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 58
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 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108
some of the most eminent lawyers in this coun- try, among them Senators Edmunds and Evarts.
Socially, Judge Johnson is pre-eminently a polished companionable gentleman, qualities which led hiin years ago to become a member of the order of Free Masons, and a Knight Templar. He has taken thirty-two degrees in the order. He served as Worshipful Master in the lodge, and as High Priest and Eminent Commander of the Commandery in Cambridge City, Indiana. In 1878 be secured a dispensa- tion and organized Santa Rosa Commandery, No. 14, which has become one of the most prosperous in the State. He was chosen its first Eminent Commander and served four suc- eessive years by re-elections. He has filled the office of Grand Senior Warden two years in the Grand Commandery of Indiana, is now Grand Captain General of the Grand Com- mandery of the State of California, and in that capacity will attend the Triennial Conelave to be holden in the city of Washington in October, 1889.
Judge Johnson's estimable wife, and the mother of his five children -- four sons and one daughter-passed from earth in October, 1888, leaving a large cirele of mourning friends who knew her only to love her.
The Legislature of 1889 employed the At- torney-General, John F. Swift and Stephen M. White to go to Washington and argue before the Supreme Court of the United States es parte Chae Chan Ping, a habeas corpus ease on appeal from this circuit. The idea was to assist the Attorney-General of the United States, who is opposed by ex-Governor Hoadley and other eminent counsel for the Chinaman, in the so- lution of the question as to the constitutionality of the Exclusion Aet which took effect October 1, 18SS, in excluding a Chinese laborer who has a return certificate, from returning here after this aet took effect. The importance of this case cannot be overestimated. It is to be hoped that the State's counsel will succeed, that the consti- tutionality of the Exclusion et will be upheld, and that the Supreme Court will have this
388
HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY.
Chinaman remanded to his ship, to be carried back to China, thus settling forever the doctrine that a later act of Congress must prevail over a treaty.
As an orator Judge Johnson has few equals on the Pacific coast; and this fact being recog- nized, his services are in frequent demand to deliver public addresses on varions themes and occasions. Among his latest efforts are an ora- tion delivered on the Fourth of July, ISSS, at Sacramento, and an address opening the Sonoma County Fair in August of the same year. As a sample of his style of eloquence and his lofty patriotism, the following extract is given from the former; and both for its oratorical and his- torical merit-dealing as it does with Sonoma County-the latter is worthy of a place in these pages, and is published in full elsewhere in this volume.
THE ORATION.
Attorney-General George A. Johnson was then introduced and delivered an eloquent ora- tion. He spoke in an earnest, impressive man- ner, and his patriotic sentiments were heartily applauded. Ile said:
" Of all the days in the American calendar, this is the most patriotic. It belongs to no party, no clique; it belongs to all the people.
" We have other anniversaries, the birth of our children, of our mothers and sires, the plighted vow to some tender being. These we celebrate around the home altar, and bind each year with the circlet of our hopes, our fears, our smiles and our tears.
" But to-day we celebrate the birth of a nation, the fairest and bravest, whose home is on the land and on the sea, on the mountain and in the valley, wherever waves the freeman's flag. It has given to us all the other holidays that we usually celebrate. * * **
" It is meet that this day should be celebrated amid the salvos of artillery, industrial displays, the music of instruments, the waving of ban. ners, the smiles of beauty, and the glad voices of children. So long as American liberty is of any worth this day will be welcomed.
" We have given to the world a new dispen- sation, that all men are and of right ought to be free, that the people are the source of all power, that sovereign rights are inherent in them, and not the gift of any purple-clad Cæsar.
" We have thrown aside the hoary conceits of centuries, and installed in their place new ideas, ideas which have unfettered the human mind, educated the public conscience, taught men to think and act for themselves, inspired the hopes of the masses, made life worth living for, and sublimated all human endeavor.
" We have crowned with flowers civil and re- ligious liberty, raised the down-trodden, sup- pressed the fagot and the stake, and illustrated history with the grandest achievements of war and peace. We have added to the civilization of the age, contributed to the general well- being, made home happy, government secure, and taught a lesson to all tyrants.
" To perpetuate these blessings, we need no standing army, only eternal vigilance, which is the price of all liberty, only heroic effort at all times to do right, only self-discipline, self- illumination, and if need be millions of swords will leap from their scabbards to hand these cherished blessing down to our descendants.
* * *
" When we recall to mind the struggles and privations of the Revolution, our own undisci- plined soldiery essaying to cope with the first power in Europe, with troops which had scen service under Amherst at Montreal, and Wolfe on the Heights of Abraham: when we recollect the bloody feet which stained the soil at Valley Forge, and hope deferred that made the heart sick, except the great heart of our Washington, and even he was thinking of a dernier resort across the Alleghanies-when we think of all this, before Saratoga and Yorktown were won, and the liberty bells rang out their glad clarion, we realize that it costs something to achieve liberty, and that our free institutions, thus ac- quired, necessitate the most vigilant care to be handed down unimpaired to our posterity.
389
HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY.
When we recollect that our now commonest rights were denied before Washington fought and La Fayette bled for liberty, the heritage that we now enjoy become preeions and ines- timable. When we go further back to the days when Brutus drove out the Tarquin, and an- other Brutus called aloud on Tully's name " and shook aloft his crimsoned steel;" when, again, all was lost at Philippi and the imperial purple was restored; when, again, another Cæsar lorded it over the Roman world and the Christ had not where to lay his head-we must prize the heroic achievements of the men of '76.
" When we go further back to the days when the Persians swarmed over Greece, and were held at bay by the three hundred in the passes of Thermopyla; when Athens was abandoned, and their Academic groves deserted; " where the Attie bird thrilled its thick-warbled notes the Summer long," and old and young took
refuge within the wooden walls at Salamis; when Miltiades led at Marathon-Marathon, blessed name! which still sheds around the world the aroma of liberty, and which twenty- two centuries later led the English bard to sing, when thinking of freedom for modern Greece:
"' The mountains look on Marathon, And Marathon looks on the sea; And musing there an hour alone, I dream'd that Greece might still be free.'
"When we recall to mind all this, we cannot forget to love, cherish and perpetuate our free institutions. * :K
" Here the General Government moves in its orbit, and the States move in theirs, without any collision or impingement; the one exercis- ing its granted powers for national purposes, including the preservation of its autonomy; the other retaining and exercising the grand re- siduum of popular rights to effectuate local pur- poses and local amelioration which may be denominated home rule. Such was the wise forethought of our fathers in distributing the powers of the National Government. They
builded not for a generation but for all time, and left their ineffaceable impress upon the ages.
" With their success in establishing free in- stitutions afterward came the success of other countries, notably that of France. * * *
" Thus we have paid the debt we owed to France for giving La Fayette as a co-laborer to Washington and for her assistance in the Revo- lutionary war, by placing before her a Republi- ean example to imitate instead of the iron rule of her Merovingian, Carlovingian and Capetian Kings, the house of Valois, of Bourbon, and the imperial monarchy.
*
" First the struggling Democracies of Athens and Rome; then the gradual acquisition of the great common law rights; then a General Gov- ernment and local Governments, each preserving its respective autonomy; then other free States, or countries essaying freedom at great odds. * * *
" Never ean we sufficiently repay the debt of gratitude which we owe to the fathers of '76, and to the framers of the Constitution of the United States. * " It will remain a standing monument for all time, how these men, in days of great responsi- bility and peril, without chart or compass, amid a new-born nation convulsed with excitement and discussion, and full of the gravest apprehensions, built up the sacred edifice of our liberties, laid deep and broad its foundations, and made en- during its superstructure, until its grand pro- portions stand forth to-day unrivalled by modern art, the hope of the country and the despair of all emulators. It could not have been done without the aid of Divine Providence, who makes the nothingness of man to praise Ilim, who before had made distraught the advisers of a senile king, and who, now that the fairest flower of George the Third's colonial possessions had been plucked from his grasp, would not permit old world ideas to dominate the chosen
390
HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY.
seat of a better, more humane and more en- lightened civilization.
" The great central character of the times was our George, the leader of the American armies. the President of the Constitutional Convention, at all times patient, thoughtful, hopeful, prayer- ful; whom Thackeray, with all his British in- stincts, has characterized as the greatest, wisest and best of the Anglo-Saxon raee.
" Had not the American Revolution sueeeed- ed, civilization would have stood still on the dial- plate of time; history would have to be re- written. and those grand heroic characters whiel now leap forth into ruddy life on its pietured pages would not be so much as a name or a memory. We could only muse, thinking of what might have been.
" . Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.'
" Had not the American Revolution sneceed- ed, the courses of English thought would have continued to run along the narrow channels of old England, instead of the majestie rivers and lakes of America.
" George Washington would have lived and died a quiet, self-possessed. well-to-do country gentleman, given to hunting and hospitality, on the banks of the Potomac: Jackson would never have built his entrenchments of sandbags at New Orleans, nor Lineoln have issued his Emaneipa- tion Proclamation. This country would still have been under the Mexican domination; its untold mineral wealth, its cereals and its fruits would have existed nowhere except in the imagination of some dreamer.
" But with American success eame the bound less American endeavor and American enter- prise, until now we are the most numerous. the most cultured, the most flourishing, and the freest of the great English-speaking raee.
"And here will be written by-and-by the elassies of our mother tongue, as already here is spoken the English language in greater purity, elegance
and force than anywhere on the face of the globe.
" Small eauses apparently very often precipi- tate momentous events. As the wrath of Achilles caused the Trojan war; as a hasty plate of soup spoiled General Seott's Presiden- tial prospects: as the noise and confusion which prevailed once upon a time, when General Cass was attempting to explain his views affected his political aspirations; so the refusal of our fore- fathers to drink the English tea has given us a free and independent country, and added immeasurably to the world's civilization.
" Now, we can get along in the happiest ae- cord with our English brethren. They appre- ciate us and we appreciate them. for we are all of one blood and lineage. We claim kinship with their Shakespeare, their Milton, and their Gladstone, and they are entitled to share in the world-fame of our Washington, our Marshall and our Webster.
" In perpetuating these blessings derived from our revolutionary forefathers, we need statesmein at the helm of State. We need thoughtful men, men whose sympathies are as broad as the protecting shield of the Republic. The civil service of the country should be placed on a high plane, and should be the reward only of a eonseientious and faithful discharge of duty, and competeney for its performance. Men should be taught to regard the national honor as their own, and unserupulons money-changers and their patrons driven from the place where en- throned duty should sit. Strong moral forces should lend a helping hand to the government of State, and these must be backed by education and an enlightenment of the publie conscience.
"We salute, therefore, this one hundred and twelfth anniversary of American Independence, this great country which is the recognized home of liberty the world orer; we salute her hon- ored past, her prosperous present, her promis- ing future, the destined abiding-place of the millions to come who will blend with and add to the greatest of the English-speaking race;
391
HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY.
whose drum-beat and martial-tread will be heard whenever the rights of the humblest of her citizens are trampled upon by any foreign power, or when any one of the increasing stars on her flag is sought to be dimmed.
" We salute this anniversary, in this great Valley of the Sacramento, where nature has done so much and art so little; where there is room and plenty of room for the thousands, I might say, the millions to come; where on the one side may be seen an almost treeless expanse of waving grain, on the other the semi-tropical ruits mellowing into more than Eastern luseiousness, all around a climate,
Where summer first her robe uufurls, And where she longest tarries.
With a people as generous and hospitable as the tempered airs which have grown them.
" And from this great valley we ean point with pride to the unnumbered valleys seattered beyond, and to the hills as prolific as the valleys, with their grain belts, their fruit belts, their mineral belts, their sanitary belts, all of which tend to reward industry, prolong life and make it enjoyable; to our colleges and ad- mirable common school system; to a free and enlightened press; to a reading and thinking people; whether amid urban splendors or rural homes; to a fearless and ineorruptible judiciary, and to the mass of our population, healthy, happy and contented. * *
" California has an area three times as great as that of the State of New York, and larger than that of Great Britain and Ireland, with Portugal added as a make-weight.
" While, however, she has only about seven inhabitants to the square mile, Rhode Island has 300 and Belgium has more than 500. Thus it will be apparent what advantages this State has for supporting a greatly increased popula- tion. She is among the greatest of the wheat- producing States, far ahead of any other in the produetion and value of her mines, and was at one time the greatest gold and silver producer in the Union.
"To this is to be added, among other re- sources, the unrivaled wealth of her fruits, her lumber interests, her wool, most of which are constantly increasing.
" From so much of retrospect, let us now look forward to the coming years, when the great Valley of the Sacramento will enrich and be enriched by the thousands who will settle here: when every valley will begin to smile like a Vaea or a Capay; when California will, appar- ently, have arrived at the aeme of her material development; when from the dome of the State Capitol shall float the same flag which flies there to-day, and the same songs be sung to fire the patriot's heart; when all over this great nation will be seen the same patriotic display, the arts and sciences prevailing, labor receiving an adequate requital, and fraternal ties binding the States and people together stronger than with ribs of steel; still even then, will we look hopefully forward to a still greater future, to a still more rythmieal development, until we finally sink to rest beneath the sods of the great valley.
TETH A. SEAVY .- One of the finest sub- urban properties at Santa Rosa is the orchard home on Dutton avenue owned and occupied by the subject of this sketeh. All the building improvements are noticeably good, especially so the fine family residence. No better land than the twenty-five acres owned by Mr. Seavy can be found in Sonoma County. It is all devoted to fruit culture and makes one of the best orchards in Santa Rosa Valley. Fifteen aeres are in French prunes, and the rest principally in pears, apricots, peaches, apples, plums, cherries, figs, choice table grapes, etc. It is also worthy of mention that berries of all descriptions are grown without irrigation. Strawberries are gathered from April to Deeem- ber or until killed by frost. The greater part of the orchard was planted in 1884 by J. C. Franks. The property was purchased by Mr.
393
HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY.
Seavy in 1885, since which time, by eare and thorough cultivation. he has produced remarka- ble results. A few pear trees on the place that were planted about 1873 prodneed, in 1888, fruit that sold at a price averaging from $15 to 825 per tree. Mr. Seavy dates his birth in Washington County, Maine, May 3, 1830, and is a descendant of an old New England family. His father, Sylvanus Seavy, was born in 1795. His mother, Cynthia O. Seavy, who yet lives in Maine, her native State, was born in the year 1800. The youthful years of the subject of this sketch were spent in labor on his father's farm, receiving at the same time a fair educa- tion. His first labor away from home was in the forests and mills of his native State, in the manufacture of lumber. He spent some time on fishing voyages in his early manhood, and also became proficient in the carpenter's trade. · Concluding to try his fortunes on this coast, he left home in 1858. After reaching San Fran- eisco he soon made his way to Washington Ter- ritory, where he engaged in lumbering until 1860. In that year he returned to Maine, and upon the opening of the Civil war he volun- teered in defense of the Union, and served in General Keyes' division of the Army of the Potomac, participating in the Peninsular cam- paign until atter the battle of Fair Oaks, when, prostrated by sickness, he soon received an honorable discharge. Years passed before his health was sufficiently well established to admit of any material progress in acquiring more than a maintenance. In 1864 he again came to California and spent the following year on a ranch in San Joaquin County. Leaving there, he went to Humboldt County where he was employed by lumber manufacturers until 1868. Later he spent two years in San Mateo County in farm labor. In 1870 he came to this county and for two seasons rented and conducted a dairy farm near Lakeville. Mr. Seavy then went to San Joaquin County, purchased 160 acres of land near Stockton and engaged in the raising of grain. Four years later he rented 800 acres and by a succession of poor crops was
nearly ruined financially; but, with character istic energy, he ventured buying 640 acres, which, fortunately, his first crop paid for. There Mr. Seavy lived until, in 1885, as stated, he left San Joaquin County and established his present residence. Ile still owns a splendid ranch of 480 aeres in San Joaquin County. In 1855, in his native State, Mr. Seavy wedded Miss Eliza G. Baker, daughter of Zebnlon and Deborah (Hanscom) Baker. Their six children are: Lorenzo, who resides upon the ranch already referred to in San Joaquin County ; Kittie, wife of James Clendenning of Santa Rosa; Fred, Frank. Mattie and Minnie, the last four being still under the parental roof. Mr. Seavy is a member of Ellsworth Post, No. 20, G. A. R., of Santa Rosa. Both he and his wife are members of long standing of the Methodist church. Politically, Mr. Seavy is a radical Republican. He has served Santa Rosa as school trustee, and his church as trustee many years. Few men are more interested in promoting the cause of religion and education than he, and few, in proportion to their means, devote more time or money to these causes.
EUBEN M. SWAIN is a native of Michi- gan and was reared in Massachusetts. Ilis father, Charles A. Swain, was a cap- tain of a whaling ship, and was in the harbor of San Francisco with his vessel as early as. 1829. In 1854 Mr. Swain's family came to California via the Isthmus route, and settled in San Francisco, where, after leaving the sea, he held a Government position for eight years. He died in San Francisco five years ago. Reu- ben M. Swain was educated in the University of the Pacific, located at Santa Clara, Santa Clara County, after having "kept batch " in the rear room of an old house, living on $7.50 per month, and working on a farm for three years in order to earn the money with which to de- fray his expenses at college. He and two other students boarded themselves, rooming in an old
.
EVERGREEN VILLA,
RESIDENCE OF NILIY SIO
395
HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY.
school-house, their chief diet being potatoes, griddle cakes and molasses. They enjoyed the luxury of coffee every Sunday morning, and meat every two wecks. Ile left the college in 1863, broken down in health, and went to work in a wagon shop, where he remained several months. IIe then obtained a position as sales- man in a mereantile honse in San Francisco, and while thus employed began the study of law. While there his salary was increased to $100 per month. In 1869 he went to Napa County and engaged in farming, using his odd time in reading law. In 1871 he was admitted to the District Court of Napa County, when he ceased farming and soon after moved his family into Napa City. Being appointed under-sheriff, he served the term of two years, and upon retir- ing from that office he was elected justice and police magistrate of Napa City, and served two terms of two years each, practicing law in the meantime. At the expiration of his second term he was appointed United States Gauger for Napa and Sonoma counties. After serving six months he resigned, moved to San Francisco and en- tered wholly into the practice of law. While there he served over a year as assistant prose- enting attorney in the police court, No. 1, which gave him a wide experience in eriminal matters. He continued the practice of law in that city until May, 1887, at which time he was compelled to leave on account of broken health, and came to Santa Rosa. Ile settled here a total stranger, and has already obtained a fine practice. He has successfully conducted a number of impor- tant eriminal eases, and is already acknowledged as among the leading members of Sonoma County's unusually strong bar. Within the year he has defended two murder cases, the first he cleared, and the second was given man- slaughter. Being a pronounced Republican in 1 polities, he has the courage of his convietions, and is a live worker in the party for the benefit of his friends, but seeks no office and wields a free lance. Ile is chairman of the twenty- fourth assembly district for the Republicans. He has been acting as city attorney several
months, and is a trustee and secretary of the city library board. Before Mr. Swain began the study of law, while acting as salesman in San Francisco, he married Miss Mitchell, a member of the Mitchell family of Nantucket, Massachusetts, who had lived in California for a number of years. They were married in Octo- ber, 1864, on her mother's forty-first birthday. To them have been born three sons and one daughter, two sons now deceased, one dying in infaney. The other, a civil engineer, acting as draughtsman for the Southern Pacific Railroad, died from the effects of drinking alkali water, in southern California, after an illness of three days. Having fully recovered his health sinee locating in Santa Rosa, Mr. Swain has determined to make this his permanent home.
TIS ALLEN .- Among the prominent farmers and representative men of Green Valley, Analy Township, is the subjeet of this sketeh, a brief review of whose life is as follows: Ile is a descendant of the earliest settlers of the State of Maine, and dates his birth in York County, that State, in 1829. Ilis parents were Amos and Eleanor (Ridley) Allen, both natives of Maine. His father was a farmer, and Mr. Allen was from his early youth schooled to the hard labor attending farm- ing operations in the comparatively sterile soil of his native State, receiving at the same time snch edneational facilities as were afforded by the common schools of that date. When nine- teen years of age he left home and took up his residence in Boston, Massachusetts. There he en- gaged in teamning for about three years. In 1851 he came via the Isthmus route to California, arriving in San Francisco in the fall of that year. Soon after his arrival he proceeded to Butte County, where he engaged in mining. He fol- lowed this ealling with varying sueeess until 1853, at which time he abandoned mining and engaged in teaming in San Francisco. During the years of 1855 and 1856, when it became
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.