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 76
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TOHN M. RYAN, resident partner and manager of the dry-goods house of J. M. Ryan & Co., of Stockton,. was born in Princeton, Indiana, June 20, 1860, a son of John M. and Ellen (Little) Ryan. The father, born in Dublin, Ireland, November 1, 1826, received a good education and learned the trade of cooper. He emigrated to America in 1849, and settled in Princeton, Indiana, where he was engaged in business as a manufacturing cooper for about twenty years, and is now book-keeper and cashier for J. M. Ryan & Co. The mother, born in South Carolina, a daughter of Jaines Little, and his wife (nee Ervin) came with them to Indiana, where she was married about 1855. She died in March, 1867, leaving fonr children, all now living: Robert Ervin, a dry-goods merchant of Mount Vernon, Illinois; James Little, of Indianopolis; the subject of this sketch; Margaret, their only sister, residing in Stockton.
Grandfather Richard Ryan, a merchant in Dublin, was over seventy at his death, but his wife (by birth Margaret. Power) died compara- tively young. Great-grandfather Ryan was a great traveler and lived to an advanced age. A maternal uncle of the subject of this sketch,
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James Little, a planter or farmer in Chester district, South Carolina, is living, aged about seventy-three.
The subject of this sketch was educated in tlie district and high schools of Princeton, Indiana, and went into a dry-goods store of liis native town at the age of sixteen, as clerk, re- maining one year. He then went to Evans- ville, Indiana, where he was engaged in the same line nine years, and at the age of twenty-six he came to Stockton. Here lie spent nearly three years in the store of Hale & Co., and in 1889 established the present firmn of J. M. Ryan & Co., in which A. M. D. McIntoshi, of Douglass Township, represents the company, and Mr. Ryan is the managing partner.
F. FREEMAN, a pioneer, was born August 29, 1830, in Charlestown, Massachusetts. His father, a native of Yorkshire, England, is of the old family of Freemans and Caswells, and his mother was from Essex, England, of the Gages and Bairds, who were among the first settlers of the Massa- chusetts colonies. At the age of sixteen years Mr. Freeman was apprenticed to the trade of painter in the Boston navy yard, where three years were passed pleasantly and profitably, until the discovery of gold in California. Jan- uary 12, 1849, he embarked on the Edward Everett for the long journey amid the exciting scenes of leaving many dear friends with only a hope of ever seeing them again. Indeed, upon that vessel there were but few who had not left good situations environed by social and family ties that had made life happy. The vessel stopped ten days at Valparaiso for supplies and arrived at San Francisco July 5, all the passen- gers having had a prosperous voyage. On arriving here the Edward Everett company be- gan to work together as one body. At length they found it impracticable, and Mr. Freeman sold his share of stock to one of the directors for $112, the original price being $300. The
dividend after the sale of the ship and cargo was $138 to the share, which was a creditable show- ing considering that the ship was sold for $20,- 500 less than they paid for it in Boston.
Mr. Freeman's first independent work in California was in the employment of the Gov- ernment at Benicia, where barracks and cottages were in process of erection for troops and officers: his pay was $11 per day. With tent, camp outfits, and soldiers' rations, the workmen formed themselves into messes and did their own cooking. They were paid in Mexican dol- lars, which they invested in gold dust at thirteen to sixteen dollars an ounce, the silver dollars being in special demand at the gambling tables. It was here that Mr. Freeman cast his first vote for the constitution which freed all slaves within the State: he was yet under the voting age. On the 8th of October, in company with Mr. Pick- ering, from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, he started for the southern mines, in a boat which they had constructed on Sundays. They had a good tent and provisions for several months. At Stockton they transferred to the ox prairie schooner, and with guns on their shoulders took up their slow but not uninteresting line of march toward Jacksonville, on the Tuolumne river, where they built a snug log cabin with a stone and mud chimney and the tent was used for a roof: thus they had a most comfortable dwelling. The winter was wet, but they worked rain or shine, and their big fires by night were doubly appreciated. Their average workings were two ounces per day of fine gold. If they could have saved all the gold that passed through their rocker their earnings would have been double. They had altogether a pleasant time, amid picturesque scences, etc., until Feb- ruary 12, 1850, when, having heard of richer diggings beyond the river in Mariposa County, they stripped the canvass front their cabin with the same feeling which prompted the words " Woodman, spare that tree," etc., and struck out for new and unknown fields, pitching their tent on Maxwell's creek near the Blue Tents: the place is since known as Coulterville.
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They were fortunate in prospecting and were making money until the year following, June 1, 1851. By this time they had about ninety pounds of gold-dust hidden here and there about the camps in bottles, cans and old shoes; as there were very little if any thieving during those times, every miner could leave his pos- sessions exposed without fear of losing them. The ininers were proverbially hospitable with their rough fare: " the beans would stand the longest division known in arithmetic." At this time Mr. Pickering returned to his wife and children, while Mr. Freeman unfortunately joined two companies for the purpose of damming and draining the Tuolumne river at Line Bar, and also the Merced river at Split Rock Bar, the general idea at that time being that the beds of the rivers on high bars were exceeding- ly rich; but they demostrated its fallacy, while it completely emptied the pockets of the invest- ors. Mr. Freeman however had one consola- tion, namely, that he had a saving of $846, which he had sent home from Benicia before starting for the mines.
He formed a partnership with a young man and commenced prospecting and mining on the first principles which had proved so successful before. Coming to his old canıp upon Max- well's creek, he found his old claim occupied. The season was dry and good diggings and water were scracely ever found together; the mniners also were inore plentiful than the year before. Life's stern realities for the first time in his life resolved themselves into clouds with- out the famous " silver lining. " However, he worked away with indifferent success, nntil about the first of June, 1851, when he joined the regiment of mounted volunteers raised by the State for the purpose of suppressing Indian insurrections among the southern mines, the famous James Savage being in command of the battalion, Captain Kuykendall having command of Company B, of which Mr. Freeman was a member. This agreeable service lasted about three months, and left him with the " habits of a Bedouin " with $113 in pocket and also sub-
sequently a land warrant. Fifteen of the men went to the Four Creek country, built a stockade for protection at Woodford, near where now the town of Visalia is located, and where seven- teen men had been killed by the Indians the autunin previous. They blazed out a section of land for themselves, to which probably none of them ever returned. Returning to Mariposa County late in the summer, Mr. Freeman commenced herding and driving cattle for Fremont and Savage, who had a fat con- tract for supplying the Indians and soldiers at Fort Miller: the cattle, however, were not so " fat. "
Mr. Freeman tried mining again during the fall and early winter, but without any of the encouraging results of
" The days of old, The days of gold, The days of '49."
Therefore, early in Jannary, 1852, he bid fare- well to the mines forever, mounted his faithful mule, and took the down grade and sought employment among the cattle ranches. In this capacity he was first employed by the Neil Brothers on the Merced river, and with one exception formed the first lasting friendship among strangers, dissolved only by death. For them and for Montgomery & Scott he worked till about January, 1853, and, as he had no expensive habits, he was able to save nearly all of his wages. By pooling with a partner, Burrill Brewer, they began to herd and drive cattle, in a small way, from the nearest coast ranches to the mines in Tuolumne and Mariposa counties. In the early spring of 1854, in company with A. and Thomas Stevenson,-father and son, -- ranchers near the month of the Merced river, he drove a band of cows and young cattle from Los Angeles, and returning settled with liis portion of the cattle upon Bear creek, the ranch being then known as the Robla. He followed the cattle business until 1858. In the meantime, in the summer of 1856, he made a short visit to his relatives in Massachusetts, and on returning he happened to be in San
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
Francisco during the reign of terror under the regime of the famous Vigilance Committee. On his return to this city he brought with him from Kentucky a fine jack and started the business of raising mules, and he afterward inade similar and larger importation by steam- er in 1860, 1862, 1864, and by railroad in 1879, 1880, 1882, and in a small way he has continued in this business to date.
He moved from Merced County to Stockton in 1861, and engaged a short time in the livery stable business. He built a steam tug-the " Rival "-and a barge, in 1867: he ran them one season to the Bay, and also did towing, but without profit. Then, in company with E. J. Hamlet, he conducted the soap business and the soap manufactory for about ten years, and was fairly successful considering the capital engaged. In the meantime he was secretary of the San Joaquin Valley Society of California Pioneers; and he still carries an elegant gold watch and chain which was presented to him by that society as a testimonial in appreciation of his service. As a citizen he voted against the issue of subsidizing bonds to the so called Stockton & Visalia Railroad Company; also subsequently, as councilman he voted against any compromise or the surrender of any portion of the said bonds to the assignees of said cor- poration. As a member of the council for six years, upon all questions where debts were to be created above the limits prescribed by the charter, he always voted No. As a citizen he has always opposed all subsidies, and the issue of interest-bearing bonds for public improve- inent. He also has always opposed the grant- ing of special or exclusive privileges to private individuals or corporations upon the streets, water front and public square. In poli- tics Mr. Freeman has always tried to be Jeffer- sonian, and upon all national and international questions he lias been a follower of Wendell Phillips, and like him has been usually in the minority.
1n 1862 Mr. Freeman married Miss Martha Drake, of Flint, Michigan, and they have
brought up four children: Arthur, Frona, Laura and Maurice. In 1885-'86 Mr. and Mrs. Freeman made a trip around the world, going East. They visited Scotland, England, travel- ing extensively upon the continent, in Pales- tine, Egypt, India two months, China via Rangoon, Penang and Singapore, Shanghai, in Japan two months, and then embarked from Yokohama, having been absent about thirteen months. All of their travels except upon steamers was done by day-light, leaving a pan- orama upon their memory effaceable only by death.
DWARD RICHARDS HEDGES, a mer- chant of Stockton, of the firm of Hedges, Buck & Co., jobbers and dealers in gro- ceries and provisions, was born in Columbia, New Jersey, October 18, 1829, a son of Timo- thy Hudson and Harriet Lavinia (Richards) Hedges, botlı natives of that State. He de- scended on the maternal side from Thomas Richards, born in Dorchester, England, in 1605, of a family whose homes were situated in Somerset and Devon. Thomas emigrated to New England in 1630, and located in Hartford, Connecticut, where he died in 1638 or 1639. John, one of his sons, born in 1631, was mar- ried to Lydia Stocking. Their son, John, Jr., born about 1653, inherited the estate of his uncle, Thomas Richards, in Newark, New Jer- sey, and settled there. His son, John, born in 1687, was the father of David, who was born about 1720. Thomas, the son of David, born in Columbia, New Jersey, about 1769, was married to Miss Sarah Sayre, and their daugh- ter, Ilarriet L. Richards, born July 13, 1796, was the mother of the subject of this sketch.
Grandmother Sarah Sayre was a daughter of Deacon Ephraim Sayre, a soldier of the Revolu- tion, and witli other members of the family among the captives taken by the English at the seizure of Germantown. She died in New Jer- sey, aged ninety-eight. Her brother, David A.
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
Sayre, afterward of Lexington, Kentucky, a philanthropist of national reputation, founded thie Sayre Institution for young ladies, and built the first Presbyterian church of that city.
The Hedges are also of English origin, and have been settled on Long Island, New York, for several generations. The founder of the family in this country is believed to be Sir Charles Hedges, who upon his marriage to Sarah Rogers, a person of lower social rank, came to America and settled on Long Island. T. II. Hedges, the father of our subject, born in 1794, became a farmer and broom-maker, and moved with his family to St. Louis in 1836, taking passage in Pittsburg on the first steamn- boat that went down the Ohio to that city. He bonght some land in St. Clair County, Illinois, chiefly for raising broom-corn, and continued his broom-making industry, on an extensive scale for those times, in St. Louis. He died on his place in Illinois in 1840; the mother, born in 1796, survived him forty years, dying in Texas in 1880. Their oldest surviving child is Margaret, born about 1822, by marriage Mrs. James F. Clark, of Jacksonville, Florida.
E. R. Hedges, the subject of this sketcli, was educated chiefly in St. Louis, finishing with a course in the "English, Mathematical and Class- ical High School," of that city, at the age of nineteen. Some eighteen months later, March 8, 1850, he left St. Louis for California, one of a small party of five young men, with two wagons and mule teams, carrying abont 2,500 pounds of supplies in each wagon. At Inde- pendence, Missouri, they were joined by two others, who bought an interest in the outfit, and continued with them to South Pass, where they detached themselves from the original party on account of some disagreement. Mr. Hedges, with the four original comrades, ar- rived in Hangtown, August 28, 1850, having lost some of their inules through the industry of the Indians in night inarauding. Proceed- ing to Sacramento, they set out to engage in actual mining at Rough and Ready. Mr. Hedges and two companions kept together and
did fairly well at that point. They thien pro- ceeded to a point above Downieville, and con- tinued mining until 1857, having meanwhile put in three flames and sunk mnost of their gains. They then went into trade in Amador County, having two stores at Iowa Flats and Hoodsville.
In 1860 Mr. Hedges came to this city and engaged in substantially the same line of bnsi- ness as at present. In 1864 he formed the firm of Hedges & Howland, which was changed to Hedges & Back in 1867. In January, 1889, Mr. E. F. Parker bought an interest, the firm becoming Hedges, Buck & Co., and later in the same year Mr. Buck withdrew, Messrs. Hedges & Parker continuing the business with- ont change of style.
Mr. E. R. Hedges was married in Stockton in 1869, to Mrs. Alice (Davis) Nnttal, a native of Missouri. They have two children: Hattie Lavinia and Bertha Priscilla.
Mr. Hedges is a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity, having held the principal offices in the subordinate bodies, and is both Grand Master of the Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters of California, and Past Commander of Knights Templar of California. He has held no public office. Having promised his mother when he left home that he would not be a politician in any sense of the term, lie has persistently refused to accept any office of a political nature whatever.
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EORGE WASHINGTON LANGRIDGE a boot and shoe merchant of Stockton, was born in Lancaster, Grant County, Wis- consin, June 11, 1856, a son of Charles and Eliza (Martin) Langridge, both natives of Brighton, Sussex, England. The fatlier, born about 1833, came to America in his twentieth year, and after a year or two went to Wisconsin, where he became a carpenter and builder. He was married in Milwaukee and afterward settled in Lancaster, where he is still living. The mother,
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
born abont 1831, a daughter of Thomas and Frances (Ede) Martin, also emigrated to Ameri- ca with some of her relatives, and settled in Wisconsin, where her mother died at the age of eighty-five, the father dying younger, but well advanced in years, of some injury. Grand- uncle William Ede, a capitalist of San Fran- cisco, is still living, at a good age, being over sixty three. Grandparents Thomas and Fran- ces (Terry) Langridge, came to America in 1854, and finally settled in Lancaster, Wisconsin, where they died about the same age, eighty five years. The grandfather was also a carpenter by trade, and had worked eighteen years before coming to America for one bnilder in Brighton, England. G. W. Langridge, the subject of this sketch, received the nsual district-school education at the age of fourteen, and for three years longer in the winter only. In the spring of 1874, being then in his eighteenth year, he came to California and went to work as a " cow- boy " for his grand-uncle Walter Ede, who was engaged in stock-raising in a large way in the Sierra valley, Plumas County. After some eighteen months spent in that healthful occupa- tion, Mr. Langridge went east and entered Bailey's Commercial College in Dubuque, Iowa, from which he graduated at the age of twenty- one. Returning to this coast he came to Stock- ton and filled the position of clerk in the Yo- semite House one year. He then engaged as salesman for Cading & Bagley, clothiers, with whoin he remained four years, until he went into business on his own account. On January 18, 1880, he purchased a half interest in a boot and shoe business at his present stand, 201 Maine street, which has been occupied in that Eine for many years, and was then carried on by George E. Weller, under the style of Weller & Langridge. The business was conducted about four years when Mr. Weller sold his interest to John Garwood, and the firm was changed to Langridge & Garwood. January 1, 1888, Mr. Langridge bought out his partner's interest, and the business has since been carried on at the old stand, by George W. Langridge as sole proprietor.
Mr. Langridge was president of a young men's club of sixty-five members in 1880, and they all cast their first ballots, in the presidential campaign, for Garfield and Arthur. He is inter- ested in politics, but not for revenue or personal aggrandizement. Mr. Langridge is a member of Truth Lodge, No. 55, I. O. O. F .; of Mor- ning Star Lodge, No. 68; of Stockton Chapter, No. 28, and of Stockton Council, F. & A. M. He has one brother on this coast, Frederick William Langridge, born in 1868, now engaged as superintendent of a vineyard in Davisville, California.
ANIEL JOSEPH SPELLMAN, of the firm of Kenealy & Spellman, proprietors of the Stockton Marble and Granite Works, was born in Amherst, May 15, 1852. Mr. Spellman learned his trade in Boston while still a yonth, serving an apprenticeship of four years in the largest marble works in that city, owned by Oliver M. Wentworth. He continued in the same city as a journeyman utine or ten years, until he set out for California in 1876, arriving in San Francisco, July 9, by way of New York and the Isthmus. He went into business on his own account in San Francisco for two years, and caine to this city in 1879, where also he started a marble shop, which he also conducted about nine years. In 1885 he formed a partnership under the style of Ken- ealy & Spellman, and established the Stockton Marble and Granite Works at the present lo- cation, corner of California and Rose streets. Mr. Spellinan was married in Stockton, July 15, 1885, to Miss Clara M. Walker, born in Ohio, February 3, 1854, a daughter of Henry A. and Sarah M. (Howland) Walker. The father, a native of Vermont, died in Nashville, Tennes- see, in June, 1864, at the age of forty-three years, leaving three children, of which Mrs. Spellinan is the only one living in 1890. Her grandfather, Alvin Walker, a farmer in Ver- mont, lived to the age of sixty-seven years, and
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
his wife, Clara Fawcett, lived to be eighty-five years old. The mother, also born in Vermont, March 18, 1827, a daughter of John and Marion (Snow) Howland, was married in Woodstock, Vermont, in 1850, and soon afterward moved to Ohio. Widowed in 1864, she came to Cali- fornia in 1875, and is living in this city, in 1890. Her father, a native of New Hampshire, moved to Vermont after his marriage, and was in his seventy-fifth year when he died. The mother, also born in New Hampshire, lived to be seventy-five years old. Grandparents James and Sally (Mason) Howland, natives of Massa- chusetts, lived to be respectively ninety-three and ninety-six years old. Grandfather Joseph Snow also lived to be about ninety-six years old, but his wife, Lydia. Ager, died at the age of fifty-five years. Great-grandfather Jolin Howland, a Congregational minister at Carver, Massachusetts, lived to an advanced age. He was a lineal descendant, perhaps the grandson of "John Howland the Pilgrim," one of the Mayflower's historic band.
Mr. and Mrs. Spellman have two children: Walker Maurice, born May 3, 1886, and Mil- dred Irene, born March 25, 1888.
Mr. Spellman is a member of San Joaquin Lodge, No. 19, F. & A. M., and of Truth Lodge, No. 55, I. O. O. F.
RRIN GREEN LANGMAID, ex-Chief of Police of Stockton, was born in Ver- mont, December 5, 1829, a son of Solo- mon and Nancy (Green) Langmaid. The father, born February 17, 1795, a young soldier in the war of 1812, afterward became a farmer, and is still living. The mother died at about the age of forty years, leaving three sons and one daughter, all living. Grandfather William Green lived to the age of seventy years, and his wife was also well advanced in years when she died. The subject of this sketch received a district-school education, and was brought up to farm work on his father's place. He left Bos-
ton in November, 1849, for California, by way of Cape Horn, arriving in San Francisco, May 5, 1850. He proceeded by way of Sacramento to the mines at Hangtown, and afterward inined in Tuolumne County, following that pursuit about fifteen years. In 1866 he came to this city and went to work for Ladd Brothers as a teamster to the mines, chiefly on the Mariposa route, continuing in that line of work about six years. In 1872 he was elected constable for this city, serving in that capacity until he was elected Chief of Police in 1878. He was twice re-elected to that position, and after an interval of five years was again re-elected in November, 1887, for the term beginning January 1, 1888. By tlie adoption of the new city charter in June, 1889, his services as chief of police terminated. Since then he has filled the peculiar position of "watchman of Chinatown," being a quasi-of- ficial guardian of the Chinese. He filled the same position at intervals between his two periods of service as chief of police.
Mr. O. G. Langmaid was married in Stockton May 7, 1873, to Miss Leonora Mallard, who was born in Iowa, February 27, 1855, a daughter of Fayette and Catherine (Osborn) Mallard. The family came to California, across the plains, in 1863. The father, born in Vermont in 1810, died in this city in 1885; the mother, a native of New Jersey, is still living here, at the age of sixty-five years. Mr. and Mrs. Langmaid have five children : Effie, born May 31, 1874; Birdie and Eddie, twins, November 5, 1875; Eureka, June 11, 1882; and Emily, March 29, 1889.
Mr. Langınaid is a charter member of Stock- ton Lodge, No. 23, A. O. U. W.
HARLES EDWARD OWEN, proprietor of the innsic and jewelry store known by his name in Stockton, was born in San Fran- cisco, January 6, 1858, a son of James H. and Eliza (Albert) Owen. The father, born near Cærnarvon Castle, in Wales, about 1830, after- ward lived in England. He left England abont
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
the age of fifteen, visiting different parts of the world, arriving on this coast about 1850, and after his marriage in Boston, in 1855, he came again to California, settling in San Francisco. In the palmy days of Virginia City, Nevada, he was superintendent of the Lady Bryan mine. He was afterward a stock-broker in San Fran- cisco, where he died in 1884. Grandfather Owen was a lawyer of some distinction in Great Britain. The mother of our subject, a native of Massachusetts, was married in Boston in 1855, and came to this coast with her hus- band soon after that event. She is still living, the mother of four sons and two daughters: two sons and both daughters are now living, resid- ing in California. Grandfather Albert died at about middle-age, but his wife lived to be over sixty.
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