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 40
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C. H. Harrold, the subject of this sketch, re- ceived a fair education for the time and place in which his lot was cast forty years ago, and was brought up to farm work. Upon the death of his father he inherited equally with his four sisters, inost of whose shares he has since pur- chased. He owns 200 acres at the home place, of which 120 are bottom land, and 1,280 of foot-hill " plains " farther south, on which he mostly raises wheat, with cattle, sheep and hogs for the market, besides a few horses chiefly for his own use.
Mr. C. H. Harrold was married February, 1885, to Miss Mary Harker, of Oakland, a na- tive of Canada, where both her parents died, the father in his eighty-fifth and the mother in her eighty-third year. Mr. and Mrs. Harrold have one child, Mary Amantha, born December 19, 1885.
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OBERT F. GREEN, farmer of Elliott Township, was born in Allen County, Kansas, August 9, 1861, the son of Jas- per W. and Sarah E. (Carlisle) Green. Jasper Green was a native of Alabama, born December 7, 1835. He was in the mercantile business in Arkansas for five years, then went to Kansas and carried on farming there. Came to Cali- fornia in 1864. While in Arkansas he was mar- ried April 8, 1858, to Sarah Carlisle, a native of Washington County, Arkansas, who was born December 29, 1842. They have a family of five children, fonr of whom are living, viz .:
Mary, wife of W. Snider; Lochie, wife of H. Ellis; Newton, and onr subject. The father died at the old homestead in 1887, leaving the place, which contains a half section of well-im- proved land, situated between Lodi and Lock- ford, to Robert F., the subject of this sketch. Robert is one of the most industrious and prosperous farmers of this connty, and is well thought of by all.
RANCIS MARION FUQUA was born in Ralls Connty, Missouri, September 4, 1848, his parents being Alfred G. and Mary A. (Wilson) Fuqua, the latter a Kentnck- ian by birth. Alfred Fnqua was also a Ken- tuckian; when he was quite young his parents moved to Missouri, where he grew to manhood an l was there married. In 1854 he came with his family to California, crossing the plains with ox teams. They proceeded to Pleasant Valley, El Dorado County, where Mr. Fuqua died two months later. The family consisted of five sons and three daughters, of whom one son and one daughter is now deceased: the others are at present residing in San Joaquin and Calaveras counties. Mrs. Fuqua finally came to this val- ley and settled on a part of Justus Schomp's place, where she remained up to within eight years ago, when she exchanged places with Schomp, and removed to her present place, situ- ated a mile east of Cherokee Lane, containing 160 acres.
Mr Fnqna was six years old when he crossed the plains with his parents. He made his home with his mother until he was eighteen years of age, during which time he was employed at farm work, clearing up the land and clearing away the brush. Having a boy's natural in- stinct for sport he traveled all over the country chasing jack rabbits with dog and gun. When eighteen years old he apprenticed himself to the blacksmith trade, under James Sturgel, of Woodbridge, with whom he remained about a year and a half. He then opened a shop of his
G. A. Shurtleff M.S.
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
own at Liberty, on Dry Creek, where he carried on the business for about two years. He then quit blacksmithing and went to farmning, first renting his mother's place for two years, then rented the place on which he now is for two years. At the expiration of the two years he bought the ranch, and has devoted his whole at- tention to farming up to the present time. When he first took the place there was nothing on it, and liaving no capital he went at it him self, cleared away the brush and farmed it. Suf- fice it to say that since that time he has paid for it and made all the improvements himself, all through his own energy and industry.
Mr. Fuqua was married in 1873 to Mary F; Wilson, a native of Mason County, Missouri, where they were married. Their family consists of five daugliters and one son-one son being deceased. They are as follows: Delbert, born December 16, 1874, died November 20, 1875. Alice, born April 16, 1876; Lena May, May 1, 1879; Mertie, December 3, 1880; Jessie Pearl, May 28, 1882; Elsie, January 28, 1885; and Francis Marion, March 9, 1889.
AVID T. RAY, a farmer of Union Town- ship, was born Jnne 1, 1835, in Adams County, Illinois, a son of David and Ra- chel (Thomas) Ray, bothi natives of Kentucky, who moved to Adams County, Illinois, and in 1854 came across the plains to California; they bought 160 acres of land situated on the Lower Stockton road, about eight miles north of Wood- bridge. The father followed stock-raising until his death, which occurred in April, 1880, his mother having died in 1866. When seventeen years of age our subject crossed the plains to Hangtown, where he engaged in mining for two inonths. He then took up a ranch in the south- eastern part of Sacramento County, and engaged in the cattle business for three years. Dispos- ing of this he came to this county and purchased the ranchi of 500 acres, sitnated on the Lower Stockton road, about eight and a half iniles from
Woodbridge, where he now resides. He is one of our most extensive stock-raisers and grain- raisers.
He was married to Miss Gilmore, a native of Lee County, Iowa, born May 13, 1851. They have eight children viz .: Rosela, Alice B., Lo- renzo D., William T., Bennie E., Lilla M., Es- tella and Clarence A., Two of the daughters are married; Estella, the wife of E. B. Cox, and Rosela, the wife of A. Jenks.
EORGE AUGUSTUS SHURTLEFF, M. D .- Among the representatives of the learned professions mentioned throughout this volume, some have achieved State and even National prominence to such an extent as to render biographical mention of them worthy of works of inch wider scope than any local liis- tory. An example in point is the gentleman whose name heads this sketch. Yet so inti- mately identified has lie been with Stockton from the pioneer days, and so much of his life- work has been accomplished here, that more than passing notice of his career and of his an- tecedents becomes valuable and indeed essential in a history of San Joaquin County. From manuscripts and published records of undoubted authority this genealogical and biographical sketcli has been for the most part compiled.
Dr. G. A. Shurtleff was born on the an- cestral estate in Carver, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, August 5, 1819, a son of Charles and Hannah (Shaw) Shurtleff. On both sides he is descended, without admixture, from old settlers of New England, members of the first successful colony, that of Plymouth. The name Shurtleff has been found in old records of the Plymouth Colony, spelled in various forms, and therefore at times incorrectly, something which often occurs when those doing clerical work write names from sound. The natural evolu- tion of the language inay also have cut some figure. In some cases the name is quite dis- torted by the spelling, and it appears in differ-
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ent places respectively as Chyrecliff, Shiercliff, Shirtleff, Shirtley, Shurtlef and Shurtleff.
The founder of the family in this country was William Shurtleff, who was born in England (probably in Yorkshire) about 1619. He landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, some time prior to 1635, a youth in his 'teens. He is on record as having been enrolled for military duty there in 1643, and also as having been "married unto Elizabeth Lettice, October 18, 1655." While at Plymouth his estate was at Strawberry Hill, near the Reed Pond, not far from the boundary line of Kingston. He afterward moved to Marshfield, where his name is of record in 1664. He died there June 23, 1666, being killed in a severe tempest by a stroke of light- ning. In the marriage record referred to, his name is written Shirtley. He is said to have written it with one final "f,"-Shurtlef,-and one of his grandsons added an "f," since which the name has been spelled, as now, Shurtleff. It is so spelled on the tombstone, at Plymouth, of William Shurtleff, the eldest son of the above first settler, who died in 1729.
William and Elizabeth (Lettice) Shurtleff had three sons-William, Thomas and Abiel. The latter, born in June, 1666, at Marshfield, was married in January, 1696, to Lydia Barnes, a daughter of Jonathan and Elizabeth Barnes, of Plymouth, who bore him seven sons and three daughters. Their son Benjamin (1st), who was born in 1710, was the great-grand- fatlier of the subject of this sketch. To supple- ment this genealogical record it will be neces- sary at this point to turn back and refer to other of the original families of the old colony. Isaac Allerton and his family came in the May- flower to Plymouth in 1620, among whom was a daughter, Mary. She in due time was mar- ried to Thomas Cushman, who, at the age of fourteen years, came in the ship Fortune in 1621 with his father, Robert Cushman. Among the children of Thomas and Mary (Allerton) Cushman was Elkanah, who had a son named Josiah Cushman; and of the children of Josiah Cushman was a daughter named Susannah
Cushman, who was married to the aforenamed Benjamin Shurtleff (1st), and was the great- grandmother of the subject of this sketch.
Thus it will be seen that by this union the veins of this branch of the Shurtleff family re- ceived an affluent from a conspicuous source, more remote in the past than the point to which the family name can now be traced. Isaac Allerton and Robert Cusliman were lead- ing and historic characters in connection with the Puritans, not only as regards their settle- ment in the "old Colony " of Plymouth, but in their native England, and in their cliosen exile at Amsterdam and Leyden. They lived in the Elizabethan age. Thomas Cushman, son of Robert, was born in 1607, the year in which, according to Shakespearian commentators, " An- tony and Cleopatra" and "Timon of Athens" were written, and nine years before the death of Shakespeare. Hence his father, Robert Cush- man, was strictly a cotemporary with Shake- speare. Charlotte S. Cusliman,-mentioned be- cause so widely known,-who honored the stage inore than any other woman America has produced, was a descendant of these Cushmans.
To resume the original thread, Benjamin (1st) and Susannah (Cushman) Shurtleff had a son, Benjamin (2d), who was born in 1748, and who, being an only son, inherited his father's estate in Carver, on which his life was spent. His son, Charles, the father of our subject, was born there, October 20, 1790. He was reared on his father's farm. Soon after his marriage to Hannah Shaw, he removed to New Hamp- sliire and entered upon a mercantile career. Abandoning this, he returned to Carver, Massa- chusetts, where he died at about the-age of fifty, being an exception in the Shiurtleff family, most of whom have reached the scriptural three- score years and ten, or more.
The above is a mere genealogical outline, necessary in introducing the sketch of a pioneer of California, a descendant of some of the first settlers of the Atlantic coast, and of necessity brief, thoughi much of interest could be written of members of the family who have attained
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more than local distinction in various walks of life, especially in literary and professional pur- suits. Rev. William Shurtleff, a grandson of the first settler, was a graduate of Harvard about 173 years ago (1717), when such an edu- cation was a distinction. Roswell Sliurtleff was a graduate in 1799 and also a professor of Dart- mouth College during the period when Daniel Webster and his brother Ezekiel were students there; and his reminiscences of the college life of these famous alumni are published in one of the biographies of the great statesman. Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff, an eminent physician of Boston, a brother of the father of our subject, was the founder of Shurtleff College, at Alton, Illinois, to an extent which caused his surname to be given to the institution. His son, the late Dr. N. B. Shurtleff, was mayor of Boston two terms and did much in aid of the progress of the city, but is more distinguished for his exhaust- ive genealogical and antiquarian researches and for the accuracy and value of his writings on tliese topics. Our subject has liad two uncles, five cousins and a brother who were regular gradu- ates in medicine -the latter the well known Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff, of Napa, who has been in practice in this State over forty years, having been in the meantime a State Senator, a mnemn- ber of the last Constitutional Convention, and who has been for many years past, and still is, the President of the Board of Directors of the Napa State Asylum for the Insane.
Dr. G. A. Shurtleff, withi whose name this sketch commences, began his education in the local schools at Carver, Massachusetts, and afterward attended Pierce Academy, at Middle- borough. He tauglit school .two years, and ineanwhile commenced the study of medicine in the office of his cousin, Dr. Samuel Shaw, of Wareliam, Massachusetts. He then entered the Berkshire Medical Institution, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts ( which was connected with Williams College at Williamstown,) and after- ward the Vermont Medical College in Wood- stock, from which he graduated in 1845. He practiced medicine in Wareliam, Massachusetts,
nearly four years, and while residing there served upon the Board of Education, a post with which he had been honored in his native town when just past his majority. The Cali- fornia gold fever struck him with sufficient force to induce his joining the tide of emigra- tion then setting in for the western shores. He left his eastern home April 19, 1849, for California on the ship Mount Vernon, of Mata- poisett, by way of Cape Horn, and arrived in San Francisco, October 2, 1849, and in Stockton the 12th of the same month. He went to Tuolumne County and tried his luck in mining for a few weeks, then came to Stockton, reinain- ing a short time. Returning again early in 1850, he has made this city his home ever since. He was elected a member of the first city council. From the original certificate of his election, the following copy is made:
" We, the undersigned Judges and Clerks of the election held in the city of Stockton, on the first day of August, eighteen hundred and fifty, do hereby certify that at that election G. A. Shurtleff was duly elected Councilman.
"B. A. HOXEY, "JOHN M. BURDSALL, " GEORGE R. HOWELL,
Judges.
" F. C. ANDREW,
Clerks.
" T. S. MANLEY, S
" Stockton, 3d August, 1850."
Having completed liis term in that capacity the Doctor was again elected a member of the second city council of Stockton, but soon after resigned.
In those early days of California, society had not settled down into homogeneous shape and thus it came abont that university gradnates and inen educated for the professions were for some years hardly to be distinguished, if those were judged only by their vocations, from those trained for and accustomed to less pretentious callings. Dr. Shurtleff was not altogether an exception to the general rule though he never entirely relinquished the practice of his pro- fession.
He became, liowever, connected with an asso-
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
ciation of men who had come to the country together, possessing ventures in various kinds of property, who had formed what was styled the " Mount Vernon Company," which was engaged in merchandising and various other branches of business; and it fell to him not only to assist in managing the affairs of the company, but to close them up after its active business had ceased, and its members had mostly departed.
He was elected Recorder of San Joaquin County in 1855, for two years, and after the completion of his term as a county officer, gave his undivided attention to the profession of medicine, his practice theretofore having been done more as an accommodation to friends than as a means of financial advancement. About this time he formed a professional partnership with the late Dr. Samuel Langdon.
In 1856, his connection with the State Insane Asylum at Stockton commenced. In that year, the Legislature having twice failed to elect directors for the institution, owing to partisan disagreements, the official authority and exist- ence of the sitting board terminated. Where- upon Governor J. Neely Johnson appointed a new board of directors, of which Dr. Shurtleff was one, his commission being dated April 28, 1856. He served for abont a year in that capacity, or until the new board was seated.
The Legislature of 1863 elected the Doctor to a place on the board of directors once more, and he was commissioned by Governor Leland Stanford May 1, 1863. On that board he was elected president, and served in that capacity as long as he was a member. For the information of the Legislature of 1864-'65, replying to ad- verse criticism which portended ill for the asy- lum he prepared a paper on the conduct of the institution generally, which disarmed the ad- verse assaults, and created a revolution in sen- timent of that body. One weapon of the assail- ing party was the alleged unhealthfulness of the Stockton climate, but the Doctor effectually sqnelched this objection with the others. From that time on, his recommendations and sng- gestions for the welfare of the asylum were ac-
corded that respect and attention so necessary in the management of a great public charge.
On the 1st of August, 1865, at a joint meet- ing of the board of directors and the board of medical visitors, he was elected Medical Super- intendent of the institution, and by virtue of said election, it being to a State office, he was also commissioned to the same by Governor F. F. Low. Having resigned his office as director, he assumed the duties of the new position on the 5th of August. On the first Tuesday of April, 1869, he was re-elected, and commenced upon another term of four years. However, the Legislature of 1870 passed a new law gov- erning the matter, which was approved April 4 of that year, and by its terms the time of election for medical superintendent was changed so that a new election was necessary on the 10th of June, 1870, which resulted in the Doctor being again chosen to the position. He was re elected in 1874, again in 1878, and finally in 1882. He held the position until October, 1883, when declining health and weakened energy admon- ished him to resign, thus closing a career of usefulness in connection with the institution which will always stand as one of the brightest in its history, for it was during this time that the State Asylum for the Insane at Stockton took rank among the best conducted in the country.
The great value of Dr. Shurtleft's services as superintendent is a matter of universal recogni- tion as well as of historic record in connection with the institution.
His resignation was accepted by the board of directors with profound regret, and the action of the board thereon, and the note of the secretary is here given, with the resolutions which it accompanied:
"STOCKTON, October 16th, 1883. " DR. G. A. SHURTLEFF, Napa, California.
" DEAR SIR :- At the meeting of the Board of Directors of the State Insane Asylum, held on the 10th instant, the subject of your resig- nation being under consideration, Mr. Cutting introduced the accompanying preamble and res-
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olutions, which, on motion of Mr. Mclellan, were unanimously adopted, and the Secretary ordered to spread them upon the minutes of the Board and to transmit a copy to you.
" Yours very respectfully, "N. M. ORR, Secretary."
The following are the resolutions:
" WHEREAS, Dr. G. A. Shurtleff, for many years the faithful and efficient Superintendent of the State Asylum, has presented his resignation, and asked to be released from the cares and re- sponsibilities of that important position; there fore,
" Be it resolved by the Board of Directors, That it is with feelings of sincere regret that we are compelled to accept the resignation of so competent and trusted an official, and to allow lıim to sever his connection with the institution whose interests he has so carefully guarded by his unselfish devotion to duty, and untiring la- bors for the unfortunate who have been the ob- jects of his care.
"That his management of the Asylum over which he has so long had control merits not only the approbation of this Board, but has the unqualified endorsement of the whole peo- ple of the State, whose interests he lias zeal- ously guarded and whose wards he lias attended with parental care.
"That by his retirement the State loses an able and faithful public officer, and all who have held relations with him in an official capacity an intelligent adviser and a genial and courteous friend.
"That the members of this Board gratefully acknowledge the innumerable acts of courtesy and kindness extended them by the retiring Superintendent, and return him their sincere thanks for his untiring efforts in aiding to make the direction and management of this institu- tion a success, and acceptable to the people of the State.
"That it is with regret that we realize that the arduous labors, together with the heavy re- sponsibilities borne by Dr. Shurtleff during the long period of his connection with this ill-
stitution, have caused an impairment of his physical health; and we sincerely hope that a release from his onerons duties may cause a speedy recovery, and that he may be granted many more years of happiness and useful- ness."
While his direct labor in connection with the asylum during so many years were heavy, many other demands were made upon his time and at- tention from other sources in the line of his profession, which it has always been his aim to promote, and much has been accomplished as a result of his efforts. He was author of the bill which was passed by the Legislature of 1872, providing for a second asylum for the in- sane of California, and providing for its proper government. On the 10th of April, of the same year, in pursuance of this act, he was ap- pointed by Governor Booth one of the three commissioners to select a location for it, which resulted in the establishment of the "Napa State Asylnın for the Insane," his colleagues being the late Judge Swift, of Sacramento, and Dr. E. T. Wilkins, the present Superintendent.
In 1872 he was elected president of the " Medical Society of the State of California," and as such recommended in his annual address in April, 1873, an addition to its organic law, providing for a Standing Committee on Mental Diseases and the Medical Jurisprudence of In- sanity, which was promptly adopted. He had previously assisted in the revival of said society, after its years of suspension, and was its first vice-president, upon its reorganization in 1870.
On the 2d of June, 1873, he was elected Professor of Mental Diseases and Medical Jurisprudence in the Medical Department of the University of California, which appointment is understood to have been made on the recom- mendation of the then president of the univer- sity, D. C. Gilman, now president of the John Hopkins University, and at the request of the medical faculty of the department. Not accept- ing the position at once and taking time to pre- pare for its duties, he delivered his first course of lectures in 1875, and continued his lectures
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annually until his sudden failure of health in 1883, when he was compelled to withdraw from the active duties of his chair. But his resig- nation was not accepted until March 2, 1886, when, at the date of its acceptance by them, he was appointed by the Board of Regents to be Emeritus Professor of Mental Diseases and Medical Jurisprudence, which honorary position he now holds. In addition to the foregoing it may be added, to correspond with the ofli- cial reports of the University, that on the re- organization of the medical faculty, in 1878, Dr. Shurtleff was re-elected to, or continned in, the chair he had been occupying.
As a member of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane, he attended and took an active part in the meeting of the association held, respect- ively, at Madison, Wisconsin, in 1872, Baltimore in 1873, and New York City in 1880.
He took a leading part in the organization of the " San Joaquin Connty Medical Society," in 1875, and was its first president.
As an active member of the "American Med- ical Association," he was elected, in June, 1876, the sole delegate for the State of California to the " International Medical Congress as their representative therein, for ard during the year from the 6th day of June, 1876." But owing to the demands upon his time as the medical superintendent of the asylum under his charge, he did not attend this congress of medical rep- resentatives of all nations.
He helped organize the San Joaquin Valley Society of California Pioneers, and was its first president. He is also a member of the "Cali- ifornia Society of Pioneers," San Francisco, and of the " California Historical Society."
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