USA > California > Contra Costa County > History of Contra Costa County, California; with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 41
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enabled to draw up one wagon at a time. All the wagons and the sick and convalescent were safely landed on the summit by sunset. There was a joyful company around the camp fire that night. They had surmounted the great barrier and anticipated an easy down grade. Their joy was well founded, as was proven by the fate of the Donner train, but a few days behind them, which was caught in a snow-storm and most of them perished.
In all this long journey from St. Joseph on the Missouri River to the Pacific shores, there was not a bridge or a ferry for the crossing of any stream.
The emigrants traveled on and camped on the spot where Sacramento City stands, only a rancheria then. About one mile and a half up the American River stood Sutter's Fort, and from there they procured fresh beef and flour. Fresh meat and bread were highly appreciated, for these had long been desired.
Mr. Brown concluded, after a few days' rest, to go to Santa Clara, but feared that his teams would not be able to take his wagons, for many of his oxen had fallen by the way. He made arrangements with Captain Sutter to take one of his wagons on a boat to Yerba Buena, as he supposed that place to be close to Santa Clara. The only house between Sutter's and San Jose Mission was one in Livermore Valley. Mr. Brown spent one week in San Jose Mission, and then went to Santa Clara, where all the families south of the Bay had assembled for safety, for it had become manifest that the country was hostile. When he arrived at Santa Clara he found thirty families, with only about fifteen men to protect them, the others having gone to join Captain Fremont.
Mr. Brown went into the San Antonio redwoods, where there was plenty of hard work, and spent the summer of 1847 in whip-sawing lumber. He hauled his lumber to San Antonio Creek, and boated it over to San Francisco. During that time he was making every effort to find a farm that he could purchase. The Californians were bound by a pledge not to sell, or even give any information in relation to the lands. They said, "If we can't fight these heathens out, we can starve them; for we can keep them from a permanent settlement here." In the fall he learned that Leidsdorff, a trader in San Francisco, had a ranch for sale, that he had secured from Vallencia, a Spaniard. Mr. Brown purchased the ranch and 300 cows that Liedsdorff had bought of Vasques, of Half Moon Bay. He built a strong corral on the ranch and engaged an American and his vaqueros to bring the cattle up to the ranch. The cattle were herded through the day and corralled at night for a few months, after which they gave no further trouble. They increased rapidly and were good beef at all seasons of the year.
But there was something more to look to than the raising of stock. There was no government except the military authority, vested in Colonel Mason, and he manifested much delicacy in using that authority. The confusion of national affairs, caused by the close contest in Congress on
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the slavery question, one party opposing and the other favoring its ex- tension, prevented any action by that body towards a law for organizing a territorial or state government. Colonel Riley, who superseded Mason in 1848, issued a proclamation for the people to hold an election to elect delegates to a Convention. What a relief to those who had lived in the country for some time without any courts or legal tribunals and govern- ment. Hope revived in those who fully realized the condition of things.
The Convention, which consisted of thirty-seven members, convened and organized in Monterey on the first day of September, 1849. The members were mostly immigrants from almost every State in the union, with many of the preferences and prejudices of those days. Yet sound sense prevailed. Mr. Brown was a member of the Convention that framed the State Constitution, and also of the first two legislatures after its adoption. He often attended mass meetings, but was never a delegate to a political convention. He was always free to speak his mind, and allowed others the same privilege. He said: "Amid all the various surroundings and positions through life I have never struck or been struck, never run for or from man or boy. I have had but few lawsuits or con- tentions. I have never bet a cent on a race or cards, and have never dealt in stock. I was never intoxicated by liquor although I was raised in a tavern, but I have never dealt in the article since. I have never cheated a man, knowingly, out of a dollar, but the reverse has occasionally occurred. I do not intend this as a boast but as an acknowledgment of the blessing bestowed on me through a long life, by my good and benevo- lent Creator. Discouragements have seldom crossed my path. But allow me to relate one instance. While on guard one cold, rainy night in Santa Clara, during that memorable week of the siege, expecting every moment that the Spaniards would charge in from the north or south-and to make the surroundings more gloomy, the Mission Indians were howling over a dead comrade, and as many dogs as Indians were engaged in the howling-amid all that there came into my mind this thought: I had committed an error that had involved my children as well as myself. I had brought them from a good home and a land of safety; had left a sick son at Fort Bridger, doubting his recovery; had a son and daughter in the Mission, likely to be butchered by the Spaniards. The fate of Travis and Fanning came fresh in my mind; for half an hour or more I was a homesick man strolling up and down the muddy streets of Santa Clara. Sound reason and resolution came to my assistance and I became my own man again. I have been blessed with buoyant spirits and a strong resolution. These properties have added much to my comfort of mind and success in business."
Died at Lafayette, Contra Costa County, California, August 10, 1889, age ninety-two years. 13
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JUAN B. ALVARADO .- Among the best known men of the Spanish period in Alta California, the name of Juan B. Alvarado will ever stand out prominently for his recognized ability and public spirit. He was honored as a patriot and statesman throughout his long career, and was chosen governor and served from 1836 to 1843. A native of California, he was born at Monterey in 1809, of pure Castilian blood, and was care- fully reared by his mother and early in life displayed a taste for learning and culture. He was a man of great natural talent and these striking qualities attracted the attention of Governor Sola, who assisted him with his studies in acquiring a knowledge of political and military science. Notwithstanding this aid he was compelled to depend on himself to a great extent and was what would be called a self-made and -educated man. He was very broadminded and was a great reader. It is stated that he was excommunicated by the priests for reading Fenelon's Tele- maque. He entered political life as a young man and became secretary of the Territorial Deputation or California Legislature, and from that time down to the American occupation he held some kind of office.
In 1836 Juan B. Alvarado raised the standard of independence and proclaimed the Free and Sovereign State of Alta California in opposition to what was then known as the existing Centralist Government of Mexico. By this act and the ability displayed by him in encouraging the revolution, and the success with which he carried it through, he was often called "The Napoleon of California," which was evidently far from his am- bition. He was a great student of the life of George Washington and it is more than likely he wished to emulate his example more than anything else. There were difficulties enough for him to overcome as head of the revolutionary movement and he had to meet and overcome a rival gover- nor in the person of his uncle Don Carlos Carillo, of Santa Barbara, whom he made prisoner in his own house and later aided in escaping. In 1838 the government of Mexico recognized Alvarado as Governor intercino, and in 1839 appointed him governor proprietario, or Consti- tutional Governor of the Californias, both lower and upper California. which office he held until the accession of Micheltorena, in January, 1843. Alvarado was a sort of autocrat but it was never known that he was ever actuated by motives other than those which he conscientiously be- lieved to be for the good of the country and the trust reposed in his hands. From 1843 to the American occupation he served a portion of the time as collector of customs at Monterey; and for a part of the time in military service as colonel of the militia of the department known as Defensores de la Patria, Defenders of the Country.
In 1845, when Governor Micheltorena was expelled, Alvarado made an able and successful military campaign, during which he and Gen. Jose Castro made a successful march, famous among Californians of those days, but about the only active service he ever saw. When the Amer-
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icans raised the Stars and Stripes in 1846 he was far-seeing enough to know the struggle against them would be futile and he took no active part in the events which succeeded.
In 1839 Juan B. Alvarado married Dona Martina Castro, daughter of Don Francisco Maria Castro, of San Pablo and he lived there with his family in the old adobe house until his death on July 13, 1882. His wife died in 1875, aged sixty-five years. He was survived by three sons and two daughters : John C., an attorney of San Francisco for years, died in 1907 in London, England, at the time he was connected with the Anglo-Mexican Mining Co .; Maria Victoria Delphina Carrick, died in Berkeley in 1893; Augustus F., died in New Mexico in 1891 ; Henry V., who is mentioned on another page in this history; and Adelina Tedford, resided in Chicago for years. In the history of California, as time rolls on, the things which Alvarado stood for and the things which he did, the measures which he advocated and the laws which he passed, his official as well as his private life will shine forth with increasing bright- ness and will constitute an instructive and interesting chapter.
HENRY FULLER BEEDE .- A man of strict integrity and sterling worth, who is held in high esteem throughout the community in which he has lived since 1868, and has filled all of his obligations as an enterprising citizen and genial neighbor, is Henry Fuller Beede, of Antioch, who has proved in many ways a helpful factor in local affairs. A native of Maine, ·he was born at Farmington, Franklin County, on November 16, 1850, and represents the fifth generation of the family in America. According to a record book kept by Thomas Beede, grandfather of our subject, the pro- genitor of the family was Eli Beede, who came from the French Island of Jersey in 1705, when a lad of fourteen years, his object being to gratify his curiosity and to verify the many stories he had heard of the New World. His father had been lost at sea and his widowed mother did not want to trust her son to the dangers of an ocean voyage, but his entreaties won her consent and soon an opportunity came that looked favorable. A ship was about to sail for Boston, commanded by his father's brother, and as this captain was considered a suitable person to be given charge of the lad, arrangements were made for his passage. The mother expected that in a few months she would see her son again, but this was their final parting, for he never went back. On the voyage the lad was so seasick that he then declared he never would undertake another sea voyage. It then became the duty of his uncle to make satisfactory arrangements for the lad to remain in Boston. This was a hard task, for the lad could speak nothing but French; and in this unhappy condition he left him. Eli Beede did not long remain in Boston, for he was put out to a man named Shaw, a farmer in the town of Hampton; and hence he grew up to the age of twenty-one on the farm, after which he selected farming as his life work and settled down at Kingston, N. H. He married a Miss Sleeper, and
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they had four sons and two daughters, all of whom, except one daughter, became the parents of large families, and all lived to ripe old ages.
Eli Beede, although holding the ease and pleasantry of the French, was naturally of a morose temper and was stern with his family. He was considered, however, to be an honest man, a good neighbor and a sincere Christian. His education was limited but he could read the Bible and cipher enough to keep his accounts, and even with this handicap he accu- mulated a large estate in the town of Kingston. By strict adherence to right living in every way, he was physically able to control his own affairs until just a few months prior to his death, which occurred in 1782, at ninety-one years of age. His religious tendencies in later life leaned towards the Friends, but he never joined their society and was a member of the Congregational Church in Kingston. Thomas Beede states that he was present at the funeral, which was largely attended, the sermon being preached by Rev. Dr. Shepard, of Brentwood, on the doctrine of the resurrection as taught by St. Paul in the 15th Chapter of I Corinthians. The sermon seemed to be well received by all except the Friends, who had other views on that subject. He was buried near Rev. Doctor Thayer's meeting-house, and his grave was left, according to the custom of the Friends, without any mark or monument. One circumstance in the story of his life is considered very singular, and that is that he never received a letter from, nor wrote a letter to, his mother or any members of the family from the time he sailed from his home shores.
Those following Eli Beede in line of descent were Thomas Beede; an- other Thomas Beede, an excellent scholar, writer, mathematician, drafts -. man and eloquent speaker. He was a fellow student with the noted Rev. Doctor Channing, the great Unitarian minister, and had in his possession many letters from that Divine. He served as a member of the board of Dartmouth College for many years and was a Grand Secretary of the Masonic order in New Hampshire. A third Thomas, born in New Hamp- shire, owned and operated a stage line between Farmington and Portland, Maine. He came to California via the Isthmus of Panama in early days, ran a livery stable in Stockton from 1851 to 1853, then went back to Maine and thence to Kankakee, Ill., and then back to California, where he and his wife died at Antioch.
This brings us down to Henry Fuller Beede, the fifth in line of descent from Eli Beede. He came to California when he was eighteen years old. His father was Thomas and his mother was Lucia Sarah (Merrill) Beede, born in New Hampshire and Maine, respectively. From the age of five years Henry Fuller Beede lived in Illinois, where he secured his education in the schools of that period. Upon coming to Antioch, Cal., in 1868, he worked for his brother, George, a merchant in this city at that time; and when he was twenty-one he found employment with Galloway and Boobar, lumber merchants in Antioch and the originators of the present concern known as the Antioch Lumber Company, of which Mr. Beede is now the president and manager. In 1877 Mr. Galloway retired and the business
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was carried on under the title of Rouse, Ferman & Beede, continuing thus until Mr. Rouse sold part of his interest to Capt. Asa Simpson, of San Francisco, and the firm name was changed to the Antioch Lumber Com- pany. Mr. Beede is the only one of the original stockholders in the cor- poration, which is capitalized for $100,000. The concern does a general lumber and jobbing business, having a well-equipped planing mill in con- nection with the plant, where all kinds of building material are finished and delivered to the trade. This establishment is one of the oldest mer- cantile firms in Antioch, and has seen a gradual growth from a small con- cern to its present proportions under the ever-watchful eye of Mr. Beede, who has given his time and attention to the business. Besides being president and manager of the Antioch Lumber Company, Mr. Beede is president of the Bank of Antioch, which also owns the Bank of Brentwood, with aggregate deposits of over $1,000,000. He was one of the founders and is a trustee of the Congregational Church in Antioch, and in every way has been a leading factor in the building-up of this city and county.
The marriage of Henry Fuller Beede and Margaret Ellen McNulty, daughter of J. J. McNulty, took place on April 14, 1872. The McNulty's came to California in the mining days and settled at Columbia, Tuolumne County, later moving to Contra Costa County, where J. J. McNulty was justice of the peace for many years. Margaret Ellen taught school at Nortonville, and her marriage occurred at the age of nineteen. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Beede resulted in the birth of eleven children : Harry McNulty, born April 13, 1873 (see his sketch) ; Charles Frank Tyler, born October 15, 1874, who married Edith Little, a native of England and became the parent of four children: Nancy Belle, Charles Austin, Frank McNulty, and Olive; Mary Lucia, who married E. P. Rapp, deceased July 10, 1916; Ralph Merrill, born January 14, 1879 (see his sketch) ; Olive, who married Roy V. Davis, cashier of the Bank of Antioch (see his sketch), and became the mother of two children: Mar- garet Olive, the wife of Ole Berg, of Oakland, and William K .; LeRoy Wemple, born January 21, 1883, who married Winnifred Bassett, a native of California and has three children: Carrol, Winnifred and Margaret Ann; Nellie Geraldine, who married W. J. Kelley, and has two children, Patricia and Gerald, and resides in San Francisco; Arthur Chamberlain, born September 13, 1885, deceased September 2, 1891 ; Ramona Bell, wife of J. E. Cortner, of Oakland, and mother of two children: Jacob and Jane Ellen; Frank R., born April 30, 1897 (see his sketch) ; and one daughter who died at the age of six months.
Henry Fuller Beede served as a member of the board of trustees of Antioch for many years; and also served on the Republican County Central Committee for Contra Costa County. He was president of the Eastern Contra Costa Promotion Club, and with Hon. J. P. Abbott was largely responsible for the building of the Santa Fe Railway through Contra Costa County into Antioch. They were the owners of the water
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front property and for a nominal sum deeded over sites for warehouse, depot and right of way. He is a stockholder in the Robert Dollar Steam- ship Company in San Francisco. Fraternally, Mr. Beede is a Mason, be- ing a Past Master of Antioch Lodge No. 175, F. & A. M .; a member of Antioch Chapter No. 65, R. A. M .; and also a member of the Eastern Star. Mr. Beede has tried to so regulate his life that his example will be worthy of emulation by his descendants; and he has worked for all projects that had for their end the greatest good for the greatest number of people. It is to such men as he that Contra Costa County owes a debt of gratitude.
(Since the above was written, Mr. Beede passed away, on April 13, 1926, mourned by his family and a wide circle of friends. )
COLBURN JOHNSON PRESTON .- A successful pioneer rancher of the Point of Timber section of Contra Costa County and one who always willingly did his full share towards the upbuilding of his section of the county was the late Colburn Johnson Preston, who passed away on March 17, 1925. He was a man of enterprise and keen foresight and was looked upon as one of the leaders in the development of eastern Contra Costa County. He was born in Bradford County, Pa., on July 16, 1837. attended the common schools of his home locality and grew up on a farm. In 1864 he came West, crossing the Isthmus, and found employment on a ranch in Nevada. In the fall of that same year he came to California, and in 1865 located in Point of Timber and developed a ranch home. At that time there was not a house between his place and Antioch and the country was in an almost primitive condition. He worked hard and was granted a satisfactory degree of prosperity so that he was able to retire in 1904. He lived in Berkeley, Stockton and Antioch and finally moved to Brentwood.
Mr. Preston was united in marriage in October, 1859, with Melissa Woodard, also a native of Pennsylvania, and they had seven children : Francis M., born January 23, 1861, married Ida Burress of Bay Point and had two children, Marion and Lloyd; Eva Sarah, born October 23, 1869, married Frank M. May and their children are Marjorie and Evelyn; Rosa May, born February 13, 1872, married George G. Daunt of Petaluma and they have a daughter, Dorothea; Ida, born November 20, 1873, married William H. Engle of Oakland; Jennie, born November 10, 1875, passed away on September 8, 1902; Bertha Ann, born March, 1879, married Leslie V. Richardson and had two children, Reginald, now deceased, and Gwendolyn ; Mott C., born July 16, 1882, married Winifred Shafer and is mentioned on another page of this history. Mrs. Melissa Preston died February 1, 1917. Mr. Preston was one of the first men to grow alfalfa in this section of the county; and in 1867 he harvested all the grain on the West Side from Bay Point to Visalia. His political views were Republican and he served as a school trustee of the Excelsior and the Liberty Union High School districts.
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HENRY BASCOM REED .- Numbered among the pioneers of Cal- ifornia who braved unknown dangers and many hardships to lay firm the foundation of our commonwealth, was Henry Bascom Reed, who came to Antioch, Contra Costa County, in 1869. Some of his descendants are still living in this county. He was born on May 20, 1828, at Kanawha Saline, Va., and at the age of fourteen accompanied his parents to Iowa, then a frontier State, and settled on the west bank of the Mississippi River. Black Hawk, the Indian war chief, was located on the reservation of Samuel Reed, father of H. B. Reed. Both parents died in Iowa.
H. B. Reed went back to Virginia and in 1851 came from that State to California with a saddle cavalcade. There were five Reed brothers and each had two saddle horses, and side arms for each member of the cavalcade. Besides, they carried their provisions, equipment and muni- tions in two wagons drawn by mules with negro drivers. These drivers were family slaves. They left Virginia in the spring of 1851 and arrived at Marysville, Cal., that same fall, with money and provisions all gone. The brothers sold their equipment, except the mules; and these they used as pack animals and freighted supplies to the mines in Sierra County, car- rying on the business until the fall of 1853. That fall they embarked in the lumbering and logging business on the American River near what is now the site of Folsom. They got out some 2,000,000 feet of lumber, when a storm and cloudburst wiped out their entire mill and product. The eldest brother then remarked, "The devil take the hindmost," and they then separated. Henry Bascom, with Fred, who was later the first train dispatcher on the Union Pacific out of Council Bluffs and Wilber, went into Sierra County and began mining and prospecting, and were fairly successful.
Henry B. Reed had made enough so that he felt safe in returning to Virginia to marry the girl of his choice; so he went to San Francisco and took passage on the Yankee Blade for the East. The vessel was wrecked off the Santa Barbara coast, and he and some of the passengers were res- cued from a watery grave by the Goliath and returned to San Francisco. He again found himself almost broke and back in California. With what money he had he bought a saddle and bridle in San Francisco and got a rowboat to take him across the bay to Peralta (now Oakland), where he bought a horse and went by way of San Pablo and Antioch across the San Joaquin River and through Stockton and Sacramento to Marysville, to join his relatives who were located there. Here he entered an appren- ticeship to learn the trade of the harnessmaker, and when he had mastered it he went to Vacaville and engaged in the business for himself. While there he met and married Mrs. Katherine (Brezee ) Wightman, widow of Oscar Wightman. She had one son, Joel David Wightman. Katherine Brezee was born in Dover, Delaware County, N. Y., on December 14, 1832, and when a small child was taken to Lockport, Ill., and there grew up and married Mr. Wightman. In 1852 the Wightmans crossed the plains in a covered wagon, and Joel D. was born at Council Bluffs, Iowa.
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This incident delayed the party and prevented them from getting to Cali- fornia that year, but they arrived in San Jose in October, 1853. In the Santa Clara Valley they farmed till 1857, when they settled in Vacaville, and there Mr. Wightman died in 1858. The following year Mrs. Wight- man married H. B. Reed, who had established himself as a harnessmaker in Vacaville. They had four children. Frank Putney Reed was born in Sierra County on March 11, 1861, and now lives in Antioch. G. C. Reed, born in Carson City, Nev., on October 3, 1862, married Miss Alice Davidson, a member of a pioneer family of Antioch, and died leaving three children: Arthur, of Sacramento; Inez, who died aged twenty-seven; and Alice Evelyn, Mrs. R. L. Stevens, of San Francisco. Jessie Maria married Frank George, and both are now deceased. Katie Brezee died at the age of eighteen months. They also reared a girl, Mollie Nichol- son, from the age of three months until her marriage to E. P. Spangler, of San Francisco.
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