USA > California > Merced County > History of Merced County, California with biographical sketches of prominent citizens > Part 29
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He filled the position of Alcalde in that town while the county was under the old Spanish law.
He moved to the Tuolumne River in September, 1852, bought out the ferry and built a fine hotel and boat which he kept for many years. After selling out this property he built a fine residence on the south side of the Tuolumne River, Stanislaus County, where he lived and reared his family.
In the fall of 1867, his children having all married off, and the honse seeming so lonely for him and his wife, he sold out and they made their home with their daughter Mrs. N. B. Stoneroad, in Merced County, until his death, which occurred while on a visit to Snelling on October 25, 1869. His wife survived him eight years, when she died at her daughter's, Mrs. M. E. Lawrey, in the city of San Jose, on the fourteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord, 1877.
FIRST MARRIAGE IN STOCKTON.
This Mrs. Lawrey was the first white lady married in Stock-
*Described in Elliott & Moore's History of Monterey County.
ton, and Mrs. N. B. Stoneroad was the second white lady mar- ricd in that town. They are both sisters of Mr. George Win- chester Dickenson.
G. D. Dickenson was converted and was a member of the Methodist Church South for forty years before his death. His house was the home of all traveling ministers. His hand was open to the poor and needy. He was first in the church, first in sickness, and first in the hearts of his family and friends.
GEORGE WINCHESTER DICKENSON.
G. W. Dickenson is a pioneer of 1846, and arrived in Santa Clara County with his father, G. D. Dickeuson, on November 6, 1846. The subject of this sketch was born in Jackson County, Missouri, and came with the family overland by the Donner Lake route. In 1847 they lived in Monterey County. In 1848, at Mokelumne Hill, and 1858 located in Merced County and engaged in stock-raising.
CHESTER, OR DICKENSON'S FERRY.
His farm of 800 acres is located at a place called Chester, but better known as Dickenson's Ferry, on the San Joaquin River. Here he has a convenient hotel, situated on the county road from Merced to Gilroy, via Los Baños. Here is also the post-office for the surrounding country. There is a tri-weekly mail. The stage leaves Merced for Los Baños and Gilroy, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, and returns from Los Baños, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Chester is eighteen quiles from Merced. A view of the Ferry and surroundings is given elsewhere. The farm is devoted mostly to stock-raising. He keeps cattle, borses and hogs.
He married Miss Mary Ann Brooks, a native of Illinois, in 1867. Their children's names are Archie, George W., Henry, Isabelle and Mary Dickenson.
JOB WHEAT.
Among those who came into the county before it was an agricultural one, was Mr. Job Wheat, a native of Courtland County, New York, which place he left March 19, 1873. He came " around the Horn" in 195 days and saw rather rough times, landing in San Francisco in August. He started imme- diately for the mining region of Mariposa County, where bis search for gold was not very successful, and at the end of a year, in 1874, came to Merced County and engaged in farming and stock-raising on a ranch of 280 acres, three miles from Merced. It is of a black, heavy soil, and the yield of wheat is twenty bushels per acre, and of barley fifty bushels. He keeps about twenty horses, besides a number of cattle and hogs.
In 1869 he married Mary C. Bush, a native of Canada. They have children named Nellie, Fronie, William, Joanna, Rosie, Irving and Leona Wheat.
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HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY.
WILD CATTLE OF THE PLAINS.
When Mr. Wheat first settled in Merced County, large herds of cattle roamed about at will over the plains, and were gathered together at rodeos described elsewhere. Their nearest neighbor was on the Merced River, somo fifteen miles distant. The second family was at Montgomery's Grove. This was the conditioo of the plains until the advent of the railroad, which came near Mr. Wheat's farm. Large bands of sheep were herded and roamed over the plains, and at one time Mr. Wheat had a band of 7,000, but as agriculture began to receive attention, stock-raising was ahaudoned, aud in 1878 Mr. Wheat went out of the sheep business. He was Couuty Assessor from 1862 to 1864.
JOHN O'DONNELL.
J. O'Donnell is another of the few old pioneers left among us. They are scattered over the country, or else have passed to that great undiscovered bourne to which those who are left are hastening. He came across the plains in 1849, and was seven months in making the trip. He left Dubuque, Iowa, aud landed, October 7, 1849, at Lawson's Ranch, on the Sacramento River, after an uneventful journey.
Like the pioneer of '49, he repaired to the mines at once after arrival. For five or six years he followed that business in Nevada and Sierra Counties with very good success. He was one among the first residents of Nevada City. He afterwards lived in Downicville.
He came to Merced in 1875, and engaged in farming. His ranch is 920 acres, very favorably situated, heing only three and one-half miles from the county seat and railroad facilities. A school is only one mile distant. The farm is first-class creek land, producing good crops annually of wheat and harley. Of the latter it will average thirty bushels to the acre, and of wheat twenty bushels. He has a fair orchard of assorted fruit trees and a garden for family use. His two-story residence is surrounded with trees and enclosed by a picket fence. Other substantial fences enclose the immediate surroundings of the house and the outbuildings. As the farm is devoted to grain but little stock is kept except for farm use, but some twenty- five mules and a few horses are required to do the plougbing and harvesting.
Mr. O'Donnell is one of the successful farmers of Merced, and by judicious management makes farming pay every year.
He married Miss Elizabeth Long in 1848, who was a native of Wayne County, Ohio. They bave one boy, William . Thomas O'Donnell, and three girls named Margaret, Mary, and Lizzie O'Donnell.
ADAM KAHL,
Looking through the illustrations of the County History, we cannot fail to observe the large view representing the house of Mr. Adam Kahl, situated on Mariposa Creek, Merced County.
The farm belonging to Mr. Kahl embraces 2,000 acres of fine sediment land, well watered by tho Mariposa Creek, and dotted with groves of bushes. A ride of ten miles will bring the visitor to the county seat, a walk of one mile to the church or school, and one of three and one-half miles to the railroad.
Mr. Kahl is the son of Jacob and Catherine Kahl. He was born September 6, 1825, in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, where he remained during his carly youth to attend school and do some farming under his father's directions. Later on he resided in Richland County, Ohio, and then in Carroll County, Indiana. There he first had the idea of going to California. He did not hesitate long, but left Carroll County, near Delphi, Illinois, in 1849, and going down the Wabash River to the Mississippi, he took passage on a steamer for New Orleans, and there embarking on a sailing vessel, he left for Chagres on the Isthmus, where he landed.
After packing his blankets across the Isthmus to Panama, he embarked again on the bark Alyoma for San Francisco where he arrived June 20, 1850, making the whole trip in eighty-one days.
He mined for four years on Butte Flat, Mokelumne Hill and River, with fair success. Then getting desirous to see his old home again he, in 1855, returned to the East, visiting his parents with whom he stayed during the winter. Then he visited Iowa, and two years later went to Pettiss County, Mis- souri, where his heart was captivated.
He married Miss Lydia A. Spangenberg, a native of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, daughter of G. Spangenberg, July 4, 1858. He stayed East two years longer, but could not resist the attractions of California.
This time he made the trip by ox-team across the continent. taking the northern route through Utah, and by way of Car- son, over the summit to Calaveras County, Big Trees, and arrived at Snelling, Merced County, in October, 1859. He afterwards moved to Pajaro Valley, Monterey Couuty, and finally in December, 1860, to his present home.
Mr. Kahl has five children living. Their names are: Ernest D., Maud Alice, George A., Charles W., and Arthur S. Kahl. Peter O., another child of Mr. Kuhl, died November, 1864 aged one year and ten months.
FARMING TEN YEARS AGO.
We copy the following notice of his farm, written in 1871: " Adam Kahl bas some two thousand acres of first-class Mari- posa Creek land, in a higb state of cultivation, aud has just completed a splendid brick structure for a residence. The farm we consider a model one, provided with large, well- stored barns, granaries, good fences, wells, wind-mills, etc., and well stocked with cattle, horses, hogs, and poultry, In fact, we believe that Mr. Kahl can show as fino specimens of the genus horse as any ono in the entire valley.
"He is an old settler in that portion of the county, and has
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PIONEERS OF MERCED COUNTY.
thoroughly tested the capabilities of the soil for the production of cereals, by farming his lands throughout a series of years; and the investment for the erection of such substantial and costly buildings will not fail to give confidence to many doubt- ing ones, who have just come into the country."
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The Argus of 1876 says about the fruit raised on Mr. Kahl's place, that the specimens of figs and pomegranates, sent them by Mrs. Adam Kahl, prove conclusively that these delicious fruits can be raised to perfection in this part of the valley; and as fig and pomegranate trees require but little more : attention to raise them than any of the hardier fruit trees of tbe temperate zones in this climate, they can no doubt be cultivated upon an extensive scale, profitably. These fruits will bear shipment to any part of the world, as they always command' good prices, and are considered staple commodities in all markets.
Mr. Kahl has always been active in all organizations for the benefit of the farmers, and has taken a lively interest in all their deliberations, as well as in all organizations calculated to benefit his fellow-citizens and to advance the interest of his neighborhood and county.
JOHN C. SMITH.
John C. Smith, proprietor of the "Cosmopolitan," is a pioneer of the State. He was boru in Cincinnati, Ohio, and there as a mere child acquired the principles and habits of life and business that have always governed him, and caused him to rise against repeated adverse fortune, to the position be occu- pies to-day.
He started for California via Panama in the spring of 1850, arriving in San Francisco in July of that year. Began mining on the American River near Murderer's Bar, bimself and partner dividing $6,000 profits at the end of three months. He then resumed his business of bar-keeping in San Francisco, remaining there for about two years, when he went to Tuolumne County, and was engaged in saloon-keeping until 1858. He again gave his entire attention to mining, botb quartz and placer, for the ensuing five years, with varied for- tune, but was successful iu the end, pluck and perseverance con- quering.
He then started a saloon in Sonora, Tuolumne County, wbich soon took the lead in that place, and many of the leading men of the State to-day, and more of those who to the regret of all have passed away, know and knew the old " Riffle" of Sonora, which was destroyed by fire three different times, leaving Mr. Smitb with only his good name and indomitable will to make a new start with.
Ten years ago Mr. Smith left Sonora and opened the pioneer saloon of the Yo Semite Valley, known, it may be said, throughout the civilized world as the " Cosmopolitan of the Yo Semite Valley," and it was during the four years of Mr. Smith's
personal attention to the business in the valley that he became so widely and favorably known, as shown by numerous tokens of regard and remembrance from tourists and travelers from different parts of the world.
On December 9, 1873, the "Cosmopolitan of Merced " was opened by Mr. Smith, who though still retaining his interest in the valley has, by his personal attention, given it the celebrity which it has attained not only in Merced and adjoining conn- ties, but throughout the State, both for the purity and worth of the goods and the elegance and taste displayed in its furnishing
The last display of Mr. Smith's enterprise is shown in the addition of an oyster depot and restaurant in the rear of his saloon, which in every respect will compare with any place of similar business in the State, it being opened and condneted upon the same principles that has made the Cosmopolitan what it is to-day.
We give elsewhere a view of the interior of the Cosmopol- itan, which gives some idea of the arrangement of this saloon. But no engraving can show the beautiful woods and frescoing. A full description is given elsewhere.
A COURAGEOUS ACT AND REWARD.
The following notice we take from the Express :-
" On the eighth day of June, 1875, our fellow-townsman, John C. Smitb, at that time a resident of Yo Semite Valley, accompanied A. H. T. Bruce and party to the far-famed Glacier Point. Arriving at the top of the giddy heights, Mr. Bruce's horse, a genuine Mexican plug, became frightened and began to buck within twenty feet of the edge of the precipice, heading toward the awful chasm below. Just as the vicious brute reached the edge of the precipice, Mr. Smith jumped from his saddle and caught him by the bit until Bruce could dismount. Mr. Bruce turning to Mr. Smith exclaimed: ' You have saved my life.'
"He immediately drew a ebeck on the Bank of California for $500, and offered it to Mr. Smith, who refused to accept it, saying, 'I have only performed my duty, and will uot accept pay for it.' Sometime elapsed after Mr. Bruce and party luft the valley, when one day there came an express package for Mr. Sinith, which upon being opened was found to contain a most beautiful lime squeezer with gold plate engravings, and a note from Mr. Bruce asking Mr. Smith to accept it as a token of his appreciation of his noble act on the heights at Glacier Point. This lime squeezer is valued at $120, and is now on exhibition at tbe Cosmopolitan.
"In addition to the above valuable present, Mr. Smith received from Mr. Bruce two gross of bar glasses, one gross for use at the Cosmopolitan beautifully engraved, "J. C. S.," tbe other gross for use at the Cosmopolitan in the Yo Semite Val- ley with the initial letters of the firm, "S. and H.," engraved thereon."
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HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY.
JOSHUA GRIFFITH.
This pioneer was born on the twenty-eighth of June, 1800, at a place seven miles below what was known at the time as Red Stone Fort, hut now Brownsville, Washington County, Pennsylvania. In 1810 the family emigrated to Ohio, in a thinly settled part. No school was nearer than twenty-five miles. In 1820 he went to Missouri. Here he met Jom Hawkins, and these two finally found themselves settled on the Mereed River in 1852.
In St. Lonis, in 1822, Griffith joined the Ashley expedition to go up the Missouri River, which consisted of sixty men. They started in a large keel-boat for the mouth of the Yellow- stone. They returned the following year. In 1824 he went to New Mexico and Santa Fé, opened a gun and smith shop, and accumulated money. In 1830 he went to Sonora and met with many strange adventures. In 1831 we find him run- ning a variety store at Hermosillo. Finally, in 1848 he set out for Los Angeles, California.
Mr. J. Griffith was brought up very wisely. He had to work on the farm to strengthen the body, and to attend school to strengthen his mind. He studied medicine and practieed as a doctor when twenty-four years of age. He kept up his practice nntil 1874, having had good success throughout.
July 25, 1844, he was married to Miss Fanna Arreas, a native of Sonora, Mexico; and in 1848 he made up his mind to emi- grate to California. He arrivedl in this State in 1848 and went to mining. First he inined at Amador with old man Amador, then at Volcano and Mokehunne Hill.
November 15, 1848, he discovered Jackson Creek, Amador County, and afterwards he went to Los Angeles, finally settling down in this county, which he entered in September, 1850.
FIRST WHEAT SOWN.
Mr. Griffith claims to be the first one to sow wheat in the bottom-lands and on the plains. This was in 1851 when he went to Santa Cruz and purehaserl seed wheat, corn, chickens, two or three dogs and eats, and returned to the Merced. This wheat he elaims was the first sown in San Joaquin Valley south of Stoekton.
When he settled on the Mereed there were only three other persons on the river, namely: Samuel Scott, J. M. Montgom- ery, and James Waters. While engaged in erecting a house he encamped in the open air, under a wide-spread oak, which still stands. Here his wife gave birth to his first-born son.
FIRST FLOURING MILL.
In 1853 he built a small flouring mill, the machinery of which was propelled by water taken from the Mereed River by a ditch somne two miles long. The mill was ereeted solely for his own nse. It was the first water-power grist-mill south of Stoekton in the valley. It was swept away by the flood of 1861-62.
It is quite pleasing to listen to Mr. Griffith and hear his early adventures which he experienced in Mexico and Cali- fornia. He has endured many hardships, hut overcame them all, and to-day is at rest with his family, consisting of his wife and four children, named: Mary, Frank, Merced, and William Frederick, in his little home on the Merced River. His home, which is so pleasantly sitnated, overlooks the river and gives a splendid view all around, and his adjoining orehard contains most all the tropical and semi-tropical, as well as northern fruits, of which many varieties of nuts and dates are to be especially praised. The home is located twelve miles from the county seat, eight miles from railroad, twenty-five miles from water communication, three miles from church, and three- quarters of a mile from school. His farm consists of 470 acres of dark loam and bottom-land of Merced River, and his stock consists of twenty-five head of cattle, fifty sheep and fifteen horses.
WILLIAM C. TURNER.
William C. Turner set out April 12, 1849, like thousands of others, for the then far distant land of gold. He left Green County, Missouri, intending to go on the northern route but hearing that the cholera prevailed among those on that road his party, consisting of 150 men, went on a ronte further south. The trip over the plains was pleasant and an occasional hunt after buffalo and antelope relieved the monotony of the journey, and to Mr. Turner belonged the credit of shooting the first buf- falo.
The first settlement reached was a place called Los Baños, a small town in New Mexico. At this place the party sold their wagons and teams and bought paek mules and employed two guides to pilot them through the mountains to Salt Lake. It was a long and tiresome journey and provisions became scarce before they arrived at their destination, The party stopped at Utah Lake, some sixty miles south of Salt Lake, while an advance party went ahead to buy provisions. It was now September 15, 1849, and the Mormons said no passage could be made of the Sierra Nevada on account of the snow. But the party under the guidance of James Waters reach Los Angeles without tronble. From there they came through the Tejon Pass at the head of Tulare Lake, and erossing the various streams, reached a place afterwards called Fort Miller. Here resting a few days they went to a place called Fine Gold Guleh and did some prospecting. From there they went on to Mariposa County.
ENCOUNTER BANDS OF ELK.
After crossing the San Joaquin large bands of wild elk were met with. They werea magnificent animal with wide-spread- ing horns and quite shy and fleet of foot. Here one of the party, in following one band got lost in a fog and wandered abont for eighteen days. His name was Thomas Brul. When found he was on the Merced River in a hollow log, His feet
RES.OF R. REYNOLDS, 22 MILES WEST OF PLAINSBURG MERCED CO.CAL.
.
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PIONEERS OF MERCED COUNTY.
were so hadly frost-bitten that he lost some of his toes. He was taken to a New York company camped on the Merced a mile helow the present residence of Mr. Turner. He returned to Alahama without trying his luck in the mines.
Mr. Turner reached the Mariposa mines the eighth of Decem- ber, 1849, and began operations on Shirlock's Creek. Having brought sheet iron with them they made what the miners call a " cradle " and from the dirt obtained gold very fast, some days taking out fourteen ounces of gold. He remained in Mar- iposa County until 1852.
September, 1852, he settled on the Merced River and engaged in general farming and stock-raising. In the winter of 1852 he raised a good crop.
His farm consists of 2,500 acres of good land only cight miles from the railroad. Water facilities of shipping are on the farm, as may be seen by examining the large view of Mr. Turner's ranch. His home is in a splendid situation on the river hank, surrounded with large oak and other trees. Everything ahout the place is bome like. The house is surrounded by picket fence and shaded by trees. A fine orchard of apple, peach, apricots, plums, figs and grapes, produces in abundance with- out irrigation. The general character of the farm is a sandy loam producing of wheat about twelve bushels per acre; of barley, twenty bushels. Corn and potatoes also do well on the hottom-lands. He has some of the most substantial barns in the county, and the farm is well fenced.
He keeps on an average ahout 1,000 head of cattle, 1,800 sheep, 1,200 bogs, 75 horses, and 25 mules. A small Eastern farmer cannot realize the ahove figures, and that the ahove amount of stock are all upon one farm.
W. C. Turner was born February 15, 1827, in Caswell County, North Carolina. From there his parents moved to Tennessee, and thence to Greene County, Missouri, in 1835, and engaged in farming and stock-raising, and thence to California, as related.
He married Miss Elizabeth Wallings in 1860, who was born in New Madrid County, Missouri. They have eight children as follows : William E., John A., Thomas C., Mary E., Har- riett E., Lucinda R., Diana B, and Eva L. Turner.
ROBERT JOHNSON STEELE.
Robert Johnson Steele was horn in Richmond county, North Carolina, October 22, 1822. In 1824 his parents removed to Tennessee, where they resided until Robert was eleven years of age; they then moved to Ripley, Mississippi, where he remained until the breaking out of the Mexican War, in 1846. He then joined the First Regiment of Mississippi Volunteers, which upon entering upon active service, in Mexico, became a rifle regi- ment, under command of Colonel Jefferson Davis. He fought at the storming of Monterey, on the 19th, 20th, 21st, 22d, and 23d of December, 1846, and also at the battle of Buena Vista, on the 22d and 23d days of February, 1847. On June 6, 1847, the
terin for which he volunteered having expired, he returned to his home in Mississippi. In March, 1849, he started with the first emigrants across the plains for California, hy the south- crn route, Fort Smith, Arkansas, heing the place of rendezvous for overland emigrants that year. Arrived iu California, in Septemher, of the same year. For two years he mined, mostly on the middle fork of the American River; he then went home to Mississippi with several thousand dollars-the result of his two years' mining. In 1852 he returned to California, and bas ever since been engaged in journalism. He married Mrs. Rowena Granice, at Salmon Falls, on the thirteenth of June, 1861.
WILLIAM L. MEANS.
W. L. Means is another of the early arrivals in California. He was born in Butler County, Alahama, November 29, 1827, and when young he emigrated with his parents to western Texas, a thinly settled section. At the breaking out of the Mexican War he joined a company of Texan cavalry. He took part in the hattle of Monterey, and other engagements. When his torm of enlistment expired he returned to his home on the frontier.
In 1849 he started for California, from Limestone County, Texas, and, coming hy way of Mexico, arrived safely in San Francisco, August 22, 1850; thence to Tuolumne County, and thence to Mariposa County. He afterwards lived on Bear Creek, in Mariposa County, which was afterward included in Merced.
He made a visit to Texas, and was married in 1869, to Miss Elizabeth Thompson, a native of Alabama. Their children are named William W., Eva, Blanch, and Lizzie Means. His farm consists of seventy-five acres of Merced River bottom, near Snelling, which is very productive, and produces fifty hushels of corn and 100 bushels of potatoes to the acre. It is situated two miles from school and church. Mr. Means was elected Supervisor in 1879, and represents his district at the present time, to the satisfaction of his constituents.
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