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 38
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night. This offer was gratefully accepted, pro- vided they could wait until he got his tools from the ship, promising he would commence work in the morning if possible. He then went back to liis acquaintance of the wood-yard, told him of his new prospects, and of his financial condition-that he had but $9 while the freight on his tool-chiest was $10. He proposed to the wood-man that the latter lend him $5 and ac- company liim to the ship to get his tool-cliest. He would then split wood for him the balance of the day, and leave the chest with him for se- curity, only taking ont tools enough to work till lie earned money with which to pay the loan. This proposition was accepted. Early next morning Mr. Miller was at hand at the church building, and his first work there was shingling on the roof, which he had learned to do when a boy. About 9 A. M. it commenced raining, and shingling was necessarily sus- pended. He hurried back to his friend at the wood-yard, and offered to split wood for his meals. His offer being accepted he worked liard and effectively, for this was labor he had learned well how to perform when a boy. The following day he resumed the hammer at the church, and soon the shingling was finished.
His next work was laying the floor of Georgia pine, all widths matched. The man working with him was soon let go, as his employers said they could see Mr. Miller was doing nearly all the work. The compliment was quite encour- aging, as he was trying so liard to please and retain his position as a carpenter. When Sat- urday night came he received his $10 and at once went and paid the $5 he had borrowed, and after sqnaring up had a little left to live on the second week. Board at that time was from $10 to $14 per week for meals alone. One fel- low passenger, trom Lowell, a carpenter, and a good lionest fellow, who was also without money, engaged a room with a little iron bedstead and one chair, promising to pay rent when he earned money. He found a few small jobs the first week. He and Mr. Miller bunked together. Water was sold from carts, and they paid ten
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cents for their first pail full. For the first couple of weeks Mr. Miller was accustomed to take for his dinner a loaf of bread (which cost twenty-five cents) and a little pail with water. When noon came he would go into a clump of bushes and eat his frugal meal. For several days he ate nothing but bread and water, and this was varied only by the addition, during the remainder of the time, of some syrup from a bottle that he and the Lowell man had purchased in partnership. Yet this was good fare in com- parison with the allowance on the ship. One night he was so fatigued with his hard day's work after the wearing sea voyage, that it was difficult for him to walk home over the little sand-hills. He could eat nothing that night, but went to a restaurant and paid twenty-five cents for one cup of tea. Next day he worked as usual.
He was employed on the church until the job was nearly completed and drew something over $80. Then he was offered a job by his old friend, the wood-yard inan, doing some carpen- ter work, at $7 a day. Mr. Miller agreed to ac- cept provided he could leave whenever a job was open for him at carriage work with Smith & Wells, a Kearny street firm, with whom he had been negotiating. Three or four days later he secured the latter job and removed his tools and went to work. The next night a conflagra- tion swept down Pacific street, and the owners of the wood-yard were compelled to make their escape on boats with only a few articles, every- thing else being destroyed. The next morning Mr. Miller mnet one of them, his friend, who approached him and said: " We are now poor, and cannot pay you the balance on your work." Mr. Miller replied; " Never mind; if you find me poor some time when you are well-off, pay me; if not, let it go." He then let the unfor- tunate man have tools to work in rebuilding the burnt district.
While Mr. Miller was engaged in that shop the fires of May and June occurred. He worked there until August and then went to Stockton, his course in this matter having been brought
about by mere chance. One day he happened into an auction store on Kearny street and there noticed a familiar face. He did not rec- ognize the man at first, but soon placed him as John R. Corey, a carriage-maker he had worked for a few months at New Bedford, Mass. The acquaintance was quickly renewed. Mr. Miller expected to be out of a job soon, as his employers had charged such exorbitant prices during the fire times that their customers left them. Corey soon went to Stockton, and Mr. Miller wrote to him inquiring about work. When he got out of a job he remained only one day in San Francisco, then took a steamer for Stockton. Mr. Corey, who had a wagon shop on Channel street, went with Mr. Miller to a shop on the same street owned by J. W. Smith, and a job was at once secured at $7 per day. He worked for Mr. Smith until the following spring; and then, for $50 per month, rented a corner of his shop about twenty-five feet square.
About a year later two blacksmiths from New Bedford, named respectively Skiff and Tucker, were looking for a location for a shop. The corner occupied by Mr. Miller and the Key lot were for sale, and he said to Skiff and Tucker: " If you will wait until I see the owner of these lots, I will purchase them, build a wood shop, lease you a part of the ground on which to erect a blacksmith shop, and then we can work for each other's interest." His proposition was accepted. He bought the lots from the Guard family and the buildings were constructed. While carrying on this shop Mr. Miller sold a freight wagon to Sam Foreman for $900, taking in part payment a note for $400. He turned that note over as part of the price of the lots -- $1,100-and gave his own note for a part. In order to get money to put up a little balloon wood-shop, he borrowed $400 from H. M. Fan- ning, paying four per cent. a month interest. During the first summer the shop had no floors or doors. A few boards were laid overhead, and there he slept. A man who worked for him was afraid to sleep there for fear of rolling off. He and the blacksmith worked by the ar-
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rangement previously mentioned for two years; Mr. Skiff sold out to Mr. Tucker his interest in the blacksmith shop and returned to New Bed- ford. Mr. Tucker carried on the business for about a year, then sold out the shop and tools to Mr. Miller. That was the foundation of his present splendid business.
The splendid carriage-building establishment of Mr. Miller, located in Stockton, is a fitting monument to the life work of a noble-minded, honest man. It has a reputation second to no establishment on the Pacific coast, and is equipped with the best inachiinery in every de- partment. This is a large inanufacturing insti- tution, where there is a place for everything and everything in its place, and kept as neatly almost as the home of a model housewife. There is no well-meaning citizen of Stockton or San Joa- quin County but who is prond of Mr. Miller and his splendid carriage factory.
Mr. Miller married his present wife in June, 1855. Her maiden name was Pamelia Tilton. She was born at Easton, Washington County, · New York, and came to Stockton in Deceniber, 1853. They have one child, named Millie Lonisa.
.Mr. Miller is a consistent member of the Methodist Church. All his life he has been a friend and follower of temperance, and was never in the slightest degree addicted to the use of either liquor or tobacco. Thus he has en- joyed the free use of all his faculties. He lias been identified with the Prohibition party since its organization, and an active worker in its councils since the campaign of St. John and Daniels, when he was chairman of the county committee, which -position he now holds. He was a Whig sympathizer in early life and cast his first presidential vote for Fremont, the first candidate of the Republican party. Being an Abolitionist by principle, he took an active in- terest in all movements tending to the freedom of tlie slaves, and by reading Lincoln's speech to his young associates acquired the name of a "d-d black Republican." He was a member of the city council in 1854, but has
always hield aloof from office. . Mr. Miller's parents died in Stockton, having come out here to spend their declining days with him, ac- companied by his four sisters and one brother.
ILLIAM C. SMITH, Stockton's young and efficient postmaster, is a native of Louisiana, Missouri, born on the 28tlı day of August, 1855, and son of Captain J. W. and Susan E. (Crow) Smith. The family re- moved to Nevada in 1865, and in 1867 to Stock- ton, where his father is one of the prominent business men.
W. C. Smith received his education in the public schools of Stockton, and commenced a business career as book-keeper in the establish- ment of Stewart & Smithi, grain inerchants. He was thus occupied nutil April, 1888, when he assumed the duties of Postmaster of Stockton.
He was married in Stanislaus County on the 30th of October, 1884, to Miss Stella Kilburn, a native of California.
Mr. Smith is a member of San Joaquin Lodge, No. 19, A. F. & A. M. He is a gentleman of strict business habits, and under his adminis- tration of its affairs the service of the Stockton postoffice has given to the citizens a degree of satisfaction rarely attained.
OHN CORSTEN GRUPE (commonly called Charles Grupe) was born in Mor- sıunn, Hanover, Germany, September 18, 1828. His father's naine was Geard H. Grupe and his mother's name was Harriet Esdohm. They had ten children, six boys and four girls, and Charley was the youngest. He was of all the children most ambitions and restless, and at the age of sixteen, in the fall of 1844, embarked for America on the ship Charlotte, sailing from Bremen to New York. It being a sail ship they were twenty-eight days making the journey. He was very sea-sick all the time. On arriving
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in New York he hired out as clerk in a grocery store, and in less than a year bought a grocery store for himself on the corner of Greenwich and Robinson streets. But hearing of the gold of California, he left his store in charge of a Mr. Kennable, and January 1, 1849, left in a small schooner for San Francisco. The schooner was small-only seventy-tive tons' burden-and was named Joseph Howard Her captain's name was Sanders. On board were the captain, one mate, one sailor, one boy, cook, and ten passen- gers, all young men. They came by way of Cape Horn and stopped at Rio Janeiro ten days. At the Horn they encountered a small gale and for nineteen days the ship drifted at the mercy of the wind and waves. Here they lost the sailor. They also stopped ten days at Callao, where they saw the famous bull-fights. When they arrived at the Golden Gate, they had no pilot, and they came near losing everything by being dashed to pieces on the bar. However, with the help of all, they managed to steer into the harbor. They arrived in San Francisco July 17, 1849, and during all the trip he was not sick.
On arriving in San Francisco the captain sold the cargo, schooner and all, and with the help of the passengers unloaded. They all came at once to Stockton by sail-boat, and on arriving in the latter place they were taken sick and lay in the tules for two days. They then hired an ox teanı to take their baggage to the mines, giving 25 cents per pound from Stockton to Mokelumne Hill. They all walked except two who were sick, and they paid for themselves 25 cents per pound. In going up to the mines one sick man died, and they buried him at Double Springs.
On arriving at Mokelumne Hill they mined in the Mokelumne river for about three or four weeks, and as they were not successful they separated and he came back to Stockton and hired out to drive team. He drove for three or four months; then, in company with Henry Meyers, started from Stockton to Sacramento to buy a team of their own. On the first day they
became tired, foot-sore and hungry, and a man caine by riding one horse and leading another. They wanted to get to ride on his spare horse, but he would not let them unless they would buy the horse. This they did, for $15. Night came on them and they lay down on the plains near Dry creek, tying the rope of the horse to their arms to keep him. The night was cold, and with no covering, nothing to eat and the coy- otes yelling around them, they lay down to sleep. In the morning they eachi gave 50 cents for a drink of buttermilk, then both got on the horse and rode into Sacramento, where they sold the horse for $30.
Here they bought a six-mule team for $1,600, and returned to Stockton.
Meyers took charge of the team and Charles Grupe returned to Mokelumne Hill, and in company with Henry Knlmos again engaged in mining. This time they did well; but as Inn ... ber was high they began to whip-saw out Jum- ber, which they sold for $1 per foot. They sawed all winter and in the spring they mined at San Andreas, and did well.
They then came to Stockton, bought goods and started a store of their own in Mokelumne Hill. Then a company of them during the winter turned the Mokelumne river from its bed and took ont a vast amount of coarse gold. They then divided up and sold out their store and he came back to Stockton.
In the spring of 1852 he went to San Fran- cisco and took ship for New York, going by way of Panama; from New York he shipped at once to Germany and in the fall of the same year re- turned to New York. In the meantime he had sold his store in New York to his brother, and after stopping there a few days, started on a re- turn trip to California. This time he camne by way of Panama. In New York he met a num- ber of persons who caine to California with him. Among them was Catherine M. Behuke, whom he afterward married. The others were Henry Behuke, Hattie and Rebecca Behrmann, Lena Meyer, John Kulmos, John Wilkins and Henry Meyer,-nine in all; of these four only are liv-
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ing. They crossed the Istlimus on a mule train, then took ship and came to San Francisco, and landed at Stockton November 10, 1852.
On December 1 he was married to Catherine Behuke, and Henry Meyer was married to Re- becka Belirmann, both on the same day.
They went at once to a farm near where lie afterward made his home. Everything was exceedingly high. For a cow he paid $110; for a pair of geese $10; and a pair of pigeons $5. He soon after took up eighty acres of land and shortly afterward bought more land; to do so he borrowed money at 3 percent. a month, and to pay for it was obliged to sell off his cattle and almost everything else.
During the first years he cut his grain with a cradle, bound it and hauled it to the mountains, and sold it. It was a long, liard struggle, but determination and love of home and the dear ones overcame all obstacles.
AMES RUTHERFORD OWEN, a rancher of Dent Township, was born in Tennessee, January 19, 1832, a son of George P. and Elizabeth (Davis) Owen. The mother, born in August, 1807, died in January, 1888; the father, born in May, 1808, is still living. Grandmother Owen, by birth a Pr ston, died comparatively young, and Grandfather Owen, who had moved from North Carolina to Ten- nessee, was not quite sixty at his deatlı. Great- grandfather Owen was an emigrant from Wales. Grandfather Aaron Davis and his wife, whose maiden name was Jones, moved westward from Tennessee, and what age they reached is not known.
The subject of this sketch remained on his father's farm till he was over twenty-one years of age. From 1853 to 1855 he peddled through Kentucky for wages-cotton tliread used for family weaving into home-made cloth. In 1853 Mr. Owen was married to Miss Catherine Hunt, a native of Tennessee, born November 29, 1831, daughter of Louis Tyrus and Ailsey (Blanken-
ship) Hunt. The father lived to be seventy-three and the mother sixty-five years, both dying in Tennessee. Her grandmother Blankenship, a native of North Carolina, died in Tennessee, aged 100 years.
In 1855 Mr. Owen bought 160 acres of land and went to farming, in which he continued until he left for this coast in 1869. He left home November 7, 1869, for California, where lie arrived by railroad November 19, and went to work on a ranch for wages. He raised a crop on a rented place of 200 acres near Water- loo in 1870, and the following year moved to Linden, where he put in a crop about one mile south of the village. In 1872 he moved to his present location, where he rented the Brooke ranch of 1,500 acres, about three miles east of Farmington, which he still holds. In 1884 he bought 610 acres of Mr. Brooke and an adjoin- ing forty acres from another party, about one mile and a half southwest of his home. He farmns abont 2,000 acres, mostly in wheat and barley, having no less than 1,200 acres in these grains. He has a small fortune invested in agricultural implements and farming stock. From 1873 to 1881 he paid considerable at- tention to sheep raising on shares with Mr. Brooke, having as many as 2,500 head, but fonnd wheat-growing to be more profitable.
Mr. and Mrs. Owen have nine children, viz .: Henry Taylor, born July 15, 1854, married in Stockton, in September, 1886, to Miss Mary Douglass, has one child, Essie May; Charles Madison, born February 13, 1856, has been twice married - by his first wife, Edna Jane Spencer, a native of Missouri, deceased, he has one child, Verna, born in 1882; he is now liv- ing in Fresno with his second wife. The third child of Mr. and Mrs. Owen is Partelia Jane, born May 18, 1857, now Mrs. James D. Blair, who has three children-Elmer J., Emily Etta and Eva Alice. The fourth child, George Mil- ton, born May 31, 1859, died July 27, 1862; Myra Elizabeth, born January 27, 1861, now Mrs. David Bryson of Linden, the mother of one child, Nellie, born in 1888; John Hamil-
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ton, born October 15, 1862, of the firm of Long & Owen, merchants of Farmington since 1884, who was married April 4, 1886, to Miss Sarah Griffin, a native of Stanislaus County; they have two children, Alva George and a baby girl, Lizzie. Mary Alice Owen was born January 15, 1865; Willie Sidney, born May 6, 1867; Walter James, born in California, near French Camp, Angust 30, 1870; and Thomas Jefferson, born in the present home, November 17, 1872.
Mr. Owen was a Justice of the Peace and As- sessor in Tennessee, 1859 to 1861, both offices being united in that State.
ANZY W. SHEEN, a farmer of Union Township, was born in South Wales, Jan- uary 22, 1847, a son of James and Anna (Watkins) Sheen, both natives of England. Our subject was raised on a farm. At the age of twenty-one he went to Kenosha County, Wis- consin. There he remained for five years en- gaged in farming. In the spring of 1874 he came to California by rail, landing in Stockton, where he went to work for J. W. Castle, re- maining with him till 1878. In that year he bonght his ranch of eighty acres, situated on the New Hope road, about two miles west of New Hope.
He was married March 25, 1875, to Miss Lucy Powell, a native of England, by whom he had one child-D. H. Sheen. Mr. Sheen is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, Jefferson Lodge, No. 98; is a member of Woodbridge Grange since 1885, and also a char- ter member of the Pomona and Connty Grange organized in 1887.
B. PARKER .- Few of the California, pioneers now living have had so varied experiences as the gentleman whose name heads this sketch. He is a native of New Hamp- shire, born at Charlestown, Cheshire County,
December 14, 1818, his parents being Stephen and Mary (Bellows) Parker. Stephen Parker was born at Winslow, Maine. He grew up in that State and followed lumbering there. He also followed that business after removing to New Hampshire, until timber became scarce, after which he turned his attention to farming. He died in New Hampshire in his ninety-fourth year. The mother of our subject was a daugh- ter of Peter Bellows, and granddaughter of Colonel Benjamin Bellows, who was granted a large amount of land for his services during the French and Indian war and who was the founder of the settlement abont Bellows' Falls, which place took its name from him.
R. B. Parker, the subject of this sketch, was reared mostly at his native place to the age of fifteen years; and then went to Nantucket, Massachusetts, where he engaged as clerk for Orrison Adams, brother of the founder of the great Adams Express Company. There he re- inained until removing to California, and for several years had an interest in the business. When the news of the great gold discovery in California reached the East he was one of the first to catch the fever, and 1849 he became one of a company of twenty-four, organized to go to the new El Dorado. They bonght the whale ship, Fannie, of 400 tons' burden, purchased provisions for two years, and taking on a cargo of Inmber sailed from Nantucket in August. Running short of vegetables they attempted to put in at the Azores islands to replenish, but were prevented from landing as there was chol- era in the United States. They then shaped their course to the Cape Verde islands, where they put into port. Their next stop was at Val- paraiso, and this was the last until they reached San Francisco, where they landed on the 22d of February, 1850. Mr. Parker remained there until the middle of April, waiting for the set- tling np of the affairs of the company to which he belonged. It had been their intention to re- main together, but they were universally advised to disband, which they concluded to do. Lum- ber had so depreciated that Mr. Meigs advised
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Mr. Parker, who was secretary of the company, to fit up the ship with a general cabin, three tiers high, occupying the entire deck, and then go to Panama and sell the lumber, and return with passengers. Some of the other partners did not wish to do so, however, and Mr. Parker then started to buy up as many of their shares as he could. He purchased 7-24this in all, the plan was set in motion, and the vessel sent to Panama. They were offered a load of passen- gers by Mr. Garrison for a quick return, but the captain of the ship, wishing to sell the lum- ber himself instead of leaving it to be sold on commission, would not take the load offered him there. He waited at Panama a week and then started for San Francisco in ballast. On arriving there the outfit was sold at seventy-five cents on the dollar. Meantime, Mr. Parker had gone on to Stockton, paying $25 passage on the steamer General Sutter. He engaged a team from Thomas Cochran, and paid him ten cents a pound to haul himself, party and supplies to Coyote creek, Calaveras County. He attempted mining there, but being dissatisfied with the prospect, sold out his interest to his companions and returned to Stockton on foot. He then boarded a sail vessel for San Francisco, being six days on the trip. In the city he met an old shipmate named Capen, and at his suggestion they took a three-ton, half-deck boat from the ship, and started for Stockton, Mr. Parker doing the piloting. They tied up the first night to an old hulk at Benicia, and the second night to the Lone Tree at Wakefield. The next morning they reached Stockton. They had brought along a load of merchandise, which they attempted to sell as soon as they arrived, meeting with fair success. Among others they called upon a merchant from Louisiana named T. S. Robert, who was in fceble health, and asked him if he wished to buy any of their goods. He replied bluntly that he did not wish to buy anything, but preferred selling what he had. He had a $900 galvanized iron building, stocked with liquors and wines in packages. Mr. Parker informed him that he
had no money to bny the stock with, when the man replied: "I have no use for money. If I can get up to Robinson's Ferry, where I have a friend, I can keep my health and live, which I cannot do here; take the establishment and pay for it when you get the money." His prop- osition was readily accepted, and he turned over everything to the young purchasers, at invoice prices, and went away, even leaving his trunks with them. A year later he came back witlı health recuperated, received the money for the goods and building he had sold, and then went to Lower California. The next year, which was 1851, they moved upon Main street. They were making money rapidly. They had just got fixed nicely in their new store, however, when a fire commenced at Branch Hotel, swept the entire town west of Hunter street, and burned up all they had. They rebuilt and started up again, and werc fairly successful, re- moving to where Mr. Parker is located on Hun- ter street square, in the fall. The firm continued as R. B. Parker & Co. until the winter of 1853 -'54, but since that time Mr. Parker has carried on the establishment there alone.
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