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 64
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advanced age, and her brother, Walter Tumi- cliff, was seventy-five years at his death. The Tunnicliffs settled in ()tsego County before the Revolution, owning large tracts of land. Four children of Samuel and Elizabeth Hickin- botham are living: Samuel, in Ostberg, Sheboy- gan County, Wisconsin, aged sixty-eight; Eliz- ebath, Mrs. Otis flowe, of Levanna, Cayuga County, New York, aged sixty-five; the subject of this sketch, and Edwin, boru October 31, 1831, a resident of this city (with brief inter- ruptions) since 1851. Edwin Hickinbotham, leaving New York city in March, 1851, and ar- riving in San Francisco by way of l'anama, in the summer of that year, went to mining at Mokelumne Hill, where he spent three months, and came to Stockton before the close of the year. He worked here in 1851 at his trade of carriage-making, which he had learned in Rich- field Springs, Otsego County, New York, witlı a brief trial of one month in mining at Fourth Crossing, in Calaveras County ; he resumed work at his trade in this city, and in 1852, on the ar- rival of his brother, the subject of this sketch in that year worked with him under the style of Hickinbotham Brothers. Losing his healtlı in 1855 he went East, not expecting to recover, but finding his health restored he returned in 1856, and has worked with his brother to the present time. Edwin Hickinbotham has been a member of the city council one term, and of the volunteer fire department from 1853 until the organization of the paid fire department. He is also a member of the Improved Order of Red Men.
John T. Hickinbotham, the subject of this sketch, after receiving the usual course of school- ing, learned the trade of carriage-maker in Richland Springs, New York. He left New York city May 24, 1852, and arrived in San Francisco by the Panama route, June 30, 1852. Coming to Stockton he formed a partnership with his brother, Edwin, under the style of Hickinbotham Brothers, carriage and wagon makers. Upon the withdrawal of his brother through ill-health, in 1855, he continued the
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business under his own name-J. T. Hickin- botham-and a few years later changed the line of business to carriage materials, both business and style remaining unchanged since that time, except that the volume of business has of course grown very considerably in that long interval, being now perhaps second to none in that line in central California. Mr. John T. Hickin- botham went East, to Richland Springs, New York, by the Panama route, in 1863, and was there married. Mr. Hickinbotham returned to business in Stockton, accompanied by his wife, taking the Panama route, and they have resided here ever since. They have three sous, born in this city: George West, John Edwin and James Henry. All three have followed the usual course of education in the public schools, George West being a graduate of the high school.
Mr. John T. Hickinbotham was a member of the city council in 1863, when he resigned to go East. He has been a member of the I. O. O. F. for many years, but his chief interests lie in the prosecution of his business and the care of his family.
RS. SARAH A. FRENCH, manager of a farm in O'Neil Township, was born in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, Sep- tember 6, 1829, daughter of Daniel D. and Ann (Jewett) McCloud, both natives of Massachu- setts; the father was born October 19, 1792, and died October 4, 1841, aged forty-nine years; the mother was born April 16, 1795, and dicd January 21, 1878, at the age of eighty-one years and nine months.
Sarah McCloud, the subject of this sketch, was married in North Adams, Massachusests, in 1852, to W. B. French, a native of Hotch- kissville, Connecticut. He was born August 16, 1819, and died July 22, 1882, leaving his wife and a family of four children, viz .: Willian A., born March 26, 1853; Emma S., May 29, 1855; George M., December 23, 1857; and
Hattie M., August 10, 1863, now the wife of Mr. Jones, a farmer, of San Joaquin County.
Mr. and Mrs. French struggled hard to get their comfortable home. They came to Califor- nia in 1852, settling in Stockton, where there was but one wooden house at the time. In the flood of 1862 they lost 300 head of cattle, and in 1874 their house was destroyed by fire, but, nothing daunted, they set to work again, and by their industry and perseverance at last suc- ceeded in saving the means with which to buy the ranch on which Mrs. French now resides. It contains 150 acres, situated four miles from Stockton, on the Mariposa road, principally de- voted to the raising of wheat and fruit.
The death of Mr. French was a loss to the community. He was respected by all, and had many friends.
DWIN BROWN SHERMAN was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts, September 5, 1838, his parents being Frederick Ro- land and Sarah (Folger) Sherinan; the former a a native of Massachusetts the latter was also a native of the same State, a descendant of Ben- jamin Franklin, and also a relative of Secretary Folger. In 1838 or 1839 Mr. Sherman mnoved his family to Maine, settling in Augusta, where they afterward made their home. Mr. Sherman was the captain of a whaling vessel, and followed the business until retiring on account of old age. He died in Augusta at an advanced age. Mrs. Sherman is still residing there, at the age of seventy-three years. She is the mother of six children, three sons and three daughters, of whom two sons and one daughter are now living.
Edwin B., the subject of this sketch, is the oldest of those now living. He was raised in Augusta. At the age of fourteen years he left home, since which time he has made his own way in the world. He worked at anything he could get to do until he was eighteen, when he commenced teaching school, which he continued
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off and on for several years. In 1860 he started for California, sailing from New York in No- vember and coming via the Isthmus. He stopped in San Francisco one winter and then came to this valley. He taught school at Wood- bridge for several years.
In 1862, during the Cariboo excitement in British Columbia he made his way there and mined one season. From 1865 up to 1869 he was connected with the butcher business of Thompson & Folger, of Woodbridge. Four years he was engaged in a flouring mill at Woodbridge. In 1874 he purchased his pres- ent ranch of 160 acres of choice farming land in Liberty Township, where he has made his home, off and on, since that time. He has made five different trips East, on one occasion staying four years, connected with his brother, William Penn Sherman, in the manufacture and importation of artists' brushes and material, at New York.
Mr. Sherman was married, in 1870, to Mar- garet Mahoney, a native of Massachusetts, who died in Woodbridge in 1875, the mother of three children, all of whom are dead, one dying prior to and two after the death of their inother.
Politically Mr. Sherman has always been a Democrat, casting his first presidential vote for Stephen A. Donglas, and has been from that time an earnest supporter of the party. He has been a Mason since 1867, first joining the order at Woodbridge, since which time he has taken all the degrees as far as the council.
ANIEL A. LEARNED, farmer of O'Neil Township, was born at the old homestead, Oxford, Massachusetts, November 6, 1820, a sou of Salem and Huldah (Harwood) Learned, both natives of Massachusetts, the father born December 9, 1775, and the mother in April 1781. When eighteen years of age Daniel, our subject, began wandering, most of the time en- gaged in flat-boating on Western rivers, and having the chills and fever every year. In 1848
he went to Texas, near Dallas, where he engaged in farming two years. In 1850 he came to California across the plains with ox teams, and arriving at Mariposa he went to mining. In 1851 he came to Stockton, where the people were at that time sick with small-pox. He remained but a short time. He next went to Bidwell's Bar, Butte County, where he mined for six weeks, thence to Slate creek and spent the remainder of the summer mining there. That winter he mined at Cherokee, Butte County, and in the spring of 1852 went to Oregon, Hnm- boldt Bay and other places, among treacherous and hostile Indians for a few months. In the fall of that year he located land in Scott valley, Siskiyou County, California, split rails, and with the help of a yoke of oxen and a hired man, fenced 160 acres and plowed twenty acres of land. All supplies had to be packed from Ore- gon on mules, a distance of 150 miles, or from Shasta, California, the same distance. He bought Oregon potatoes, paying 20 to 30 cents a pound for them, to the amount of $400, and onions and flour, obtaining 120 pounds for $160. Seed wheat and barley for eight acres cost 25 and 30 cents a pound. For several months that winter in Yreka, flour and sugar were worth $1 a pound, and salt its weight in silver. On the 4th of March he planted cabbage, turnips, let- tuce and onions; on the 10th and 12th sowed eight acres of wheat and barley; on the 16th he planted an acre of onions. These facts are taken from his diary kept at the time, which is still preserved. In June, 1854, he lost 200 acres of wheat by frost. In connection with farmning he carried on mining at Yreka and Scott's Bar, Siskiyou County. In 1860 he went to San Francisco, where he was married in 1861 to Miss Gennis H. Hall. They ran a dairy ranch for two years, raised grain for three years, and then moved to Stockton, San Joaquin County, where they purchased 240 acres of fenced land. paying $6,000 cash for it. He still resides on his farm, which is well-improved, and is engaged in raising grain and fruit. His wife was born December 26, 1828, in Chester County, Penn-
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sylvania. They have five children, viz .: Willard S., born July 20, 1865; Ella H., February 8, 1864, now the wife of Fred G. Ladd, a farmer of Fresno County; Ada S., born in December, 1866; Horace G., April 20, 1869, and Clara D., in August, 1872.
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- LIHU BEECHER STOWE, a real-estate, insurance and general business agent of Stockton, was born in East Granville, Massachusetts, June 15, 1856, a son of Elihu and Elizabeth M. (Alling) Stowe. The father, Elihu Stowe, was a native of East Granville, Massachusetts, by trade an ax-teniperer, worked in the great ax factory of Collinsville, Connec- tient, and died in 1856, aged thirty-nine years, leaving three children: Alta M., by marriage Mrs. J. B. Webster of this city, now deceased; Lucy Adelaide, now Mrs. George Merrill, of Oakland, and the subject of this sketch. The mother, born in Norfolk, Connecticut, February 25, 1825, was married November 29, 1848, and, left with these children at the death of her lius- band, was again married in 1859 to Edwin P. Stowe. The family caine to California in 1859, and, after a few years' residence in Marysville and Capel valley, came to this county about 1863, settling in ()'Neil Township, where Mr. Stowe bouglit 180 acres in 1866, about five iniles east of Stockton. Mr. Stowe died in 1878, and Mrs. Stowe still resides upon the farm. Grandmother Stowe died in her Eastern home at the age of eighty-fonr; and grandmother Alling died in this county aged eighty seven, having spent the last few years of her life with her daughters, Mrs. Stowe and Mrs. J. L. Beecher. The Stowes and Allings are of New England descent for several generations, and, including the Becchiers and relatives by marriage, there are about thirty-seven in this county.
E. B. Stowe, the subject of this sketch, re- ceived his education in the district-schools, with a brief period in the high school of this city, in all about six years. He began to work at the
age of seventeen, as clerk in a clothing house of this city, continuing in that line to the age of twenty-two. In 1879 he engaged in the law and patent agency business with J. B. Webster, of this city, remaining in that connection until Jannary, 1887. He then formed a partnership in the real-estate and insurance business with George Hornage, under the style of E. B. Stowe & Co., and after eighteen months bought out his partner in July, 1888, and has since carried on the business alone under the style of E. B. Stowe. He buys and sells real estate, places insurance, negotiates loans, solicits patents, making the necessary drawings, and makes a specialty of collecting old and disputed claims, and of at- tending to legal business.
Mr. E. B. Stowe was married in Merced, Cali- nia, January 31, 1882, to Miss Irene Adelle Howell, born in Calaveras County, March 14, 1858, a daughter of Williamn L. and Irene Adelle (Aldrich) Howell, both natives of Pennsylvania, and now residing in this city. Mr. and Mrs. E. B. Stowe have two children, William Elihu, born April 12, 1883, and Herbert Arthur, born April 13, 1886. Mr. Stowe is a Republican in politics, a member of Stockton Lodge, No. 11, I. (). O. F., and of Stockton Lodge No. 23, A. O. U. W.
HRISTOPHER STAFFORD was born in West Virginia, January 24, 1822, his parents being John and Mary (Mustard) Stafford, both natives of Virginia. In 1856 they moved to Ohio, where they died about ten years later. There were fourteen children in the family, three sons and eleven daughters.
Christopher is the third child; he was raised in Virginia and was there married in 1845. In 1855 he left there and settled in Marion County, Missouri, where he carried on farmning for seventeen years. In 1874 he came to Cali- fornia and settled in San Joaquin County, just a mile south ou the east and west road, east of Cherokee Lanc. It contains about 120 acres.
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In 1881 he purchased the ranch on which he now resides, which contains 160 acres. When he first came here he had but $60, and in a com- paratively short time he has succeeded admira- bly, having had good health and the assistance of two sons.
Politically he is a Democrat.
His wife's maiden name was Jane Jenks, a native of England, whose father came to the United States when she was quite young. She was raised in Niles County, Virginia. Her family consists of two sons and one daughter, namely: Virginia, George P. and John W., all residents of this county. They have also lost four children who died while yet young. Vir- ginia is the widow of John Fuqua.
RANK STEWART, deceased, was born in Sumner County, Tennessee, April 24, 1824. Both his parents were Tennesseeans by birth, and his father was of Scotch descent. When he was three years old, his father died, and he lived with his grandfather until he liad reached the age of ten, when his mother mar- ried John Crenshaw. As he grew up Mr. Stewart learned the saddle and harness makers' trade, which he followed at Gallatin, Hartsville, Nashville, Tennessee; Scottsville, Kentucky; Wellington and St. Louis, Missouri; and again at Charlottsville and Nashville, Tennessee. In the latter place he enlisted in May, 1846, with Captain R. C. Foster, in Company C, First Ten- nessee Regiment, Volunteer Infantry, Wın. B. Campbell, Colonel commanding, for the period of one year. The regiment landed in Mexico, at Brazos Santiago, in the latter part of June, 1846, and participated in several of the chief battles of the war. His company having started out thir_ teen montlis previously 100 strong, returned to New Orleans with but thirty-three men, rank and file, having lost two-thirds of the original number. A year afterward, in company with Malılon Conner, he started for Texas. Stopping at Memphis, he obtained a situation there. The
California gold excitement breaking out, he left Memphis in December, 1848, went to New Orleans, and made up a company of sixteen men, who determined to take the overland route through Northern Mexico, for California. They proceeded to Matomoras, procured their animals and outfit, and on the 1st of March, 1849, started ou their long journey for California. Among the members of the company may be men- tioned Dr. Wozencraft, Captain Frank Stew- art, Messrs. F. Soule, L. Swan, Matthias Brown, B. F. Pan, Cluff, Swain, Stull, Donaldson, Duggs and liis negro man Faris, Eichbaum and Daige. There were two others, but their identity has been lost. After many adventures and much trouble with the Comanche and Apache Indians, and a great deal of suffering from the want of food and water (having to eat mule meat on two occasions and glad to get it) they arrived liere at Stockton, on the 1st of July, 1849. They had traveled, mule-back, by way of Monclover, Chihuahua, Jonas, Tucson, and the mouth of the Gila to their destination, an estimated distance of more than twenty-five hundred miles in one hundred and twenty two days. At that time Stockton consisted of one frame building, where the Copperopolis depot now stands, a small adobe house on the present site of the Grand Central, and two or three dozen tents in which all the business of the place was transacted. From here Mr. Stewart, in company with Dr. Wozencraft, Messrs. Pau, Stull, Matthias, Brown and Swan, went to Woods creek, near Sonora, where they spent the 4th of July, but, returning to Stockton, they laid in supplies and went to Split Rock, on the Merced river, where they did their first gold mining. They formed smaller companies, Messrs. Stewart, Pau and Stull remaining to- gether. By hard work they managed to take out about $8 a day per man, after they had labored steadily for about fifteen days. Pau came to Mr. Stewart one night and informed him that Stull had dug up their box of gold dust, containing $350 worth, and was gambling it off at Monte. They went to the gambling table
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just in time to see the gamblers pocket the last of their earnings.
The gold dust had been buried at the foot of a tree under which they camped; they dropped Stull out of their number and Messrs. Stewart and Pau went to the Mariposa diggings where, however, they met with little success. They then joined a company consisting besides them- selves of Major James Burney, Dr. Payne, Mr. Shirlock, of Shirlock diggings, Mr. Crawford and his partner Mr. Dall, Don Juan Johnson, his son and quite a number of others, and the entire party went to the higher Sierras to prospect for gold. This was some time during the month of August, 1849. The district was therefore nnexplored and each man carried fourteen days' provisions. They traveled in zigzag directions, first sontheasterly and then northeasterly for eleven or twelve days, when they arrived at what many believed to this day to be the cele- brated Yosemite valley, while others claim it was the Heche-Heche valley, which is a few miles north of Yosemite, on a branch of the Tuolnine river; all however are agrecd that it was the grandest sight their eyes ever beheld.' Mr. Stewart traveled with his company a day or two eastward and then set back for Mariposa camp. On their way back abont noon one day, they reached a grove of the largest trees eyes ever beheld; they stopped to Innch and ineasnred some of the largest trees, which proved to be ninety-five feet in circumference; this discovery is now known to the world as the " Mariposa big trees." Nothing further of note transpired except an occasional brush with the Indians, who dogged their trail during the entire trip of twenty-one days. They arrived at their camp with scarcely strength enough left to dismount from their animals, having to subsist for the last seven or eight days npon beans and tea a one.
Leaving that camp, Messrs. Stewart and Pau went to the Tuolumne river four miles below Hawkins' Bar, where they mined successfully for several weeks, taking ont from two to three ounces per day each of fine gold. About the latter part of October, Mr. Stewart separated
from Pau and came to Stockton, loaded forty pack mules with miners' supplies, took them to Don Pedro Bar, on the Tuolumne river, put up a big tent and started a store. About the latter part of the same year he closed out his entire stock of goods and returned to Stockton. He spent the winter here and at San Francisco and managed to get rid of the money he had made the fall previous. While in San Francisco he tried hard to obtain employment and succeeded on but one occasion only. Andrew Bell hired him to help raise a house on Telegraph Hill, for which he received a five-dollar Moffit gold piece: that was the only tinie he succeeded in hiring himself out in California. About the latter part of February, 1850, he and a party of others chartered a schooner to take them to Stockton, cooking, eating and sleeping on the deck. In Stockton hc met his old friend and comrade, now General Frank Cheetham, who generously supplied hini. with money to take him up to.the Calaveras mines. After inining there a short time he bought a small train of pack mules, rc- turned to Stockton, got credit for goods enough to load them up, and proceeded to the camp, Jesus Marie, where he put up a tent and recom- menced in business. He continned packing goods from Stockton and trading in various parts of Calaveras County till October, 1850, when he returned to Stockton, which was there- after his home. He served for a time as deputy under Dr. Ashe, at that time Sheriff of the connty. Afterward he opened a harness shop on the south side of Main street between Hunter and El Dorado. Later he followed the same business at the stand afterward occupied by Dan Riordan. A short time before the war he went out of the liarness business and resolved to take life easy, about his only vocation being money loaning. When the war broke out he became restless and again embarked in business, buying land and speculating, with success, in partner- ship with J. D. Peters. He built the Eureka warehouse, and was thereafter largely inter- ested in banking, farming and buying wheat in several counties, and was one of the best known
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and most reliable business men in the San Joa- quin valley. Latterly he took more interest in the Mexican War Veterans' Association than in any other organization with which he was con- nected, and was its president. He was also an honorary member of the Stockton Guard, and gave that company substantial aid. He was a member of San Joaquin Lodge, No. 19, F. and A. M .; Stockton Commandery, No. 8, Knights Templar; Centennial Lodge, Knights of Pythias; San Joaquin Society of California Pioneers; the Stockton Board of Trade, and an exempt member of Eureka Engine Company. He was also president of the First National Bank from the time of its first organization till his death and a large stockholder in most of the other banks.
His deathi occurred in this city, July 27, 1883, the result of an accident while sampling grain on flat cars on the Copperopolis Railroad track. His death was sincerely mourned, not only in this city, but throughout California, he being well known and popular in the State. His wife, to whom he was married in this city, at the Epis- copal church, by Rev. M. McDonald, was form- erly Miss Bettie Payne, a native of Covington, Kentucky, and daughter of Willis and Nancy (Joyner) Payne. Her father was born in Cynthiana, Kentucky, in 1810, and her mother at Columbia, Tennessee, in 1812. Mr. Payne died in Covington, in 1846, and in 1851 Mrs. Payne came to California with her family, locat- ing in Stockton, where she now resides.
A. WEAVER, a farmer of Elliott Town- ship, was born in Lawrence County, Tennessee, March 22, 1834, a son of Isaac and Lettie (Lewis) Weaver; the father was born in 1792, in North Carolina, and died in October, 1867, in Barry County, Missouri; he served five years in the war of 1812. He enlisted in 1813, in Buncombe County, North Carolina, and was transferred to New York, under Harrison. He was discharged at Jef- ferson barracks, Missouri, in 1818. J. A.
Weaver, the subject of this biographical sketch, left his native State for California, in 1854; lie crossed the plains with a train of thirteen, and arrived in Butte County, where Sanford's ranch now is, September 2, 1854. He remained there a couple of months, then started for Placer County, where he was engaged in mining for six years. In 1860 he came to this county and followed teaming and farming until he was at last able to purchase a comfortable home. In 1884 he bought his ranch of 160 acres of well improved land.
He was married October 9, 1881, in Stock- ton, California, to Mrs. Lilie Niman, who was born in Seneca County, New York, May 4, 1844, a daughter of Jacob and Cynthia (Har- vey) Soper. They have one child: Jessie N., born in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, October 15, 1868, living at home.
COLEMAN, a farmer of Elliott Township, was born in Columbia County, New York State, July 15, 1834, one of the thir- teen children of John and Annie (Lee) Cole- man, botlı natives of Ireland; the father died in Nevada, in 1877, at the age of eighty-four years, and the inother in New York State, in 1846, aged forty-four years. The family moved from Columbia County, when the subject of this sketch was yet a mere child, to Schenectady County, where J. Coleman remained until he was twenty years of age, when he came to Cali- fornia, taking the steamer Northern Star from New York to the Isthinus, and the Uncle Sam from there to San Francisco, where he arrived after a voyage of twenty-six days. He started at once for the mines at Placerville, but con- tinued mining but a short time; then engaged at blacksmithing, which trade he followed for the next nine years in that town. In 1863 he went to Nevada, where he followed the same occupation until 1880, when he went to Tomb- stone, Arizona, thience to San Joaquin County. In 1879 he purchased the ranch of 160 acres of
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