USA > California > San Joaquin County > An illustrated history of San Joaquin County, California. Containing a history of San Joaquin County from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its future prospects; > Part 36
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AMES WALLACE KERRICK, the present incumbent of the office of Treasurer of San Joaquin County, was born in Kentucky, October 22, 1832, his birthplace being in Jef- ferson County, twelve miles from Louisville. The family was an old one in Kentucky, his grandfather, Harrison Kerrick, a Revolutionary veteran, having settled in the Blue Grass State when the home had to be protected from the Indians by the settlers' rifles, when Kentucky acquired its title of the "Dark and Bloody Ground." The father of our subject was also born in Jefferson County, and there married his wife, whose maiden name was Rachel Mc- Kernan. She was born in Virginia, but her parents moved to Kentucky when she was a mere child. James Kerrick, father of our sub- ject, was a lawyer by profession.
J. W. Kerrick, with whose name this sketch commences, was reared in his native county to the age of seventeen years and received his ed- ucation there, in Gallatin County, Illinois, in Missouri, and in Arkansas. He traveled cou- siderably throughont the western country, and in the early '50s removed to California. He was one of a party organized at Independence, Missouri, for the purpose of making the long journey across the plains, consisting of 148 men, thirteen women and eleven children, with an outfit of twenty-six wagons. Mr. Kerrick was elected captain of the company. They pro- ceeded from Independence to Fort Kearny on the Platte river, thence to Fort Laramie, thence via Sublette's cut-off, Steamboat Springs and np the Humboldt river, where they left the main route and proceeded into California via Sonora, being the first company to choose that route. They ran out of provisions, and were forced to subsist on their cattle alone for some time. When they got to " Relief Camp," they received a contribution of supplies, whichi had been made up and sent out to them by the citi- zens of Sonora and vicinity. They obtained what they required by paying a dollar a pound for it, but the supplies would have been wel- come at any price. On arriving at Sonora the train disbanded, and Mr. Kerrick, settling in Tuolumne County, remained four years. He was for a time engaged in hauling lumber from the mountains to the miners on the Tuolumne river, but never received any remuneration for his labors. He located a piece of land fourteen miles this side of Sonora and was for two or three years engaged principally in hay-raising. In 1857 he came to San Joaquin County, of which he has been a resident ever since. Col- legeville on the Mariposa road occupies a portion of his ranch. Jannary 17, 1868, he was married to Miss Kate Urell, a native of Iowa. They have seven children living, viz .: John W., who is teaching in Stanislaus County; J. H., who is proprietor of the Stockton Pharmacy; Alice, Delia, Charles, Walter and Evelyn. Two have died, namely: Mollie and Kittie.
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
Mr. Kerrick has always taken an active part in public affairs, and has held a high place in the councils of the Democratic party. In 1882 to took a trip to the Eastern States, and while in Kentucky received information of his noin- ination for Assemblyinan from this district. He was chosen for that position by the people of the county at the ensuing election, and served with credit during the regular and extra sessions of 1883. He was chairman of the committee on overflowed lands, and a member of those on county government, and agriculture. At the general election of 1888 he was chosen to fill the important position of treasurer of San Jooquin County, and it is conceded by all that the office has never had a more efficient or a more popular incumbent.
Mr. Kerrick is a gentleman of the old school, and the combination of courtesy, dignity and geniality, which distingnish him, have won the esteem and respect of all with whom he has come in contact.
Mr. Kerrick's fine ranch in this county con- tains 400 acres. He also has condiderable land interests in Butte and Yolo counties.
ENERAL THOMAS EDMUND KETCHUM, a rancher of Douglass Town- ship, was born in New York city, July 8, 1821, in a three-story brick house at the corner of Cedar and Greenwich streets, which was a landmark for many years. His parents were Israel and Alice (Case) Ketchum. Grandfather Ketchum served in the army of the Revolution. His wife lived to be eighty. Uncle Walter Case was a member of the Congress in 1819, representing the Orange County or Newburgh district. Uncle Thomas Ketchum rendered ınem- orable service in the war of 1812 by saving military supplies from the enemy at Sackett's Harbor. Grandfather Case was a Presbyterian minister of Pleasant Valley, Dutchess County, New York. His wife was a De Ruyter heiress. The father of General Ketchum was a resident
of New York for fifty years and a flour mer- chant there for many years. He died in 1858, aged eighty-four; the mother died young.
Thomas E. was educated chiefly in private schools and in early manhood helped in his fa- ther's business. He received a position in the United States Treasury toward the close of Ty- ler's administration in 1844, and when definitely ascertained that Polk was elected he was dis- charged. He was also mail agent between New York and Boston for a time. In 1846 he was employed as chemist, surveyor and sub- agent for a mining company in the copper mines on Lake Superior. He left New York on the Sweden, September 18, 1847, as Second Lien- tenant in command of the second detacliment of recruits numbering ninety-eight men for Colonel Stevenson's regiment, arriving at Mon- terey, February 22, 1848. They reached La Paz by the barque Isabella on March 15. When Captain Turner left Rio Janeiro for New York, the command devolved on Lieutenant Matzell, and upon the latter going from La Paz to Maz- atlan, the command devolved upon Lieutenant Ketchum. At the battle of Todos Santos he was in command of the reserve which did ef- fective service under direction of Colonel Bur- ton, in deciding the fortune of the day. He remained in command of his company until they were rejoined by Lieutenant Matzell at Monterey, where they were mustered out Octo- Ler 22, 1848. Upon his discharge Mr. Ketchum went to the mines in Tuolumne County, arriv- ing December 1, and was fairly successful as a ininer that winter. In the spring of 1849, in partnership with his friend, George A. Pendle- ton, he started a store at Jamestown in that county and carried it on until 1853, when Mr. Ketchum sold out his interest. Meanwhile he had become owner of the ranch where he still lives, about ten miles east of Stockton, and he went to farming.
After the breaking out of the civil war, he enrolled a company, beginning September 15, 1861, and completing it in six weeks, and be- came senior Captain of the Third Infantry Cal-
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
ifornia Volunteers, serving over three years. Receiving orders to relieve the regulars at Fort Humboldt, he was engaged in subdning tlie hostile Indians in that section, and killed and captured over fifty of them between October 30, 1861, and August, 1862. The flag after- ward presented by the citizens of Humboldt County, to the company in recognition of their services is now at the Grangers' Union in Stockton.
With nothing left but his ranch he resumed farming, and was honored with a commission as Brigadier General of the State Militia or Na- tional Guards. He was married in 1852 to Miss Esther Sedgwick, born in Columbia County, New York, daughter of Thomas and Phimela (Hodge) Sedgwick. The father, a na- tive of England, born near Bolton Abbey, came to America abont the age of twenty and settled in the State of New York, where he was inar- ried. Grandfather Horace Hodge was a native of Connecticut, and died in Columbia County, New York, aged seventy-five. His wife died in middle age. Mr. and Mrs. Ketchum are the parents of two living children: Frank Everson, born in this township April 22, 1854, who has lived all his life on the ranch except while away at school or college. Spent some time in three of these in Collegeville, in Heald's Business College and under a private tutor at Berkeley. Anna A. Ketchum, born September 24, 1871, was graduated May 29, 1889, from Mills' Sem- inary, near Oakland.
ILLIAM FREEMAN PRATHER, a rancher of Douglass Township, was born in Randolph Connty, Missouri, Marclı 25, 1825, a son of Thomas J. and Rebecca (Hel- inan) Prather, both natives of Kentucky, but married in Missouri, whither the families of both had moved. James and Hannah (Turner) Prather, the grandparents of our subject, were among the first settlers of that State, arriving as early as 1819, and both lived to be abont 100
years. Great-grandfather Prather was a Scotch emigrant, who came to this country before the Revolution. The father of W. F. Prather was a carpenter by trade and became owner of a farm. He died comparatively young, at the age of fifty, owing probably to an injury received some years before. The mother died in Linden, this township, June 10, 1873, aged sixty-five.
The subject of this sketchi was brought up on his father's farin and also learned his father's trade, receiving in yonth a fair education, taking into consideration the time and place. In time he became the owner of a farm of 220 acres. He was married, February 8, 1849, in Hunt- ville, Missouri, to Miss Marilda Sanford, born in Howard County, Missonri, February 15, 1827, daughter of Dozier and Hannahı (Barnes) San- ford, both natives of Kentucky. Both families are understood to have been American for sev- eral generations. Mrs. Sanford died at the home of her danghter, Mrs. Prather, Jnly 4, 1883, aged eighty-nine. J. D. Sanford died April 20, 1835, in Missonri.
Mr. Prather came to California in 1853, leav- ing Missouri April 22 of that year. He now owns 320 acres of bottom land, yielding seventy- five bushels of barley to the acre; 360 acres of wheat land and a sheep range of 4,000 acres near Bellota. He keeps usually a flock of about 6,000 head, and owns about 1,500 acres in Tuolumne Connty for their pasturage in summer, besides the free range of some Government land. He also raises horses, mules and cattle for the mar- ket. He was engaged largely in cattle raising until the flood of 1862, by which he lost 1,000 head.
Mr. Prather built a new and beautiful home in 1882 at a cost of $6,000, on a small knoll, forming an unusually attractive site for so hand- some a structure. Adjoining is a small orchard of various fruit-trees, including a dozen English walnuts, for home use-the whole forming a picture of an ideal home. Mr. and Mrs. Prather are the parents of six children, viz .: Cyrus S., born December 9, 1849, in Randolph Connty, Missonri, died, unmarried, in San Francisco,
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December, 19, 1885; Frances, born in Randolph County, Missouri, April 1, 1853, now Mrs. Joseph Potter, resides with her family one mile east of Linden; Thomas F., born in San Joaquin County, California, September 14, 1855, edu- cated at Santa Rosa College, and now residing with his parents; John D., born in San Joaquin County, December 28, 1863, graduated at tlie same college after a full course, also residing at home; Medora V., born in 1859, spent two years iu the same institution; Reba, born in 1870, is attending school at Linden.
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LIZABETH F. SALMON, manager of a farm in Castoria Township, was born in Grant County, Wisconsin, 1845. Her father came across the plains in 1859, and she left her old home with her mother for California in 1860, coming by water on the vessel North- ern Light as far as the Isthinus, and from there on the Sonora; they were three weeks on the voyage. She was married to John Salmon, a native of Wisconsin, born 1836, and died on their ranch in 1882. He was a good provider for his fan- ily and left them a ranch containing 400 acres of choice land, well improved, and principally devoted to the raising of grain and stock.
They had six children, three sons and three daugliters, namely: Mary A., Edmond C., Arthur H., Everett E., Clara A. and Alıneda P.
Mrs. Salmon was a dangliter of Edmond and Mary Ann Harelson; the former was born in Kentucky, in 1806, and died in San Joaquin County, in the fall of 1864; the latter was born in Tennessee, October 11, 1818, and is still liv- ing in San Joaquin County.
T. MCKENZIE, farmer of Castoria, was born in Ballard County, Kentucky, in 1836. He left that State when a small boy for Wisconsin, where he remained nntil 1864, when lie came across the plains to Cali-
fornia with a train of 100 wagons; when they landed in French Camp there were thirty-five wagons left. Mr. Mckenzie lost no time or money in looking about but immediately bought liis ranch of 160 acres of choice land, eleven miles from Stockton and four miles from French Camp on the Mckenzie road. The road was called by his name as he furnished the land for it. The ranch produces mostly wheat and rye.
He was married in Wisconsin, in 1863, to Miss Lucy Graves, who was born in Warren County, Missouri, in 1840. They have one son, James Henry Clay Mckenzie, born Sep- tember 18, 1870.
R. SAMUEL N. CROSS .- Among the leading physicians of Stockton must be inentioned the gentleman whose name heads this sketelı. He is a native of Lockport, New York, and son of Lester and Abigail (Sloan) Cross. He comes of a family of pro- fessional people, his father having been a lawyer and his grandfather and great-grandfather phy- sicians. In 1846 the family of our subject re- mnoved to St. Clair, in St. Clair County, Michi- gan, and thence to Saginaw. There S. N. Cross grew to manhood and was educated. He com- menced the study of medicine with Dr. L. E. Cross, of Saginaw, and attended lectures at the Pulte Medical College, graduating there in 1876. He came to this city to commence the practice of his profession, and has ever since remained, being associated with his brother in the firm of L. E. & S. N. Cross. Dr. Cross is a talented and conscientions physician, and en- joys an unusually high position in professional circles and in the esteem of the public.
He was married in Michigan, September 1, 1875, to Miss Eva Ackley, a native of Michi- gan. They have two children, viz .: Earl G. and La Rue. Dr. Cross is a member of Morn- ing Star Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and of Stock- tou Chapter and Stockton Commandery. He belongs to Charter Oak Lodge, K. of P., and is
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
Examining Physician for Stockton Lodge, No. 23, A. O. U. W., and for the local lodge, A. L. of H.
OSEPH B. MESSICK, a rancher of Doug- lass Township, was born in Delaware, Feb- ruary 28, 1820, a son of George and Mary (Carey) Messick, both members of the Society of Friends. The mother, a native of Dela- ware, died young, in 1824, having borne six children. The father, a native of Philadelphia, died in 1838, aged fifty-two.
J. B. Messick received a fair education in his youth and learned the trade of cabinet and wood- turner. Traveling west in the exercise of his craft, he was married in Indiana, May 22, 1842, to Miss Elizabeth Cole, a native of New York, born July 8, 1824, a daughter of Calvin and Lavina (Słocum) Cole, who moved to Shelby County, Indiana, in the spring of 1825. The father died about 1855, aged sixty-two, and the mother, a native of Vermont, died in 1858, aged sixty-nine. Grandmother Prudence (Hard) Cole, of Welsh descent, lived to be eighty-four. The Slocums are American for several genera- tions.
In 1850 J. B. Messick crossed tlie plains, entering the mines at Ringgold, Placer County, on August 21. He worked a short time for low wages. September 18, with a comrade of his journey across the plains and another part- ner, lie bought a claim, and they had the good fortune to gather in $225 eacli in five days. Having previously been able to make living wages, they came to Stockton. While Mr. Mes sick went to work for Andrew Wolf at $200 a montli, his partners went to Sonora on a pros- pecting tour. They concluded to go into the manufacture of miners' tools in Sonora, and Messick bought the luunber and iron on credit. After one month he followed his partners to Sonora City, in November. They boughit out the third partner January 17, 1851, and before the close of the month wound up the business.
They tried mining again until May, making $5 a day each. Mr. Messick remained in Sonora five years, and was sometimes' interested in mining claims, but that was the extent of his personal experience in mining. He then went into the manufacture of "long-toins" and rock= ers. In 1852 he engaged in the sash, door and blind business, just in time to lose $8,000 by the fire in June of that year. The town was again swept away by fire in November, 1853. Working at various jobs another year, he came down into this township in October, 1855, and took up a quarter section of land. He went into cattle-raising, having at one time 200 head. He also kept a hotel, and his place being on the Camp Seco road, he made money for four or five years, until the travel died down. He has given accommodations to as many as eigliteen teams on a single night on this road. He then went into dairying, milking twenty-eight cows, and throughi all changes did some general far n- ing, which is the only thing which abides with him. His farm is reduced by adverse claims to eighty-five acres, of which three are in orchard, on the bank of tlie Calaveras.
Mr. and Mrs. Messick are the parents of four living children-Thaddens Warsaw, born in In- diana, December 2, 1843, now a machinist, living in Calaveras County, has nine children; Lavina Jane, born January 10, 1847, now Mrs. Charles Fagan, of Modesto, the mother of four children; Octavia V., born February 25, 1849, now Mrs. John Gilman, of Lockeford, mother of seven children; and Chester Weed, born December 17, 1850, married to Rachel White, and father of three children.
OHN REYNOLDS, farmer of Castoria Township, was born in Nicholas County, Kentucky, June 27, 1817. In November, 1844, he went to Wisconsin, and engaged in bricklaying until the year 1853, when he started across the plains for California, with a party of forty-four; he did not start with the party, but
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
one month later, overtaking them at Emigrant Springs. They landed at Hangtown September 10, 1853. He went on to Stockton, where he helped in laying thie bricks in the court-house, com- manding $9 a day and paying the same amount a week for board; he remained there five weeks, then came to this county and built his brother- in-law's brick residence. He then went to the mines in El Dorado County, where he mined two years. Hle left with about the same amount of money that he had when he went to work. He lost $1,000 in the Adams' Express. After- ward he came to San Joaquin County, and bought the ranch on which he now resides, pay- ing $6.25 an acre for it. It contains 440 acres of rich land, and there is a very pretty house on it; it is located about eiglit miles from Stock- ton, on the Frenchi Camp road. He is princi- pally engaged in raising grain and stock.
He married Margaret Ramsey, who was born in Parke County, Indiana, 1842. They have lad four children, one of whom is dead: their names are as follows: Emma, John, who died in 1885, Edward E. and George R.
AMES TURNER, a farmer of Castoria Township, was born in Ohio in 1830. His father, John Turner, moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, while he was a mere child, where they remained eleven years, when he removed to Jef- ferson County, Iowa, where he lived six years. All this time they were meditating npon going to California, and in 1850 they started across the plains, arriving at Stockton after a journey of five months. His father immediately bought four quarter sections of land in Castoria Town- ship, one of which he gave his son James; the father, in 1875, moved to Tulare County, where he still resides, being ninety years old.
James Turner's ranchi contains 960 acres of rich, well-improved land. He raises stock and grain, and some fruit for the use of his family. He has a handsome residence on the line of the
French Camp road, eight miles from Stockton and three miles from French Camp.
He was married to Miss Hannah Blosser in 1852, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1831, and died in San Joaquin County in 1882, leav- ing seven children, namely: Martha M., Jesse T., William G., Addie S., Sara A., L. Grace and Minnie J.
EORGE ALLEN CONRAD, a rancher of Douglass Township, was born in New Jer- sey, January 17, 1828, a son of John and Eliza (Pearson) Conrad. The father, born in New Jersey in 1802, was a carpenter by trade, and lived to be eighty-four years old. The mother, also born in New Jersey in 1804, died in 1876. Grandfather Robert Pearson, a native of New Jersey, was a soldier of the Revolution and rose to the rank of Colonel. He lived to the age of eighty-six. Grandfather Conrad, also a native of New Jersey, was over eighty when he died. The Conrads are of German, and the Pearsons of English extraction. G. A. Conrad received a fair education, picked up his father's trade and worked in that line before coming to California. He left New York Sep- tember 13, and arrived in San Francisco October 29, 1851. He proceeded to the mines, wliere he remained until 1855. In 1856 he erected a bridge across the south fork of the Mokelumne and kept it as a toll-bridge twenty-one months, when he sold it and went into the business of building flumes and ditches in Amador County, for miners' use. Of the firm of Holt & Conrad, in 1859, they ereeted a flume 260 feet high at Big Oak Flat, completed in December of that year, at a cost of $80,000. In 1862 he bought a water ditch at Jenny Lind, and remained there fifteen years selling water. January 10, 1877, he bought 800 acres, where he now lives, two miles east of Bellota. This he has since increased to 1,120, the last piece being pur- chased January 16, 1889. He has 300 acres of
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
bottom land, devoted to raising alfalfa, and on the highland he pastures cattle, usually keeping about 400 head. He also raises a few horses for the market.
Mr. Conrad was married in San Francisco, in 1868, to Miss Mary P. Bachelder, born in Illi- nois in 1843, a danghter of John W. and Mary (Carpenter) Bachelder, both living in 1889. The father was born in Maine in 1813, the mother in Massachusetts in 1820. Mr. Bachelder came to California first in 1856, again in 1860, and brought his family to this State in 1864. His father, Dodge Bachelder, was a lientenant in the Mexican war, and died of fever at Pueblo. Mrs. Conrad's great-grandfather, Ezekiel Bachelder, died in Maine at the age of ninety-three. The original location of the Bachelders was near Cape Cod. Grandfather Nathaniel Carpenter died in Illinois, aged eighty-four. He was a son of Major Nathaniel Carpenter of the Revolu- tion, who held a commission under George III., which he threw up to share the fortunes of the patriots. He shared in many hard-fought bat- tles, and at the close of the struggle was in com - inand at West Point. He was a native probably of Connecticut, but the family removed to what is now Berkshire County, Massachusetts, in 1787. Major Carpenter lived to be abont eighty. Mr. and Mrs. Conrad are the parents of one daughter, Annie, who has been educated at Mills' Seminary, near Oakland.
ON. T. J. KEYS, Steward of the State In- sane Asylum, is a native of Ohio, born at Waynesville, Warren County, January 16, 1823, his parents being Isaac and Sarah (Walker) Keys. His parents were reared and married in Berks County, Pennsylvania, and in 1817, with their three children, made their way across the mountains in a one-horse wagon to Ohio, their new home, which was then considered to be the far West.
T. J. Keys grew up amid scenes usually at- tending the clearing up of a wild country, and
was reared a Quaker. When he was but seven years of age his father's death occurred, and the seven children were therefore compelled to look out for themselves at an early age. When onr subject was fifteen years of age he went to work with a man named Lewis Kendall, a blacksmith who hailed from New Jersey. He was with him seventeen months, and then went to work for 1. B. Fairholm, another New Jersey inan, at $6 a month and board. After two years and four months he was a "jour" blacksmith, and for the next three or four years worked for $12 a month. He then went to Mississippi and worked in Vicksburg some seven montlis. He then went to Louisville, Kentucky, and there worked at his trade. In 1850 he started for California, joining a party made up in Louis- ville. They chartered a boat, and packing their supplies, wagons, oxen, etc., aboard, went to Weston, Missouri, from which point their jour- ney overland commenced. After waiting two or three weeks till the grass was good, they took the old military trail and proceeded on without meeting any serious obstacle until they reached Salt Lake. Here they were compelled to wait until after harvest to get flour, and proceeded on, arriving in Hangtown on the 27th of Sep- tember. There Mr. Keys bought an outfit and went to mining, but gave it up after two or three weeks' experience, and went to Sacra- mento. Not finding any work at his trade, he went on to San Francisco, but met with no bet- ter success there. He then went to work with a street gang, planking streets, until they tin- ished the work they had been engaged npon. He then made up a party of twenty-three men to go to the southern mines, and they went to Chinese Camp, Tuolumne County. After about two months there, he organized another com- pany and started sonth. They brought up at Fine Gold Gulch, head of San Joaquin river. Mr. Keys was there four months, and while there was captain of a military company, alcalde, and recorder, but having become afflicted with scurvy was compelled to leave. He took a inule team and started for San Francisco. At
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