USA > California > Sonoma County > History of Sonoma 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 time > Part 88
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 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119
HERMON NOBLES.
From the time of entering upon the activities of mature years to the present Mr. Nobles has engaged in ranch pursuits and meanwhile has gained a thorough familiarity with agriculture as prosecuted within the limits of Sonoma county, where he makes his home. All of his life has been passed in Northern California. Point Arena is his native town and May 19, 1859, the date of his birth. Reared and educated in Mendocino county, he came from there to Sonoma county and lias lived a quiet, busy and useful existence, caring for his land with scrupulous exact- ness, overseeing his herds of sheep and other stock, and discharging the duties that fall upon him as a neighbor interested in the welfare of others and as a citizen devoted to the progress of his community and commonwealth. His mental outlook is broad, his sympathies large and his discernment keen. Parti- san matters appeal little to him, his only association with politics being the casting of a ballot in favor of Democratic candidates. In religious opinions he is broad, without sectarian bias and sympathetic toward all the uplifting in- fluences wrought by the creeds of today.
The family represented by this gentleman comes from southern lineage, his parents, Rector and Adaline (Beeby) Nobles, having been natives re- spectively of Arkansas and Missouri. They crossed the plains with ox-teams in
867
HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY
1848, first settling in Fresno, Cal., and during the '50s located in Bodega, So- noma county. Subsequently they became pioneer farmers in Mendocino county, but their last years were passed in Sonoma county. Besides Hermon, the paren- tal family comprised three brothers and three sisters, as follows: David, Jef- ferson. Lee, Susan, Jennie and Hattie. David married Sarah Dollar and be- came the father of four children, Philip, Sarah, Adaline and Lillian. Lee chose as his wife Miss Susan Rasmussen and by that union had two daughters, Nettie and Mabel. Susan is the wife of Isaac Talbot and Hattie married Joseph Irvin, their union resulting in four children, Frederick, Percy, Mildred and Florence. The marriage of Hermon Nobles occurred December 4, 1901, and united him with Mrs. Louisa (Haupt) Marshall, who was born in Sonoma county in the year 1870. They are the parents of three children, Mervin, Grace and Emmet.
In her ancestral lineage Mrs. Nobles traces the family back to a long succes- sion of German progenitors. Charles Haupt, who was born in Germany in 1826, became an immigrant to the United States in young manhood, and with his parents crossed the plains with ox-teams in 1849. They first settled in Napa county, and later in Sonoma county, in which latter county Mr. Haupt's wife was born, and also their three children, Charles, Louisa and Mary. The only son, Charles, Jr., married Julia Patten and had seven children, Melvin, Albert, Lloyd, Lawrence, Louisa, Bessie and Minnie. Mary Haupt became the wife of S. R. Hayden, and their union was blessed with three children, Rodney, Richard and Bertha. During girlhood Mrs. Nobles attended the Sonoma county schools, and shortly after the completion of her education she was married to Robert Marshall, a farmer, whose death occurred a few years after their marriage. Three children were born of this marriage, Sadie, Charles and Rob- ert. Subsequently Mrs. Marshall became the wife of Mr. Nobles. Their home place consists of twelve hundred and two acres, some of which contains a splen- did growth of timber, while the balance affords excellent pasturage for the stock as well as large meadows for the making of hay. As a rule six hundred head of sheep are carried on the ranch, as well as ten head of horses and a number of hogs and cattle, the owner finding the sale of live stock an important part of his annual income, while the wooded tracts are especially adapted to the use of sheep. They also have a forty-acre ranch five miles from the home place, where they are raising fruit, principally apples. Haupt creek, which was so named for Mrs. Nobles' father, and is a tributary of Guallala river, waters the ranch. In places the ranch is well wooded with pine, redwood and oak. In the supervision of his large holdings the owner shows thrift, energy and saga- cious judgment, and he occupies deservedly a high position among the ranchmen of Sonoma county. He is a member of the board of school trustees of Guallala district, and has been constable of Salt Point township for eight years.
JOHN S. TAYLOR.
As one of the early pioneers of California John S. Taylor has given the strength and purpose of his manhood toward the development of the resources which have made this a commonwealth of great importance to the Union. Com- ing in the year 1849. when the current of immigration brought men of every
868
HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY
class and condition to form the new society, the integrity and inherent qualities of Mr. Taylor were doubly welcome, since they became a part of the foundation for the statehood and insured its future greatness. He came to Sonoma county in 1853 and the same year settled on fourteen hundred acres of virgin land near Santa Rosa, property which he still owns and manages, though of late years he has made his home in town. He was born in Pittsylvania county, Va., November 27, 1828, and was reared in that locality and in Ray county, Mo., whither the family removed during his boyhood.
No account of Mr. Taylor's journey to California or his experiences in the early days of this commonwealth could better express the true conditions than the account given in his own words, and we therefore give it verbatim herewith:
"In the year 1849, when the news of the rich gold finds of California became known, the excitement in the older settled states ran high, especially among the young men and boys, and I, being one of the latter, determined to cast my lot with other adventurers and seek the gold fields.
"I left my adopted home (being a Virginian by birth) in Ray county, Mo., near where the town of Orrick now stands, went to Independence and got a chance under General Lucas to drive a six-yoke ox-team across the plains to El Paso on the Rio Grande. A day or two later Tom Gordon, also a Ray county boy, put in an appearance and got a chance to drive a team with the same train : knowing each other we were glad to be together, and the ties of friendship were strengthened by the ardnous trials of our long journey, even to the closing scene, where I sat by his side and closed his eyes in the last sleep.
"The train, which now consisted of twelve wagons, soon started on its long and perilous trip. The first few weeks were uneventful, save for the novelty and newness of our experience in 'roughing it,' and getting used to the swing of camp life. About the 15th of September we reached the Arkansas river; the water was getting scarce in the mountains, where the buffalo ranges in the sum- mer, and they had collected in this beautiful valley of the Arkansas until it was literally black with them. We travelled for about eight days up this valley, the buffalo crowding out ahead of the train and closing up behind it, keeping about three hundred yards away. We shot one every day, taking out what meat we needed for present use, leaving the rest to be eaten and fought over by the band of wolves, which is the invariable accompaniment of every herd of buffalo which ranges the plains. They act as scavengers, eating all that die from any cause, and often killing the calves, which, however, are closely guarded by the older buffalo forming a strong phalanx around them as they move.
"When we reached the Cimarron an impressive sight met our gaze; here, piled by the road side, telling a tale of desolation and possible despair to human beings, were the skull bones of ninety-eight mules which had perished in the snow storm two winters before. (This was later found to have been a govern- ment train en route to Mexico.) We were now in the native haunts of the death-dealing blizzard, yet too early in the season to fear them. However, a few more weeks of travel, which was very slow, brought us within twenty-five or thirty miles of Red river, where we struck camp, got our supper of coffee and bacon, with flap-jacks cooked in a frying-pan over a fire of buffalo chips, put out our guards and 'turned in,' when the alarm was given by one of the
869
HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY
guards that a snow storm was upon us. We yoked up our cattle immediately and traveled all night, and reached the Red river about three o'clock the next afternoon; here we found wood and water, but no feed for our cattle, as the snow covered the ground to the depth of eight inches, so we made our corral as usual, which is by drawing the wagons together with heavy log chains, the front wheel to the hind wheel, until all are connected. Into his corral we put our cattle ; about ten o'clock the weather cleared, the moon shone clear and full on the snow, and as I stood guard that night I thought it the brightest and lightest night I ever saw. The next morning we made an early start, as our cattle must have food: we traveled until noon before we found grazing for them. They had grown so weak they could hardly pull the big wagons.
"In due course of time, without exciting incident, we reached Las Vegas, the first Spanish settlement we had struck; here a battle was fought the year before between the Americans and the Mexicans, in which some of old Ray's brave sons took a hand, and the chivalrous Captain Hendley of Richmond was killed.
"On New Year's day, 1850, we crossed the Rio Grande, and first set foot on Mexican soil at the town of Paso del Norte (now Borez, opposite El Paso), whichi had a population of about ten thousand at that time. We had now reached the end of our journey with the ox-train and must make different arrangements if we wished to extend our trip to the gold fields of California. Tom and I were fortunate to fall in with a train of Texas men, thirty-three in number, who were going to the city of Durango; we were aiming to reach the sea coast and ship to San Francisco, so this was just to our liking. We started, and the third night had camped out at a big spring, put our guards out around our mules and rolled up in our blankets, when we heard the blood-curdling Indian yell. The Indians dashed in between our wagons and the stock and away they went with every ani- mal we had. We slept with our clothes on, and our guns ready to our hands in case of emergency. Half of our men, including Tom and myself, went after the stock; after traveling about two miles we heard something coming toward us, which we naturally supposed to be Indians, but which dissolved itself into a lone, badly frightened, white-faced sorrel mule, which had been stampeded with the rest, but had made its escape and was coming back to camp. We then gave up the search and returned to the wagons; the owners of the stock and half our men returned to Paso del Norte and bought other teams with which to continue the journey.
"We were now in the Apache Indian country, where no white man was sure of his fate. We traveled about two hundred miles through this country without being molested. We camped one night without water, and made an early start next morning to reach Gallego Springs ( a bad place for Indians) by noon. Just before reaching the springs we were attacked by a band of sixty Indians : they were dressed in red gauze, which they had taken from a Mexican train just a few days before, at this same place; their faces were covered with war paint, they were mounted on beautiful horses, and armed principally with bows and arrows, yet some of them had guns and others spears. They were tall, well- built fellows. We heard the war whoop, looked around, and the Indians were upon us and had possession of half our wagons before we recovered from our
870
HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY
surprise. They held them for some time, but the fight became too hot for them and we recovered our wagons. They got possession of one of our men, whom they killed; they cut off his head, stuck it on a lance, and galloped around us, holding it so that we must see it. The battle lasted about three hours, but we were finally victorious. Several of our men were wounded, and we took them to a hospital at Chihuahua, where we left them. We remained in this city eight days, and while there saw a bull fight; there were nine wild bulls turned into the ring that afternoon, one at a time; each would fight until exhausted, then some tame cattle would be driven in and he would follow them out. One bull killed two horses and crippled one man.
"The following morning after the bull-fight we resumed our journey and passed through many strange towns and saw many strange sights before reach- ing Durango, a city of thirty thousand inhabitants. We tarried there for nine days, then hired pack mules to carry our belongings over the Sierra Madre moun- tains to the sea-port town of Mazatlan. In port lay the sailing vessel Barkazam ; it was loading for San Francisco; we took passage, and after five days sail, dropped anchor at Cape St. Lucas, and thirty days later passed through the world-renowned Golden Gate into the harbor of San Francisco. We went ashore next day, May 12, 1850. San Francisco at this time was simply a collection of canvas tents and board shanties perched upon the barren sand hills, not a very inviting or home-like picture for two young, inexperienced fellows who had suffered such hardships as we had, and to add to the gravity of our situation, Tom was sick and despondent. Our assets were running low, our clothing, which was but little, was almost worn out, my wardrobe consisting of a pair each of half-worn shoes and pants, two shirts and a tattered old hat; Tom's ditto. It devolved upon me to replenish our exchequer if possible.
"I applied for work and found it hard to get, but finally found a job in a lumber yard; the man said I was too young and small to handle that heavy lumber, but I determined to have that job. I went back to the camp and put on both of my shirts to make me look larger and stronger and went back and applied for the same job; the man looked me over and said, 'All right, go to work.' For that afternoon's work I was paid $1 an hour. I expected no more than $1 for the half day.
"When Tom was well enough we pushed on to the mines and got our initi- ation in the work on Deer Creek, near where Nevada City now stands. Here Tom was stricken with a fever, from which he died on the 20th of November. Some miners whose claims adjoined ours helped me bury Tom. I marked his grave with a carved wooden headboard and enclosed it with a paling fence. Years afterward I returned there to see the silent monument on the lonely hill where many others so soon followed him. I spent the winter there and in the spring moved further north into the Sierra Nevada mountains to the small mining camp on Cannon creek.
"There was another mining camp just a mile below us; from this camp a miner came and told us that a man had been arrested down there for the theft of a pistol. Forty or sixty men from the surrounding camps collected there, and from them the man who was bound and guarded was allowed to select twelve men as jurors to try his case. They found him guilty. The sentence,
871
HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY
twenty-five lashes on the naked back and expulsion from Cannon Creek after ten o'clock next morning, or hang. They tied him to a pinetree and on his naked body laid the twenty-five lashes with a rope; he begged them to kill him; he was helped on with his clothes and ordered to leave, which the poor wretch was glad to do, no doubt.
"I did not want to winter there, as the snow got so deep that we could neither get in or out after it began to fall, so before October I went to Natchez, in the Honcut mountains. The day I arrived there they brought in and buried three men who had been killed by Joaquin Murietta and his band of robbers. No one knew the murdered men, nor how much gold the robbers got. It is probable that their friends never knew what became of them. I stayed here four months mining in Robinson's ravine, where I found the largest piece of solid gold that my fortunes in the gold fields ever gave me. It was worth $78.
"In April we heard of rich diggings in Downieville, now the county-seat of Sierra county ; myself and two other men, John Wade and John Prine, rolled our purses of gold dust inside our blankets, took them on our backs and after a four days' journey over rough mountains, arrived at Zumolt's flat, on the Yuba river ; we were very high up in the mountains. Here we built a small log cabin to live in and went to mining in the Blue banks across the river. One morning, just at daybreak, I got up to cook breakfast (we each took our turn at cooking) and heard some shooting; looking down the trail I saw four men coming up, one of them was shooting off his pistols; just a few paces behind them four others came firing their pistols. I knew there was going to be a duel, and went with them to see it. They crossed over the forks of the river, and there I saw the famous duel between Kelley and Speare. Joe Mckibben, afterward member of congress, was one of the seconds. Revolvers were the law of the land by which many disputes were settled in those days. The more cool-headed men would ar- bitrate their difficulties, which were generally about mining claims.
"I had now been away from my home nearly three years, and had not heard a word from there since I left, so my pleasure was great when a pack train of mules, loaded with provisions and mail, came into Downieville one day and I got a letter from home. Our cabin was twelve feet square, covered with shakes, and had a dirt floor. We were comfortable and concluded to winter there. The weather until the Ist of December was fine, then one morning we got up and found the snow six feet deep and still snowing very fast. The storm lasted two weeks, snowing a great portion of the time, until the snow was fifteen feet deep. Provisions could not be bought at any price and none could be brought nearer than thirty miles from Downieville. About one hundred miners were here and we must have food. We, in our cabin, had been living on small Irish potatoes for several days and had neither meat nor bread. The next morning the miners met and concluded to take a man from each cabin and try to beat a trail out over the snow and pack provisions on our backs. When a trail is once packed on the snow it is easy to walk right along. That night we drew lots in our cabin to decide which of us should go; it fell on me.
"Twenty-eight men started next morning to beat a trail to Forster's Bar. the nearest point where we could get flour. We went a few miles down the river on a trail already beaten. then had to beat up the mountains to a station
872
HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY
twelve miles away. We took turns at beating the trail, as it was hard work to pack the snow so that it would bear the weight of a man. Three of our men gave out and we had them to carry; night was coming on and we knew what that meant to us if we did not find shelter. We knew the station was not very far away, but had lost the direction. Some thought it to the right of us, others to the left, and some said straight ahead. In the confusion some of the men commenced to halloo; their shouts were heard at the station, a mile and a-half to the left of us. The men at the station knew we were from Downieville, trying to get out provisions ; they fired several shots which we heard, and turned in that direction. They started to meet us, blowing a horn at intervals, which we answered until we met. We got in at eleven o'clock with all our men alive, but exhausted, cold and ravenously hungry. Our meals at this station cost us each $3 a piece. Our bill of fare consisted of bacon, and beans with bread and tea, and a royal feast it was to us, for which we would have willingly paid twice the price if necessary.
"The next morning we continued on our way, and as the trail was now down grade, we made better time, finishing the journey about nightfall. We started on our return trip the third morning, each man carrying a sack of flour, and some of them took other things besides. I carried a fifty-pound sack of flour and was offered $75 for it after I got back with it. I took it straight to the cabin, where Wade and Prine received me joyfully, but the sack of flour more so, as they had not tasted bread for a week.
"The weather was cold, but clear, and pack mules soon began to come in on the trail we had made, and provisions became plentiful once more. We worked there the following summer, sold our claims, rolled our purses of gold dust in the blankets, bid farewell to Downieville and took a walk of ninety miles to Marysville, camping out at night; from there we took stage to Sacramento, and boat to San Francisco. John Prine went to Rushville. Ind., John Wade went to Joliet, Ill., and the writer came to Santa Rosa, Cal., where he has lived for fifty-six years."
Here that same year Mr. Taylor settled on fourteen hundred acres of land, later receiving title to the land direct from the United States government. He still owns the property, which for over half a century has been maintained as a dairy and stock ranch. Owing to advancing years he has given its active management over to younger hands, although every day finds him looking after the interests of his large ranch property. Eleven hundred and fifty acres of the ranch are devoted to dairy purposes entirely, and forms one of the largest in- dustries of the kind in the county. Besides his ranch property Mr. Taylor owns a valuable lot on Fourth street, extending through to Fifth street, on which he has erected one of the fine and substantial business blocks of the city, known as the Taylor block.
Mr. Taylor's marriage in 1876 united him with Miss Nancy A. Clark, a native of Illinois, who came to California by way of the Isthmus in 1863. Two children were born of this marriage, Zena Mildred, the wife of Eugene Weber, and John S., the latter now in Honolulu. Mr. Taylor is a member of the Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained the thirty-second degree. He is now living in Santa Rosa, at the Piedmont Hotel, hale and hearty at the age of eighty-two
873
HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY
year's and for the entire time he has lived here has been closely identified with every movement that has been for the advancement of the county. He was one of the organizers of the Santa Rosa Bank, serving as its president at one time, and is still a stockholder in the institution. The others who were principals in this organization were Dave Burris, Thomas Hopper, and Elijah Farmer. Mr. Taylor was one of eleven men who constructed the race track in Santa Rosa.
JOSEPH W. DROUILLARD.
Not unlike a large majority of the agriculturists in the vicinity of Santa Rosa, Mr. Drouillard took up his residence here after he had gained considerable experience and means in other lines of activity. In various parts of the state he had followed mining for a considerable period since the year 1884, and unlike many who follow that precarious calling he was very successful in the under- taking. Upon giving this up, however, he came to Sonoma county and near Santa Rosa purchased the beautiful forty-acre ranch that is his home today.
In Marion county, Iowa, Joseph W. Drouillard was born November 2, 1849. While he was almost too young to remember much of his early home, his parents made ready to cross the plains to California, the gold fever still at- tracting many to the state, the elder Mr. Drouillard being among the number. The year 1855 found them in Hangtown (now called Placerville), the father engaging in mining there for about a year, after which he gave it up as un- profitable, and instead, engaged in the stock business in Tulare county. This necessitated going to Los Angeles for cattle, which he would drive north to fatten, after which he would take them to the mining localities and sell them.
The education of Joseph W. Drouillard was begun and completed in San Jose, after which he became interested in the stock business with his father. A desire to try his luck at mining led him to discontinue the stock business and thereafter for thirty years he followed mining continuously. After an experience in Nevada and Arizona he was engaged in the Yellow Aster mines in Rands- burg, Kern county, Cal., going there as mill superintendent in 1884, and leaving there seven years later to become superintendent of the Gaylord Bish mines in Inyo county. While in that county he also purchased a ranch, but as it was done more as an investment than with the idea of making his home upon it, he dis- posed of it when a good opportunity offered. Later he went to Haywards, Ala- meda county, and purchased property, but six months later he disposed of this also, and it was then that he came to Sonoma county and purchased the ranch which has been his home ever since, four miles northeast of Santa Rosa, on Cali- stoga street and St. Helena road. The ranch comprises forty acres, of which fourteen acres are in grapes, two acres in prunes, one acre in small fruit, and about six acres in corn. It is Mr. Drouillard's intention to enlarge his orchard from time to time, and if his present plans are carried out he will plant eight ad- ditional acres to prunes and apples. Another ambition of the owner is to embark in the poultry industry, and judging from the success which he has had in his undertakings thus far his success in this undertaking is assured also.
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.