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 93
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19, 1867, he soon afterward came to this city, and was engaged a few years in various avoca- tions of a more or less temporary character. Removing to Sacramento, he then filled the po- sition of chief clerk in the United States land office from 1870 to 1878. While in that city he read law nnder Henry Edgerton, and was appointed a notary public. He there became a inember of Sumner Post, G. A. R., and was there married January 1, 1873, to Miss Mary E. Dickerson, a native of El Dorado County, who died in September, 1876, leaving one child, Arthur L., born March 30, 1874. Leaving Sacramento in 1879, he traveled for a time and spent about one year in San Jose de Guatemala. Returning to Sacramento, he soon afterward came to this city and engaged in his present business of attorney in land and mining claims, in which class of cases his law studies and land- office experience have made him an expert. He also holds the position of notary public, his last appointment for four years being dated April 25,1889.
Mr. Wyman was again married February 14, 1888, in this city, to Mrs. Mary A. (Sutter) Thomas, a native of Albany, New York, and at the date of this marriage a widow with four children.
AMUEL HEWITT, deceased. The sub- ject of this sketch was born at Lone Hill, County Antrim, Ireland, in 1811, a son of James and Margaret (Meek) Hewitt. The father died in Ireland, at an advanced age, and the mother in Illinois, at the home of a daugh- ter, Mrs. Margaret Crossley, also at an advanced age.
Samuel Hewitt received a good education for that period, and learned both farming and mer- chandising, his father being engaged in both pursuits in and near Lone Hill. He was mar- ried in 1832 to Miss Nancy Madden, a native of the same county, born in 1811, a daughter of Roger and Betsey (Hindman) Madden, both of
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whom lived to be over sixty. The father was a farmer and manufacturer of linen cloth,-the great industry of that section,-having at one time as many as fifty looms engaged.
Upon the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Hewitt, they emigrated to America and settled in Lon- donderry, Jefferson County, Ohio. Mr. Hewitt bought 160 acres, but farined only a few years, his health giving way. He then went to school- teaching for a time, and after selling his land mnoved into Steubenville, and went into the grocery business.
Leaving Steubenville on March 3, 1857, they spent seven months on the overland journey to California, meeting with no disaster on the way. He settled twelve miles east of Stockton and engaged in the freighting business, owning two teams. About 1855 he bought the homestead where his aged widow still lives. The original purchase was enlarged from time to time until he owned 1,080 acres in one body, mostly wheat- growing land. He was essentially a farmer from the date of his first purchase of land in this section. He went into the copper-mining speculation in 1872, owning stock in the com- pany, which proved an unprofitabe investment. He was a director of the Stockton Savings and Loan Society for two years.
Mr. and Mrs. Hewitt have had eight children, four girls and four boys, all born in Ohio. Of these the first born died an unnamed baby boy the day after his birth; another, Mary Ellen, born October 19, 1849, died at the age of five, and those that grew to maturity are as follows: Eliza Jane, born January 1, 1834, became the wife of Henry Langworthy, a rancher of Stanis- laus County, and died June 5, 1866, leaving two girls and one boy. Sarah Ellen Hewitt, born De- cember 3, 1835, became the wife of C. H. Huff- man, now of Merced, and died July 25, 1869, leaving two boys and one girl. Matilda Mar- garet, born October 15, 1838, the wife of Rob- ert McHenry, a farmer of Modesto, has one boy. James Rodgers Hewitt, born July 15, 1841, has remained on the home place all his life, but owns 740 acres adjoining. Martin Luther Hewitt,
born March 25, 1844, was married to Miss Florence Nevada Harrold. They have one child, Arthur, born in October, 1878. M. T. owns 800 acres, separated from the home place by the Sonora road.
WILLIAM THOMAS HEWITT, born January 23, 1847, has been a farmer from his youth upward, and is owner of the homestead ranch of 1,080 acres, on which he has erected a fine residence of nine rooms at a cost of about $4,000, and a barn costing half that amount.
OHN WHEELER JONES, a rancher of Dent Township, was born in North Caro- lina, Marclı 10, 1821, a son of Electus and Mary (Lambeth) Jones. The father had served in the navy in the war of 1812, and died before his son came to California. The inother lived to be ninety-one years, ten months and five days, dying at the home of her son, February 20, 1883, leaving three sons and two daughters, of whom one daughter died in 1885.
John W. Jones spent some time in early manhood in South Carolina, and afterwards in Georgia, where he held the position of overseer, which he threw up rather than whip a female slave. Moving into Tennessee. he was there married December 2, 1842, to Miss Mary Ann Allen, and, after some changes not worthy of mention, settled in Missouri.
In 1852 Mr. Jones, with his wife and motlier and four children set ont for California across the plains, but the wife did not live to see the glories of the land of sunshine, dying of cholera on the plains. On his arrival Mr. Jones en- gaged in the teaming business from Stockton eastward to the mountains, keeping also the Blue Tent Tavern, about twenty-two miles east of Stockton, on the French Camp road, in charge of his mother. In 1854 he erected a school-house and hired a teacher for his chil- dren and such others as could attend it.
In 1855 he located 160 acres, which became the homestead, and twenty years later, in 1875,
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
he owned over 7,000 acres in Dent Township, with one mile of frontage on the Stanislaus, ex- tending inward and spreading to the east and west to cover that area. About 1866 he pur- cliased 25,000 acres in Stanislaus County. He also owns 2,500 acres of pasture land in this county, west of the San Joaquin.
Meanwhile, in 1857, Mr. Jones went East and drove a herd of cattle to this county. On the return trip across the plains lie made the acquaintance of John W. Dunlap and family, who were then, on their way to this coast. Soon after their arrival he was married, September 7, 1857, to Miss Catherine Martin Dunlap, a native of Illinois, the daughter of John W. Dunlap and wife, whose maiden name was Leigh. The father, born in Illinois in 1810, is still living in 1889 in Oakdale, Stanislaus County. In 1861 Mr. Jones erected a handsome two-story brick residence, which cost probably not less than $12,000. In 1889 it is surrounded by a vineyard and orchard of seventeen acres, chiefly for home consumption.
About 1870 he distributed 15,000 acres in equal parts among the surviving children of his first marriage: Levi J., of Turloch; Edna, now Mrs. Willis Bledsoe, of Modesto; Elizabeth, now Mrs. Anthony Humphrey, of Shasta. The fourth child, Electus Newton, had died before the distribution, at the age of eighteen.
Mrs. Catherine M. (Dunlap) Jones, born in Illinois about 1834, died at her home in Dent Township in 1879, leaving six children : Lucin- da Caroline, born August 30, 1859; William Joshua, August 15, 1861; Emma Narcissa, May 8, 1864; David Lincoln, January 13, 1867; Alice Deborah, February 8, 1869; James Wesley, June 17, 1871.
Lucinda C. was married December 31, 1879, to J. J. Dolan, a native of Illinois, and received from her father 1,280 acres in Stanislaus County. Mr. and Mrs. Dolan have three children: Mary Catherine, born September 12, 1880; Wilbur Wheeler and Alver Gordon. Emma N. and Alice D. are living at home, the comfort and support of their father, have received 1,280 acres
each; David Lincoln, 1,000 acres on the Stanis- laus river, and James Wesley is being educated at the San Joaquin Valley College in Wood- bridge.
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ILLIAM JOSHUA JONES, a rancher and native of Dent Township, was born August 15, 1861, a son of John Wheeler and Catherine Martin (Dunlap) Jones. (See foregoing sketch.) He received the usual dis- trict-school education, and spent some time in Litton Springs College in Sonoma County, quitting at the age of eighteen, and arriving at home before the death of his mother in 1879. He was then assigned by his father to the superintendence and management of the 1,280 acres which he now occupies, and which were formally deeded to him about 1887. The ranch is situated on the French Camp road, near its junction with the Lone Tree road, and about twenty-five miles east of Stockton. He has built a comfortable and tasteful residence, neatly enclosed in an area of a few acres planted in vines, with a small orchard adjoining, about seven acres in all, for home use. He also owns 320 acres about twenty miles east of Stockton, on the same road. Both ranches are devoted chiefly to wheat and barley, but Mr. Jones gives some attention to breeding horses, partly Normans and partly trotting stock.
Mr. William J. Jones was married Novem- ber 14, 1888, to Miss Mary Ellen Rodgers, born in Modesto, California, May 31, 1871, a daugh- ter of John and Ellen (Frazier) Rodgers, both now deceased. The mother, born in Indiana about 1849, died in Modesto in 1875; the father, born or brought up in Texas, died also in Mo- desto in October, 1884, aged about fifty-fonr. Though the parents were short-lived, there is a strain of longevity in the family. Grandmother Lucinda (Cartwright) Frazier, born abont 1829, is still living in Oakdale, Stanislaus County, in 1889; and great-grandmother Tilda Cartwright died in Sniminitville, Indiana, aged ninety-nine.
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
Mrs. William J. Jones finished her education at Mills Seminary, near Oakland, in 1887.
UGENE GREMAUX, rancher, Donglass Township, was born in Lower Canada, November 1, 1830, a son of Olivier and Agatha (Jondron) Gremaux, natives of that province. The father died in 1883, aged eighty; the mother many years before, at about the age of forty. Grandfather Joseph Gremaux died in Canada, aged ninety-four.
The subject of this sketch came to California in 1855, and went to mining at Robert Creek, but with such poor success that he gave up that line of business after a trial of two months. He then came down into the Sacramento valley, and afterwards into this region, and engaged in farm work. He spent five years on a place near Waterloo, and four on what was called the Dodge ranch. In 1867 he bought the 142-acre ranch on which he still resides, and on which his chief crop is wheat.
Mr. Gremaux was married December 16, 1866, to Miss Orinda McLanahan, a native of Wisconsin, born February 27, 1849. Mrs. Gre- maux died in March, 1875, leaving a son and daughter, two other children having died in in- fancy. The survivors are: Loveland Adolphus, born July 12, 1867, and Frances Isadora, born August 13, 1873.
IREH PERRY ASHLEY, a rancher of Douglass Township, near Linden, was born in Massachusetts, April 2, 1830, a son of Jireh and Sarah (Clark) Aslıley. The father, born in Massachusetts in 1802, became a farmer and lived to be eighty-four years old. Grand- father Thomas Ashley, the son of an English emigrant, but born, it is thought, in Massa- chusetts, lived to be over eighty years old, and his wife, Hannah, was about seventy years old when she died. Grandfather James Clark, born
about 1775, was living in 1845, but the date of his death is not known. The mother of J. P. Ashley died April 4, 1841, comparatively young; and the boy soon went to work for a neighbor, with whom he lived four years. At the age of fifteen years lie went to sea, and fol- lowed that way of life some six years.
Early in May, 1850, he arrived in San Fran- cisco, one of a company of eleven owners of the schooner Jupiter, of New Bedford, Massa- chusetts, in which they made the voyage. They then came to Stockton, and the vessel made one voyage to Marquesas Islands. Mr. Ashley spent the winter of 1850-'51 in Stockton, mostly occupied in hunting. The company went to the mines in Tuolumne County. About February, 1851, he went to Mokeluinne Hill, remaining until July. Being taken sick he sold out his interest in the company with the intention of returuing to the East. Meeting an old shipmate in San Francisco he was induced to go into the business of freighting lumber from Oregon to San Francisco, and made only one successful trip, the vessel and cargo being lost on the second trip in 1852. Mr. Ashley returned to Stockton, and went to work as a cook in a boarding house at $100 a month, re- maining about one year. He bought a restau- rant in 1853, in partnership with another, but made no money, and gave it up after one year. In 1854 he owned a couple of pleasure-boats, which he let by the hour. In 1855 he went to Tuolumne County, and served a few months as a cook in a miner's boarding-house, when he again returned to Stockton and found a situation as cook in the Massachusetts House, where he served one year. In 1856 he went to butcher. ing for wages in Stockton, and worked in that line three years.
In 1859 Mr. Ashley came to Linden, and went into the butchering business on his own account, which he followed about twenty-five years.
September 2, 1860, he was married in Stock- ton to Miss Celia Cox, born in Enniskillen, Ire- land, in 1831, a daughter of Michael and Bridget
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
(Corrigan) Cox, both now deceased. Mrs. Ash- ley came to America in 1849, and to Linden, California, July 8, 1859.
Since relinquishing the butcher business in Linden Mr. Ashley has been farming on his ranch of 137 acres adjoining that village. He has a small orchard and vineyard for home nse, but his chief marketable product is wheat.
Mr. and Mrs. Ashley have had four sons, of whom tliree are still living, viz. : Thomas Henry, born June 13, 1861, is a farmer, and lives witlı his parents; James, born December 16, 1862, is a clerk in Linden; John, born October 28, 1864, died April 14, 1877; Charles, born April 6, 1867, is also a clerk in Linden.
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DWIN HAMILTON CARY, a music dealer of Stockton, was born in Portland, Oregon, March 25, 1851, a son of Luther and Rebecca (Harbart) Cary, the latter still living; the former died April 2, 1890. Pro- fessor Luther Cary, the father, born in Nor- wich, New London County. Connecticut, July 24, 1817, moved with his parents in 1833 to South Warren, Bradford County, Penn- sylvania, where he taught school in 1837. In 1838 he moved to Peoria County, Illinois, where he was married and followed farming. In the spring of 1850, allured by the great lib- erality of the "Donation Act," offering 640 acres to married settlers on the condition of five years' occupancy, he set out for Oregon. The gold fever was raging, but his health being some- what impaired by the ague, and the substantial comfort of settling on a section of land, induced him to prefer Oregon to California. Hitching up liis oxen and cows to hiis wagons he set out for the long journey across the plains, arriving at the Dalles ou Columbia river, September 25, 1850. He first settled on that river six miles above Vancouver, and was for some time inter- ested in the ferry-boat business. In 1852 he settled on 640 acres in Marion Connty, and went to farmning, varied by school-teaching. Becom -
ing security for a certain person in 1853, to the extent of $2,000, by the flight of that person to California, Mr. Cary was left to pay the debt. In this emergency he conceived the idea of lec- turing on astronomy, and proceeded to qualify himself by close study of that interesting science for a year. Procuring the necessary ontfit for giving popular lectures on that subject, he pro- ceeded to carry out lis idea, and in less than two years he was enabled to liquidate the debt. Having entered upon a congenial field of labor, he continned giving those lectures for many years, all over Oregon and California, with occasional trips farther east. Professor Cary has lectured in Washington, California, Montana, Oregon, British Columbia, Idaho, Nebraska, Kansas and Michigail, and in many other western States and Territories. About 1863 he came to reside in San Jose, California, which he made his home for about ten years. Many of the more prominent citizens of San Jose, among the number being C. C. Owens, editor of the San Jose Mercury, and Dr. Clark and others, urged him to seek a position in connection with the Lick Observatory, when that institution was projected, as a desirable field for the exercise of his marked attainments in his chosen specialty, but he had so long followed the career of a traveling astronomer that the change to that of a sedentary observer had no attraction for him. He was last a resident of Rosedale, Pierce County, Washington, sitnated on Henderson Bay, and owns some land at different points in that State.
The mother of our subject, by birth Rebecca Harbart, was born Jnly 14, 1831, and married in Illinois, September 25, 1848. Grandfather Luther Cary, Sr., was born in Windham County, Connecticut, November 11, 1768, and had five older brothers who were soldiers of the Revolu- tion, and afterward settled in differet parts of the country. Grandfather Cary died in Penn- sylvania March 1, 1834. Grandmother Rispalı (Allen) Cary was born in Groton, New Lon- London County, Connecticut, February 18, 1772, was inarried November 11, 1792. Great-grand-
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father Benjamin Cary moved from Massachu- setts to Connecticut, finally to Windham Connty, where he raised a large family.
E. H. Cary was reared on a farm until about ten years of age, was educated in Portland, Ore- gon, and at an early age began the study of music, a talent for which he has an inheritance in his family. After school days he learned the trade of carpenter, and his time was occupied chiefly as a carpenter and builder, as well as musician, until he came to San Jose, California, in June, 1874. In Santa Clara County lie joined his father in the special industry of rais- ing Angora goats, and for wider range removed his flock into Calaveras County, February 23, 1875, when the father and he became owners of 1,280 acres of pasture land, near Salt Spring valley. In 1877, finding the industry not likely to prove as profitable as they had anticipated, they disposed of their pasture range, and a year in Oakland was spent in carpentering. Mr. Cary returned to Calaveras County and went to mining in Angel's Camp, where he remained over three years occupied chiefly in that pur- suit, and with little profit.
In 1882 Mr. Cary came to Stockton, and from this point as a centre of operation he traveled for some years as salesman for. Kohler & Chase, innsic dealers of San Francisco, sell- ing their wares and giving bands instruc- tion in music,-a combination of the commer- cial traveler and itinerant band-master. In September, 1889, he opened his present place of business, as a music dealer, on the northwest corner of American and Market streets, Stock- ton.
Mr. E. H. Crary was married in Albany, Ore- gon, September 16, 1871, to Miss Caroline Alda McLeran, born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, No- vember 12, 1849, a daughter of Sylvester and Wealthy (Beals) McLeran, both deceased, in Ore- gon, in 1874,-the father aged fifty-eight and the mother fifty-six. Grandmother Beals lived to an advanced age. The McLeran family came across the plains in 1865, members of a large party, having abont 150 wagons. They were
attacked by Indians on Rock creek, at some distance from Fort Halleck, losing a few killed and some taken prisoners, most of the company escaping nninjured. Among these were the McLerans, the three sons and two daughters still living-Charles Mercias, who afterward re- turned East, is living in Durand, Illinois; Syl- vester Rufus, in Pendleton, Oregon; Leonard Jackson, and Mrs. E. H. Cary, in this city, and Anna McLeran, by marriage Mrs. Martin Fish burn, in Portland, Oregon.
Mr. and Mrs. Cary have two living children, both born in Calaveras Conuty; Edwin Liberty, July 4, 1875, a young musician of marked tal- ents, an artist on the cornet, having played in public with marked acceptance at the age of nine, and now in his fifteenth year received with great attention wherever he appears, the cornet being still his specialty; Francis Raymond, born May 2, 1877, also evinces musical talents, but is not so precocious as his brother.
Mr. E. H. Cary has two brothers and sisters living: Matilda Almira, now Mrs. Curtis Par- ker; George Washington, a rancher; Melissa Clementine, now the wife of R. A. Allen, a rail- road engineer, these three being residents of Josephine County, Oregon; and Charles Arthur, a school-teacher and associate in interests with his father in Orting, Washington.
SA CLARK, M. D., proprietor of the Pa- cific Hospital, Stockton, was born in Es- sex County, New York, June 29, 1824, a
son
of Curtis and Electa (Meacham) Clark,
both natives of Vermont. Some few years after marriage they moved to the State of New York, living for a time in Essex, and afterward in Oswego County. Later on they moved to Illinois, and settled on a farm near Park Ridge, in Cook County. Still later they moved to Minnesotta, and there also settled on a farm. The mother died at her home in Minnesota in 1862, aged about seventy years; the father sur- vived her twenty years, dying there also about
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
1883, aged ninety-three years. Grandmother Meacham,-by birth a Miss Standish, directly or collaterally related to the historic Miles,- and one of her sisters lived to be about ninety- three years old.
The subject of this sketch was educated in the local district schools in his youth, after- ward receiving an academic education in Wil- son's Seminary in Chicago. He then studied under the able and distinguished Dr. Brainard, of that city, and attended lectures in Rush Medical College, getting his diploma in 1849. He practiced a little in Illinois before gradu- ation as assistant to a Dr. Todd, an elderly physician then in practice in the country near Kankakee.
Dr. Asa Clark came to California in 1849, and practiced in Placerville, where, in partner- ship with some others, he was among the first to establish a store, and had some interest in mines.
By reason of ill-health, as well as with a view to see more of California, he moved to Santa Clara in 1850, and to Santa Barbara in 1851. He returned in 1853 to Placerville, where he had some interests during his absence in the south, and practiced there until 1861. IL. that year he was elected by the Legislature as as- sistant physician of the State Insane Asylum in Stockton. Here he first became interested in the treatment of that class of unfortunates, and his interest in them has deepened ever since. He resigned in 1871, and in partnership with Dr. Langdon took charge of the insane of Ne- vada, until then harbored in the Stockton in- stitution. By arrangement with that State the firm of Langdon & Clark were intrusted with the care of the insane, then numbering about thirty, and such others as should be committed to their care. They first moved them to Wood- bridge, and after four years to Stockton. A similar contract was made with Arizona, and both contracts remained in force until each built its own asylum,-Nevada, about 1882, and Arizona in June, 1888. The Pacific Hos- pital was capable of accommodating 200 pa-
tients, and was sometimes nearly full, including some private cases. The partnership between Drs. Langdon and Clark was dissolved by the death of Dr. Langdon in 1880. Since the withdrawal of the Arizona insane Dr. Clark has conducted his institution for the treatment of private patients in that line, as well as less pronounced cases of mental and nervous dis- orders. A private asylnm is believed to possess certain advantages over public institutions, such as greater dispatch in gaining admission in urgent cases, and the use of extra accommo- dations when required. The Pacific Hospital commands the confidence of the community as a well-regulated and well equipped institution. The buildings are numerous and spacious, as well as comfortable, the male and female depart- inents being separate, and each provided with detached buildings and grounds. It is pleas- antly situated just south of the city limits, and surrounded by forty acres, a large part of which is intersected by pleasant walks through culti- vated gardens, and an excellent orchard for the exclusive use of the quieter patients and the convalescent. Nearly thirty years of continu- ous experience in this class of cases liave made Dr. Clark an expert in their control and treat- inent, and the institution he owns and presides over is as quiet and orderly as a first-class hotel or private mansion. The Doctor has an office at 236 Main street for private practice and consultation.
Dr. Asa Clark was married in Placerville in 1856, to Miss Mary Elizabeth Mountjoy, born in Ohio about 1838, a daughter of Columbus and Bathsheba (Pope), both Virginians. They came to California about 1852, and died in this State, the mother about the year 1873, aged fifty-eight years, and the father in 1882, aged seventy-two years.
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