An illustrated history of Sonoma County, California. Containing a history of the county of Sonoma from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, Part 48

Author: Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 786

USA > California > Sonoma County > An illustrated history of Sonoma County, California. Containing a history of the county of Sonoma from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time > Part 48

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Mrs. Austin, in order of their birth are: Ly- man P., born October 22, 1850, died July 10, 1876; Howard J., born September 3, 1852, died April 13, 1884: Herbert W., born August 21, 1854; Osgood E., born March 25, 1856, died January 14, 1861; Florence Anna, born June 7, 1860, died January 24, 1861; Malcom ()., born July 25, 1863: Sewell S., born May 21, 1865, and Ashlon E., born June 29, 1874.

HOMAS G. WILTON .- The subject of this sketeh is the most prominent mer- ehant in Sebastopol, and has the most eomplete general merchandise store in that sec- tion of the county. Ilis stock comprises a com- plete assortment of dry goods, groceries, hard- ware, crockery, clothing, boots and shoes, patent medicines, etc. It is complete in all its ap- pointments, and is a credit to the town and its proprietor.

Mr. Wilton dates his birth in Plattsburg, New York, April 23, 1832. His father, M. James Wilton, was a native of Kent Connty. England, who came to the United States when a youth. His mother, Hulda (Chamberlain) Wilton, was born in Vermont. Mr. Wilton was reared in Plattsburg, where he received a good education and in his young manhood was brought up to mereant.le pursuits. He was for a long time a elerk in the mercantile house of Harvey Ilewett, of Plattsburg. In March, 1854, he started for California, coming via the Isthmus ronte. He landed in San Francisco in April, and immediately left for the mines of Placerville, where he engaged in mining until 1866. In that year he came to Sonoma County and located at Freestone, where he was engaged as a clerk until 1867. He then came to Sebas- topol and was employed in the hotel until 1870. At that time he established a wholesale and re- tail liquor store, which he condnoted six years. when he entered into partnership with G. W. Andrews, and established the store he now owns. This partnership existed until the death

of Mr. Andrews, which occurred Inne 23, 1888. Sinee that time Mr. Wilton has been the sole proprietor. In 1881 a disastrous fire occurred in Sebastopol and completely destroyed Mr. Wilton's store and contents, but nothing daunted, he and his partner started again, and their en- terprise was appreciated, as their strong support and enstom from the community attests. Mr. Wilton is the owner of considerable real estate in Sebastopol, among which is the store he or- enpies and two houses and lots. Politically he is a strong and consistent Republican, and thongh never seeking office, his influence is felt in the ranks of the party, and always for what he considers to be for the best interests of the majority. Mr. Wilton is a member of the fol- lowing Masonic orders: Lafayette Lodge, No. 126, F. & A. M., of Sebastopol (six years a Past Master); Chapter, No. 45, Royal Arch Masons of Santa Rosa; Santa Rosa Command- ery. No. 14, Knights Templar (of which he is Commander); Islam Temple, Ancient Arabie Order of Nobres of the Mystic Shrine, Oasis of San Francisco. He is also a member of the following lodges : Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Evergreen Lodge, No. 161, Sebasto- pol : Rebecca Degree Lodge, No. 44, Sebastopol ; Relief Encampment. No. 29, Petaluma.

ILLIAM R. WELLS, A. M., M. D., was born September 20, 1813, in North Stonington, Connectient. llis father, Thomas T. Wells, also a native of that State, was an old practicing physician of North Ston- ington, and was an intimate friend and fellow- student of George Mcclellan, fonnder of the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, and father of the late George B. MeClellan. Thomas T. Wells moved from North Stonington to New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1827 or 1828, from there to Fall River, thence to Troy, New York, and finally back to North Stonington, where he died in 1842. lle married Desire Wheeler Randall, daughter of Judge William Randall

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of Stonington, Connecticut. She died about 1878 at the age of eighty years. They had two sons, Amos G. Wells, a former resident of New York, and the subject of this sketch. William R. Wells was prepared for college at the age of twelve, under an able tutor, although he did not take a collegiate course. At the age of sixteen he commenced the study of medicine, his father being his preceptor, with whom he remained until the fall of 1830. He then went to Boston and entered the medical department of Harvard University, and graduated at this institution February 12, 1834, when he was nearly twenty- one years old. There was a large number of medical students in his class, among them being Oliver Wendell Ilolmes. This was at the time cholera prevailed so furiously in Boston, which gave the college plenty of subjects for dissection. After graduating Dr. Wells went to Newport, Rhode Island, and practiced medicine there one year. During his residence there he had the degree of master of arts conferred upon him by the Columbian College of the District of Colum- bia. He then moved to New Bedford and took up the practice his father left, his father having moved to Fall River. In 1841, his health fail- ing him, he took a trip around Cape Horn to Tahite, one of the Society Islands, and took charge of the United States Hospital, situated there. He returned to New Bedford in 1843, and found that during his absence from home his father and one of his own children had died. He practiced in Middleboro, Massachu- setts, until 1849, when he came to California. This was his third trip around Cape Horn, and this time he brought with him his wife and family. Ile landed at San Francisco April 28, 1850, after a long journey of five months. Re- maining in San Francisco only a short time, he went to San Rafael and located in that town- ship, where he purchased a tract of land known as part of the Murphy grant, which was sup- posed to be three miles long and one mile wide. During his residence in San Rafael he was elected justice of the peace and county cor- oner. In 1856 he sold his property to Ai Bar-

ney and came to Petaluma, where he has since resided. Dr. Wells is the oldest resident physi- cian in the city, and has been in the active prac- tice of medicine during the most of the time. He is even now, at the age of seventy-five, hale and hearty and seemingly in the full vigor of manhood. In 1870 he made a trip East and was gone two months, and in May of the next year he made another visit to the Eastern coast with his family, returning in November. IIis marriage occurred on the 20th day of Septem- ber, 1838. His wife was formerly Ruzilla Coombs, a native of New Bedford, Massachu- setts. They have three daughters living, and have lost two sons and three daughters.

JOHN A. BARHAM, attorney at law, has passed all the years of his adult life in the Golden State, his parents having come from Missouri to California in his boyhood, and settled on what was known as the Sutter tract on Bear River in 1849. Ilis father, John Bar- ham, was a farmer and stock-grower, and was quite successful; but being a man of generous and sympathetic nature he yielded to the im- portunities of neighbors and professed friends to assist them by becoming surety on paper, and thus suffered heavy losses, and died-while the subject of this sketch was pursuing his law studies-a poor man. So that the son was not only obliged to support himself, but to provide for his widowed mother, which he did largely by teaching school for a period of several years. Ile studied for his profession with the law firm of Temple & Thomas, in Santa Rosa, and was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of California in 1868. The same year Mr. Barham opened a law office in Santa Cruz, where he soon acquired a fine law practice, which con- tinued until he left there in 1876 to settle in San Francisco, where greater opportunities were offered to a rising young lawyer. His anticipa- tions were almost at once realized in a large legal business, which steadily grew during the

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eight years of his professional life in the me- tropolis. But the cool humid winds from the ocean proved too trying upon his throat and lungs, and he was compelled to seek a milder climate. After visiting various parts of the State, including Los Angeles, he chose Santa Rosa as preferable to any other locality, and came here in 1884, much broken in health and with the expectation of permanently retiring from the practice of his profession. He bought a tract of fine land immediately south of the city, on which he erected a niee residence, be- gan to plant out choice varieties of fruit trees and vines, and otherwise improve and beautify it. The same year he settled here he was strongly urged to accept the nomination for Superior Judge on the Republican ticket to which he reluctantly consented, and thongh running against a very able and popular man Judge Jackson Temple, now on the Supreme Bench-and opposing a Democratic majority of more than 500 in the county, Mr. Barham came within seventy votes of being elected. After spending a year and a half on his fruit farm, during which time he thoroughly recovered his health, Mr. Barham was induced to sell it by the offer of an extraordinary price, moved into Santa Rosa and resumed the practice of law, which he still continues. His practice has run chiefly in the line of mercantile and corporation law. Jndge Barham, as he is familiarly called, is local counsel for the Southern Pacifie Rail- road Company, is attorney for the Santa Rosa Street Car Company, the Santa Rosa Bank, the Bank of Healdsburg, and the Bank of Clover- dale. Mr. Barham married in Sonoma County Miss Cook. They have five children.

ARNABAS HASKELL, deceased, was a native of East Hartford, Connecticut. Ilis father was a seaman engaged in the mer- chant trade, from Hartford down the coast as far 1 as New Orleans. The wife of onr subject was Abigail Goodwin, also a native of East Hartford,

and her father, Joseph Goodwin, was one of the old Puritan settlers in East Hartford, prior to the Revolutionary war. After his marriage, Barnabas Haskell moved to Galveston, Texas, where he lived for several years and afterward moved to New York. He was a hatter and furrier by trade, and there engaged with Tiffany, the leading hatter at that time in that city. In 1847 he moved to Boston where he lived abont five years, and from there came to California, via Texas, across the plains. Two years later his wife followed, and after teaching in Benicia she removed to Petaluma, where she was engaged for ten years as principal of the public schools of this eity. She always took an active interest in everything pertaining to the education of the young, and was prominently identified with the " Woman's Suffrage " movement in Califor- nia. Her death occurred in 1884. Mr. Ilas- kell, in 1856, opened a dry goods and clothing honse in Petaluma, which he condneted until 1878, during which time he was engaged in aetive business. He then continued his resi- dence in Petaluma nutil his death which occurred in Jannary, 1887.

JOHN CONNER, liveryman of Healdsburg, is a native of Indiana, born in Miami County. December 8, 1846, his parents being William and Amelia (Cheney) Conner, the former of Virginia ancestry and a native of Bartholomew County, Indiana, and the latter a native of Kentucky. William Conner went to northern Indiana in 1527 and ent the first road between Peru and Logansport. The subject of this sketeh was reared to manhood in his native county and there received his schooling. At an early age he engaged in the stoek business with a brother, and in 1868 went to Labette County, Kansas, where he engaged in merchandising. After five years in mereantile life there he em- barked in the livery business. In 1874 he came to California, locating in Napa County, there becoming connected with the stage company.

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY.

lle engaged in the livery business in Calistoga and so continned nntil 1881, when he came to Healdsburg. Mr. Connor has been twice mar- ried. ITe was first married, in Kansas, to Miss Jernsha Ballwine, a native of Licking County, Olio. By this marriage there were four children, viz: Walter E., Daniel R., Alice G., and Jessie E. Mrs. Conner died at Healdsburg in 1883. Mr. Conner's present wife was formerly Miss Nelly Emerson, a native of Healdsburg. Mr. Conner is a member of the Healdsburg Lodge, Knights of Pythias, in which he has filled all the chairs, and in 1885 was District Deputy. Politically, he is a Republican. Ile has established a tine business and his Sotoyome stables are well known for the exeellence of their turn-outs, every kind of a vehiele from a trotting sulkey to a band wagon, being kept for the aceom- modation of the trade. From twelve to fifteen horses are constantly employed. The Sotoyome stables are complete in every appointment.

LEASANT WELLS, proprietor of the " Vineland Ranch," at the head of Rineon Valley, has been a resident of Sonoma County sinee 1867, and it is no disparagement to others to say that no man in the county has done more to illustrate its possibilities in grow- ing a wine grape not exeelled, if equalled, by the prodnet of any county in this favored land. His life in Sonoma County is the history of Vineland Ranch. From small beginnings great results have been accomplished. The ranch, in view of the quality of its product, is considered the finest in Sonoma County, though not the largest; it has 158 aeres in bearing, and fifty acres will be added in the near future. A visitor to the ranch, after passing northward on a road skirting Rincon Heights, through the beautiful Rincon Valley, will find his road turn- ing abruptly to the left, when aseending the hills nearly to their crown a scene is revealed of great beanty, which, if unprepared, surprises him. At the threshold of the estate he will

find the modest cottage home of Mr. Wells and his family, well shaded and surrounded by grounds of great natural beauty. To the west- ward and south the vineyard stretches, now climbing elevations and again sinking from view only to appear again. In its spread over hill and vale it presents to the lover of the beautiful in nature, adorned by the art of man. a most pleasing pieture, and one not easy to forget. From many a point landscape views equal to many that have been immortalized on eanvas could be obtained. Having said this much of Mr. Wells' present interests, it is well that a review of his past life should be given. Wegive briefly the following taets: He was born in Grayson County, Kentucky, son of Samuel D). and Matilda (Brunk) Wells, February 14, 1834. In 1846, he then being twelve years of age, the family removed to Davis County, Iowa, a connty then passing through the first stages of its pioneer history; there a life of industry, spent in farm labor, was his until the spring of 1853,. when, leaving the old home where his parents still live, Mr. Wells, filled with the spirit of adventure and a courage not common to a youth of nineteen years, joined a party of emigrants and made the overland trip to this State, reaching Placerville Angust 1 of that year. Of his life the next fourteen years we have not the space to speak in detail. Suttiee it to say it was spent in hard, laborions toil, in the mining distriets. principally in Nevada County. The fleeting goddess of wealth, though often thought to be in sight, proved on close contact to be only a phantom: finally the pur- snit was abandoned, and Mr. Wells, as stated, came to this connty in 1867, not only poor in all but that which always makes a man rich,

spirit, energy and a determination to succeed,- but $500 in debt. Soon afterward he began the development of his present magnificent prop- erty. At first he was obliged to earn his bread at other employment. Some years passed be- fore he could establish and maintain his home upon the property. The builling np of the vineyard was a slow, steady growth; the ohl-

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est portions are twenty years of age, the young- est five years, but never looking backward the result has been satisfactory and remunerative. The peenliarly good quality of one product of his vineyard owing to its elevation and soil con- stituents, has enabled Mr. Wells to command a price fully fifty per cent in advance of the average. April 14, 1867, Mr. Wells was united in marriage with Miss Maria Ann Bish, a na- tive of Ohio, but reared in Davis County, Iowa. Their five children, Olive, May, Edward, How- ard and Ida, are all as yet under the parental roof, except May, who is the wife of Charles Norris, and resides in Rincon Valley. In polit- ical action, Mr. Wells, since the first election of Abraham Lincoln, has been a Republican, and firm in upholding the principles of that party. Believing that knowledge is power, and that education is the one thing that no adversity can rob his children of, he has been much interested in promoting efficiency in our public schools, and many years served . Wallace " school district as trustee.

B B. BERRY .- Among those grand old pioneers who braved the dangers of the @ long and tedious journey across the plains, who endured the hardships of a frontier life in California, and who still live to enjoy the fruits of a well spent life, no one is more desery- ing of a place in this history than he whose name heads this sketch. A brief outline of Mr. Berry's life is as follows: He was born in Frank- lin County, Tennessee, October 25, 1807. his parents being Samnel and Annie Berry, both natives of Washington County, Virginia. He was reared to farm life, receiving such an ed- neation as the schools of that date afforded. When eighteen years of age his parents moved to Sangamon County, Illinois. Ile remained a member of his father's family until the age of twenty-one years, and then commenced work · as a carpenter and joiner under W. G. Jeter, and continued that occupation until 1531. In

this year the Indians became troublesome and warlike in the north western portion of Illinois, and in response to the Governor's eall for volon- teers, he entered the military service of the State. Ile served until the end of the campaign under General Joseph Duncan, after which he returned home and resumed his calling as a carpenter. In 1532 he again entered the State military service and served in the Black Hawk war. In this war he was Sergeant-Major of ('olonel Collins' regiment, under the command of Brigadier-General James D. Henry. At the elose of the war he returned home, and on the 2d day of October, 1832, married Miss Eliza- beth P. Camron, daughter of John M. and Mary (Orendorff) Camron. Her father was a native of Georgia, who emigrated to Kentneky, where he married and in 1821 moved to Sangamon County, Illinois. After his marriage Mr. Berry settled on a farm about two miles northwest of Petersburg, now the county seat of Menard County, Illinois, where he remained until 1834. In that year he moved to Fulton County, Illi- nois, and located on a farm near what is now the town of Barnadotte. In 1836 he was elected a justice of the peace and served in that capacity at Barnadotte for the next eight years. In the fall of 1845 he moved to Iowa and settled at

Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, where he estab- lished a general merchandise store. He con- tinned this occupation until 1848, when he sold ont and entered a traet of land upon which he took up his residence and followed the occupa- tion of a farmer until 1550. He then rented bis farm and returned to Oskaloosa where he resided until 1852. April 27 of that year he started overland for California. Crossing the plains with ox teams he arrived in Sacramento September 9 of the same year, and ten days later he located in Sonoma County, where he leased a small farm from Jasper O'Farrell, sitn- ated in Analy Township about five miles west of Sebastopol. This farm he afterward pur- chased. There he built a store and engaged in a general merchandise business. This enter- prise he conducted until 1856, when he sold out.

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In 1856 he was elected a member of the Board of Supervisors of Sonoma County. In 1859 he sold his farm and moved to Marion County, where he engaged in farming and dairy busi- ness In 1859 he was elected justice of the peace and served as such for two years. In 1861 he sold out his interests in Marin County and returned to Sonoma County. Upon his re- turn he purehased a farm near Sebastopol and engaged in farm operations. The next year, 1862, he was elected justice of the peace for Sebastopol, an office he held for two years. In 1866-'7 Mr. Berry assessed the western portion of Sonoma County. In 1869 he purchased property in Sebastopol, erected stables and en- gaged in the livery business, and in 1870 sold a half interest to his son, John II. In 1872 his son, Samuel B. Berry, bought out his brother's interest and entered into the partner- ship, and they conducted the business until 1881, when a disastrous fire occurred which dis- troyed their stable, horses, carriages, two dwell- ing honses, office books and papers, etc., in fact abont all he possessed, with no insurance. In 1870 Mr. Berry was again elected justice of the peace, and was successively re-elected and held that office for the next eighteen years, until January, 1889. Mr. Berry has served as justice of the peace in the different communities in which he has lived for thirty years, or more than one- third of his life of over four score years. Twenty years of this service has been in Sonoma County. During his long residence in this county he has gained and held the respect and esteem of the community, and has always been regarded as an honest, npright and impartial arbitrator of all matters that come before him in his official capacity. He has ever been one of the strong- est supporters of schools and churches, and in faet all enterprises that tended to promote the welfare, morals and best interests of the con- mnnity in which he resides. He is a consistent member of the Presbyterian church, and a member of the Sebastopol Lodge of Good Templars, also a member of Evergreen Lodge, No. 161, I. O. O. F., of Sebastopol. Mr. Berry

is now (1888) over eighty years of age and still in possession of all his mental faculties, with a mind stored with the interesting reminiscenees of a long and useful life. He has retired from the active pursuits of life and now engages his attention and time in the care and cultivation of a small fruit orchard and vineyard surround- ing his cottage home in Sebastopol. Mr. and Mrs. Berry are the parents of the following named children: John II., who married Miss Minerva Lindsey, and is now residing in Jack- son County, Oregon; William P., who married Miss Emma Menifee, living in Sebastopol; Lamira married W. G. Cannon and is living in Lake County: Samnel B. ( whose sketch appears in this volume); Letitia M., who married Charles M. Young, living in Lake County; Charles S. married Elizabeth Herrington, now residing in San Benito County, and Eva, who married Jacob S. Sendder, living in Sebastopol.

SAAC DE TURK, proprietor of the Santa Rosa Winery, is one of the oldest resident citizens of the place, having come here in the winter of 1858-9, from Morgan County, Indiana. Ile was born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, from which place his parents moved and settled in Indiana when he was four years of age. The first business in which Mr. De Turk engaged in Sonoma County was the cultivation of grapes and wine making, in 1862, in which year he planted a vineyard of twenty acres in Bennet Valley, six miles east of Santa Rosa, and in fol- lowing years increased it to fifty acres. This vineyard, which was composed of Mission and Zinfandel vines in about equal quantity, yielded from: 300 to 350 tons of grapes per season. In 1885 Mr. De Turk sold this vineyard and pur- chased 1,200 acres of land in Los Guilicos Valley, on which he has 100 acres of bearing vineyard of choice varieties, and purposes to enlarge it to double that aereage. In 1867 he built a wine cellar in Bennett Valley, which he subsequently .

enlarged to 100,000 gallons capacity before sell-

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ing it with the vineyard. In 1978 he erected the first buildings of his Santa Rosa Winery, and manufactured that season 100,000 gallons of wines. The product has been increased from year to year until he now makes 300,000 to 400,000 gallons of wine and 15,000 gallons of grape brandy per season, consuming 3,600 to 4,800 tons of grapes annually. With the in- erease of business the wine cellar has been enlarged until it now comprises an area of 52,500 square feet on each of its two floors, and has a storage capacity of 1.000,000 gallons, being the second largest in the State. The buildings are of brick and of the most substan- tial quality, situated in the west end of the city. on the Santa Fe & Northern Pacific Railroad. Mr. De Turk makes a specialty of manufactur- ing clarets, riesling, sherry and port wines, and grape brandy. Besides the produet of his own vines, he has bought as many as 3,000 tons of grapes a year for this purpose. He has $400,000 invested in the business. Mr. De Turk has been the State Vitieultural Commis- sioner for the Sonoma District-embracing So- noma and all the counties north of it ever since the office was created. He has been identified from their ineeption with the Sonoma County Agricultural Association, the Stoek Breeders' Association. and is a direetor in both. lle is also a member of the Athenænm Company. Mr. De Turk is unmarried and is a typical California bachelor. His father died a few years ago in Indiana, at the ripe age of ninety-five years. The only relative he has in this State is William S. De Turk, of Petaluma, a brother's son.

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An illustrated history of Sonoma County, California. Containing a history of the county of Sonoma from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, Part 48

Author: Lewis Publishing Company Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 786

Author: Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 786