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 79
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94
Having discovered a gravel bed on his place in 1869 Mr. Overhiser took an extensive con- tract for graveling the streets of Stockton. He was the moving spirit in building the Calaveras gravel-road, inducing the conflicting interests to unite on constructing a good road to the junc- tion of Cherokee Lane and Waterloo road. A company was incorporated and the road partly built, when the contractor failed. Mr. Over- hiser advanced the necessary funds, taking a inortgage on the road for nearly $3,000. When this grew to be $6,000 he foreclosed the mort- gage. Two blocks of land now in the city, but outside the limits when the road was built, fell into his hands. The road runs diagonally across the blocks, and as he was thus deprived of their use he decided to close them up, his legal right to do so being unquestionable; but he has al- lowed the road to remain open temporarily for a consideration.
Mr. Overhiser's most important life-work has been in connection with the Grange movement, the value of which he was among the first to recognize, and no resident of this State has taken a more prominent part than lie in the organization of the Patrons of Husbandry and the promotion of its interests. By its means the farmers are advancing toward the position of power and influence they should rightfully occupy, as the most necessary and useful class in the community. Mr. Overhiser's great zeal in the cause and his recognized ability as an ex- pounder of its principles, caused his selection as State lecturer, and his election of State over- seer for two years each. He is now one of the general deputies of the State. He was elected Master of the State Grange in 1887, Grand Representative to the National Grange in 1888, and labored hard and successfully to secure the holding of the meeting of 1889 in this State. The happy outcome of his painstak- ing endeavor, culminating in the continuous ovation and generons hospitality extended to the members of the National Grange in all
558
HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY
the chief cities of the State, is a matter of history.
Mr. Overliiser was married in Stockton in December, 1855, to Miss Catherine E. Hntchiin- son, a native of Boston, Massachusetts, who came to California with hier motlier, a brother, and two sisters. They have one son, William Henry, aged twenty-five years.
Mr. Overhiser is a member of Morning Star Lodge, F. &. A. M .; of Stockton Lodge, I. O. O. F .; of the San Joaquin Valley Society of California Pioneers, and President of the Rural Cemetery Association. His life has been emi- nently active, useful and eventful, creditable to himself and the community, and inspired with lofty considerations for the best interests of humanity, and more especially of the agricult- nral class, with which he has been so long identified.
DWARD H. JACK, one of the first-class farmers of Castoria Township, was born in Switzerland County, Indiana, April 29, 1823, a son of Samuel and Rosanna (Hampton) Jack, natives of Gallatin County, Kentucky, and of old Kentucky families. The Hamptons are of old Virginia families. Samuel Jack died March 30, 1834; and Rosanna (Hampton) Jack died February 2, 1867.
Mr. Jack, the subject of this article, grew up in Kentucky, attended school at Burlington, Boone County, and after attaining manliood en- gaged in general mercantile business, the man- ufacture of tobacco, etc., for some years. He afterward followed steamboating on the Missis- sippi and Olio rivers from Cincinnati to New Orleans until 1855, when he removed to Chilli- cothe, Peoria County, Illinois, and for two years engaged in the grain and lumber business, in partnership with Henry Truitt. In February, 1856, he married Miss Annie W. Moss, a danghter of Captain W. S. Moss, founder of the San Francisco Examiner. She was born in Peoria County, May 18, 1836, abont a month
after her parents had arrived at that place from Switzerland Connty, Indiana. After marriage Mr. Jack moved to the farm in Richwood Town- ship, near Mossville, Illinois, where he re- mained until March, 1863, and then purchased an interest in the distillery firni of Moss, Brad- ley & Co., at Peoria, and removed with his fam- ily to that city, where lie lias since resided ; but he sold out his interest in the distillery.
In 1883 Mr. Jack came to California, and purchased the ranch where lie now resides. The home place now consists of 284 acres; of which he has ten acres adjoining the river and eighty acres in another locality, and 800 acres near Stockton. Up to the time when he left Peoria he was a director of the gas-light com- pany of that city, and he still liolds stock therein. He was also a member of the Bridge Com- pany there for a number of years, and a director of the First National Bank of Peoria, whichi he had assisted in commencing. He was one of the founders of the Peoria Board of Trade and is still a stockholder. He still has landed in- terests in Peoria city and Peoria and McLean counties, and also in Chicago. He first invested in this county in 1882 and built liere in 1883.
His children are: Minnie H., wife of Jerome E. Young, now of San Francisco, Edward M., who died in this county, and also a lawyer by profession, having been educated in the Chicago Law School; William S., who resides in this county ; Annie Emily, wife of Harry Baum, of Bloomington, Illinois; Lile Angela, wife of William Howe, of Chicago, who is a son of F. A. Howe, of the Grand Trunk Railroad; Noel H. Jack, who is attending the military school at San Mateo; and Rosa Choate, at school at Berkeley. Mrs. Jack died in January, 1889.
DAM BACHMANN, of Elkhorn Town- ship, was born in Germany, September 19, 1839, his parents being August and Anna Bachmann. The father, a carpenter by trade, was killed in 1883 by falling from a building.
559
HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
When fifteen years of age Adam Bachmann, the `subject of this sketch, was employed on the rail- road, which occupation he followed for fourteen years and worked his way up to the position of foreman. In 1868 he sailed for America, from Hamburg, landing in New York. From there he sailed for California via the Isthmus, landing in San Francisco. He came at once to Stockton, where he engaged as millwright for about two inonths; then in 1872 settled on the ranch on which he now resides. It contains 160 acres sitnated about four miles from Lodi; the chief productions are hay and grain.
Mr. Bachmann was married, January 11, 1879, to Miss Cora Willer, a native of Germany. He is a member of the I. O. O. F., of Lodi, No. 259: is a practical farmer, very successful in the business, and has made his own way in Cali- fornia by his economy, industry and persever. ance.
ON. JAMES ALEXANDER LOUTTIT, of the law firm of Lonttit, Woods & Lev- insky, of Stockton, was born in New Or- leans, Louisiana, October 16, 1848, a son of Thomas Sinclair and Jessie Ann (Bell) Lonttit, both now living at Mokelnmne Hill, Calaveras County, California. The father, born in Scot- land, July 4, 1821, came to the United States in 1837, learned the trade of blacksmith, and was married in New Orleans. In 1849 he came to California, tried mining a little while, but he found the exercise of his trade more profitable, and accordingly worked in that line. nearly all his mature life, until increasing years made the labor too ardnous. He was leader of the citi- zens' law and order party, or " Vigilantes," in Coloma in 1850. The mother, also a native of Inverness, Scotland, is a year or two older than her husband, and lias borne five children: our subject in New Orleans, one in Scotland, and three in Calaveras County. Three are living: Belle, now Mrs. George Chesnutwood; William R., for many years in the employ of the Steam
Navigation Company, and J. A., the subject of this sketch, all of Stockton.
Grandfather Alexander Bell, a leader of the Scotch Covenanters, lived to the age of ninety- seven, and his wife, Jessie Margaret Robertson, reached the age of 103 years. The ancestral home of the Louttits seems to have been in the Orkney Islands. Grandfather James Lonttit died at sixty-six, and his wife, Mary Sinclair, a sister of Thomas Sinclair, for many years Lien- tenant-Governor of British Columbia and presi- dent of the Hudson Bay Company, lived to be sixty-six. Aunt Mary (Louttit) Hackland died in the Orkneys in 1886, at the age of eighty- four, leaving nine children surviving, of whom at least one (James Hackland, of Port Natal, Africa) has achieved distinction.
The subject of this sketch, educated in the district schools at Mokelnmne Hill, and after- ward in Latin, Greek and higher mathematics by private tuition of Rev. W. C. Mosher, a resident clergyman, with plenty of exercise in his father's shop as a substitute for college gymnastics, was graduated at the State Normal School with the lionors of the class in 1864. He then taught school for three years in the Brooklyn High School, Oakland, the first school of that grade in California outside of San Fran- cisco, and meanwhile read law nnder Porter & Holladay, of San Francisco. Having somewhat impaired his health by too close application to study, he went to Colorado and spent two years in mining, with the donble satisfactory result of recovering his health and enlarging his finances. Returning to California, he invested his inoney in a law library, was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of California in Oc- tober, 1869; was subsequently adınitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of the United States, with Hon. J. G. Carlisle, the ex-Speaker, and Hon. Thomas B. Reed, present Speaker of the House of Representatives, as his legal sponsors.
Mr. Louttit settled down to the practice of his profession in this city in 1871, filling the office of City Attorney from that year nntil 1879. For some years he was a partner of C.
560
HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
II. Lindley, now of San Francisco, under the style of Louttit & Lindley. In November, 1884, Mr. Louttit was elected to Congress on the Republican ticket, though the district had a Democratic majority. The Congressional measure with which he was most actively iden- tified during his term was the extension of a free delivery of mail, and after eight months' labor in that direction he succeeded in having the privilege extended to 142 cities, including Stockton. In 1885 he formed the present law firm of Louttit, Woods & Levinsky, and on the close of his Congressional labors Mr. Louttit returned to the practice of his profession, de- clining a re-nomination in 1886.
Mr. James A. Louttit was married in Stock- ton in 1872, to Miss Ada A. Cory, born in this State in 1854, a daughter of John R. and Abbie A. (Cory) Cory, both residing in this city in 1890, the father aged about seventy-three, and the mother seventy. Mrs. Louttit died in 1884, leaving five children of much promise: Mary B., born in 1873; John Cory, in 1874; Thomas Sinclair, in 1876; Jessie Ada, in 1877; James A., Jr., in 1878. Mr. Louttit was again married February 12, 1890, in Denver, Colorado, to Mrs., Kate L. (Stuart) Palmer, a widow with one daughter, Edith, by marriage Mrs. C. H. Shill- ing, of Aspen, Colorado.
Mr. Louttit is a member of Stockton Lodge, No. 11, I. O. O. F., and with his law partner, Mr. Woods, is identified with all the move- inents for the advancement of the city of Stock- ton and the county of SanJoquain.
OSEPH MARION LONG, at present Uil- der-Sheriff of San Joaquin County, was the eldest of four children, was born in Ohio, in 1834, a son of Jacob and Sarah Jane (Gra- liam) Long. The father born in Pennsylvania in 1811, learned the trade of cabinet-inaker and was working in that line in Ohio when he was married. The family moved to Illinois in the spring of 1835, settling on a farin near Gales-
burg, and thence to Iowa, while it was yet a Territory, in 1839. The mother, born in Ohio' in 1818, died near Muscatine, Iowa, January 22, 1858, the result of a runaway accident; the father is living at Pacific Grove, Monterey County, California, in 1890. Grandmother Long reached an advanced age.
J. M. Long, the subject of this sketch, re- ceived the usual district-school education and he helped on his father's farm until March, 1853, when he set out for this coast, across the plains, arriving at Portland, Oregon, in Sep- tember. He worked in that State until the following spring, in a brick-yard, in splitting rails and in logging, when he caine to Califor- nia, arriving in Stockton, March 20, 1854. Here, with three others, he was engaged in chopping wood for wages, a couple of months, within what are now the city limits, and then in burning brick, for which the wood-chopping was a preparation, until June, 1854. He then worked a month at the Twelve-inile House on the Sonora road, and in July, 1854, went to inining at Stevens' Bar, above Jacksonville, in Tuolninne County, and afterward at Deer Flat in the same county. He returned to this county in June, 1857, and helped one season on a thresh- ing-machine, when he went to work on a ranch in Stanislaus County,-what is now known as Langworth. In 1858 he returned to Stockton and engaged in the business of restaurateur for about three years. He was elected County Assessor, September 4, 1861, entering on the discharge of his duties on the first Monday in March, 1862, for a term of two years. Some years later he was Deputy Assessor under C. H. Covell for two years. His connection with the sheriff's office has covered several terms. He was appointed a deputy-sheriff by the late T. K. Hook, February 7, 1865, filled the same position nnder Sheriff's Rynerson and Mills, and has held his present position nnder Sheriff Cun- mingham since 1875. He was candidate for sheriff on the Republican ticket in 1869, and was defeated for that office, but on May 9, 1870, was elected Police Judge of this city, holding
561
HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
the office one term. With the exceptions mien- tioned he has been identified with the sheriff's office of this county from 1865 to the present time.
Thomas Jefferson Long, a brother, was born December 9, 1836, moved to California in 1861, is now a resident of San Francisco, and is an employe of Sutter street railroad in that city.
Newton G. Long, a brother of our subject, was born near Galesburg, Illinois, November 8, 1838, was educated in Iowa, finishing within a year and a half in the Wesleyan University of that State. On the outbreak of the Rebellion, he enlisted in the First Iowa Volunteers, being a member of Company A, the first that was mustered into service from that State .. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Wilson's creek, including many others with those in the hos- pitals which fell into the hands of the enemy. While a prisoner he served his more unfortu- nate fellow-captives in the hospital, and on his release, without waiting to return to his home in Iowa, he re-enlisted as a private in the Twenty-Fourth Missouri Infantry Volunteers, in which he arose through the successive grades of Corporal, Sergeant, Second and First Lien- tenant to the rank of Captain. After his dis- charge at the close of the war he was elected Clerk of Dallas County, Iowa, and twice re- elected to the same office. He died about 1879, comparatively yonng, the result of spinal cur- vature, the germ of which was probably an in- cident of his military service, and from which he severely suffered for several years before his death.
Minerva E., the only sister of our subject, resides with her husband, A. J. Westbrook and family, on the old family homestead near Mus- catine, Iowa.
Mr. J. M. Long was married in Stockton, March 16, 1870. to Miss Kate Journay, born in Staten Island, New York, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. David Journey. The father, of Hu- guenot extraction, was a soldier of the war of 1812, and lived to an advanced age. Ilis wife was still older, dying on Staten Island, late in
1889, at the age of ninety-three. Mr. and Mrs. Long have one child, Hattie N., still a school- girl (1890).
Mr. Long is a member of Charity Lodge, No. 6, I. O. O. F., being Past Grand of the samer and a member of Charter Oak Lodge, No. 20, K. of P. He is also a inember of the Central Methodist Episcopal Church of this city, and at present superintendent of its Sunday-school.
M. BUFFINGTON, an old, honored pio- neer of the Pacific coast, and one of the most influential of the early settlers of Stockton, was born in Somerset, Bristol County, Massachusetts, February 15, 1818. Originally of English descent, and in the old Massachusetts colony his ancestry dates back to the early settlement of Salem, when three brothers -- John, Joseph and Jonathan-immigrated to that place about 1660. The subject of this sketch attended school in his native State, and at the age of fourteen he took a thorough course in English, mathematics and the Latin classics at the State Normal School of Rhode Island, and after reaching manhood he entered the business of manufacturing boots and shoes at Providence, that State.
On the breaking out of the gold excitement from California, he came hither, by the Isthmus, landing at San Francisco June 13, 1849, from the steamer Oregon, on her second trip. He joined the throng of ininers, and searched for gold over a year, averaging fifteen ounces per day. Coming then to Stockton, he started a bakery, when flour was $12.50 a barrel; in a few months it advanced to $50 per barrel and bread sold for 32 cents a ponnd. But Mr. Buffington was not the man to be limited to an underling's life. Being public spirited, he made his mark in the "city of the plains," which is yet strik- ingly visible. He organized the public schools of Stockton, was elected Superintendent and served as such from their organization until 1853, when he was elected Alderman. In
562
HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
April, this year, he was elected Mayor of Stock- ton, and held this office one term of two years. Being also actively interested in the political interests of the country, he organized the first Republican club and was chosen its first Presi- dent. He also served as superintendent of the Sunday-school for several years.
In 1857 he removed to San Francisco, and since then, for over a third of a century, he has been actively engaged in business and promi- nently identified with commercial and mining interests. He was elected member of the Board of Education of San Francisco, and served in this position several years. For a time also he was Registrar of voters, when the enrollment was in the different wards. In 1884 he changed his residence to Oakland.
He has been prominently identified with the Masonic fraternity for over thirty-six years, hav- ing become a member of Morning Star Lodge, in Stockton, in 1854, and he is a Knight Tem- plar and a Thirty-third-degree Mason, Scottishı rite.
March 8, 1843, Mr. Buffington married Miss Mary West Eddy, daughter of one of the oldest families of Providence, Rhode Island, and they have had two sons and three daughters.
ILLIAM ALLEN was born in Ireland, in August, 1824. When he was twenty- four years old he came to the United States and stopped about three and a half years in Maryland. In 1852 he started for California via Panama, arriving in San Francisco in May of that year. In 1854 he purchased a ranch of 212 acres, on which he lias resided ever since. The land is devoted to the raising of grain.
Mr. Allen was married, January 16, 1871, to Jennie D'Olier, a native of Ireland, born about forty miles from Dublin in 1861. She came to Philadelphia, thience to California in 1868. They had three children, all of whom are dead. Their names are as follows: Mary D'Olier, who died September 7, 1879, at the age of seven
years and eight months; William D'Olier, died September 4, 1879, when within one montli of being five years old; and Jennie D'Olier, died September 13, same year, at the age of one year and six months. The children were all given the name of their mother. The death of each occurred within ten days of each other of that dread disease,-diphtheria.
Mr. Allen and his estimable wife are among the oldest residents of O'Neil Township, good, sociable people, and a credit to the community.
OHN B. ALEGRETTI, proprietor of the Twelve- Mile House, Castoria Township, was born in Italy, in 1849. He came to Amer- ica in 1862, landing in New York, remained but fifteen days, and took the steamer to San Fran- cisco, where he remained for two years, then came to Stockton. He was engaged in fishing for the next eighteen years, catching a great quantity of salmon and sturgeon. In the year 1864 he made considerable money shooting antelope as they came to the San Joaquin river to slack their thirst. He purchased his place in the year 1881. It is a neat little grocery store connected with a saloon, situated twelve miles from Stockton, on the Durham Ferry road.
HARLES H. GORDON, M. D., was born in Scotland, October 16, 1833, the son of William Gordon. He was educated in Christ School, London. He first studied medi- cine under Dr. Oldham, in London, with whom he was seven years, a part of which time was spent in several of the different hospitals of that city. He came to the United States in 1860, landed in New York, where he remained a while and finally enlisted in the United States army,and later became a Captain of the Third Rhode Island Volunteer Cavalry, assigned toduty in the Depart- ment of the Gulf. He passed through the Red River campaign and participated in all the engage-
563
HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
inents of the Army of the Gulf. For nearly two years he was on the staff of General N. P. Banks. After the war he went to Mexico and accepted the commission of Major under General DeBordon of the liberal army under President Juarez. At the end of fifteen months he resigned his com- mission, came to Colorado, stayed a short time, and finally, in 1867, crossed the plains to Cali- fornia, arriving in Santa Fe in the winter. He went to White Pines and Virginia City, where he remained two years, practicing his profession with great success. In the spring of 1870 he came to Lodi, where he has been ever since.
Politically he is a Democrat and a politician of considerable importance; he has been in a great many both State and county conventions. Dur- ing the last county convention held in Stockton, he was elected chairman.
He was married to his present wife in 1880; her maiden name was Emily Frances Stafford, a daughter of Beanford Stafford, who was the first sheriff of Nevada County. He was a Mississippian when the war of the Rebellion broke out, became a Colonel in tlie Confede- rate army, and was killed in front of Richmond in 1864. Mrs. Gordon is a native of Nevada Connty, California.
DWARD F. GRANT, M. D., was born in Rochester, New York, December 19, 1852, son of Sidney and Adeline (Hay - ward) Grant, the latter a native of Massachu- setts, and the former of New York and of Scotch descent. The Haywards date their history back to the time of the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock. Sidney Grant died in 1881, at the age of sixty-one years The widow is still residing there at the age of sixty-eight years. In the family there were two children: Edward F. and Theodore W., the latter residing in Rochester, New York. Edward was raised in his native place and attended public schools there. He afterward attended a private academy for three years, preparing for college. He then entered
Rochester University in 1870, and was gradu- ated from that institution in 1874, at which time he had conferred upon him the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
He then went to Jackson County, Michigan, was married and went to teaching; he held the position of principal in the Union school for three years. In the meantime he entered upon his medical studies under his preceptor, Dr. S. P. Townc, of Jackson. In the fall of 1876 he went to Cincinnati, where he attended medical lectures at Pulte Medical College, and was grad- uated from there in the class of 1878. He then returned to Michigan and located in Hastings, Barry County, where he entered upon the prac- tice of his profession. He remained there until 1881, when he came to California and established himself at Lodi, where he carries on a success- ful practice of medicine. He is a prominent and enterprising citizen, and a gentleman of courteous and genial manners, which have won for him many friends. He is a Mason, having first joined the order in Michigan in 1880. He is also a member of the K. of P.
He was married September 15, 1874, to Miss Eva A. Dake, a native of New York. They have three children : Sidney P., Elizabeth J. and Chester D. The Doctor has a fine ranch of 160 acres on the Mokelumne river, which is set out to a variety of fruit, such as grow prolifically in this county.
A. GRAVES, a farmer of Castoria Town- ship, was born in Marion County, Mis- souri, March 18, 1833, where he remained until 1846, when he went to Wisconsin and en- gaged in teaming. In 1860 he came to Cali- fornia, landing in Sliasta County, where he stayed one year. Coming to Stockton he worked at carpentering for four years. After two years absence from this county lie returned and pur- chased the ranch on which he now resides, and lias made a comfortable home for his aged mother and father. IIenry B., his father, was
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.