Brighton Town- ship, has a ranch of 310 acres, all improved; 235 acres are in orchard and the rest in vineyard. The orchard com- prises apricots, peaches, French prunes, plums, etc. Of peach-trees he has about 15,000; of plums and prunes, 9,000; about ten acres are in almonds. Ages of fruit-trees, from four to eight years. The vineyard einbraces Tokays, Muscats and other table varieties, and of Zin- fandels, Carignanes, Materos and Petit Bour- ger and other wine varieties, one to four years old. In 1888 he sold 24,600 boxes of wrapped fruit; had twenty-six tons of dried fruit, two tons of almonds from four-year-old trees, and also sold $2.000 worth of undried fruit to the cannery. He has also an acre and a half of blackberries, which produce 500 crates annually, worth in market 75 cents to $1.25 per crate. There are about a 1.000 trees along the drive- way, and bordering the ranch all around. Dur- ing the busy season of wrapping and drying he gives employment to fifty-five to sixty mnen. Has a twenty-five-horse-power engine to supply steam in connection with the two steain driers, costing $884 each; capacity, twelve tons of fresh fruit every twenty-four hours. Each drier has 120 trays. The main building of the dry ing establishment is 24x60 feet, with two wings 20 x 24 feet, for storing. There are also a packing-house and other buildings. Of this place he purchased 190 acres in 1877 of G. G. Briggs, and 120 acres of J. T. Wight in 1885. The purchases were made by Montgomery Pike, Sr., and M. C. Pike, in 1877, who ran the business until January 1, 1888, when Mont-

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. HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.

gomery Pike, Jr., bought his father's interest, and for a while the business was carried on un- der the firm name of Pike Brothers, until W. S. Kendall, of Sacramento, bought Montgomery Pike's (Jr.) interest. At first the land was all heavily timbered with live oak, jack oak and willow. There are two kinds of soil: the bot- tom land is a deep, sandy loam, adapted to peaches, plums and apricots; the upland is the clay loam, good for grapes and almonds, never baking, and easily worked at any time of the year. Mr. Pike was born in Jefferson County, Iowa, December 2, 1859. His father, Mont- gomery Pike, first came to California in the spring of 1873, and made arrangements for the family; they came the next autumn. He is now residing in Santa Barbara County, engaged in raising fruit. Mrs. Pike died in 1886. The family comprise Elias, born in Indiana; Jenni- son, born also in Indiana, and is a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Iowa; Mary O., who died in 1882; Annie M., born in Iowa, now Mrs. McEwing, in Santa Barbara County; M. C., the subject of this sketch; and Mont- gomery, born also in Iowa. The latter owned a coal mine in Kirkville, Wapello County, Iowa, and ran it about four years; and since that time has been engaged here in the fruit and vege- table business. October 15, 1885, M. C. Pike married Lizzie A. Shields, daughter of John Shields, of this county.

OIIN PIERCE RHOADS, deceased, was born in Muhlenburg, Kentucky, October 5, 1818, being the third child of Thomas and Elizabeth (Foster) Rhoads. His parents moved from Kentucky to or near Vincennes, Indiana; and as early as 1830 to Edgar County, Illinois, where he owned a farm. John P. was brought up on a farm and his educational opportunities were limited. He used to tell of helping in his youth, among otlier jobs, in the construction of a section of the National Road, near the Wabash, for which his father held a contract. By pri-

vate study and great industry he supplied the deficiency in his early education, and in mature life was regarded as a well informed man. At the age of eighteen he was married to Miss Matilda Fanning, also a native of Kentucky, probably on the eve of his family's removal to Missouri, in 1836. He farmed in Ray County, in that State, and six children were born to them there, of whom three are still living: Thomas F., now a resident of Rapid City, Da- kota; Mathew M., of Modoc County, California; and Mary E., now Mrs. William H. Taylor, of Hudson, Grant County, New Mexico. With the father and both families he came to Califor- nia in 1846. Separating at the Hastings' ent- off from the Donner party and following the old ronte the Rhoads family escaped the disasters that befell the Donners. When the news was brought by the "Forlorn Hope " to Johnson's crossing, on the Bear River, where the Rhoads family were living, John P. was the most active in the effort to rescue the survivors. He im- mediately extemporized a small raft on which he crossed the swollen river and hastened across the plains on foot to carry the dreadful news to Sutter's Fort. He was a member of the first and fourth relief parties, and among the heroic services rendered one grateful survivor, Naomi L. Pike, then a child, afterward Mrs. Schenck, since deceased, of the Dalles, Oregon, tells how he carried her over forty miles upon his shoul- ders, carefully wrapped up in a blanket. Early in 1847 he moved to Sonoma County with his wife and children, but in the fall of that year he bought land on the Cosumnes, known as lot five of the Sheldon estate. With the discovery of gold in 1848 his farming plans were laid aside for a time, and he went to mining in Rhoads' Diggings, near Folsom. During that year, in his absence, twin sons were born to him in Sonoma, Andrew J. and James K., who are now living in Tulare County. Later in the year when the gold fever had somewhat chilled, he moved his family to his ranch on the Cosumnes, and engaged in general farming and stock-rais- ing. Here in 1850 another child, William B.

4 l

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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY. .

was born, but he was killed in childhood by falling from the second floor of a barn. In 1851 the mother died, leaving six surviving children. In Angust, 1852, Mr. Rhoads was married to Miss Mary Murray, a native of Ire- land. She bore him eight sons, five of whom are still living: John M., in 1853; Francis J., in 1854; Michael M., in 1855; Daniel.C., in 1856, and Rufns H., in 1860. Daniel C. is married and is the father of one boy. Novem- ber 18, 1884, Rufns H. married his wife, Mary A., a native of this State, and a granddaughter of S. W. Taylor, a native of Pennsylvania, and for some years a settler on the Cosumnes, but now residing, at the age of seventy-nine, in Hudson, Grant County, New Mexico. "He now has two sons,-Emmet Francis and John R. Michael M. was married December 26, 1887, to Lizzie Murphy, of Toronto, Canada, and re- sides in Sacramento. In 1863 John P. Rhoads was elected a member of the State Assembly on the Republican ticket. He was a school trns- tee of the Rhoads district for twenty years, and enjoyed the confidence and respect of his neigh- bors in all the relations of life. He died De- cember 20, 1866, his second wife surviving until February 9, 1869. Francis J. Rhoads, and his younger brothers, J. M., M. M. D. C., and R. H. Rhoads, besides the usual district school education, took a course in St. Mary's College in San Francisco; Daniel C., afterward in the Pacific Business College of San Francisco.

UTHER KURTZ HAMMER (deceased), a pioneer of California and one of the best known Sacramentans in times gone by, was a native of Hagerstown, Maryland, born Feb- ruary 7, 1826, and a son of Jacob Hammer When he was a mere ehild, the family removed to Mansfield, Ohio, and there he grew to man- hood. and learned the jeweler's trade. From there he went to Illinois, where he worked at his trade. When the California gold excite- ment broke ont, he decided to try his fortunes

in the new El Dorado, and in 1849 he joined one of the parties organized to cross the plains. The trip was more than ordinarily spiced with adventure. On one occasion, when attempting to cross a river on horseback, the horse was caught in the current and swept down the stream, while he himself was helpless. But a lasso was thrown at him from the shore, and catching it, he was pulled in and rescued when on the point of drowning. The horse, however, was lost. He was an expert banjo player, and as be had one of those instruments along, there was often music in the camp. The " Across the Plains" speaks of an instance where a train had gone into camp for the night, and among its people were several negroes. Mr. Hammer came into the camp with his banjo, and greatly entertained the people of the train with his innsie, while the negroes were rendered frantic with delight. On arriving in California he engaged in teaming between Sacramento and Jackson, afterward settling in the latter place and embarking in the jewelry business there. From there he removed to Sacramento and en- gaged in the music business in partnership with J. R. Tolles. A few years later Mr. Hammer became sole proprietor of the business. He came to Sacramento a single man and married in this city to Miss Maria L. Tolles, a native of Mansfield, Ohio, both of whose parents died in Sacramento. Her father was engaged in the real-estate business here up to the time of his death. Mr. and Mrs. Hammer were the parents of four children, of whom only M. L. survived. The deceased are: Frank T., Frederick C. and Alice M. L. K. . Hammer was a prominent Mason. He joined the order at Sacramento, in Sacramento Lodge, No. 40, and was a member of the Chapter, Council and Commandery. He was also a member of the Pioneer Society. Since the organization of the Republican party he has been one of its supporters, and always took an active interest in public affairs. He held the post of school director for two terms, and was an incumbent of the office at the time of his death, which occurred November 27

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1883. Mr. Hammer is remembered as one of the representative business men of his time. He was virtually the introducer of the Chicker- ing piano in this market, and was identified with that instrument for many years. M. L. Hammer, proprietor of the wholesale and retail music house at 830 J street, is the only surviv- ing child of Mr. and Mrs. Hammer, and is a worthy representative of the name of one of the California pioneers, as he ranks to-day, though a young man, among the leading business men of Sacramento. Mr. Hammer was born in Sacramento, October 25, 1864, was reared here and educated in the city's public schools. When his father's death left the music estab- lishment on his young shoulders, he had had bnt a year's experience in the business. But he rose to the emergency, and instead of sinking under the load, has increased the trade of the house in every direction, and now has a larger trade in the general musical line than any house on the Pacific Coast, outside of San Francisco, while his business is now in better shape than ever. . Mr. Hammer is a member of Sacramento Lodge, A. F. & A. M. and of Sunset Parlor, N. S. G. W. In politics he is a Republican. Mr. Ilammer is an entertaining, pushing young man of excellent business quali- fications, and well deserves the success with which he is meeting in business.

LFRED MARTIN GUNTER was born September 3, 1842, in La Porte County, Indiana, his parents being Jacob and Jane (Sanford) Gunter. His mother is a native of Pennsylvania, and was born September 11, 1818. His father, Jacob Gunter, was also a native of Pennsylvania, and was born June 13, 1814. They were married February 23, 1836, in New York State. They went to Ohio and located near Cleveland, remaining for five or six years, thence to Illinois, then to Indiana, in both of which places they remained two or three years. Then they went to Jefferson

County, Iowa, where they lived about five years. In 1853, with others, they started for California. They took three wagons, drawn by ox teams, and about twenty head of cattle. They had no trouble on the way, excepting one night when they had to keep watch in order to keep the droves of buffalo from causing the cattle to stampede. They had the cattle tied to the wagons, there being no timber in that sec- tion. The parties just ahead of them and be- hind were much annoyed by the Indians. After a journey of six months they landed in Pleasant Valley, El Dorado County, September 3. Mr. Gunter kept hotel for a time at Pleasant Valley, but afterward bought a ranch, which he sold after working it a year. Coming to Sacramento County, he bought a ranch in Brighton Town- ' ship. Twelve years later he sold out and moved to Inyo County, California. His home is now in New Monterey. He and his wife are both living; he is seventy-five years old, and his wife seventy. They raised a family of twelve children, six sons and six daughters, one of whom has since died. Their names are as fol- lows: Effama, born Angust 7, 1837, wife of J. M. Bell, resident in Pleasant Valley; Minerva, born March 2, 1839, wife of Joseph Power, resident in Inyo County, California; A. M .; Adaline, born February 13, 1844, wife of Nel- son Shaver, of Sacramento; F. S. Gunter, born October 23, 1846, resident in Sacramento; A. T. Gunter, born October 18, 1848, resident in New Mexico; H. N., born August 29, 1850; Eliza- beth N., born September 26, 1853, wife of Alley McGee, resident in Inyo County; Caroline, born October 28, 1857, resident in Inyo County, wife of John McGee; P. D., born October 28, 1857, resident in Sacramento; N. J., born December 29, 1859; and Mary J., born June 11, 1862, and died an infant. A. M. Gunter, the subject of this sketch, has spent all his life, excepting the first eleven years, in California. He took up a ranch, which other parties were striving to get, when yet too young to hold it in his name. He went there and stayed in a little house which was built on the land, and which he had to guard

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night and day. After he had been there a suffi- cient length of time, his father obtained a title to the land in his name (his father's). In 1862 he went to Silver City with a load of freight, where he was exposed to the small-pox. He returned after an absence of twenty days, and was taken down with the disease, giving it to the other members of the family. During his absence his father had sold his ranch and spent the proceeds. But he gave him two cows, which he exchanged for oxen. With this team he went to baling hay, which occupation he followed for three or four years. In this way he obtained his start in lite. In 1870 he bought the place where he now resides; it contains 480 acres, and is devoted to general farming. It is situated .on the road four miles east of Florin, in Brigh- ton and San Joaquin townships. Mr. Gunter is a member of the order of Odd Fellows, In- dustry Lodge, No. 157, of Sacramento, and the P. of H. He was married April 10, 1872, to Mary Margaretta Kent, born November 25, 1849, daughter of James and Martha M. Kent, who came to California in 1853 across the plains, settling in Sutter County, where they lived fifteen years; then moved to Elk Grove, where her father died September 13, 1884. Mr. and Mrs. Gunter have eight children, six sons and two daughters: Alfred Franklin, born An- gust 17, 1873; Wilfred Edmond, December 25, 1875; Mary Etta Leona, November 19, 1877; James Garfield, December 17, 1879; Rufus Irving, March 27, 1882; Cora Alena Pearl, April 1, 1884; Orren Alonzo, July 25, 1886, and Larren Elbridge, August 31, 1888.

OSEPH GRONDONA was born in Italy, September 6, 1819, and came direct to Cali- fornia in 1852, by way of New York and the Isthmus, walking across the latter, and landing at San Francisco in February, 1853. IIe first followed mining at Angel's Camp in Calaveras County, and then in Bear Valley, Mariposa, remaining there five years. Return-

ing East, he was in Boston six months. Com- ing again to the coast by steamer, he went to the Bear Valley mines, where he remained two years, but not with much success. In Decem- ber, 1861, he went to San Francisco and then came to this county and rented a small piece of land two miles south of Sacramento, of Samuel Lardner, for five years; afterward he bought more land of Mr. Lardner, making sixteen acres. He now has fifteen acres in orchard, and five acres in hops. This place was a swamp when he took possession of it, but he has made it a "garden of Eden." It is now about a half mile from the city limits, and near the levee road. The land is of the finest quality, and one can raise anything upon it any time of the year, as it is irrigated from the river, and able also to stand any amount of wet weather. The house is picturesquely situated in a grove of sycamore and eucalyptus, and fine fruit trees grace the surroundings. From the house the steamers are seen daily on the river. Mr. Grondona is still in good health and active, speaks good English, and is glad to spend the remainder of his life in this golden State. He was married in Italy, September 8, 1844, to Maria Pendola, and they have five sons and one daughter: Kate, in Italy, born September 14, 1845; Nicholas, born in Italy, April 13, 1850; John, in Boston, November 17, 1852; Charles, born in Califor- nia, October 24, 1863; Frank, June 14, 1865, and Domingo, March 30, 1868, all of whom are living.

HARLES W. HARVEY, farmer, and one of the most worthy of the old settlers in Sacramento County, has been a resident here ever since 1853. He is a native of Herki- mer County, New York, where he was born August 18, 1831. He is a son of David Har- vey, some knowledge of whom and of the Har- vey family may be obtained from the sketch of Obed Harvey, elsewhere in this work. When Charles W. was eight years of age, the family

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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.

moved from New York to Illinois, where he re- mained with them until of age, a farm laborer. Being intellectually apt, he obtained a good education, even with the limited advantages of the pioneer school. After his parents removed to Elgin he remained upon the farm in Kane County, till he left for California. November 25, 1853, he sailed from New York on the steamer Promethens to Nicaragua, and thence on the Countess to San Francisco; thence on a steamer to Sacramento, and then he traveled by the stage to Hangtown (now Placerville), ar- riving December 24. The month afterward he located upon Dry Creek in the valley. At that time his mother and brother had some school lands, upon which Charles entered and engaged in the live-stock business. About the same time he bought several claims for himself, which were afterward found to be a grant that superseded other school land. He continued in the stock business, in connection with his brother and others, for a number of years. After severing his connection with them, he continued in the same business and in dairying until 1873, when he purchased the Briggs House in Galt, then in poor condition, fitted it up, gave it character, and conducted it for eleven years, with good patronage. Since he left the hotel Mr. Harvey has been engaged in no particular business. Ile is a charter member of Phoenix Lodge, No. 292, I. O. O. F., of Galt, and also a member of the Encampment of the same place. He is a gentleman of liberal views, and has always been interested in the growth of his adopted town. He was married in 1862, in Illi- nois, to Martha Sherwood, a native of the State of New York. Their children are: (bed V., Irvin and Lou.

OHN ROONEY, farmer, Brighton Town- ship, was born in Ireland, August 14, 1826, a son of John and Ann (Garland) Rooney. His parents had nine children, of whom six lived to be grown up: Peter came to the United

States in 1835, and died in Alabama; Patrick came to Alabama in 1850 and to California in 1853, and died here; John was the third child; Mary came in 1835 to the United States, and died in Massachusetts; Mrs. Katharin Murray emigrated to America about 1842 and now re- sides in Peru, Illinois; and Bridget is still in old Ireland. Peter, the eldest, made that part of Alabama his home which the other members of the family also intended for their permanent residence. Mr. John Rooney, the subject of this sketch, came to the United States in 1847, when he was just twenty-one years old. He was very young when his father died, being the youngest child at the time, and was brought up on the farm. He sailed from Liverpool to New York, and from there to Boston, near which place at Roxbury, his sister, Mrs. Mary Hoey was living. Two months afterward he went into King County, Alabama, where Peter was living. November 20, 1849, he started for California, sailing from New Orleans to Cha- gres, Panama, and thence to San Francisco, landing there January 27, 1850. He arrived in Sacramento February 2, when this place was " all slough holes." Proceeding to the mines at Georgetown, El Dorado County, he remained there about nine months, and enjoyed good suc- cess. At this time, in May or June, a friend from Alabama, John Hopper, obtained from him and his partner, Smith, $10,000, without security, for speculating purposes. By Christmas Hopper was " busted," and Rooney and Smith came down and took up this land for security. It consisted of 160 acres, about one and a half miles from where he now lives. They put in a crop of barley and made considerable money, about $5,000 net. Mr. Rooney carried on this farm and also the Alabama mine in El Dorado County, both which paid well, the mine yield- ing sometimes as high as $800 a day; his suc- eess, of course varied; but he netted $25,000 by 1853, since which time he has been farming. Ilis first place he kept until about 1879, when he purchased his present place, consisting of 610 acres, five miles from Sacramento, on the Co-

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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