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 39
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In the meantime, however, in the winter of 1851-'52, Parker & Co. bought the stock of Brown & Adams, at Columbia, with all their teams for the transportation of goods, and carried on business under the firm name of Arnold & Co. In the following year Mr. Brown, formerly of Brown & Adams at Columbia, came back from Louisiana and bought Parker & Co's interests at Columbia, paying $2 for $1 on their invest- ment, and changing the name to Brown & Co. The following summer the latter was burned out, Parker & Co. furnishing them means to stock and rebuild with a fine brick block. Mr. Brown's health failing and his indebtedness be- ing very large, he told Mr. Parker he had no other way of paying him than to transfer the building and stock to him. This was done, and the business was continued under the firm name of H. N. Brown & Co. In the meantime Mr. Parker went into business at Sonora, his partner there being C. E. Gorhamn. He carried on both
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establishments as well as his business in Stock- ton, withont noteworthy incident nutil 1857, when another fire occurred in Columbia and the entire town was destroyed with the exception of two or three stores, one of which was Mr. Par- ker's. Mr. Brown telegraphed to the latter that the town was nearly destroyed, but they were all right, and added for him to send all kinds of staples at once. Mr. Parker started out to en- gage teams, and while crossing Center street on his way back to the store, a dispatch was handed him from his partner in Sonora, C. E. Gorham, saying, " All gone-Brown and Rudolph both killed." When all danger from the conflagra- tion had seemed at an end, in some way their stock of powder had become ignited, blowing the building and its contents to atoms. Not only that but their books were destroyed, and therefore large outstanding accounts were never collected. Mr. Parker at once started for the scene with D. J. Onllahan, and after riding all night they arrived at Sonora early next morning. They were joined by Mr. Gorham, and all three went to Columnbia. On the same day they con- tracted for a new building, and rented temporary quarters for the resumption of business. The Columbia business has since been sold out. Mr. Condit, of Stockton, afterward bought in with Mr. Parker at Sonora, and they carry on the hardware business there.
While a business man of rare judgment and sagacity, Mr. Parker has always been governed by generous impulses. He has now in his pos- session notes, the face value of which alone reaches way up into the tens of thousands. Many of these he could have collected had he been dis- posed to have been exacting, instead of allowing them to go to protest withont making any trouble for the parties whom he had accom- modated.
Mr. Parker was alone in California at first, but in the fall of 1852, liad commenced building a residence, finishing it in October, and every- thing was in readiness for his family when they arrived via Cape Horn, in March, 1853. Mr. Parker was inarried in August, 1841, to Miss
Nancy Miller, a native of Nantucket. Seven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Parker, viz .: Alfred, who died in July, 1889, in his forty-fourth year; Althea, wife of Josepli Lam - din, of Napa; Nettie, wife of P. B. Frazer; Ada, wife of N. M. Orr; Avery, a resident of Denver, Colorado; Alice and Albert, at home.
Mr. Parker is a member of the San Joaquin Society of California Pioneers, of San Joaquin Lodge, F. & A. M., and Charity Lodge, I. (). O. F. In politics he is a Republican.
B ENJAMIN SNOW, a rancher of Donglass Township, was born in England in 1826, a son of William and Ann (Draper) Snow. They emigrated to America in 1834, and the father was accidentally drowned in the Erie Canal while on their way to Ohio. He was buried in Buffalo, and the family moved on to Ohio, where they settled, the widowed mother, by a later inarriage, becoming Mrs. John Perry- man. The children of the first marriage who survive are,-Willam, a rancher of Stanislaus County, and Ann, now Mrs. William H. Walk- er of this township, besides the subject of this sketch. The family, with two sons by the second marriage, Charles and John, came to Califor- nia in 1851; Benjamin and William Snow went into the freight business from Stockton to the inines, in which they continued some six or seven years. In 1861 they pre-empted 160 acres each in this township, adjoining quarter sec- tions. Some years later Benjamin bought his brother's section, thus securing 320 acres in one body, which he still holds. The land is adapted to fruit as well as grain, bnt Mr. Snow raises only the latter and a few horses for the market.
Mr. Snow was married in October 1857, to Miss Elizabeth Myers, a native of Iowa, dangh- ter of Sanford and Sophronia (Deardoft) Myers. The Myers family came into San Joaquin County in the '50s, where the father died aged sixty-three. The mother, born about 1829, is still living. Mr. and Mrs. Snow are the parents
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of three living children, viz .: William Benja- min, born 1860, was married in October, 1884, to Miss May Kelly, a native of this county, and daughter of John and Catherine (Cain) Kelly, of this township. They have two children, ---- Walter Benjamin, born December 27, 1886, and Herbert Raymond, September 9, 1888. The second and third children of Mr. and Mrs. Snow are Ella Belle, and Alice Birdena, now Mrs. Ar- thur Foster, of San Francisco. The mother of Mr. Snow died in September, 1882, aged seventy- four years.
ALEY EARLY WILHOIT, senior mem- ber of the firm of R. E. Wilhoit & Sons, searchers of records, conveyancers and real estate agents of Stockton, was born in Jefferson County, Kentucky, March 1, 1831, a son of Julius and Lucy (Ewell) Wilhoit. Both parents, born and married in Virginia, moved first to Kentucky and afterward to Edgar County, Illi- nois, being among the early settlers of that county and after some years the owners of-800 acres. They had eight children, of whom one died in infancy; seven grew to maturity and three are living in 1890. The father reached middle life and the mother lived to be seventy- five. Of the seven children, Orville, born in 1819, died in 1886; John Rufus, born in 1824, is living on his farm in Edgar County, Illinois, in 1890; Nancy, born in 1826, by marriage Mrs. Stoneburner, of the same county, is also living in 1890; Julius J., born in 1835, enlisted in the Union army in 1861, was taken prisoner at the battle of Chickamauga, and died in prison about 1864, leaving two children, one of whom is Oscar Lessure, M. D., of Detroit, Michigan, and the other is the wife of George Shedd, a merchant of Danville, Illinois Lovell Wil- hoit, a farmer and stock-dealer of Edgar Coun- ty, Illinois, died there at about the age of fifty, leaving a son and daughter. Grandparents Willtoit lived to an advanced age The grand- father was a native of Virginia and of German
descent. R. E. Wilhoit, the subject of this sketch, was brought up on his father's farm and educated in the district school, afterward serving two years as a drug clerk in Paris, Illinois, where he also attended a local academy for a short time. He set out for California in 1850, one of a party of about 100 men, who left Paris late in March, St. Joseph, Missouri, early in May, and arrived in Placerville on the 8th of August. Here Mr. Wilhoit made his first ex- periment in mining, but only for a week or two, when he proceeded to Mokelumne Hill, where lie mined that winter. In the spring of 1851 he went to Amador County, near Jackson, and thence to Willow Springs, near Folsom, in Sac- ramento County. On the 8th of May, 1852, he came to Stockton, which has been liis home ever since, though he did farm work that first sum- mer, three miles out of town on the Calaveras. In the winter of 1852 he went into the busi- ness of freighting between this city and the mines near Sonora. During the high water of that season he was obliged, on two trips, to con- vey his goods by boat to French Camp, and there transfer them to his wagon. He was en- gaged in that line some nine years, during the last six of which, with a partner, under the style of Bostwick & Wilhoit, the business as- sumed larger proportions.
Mr. Wilhoit was elected Recorder of San Joa- quin County in 1861, entering on the discharge of his duties on the first Monday in October of that year, and retaining that office by two re-elections until the first Monday in March, 1868. On the expiration of his third term he went into his present business, in which he has been engaged twenty-two years. Meanwhile he served as a member of the city council from 1870 to 1873, being its chairman for two years, and as a supervisor of the county from 1872 to 1878, being chairman of that body three years. He was elected a member of the Board of Education of this city, under the new charter in 1889, and is president of the board. He has been an Odd Fellow since 1859, a Freemason since 1865, and a member of the Pioneer So-
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ciety since 1879. He has been president of the Pioneers for one term and their treasurer since 1887.
Mr. Wilhoit was married in Stockton, Octo- ber 7, 1861, to Miss Delia Dwelly, born in Machias, Maine, in 1844, a daughter of Luther and Susan (Hanscom) Dwelly. The father, reared and married in Maine, and born there or else- where in New England, died comparatively young. The mother, born in 1816 (by second marriage Mrs. Peter Munson), is living in Elko, Nevada, in 1890. Mrs. Wilhoit died Jannary 14, 1872, leaving three sons and one daughter, all living in 1890. Mr. Wilhoit was again mar- ried in Stockton, December 11, 1873, to Miss Jeannette French Tilton, born in St. John's, New Brunswick, in 1849. Her father, born in the United States abont 1802 and for many years a shipping merchant of St. John's, New Brunswick, is still living in 1890; her mother, by birth a Miss Scammell, of England, died in November, 1888, aged seventy-eight years. By this second marriage Mr. Wilhoit lias two daughters, having lost one boy, R. E., Jr., born in 1883, and deceased in 1889. His six living children, all born in this city, are in the order of their birth, as follows: George Ewell Wil- hoit, born March 17, 1863, was educated in the public schools, including the high school, and afterward took a course in the Stockton Bus- iness College, from which he graduated in 1879. His health having been somewhat im- paired, lie went to the Sandwich Islands, and his health becoming improved he went into the banking house of Bishop & Co., of Honolnln, where he served as receiving teller for one and one-half years. Returning to Stockton in 1883, he entered the counting-room of his father, and was admitted as a partner in the firm of R. E. Wilhoit & Sons, May 1, 1886. He is a mem- ber of Stockton Parlor, No. 7, N. S. G. W. and of Charity Lodge, No. 6, I. (). O. F.
Eugene Lovell Wilhoit, born December 6, 1865, graduated at the Stockton High School in 1883, and spent a year in the University of the Pacific at San Jose, when he became a
clerk in his father's office, and was admitted a partner in the firm of R. E. Wilhoit & Sons, May 1, 1886. He is a member of Stockton Parlor, No. 7, N. S. G. W.
Arthur aud Alice Wilhoit are twins, born September 28, 1868. Miss Alice is a graduate of Mills' Seminary, near Oakland, and Arthur, educated in the public schools and the business college of this city, has been a clerk for his father and brothers since 1888. Mary Lncy, born March 28, 1875, and Elsie Graham Wil- hoit, born April 7, 1877, are being educated in the Stockton schools. The Willioit family at- tend divine worship in the Episcopal Church.
AMES HUDSON SMYTH, of Cedar Grove, deceased. The subject of this sketch was a native of Ireland, born in County Antrim, February 9, 1822, son of Samuel and Mary (Adams) Smyth. The mother died in 1865, aged eighty-five, and the father was over seventy at his death, some years before. They gave their children excellent education one of their sons, Samuel, becoming a Presbyterian minister. He was pastor at Draperstown, in liis native land, for forty years, from the age of twenty-two until his death.
James Hndson Smyth, the subject of this sketch, came to America about 1842. He was in Texas five or six years, and served in the Mexican war some nine months. In 1849 lie came to California, and after a brief trial of mining went to teaming. In 1850 he bought the ranch where his family still reside, eight miles east of Stockton, increased before his death to 1,000 acres, besides a ranch of 730 acres near Peters. He was the pioneer farmer in this section. In 1859 he returned to Ireland and was there married, early in 1860, to Miss Caroline Maud Smyth, born in the north of Ire- land of English descent, November 27, 1835, daughter of John and Mary (Loughlin) Smyth, of the same name, but not near of kin. They came direct to Stockton, and Mr. Sinyth bnilt
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the home which his family still occupies at Cedar Grove. There was an old house on the place that had been brought around Cape Horn. From 1860 onward Mr. Smyth devoted his time to farming and the care of his family as it grew up around him. Being a Democrat in politics, and somewhat given to self-sacrifice, he lead tlie forlorn hope of that party for Assembly, when there was no prospect of being elected.
Mr. Smyth died of heart disease, April 19, 1885, leaving six living children. One child, Gracie Isabel, had died in 1870, aged four years, and another, Samuel Edgar, had been accident- ally killed by his father's plow, November 1, 1884.
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HARLES BLISS SUTLIFF, a rancher of Dent Township, was born in Pennsylvania, April 3, 1834, a son of Ransley and Cath- erine (Barnhart) Sutliff. The father was a farmer and moved to the state of New York before the close of 1834, and thence to Redding Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan. There he farmned and conducted the Half-way House, so called because it was midway between Wil- lard's and Allen's prairies. In the forties he removed to Clinton County, in the same State, where he bought a farm in Bingham Township, and afterward owned 160 acres in Victor Town- ship. Selling these he bought seventy-three acres in Bingham, abont four miles southeast of St. John's. Afterward moved to Greenville, Ionia County, and then to Muskegon, about 1865. Finally he bought and farmed a smaller place of forty acres at Mount Pleasant, Isabella County, Michigan, where both parents died, the mother on the farm in 1884, aged eighty seven, the fatlier, born in Connecticut, August 12, 1795, died in the village of Mount Pleasant, Michigan, July 13, 1887. He had fought in the war of 1812, and was in the receipt of a modest pension of $8 a month for fifteen years before his death. They raised a family of four sons and two daughters, all living at the present
time (1889) except the oldest, William Barnhart Sutliff, who died in Newaygo City, Michigan, in 1885, leaving a widow but no children.
Chas. Bliss Sutliff, the subject of this sketch, was brought up on a farm. Two months before attaining his majority he was married, February 1, 1885, in Victoria, Michigan, to Miss Dor- liska Beach, born in Massachusetts, October 14, 1835, a daughter of Thomas and Mrs. Melita (Dane-by birth Raymond) Beach. The parents removed from Massachusetts to Michigan in 1841, and settled in Jackson County. In 1845 they were living in Greenbush, Clinton County, and later in Victor, in the same county. The . mother, born in Vermont, October 11, 1795, died in her daughter's house in Bingham, Micli- igan, 1862; the father, born in Connectient, August 5, 1788, died near Stockton, November 27, 1879. The grandfather, Elisha Raymond, was a Revolutionary soldier who lived to be qnite old, and his wife, Abigail, who survived him, was over ninety at her death.
In 1858, C. B. Sutliff bought a forty-acre farm in Bingham Township, Clinton County, Michigan, and farmed until 1868, when he sold out. In 1869 he came to California by railroad with his wife and six children. He rented some land five miles east of Stockton and has resided in this county ever since. The drought of 1871 put him back, and in 1873, on expiration of his lease, he went to work on a farm for wages, and remained so employed about eighteen months. He then rented 320 acres twelve miles east of Stockton on the Sonora road, which he kept four years. In 1878 he bought the ranch of 720 acres he now occupies near the French Camp road, twenty-five miles east of Stockton, and moved there on October 1, of that year. It is good wheat and barley land, yield- ing twenty-three bushels of wheat to the acre in 1889.
Mr. and Mrs. Sutliff are the parents of seven living children, namely: Lovica D., born March 19, 1856, now Mrs. John F. Rogers of this Township; William Henry, born May 6, 1858, married December 4, 1880, to Miss Katie Ash-
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burn, who have three children,-Ralph Aslı- burn, born September 9, 1881; Etliel Jean, August 30, 1883; Clarence Luthier, May 16, 1886. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Sutliff, the third is Stella E., born November 28, 1859, married December 18, 1889, to C. W. Thompson, who lives with her parents; the fourth is Charles Luther, born September 10, 1861, was married September 19, 1888, to Miss Carrie Weaver. The others are Sherinan D., born April 20, 1864; Byron P., April 6, 1868; and Luln May, born March 7, 1872; these three are also living at home.
H. LANG, the leading undertaker of Stockton, is a liale fellow well met, and though of English birthi is thoroughly Americanized. Says California comes next to the Garden of Eden. His parlors are well stocked, and botlı ricli and poor can be accomino- dated at any time.
AMES GILLIS, President of the California Navigation and Improvement Company, is a native of New York State, born in Frank- lin County, June 10, 1828, his parents being Duncan and Margaret (McIntyre) Gillis. Both parents were natives of Scotland, were reared and inarried there years before coming to Amer- ica. The father was on board a Britishi inan-of- war when young, and followed the sea to a greater or less extent until he had reached the age of twenty-five years, when he settled down in his native country for a time. The fifth child was born on the ocean while he was removing his family to America. He settled in Canada, on the upper bank of the St. Lawrence river. He afterward moved upon an Indian strip which was then unsurveyed; it was found that this land was a portion of the United States and Canada, and divided as such to the respective countries. He died there in 1857; his wife preceded him,
her death having occurred in 1850. The town of Fort Covington stands where they lived, and three of their sons are now citizens there.
James Gillis, with whose name this sketch commences, was the eleventh in order of age of his parents' thirteen children. He was reared at his native place, and received his schooling there. He remained on the home farm until 1848, when he left to make his own way in the world. He went to New York city, and after remaining there awhile went down to Massa- chusetts, and traveled considerably through that State. While there he got word that his mothi- er's health was failing, and returned home. Her death occurred while he was there. In 1851 lie sailed from New York on the steamer United States, on his way to California. From Aspin- wall he proceeded by a small skiff to Gorgona, thence afoot to Panama, reaching there about 9 o'clock on the second night, having walked all the way through the mind, and in a heavy rain. He was detained on the Pacific side while the steamer made one trip to San Francisco and back, in all about three weeks, then boarded the Winfield Scott, and landed in San Francisco in July, 1851. After two or three weeks in the city he proceeded to Stockton, and from there to Columbia, Tuolumne County. There was no water and very little mining; he obtained work wheeling sawdust out of a saw-inill. He was next " promoted " to cleaning lamps in the office, and finally became engineer, which po- sition he held during the latter part of his eight or nine montlis' experience in the mill. When the rains came he went to mining, and fared pretty well while mining was plentiful, clearing from $5 to $100 per day. He mined steadily about a year, and then engaged in the manufact- ure of soda water, in connection with a company who had brought their machinery out with them from the East. He was so engaged abont four or five years, and then he and a partner estab- lislied a similar business in Sonora. He had been meantime engaged in quartz mining; and in 1865 sold out his soda water business and embarked altogether in quartz mining, in com-
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pany with three others, about sixteen miles from Sonora, in Sugar Pine District. About three years later they sold out the business, and Mr. Gillis came to San Joaquin County. He looked around for a year before investing and loaned some money out.
Six months later he rented some houses, and commenced storing grain, he having inany friends who desired to store with him. He stored grain for Donald Davidson among others, and looked after mining for him as well. He followed warehousing one year, and in 1865 embarked in general farming on his present home ranch, which is situated three miles from Stockton, on Copperopolis road. This tract now consists of 360 acres, he having sold 700 acres adjoining it in 1887. Ile also has 100 acres lying south of the tract aforementioned. In 1888 Mr. Gillis was elected to the presidency of the California Navigation and Improvement Company. He claims no experience in this line, bringing to the position solely the experi- ence of a successful man of business.
Mr. Gillis has been an active man all his life, and has been connected with many enter- prises out of his regular line of business. In 1862 he and a partner brought a band of fine horses to this county from the East, overland, among which were two stallions for which they paid $1,000 a piece. One of them died shortly after arriving here. They also shipped a lot of buggies, fifty in number. from the East around Cape Horn, but on arriving here they found they were not what they had ordered. They were not what the miners wanted either, and they disposed of them at a loss, the last ones being sold at auction in San Francisco. Mr. Gillis, while taking at all times a proper inter- est in public affairs, has never been, in any sense, a politician, and has never held a political office in his life. He made his start in this State, and is a thorough Californian.
Mr. Gillis was married in 1863 to Miss Mary Taggert, a native of Michigan, who died in this county. There are two children by that mar- riage living, viz. : Jessie and Edna. His present
wife's maiden name was S. A. Hayes, a native of Ohio. They have three children, viz .: Jeanette, Merren and James McIntyre.
HRISTOPHER HENRY HARROLD, a 016 rancher of Douglass Township, was born in England, September 28, 1843, a son of C. B. and Charlotte (Shelton) Harrold, natives of Syston, in Leicester, both now deceased. The family emigrated to New Zealand late in 1848, the voyage around the Cape of Good Hope con- suining five months. They were only nine months in that country when, the news of the discovery of gold in California being fully con- firmed, they sailed for San Francisco, where they arrived in May, 1850, after a voyage of six weeks. Thence they came to Stockton, where they remained until October. In partnership with Henry Thornlac, C. B. Harrold purchased the Oak ranch, and kept a wayside tavern known 'as the Blue Tent, on the Mokelumne Hill road, about two miles east of Bellota. In 1851 they erected a more permanent structure, which was used as a tavern for five or six years, though the travel had dwindled away after 1853. About the close of 1855 the elder Mr. Harrold bought out his partner's interest in the ranch, and per- sonal property for about $3,000. They had long been associated, having learned the trade of cabinet-making together in England. Mr. Har- rold now gave more attention to his farming, finding a market in the mining regions to the east. He did his own teaming to and from the mines, with such other work in that line as hap- pened to come in his way. In 1869 he went into the sheep-raising industry, keeping a herd of from 1,800 to 2,000 head, for which the chief market was San Francisco. Wool fluctuated in price from 6 to 16 cents a pound, but in 1872 rose to the unprecedented figures of from 40 to 60 cents. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1876 for the benefit of the parents' health, and remained there until 1881, except C. H., who returned to farming in this section in 1879.
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The father died December 6, 1883, aged sixty- seven, and was followed a year later, December 5, 1884, by the mother, who was six months his junior. They had been married more than forty years, and had brought up a family of four daughters and one son, the subject of this sketch : Emily Rachel, now Mrs. Albert C. Doan, of Los Angeles; Mary Harriet, now Mrs. Austin C. Shafer, of the same city ; Julia E., now Mrs. H. W. Sylvester, of Stockton; Charlotte Jean- ette, now Mrs. Dean, of that city.
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