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 89

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 89

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people. As a diplomat Mr. Campbell will always be a success. With great urbanity of manner and felicity of speech he unites a keen perception of the motives of others, and caution in committing himself to any particular line of conduct or policy. These are the great charac- teristics of a successful consul or minister, and often prevent international complications. Mr. Campbell is most amiable in his domestic rela- tions, and has a charming family, consisting of wife, daughter and son.

HARLES AUGUSTUS BODWELL was born in Farmington Township, Hartford County, Connecticut, November 24, 1822. Ilis father, Augustus Bodwell, was a native of Simsbury, and his mother, Olive Williams (Buck) Bodwell, was born in Farmington, both in the same county. The mother of Augustus Bodwell was of old Plymouth stock. When she was a girl she lived with her uncle, Colonel Willis, then owner of the historic Charter Oak place. Mr. Bodwell and his wife always made their home in Connecticut, where they died, the latter January 12. 1839. They reared a family of four children, three sons and one daughter, of whom the eldest son and the subject of this sketch are living. Charles A. Bodwell made his home with his parents until he was sixteen or seventeen years old. He was reared on a farm, and received his education at the district schools and at the academy at Farmington. He went to Hartford and entered the drug store of Lee & Butler, who did a large wholesale and retail business, where he began the study of drugs. The business was afterward bought by his brother, Woodbridge Bodwell, who ran it for about three years when it was sold again, this time another brother, George Bodwell, be- ing the purchaser. Our subject remained in the employ of his brother until March, 1849, when he went to St. Louis. There Mr. Bodwell joined a party bound for Salt Lake City, under the management of Livingston and Kinkead,

with a stock of merchandise, the first general assortment in this line that was opened up in Salt Lake. The party left Omaha with a Mormon train, and after being six months on the way, arrived at their destination point. The Mor- mnons were by this time pretty badly in need of supplies, having had nothing except what they brought with them when the territory was opened up in 1847. The proprietors of the stock prevailed upon Mr. Bodwell to remain with them in their employ, and the next spring he and Mr. Livingston returned to the East after another stock of goods. Livingston bought the goods and Mr. Bodwell made the purchase of cattle for the train. He brought them from Independence, Missouri, to Table Creek at old Fort Kearney, where Livingston had brought the goods by steamboat. There the wagon train was made up and put in charge of the train-master, while the principals of the enter- prise went on ahead and made the trip to Salt Lake in twenty-four days. Mr. Bodwell re- mained there until the spring of 1851 when he went to Fort Hall, and from there to the Thomas Fork of the Bear River, in Idaho, east of Soda Springs and just above the Utah line. There he built a toll-bridge over the stream, expecting to realize a good thing from it on account of the great emigration that was going that way. That year, however, the travel was very light, as com- pared with what it was the year previous, and not thinking very much of his enterprise after be had conducted it for awhile, gave it away. The next year emigration was increased and the parties who operated the bridge made about $15,000. From there Mr. Bodwell went to Kansas to a trading post on Grasshopper Creek, on the Santa Fe road, about forty miles from Leavenworth. He opened a store and carried on a trading business with the Indians, remain- ing there one year. He then came to,California with a herd of cattle belonging to Young and Ross, being pretty well acquainted with the road, having been over it several times, at least as far as Salt Lake. He reached the Golden State and stayed with his cattle in Butte County

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nearly a year until they were fattened and ready to dispose of. Ile then eame San Francisco and went into the hay and grain business for himself. In the fall of 1856 he came to Sonoma County, and, with his brother-in-law, J. B. Lewis, bought 485 acres of land, where he lived until 1864, when he sold the property to Mr. Lewis, the present owner, and bought the place where he now resides at Lakeville. He has 255 acres of fine farming land devoted to general farming and stock-raising. The Bodwell land- ing was built by him in 1879, and is a landing for steamers and vessels plying along the Peta- Inma Creek. Mr. Bodwell is the agent for the steamer Gold, which makes regular stops at the landing, which is a great shipping point for that section of the country. On the 5th day of May, 1875, he was appointed postmaster at Lakeville, which position he now fills. Mr. Bodwell was married in 1864 to Miss Charlotte Franees Cadbourne, a native of Baldwin, Maine, where she was born October 17, 1836. Mrs. Bodwell, with her brother, came to California in the fall of 1861. They have two children: Charles Augustus, Jr., and Charlotte Elizabeth.

HARLES ASAPH PERRY, superintend- ent of the Santa Rosa Fruit Packing Com- pany, was born in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, October 13, 1859. lle eame to California in 1862, and lived at Susanville, Lassen County, until 1866. HIe then went to Chico, Butte County, where he lived one year. From there he went to Reno, Nevada, where his father was engaged as a painter. Mr. Perry returned to Wisconsin in 1871; at the end of three years went to the mines in northern Idaho, and after four years of unsnecessful labor in those mines, came to San Francisco. IIe engaged with Mr. Blaek as manager of a salmon cannery at Mar- tinez and became familiar with all the details of the eanning business. Mr. Black, the founder of the Santa Rosa Cannery, in 1881 employed Mr. Perry to superintend the work in Santa

Rosa as well. Mr. Black started up the ean- nery with a small force and packed 4,000 cases of canned goods, employing about sixty hands. Business kept on increasing until 1886, when, in the latter part of the season, September 19, the cannery was burned. In the spring of 1887 the present company, The Santa Rosa Packing Company, was incorporated, and on June 4th the first brick was laid for the new eannery building, and under Mr. Perry's management was ready to receive and can fruit on the 7th of July, just thirty-three days from the time the first briek was laid. The main building is 80 x 120, of briek, and in 1887 the pack grew to 30,000 eases of goods, employing 300 hands. In 1888 they built a briek warehouse, 80 x 100, as well as a wooden one 80 x 80 feet. The pack in 1888 was nearly 50,000 cases of eanned goods. For this year the pay-roll for labor was about $28,000; $60,000 for fruit, or about $174,000 for all purposes during the season. During the canning season employment was given to about 400 hands. This is one of Santa Rosa's best conducted industries. October 13, 1885, Mr. Perry was married to Miss Margaret Ada Stele, and the result of the union is two children, both daughters. The elder, named after her mother, Margaret Ada, was born July 15, 1886; and Abbie Elenenea was born July 20, 1888; both are natives of Santa Rosa. Mr. Perry has made the eanning of fruits a thorough study, and ean command a high salary for his serviees in that line of business. He is essentially a self-made man, and it is seldom that one so young in years attains to sueh prominence in business. But his lineage runs back to the Webster stock, which has been heard of in this American land.

- AMES COOPER, deceased. -- The subject of this sketch was well known to and is re- membered by the pioneers of Sonoma Val- ley. A man of great energy and possessed of a well directed purpose, he had much to do with the early development of Sonoma and Sonoma

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Valley. Full of faith in the future of this part of California, he feared not to trust his all in the work of its improvement. He was born in Scotland in 1816, and eame to the United States after reaching manhood. He was a ship-carpen- ter by trade, and came in a merchant vessel to this coast in 1845, loeating in the town of So- noma where he became one of the earliest of early English-speaking pioneers of Sonoma County. In the bear flag movement he had part, as well as in the operations following which led to the acquisition of this sunny land by the United States. Ile wedded, at Sonoma, in 1847, Mrs. Sarah Flint, who, with friends, made the long and weary overland journey from the State of Wisconsin in 1845, coming directly to Sonoma County. Mr. and Mrs. Cooper opened and conducted, a few years, the " Blue Wing," the first public house of which Sonoma could boast. The building, quite a pretentious one, still stands, is now owned by John Tivnen, and is still in use. About 1850 Mr. and Mrs. Cooper moved to a splendid landed estate owned by them on the Petaluma road, just across the Sonoma Creek from Sonoma, and consists of 640 acres. They also owned 160 acres adjoin- ing on the southwest, these lands being amnong the choicest in the valley. Commencing while yet all was as nature made it, the work of im- provement was energetically pushed forward until the death of Mr. Cooper, which occurred in September, 1856. He left a widow and five children. All of the latter are yet living. Most of the original estate is yet in the hands of the family. The names of the children in the order of their births are as follows: Thomas S., who, with his brother. John R., is at the old home, and both are ranked among the enterprising successful agricultorists of the valley; Barbara is the wife of George Campbell, of Watsonville, Monterey County; Emma is the wife of James R. McDonald, of Stanislaus County; and Janet resides with her brothers upon the homestead. Mrs. Cooper, after some years of widowhood, married Sydney Harris. Her only child by this marriage is now engaged in the livery business

at Sonoma. Ilis mother died May 10, 1886. James Cooper was by nature a leader among men. Stalwart, energetic, independent and fear- less, he had hosts of friends and few enemies. He was prominent in Masonic circles and was one of the charter members of Temple Lodge, No. 14, Sonoma, and one of its first worthy masters.

TOIIN GOSS was born in London, England, November 5. 1850; when about five years of age he was sent to Carlow, Ireland, where he lived with his grandfather, of the same name, and at the age of ten he came to California with his eonsin, HI. G. Tobin, of Walla Walla, Wash- ington Territory, and took up his residence near Santa Rosa with his mother, and has continued to reside at or near that beautiful city ever since, except while attending school and college at Oakland. He attended the district schools of the neighborhood and with such success that he passed an examination before he became of age, received a first grade certificate and taught sev- eral schools which he had attended as a pupil. In 1868 he entered the College of California, but the death of his step-father obliged him to remit his course for two years, but he entered college again at the State University. where he graduated in 1874, receiving the degree of A. B., and a commission as First Lieutenant in the University Cadets. He then studied law with Ex-Judge Oliver P. Evans in San Francisco, and was admitted to the Supreme Court January 11, 1878. Ilis alma mater then conferred upon him the degree of A. M. He opened a law office in Santa Rosa, but the new field prom- ised in central California invited his ambition and he located in Fresno in 1880. Here he formed a partnership with J. B. Campbell, now superior judge in that county, and the firm of Campbell & Goss did a large and lucrative busi- ness. They were engaged in nearly every im- portant case, both civil and criminal, that was tried there during the two years they were as-

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sociated together. Ihis mother's health, how- ever, becoming seriously impaired, he gave up his large practice in order to give his entire at- tention to his afflicted parent. He returned with her to Santa Rosa in 1882, where she died the following year. Ile then determined to re- main at his old home and resume his position at the bar. In 1888 he was a leading candidate for superior judge to fill the unexpired term of Judge Jackson Temple, but withdrew in favor of Ex-Judge Thomas Rutledge. Ile secured the nomination for the Assembly but was defeated, the district being largely Republican. Mr. Goss is a Democrat in polities, of strong anti- monopoly tendencies, and is prominent in the councils of that party. He is an able and elo- qnent speaker, and has in preparation a work on oratory. Mr. Goss is married, and has an in- teresting family. He holds the office of court commissioner of the Superior Court, which he fills with entire satisfaction to the bar.

AMES HENRY MCGEE was born in Cam- den, Ray County, Missouri, October 10, 1847. He emigrated to California with his parents in the spring of 1852, crossing the plains with ox teams, in common with the large stream of emigration that flooded this State in the early days. Ifis family, upon their arrival, first located in Sacramento, but soon left there for Sonoma, then the county seat of Sonoma County. From there, in 1854, they went to Plumas County, and returned from thence to Santa Rosa Valley in 1856, and, with the ex- ception of occasional temporary absence, have been a resident of said valley ever since. Hle was educated at the high school and seminary of Santa Rosa, and later read law with Latimer & Mccullough of Santa Rosa, being admitted to the bar in 1868. He first practiced at Elko, Nevada, after which he located permanently at Santa Rosa, where he is now engaged in the practice of his profession. During his resi- dence here he has held the office of justice of

the peace, to which position he was several times re-elected, and he has also held the offices of city recorder and city attorney of Santa Rosa. Judge McGee is a leading member of the bar of the State, and is a conspicuous figure in Sonoma County, where he has so long resided and practiced his profession. He has a well balanced and legal mind, and his familiarity with the statutes and codes is well known among the lawyers of the county. He is fond of his profession, is industrions, painstaking, studies his cases well, and has the good-will of his professional brethren. In 1868 he was married to Miss Cerro Gordo McMinn, and is the father of two children: William M., aged twenty years, and Irene, aged twelve years. His father and mother, H. W. and S. A. Mc- Gee, are both living in Lakeport, California.

ILLLAM A. LEWIS. The grandfather of the subject of this sketch. John Lewis, was of Welsh and French ex- traction and a native of the State of Virginia. From there he emigrated to Kentucky where he married and afterward moved to Missouri, reaching St. Louis on the 5th day of January, 1797, settling in a part of the city then called Crauve Car Lake. He was one of the first -- probably the first-American agriculturist that acquired a permanent residence in what is now Missouri. In his family there are seven chil- dren. five sous and two daughters, of whom one, Elizabeth, was a woman of strong intellectual powers, was closely allied to the history of St. Lonis, and by her many deeds of Christian charity, won for herself a warm place in the hearts of the people. She was the second daughter of John Lewis, and was born in Harri- son County, Kentucky, on the 31 day of April, 1794, and was taken to St. Louis, Missouri, by her parents. She was thrice married, the first time immediately after the completion of her thirteenth year to Mr. Gabriel Long, a wealthy merchant and planter of St. Louis, June 25,

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1807; to Rev. Alexander MeAlister, a talented and much respected elergyman of St. Louis, on the 30th of April, 1823, and to A. R. C'or- bin, Esq., of New York (then a resident of St. Louis and the editor and proprietor of the St. Louis Argus, the organ at that time in that city of the old Jackson party), June 11, 1835. Her last husband, with whom she lived more than thirty-three years, was afterward married to a sister of General U. S. Grant. Her death oc- curred at the residence of her husband, in the city of New York, on the 9th of July, 1868, in the seventy-fifth year of her age. Her end was painless and happy; she was surrounded by her husband and daughters, by many grand- children, several great-grandchildren and by sons-in-law and grand-sons-in-law. Thus sur- rounded and supplied with every comfort and with every alleviation of suffering which affee- tion and affluence could command, this early emigrant to St. Louis, this pious Christian, this accomplished lady, this most loving wife and mother passed to that blissful abode provided by Infinite Goodness for the good of all nations and of every degree. Sallie, another daughter of John Lewis, became the wife of Colonel Daniel M. Boone, son of the famous Colonel Daniel Boone, the old pioneer and hunter of Kentucky. She lived to the age of nearly seventy years, and was the mother of a large family, some few of whom are now living. One of the sons of John Lewis was also named John, and was four years old when his parents moved to Missouri, having been born in Kentucky in 1793. He grew to manhood in St. Louis, and there married Naney M. Curry, also a native of Kentucky. He was a farmer by oceupation and spent the most of his life in St. Louis County, where he died in 1848. In his family there were ten children, six sons and four daughters, of whom all lived to be grown. Those of the family now living are Mrs. Dr. J. M. Bowles, of Santa Rosa; Mrs. Sallie Johnson, of Napa City; Fannie, now Mrs. Dr. Edward Weldon, of San Francisco; Samuel Fletcher Lewis, of San Diego County, and the subject of this sketch.

William A. Lewis was born in St. Louis, Mis- sonri, May 1, 1830. Like the majority of the boys at that time he was reared and grew to manhood on his father's farm. In 1852 he crossed the plains with his uncle, Lindsey Lewis, and his family, their party comprising seven wagons. After a journey of seven months they landed in Marysville, Yuba County, California, where he spent a part of that winter. In the spring of 1853, as soon as the snow was off the mountains so that they could be traveled, he erossed over to the east side and there met a party of emigrants on their way to this State, and purchased of them a lot of their horses and cattle, which he brought into Sonoma County, arriving here in October of the same year. From that time to the present Mr. Lewis has made this his home. With a part of the stock of cattle he brought with him, he went over on the Borjorques ranch, buying a portion of that grant and taking up some government land adjoining it. Ile there established his fine dairy farm, which for its desirable location, the quality of the soil and the extensive im- provements, together with the systematie man- agement of the raneh, makes it one of the largest and finest dairy farms in this section of California. The ranch consists of nearly 2,000 acres, a part of which, including the residence, is in Marin County. Here Mr. Lewis resided until 1880, when he moved into Petaluma and took up his residence here, but he is still man- aging and giving the raneh his personal atten- tion. He was married in St. Louis, Missouri, February 4, 1868, to Mary Louise, daughter of Dr. James II. Hall, now of Petaluma, Califor- nia. They have five children, three daughters and two sons: Nannie M., Hall, Lillian, Edith and William.

ILLIAM LONGMORE, county assess- or of Sonoma County, was elected to the office in 1886 for four years. Pre- vious to his election he had served six years as

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deputy county assessor, from 1580. He came to Sonoma County twenty years ago, tirst settled in Bodega Township, where he lived twelve years, then moved to Analy Township, lived there six years, and upon being elected to the office he now holds, he located in Santa Rosa. During these years farming and dairying has been his active business. Mr. Longmore was born in the north of Ireland thirty-seven years ago. He crossed the Atlantic when sixteen years of age, coming via the Isthmus of Panama to California. His father's relations being in America, he from early boyhood, determined to make this his home, and at the early age above stated, in company with an elder brother and two elder sisters, came to this country. One of the sisters has sinee died. Four years later his youngest brother and a sister came over. The former has since died, leaving one brother and two sisters still living in this State, the sisters in San Francisco and the brother in Solano County. The parents of the subject of this sketch were both descended from Scoteh ances- try, but were born in Ireland. His father died in his native country in 1872. and his mother and one brother and sister still live there. Mr. Longmore is what might be termed a self-edu- cated inan, having attended school only one year. He was deputy assessor under G. W. Lewis, for the townships of Analy, Bodega, Ocean and Salt Point. He was elected assessor on the Demo- cratic ticket by a large majority of 797 votes, over N. King, Republican, the Democratic ma- jority that year being only sixty-eight votes. His majorities were much higher in the townships where he had served as deputy assessor. Mr. Longmore married, in 1875, Miss Nannie Watson, a native of California, born in 1853, just after her parents erossed the State line, en route here. Her father, James Watson, came across the plains in 1849, and raised the first crop of potatoes of any magnitude planted in this county, on what was called Jasper O'Far- rell's ranch, in the Freestone Valley. He re- turned to Illinois in the fall of 1850, remained there until the spring of 1853, sold his farm

there, and brought his family across the plains that summer. He now lives in Green Valley, where he owns 500 aeres. Mr. and Mrs. Long- more have had five children, four daughters and one son, the latter deceased.

ALTER S. DAVIS, real estate broker and insurance agent, has been in the business six years. He first started in 1881, and is the special agent for the Impe- rial Fire Insurance Company and the Lion Fire Insurance Company of London, England, the Ori- ent Fire Insurance Company and the National Fire Insurance Company of Hartford. Conneeti- ent. He represents George D. Dornin of San Francisco, general manager of the above named companies for the Pacific coast, and who does the largest California business of any general agency in that city. These companies repre- sent a capital of abont $18,000.000. Mr. Davis owns considerable real estate, consisting of some choice city property and sixteen acres just outside the city limits, on the west. He looks after his own property, that of his father, and does a general brokerage business in prop- erty, as well as loaning money. etc. His office is in the Sonoma Abstract Burean. From 1884 to 1886 Mr. Davis was deputy county recorder. In 1884 he was elected city treasurer of Santa Rosa, and was re-elected, serving four years. Mr. Davis' father, Josias Davis, is a native of Virginia. He went to Ohio when a young man, married an Ohio lady, a Miss Lansdale, and settled in Champaign County. There the subject of this sketch was born in February, 1857. Mr. Davis was for many years engaged in merchandising in that place, nntil failing health induced him to seek outdoor life, and he bought and conducted a large farm in that county. Wishing to improve his health, he came to California in 1870, and spent a few months in Humboldt County, then came to Sonoma County, where he has since resided. He is now sixty-eight years old, and has been

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an invalid for over thirty years. Three sons compose their family, of whom Walter is the youngest. Preston R. is the county surveyor of Sonoma county, and Charles N. is a farmer in Humboldt County. The parents reside in Santa Rosa. Josias Davis is largely interested in real estate, mostly improved. Ile laid off Davis' Addition in 1871 or '72, comprising six- teen acres, situated on both sides of College avenne, and west of Mendocino street, nearly all of which has been sold and built up.

ANIEL R. STEWART .- This business house, a grocery, provision and fruit store, situated on Western avenue, between Maine and Kentucky streets, was first started by A. F. Killam in June, 1882. It was first started as a fruit store, and from that a stoek of groceries was added and the business increased. After conducting it two years and a-half, Mr. Killam sold half his interest to James A. Tat- terson, and the firm name became A. F. Killam & Co. These gentlemen continued together about a year, when Mr. Killam bought out Tat- terson's interest, and a month later Daniel R. Stewart came into the business, taking a half interest, and the name changed to Killamn & Stewart. This partnership lasted about a year, when Mr. Stewart purchased the interest of his partner, and since October 12, 1887, has conducted the business under the present management. Mr. Stewart, a young man of fine business qualities, is well and favorably known in this community from his boyhood up. He was born in this county February 21, 1865, a son of David Stewart (whose sketch appears in this work). His early days were spent on his father's farm in Vallejo Township, and his edu- cation received at the public schools of Petaluma. He graduated in the high school June 8, 1883, and shortly after entered Heald's Business Col- lege of San Francisco, where he graduated in October of the same year. After spending a few monthis at home he again went to San Francisco 37

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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 89

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