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 60

Author:
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 726

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awhile during the summer months. Next he turned his attention to teaming, carrying freight to almost all the little mining towns in this vi- cinity. In the spring of 1862 he made his first trip with freight to Virginia City, Nevada, and continued going there in the summer months for six years steadily. He had to encounter many hardships, but succeeded in making money at it. During this time his farm work was being carried on by hired inen. When he found that there was no longer any money in the teamning business he gave it up, and since then has given his attention entirely to farming. In 1870 he purchased another tract of land, containing 240 - acres, adjoining the land he already owned, making 371 acres in all. The ranch is situated on the Cherokee Lane road, and is devoted to grain- raising principally and tostock-raising. It is one of the best improved places in the county. His residence, a view of which appears in this volume, was erected in 1886, and in point of architectural beauty is one of the finest places in the county and a very valuable piece of prop- erty. Mr. Mosher's success in business has been a noted fact among our people, and can be attributed to his good judgment and business tact. He was married in December, 1866, to Ella Warner, a native of New York, who lived but seven months after her marriage. Mr. Mo- sher was again married in the spring of 1870, while on a visit to New York, to Martha Clock, a native of Oswego. They have a family of two children, a son and a daughter.

Mr. Mosher is a member of Truth Lodge, No. 55, I. O. O. F., of Stockton, which he joined when it was first instituted, December 18, 1884. He is a man of broad ideas, and has, by the in- telligent direction of his labor, made himself independent. He is one of the best types of the hospitable Californian, and was one of the fore- most in entertaining the visiting teachers when the National Educational Association held its meeting in California. When his beautiful and spacious residence was finished, he gave one of the most notable honse- warmings that has ever occurred in the history of San Joaquin County.

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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.

It occupied two evenings, on one of which his friends from the country were received and royally entertained. On the other evening 150 leading city people, mostly from Stockton, en- joyed themselves in the handsome residence and about its beautful grounds, and sat down to a feast prepared in their honor by the host and hostess.

ALENTINE MASON PEYTON, a re- tired merchant of Stockton, was born in Stafford County. Virginia, July 11, 1820, a son of William Washington and Lucy (Mason) Peyton. (For parentage and ancestry see sketch of Enoch Peyton.) The subject of this sketch, the first grandchild of his grandparents on both sides, received marked attention in every direc- tion. His education was promoted with special interest, and he entered Howard Academy, Vir- ginia, at an early age. After a few years' study he yearned for more active work, and returned home to fill the position of clerk in one of his father's stores. At the age of twenty-one he began to work on his own account, and moved to Kentucky, where he clerked one year, and then taught country schools three years. His next change was to mercantile business in New Orleans, with his brother William W., born in 1824, who was engaged in the hay and grain trade in that city, and with whom he remained until the close of 1848.

In January, 1849, he left for California on the ship Architect, from New Orleans, around Cape Horn, and arrived in San Francisco May 27, 1849. He had brought a stock of mer- chandise, which he re-shipped to Sacramento, where he opened a store on Second, between J and K streets. The venture proved profitable, but after a year's labor Mr. Peyton's health be- camne impaired, and he went to Honolulu, leaving his business in charge of two friends. Return- ing in 1851 with renewed vigor, he wound up his interests in Sacramento, and, having estab- lished a business connection with the book-

keeper of the house of Flint, Peabody & Co., of San Francisco, he opened a general store in Stockton, with Mr. Spier as partner, under the style of V. M. Peyton & Co. The new firm had been in business about a month when they were struck by the fire of 1851. They suc- ceeded in saving some goods, but Mr. Spier preferred to return to clerking in San Francisco, and Mr. Peyton formed a partnership with Preston Morris, of New Orleans, without change of style. Mr. Morris carried on a branch store at Mokelumne Hill, while Mr. Peyton conducted the main store in this city, the firm doing well at both points. In 1851 Mr. Peyton was elected to the city council, and in 1852 he proposed to his nine colleagues that they should each con- tribute $50 as a nucleus for a school fund, he pledging himself to collect from the citizens all that would be required over the $500 thus secured. Mr. Peyton formulated the first or- dinance establishing the public schools of Stock- ton. Two schools were opened, Rev. Dr. Can- ders, who had been conducting a private school, taking charge of the boys' school, and Mrs. Woods the girls' school. He remained in the schools seven years as trustee, acting as secre- tary and treasurer of the board; and the first brick school-house, on Center street, was built during his connection with that body. A mem- ber of the city council five years, and its Presi- dent four years, he revised and codified its ordinances more than once during his terin of office. In 1853 the steamer City of Stockton was built, at a cost of $40,000, by some mer- chants of this city, including Mr. Peyton, and Mr. Peyton became the agent of the associated inerchants. On her first trip to Stockton her boiler burst in San Pablo bay, and among other casualties Mr. Peyton was scalded from head to foot, but had the good fortune to be thrown into the cooling waters of the bay, and the equally good fortune of being taken aboard the steamer H. T. Clay and brought to Stockton. Notwithstanding these favorable circumstances, his life was despaired of for many weeks, and he was watched day and night for six months.

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His case attracted widespread attention, and his final recovery in 1854 was regarded as little less than miraculous, and in May of that year he was elected City Assessor. Meanwhile his business was duly attended to by his partner and clerks, and was fairly prosperous for several years. In 1859 he was elected City Collector, being also elected Street Commissioner, and by re-elections held both positions for eight years. He took an active interest in church building, in the establishment of the Rural Cemetery, of which he was trustee and secretary and treasurer for seven years, and in the artesian well bored on Court House square for city and county, was appointed to manage its building, and acted as secretary and treasurer. In 1869 he was elected City Clerk, and held the position two years, when he resigned to go into the real-estate business firm of Peyton & Severy, which was continued two years. Mr. Peyton at the same time attended to farms which he owned. About 1873, at the request of C. H. Huffman, of Merced, he took charge, at a good salary, of his office, the business being chiefly buying and shipping wheat to San Francisco. In 1874 he returned to Stockton, and soon removed to San Francisco, where he remained several years en- gaged in real-estate business. Retiring from active pursuits, he returned to Stockton to spend his declining years amid the scenes of his active and useful labors in the past.

Mr. Peyton was married on the Bethel ship at San Francisco, by her brother in-law, the Rev. William ("Father") Taylor, the pioneer Methodist seamen's preacher, May 27, 1852, to Miss Harriet Virginia Kimberlin, born in Tus- cumbia, Alabama, July 11, 1832, a danghter of Jacob and Harriet (Ritchie) Kimberlin, both parents having died in her youth. Miss Kim- berlin came to California in 1849 with some relatives. Mr. and Mrs. Peyton are the parents of fonr boys and four girls: Mary Virginia, now Mrs. Langley, of San Francisco; William Edgar, in railroad business in Denver; Alice Mason, now the wife of M. G. Pritchard, of San Francisco, who has been a consnl for Mex-

ico nine years, resident in San Francisco; they have two boys and one girl; Grace Seamans, now the wife of W. F. McAllister, M. D., ex- quarantine officer of San Francisco; Robert Lee and Amy Lee, twins, of whom Robert is in railroad business in Denver, and Amy is the wife of Clarence Peyton Mallard; they have one child, Clarence; Valentine Mason, Jr., also in railroad business in Denver, is married to Miss Alice S. Sutherland, a native of California; Le Roy, a graduate of a business college in Los Angeles, where the family spent the years 1887 and 1888, is at present attending the high school of this city, preparatory to entering a law school.

ILLIAM D. SMITHSON was born near Winchester, Clark County, Ken- tucky, September 10, 1832, his parents being William Dabney and Eliza Jane (Edmon- son) Smithson, both natives of Kentucky. In about 1837 they, with a family of six children, emigrated from Kentucky to Illinois, settling in Scott County, where they afterward lived. In Illinois two more children were born, making in all five sons and five daughters. The mother died in 1842, after which Mr. Smithson married again and had four children, two sons and two daughters. The subject of this sketch is the , fifth child of the first marriage. He was raised from the age of five years in Illinois, where he resided until he came to California. He was brought up to work from the time he was able to. When ten years old he followed the plow, and from that time carried on all kinds of farm work. He made his home with his parents until he became of age, after which he worked for his father from September until the last day of March, 1853, when he started for California. He made the journey across the plains with ox teams, landing in Stockton after a journey of six months. He had abont $100 in his pocket; he obtained employment driving ox teams, hanl- ing hay from the valley up to Sonora. At the

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end of a month his employer sold out, and lie, being out of work, concluded to strike for the mines. He went to Georgetown, El Dorado County, and engaged in the mines in that vicin- ity, remaining there for about seven years, being quite successful. He then returned to this valley, and in October, 1860, settled in the place where he now lives. He first bought a quit-claim deed, and afterward entered the land -a quarter-section. In the fall of 1863 he purchased another quarter-section, besides which he has 160 acres on the south, with a road dividing it. The farm is under the best of im- provenients. When he first moved on it there were twelve acres under cultivation; since that time he has cleared the land and put it into grain, doing the most of the work himself.

He was married February 25, 1862, to Mary Ann Fuqua, daughter of Alfred G. and Mary A. Fuqua, a native of Missouri. They have six children: Nathan Hayden, Clara Alice, Minnie Jane, Lucy Lee, John Clay and Melvin B. They have lost one son, who died at the age of ten months.

Politically Mr. Smithson is a Democrat.

CHABOD DAVIS HAMILTON, a pioneer in the steamboat enterprises of Stockton, was born in New Lisbon, Ohio, March 16, 1822, a son of Jonathan and Eleanor (Davis) Hamil- ton. The mother, born in Ohio in 1800, died in 1831. Her father, Ichabod Davis, a native of Maryland, settled on a farm in Ohio, and was there married. His wife died at the age of fifty, but he lived to be ninety-five. The paternal grandfather of I. D. Hamilton was an English emigrant who settled in New Jersey. Grand- father Jonathan Hamilton, Sr., born in that State May 13, 1761, served some time in the Rev- olution, and his brother rose to the rank of captain. Jonathan settled in Pennsylvania, where he was married to Susan Dilts, born in 1754, of Scotch-Irish parentage. In 1798 they moved to Ohio Territory and settled near

New Lisbon. There the wife died in 1836, and some years later he was married again at the age of eighty-seven. His son, Jonathan, Jr., the father of I. D. Hamilton, born in Pennsyl- vania, July 19, 1797, and brought up in Ohio, died in Rising Sun, Indiana, in March, 1849. His sister, Susan, born in 1787, by marriage Mrs. Fife, died without issue in 1886. An- other sister, Catherine, also a Mrs. Fife, died in December, 1884, aged ninety-one.

Jonathan Hamilton, Jr., was a merchant in New Lisbon from 1830 to 1839, shipping his stock on a flat-boat; he traded along the Ohio river to Cincinnati, where he opened a dry-goods store. In 1842 he moved to Rising Sun, Indi- ana, and there again carried on a general store nntil his death in 1849.

The subject of this sketch received the usual education of th it period in that section of Ohio and assisted in his father's different stores from 1835 to 1849. In New Lisbon there was a prominent book department in the general stock, and he there acquired a love of reading.

Mr. I. D. Hamilton was married in Dayton, Ohio, July 17, 1847, to Miss Eleanor Evans, born in Fayette County, Pennsyvania, May 5, 1828, a daughter of Rev. David and Mary Ann (Bromfield) Evans. His mother's parents were Charles B. and Ruth (Bowers) Bromfield. Grandfather Charles B. Bromfield, a native of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, of English de- scent, was a soldier of the Revolution, and a large owner of land with coal mines, a mill and a tan-yard near the town of Bromfield, so called after the name of the family. He lived to the age of seventy, and his widow survived him many years, dying at the age of ninety- seven years. She raised a family of eight chil- dren, and afterward nine children, and donated lands for churches, schools and a public ceme- tery.

The maternal grandfather, Jesse Evans, a na- tive of Delaware, of English parentage, moved to Pennsylvania and became the owner of con- siderable land. He was also engaged in the iron industry, running three furnaces. He was twice

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married, having by the first marriage two chil- dren-Samuel, who became a lawyer of some note in Uniontown, and Eliza, who became the wife of Lawyer Wilson, of Morgantown. The second wife was Mrs. Mary (F.tzlingh) Mon- teith, a widow with two children, Thomas and James Monteith She was born in Maryland, of Scotch parentage, and was there married to her first husband. To Jesse Evans she bore two sons and two daughters, of whom the oldest was the future clergyman David. Jesse Evans was about seventy-two years old at his death.

David Evans, born in Fayette County, Penn- sylvania, in 1808, became a minister of the Baptist Church, and preached for some time in his native county. His doctrinal views changed, he became a minister of the Christian Church, and was pastor of a church of that denomination in Greensburgh, Indiana, for three or four years, and then of one in Rising Sun, Indiana. He afterward returned to Pennsylvania and was accidentally drowned in Cheat river in 1862. He liad been twice married, first to Miss M. A. Bromfield, born in 1810 and deceased about 1842, by whom he had five children-Eleanor, married to I. D. Hamilton, of this city; Ruth, an unmarried sister, also a resident of Stockton; Rebecca, now Mrs. William Buffun, of Los An- geles; Lewis, a jeweler of Pittsburg, Pennsyl- vania; Alexander, a steamboat captain in the Cincinnati and New Orleans trade. Mrs. Ham- ilton has a half sister, Lonisa Evans, the wife of William Bashford, a merchant of Prescott, Arizona, and a half-brother, George Evans, a jeweler of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.

Captain I. D. Hamilton came to California in 1849, and went to mining in Mariposa. In 1850 he went East by the Isthmus route and New Orleans, being the first to return from the mines. He came back the same year with his family, crossing the plains for the second time, and settled in this county. He first rented the Rough and Ready ranch, but his crops proving a failure he moved in 1851 to the Charter Oak House on the Sonora road, which he conducted for a short time, and then purchased the Twelve-

Mile House on the same road, which he carried on until 1864, farmning about 1,000 acres at the same time. Before the close of that year he made a radical change in his business, abandon- ing hotel-keeping and farming for steamboating up and down the San Joaquin river, with Stock- ton as a center of operations. He built the steamers Fresno and Tulare for that trade, whichi he carried on until 1868, when he sold out and embarked in the real-estate business. In that year he bought his elegant residence on Beaver street for abont $5,000. The grounds cover all entire block, which he has since improved by the erection of a number of houses, besides ornamenting the nnoccupied portion with trees and plants.

In 1873 he purchased the steamner Clara Belle, of sixty tons, with which to tow barges along the river for the gathering and distribut- ing of freight, which was transferred at Stockton. In 1878 he bought the Empire City, of 100 tons, for the same service.

Of late years Captain Hamilton has lived in retirement under his own vine and fig-tree. Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton have had three children who grew to maturity: Charles Ichabod, born December 27, 1848, learned the art of printing 1867 to 1870, but worked as clerk to his father nearly five years. In 1875 he purchased a job printing office, which he carried on for ten years under the style of C. I. Hamilton & Co. In 1886 he took charge, as superintendent, of the quartz-mining enterprise of his father in Butte County, about sixteen miles east of Chico. Mary F., born in Stockton, was married in 1880 to Thomas Phillips, M. D., now one of the assist- ant physicians of the State Insane Asylum ; Jefferson Davis, born February 23, 1861, was educated in the schools of this city, and went to work in his father's office for some years. He was married Marclı 18, 1883, to Miss Zelma S. Jefferson, born in this State, December 11, 1864, a daughter of Abraham and Sarah Jef- ferson; her father, born in Virginia, of the his- toric family of that name, died in this State in 1865; her mother, born in Indiana in 1841, is

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living in this county. Jefferson D. Hamilton died in December, 1885, leaving one child, Eleanor Jeffry, born Jnly 31, 1885. The widow and child reside on the family homestead. The deceased husband and father was a young man of innch promise and marked business ability.

In 1886 Captain Hamilton invested in min- ing operations with Joseph Phillips, of Los Angeles, developing a quartz mine in Butte County, sixteen miles east of Chico, where they have erected a twenty-stamp mill.

OHN D. GRUWELL, a farmer of Douglass Township, was born in Quincy, Adams County, Illinois, June 9, 1830, a son of Robert and Millicent (Daves) Gruwell. The parents, natives of Ohio, moved to Indiana in an early day, and thence to Illinois in 1828; and there Mr. Gruwell, Sr., became the owner of 160 acres of land, and remained a resident there until 1833, when he moved to Lee county, Iowa. May 3, 1849, with his wife and eleven children, he started for California. All these children were born in Illinois and Iowa, all are now living except the oldest, who died in 1852 at the sink of the Humboldt river, while cross- ing the plains. With then across the plains came also a brotlier of Robert, namely Jacob Gruwell, with his family. At Salt Lake City somne Mormon acquaintances told them that it was impossible to go through to California by the northern route, as the grass was all burnt off. They wintered at Fort Utah, a distance of sixty miles from Salt Lake City, with their brother. Noah N. and Labin H. Gruwell went to Salt Lake City, found work, and there met a man named Page, whom their father had brought from Iowa, and this man, in company with a cousin, went to the council house and there heard the Mormons talk of murdering Jacob and Robert Gruwell, charging that they had been parties to the expulsion of the Mormons from Nauvoo, Illinois, and other certain localities in Iowa. The young men returned to camp and

reported the danger. Therefore the frightened men started at once for California, by a cir- cuitons route, leaving their families, who se- enred a Mexican guide and in three days started on the southern route for this State, their train being the first that ever passed that way. Aft- er many hardships, privations and also loss of cattle, etc., their progress became very slow, and soon their diet was confined to beef from cattle who had become too poor and weak to bear the yoke. It was seen that the women and children wonld all perish from hunger. James D. Gruwell and his older brother, in company with four others, left the train at a distance of 300 miles for the nearest Spanish settlement, the Cucamunga ranch, owned at that time by Don Prudone. They had been in- formed by their Mexican guide that the dis- tance was only abont sixty miles, and they took with them only four days' rations; when their provisions gave out they lost all hope. They toiled on, however, four days and three nights longer, without a drop of water or a morsel of food to eat except prickly pears. At Vagerous Springs they found a poor colt which had been left by Captain Waters' pack train and this they were not long in butchering and devour- ing. The next meal was a coyote, on the Mo jave desert, and after that only a few acorns until they reached the settlement. They re- turned to their families with six mules packed with provisions and twelve head of beef cattle, and arrived at the train in time to save the lives of their families and friends. They reached the Cucamunga ranch, September 23, 1849. Robert Gruwell and his brother, after eluding their enemies,-who were unaware that they had received any notice of the secret plot,- came on by the way of Marysville, Sac- ramento, Stockton, Los Angeles, and met their families 150 miles ont from the settlement, and they completed their journey safely together.

The father and family remained at Cucamnn- ga ranch nntil spring, and then moved up into El Dorado County, near Coloma, and engaged in mining there until late in 1851. The parents

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and their younger ehildren then moved into Santa Clara County, where the father had bought land. In Jnne, 1852, with his eldest son, Noah N., he went East by the Panama route, where Noah N. was laid up seventeen days with the fever, from the effects of which he never entire- ly recovered. As soon as he was able to travel he completed the journey, assisting his father in buying some cattle, and married Sirena Cox, and the next spring started for California with a herd of eattle. He arrived at the sink of the Humboldt, but relapsed and suddenly died.

In 1857 his father sold out and moved to Lake County, this State, buying land and enter- ing into agrieultural pursuits and live-stoek raising. In 1861 he moved baek into Santa Clara County, where in the same year the mother died, aged fifty-four years. In 1883 he died, aged seventy-six years. At the same age also his father, John Grnwell, a native of Dela- ware, died in 1853. The mother had died sev- eral years before in Iowa, aged about fifty-five years.

Mr. John D. Gruwell went to work on his own account in 1849, mining. In 1851 he made his first purchase of land, adjoining Santa Clara, and consisting of thirty aeres. Selling this, he bought, in partnership with his brother, Labin H., 160 aeres three miles further sonth, which they farmed until 1857. Then selling out, they moved to Lake County, taking up Government land and following stock-raising and farming there until 1869. In 1870 John D. moved into this county and conducted a hotel at Peters, during the construction of the Copperopolis & Milton Railroad. In 1871 he bought a squat- ter's right to 160 acres of land, which lie pre- empted, and on which he still lives, four miles east of Farmington. He has sinee increased the extent of his land to 720 aeres. Soon after settling here he commenced raising wheat; at that time it was the most easterly point of the wheat-growing section of the valley. He has a good two-story residence, with all the necessary ont-buildings, ete.

Mr. Grnwell was married in Santa Clara,

June 19, 1854, to Miss Evaline C. Fine, born in Fayette County, Missouri, May 22, 1837, a daughter of Cornelius and Harriet Fine, both natives of Tennessee, who died in Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Gruwell are the parents of five living children, namely: Harriet H., Nellie F., Robert C., Anna E. and Osear. They have lost their first-born, Charles N., who died August 9, 1876, at the age of twenty-one years. Mr. Gruwell has been all over the State of Califor- nia, and has finally settled in San Joaquin County, which he thinks to be the best portion of the State, where he is living at the present time.

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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 60

Author: Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 726

Author:
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 726