The Weekly Pioneer

Time away

2011-09-19T11:29:00.000-07:00

In case you were wondering, I have not abandoned this blog. I just hit a wall. I can't seem to write anything at this time. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I just don't have much free time these days. In fact, I'm sure that has a lot to do with it. But, for now, I just needed to take some time away. I'll be back writing these bios eventually, though. Hopefully that will be sooner than later.

Oliver Vance

2011-08-22T00:00:00.001-07:00

Oliver's headstone in the Amador City Cemetery

Oliver Austin Vance
Born: circa 1846 (Maine)
Died: Wednesday, January 7, 1880 (Amador City, Amador County, California) - Mining accident
Interred: Amador City Cemetery, Amador City, Amador County, California
Occupation: Miner

Oliver Vance was born in Maine sometime around 1846 or 1847. He moved, presumably with his family, to California when he was about five years of age, and he lived in Amador County for the rest of his life. At some point before being enumerated in the 1870 census on July 14th he married an Iowa native named Phoebe, seven years his junior. Together, Oliver and Phoebe had at least five children.

Oliver Vance's voter registration (June 8, 1867)

1870 Federal Census, Township 4, Amador County, California showing Oliver and Phoebe Vance (line 2)

Vance worked in the gold mines and it was in the Keystone Mine where he lost his life at the young age of 33. For some reason the hoist had been raised, instead of lowered as he expected, and he was caught by it and crushed to death against the timber bracing the top of the shaft he was working in. His fellow workers in the mine rushed him outside at the top of the shaft, but his injuries were too severe and he died almost immediately.

1880 Federal Census, Amador County, California Mortality Schedule enumerating Oliver's death early that year (line 2)

Fortunately for his widow and children, if there can be any kind of fortune in this type of accident, Vance had taken the last degree of Order in the Ancient Order of United Workmen only the previous evening. This was a sort of fraternal society, and by taking the Order and becoming a Master Workman in the ranks, his family was entitled to a $2,000 death benefit (a very large sum in those days) following his death in the mine.

Amador Dispatch, January 10, 1880, page 3 column 3

From Amador City

Another sad and fatal accident occurred in the Keystone mine of this place last Wednesday, by which one of our much respected citizens, Mr. Oliver Vance, almost instantly lost his life. He was at work in the mine, when from some cause, unexpectedly to him, the skip was immediately hoisted instead of lowered, striking him in the side, dragging him under it, and crushing him against some bar or timber above, when the jam became so great as to stop the ordinary power of the machinery. Under the circumstances, it seems singular that he was not literally crushed to pieces. He lived, in an unconscious state, however until he was brought to the top of the shaft, when he expired within a few seconds. The deceased was a native of Maine, and aged about 34 years - nearly 29 of which had been spent in this county. He leaves behind him a widow and five orphan children, besides many other relatives and friends to mourn his loss. The funeral was conducted on Thursday under the auspices of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, of which he was a Master Workman member.

Entrance to the Amador City Cemetery

Sources:
A Few Of Our Friends (In the Amador County Cemeteries) by Catherine A. Cissna and Madeline Church (1994)
Obituary, Amador Dispatch, January 10, 1880 (page 3, column 3)
1870 Federal Census, Township 4, Amador County, California
1880 Federal Census, Amador County Mortality Schedule
Family tree created on Ancestry by janice06kay

Mrs Stumpf

2011-08-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

Mrs. Stumpf's crib and wooden marker in Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard

Mrs. Stumpf
Died: 1884 (Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona) - Chloroform Overdose
Interred: Boothill Graveyard, Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona Little is known by me about Mrs. Stumpf. Even her given and maiden names are a mystery.

In 1884, as she was giving birth, her doctor gave her some chloroform to ease the pain. He gave her too much, though, and she died as a result. I do not know if the baby survived.

Mrs. Stumpf was buried in the Boothill Graveyard with the outlaws, gunmen, lawmen and the small number of honorable, upright citizens who occupy the cemetery. An ornate iron crib was built around her grave. It is one of only a few that survived and still exists today.

Looking south on highway 80 from the Best Western - the Boothill Graveyard gift shop is the first building on the left (east) side of the road, before that yellow and orange painted building I searched the 1880 census and found a grand total of one person in Arizona named Stumpf - Henry Stumpf, a 23-year-old from Whipple Barracks, Yavapai County. It's possible he was her husband, but with so little information available about her, it's impossible for me to determine that at this time.

Sources:
Tombstone's Boothill by Ben T. Traywick (1994)
Essential Guide For Your Tour of the Original Boothill Graveyard - self guided tour pamphlet from the Boothill Graveyard gift shop

Daniel Kennedy

2011-08-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

Daniel Kennedy's crib and headstone in the Bullfrog-Rhyolite Cemetery

Daniel G. Kennedy
Born: March 23, 1884 (Loch Katrine, Anticonish County, Nova Scotia)
Died: May 4, 1905 (Bullfrog, Nye County, Nevada)
Interred: Bullfrog-Rhyolite Cemetery, Bullfrog, Nye County, Nevada

I had hoped to post a bio this week about someone special to me, but I've been suffering writer's block with that one and still can't figure out exactly what I want to say. So, that one will have to wait for another day. In the meantime, I've spent so much time these past few days dealing with insurance agents and repair shops that I haven't managed to get anything prepared at all. Rather than skip another week, I decided instead to feature someone who I know absolutely nothing about other than what I've gathered from the headstone.

According to the headstone, Daniel Kennedy was born in Loch Katrine, Nova Scotia on March 23, 1884. A mere twenty one short years later he died in Bullfrog, Nevada, a small mining community near Rhyolite, located a few miles east of today's Death Valley National Park border. Rhyolite and Bullfrog were the towns that grew around the site of Frank "Shorty" Harris' gold discovery. Both towns flourished briefly, then were completely abandoned. While there are several famous, spectacular building ruins in Rhyolte, very little remains of Bullfrog.

The Bullfrog-Rhyolite Cemetery entrance gate

A marker and plaque just inside the cemetery fence

Inscribed on the headstone:
At Rest (across the top)
Peace Perfect Peace (along the bottom)

One of a couple building ruins in Bullfrog - the bars on the one remaining window suggest this was a jail

Another old building still partially standing in Bullfrog

Sources:
The headstone

Samuel Mugford

2011-08-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

Samuel Mugford's headstone in the Amador City Cemetery

Samuel G. Mugford
Born: February 22, 1835 (St. Blazey, Cornwall, England)
Died: April 14, 1876 (Amador City, Amador County, California) - Broken neck from a fall
Interred: Amador City Cemetery, Amador City, Amador County, California
Occupation: Miner

Samuel was born in Cornwall, England in 1835 to Cornish natives Thomas and Elizabeth (nee Trembeth) Mugford. He emigrated to the United States sometime before 1862, arriving in California to work in the Northern California gold mines of El Dorado and Amador Counties.

In 1862 Mugford married England native Johanna Thomas in Mormon Island, a small mining town in El Dorado County which is now under the water of Folsom Lake, after the damming of the American River's South Fork in the 1950s. Samuel and Johanna had at least eight children together, the first born in the same year as their marriage. Since I do not have exact dates for their marriage or this first child's birth, I would assume they were married at the beginning of the year and their son was born at the end of the year.

1870 Federal Census, Township 4, Amador County, California showing the Mugford family (line 38)

1870 Federal Census, Township 4, Amador County, California showing the rest of the Mugford family continued on the next page

On December 12, 1870, in the Amador County District Court, Samuel Mugford was naturalized as a United States citizen. Less than five and a half years later he died in a mining accident. The details about exactly how the accident occurred were never known.

California Voter Registers, 1866-1898 listing Sauel Mugford's naturalization date

Amador Ledger:

Death In The Mine

Samuel Mugford, Died April 14, 1876, age 41

"On Friday afternoon the miners descending the Garfield shaft of the Keystone mine, at Amador City, discovered a miner's candle burning at the 600 foot level, but no miner near. Thinking there was something wrong, they descended the shaft, and found the lifeless body of Samuel Mugford, his head lying across the track of the shaft and his body on the platform of the 700 foot leel. The unfortunate man is supposed to have fallen about 100 feet, and must have been killed instantly, as his neck was broken. No one was near him at the time, and how the sad accident occurred is unknown. The deceased was a native of Cornwall, England, and leaves a wife and five children in Amador City.

Samuel and Johanna had six children by the time of his death, but the obituary only mentions five. One apparently died in infancy before this time. That would have to have been either Thomas, their first child, who was born in 1862 or Samuel who was born in 1872. I could not find a date of death for either of these boys, but I do have records to show the other Mugford children all lived beyond 1876.

I do have questions about the validity of the last of the Mugford children, though. Someone named Joseph Mugford has posted a family tree on Ancestry.com, listing this family. In that tree is Helen Nellie Mugford, born to Samuel and Johanna on December 10, 1876. This would, of course, be possible if Johanna was about a month pregnant at the time she became a widow. But, also listed on the tree is Johanna Anna Mugford, born to the couple three months later on March 15, 1877. Now, that would have been a pretty neat trick!

Epitaph on Samuel Mugford's headstone:
Why do we mourn departed friends,
Or shake at deaths alarm.
Tis but the voice that Jesus sends
To call us to his arms.

Amador City Cemetery entrance gates

Sources:
A Few Of Our Friends (In the Amador County Cemeteries) by Catherine A. Cissna and Madeline Church (1994)
Joseph Mugford on Ancestry.com
1870 Federal Census, Township 4, Amador County, California
California Voter Registers, 1866-1898
Amador Dispatch, Saturday, April 22, 1876, page 3, column 1

Alfred Tye

2011-07-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

Alfred Tye's marker in Bodie's Ward's Cemetery

Alfred E. Tye
Born: October 6, 1865 (Westminster Township (near Lambeth), Middlesex County, Ontario Province, Canada)
Died: September 1934 (Bodie, Mono County, California) -- Heart Attack
Interred: Ward's Cemetery, Bodie, Mono County, California
Occupations: Farmer, Rancher, Landscaper, Gardener

A couple weeks ago I received an email from someone who had a small correction for my Pioneer Graves project web site. The email came from the granddaughter of a man I have listed, and she simply wanted to point out that the newspaper obit my friend Diana added to his page listed the gender of her great-uncle Kay incorrectly. With the name Kay, I can understand how the newspaper got the gender wrong. Every Kay I've known, myself, has been female. I replied with my thanks, then made the correction on my web site's page about her grandfather.

When I sent my thanks for the correction, I also mentioned that I'd appreciate any further information she could provide about her grandfather. I was particularly intrigued since Alfred Tye is buried in one of the Bodie cemeteries, and there's so little I know about many of Bodie's permanent residents. I was delighted when I received a reply from Tye's granddaughter with a good amount of further information, some of which led me in the right direction to find more on my own.

Also, please note there will be no posts to the blog for the next two or three weeks. I'm on vacation and will be a little preoccupied. See you at the end of the month!

* * * * *

Alfred was born in 1865, the seventh of twelve children born to Samuel and Jo Hannah (nee Morden) Tye. As a young man his father gave him $1,000 with instructions to "go west".

1900 U.S. Federal Census, Clyde Township, Beadle County, South Dakota, showing the Tye family (line 61)

Alfred soon found himself in South Dakota where he met and married Mary Emily Jameson in Ipswich, Edmunds County, on June 15, 1892. The first two of their three children, both sons, were born in South Dakota: Russel F. on May 22, 1893 in Aberdeen, Brown County and Kay C. in December 1894.

1910 U.S. Federal Census, Buchanan Valley, Emmons County, North Dakota, showing the Tye family (line 18)

1915 North Dakota State Census, Buchanan Valley, Emmons County, showing the Tye family (line 88)

After 1900 Alfred moved his family to Buchanan Valley in North Dakota's Emmons County where he set up a farm on 160 acres of prairie land. Alfred and Mary had a daughter, their third and final child, born in North Dakota, circa 1908. They named her Eleanor. Alfred's farm was successful and over the years he added more land to his holdings until he had 650 acres accumulated. Unfortunately, in the early 1920s, drought made farming impossible and Alfred's income dried up. He packed up his family and moved to California.

1920 U.S. Federal Census, Buchanan Valley, Emmons County, North Dakota, showing the Tye family (line 43)

Russell Tye's World War I draft registration card

In Pasadena, he bought a house at 369 Del Monte Street. He worked as a landscape gardener until he developed heart problems. To help the family with their finances, Eleanor quit high school and went to work. The family moved a short distance to 666 N. Raymond Avenue in Pasadena. This was a large house they rented and shared with three other families who were friends of theirs. It was in this house that they rode out the Great Depression. Eleanor would later claim that this period included some of the best times of their lives.

1930 U.S. Federal Census, Pasadena, Los Angeles County, California, showing the Tye family (line 37)

Russell Tye and his family moved to Bodie, that infamous gold mining town in the high Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains. By this time the town was well past it's heyday and the rough and wild crowd had long since moved on for adventures elsewhere, but the mines were still operational for a few years yet. Russell worked as a Mining Engineer while his wife, Alpha, was a schoolteacher. They lived in the Hoover House, a boarding house owned by Theodore Hoover, brother of U.S. President Herbert Hoover (1929-1933).

The Hoover House in Bodie, California

Another look at the Hoover House in Bodie, California - the Standard Mine buildings can be seen in the background

Bodie's schoolhouse

A look inside Bodie's schoolhouse

Alfred was on a visit with his son in late 1934 when he suffered a heart attack and died. Though he did not live in Bodie, he was buried there, in the Ward's Cemetery. An obituary was printed a few days later in the Reno Evening Gazette. This is the obituary I have posted on my other web site that recently caught his granddaughter's attention.

The Reno Evening Gazette
September 10, 1934, page 2

Father of Bodie Man Summoned

Funeral services were held at Bodie yesterday for Albert E. Tye, retired rancher, who died at the home of his son, Russell Tye, Saturday while on a visit. Tye resided at ___ South Raymond avenue, Pasadena. Death was attributed to a heart attack.

Tye was a pioneer North Dakota rancher, and was born in 1864. He was married to Mary E. Jameson in 1892 and came West, settling in California in 1923. The family is well known in southern Nevada. Surviving, besides the son, are to daughters, Kay and Eleanor.

Not only did the newspaper get Kay's gender incorrect, but they also were off by one year regarding when Alfred and Mary were married.

A panorama of Bodie, looking north from a hill overlooking the town (click on the picture to see it larger)

* * * * *

A couple days ago I drove to Pasadena to find the two houses the Tye family lived in. Unfortunately, neither address exists today. Del Monte Street dead ends with houses in the 320 range. Beyond that, presumably where the Tye residence once existed, is where Interstate 210 is now. I did find homes where the Raymond Street house was, however there is nothing numbered 666. There is a house at 664 Raymond and a large apartment building next to it. Either the addresses on the street have been renumbered or the apartment building swallowed the old Tye home.

Sources:
Family history provided by Eleanor (Alfred E. Tye's daughter) via Roberta Hibbs (Eleanor's daughter)
Reno Evening Gazette (September 10, 1934 - page 2)
Diana Satterfield
1900 U.S. Federal Census, Clyde Township, Beadle County, South Dakota
1910 U.S. Federal Census, Buchanan Valley, Emmons County, North Dakota
1915 North Dakota State Census, Buchanan Valley, Emmons County
1920 U.S. Federal Census, Buchanan Valley, Emmons County, North Dakota
1930 U.S. Federal Census, Pasadena, Los Angeles County, California
Russell Tye's World War I draft registration card
The booklet available at the Bodie cemetery entrance gates
A booklet I picked up in the Bodie gift shop in 2001, which I've since misplaced and is no longer available
Wikipedia

Isaac Atherton

2011-07-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

Isaac Atherton's (and family's) headstone in Columbia's Public Cemetery

Isaac Atherton
Born: 1834 (Maine)
Died: May 25, 1900 (near Rawhide, Tuolumne County, California)
Interred: Public Cemetery, Columbia, Tuolumne County, California
Occupation: Miner

Isaac Atherton was born in Maine in 1834 to parents who were also natives from that state. By 1860 he had moved to California to seek his fortune in the gold mines. He lived in Shaws Flat, an area between Sonora and Columbia, where he shared a home with two other Maine natives, T. A. and J. A. Hale. All three men worked as miners.

1860 Federal Census, Township 2, Tuolumne County, California, showing bachelor Isaac Atherton (line 27)

In 1862, Isaac married a Pennsylvania native named Sarah. They had seven children together, one of whom died in infancy. By 1870 they had moved to Columbia where Isaac still worked as a miner.

1880 Federal Census, Township 3, Tuolumne County, California, showing Isaac Atherton and his family (line 6)

Isaac passed away on May 25, 1900 and was buried in the local public cemetery, next to the schoolhouse. Three of his children, Charles, Rachel and Frank - all single - remained living at home with their widowed mother for a while. Frank and Charles worked as miners, as their father had most of his life.

Frank eventually left home after he got married to a woman named Jesse. They moved to nearby Jamestown and had a daughter named Verna. Charles, who remained single all his life, eventually moved to Rawhide, a community near Jamestown. He continued to work as a miner until his own death on May 2, 1937. His body was buried in Columbia's Public Cemetery with his parents and the three now share a single headstone.

The entrance gates to Columbia's Public Cemetery

Columbia's Public Cemetery

Sources:
Patricia Mohr
1860 Federal Census, Township 2, Tuolumne County, California
1880 Federal Census, Township 3, Tuolumne County, California

Fred White

2011-06-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

Marshal Fred White's headstone in Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard

Fred White
Born: circa 1849 (New York)
Died: October 30, 1880 (Tombstone, Pima County [now Cochise County], Arizona) - Shot
Interred: Boothill Cemetery, Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona
Occupation: City Marshal

Fred White, circa 1879, San Francisco, California

Fred White was elected Tombstone's town Marshal on January 6, 1880. Nearly ten months later he would be killed in the line of duty.

1880 Federal Census, Tombstone, Pima County (now Cochise County), Arizona, showing City Marshal Fred White (line 35)

In late October of 1880 several of the area outlaws went on a spree in Tombstone, holding Allen Street hostage as they all got drunk and fired their weapons carelessly into the night air. Among them were some of the most notorious and well known today, such as Curly Bill Brocius, the McLaury brothers and the Clanton brothers.

After two days of wild, non-stop partying and shootings, Marshal White decided something had to be done. He figured he was going to have to either disarm all of the cowboys or at least take out one of them to make an example. He consulted with Wyatt Earp and the pair decided to approach from opposite ends of the street and corner the drunken revelers between them.

As they marched toward each other in the street, White came across Curly Bill Brocius in an empty lot where the Bird Cage Theatre stands today, firing aimlessly into the air. White demanded Brocius surrender his gun and the inebriated cowboy complied, handing it to White. But, as soon as White grabbed the gun it roared, firing a .45 slug into White's groin. Within seconds, Wyatt Earp had slammed the butt of his own gun over Brocius' head, knocking him out cold. Wyatt's brothers quickly ran to the scene and helped him cart Brocius off to jail and White to the doctor. Then, Wyatt went back out into the night hunting down the rest of the cowboys who had been instigating the wild shooting, finding all of them except for Ike Clanton. When he found someone he was looking for, Wyatt pistol whipped him unconcious and dumped him into the jail with Brocius.

A sign in front of the Bird Cage Theatre indicating where the fatal shot occurred. The famous Bird Cage Theatre did not exist at the time of the shooting. It opened approximately 14 months later.

The next morning's edition of the Tombstone Epitaph reported on the previous night's lawlessness.

"About 12:30 last night a series of pistol shots startled the late goers on the streets, and visions of funerals, etc., flitted thru the brain of the Epitaph local and the result proved that his surmises were correct. The result in a few words is as follows: A lot of Texas cowboys, as they were called, began firing at the moon and stars on Allen Street, near Sixth. City Marshal White, who happened to be in the immediate neighborhood, interfered to prevent violation of the city ordinance, and was ruthlessly shot by one of the numbers. Deputy Sheriff Earp, who is ever to the front when duty calls, arrived just in the nick of time. Seeing the Marshal fall he promptly knocked his assailant down with a six shooter, and as promptly locked him up; and with the assistance of his brothers, Virgil and Morgan, went in pursuit of the others."

The newspaper went on to describe White's injuries, which at first were not considered life-threatening.

Marshal White was shot in the left groin, the ball passing nearly thru, and being cut from the buttocks by Dr. Mathews. The wound is a serious though not fatal one.

...

At last accounts, 8:00 A.M., Marshal White was sleeping and strong hopes of his ultimate recovery were expected."

Despite the optimistic diagnosis, White died a few days later. Before he died he made it clear that he did not consider Brocius responsible for the shooting. White said it was his own fault because he had tried to take the gun away from the cowboy too quickly, grabbing the gun by the barrel and pulling while Brocius still grasped it with a finger on the trigger. The charges against Brocius were eventually dismissed because of White's deathbed testimony and physical evidence presented in court that proved Brocius' gun was capable of being fired in a half-cocked position.

As was reported in the November 1st edition of the Tombstone Epitaph, White's funeral was held in Gird's Hall with Reverend McIntyre presiding over the services. A procession of at least a thousand people then followed the body to Boothill Graveyard for the burial.

Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard

* * * * *

Even though Wyatt Earp helped get the murder charges against Brocius dropped, the pistol whippings he and his brothers employed to subdue the cowboys they arrested on the night of White's fatal shooting angered Brocius and the other cowboys, and this event is considered to be the beginning of the bad blood and tension between the cowboys and the Earps. This animosity gradually led up to the infamous gun fight behind the O.K. Corral and Wyatt Earp's eventual vengeance posse.

One more look at Marshal Fred White's grave in Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard

Sources:
Tombstone's Boothill by Ben T. Traywick (1994)
Tombstone Epitaph, October 28 and November 1, 1880
Essential Guide For Your Tour of the Original Boothill Graveyard - self guided tour pamphlet from the Boothill Graveyard gift shop
Wikipedia
Find A Grave

Thomas Galt

2011-06-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

Thomas Galt's marker in the El Dorado Cemetery

Thomas Augustus Galt
Born: January 21, 1830 (Spartanburg, Spartanburg County, South Carolina)
Died: December 20, 1890 (El Dorado, El Dorado County, California)
Interred: December 21, 1890 -- El Dorado Cemetery, El Dorado, El Dorado County, California
Occupations: Miner, Farmer, El Dorado County Assessor and Collector

Thomas Augustus was born in 1830 to Jabez and Frances Ballenger (nee Machen) Galt in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the eighth of nine children in the family. Both of his parents were of Irish descent.

1850 Federal Census, Division 15, Cherokee County, Georgia, showing the Galt family (line 35)

When Galt was eleven years old the family moved to Cherokee County, Georgia where Galt worked on the family farm while also attending school. At the age of 22, Galt left home, headed to California to seek his fortunes in the gold mines. He arrived in El Dorado County in March and lived there the rest of his life.

1860 Federal Census, Mud Springs Township, El Dorado County, California, showing the Galts (line 17)

Galt worked in the mines for many years before eventually turning his attentions to agriculture and politics. On October 25, 1855 he married Marion Misceyrene Gray and together the couple had seven children, two of whom died as infants.

1870 Federal Census, Mud Springs Township, El Dorado County, California, showing the Galts (line 14)

1880 Federal Census, Mud Springs Township, El Dorado County, California, showing the Galts (line 21)

Galt was elected to the position of El Dorado County Assessor and Collector in 1873 for a term of two years. In 1877 he was elected for another two year term, then in 1879 re-elected one more time, this time for four years.

1870 Federal Census, Mud Springs Township, El Dorado County, California, Non-Population Schedule (Agriculture) showing Thomas Galt's acreage and holdings (line 35)

1880 Federal Census, Mud Springs Township, El Dorado County, California, Non-Population Schedule (Agriculture) showing Thomas Galt's acreage and holdings (line 1)

Galt died a few days before Christmas in 1890 and was buried in the El Dorado Cemetery in the family plot with his two infant children, his wife and his mother, all of whom had died previously. A few other children and at least one grandchild were also later interred in the family's section of the cemetery.

Marion Galt's marker in the El Dorado Cemetery

Sources:
Suzi Mickus
History of El Dorado County, California -- published by Paolo Sioli, 1883
1850 Federal Census, Division 15, Cherokee County, Georgia
1860 Federal Census, Mud Springs Township, El Dorado County, California
1870 Federal Census, Mud Springs Township, El Dorado County, California
1870 Federal Census Non-Population Schedules - Productions of Agriculture
1880 Federal Census, Mud Springs Township, El Dorado County, California
1880 Federal Census Non-Population Schedules - Productions of Agriculture

Noble Mountain

2011-06-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

Noble Mountain's military marker in Placerville's Union Cemetery

I don't know if most people can say they have a favorite year, but I can. For me it was 2003. In the summer of 2003 I was on top of the world. Literally. That year I hiked my way to the summits of hundreds of mountains in California, most of them with Ashley trotting along right behind me.

When I think of 2003, there are three particular events that immediately come to mind, all of which took place within a three week period. The first was June 28 when Ashley and I, and several of our friends from the SoCal Hikers Yahoo! Group, hiked together to the top of White Mountain Peak (14,246'). White, California's third tallest mountain, was my first and Ashley's only "14'er". A little more than a week later I made it to the top of Mount Whitney (14,496' - the highest point in the contiguous 48 states) for my first time. Ashley was not able to join me on that trek because the summit is within the boundaries of a U.S. National Park (Sequoia) and dogs are not allowed on National Park trails.

But, my favorite hike from that (or any) year was one week later when Ashley and I reached the summit of Mount Tallac (9,735'), in the El Dorado National Forest, on the southwestern rim of the Lake Tahoe basin. As many people know, Lake Tahoe has always been a favorite destination of mine. It's a special area for me and to see it from this unique viewpoint was amazing. The scenery we saw on this hike was breathtaking.

Lake Tahoe and Fallen Leaf Lake, as seen from the summit of Mount Tallac - the trip report and photos from this hike can be found here, if you wish to see them - click the pano to see it larger

The day after our hike to the top of Mount Tallac I spent some time working in the old pioneer cemeteries of El Dorado County. That afternoon I found myself in Placerville's Union Cemetery on Bee Street, and as I worked my way through the headstones, taking photos and writing notes as I went, I stopped short in front of this headstone:

The second marker for Noble Mountain in Placerville's Union Cemetery

Noble Mountain?!? I love that name! And, it seemed especially topical and timely to me that day as I was still thinking about the vistas and views I'd witnessed on the previous day's hike.

* * * * *

Noble Washington Mountain
Born: December 12, 1844 (Somerset County, Pennsylvania)
Died: February 1 or 2, 1906 (Placerville, El Dorado County, California)
Interred: February 4, 1906 - Union Cemetery (Masonic Section), Placerville, El Dorado County, California
Occupations: Military Veteran (Company G, 2nd Iowa Cavalry - Civil War), Farmer, Physician, Surgeon

Noble Mountain

Noble Mountain was born in Pennsylvania near the end of 1844 to Jonathan and Elizabeth (nee Pringey) Mountain. He was one of at least nine children the couple had.

1860 Federal Census, Lower Turkeyfoot, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, showing the Mountain family with Elizabeth as the only parent (presumably a widow) - Also living with them was 87-year-old Hannah Mountain, presumably Jonathan's mother (line 23)

By 1870, Noble Mountain and his brother Levy were living in Bear Grove, Iowa. He must have been an Iowa resident for some time, however, probably moving there shortly after being enumerated in Pennsylvania's 1860 census. I say this for a couple reasons. Mainly, because he fought in the Civil War for the Iowa -- not Pennsylvania -- cavalry. This would put him in Iowa no later than 1865, and most likely a few years before that. Also, while in Iowa, likely soon after the war ended, he enrolled in the State University of Iowa College of Medicine, from which he graduated in 1873.

1870 Federal Census, Bear Grove Township, Cass County, Iowa, showing farmers Noble and Levy Mountain (line 33)

By 1880 he had moved 150 miles southeast to Grandview/Lettsville (now simply called Letts), Iowa, without his brother. In Lettsville, Noble Mountain lived in a boarding house and worked as an allopathic physician.

1880 Federal Census, Grandview Township (near Lettsville), Louisa County, Iowa, showing physician Noble Mountain (line 48)

At some point during the next twenty years, Noble Mountain moved to Placerville, in Northern California's "Gold Country". When, exactly, he moved is not known to me. There is no 1890 census to help narrow down the date. I would strongly suspect he moved to California shortly after being enumerated in the 1880 census rather than closer to 1900 when we next find him in Placerville's census. My reasoning for this assumption is due to the size of the funeral procession described in the obituary published after his passing in early 1906. The "longest funeral procession seen ... in a generation" comprised of "at least fifteen hundred (people)" indicates he was very well respected in the community and most likely a long-time resident.

1900 Federal Census, Placerville Township, El Dorado County, California, showing Noble Mountain as a physician/surgeon (line 34)

Noble Mountain passed away in February 1906 at the age of 61. A scan of his obituary follows this paragraph. I am also including a transcription of it below, for easier reading.

Obituary from the February 10, 1906 issue of the Mountain Democrat

A Last Loving Farewell

The fraternal and lamenting farewells to Dr. N.W. Mountain last Sunday, were under Masonic auspices. The memorial service from the lodge room of the order to the final rites at Union Cemetery, was well and impressively rendered by F. W. Gee, Master of Palmyra Lodge F. & A.M. Other orders enumerated in the last issue of the Democrat, paid emblematic tributes to the memory of their departed comrade and brother. The procession was led by the Placerville Band, through streets thronged by people from all parts of the county, to the number of at least fifteen hundred and formed the longest funeral procession seen in Placerville in a generation.

But in all the vast concourse of people no mystic or fraternal tribute was sadder or more impressive, than the spontaneous love and respect of hearts and homes in which the memory of a good friend, unselfish physician, true soldier and model gentleman, is forever enshrined. The following gentlemen were his pall bearers: Robt. Blair, R.P. Patterson, C.H. Dunton, A.S. Bosquit, N. Fox, and V.J. Campini. A male quartette composed of Messers A.S. Fox, Wm. Bland, Frank Morey and Max Mierson rendered appropriate hymns during service at the grave.

And when the last military salute and bugle call rang out on the listening air, the sunny soul of Dr. N.W. Mountain was in the clear upper sky. His last sympathetic and gratuitous service to suffering humanity and knightly service of his country, are sacred memories forever.

Update, July 23, 2011: Shortly after posting this bio I discovered Noble Mountain enumerated in the 1885 Colorado State Census for Chaffee County.

1885 Colorado State Census, Chaffee County, showing Noble Mountain (line 10)

Also, a month after posting this bio I went on a trip to Northern California. While there I made stops at the El Dorado County Museum and Records office where I found a couple photos of him as well as the Decree of Distribution which followed the probate of his last will and testament.

By 1898, Noble Mountain was the Administrator of the El Dorado County Hospital in Placerville. Under his leadership the hospital earned the reputation as an "emergency center par excellence".

Portrait of Noble Mountain, date unknown

The Decree of Distribution for his estate lists his siblings as his heirs: Joseph, Ross, Levi, Walter, Howard and Mary. His real estate and personal property were sold and the proceeds distributed among them. His personal property included several thousand shares of stock in mining and oil companies, his Knights Templar suit (chapeau, sword, belt, cape and trunk), and several promissory notes he held against people who owed him various amounts of money.

* * * * *

Ashley and me on the summit of Mount Tallac - (my own personal "Noble Mountain")

Sources:
Suzi Mickus
Becker Family Tree by nancbeck on Ancestry.com
Mary Lea Mountain Kruse
Obituary in the February 10, 1906 Mountain Democrat (Page three, column two)
1860 Federal Census, Lower Turkeyfoot, Somerset County, Pennsylvania
1870 Federal Census, Bear Grove Township, Cass County, Iowa
1880 Federal Census, Grandview Township (Lettsville), Louisa County, Iowa
1900 Federal Census, Placerville Township, El Dorado County, California
1885 Colorado State Census, Chaffee County
Directory of Deceased American Physicians, 1804-1929
California State Library
Souvenir of the 29th Triennial Conclave of the Knights Templar, San Francisco, September 1904
El Dorado County, Decree of Distribution, 1907 (Book 68, pages 99-101)
History of El Dorado County Hospital, 1855-1874, published by the El Dorado County Museum

Charley Storms

2011-06-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

Charley Storms' marker in Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard

Charley Storms
Died: February 25, 1881 (Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona) - Gunshot
Interred: Boothill Graveyard, Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona
Occupation: Outlaw, Gunfighter

Once considered by Wyatt Earp to be one of the deadliest men with a gun, Charley Storms picked a fight with Luke Short on February 25, 1881. Short was also considered by many as a notoriously dangerous gunman, sometimes referred to as "the undertaker's friend".

Today, nobody knows what the argument was about. Storms appeared in the Oriental Saloon where Short was dealing faro. Storms was drunk, waving a loaded gun around and verbally berating Short, threatening to kill him before finally calling him out onto the street in front of the saloon to settle the matter. Short accepted the challenge and the two men squared off on Allen Street.

The Oriental, now a clothing store (or, it was in 2003 when I took this picture, anyway)

Allen Street in Tombstone, Arizona

Storms offered Short the first shot which Short was all too willing to accept, and Storms received two slugs in the chest for his trouble. As he fell to the ground, Storms fired several times but his shots were wild and badly aimed, as he quickly died. Short simply slipped his gun in its holster, turned and walked back into the saloon to resume his faro game, leaving the dead body of Storms in the street for someone else to haul away to the cemetery.

Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard

Sources:
Tombstone's Boothill by Ben T. Traywick (1994)
Essential Guide For Your Tour of the Original Boothill Graveyard - self guided tour pamphlet from the Boothill Graveyard gift shop

Hannah Barlow

2011-05-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

Hannah Gumpert's (nee Barlow) grave in the Sonora Hebrew Cemetery

Hannah Barlow
Born: circa 1834 (Wittkowo, Prussia)
Died: November 28, 1867 (Sonora, Tuolumne County, California)
Interred: November 29, 1867 - Sonora Hebrew Cemetery, Sonora, Tuolumne County, California

The daughter of a Rabbi, Hannah Barlow was born in Wittkowo, Prussia. She emigrated to the United States sometime before 1855 when records show she became married to cigar store owner Elias Gumpert on June 5, 1855 in Sonora, California. The wedding took place in the home of Emanuel Linoberg, president of the Hebrew Congregation of Sonora. Linoberg signed the Gumpert's ketubah (a Jewish marriage contract), which was then filed with the county recorder as the official record of their marriage.

1860 Federal Census, Township 1 (Sonora), California, showing Elias and Hannah Gumpert and two of their children (line 30)

Hannah suffered from some type of incurable nervous disorder, the exact nature of which is not known. She succumbed to the disease in 1867 at only 33 years of age. She was survived by her husband, Elias, and three young children: William (nicknamed Wolf), Esther and Bernice. An obituary that was printed some time later in the Sonora Hebrew stated that the Odd Fellows fraternal organization attended her funeral in great numbers.

Following Hannah's death Elias moved his family to Stockton where he established another cigar business and became a prominent member in Stockton's Jewish community. He eventually remarried, to a woman named Sarah, and lived out the rest of his life in Stockton.

1880 Federal Census, Stockton, California, showing Elias and his new wife Sarah, with two of the three children from his previous marriage (line 28)

Sometime after a 1960 cemetery inventory when Dr. Robert Levinson documented Hannah's headstone, the marker went missing. The top half was found approximately three decades later and was returned to the grave site. The location of the rest of the headstone is not currently known.

Sources:
A Traveler's Guide to Pioneer Jewish Cemeteries of the California Gold Rush by Susan Morris
The Saga of Old Tuolumne by Edna Bryan Buckbee
1860 Federal Census, Township 1, Tuolumne County, California
1880 Federal Census, Stockton, Tuolumne County, California

Phillip Kramp

2011-05-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

Phillip Kramp's headstone in the Diamond Springs Cemetery

Phillip Kramp
Born: July 2, 1834 (Linter, Nassau, Germany)
Died: April 27, 1890 (Diamond Springs, El Dorado County, California)
Interred: Diamond Springs Cemetery, Diamond Springs, El Dorado County, California
Occupation: Farmer

Phillip was the second of three sons born to Christian and Anna Maria Kramp in the German town of Linter, Nassau (not to be confused with the capital of the Bahamas). The three boys, William, Phillip and Daniel, each attended school until the age of 14, as required by law, at which time they quit school to go to work on the family farm. On October 17, 1852, the entire family uprooted themselves from their hometown and emigrated to the United States, settling in Harmon, Missouri, where they resumed their farming occupations.

In early 1854 William, the oldest brother at the age of 25, left the family to head west in search of his riches. He earned his keep on the trip by working as a cook for the 26 men and three women in the wagon train he had joined, and eventually arrived in Diamond Springs a half year later on October 17, 1854. On arriving in the gold fields, he tried his hand at mining for a short while before coming to the conclusion that it just wasn't going to prove lucrative to him, and he again set his sights on farming, buying land and settling into a permanent home. In early 1858 Phillip also left the family home in Missouri and headed west, joining his brother William as an equal partner on the farm on April 17.

Together the brothers operated a fruit business covering one hundred acres where they grew apples, peaches, pears, plums, apricots, nectarines and cherries. Twenty acres of their land was also cultivated as a vineyard and winery where they produced 6,000 gallons per year of wine, brandy and vinegar.

William and Phillip were both members of the Grange in Placerville. Politically, they were both Democrats, and religiously were Protestant, members of Placerville's Episcopal Church.

Phillip married Katherine (or Catherine), daughter of Jacob and Margaret Schmidt, in San Francisco on December 19, 1859. Phillip and Katherine had two sons, one whom they named William Antone after Phillip's brother. The young William died at only two-and-a-half-years of age, but their older son, Albert Louis, survived childhood, living to the age of 62.

1860 Federal Census, Diamond Springs, California, showing the Kramp brothers and Phillip's wife Katherine (line 12) -- William's occupation is still listed as "Miner"

1870 Federal Census, Diamond Springs, California, showing the Kramps (line 20)

The Kramp brothers both died in the 1890s, Phillip on April 27, 1890 (aged 55) and William on November 7, 1893 (aged 64). Both were buried in the small Diamond Springs Cemetery where the young William had been interred several years earlier. Today, only Phillip and his son William have headstones. I am not sure if Phillip's brother William's grave was ever marked in any way. Daniel, the third Kramp brother, also died in the 1890s, passing away on August 23, 1895 at the age of 58. He, too, lived in, and was buried in, Diamond Springs, but I have no information on him as to when he came to California or what he did for a living.

The Kramp brothers' parents stayed in Missouri. In 1876, William traveled to Philadelphia to see the Centennial Exhibition. While on that trip he stopped in Missouri to visit his parents. It was the first time he had seen them since he left home 22 years earlier. As far as I know, it was the last time he ever saw them, too.

Young William Antone Kramp's headstone in the Diamond Springs Cemetery

Sources:
Suzi Mickus
History of El Dorado County, California -- published by Paolo Sioli, 1883
1860 Federal Census - Diamond Springs, El Dorado County, California
1870 Federal Census - Diamond Springs, El Dorado County, California

The Unknowns - Part 4

2011-05-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

One of 36 unknown "Nigger" Hill pioneers moved to the Mormon Island Relocation Cemetery

36 Unknown Pioneers
Interred: From approximately 1850 through 1870, Negro Hill Cemetery, Negro Hill, El Dorado County, California
Re-interred: 1954, Mormon Island Relocation Cemetery, El Dorado Hills, El Dorado County, California

Created by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1954, the Mormon Island Relocation Cemetery on the El Dorado/Sacramento County border holds the remains of many early California pioneers who were originally buried in eight community cemeteries and five individual grave sites located on formerly private properties. The eight cemeteries were from the towns of Mormon Island, Salmon Falls, Condemned Bar, Carrollton Bar, McDowell's Hill, Natural Dam, Doton's Bar and Negro Hill. One problem is, somehow during the relocation all references in the Army Corps' official documentation about "Negro Hill" were changed to "Nigger Hill". Nobody knows who made this name change, or why. The town site was never known by that derogatory term.

Mountain Democrat, April 28, 2011:
Prior to 1954, when the Army Corps of Engineers employed the offensive term, there was only one other reference to "Nigger Hill," and that was in a U.S. Government Land Map from 1860, staff writer Wendy Schultz noted in a 2006 Mountain Democrat story.

The relocation cemetery was created to hold displaced human remains from these early California mining communities that would soon become submerged when the new Folsom Dam was completed, creating Folsom Lake. As the Corps moved the graves to their new locations they included all original markers and ornamentation where any existed to begin with. In the Negro Hill Cemetery they found 36 unmarked graves, so new headstones were created for these relocated pioneers' bodies which now lie beneath markers that read: "Unknown, Moved from Nigger Hill Cemetery by U.S. Government - 1954". Naturally, this has been a source of controversy and contention since then.

The entrance gates to the Mormon Island Relocation Cemetery

Negro Hill, at the confluence of the American River's South and Middle forks, was actually a collection of a few small, adjacent communities known as Little Negro Hill, Big Negro Hill, Negro Hills then finally and collectively Negro Hill. The area was first mined by a company of Mormons in 1848, followed soon by some Spaniards who worked on another side of the hill, in Spanish Ravine. In the fall of 1849 several Negroes had moved into the area and settled and the settlement became named. The site was found to be rich, with the gold hidden in the sand and gravel paying as much as three hundred dollars or more per day to the men willing enough to perform the hard work required to extract it.

By 1853, the area had as many as 1,200 residents of every race and color including, among others, Dewitt Stanford, brother of future California governor Leland Stanford. Dewitt lived in Negro Hill for a while and built a grocery store. Dozens of other businesses opened and ditches were dug from nearby Salmon Falls, bringing water to Negro Hill for the miners to use in their sluices. The community became the supply center for the area and businesses flourished for about a half dozen years until the gold ran out and most people left for the next big strike, leaving behind a handful of farmers and the community cemetery.

An old bridge in Salmon Falls, now usually under a few dozen feet of water (you can see the water line by the trees) -- drought caused part of the lake to dry up in late 2007 and I was able to hike out on the lake bed to the old town sites that had been flooded a half century earlier

Since the relocation of the Negro Hill Cemetery and the placement of the controversial headstones, it has been suggested a number of times that the markers should be replaced with ones less offensive. Nothing much has ever been done, but there is now a more organized effort to have new markers created, with pressure from the Negro Hill Burial Project and the Stockton Black Leadership Council.

The main stumbling block today is one question: Who should replace the headstones? They were created and put into place by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, but the Folsom Dam project ended more than a half century ago and care and ownership of the cemetery property was transferred to El Dorado County. Responsibility for the cemetery currently belongs to the county's administration of cemeteries, a division of the Department of Transportation. DOT Director Jim Ware says:

I don’t know who is responsible, if anyone. The county didn’t relocate the graves or order/place the markers. I don’t have any funding to undertake the work to change the markers if that is what the end result is.

I believe that the board asked him (referring to Michael Harris of the Negro Hill Burial Project) to submit a plan to us for our review. The plan would need to include a funding source. If that happens, we’ll probably need to get with someone at Folsom Dam, (USBR or COE), and get them to take the lead on getting any necessary approvals and determine who should oversee the project.

As for their own possible involvement in the project, U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Andrew B. Kiger had this to say:

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is a project-based organization, meaning we can do work only specifically authorized, and with funding appropriated, by the United States Congress. We completed Folsom Dam in 1956, and transferred the cemetery property and its care to El Dorado County in 1954. We therefore have no known legal ability to directly participate as an agency in changing these grave markers, if in the end that is what the community chooses. We are, however, an agency of service-oriented and caring people, many of whom have already said they would volunteer their time to help make this right. In whatever way we can possibly contribute to the solution, we faithfully promise and intend to do so.

Complicating matters even further is the fact that the now-57-year-old markers could, themselves, be considered historic artifacts, creating possible further legal complications in getting them replaced.

Will the headstones eventually be replaced? If so, who will pay for and complete the work? Right now, your guess is as good as mine.

* * * * *

Update - May 30, 2011

An agreement has been reached and the headstones are in the process of being replaced.

Mountain Democrat, May 26, 2011:

El Dorado County Supervisor John Knight is to be commended for his work in resolving an issue in his district -- the Mormon Island Cemetery.

Knight has enlisted the help of the Prison Industry Authority to do some of the construction and preparation work relating to changing the headstones at the cemetery that use a racial slur to identify the remains of those transferred there from the Negro Hill Cemetery in 1954 to make way for Folsom Lake.

(Click the link above to read the full article)

* * * * *

Update - July 23, 2011

During my recent trip to El Dorado County I learned that two of the "Nigger Hill" headstones have been stolen. To prevent further thefts and to prepare for the installation of the new headstones, El Dorado County Department of Transportation, which controls the cemetery, has removed all of the markers. Eventually, one of the stones will be returned to the cemetery where it will be cemented into place with a descriptive plaque as an exhibit on the history of this controversial subject.

One of several holes left behind after the offensive headstones were removed

Negro Hill section of the Mormon Island Relocation Cemetery

Update - December 29, 2011

During my latest trip to El Dorado County I stopped at the Mormon Island Relocation Cemetery to see and photograph the new markers that had since been set in place.

One of the new markers with the correct town name

The Negro Hill section of the Mormon Island Relocation Cemetery, with all 36 moved graves

Besides the new headstones, these signs were also added to denote not only this section, but all of the cemeteries that have been relocated to this site

Sources:
Mountain Democrat, April 28, 2011 and May 26, 2011
Related historic documents from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, files released following a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Associated Press in April 2011.
History of El Dorado County, California -- published by Paolo Sioli, 1883
Suzi Mickus
Sue Silver
Bill Greenland

John Heath

2011-05-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

John Heath's marker in Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard

John Wesley Heath
Born: September 1843 (Miami County, Ohio)
Died: February 22, 1884 (Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona) - Lynched
Interred: Boothill Graveyard, Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona
Occupation: Outlaw

On December 8, 1883, five men went to the Goldwater and Castenada General Store in Bisbee, Arizona. Each man carried a rifle and two revolvers. Three men went inside while the other two stayed outside to guard the entrance and watch the street. Inside the store, Goldwater, the proprietor, was ordered to empty the safe and put everything into a bag. A customer named Duvall tried to be a hero and reached for his gun. He barely managed to touch the butt of his gun's handle before he was shot down by one of the robbers.

When the gunfire erupted inside, the two men stationed outside the store panicked and started shooting at anything and everything in the street that moved. An innocent bystander named John Tapiner tried to escape by running toward a nearby saloon. He was shot just as he reached the bat wing doors, and he fell dead on the saloon floor. Another bullet found, and killed, a woman named Mrs. Anna Roberts.

The gunfire outside unnerved the three thieves inside the store and they hurried toward the door, grabbing handfuls of jewelry as they ran. They escaped from the store with about $3,000 in cash and jewelry.

Deputy Sheriff Tom Smith ran toward the sound of the gunfire. With him was a civilian named Albert Nolly who was trying to help quell the situation. When they arrived at the street where the robbery was taking place they were met with a volley of fire from all five of the outlaws. Nolly was immediately hit. Deputy Smith opened fire on the thieves, soon joined by another civilian, James Kriegbaum, who also ran to the scene to help. Smith was shot down, but Kriegbaum continued to fire at the thieves as they mounted their horses and galloped out of town, shooting wildly into the night.

Kriegbaum grabbed the nearest horse and rode the 26 miles to Tombstone at a furious pace, arriving in only an hour and a half. The feat was too much for the exhausted horse, and the animal died as soon as they reached the Sheriff's Office in Tombstone.

A posse was quickly formed consisting of, among others, Kriegbaum (who was given a fresh horse), Johnny Behan, Wells Fargo Agent Bob Paul and Deputy Sheriff William L. Daniels. They headed back to Bisbee where they found another posse being formed. The Bisbee posse was led by a man named John Heath, who was loudly declaring that "them snakes" should be tracked down and hanged from the nearest tree. The two posses joined forces and Heath, claiming he knew the area better than anyone else, led them south, toward the Mexico border.

When dawn came and there was finally enough light to see, the men realized that Heath had lost the trail. The posse doubled back until they picked it up again, following the outlaws toward Sulphur Springs Valley, not Mexico as Heath had been insisting on. But, Heath continued to try to lead them off the trail and quickly garnered suspicion from the lawmen. Eventually they became angry enough that they told him to leave and go back to Bisbee.

After several days of searching, the posse eventually gave up and returned home. Deputies Bob Hatch and William Daniels continued the search on their own, concentrating on places they felt the outlaws may have gone looking for water. Eventually they made it to Frank Buckle's remote ranch. When they told him what they were looking for, Buckle said he hadn't heard of any robbery or killings, but a couple days earlier five mean looking men had visited his ranch and bought some horses from him. He further stated he had seen the same five men not long before as they rode past his place with John Heath.

When asked if he could identify the men, Buckle gave the deputies the names of the five outlaws: Daniel (Big Dan) Dowd, Daniel (Mike) Kelly, Omar (Red) Sample, Jack (Tex) Howard and someone Buckle knew only as Delaney. It was soon learned that the last man's full name was William (Bill) Delaney.

With this new information, Hatch and Daniels immediately returned to Bisbee where they found Heath and arrested him without incident on suspicion of being involved with the robbery and murders. Lying to him, they told Heath that Sample and Dowd had been captured and had implicated him in the robbery. Heath fell for the ruse and confessed. The robbery had been his idea and he was the mastermind who planned it all out.

For his own protection, Heath was taken away from Bisbee, secretly transported to Tombstone to be housed in the county jail there. Wanted posters were printed and posted all over the southwestern United States and northern Mexico offering a reward of $1,500 for each of the other five outstanding men.

Tombstone's courthouse on Toughnut Street

A jail cell on exhibit in the back of the courthouse on the ground floor

Eventually, word came from Clifton, Arizona that a man there was spending far too much money than his income could possibly allow, including giving expensive jewelry to a young lady who caught his fancy. Deputies Hovey and Hill were sent there to investigate and they found Samples and Howard. The two outlaws made a brief and feeble attempt to fight with the lawmen but Samples was lightly wounded and Howard quickly surrendered. Both were arrested and taken to Tombstone's jail to join Heath.

Sometime later Daniels heard from a friend in Mexico that Dowd was in Chihuahua. Daniels disguised himself as a ranch hand and rode incognito into Mexico where he found Dowd. In the middle of the night he bound and gagged Dowd, then hopped a freight train, bringing Dowd back to the United States in an empty box car.

Next, Daniels rounded up Kelly, who he found in a Deming, New Mexico barber shop. Kelly joined the rest of the gang in Tombstone's jail. Bill Delaney was the only one left still unaccounted for.

Again, Daniels heard from his Mexican friends that Delaney could be found just over the border in Mexico. Daniels headed south again and found Delaney celebrating in a cantina. Daniels waited outside until Delaney stepped out into the night, where he found himself staring into the barrel of Daniels' gun. Finally, a month and a half after the night of the crime, all six men were behind bars in Tombstone and the trial could proceed.

Court convened on February 4, 1884. Four days later the men were indicted and all six pleaded "not guilty". Heath asked for a separate trial, a request that was granted.

The trial for the other five men got started the next day, and two days later, February 11, they were all found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to be hanged. A week and a half later at his own trial, Heath was found guilty of second degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Even though he was known to have been the mastermind behind the robbery he was tried and convicted of the lesser crime and given the lighter sentence because he did not actively participate in the robbery or shootings.

A courtroom inside Tombstone's courthouse

The citizens of Bisbee were outraged that Heath got off so lightly (as they saw it). Early in the morning of February 22, the day after his sentencing, approximately fifty armed men from Bisbee rode into Tombstone. Several Tombstone residents who knew what they were up to joined the lynch mob as they went straight to the courthouse. When newly elected Sheriff Ward responded to a knock on the door he found himself looking at the business ends of dozens of guns. He saw immediately that resistance would do no good and he simply handed the men the keys to the jail cells. When the five men sentenced to death saw the Bisbee mob marching in their direction they began loudly pleading for mercy, but the mob ignored them completely. They were there for Heath, and Heath only.

Dragging him from his cell, they took him to a telegraph pole on Toughnut Street. Heath begged the mob to not shoot him up after hanging him. The mob quickly and quietly strung him up then left the scene, leaving Heath dangling and kicking as the rope slowly strangled him to death. Soon thereafter, when Tombstone's residents began their daily routines and left their homes they were shocked to find Heath's body suspended from the pole. A note had been pinned to his clothes. It read:

John Heath was hanged to this pole by the citizens of Cochise County for participation as a known accessory in the Bisbee Massacre, at 8:20am, February 22, 1884.

A photo of John Heath hanging from the telegraph pole on Toughnut Street

Dr. G. E. Goodfellow, the county physician, was called upon to examine the body. The coroner's jury, knowing full well precisely who killed Heath, did not want to name names. Their official version of the cause of his death was "...death from emphysema of the lungs, which might have been, and probably was, caused by strangulation, self-inflicted, or otherwise, as in accordance with the medical evidence."

The other five participants in the Bisbee Massacre made a last ditch attempt to escape their punishment by offering a well-known Tombstone attorney a large amount of money to appeal their convictions. He refused to accept their retainer.

On March 7, 1884, the prisoners were given the last meal they requested: fried oysters and assorted desserts. They were also each given a haircut, a shave and a new black suit. At noon the next day they were led into the jail yard next to the courthouse, each prisoner accompanied by one lawman.

The view from the second floor courtroom down to the jail yard and the gallows

In the jail yard, they climbed the stairs to the gallows where their hands and feet were bound, a black hood placed over each of their heads and nooses fastened around their necks. They were offered the opportunity to speak out and make their last words known if they so desired, at which point Kelly bravely shouted "Let 'er go!" Sample, Howard and Delaney all remained quiet, but Dowd sarcastically stated, "This is a regular choking machine." His statement would quickly prove ominously prophetic.

The gallows as seen from the ground level in the jail yard

At exactly 1:18pm Sheriff Ward pulled the rope that opened the trap door on the gallows floor and all five men fell through. Each man's neck snapped when he reached the end of the rope and they remained motionless as their bodies swayed gently under the creaking gallows. Every man, that is, except Dowd. His neck failed to break and he writhed violently for several minutes as he slowly choked to death.

One of 500 tickets issued to witnesses of the hanging of the five convicted robbers/killers

The men's heart rates were monitored so they could be officially pronounced dead. Delaney was the first to die, taking only a half minute. Dowd was the last of the five to die, requiring a full nine and a half minutes.

The five men were taken for burial to the Boothill Graveyard where Heath, the master of their fate, had already been laid to rest a couple weeks earlier, following his lynching.

William E. (Bill) Delaney's marker in Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard

Daniel (Big Dan) Dowd's marker in Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard

Jack (Tex) Howard's marker in Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard

Daniel (Mike) Kelly's marker in Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard

Omar W. (Red) Sample's marker in Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard

While in jail awaiting his execution, Dan Kelly wrote a poem about the morning the Bisbee Mob lynched Heath.

The Hanging of John Heath

As I awoke this morning at eight,
I heard a knock at the outside gate.
The jailer went to open the door,
And there beheld a hundred or more.

Kriegbaum came to Ward's relief,
And the jailer left on account of his belief.
The Stranglers came to have some fun;
They roped John Heath and away they ran.

The mob went out four by four,
And met the sheriff at the door.
They gave a howl and then a roar;
And throwed the old man on the floor.

Harry Solon, brave and true.
Entered the door to see what he could do;
But found it was of no avail,
For the mob had taken Heath from the jail.

They went down Toughnut, crossed the main,
And then came back to Toughnut again;
They marched Heath down to near the bend,
And here they said the fun would end.

The valiant Heath, for nerve he had no lack,
He told the mob he had one request to make,
Said he, "My boys, when I am dead,
Do not pierce my body with your lead."

They placed brave Heath beneath the wire,
And pulled him up six feet or higher;
The way he died, it was a shame.
But Sheriff Ward was not to blame.

Oh, Stranglers, prepare, for the day will come,
That you will have to meet your doom.
You will curse the hour that you were born,
The morning that Gabriel toots his horn.

By the condemned man Dan "Mike" Kelly,
Cochise County Jail
February 22, 1884

Sources:
Tombstone's Boothill by Ben T. Traywick (1994)
Essential Guide For Your Tour of the Original Boothill Graveyard - self guided tour pamphlet from the Boothill Graveyard gift shop
justcrazyinmn on Ancestry.com

John Price

2011-04-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

John Price's headstone in Coloma's Pioneer Cemetery -- his middle initial on the headstone is incorrect

John G. Price
Born: May 1831 (Burlington, Vermont)
Died: October 17, 1902 (Coloma, El Dorado County, California) - Gangrene
Interred: October 19, 1902 - Pioneer Cemetery, Coloma, El Dorado County, California
Occupations: Miner, Clerk, Military Veteran, Grocer, Postmaster, Store Owner

John Price was born and raised in Vermont. At the young age of nineteen he boarded a ship and set sail around the Isthmus of Panama, headed for California. He arrived in San Francisco then headed to Stanislaus County to seek his fortune in the newly discovered gold mines. Not having much luck in the mines, he soon returned to San Francisco then headed up to Sacramento where he got a job working as a clerk in a grocery store through 1852 and early 1853. In July 1853 he again decided to try his luck hunting for gold, this time moving to Coloma, site of the original discovery that spawned the rush to California.

In the early 1860s when the Civil War began, Price headed back east to fight, enlisting as a private in the 4th Infantry Regiment's Company F. After he was mustered out of the army he returned to Coloma, making it his home for the rest of his life. He again worked as a store clerk, this time in Robert Bell's store. In 1868, Price bought the store from Bell and continued to run it as a general merchandise business. For a time, his store also served as the town's post office with Price himself holding the title of Postmaster. Price also served as Secretary for the local Masonic lodge.

Robert Bell's old store, arguably the most picturesque building ruin in Coloma

Highway 49 through Coloma -- Robert Bell's store is on the right

On May 29, 1870 Price married Hannah A. Teuscher. Known familiarly as Helen, she was the daughter of long-time resident and prominent California pioneer John Teuscher. John and Hannah Price had one child, a daughter born in 1872, whom they named Cora Embeline.

Newlyweds John and Hannah (Helen) Price, enumerated in the 1870 Federal Census, Coloma Township, El Dorado County, California (line 14)

1880 Federal Census for Coloma, El Dorado County, California, showing the Price family (line 42)

1900 Federal Census for Coloma Township, El Dorado County, California, showing the Price family (line 9)

John passed away in Coloma on October 17, 1902 and was buried in the town's Protestant Cemetery two days later. Less than two weeks after his death his wife also passed away. She was laid to rest next to him.

Hannah Price's headstone in Coloma's Pioneer Cemetery

Sources:
History of El Dorado County, California -- published by Paolo Sioli, 1883
Suzi Mickus
El Dorado County Marriage Records, Book B, Page 427
Coloma Cemeteries -- edited by Lynette Mizell, Coloma Cemetery Committee, 1997
1870 Federal Census, Coloma Township, El Dorado County, California
1880 Federal Census, Coloma, El Dorado County, California
1900 Federal Census, Coloma Township, El Dorado County, California

David Baruh

2011-04-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

David Baruh's headstone in Nevada City's Jewish Cemetery

David Baruh
Born: March 28, 1870 (Nevada City, Nevada County, California)
Died: April 15, 1877 (Nevada City, Nevada County, California) -- Pneumonia
Interred: Nevada City Jewish Cemetery, Nevada City, Nevada County, California

Born in 1870, David was the fifth of seven children for Aaron and Theresa (nee Wolfe) Baruh. Unfortunately, David's life was not meant to be long. He died of pneumonia less than three weeks after his seventh birthday and he was buried in the small, local Hebrew cemetery. David's family, was one of the more well-known, prominent pioneer families in California's Nevada County.

1870 Federal Census, Nevada City, California, showing the Baruh family, including 3-month-old David (line 2)

Along with his own brother Herman, David's father Aaron emigrated to the U.S. from his home in Bavaria, arriving in Nevada City in 1852. Aaron and Herman opened a clothing business. Their store was prosperous, but a disastrous fire in 1856 burned them out. They rebuilt only to be burned out again in another fire that destroyed much of the town's business center two years later. This time Aaron started out on his own, operating a grocery store. By 1870 he was also running a saloon. He was known to accept gold dust in payment for his wares as an alternative to ready, spendable cash.

Aaron and Herman were both active in the local Jewish community. Herman served for a time as vice president of the Nevada Hebrew Society, having been elected to the post in 1858. The Society's president at the time was a man named Jacob Kohlman. Several years later, in 1866, Aaron bought a home on Nevada City's Main Street that Kohlman had built in 1852. This house still stands and it is still owned by the Baruh family's descendents. It is said that a mezuzah adorns every doorpost inside the house.

Deuteronomy 6:9 (King James) - And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

1900 Federal Census, Nevada City, California, showing Aaron and Theresa Baruh with David's older brother Marcus still living at home (line 87) -- Aaron died seven years later and is buried in the family plot in Colma, California's Home of Peace Cemetery, near San Francisco

Aaron also prospected for gold, and once staked a claim that he named the Jenny Ledge, after his daughter (David's sister) Jennie.

Jennie married a man named Isadore Zellerbach, the son of another prominent gold rush pioneer: Anthony Zellerbach, a man who was instrumental in California's Northern mines as well as the transportation and banking industries. When Isadore and Jennie fell on hard times financially, they moved to San Francisco. There, Isadore started a small paper and stationery business. He turned that little paper company into an industry giant called the Zellerbach Paper Company, later renamed the Crown-Zellerbach Corporation after a merger. Today, after more mergers and buy-outs, it is part of Georgia-Pacific, one of this country's leading producers of paper products, as well as several other items.

Late in her life, Jennie acted as a benefactor in preservation efforts for the Nevada City Jewish Cemetery where her brother David was buried. As late as 1996, her grandson Stephen served as the chair on the Commission for the Preservation of Pioneer Jewish Cemeteries and Landmarks.

Update - December 29, 2011:

During a recent trip to the area, I stopped in Nevada City to find that house on Main Street that belongs to the Baruh family. Despite it's nearly 160 year age, the home looks to be in remarkably good shape!

The Baruh family home on Main Street in Nevada City, California

A sign hangs from the eave by the front door identifying the home as belonging to the Baruh family

Sources:
rejordan116 on Ancestry.com
A Traveler's Guide to Pioneer Jewish Cemeteries of the California Gold Rush by Susan Morris
1870 Federal Census, Nevada City, Nevada County, California
1900 Federal Census, Nevada City, Nevada County, California
BibleGateway.com
Wikipedia

George Ingham

2011-04-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

George Ingham's grave site in Coloma's Pioneer Cemetery

George Henry Ingham
Born: August 2, 1824 (Alexandria, Jefferson County, New York)
Died: February 9, 1906 (Placerville, El Dorado County, California) - Pneumonia
Interred: February 11, 1906 (Coloma Pioneer Cemetery, Coloma, El Dorado County, California)
Occupations: School Teacher, Lawyer, County Auditor and Recorder, Prosecuting Attorney, District Attorney

George Ingham

Born in New York in 1824 to Joseph and Betsey (nee Homan) Ingham, as a young man George taught school while he also studied law. In 1850, he and his brother joined a wagon train headed west to California where George settled in Coloma, the heart of California's gold rush. George continued to study law and in 1853 he was admitted to the California Bar. In 1854, George briefly returned to the east coast, marrying Sarah Bristol in Middletown, Connecticut on February 22, 1854.

Wedding announcement for George and Sarah Ingham, in the April 15, 1854 Mountain Democrat

Sarah (Bristol) Ingham

He soon returned to Coloma with his new bride. Together they had six children, two of whom died in childhood -- Charles Henry, their first, at the age of four months and Kate Estell, their fifth child, who was four years old at the time of her death.

1870 Federal Census for Coloma Township, showing the Ingham family (line 30)

1880 Federal Census for Placerville, showing the Ingham family (line 46 - line numbers are illegible)

1900 Federal Census for Placerville Township, showing widower George and daughter Albina (line 40)

George served as the El Dorado county auditor and recorder in Coloma, moving to Placerville when the county seat was relocated there. In Placerville he became the county's prosecuting and district attorney, a position he held for twelve years. He was also very active in California's early political scene, figuring prominently in the Democratic party.

In 1906, at the age of 83, George died of pneumonia. His body was transported back to Coloma where he was buried in the Protestant Cemetery (now called the Pioneer Cemetery) with his wife Sarah, who had died in 1898, and their two children who had passed away in childhood.

Grave site of Charles and Kate, the two Ingham children who died young

Albina Viola, the second of George and Sarah's children, took a job with the Mountain Democrat, a newspaper based in Placerville which has the distinction today of being California's oldest continuously published paper. Eventually Albina became the co-owner and publisher, and is also the longest working employee in the newspaper's history.

1910 Federal Census for Placerville Township, showing Albina Ingham (line 35)

1920 Federal Census for Placerville City, showing Albina Ingham (line 34) - she died the following year

Sources:
Coloma Cemeteries -- edited by Lynette Mizell, Coloma Cemetery Committee, 1997
Suzi Mickus
Mountain Democrat, April 15, 1854
1870 Federal Census, Coloma Township
1880 Federal Census, Placerville
1900 Federal Census, Placerville Township
1910 Federal Census, Placerville Township
1920 Federal Census, Placerville City

William Kinsman

2011-03-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

William Kinsman's cross in Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard - the year painted on the marker is incorrect

William Kinsman
Born: December 20, 1854 (Poldice Gwennap, Cornwall, England)
Died: February 23, 1883 (Tombstone, Pima County [now Cochise County], Arizona) - Gunshot
Interred: Febrary 25, 1883 -- Boothill Graveyard, Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona
Occupation: Miner

William was born in Cornwall to John and Catherine (nee Bray) Kinsman, and emigrated with his family to the United States at a young age. He worked as a miner in Virginia City, Nevada for a time before moving to Tombstone, Arizona where he again worked as a miner. I found two men named William Kinsman in Tombstone's 1880 census, both from England and both the correct approximate age. I am unsure which one was him, or if he possibly may have been counted twice. The first, enumerated on June 1, 1880, shows Kinsman living on his own as a boarder in a hotel.

1880 Census - Tombstone, Arizona showing William Kinsman (line 47) living in a hotel

The second, enumerated six days later, on June 7, 1880, shows Kinsman living with two men named John Kinsman, one older and one younger, presumably his father and brother. We know his parents also lived in Tombstone because his funeral notice says the funeral took place in their home at the corner of Seventh and Toughnut Streets, making this census entry plausible also. (But, where was his mother?)

1880 Census - Tombstone, Arizona showing William Kinsman (line 40) living with his father and younger brother

In early 1883 someone played a practical joke on Kinsman, publishing an ad in the Tombstone Epitaph announcing that he and a female acquaintance of his named May Woodman were planning to get married. Kinsman had no intention of marrying Woodman, and he stated so with a notice of his own, published in the following edition of the newspaper.

The public rejection infuriated Woodman and she confronted Kinsman on February 23 in front of the Oriental Saloon. A short argument ensued, ending abruptly when Woodman pulled a .38-caliber revolver and shot him in his left side. He fell to the ground as she tried to put a second bullet into him, but Chief of Police Coyle was quickly on the scene and her second shot hit the sidewalk as Coyle struck the gun from her grip. The second shot was unnecessary, anyway. Kinsman died approximately four hours later.

Tombstone's Allen Street, where the Oriental Saloon stood

The notice announcing William Kinsman's funeral

Woodman was arrested and tried for the murder. Her claim that she fired in self defense fell on deaf ears and the jury convicted her of manslaughter. Before she could be sentenced, she attempted to commit suicide. She had been complaining about having trouble sleeping, so Dr. Goodfellow prescribed a mild mixture of chloral hydrate and morphine. But, instead of taking the medication, Woodman was hoarding the daily doses until she had enough to be lethal, and she then took it all at once. Dr. Goodfellow was called and he managed to save her life.

During the course of the doctor's medical attentions with Woodman he discovered a couple surprising facts. She was pregnant, for one. And, he also said it was evident that someone had beaten her during the early stages of her pregnancy. Whether that someone was Kinsman or not was unknown. These facts were never brought up during her trial. Woodman eventually had a miscarriage while in jail awaiting sentencing.

The sentencing took place on May 22, 1883 when Judge Pinney struck down a motion for a new trial and sentenced her to prison for five years, the maximum sentence the law allowed him to give. Woodman was sent to the Territorial Prison in Yuma, Arizona where she was soon involved in yet another controversy. Toward the end of the year word came out that she was pregnant again, a feat that should have been impossible considering the fact that she was in solitary confinment in a women's prison where no men ever set foot. The Arizona Sentinel speculated in a late November 1883 article that this was most likely a false rumor.

Of course, this report was started simply to injure Captain Ingalls, the superintendent of the prison and has no foundation except in the imagination of some brute to whom a pure thought is an absolute stranger.

Whether the rumors of her supposed immaculate conception were true or not will never be known. Tired of the negative publicity, Arizona's acting Governor Van Arman offered Woodman a deal. He would pardon her and release her from prison if she would leave the Arizona territory and never come back. She agreed to the offer's terms and was released on March 15, 1884, disappearing west to California where she was never heard from again.

Sources:
Tombstone's Boothill by Ben T. Traywick (1994)
Essential Guide For Your Tour of the Original Boothill Graveyard - self guided tour pamphlet from the Boothill Graveyard gift shop
1880 Federal Census - Tombstone, Pima (now Cochise) County, Arizona
Tombstone Epitaph
The Arizona Sentinel
OneWorldTree on Ancestry.com

John Koch

2011-03-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

John Koch's marker in the Diamond Springs Cemetery (Epitaph: At Rest)

John Bartholo Koch
Born: November 2, 1827 (Baden, Germany)
Died: April 24, 1879 (Diamond Springs, El Dorado County, California)
Interred: Diamond Springs Cemetery, Diamond Springs, El Dorado County, California
Occupations: Miner, Hotel Owner, Farmer, Vintner

Born in Baden, Germany in 1827, John Bartholo Koch grew up on a farm and attended a local school. In 1855 he headed to the United States, going straight to the gold town of Ringgold in El Dorado County, California, where he mined for a short time.

At the end of the year, Koch married Margaret Rickert in Diamond Springs on December 30, 1855. Margaret was a fellow native of Baden, Germany who emigrated to the United States the previous year, first living in New York before moving across the country to settle in Diamond Springs, California. John and Margaret Koch had six children, four girls and two boys, one daughter dying in infancy, at less than ten months of age.

1870 Federal Census, Diamond Springs Township, showing the Koch family (line 24)

Immediately after getting married, Koch bought a boarding house from Michael Rickert (possible relationship to Margaret is unknown to me) and he began running it as a hotel. It was little more than a cabin, but business was good and a few years later he was able to purchase the adjoining farm where he operated a vineyard, soon expanding it by buying another adjoining piece of land, bringing his total holdings to 160 acres. His vineyard produced about 4,000 gallons of brandy and wine each year.

In 1878 the small hotel was replaced with a two and a half story frame building at a cost of $5,000. Considered the best hotel on the road from Folsom to Placerville, the new building was 52 feet long by 32 feet wide, containing 12 guest rooms, dining and office space, a double veranda extending the full length of the building and a brick cellar capable of holding 20,000 gallons of wine and brandy.

Koch died in 1879, shortly after the new hotel opened. Following his death, his wife Margaret continued to operate the hotel and distillery, with the help of her two grown sons.

Koch's obituary in the April 26, 1879 Montain Democrat

1880 Federal Census, Diamond Springs Township, showing Margaret and her children (line 37)

The tiny Diamond Springs Cemetery

Margaret Koch's marker (d. February 9, 1901) in the Diamond Springs Cemetery

Sources:
Historical Souvenir of El Dorado County, California -- published by Paolo Sioli, 1883
Suzi Mickus
Sue Silver
1870 Federal Census, Diamond Springs Township, El Dorado County, California
1880 Federal Census, Diamond Springs Township, El Dorado County, California
Mountain Democrat, April 26, 1879

William Ware

2011-03-07T00:00:00.000-08:00

William Ware's headstone in the Spanish Dry Diggings Cemetery

William Holcomb Ware
Born: November 29, 1827 (Caswell County, North Carolina)
Died: July 12, 1915 (Placer County Hospital, Grass Valley, Placer County, California)
Interred: Spanish Dry Diggings Cemetery, Spanish Dry Diggings, El Dorado County, California
Occupations: Military Veteran (Private, Company A, 5th Texas Cavalry, Confedrate States of America), Saw Mill Laborer, Farmer

William Ware was born in 1827 to John and Mary Polly (Holcomb) Ware, the fourth of twelve children. His obituary (see below) states he lived in California "for over sixty years" at the time of his death, putting him in the northern part of the state in or before 1855. However, his military headstone pictured above states he was fighting in the Civil War as a member of the Confederate Army's 5th Texas Cavalry, in the early to mid 1860s.

Ware's obituary in the July 22, 1915 Georgetown Gazette

The earliest record I could find that definitely proves Ware was living in Northern California is the 1870 Federal census for Placer County's Township 4.

1870 Federal Census, Township 4, Placer County, California -- showing Ware living with several other men, possibly in a hotel or employer provided housing (line 40)

This census record, along with the 1900 and 1910 censuses, also dispute another fact mentioned in the obituary. Ware was born in North Carolina, not South Carolina as the obit states.

1900 Federal Census, Township 5, Placer County, California -- showing Ware living alone/head of household (line 38)

1910 Federal Census, Township 5, Placer County, California -- showing Ware living alone/head of household (line 9)

There is one more inaccuracy in Ware's obituary. It further states that he was survived by only two sisters and a niece. My records indicate that one of those sisters was Sarah, who died five years later. He also had a sister named Minerva whose date of death I have not been able to determine, and she could be the second sister referred to. However, Ware also had a brother who was still living at the time -- John Pinkney Ware, who was the last of the Ware siblings to die when he passed away on October 3, 1929 at the age of 90.

Though Ware lived and died in Placer County, his body was buried in the Spanish Dry Diggings Cemetery in northern El Dorado County, where some other family members of his were buried. A second headstone with his name also lists his brother and sister-in-law who had died previously. I'm guessing this shared headstone was the only one marking his grave for many years, and the military headstone in the photo at the top of this page was put into place much more recently.

A second headstone with Ware's name in the Spanish Dry Diggings Cemetery, along with his brother and sister-in-law who had both passed away before him

Sources:
Suzi Mickus
Georgetown Gazette - July 22, 1915
1870, Township 4, Placer County (line 40)
1900, Township 5, Placer County (line 38)
1910, Township 5, Placer County (line 9)
LHKanevsky on Ancestry.com

William Palmer

2011-02-28T00:00:00.000-08:00

William Palmer's marker in the Shingle Springs Cemetery

William Madison Palmer
Born: December 1, 1821 (Sandy Mush, Buncombe County, North Carolina)
Died: November 3, 1895 (near Shingle Springs, El Dorado County, California
Interred: November 5, 1895 (Shingle Springs Cemetery, Shingle Springs, El Dorado County, California)
Occupations: Miner, Rancher, Spring Garden Ranch owner, Army Veteran

William Palmer was born in North Carolina to George (1794-1859) and Polly (Starrit - 1801-1876) Palmer. Palmer's ancestors on his mother's side of the family were well known participants in the Revolutionary War, having served with distinction in the fight for the young country's freedom from England.

Palmer's early schooling was minimal. When he was a young boy growing up in North Carolina there were no free, public schools available. For a little while his parents enrolled him in a Buncombe County subscription school, but his education there was limited. Soon, as a young man he left to fight in the Mexican-American War, serving under General Zachary Taylor's command in the Mexican mountain pass called Buena Vista, where General Santa Ana had entrenched his troops.

After the war, Palmer followed the lure of gold, arriving in California in 1852. He worked in the mines around Coloma and Placerville, and even went as far north as Downieville in Sierra County in search of his treasure. In 1859 he gave up on mining and settled back in El Dorado County where he became a cattle rancher, keeping 300 head of cattle and a thousand sheep. In 1875 he expanded his holdings by purchasing the Boland, better known as the Spring Garden Ranch. This ranch, in addition to the Union valley he already owned, gave him control of approximately 3,000 acres of ranch and mountain land in the county.

1880 Federal Census, Mud Springs Township, El Dorado County, California, showing Palmer (line 9)

Productions of Agriculture census report for Mud Springs Township, showing Palmer's assets in 1880 (line 3)

Palmer was married twice, first to Elizabeth Cowie on March 20, 1871 in Sacramento. Elizabeth died sometime before 1880, as the census page I quoted above attests. Palmer got married again in 1881, this time to Serena B. Elder. No children are known to have resulted from either union.

Following his death in 1895, Palmer was interred in the Shingle Springs Cemetery near the town of El Dorado (formerly called Mud Springs Township). A large, almost bench-like stone marker was installed on his grave site. I'm uncertain if it is a sarcophagus and his casket is sealed inside it (seems a bit small for that) or if it is supposed to serve merely as a headstone above his buried body.

Shingle Springs Cemetery

A tiny pumpkin someone placed on Palmer's marker in the late fall of 2008

Sources:
Suzi Mickus
Historical Souvenir of El Dorado County, California -- published by Paolo Sioli, 1883
1880 Federal Census, Mud Springs Township, El Dorado County, California
Selected US Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880, Productions of Agriculture in Mud Springs Township, El Dorado County, California
leahpturner on Ancestry.com

Thomas Easton

2011-02-21T00:00:00.000-08:00

Thomas Easton's grave in the Plymouth Memorial Cemetery (epitaph is indecipherable)

Thomas W. Easton
Born: September 1, 1823 (Kent County, England)
Died: October 30, 1881 (California)
Interred: Plymouth Memorial Cemetery, Plymouth, Amador County, California
Occupations: Farmer, Teacher, Miner, Hotel Keeper

Thomas Easton was born in England in 1823 and eight years later moved to the United States with his parents. They settled in Otsego County, New York. At a young age, Thomas set out on his own, first moving to Cattaraugus County where he farmed for a few years. After he turned 21 he again moved, this time to Saginaw County, Michigan, where he taught in a private school for a couple seasons, after which he went to Wisconsin to work as a farmer again, for four years.

While in Wisconsin, Easton met New York native Lucinda Jane Van Loan (or Van Lone), and they got married on May 14, 1848 in Oakland, Jefferson County. They had two children born in Wisconsin, a boy and a girl: Mary J. (Born: circa 1849) and George Washington (Born: November 28, 1852, Died: December, 1930). In 1854, the family packed up and headed west for California, stopping first in Sacramento County before continuing to the Placerville area. For several years they lived in El Dorado County where Easton worked primarily in the mining business, then as a hotel keeper for seven years. He and his wife also welcomed two more daughters to the family, born in California: Fannie A. (Born: circa 1856) and Carrie L. (Born: circa 1863).

1860 Federal Census, Cosumnes Township, El Dorado County, California showing the Easton family (line 23)

1870 Federal Census, Cosumnes Township, El Dorado County, California showing the Easton family (line 12) - also enumerated in the household was a native of China named Kie Ah, who worked for the family as a cook

In October, 1873 they moved south to Plymouth in Amador County. Here, Easton again worked in mining, helping to develop the mines managed by Alvinza Hayword. He also, again, worked as a hotel keeper, running the well known Forest House.

1880 Federal Census, Plymouth, Amador County, California showing the Easton family (line 1)

Lithograph depicting Thomas Easton's Forest House hotel in Plymouth

A disastrous fire that burned several buildings, including the Forest House, on June 10, 1877, ruined Easton financially. He was able to rebound and soon rebuilt the hotel which again flourished. A letter sent to the Amador Dispatch in Jackson, following the fire, describes its devastation:

About three o'clock on Monday, the tenth of June, 1877, occurred the largest fire ever experienced in this town. The fire commenced in the rear of J. C. Williams' stable and spread over the upper part of the town in an incredible short space of time, reducing twenty or more buildings with their contents to ashes. The following is a partial list of the losses: Easton's hotel, McMullen's boarding and lodging house, James Davis' Store, John Davis' dwelling house, Baer & Coblentz's store, Odd Fellows' hall, P. Quin's saloon and dwelling house, dwellings of Williams, Thomas and Richardson, Wentworth's blacksmith shop and dwelling, Jacob Smith's shoemaker shop and dwelling, Potter's barn and out-houses, J. C. Williams' stable, five horses, lumber yard, wagons, hay, grain, etc., the residences of the Misses Snyder, and a number of other houses and buildings, about twenty-two in all.

The fire was said to have been started by some children who were playing with matches in some straw in the rear of the stable. The total loss is estimated at fifty thousand dollars, only a small portion being covered by insurance.

Thomas Easton died in 1881. His wife Lucinda died 27 years later, never having remarried.

Lucinda's headstone in the Plymouth Memorial Cemetery

Entrance to the Plymouth Memorial Cemetery

Following his father's death, son George W. continued to run the Forest House hotel. George also suffered the results of a devastating fire, though this time the hotel was spared. A July 18, 1902 article in the Amador Ledger describes the wild fire that raged through a large portion of Amador County three days earlier.

George W. Easton of the Forest House in Plymouth was one of the principal sufferers. He had a tract of land of about 200 acres in the fire swept district, with two dwelling houses, barn and other buildings; one occupied by Anson Davis. All was taken by the whirlwind of fire. His loss will foot up to $2,000 or more.

Sources:
History of Amador County, California, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers by Jesse D. Mason (1881)
The Shenandoah Valley Area of Amador County, California (1854-1904) by Elsie E. Dixon
Amador Dispatch
Amador Ledger, July 18, 1902
Wisconsin Marriages, pre-1907; Volume 1, page 14
1860 Federal Census, Cosumnes Township, El Dorado County, California
1870 Federal Census, Cosumnes Township, El Dorado County, California
1880 Federal Census, Plymouth, Amador County, California
Jenks-DeCrona and harperj11 on Ancestry.com

Mary Day

2011-02-14T00:00:00.000-08:00

Mary Day's headstone in the Chinese Camp Cemetery

Mary J. Day (maiden name unknown to me)
Born: circa February 1850 (Wisconsin)
Died: 1919
Interred: Chinese Camp Cemetery, Chinese Camp, Tuolumne County, California

I know very little about this week's pioneer. Her headstone provided some info, but the official census records don't agree.

1880 Federal Census, for Township 3, Tuolumne County, California, showing the Day family (line 27)

On June 10, 1880, Mary was living in Tuolumne County's Third Township with her husband Benj (presumably Benjamin), son William H. McClarty (presumably from a previous marriage) and daughter Tilda (presumably Matilda). This record lists her age as 32 years, giving us a calculated birth year of 1848. It also states she was born in California, but the next two census records I found disagree on both the year and place of her birth.

1900 Federal Census, for Township 6, Tuolumne County, California, showing the Day family (line 14)

The census taken on June 8th and 9th in 1900 for Tuolumne County's Sixth Township tells us that Mary became a widow sometime after the 1880 census was taken. She also had a son named Orville sometime around 1882. Additionally, this time the record gives specific information about her birth, stating she was born in February 1851, in Wisconsin, to parents who were both from England. Also, in 1900, Mary and her children shared their home with a boarder named Eli Wolford.

1910 Federal Census, for Township 4, Tuolumne County, California, showing the Day family (line 43)

On April 20, 1910, Mary and her son William lived in Tuolumne County's Fourth Township, where William worked occasionally as a laborer doing odd jobs. Mary's age is listed as 60 years, giving us a calculated year of 1850, this time agreeing with her headstone. This census also agrees with the 1900 census, stating she was born in Wisconsin to English parents. There is no sign of Matilda/Tilda/Tillie any more, but son Orville was enumerated in the very next household where he was living with his own family -- consisting a wife, son and daughter -- and working as a laborer on the public roads (if I'm deciphering that correctly).

When Mary died in 1919 she was buried in the tiny cemetery in Chinese Camp, located on a small hill right next to highway 49. The overgrown cemetery is very easy to miss as you drive by, and I drove past it countless times over the years until a headstone peeking above the tall weeds managed to catch my eye one day, and I stopped.

Chinese Camp Cemetery - you can see how it would be easy to miss as you drive by - everything is hidden in the weeds

Chinese Camp Cemetery entrance gate in the summer (July 6, 2006)

Chinese Camp Cemetery entrance gate in the winter (Christmas Day 2007)

Sources:
Mary Day's headstone
1880 Federal Census, Township 3, Tuolumne County, California
1900 Federal Census, Township 6, Tuolumne County, California
1910 Federal Census, Township 4, Tuolumne County, California

Robert Peel

2011-02-07T00:00:00.000-08:00

Robert Peel's grave in Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard

M. Robert Peel
Born: Wednesday, May 31, 1854
Died: Saturday, March 25, 1882 (Charleston, Arizona) - gunshot through the heart
Interred: Boothill Graveyard, Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona
Occupation: Mineral Surveyor, Mining Engineer

M. Robert Peel was killed in a botched robbery attempt at the Tombstone Mining and Milling Company in Charleston, ten miles southwest of Tombstone, Arizona. He worked there as a Mining Engineer and Mineral Surveyor. On the day of his death, late in the evening, he was in the office with three other men: W. L. Austin, the Mill Manager; E. E. Hunt, the Company Assayer and George W. Chaney, the Company Clerk.

The four men were working as usual when the door was suddenly flung open and two masked men armed with rifles stormed in. Austin attempted to clandestinely reach for a nearby revolver when the taller of the two bandits opened fire. The first shot pierced Peel's heart, killing him instantly. The rest of the office workers scrambled for cover by the time the second shot was fired, and the third shot from the robber's gun blew out the light. Then, mysteriously, the two robbers turned and fled into the night, perhaps surprised when the light was shot out and concerned about the uncertainty of where the three surviving workers had hidden, seeking shelter. The several bars of silver bullion and large amount of cash in the office vault were never touched.

A man was sent to Tombstone to notify Sheriff Behan about the murder and attempted robbery while the rest of the mill workers formed search parties, riding the main nearby trails looking for signs of the fleeing criminals. Behan arrived in Charleston a few hours later with the County Coroner. After a quick examination of the scene, Behan then headed south, toward the Mexico border, following the killers' trail, but they were not caught that day.

A white Stetson hat had been dropped by one of the bandits. That, along with some plaster casts Behan made of some boot prints at the scene, and the descriptions the three surviving office workers had given, led to the positive identification of the two bandits. The owner of the dropped Stetson was Zwing Hunt. His partner in crime, whose boots matched the prints left at the scene, was Billy Grounds. Both men had very long criminal records in Texas and had been known to ride with Curly Bill Brocious and his gang of hoodlums.

Sometime after the shooting, days later, Deputy Sheriff E. A. Harley learned that the two wanted men were hiding on Jack Chandler's ranch near Tombstone. Behan was out of town so Harley took charge and organized a posse which included Billy Breakenridge, E. H. Allen, Jack Young and John A. Gillespie. Early in the morning, Harley sent this posse, led by Breakenridge, to Chandler's ranch with orders to bring the two outlaws back to Tombstone "dead or alive".

Breakenridge was familiar with the men they were looking for and was sure he could convince them to give up without any gun play. When they arrived near the ranch he ordered Gillespie and Young to hide behind the wood pile where they could watch the house's back door while Allen and himself hid behind a low bank of a nearby creek, giving them a clear view of the front door. His plan was to wait for the men to come outside on their own, then confront them and convince them to return to Tombstone to stand trial.

Gillespie, a brand new Deputy Sheriff at the time, with less than 12 hours on the force, already had designs on becoming the top Sheriff, and he decided his chances for advancement in the department would be much better if he captured the outlaws single-handedly. Defying orders, he marched right up to the back door of the ranch house, announced himself and ordered the men to come outside. In response, Hunt flung open the door, firing as he did so, and Gillespie was killed instantly. Young was also shot, taking a bullet in his thigh. When the gun play at the rear of the house began, an innocent ranch hand fled out the front door, arms raised as he begged the deputies not to shoot. Grounds, who was in the house behind the door, began firing, hitting Allen in the shoulder. The force of the bullet's impact drove Allen off his feet and he fell into the creek. Breakenridge, the only one in the posse now still in the fight, could not see Grounds in the darkness, but he fired several times in the direction of the flashes from the muzzle of Grounds' gun, hitting him in the neck and face. Grounds tried one last time to raise his gun before he dropped to the ground, dead.

Hunt fled out the back door and scrambled up a small hill behind the house. At the top of the rise he became silhouetted in front of the faint light of the rising sun and Breakenridge and Allen (who by this time managed to climb out of the creek) both fired several shots at him. Hunt was hit by a single shot, the bullet passing through his body, puncturing a lung in the process. Though nearly fatally wounded, he still managed to continue fleeing into the brush.

Breakenridge tended to his wounded men then went up the hill to search for Hunt, finding him lying in the brush not far away. The dead and wounded were loaded into a wagon and Breakenridge transported them to Tombstone. Hunt's injury was so severe it was thought he had no chance of survival, so he was taken straight to the morgue. But, after two days when he showed signs of improvement, he was eventually taken to the hospital.

As Hunt rested in the hospital, recovering under the care of Dr. Goodfellow, one day a friend stopped to visit and offered to take Hunt for a buggy ride for some fresh air. Inexplicably, Dr. Goodfellow allowed this, and neither man were ever seen in Tombstone again. It was later learned that the friend was actually Hunt's brother, Hugh, who had traveled from Texas to arrange for his brother's escape to a ranch in the Chiracahua Mountains to the east. The escape was short-lived, however. Apaches attacked them at their mountain camp a few weeks later. Zwing Hunt was shot through the head and killed, while Hugh Hunt managed to escape with his life. Zwing was buried by Army scouts at the spot where he fell, and the canyon has been known as Hunt's Canyon since then.

The Chiricahua Mountains, approximately 50 miles east of Tombstone

Behan sent Breakenridge and Phil Montague to dig Hunt's body up for a positive identification to quell rumors that Hunt had actually managed to escape with his brother yet again. Satisfied he was the right person, his body was then reburied. Peel, Gillespie and Grounds were all interred in Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard.

John Gillespie's grave in Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard

Billy Grounds' grave in Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard

Sources:
Tombstone's Boothill by Ben T. Traywick (1994)
Essential Guide For Your Tour of the Original Boothill Graveyard - self guided tour pamphlet from the Boothill Graveyard gift shop

Frank Zentgraf

2011-01-31T00:00:00.000-08:00

Frank Zentgraf's simple marker in Saint Michael's Cemetery

Frank Zentgraf
Born: Sunday, February 14, 1875 (California)
Died: Sunday, April 19, 1914 (Green Valley, El Dorado County, California)
Interred: Tuesday, April 21, 1914 (Saint Michael's Cemetery, Cameron Park, El Dorado County, California)
Occupation: Laborer

Frank Zentgraf (left) with his dad, brothers George and Jacob, Jr., George's children and a friend (standing)

Frank was born in 1875 to Jacob and Mary (nee Fisher) Zentgraf, the last of their nine children. Frank and all eight of his siblings survived to adulthood, something that wasn't all that common with a family of that size back then.

1880 Federal Census, White Oak Township, showing the Zentgraf family (near the bottom of the page)

1910 Federal Census, Mud Springs Township, showing the Zentgraf family (line 59)

Frank did die prematurely, however. His fate was sealed when his sister Mary married Augustus Wulff on October 2, 1895. I don't know his reasons, but Frank hated Wulff from the beginning and there was bad blood between the two of them. It all came to a head on April 19, 1914 when the two men fought a duel. Both died as a result.

El Dorado Republican, April 24, 1914:

Deadly Duel in Green Valley - Both Now Dead!

Sunday evening, Frank Zentgraf was killed instantly by his brother-in-law, Gus Wulff. Wulff lies at the point of death. Frank shot at Wulff first with a .32 revolver striking him in the chest and in the groin. Trouble between them began when Wulff married Frank's sister 15 years ago [sic]. The funeral services of Frank Zentgraf were held from his home at 2 o'clock Tuesday afternoon with Rev. Buck of Placerville officiating and interment occurred in the cemetery there. The body was escorted to its final resting place by a large concourse of friends and relatives.

Photo of the Green Valley School class of 1887, printed in the December 2, 1963 Mountain Democrat - Frank is second from right in the front row and his sister Mary is second from right in the second row

Zentgraf family plot, Saint Michael's Cemetery

Saint Michael's Cemetery

The white building in the background in that last photo is not a church, though that is what it was built to resemble by the phone company who, among others, encroached on this cemetery's land. The "church" houses telephone switching equipment. Originally, the cemetery grounds extended one or two hundred feet further south, including land which now has streets and houses on it. Presumably, there are still bodies of some of California's early pioneers resting below those streets and houses.

* * * * *

Edited: July 23, 2011

On a recent trip to El Dorado County I looked for, and photographed, the old Zentgraf house to include on this page.

The Zentgraf house

A sign on the Zentgraf house

A historical marker next to the house

Sources:
Suzi Mickus
Sue Silver
El Dorado Republican, April 24, 1914
Mountain Democrat, December 2, 1963
1880 Federal Census, White Oak Township, El Dorado County, California
1910 Federal Census, Mud Springs Township, El Dorado County, California
TheMacBean (via Ancestry.com)

Guadalupe Robles

2011-01-24T00:00:00.000-08:00

Guadalupe Robles' grave in Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard

Guadalupe Robles
Died: 1888
Interred: Boothill Graveyard, Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona
Occupation: Wood Cutter

Guadalupe Robles was an honest man. Unfortunately for him, his brother Manuel wasn't. Manuel and his partner Neves Deron robbed a train near Nogales, Mexico, shooting the train crew in the process. Fleeing the scene of the crime, they headed to French Joe Canyon in the Whetstone Mountains where Guadalupe was camped. He was convinced by the outlaws to let them hide out at his home.

Sheriff Slaughter eventually learned where the outlaws were holed up and he headed after them with Burt Alvord and another Deputy. They arrived at the camp near daybreak. When Guadalupe heard the lawmen he ran toward them, seeking the safety and protection of the law. But, in the dim light the lawmen weren't taking any chances and they shot at anything and everything that moved. Guadalupe was killed instantly. Devon was also killed in the affray but Manuel, though seriously wounded, managed to climb aboard a horse and escape.

Guadalupe and Devon's bodies were transported to nearby Tombstone, where they were buried in the infamous Boothill Graveyard.

Neves Deron's grave in Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard

Sources:
Tombstone's Boothill by Ben T. Traywick (1994)
Essential Guide For Your Tour of the Original Boothill Graveyard - self guided tour pamphlet from the Boothill Graveyard gift shop

Daniel Hall

2011-01-17T00:00:00.000-08:00

Daniel Hall's headstone in the Planter's House Cemetery

Daniel Tompkins Hall
Born: August 2, 1825 (New York)
Died: November 5, 1893 (Shingle Springs, El Dorado County, California)
Interred: November 7, 1893 (Planter's House Cemetery, Shingle Springs, El Dorado County, California)
Occupations: Blacksmith, Farmer, Hotel Owner

Daniel was born to Isacc and Experience L. (nee Spoffard or Spafford) Hall in 1825, in New York. The exact date isn't known with any certainty, but his headstone gives his age at the time of death as 68 years, three months and three days. This gives us a calculated birth date of August 2, 1825. The headstone wasn't set into place until a year and a half after his death, though. Experience (and I'm not talking about his mother) tells me this makes the age listed on it suspect. Memories of those left behind fade with time, and as I've discovered all too often while researching these old cemeteries, the information listed on the headstones is often inaccurate.

Daniel moved to Northern California in 1851, where he lived out the rest of his life. He worked as a blacksmith and farmer, then sometime around 1860 became the proprietor of Planter's House, one of several roadhouses along the route between Sacramento and Placerville. These roadhouses, generally no more than a mile or two distant from the next, were originally crude structures that provided a meal and a place to sleep to those traveling to and from the mines. Little more than canvas tents at first, some of these roadhouses became respectable hotels over time.

The following paragraph, from page 211 of Ralph Herbert Cross' book The Early Inns of California (1844-1869) mentions Planter's House and its owners.

A few rods east of the Shingle Springs House was a log cabin called the Missouri House, built by R. S. Wakefield in 1851. In 1852 he built the famous old Planter's House on the same site, and this became the stage station ... Wakefield continued to run the place until 1863, when it burned down but was rebuilt on the still-hot ashes of the original place. He operated the new house until his death from smallpox, when his widow married Hall, who ran it for some years. Thereafter the place came into the possession of John Russi, who was the proprietor until 1933, when the hotel burned for the last time.

This description doesn't say exactly when Wakefield died and Hall took over proprietorship of the hotel. However, the year 1863 mentioned is obviously incorrect. It happened before then. How long before, I'm not exactly sure. There is a brief mention in the June 21, 1862 issue of the Mountain Democrat, under the heading "Ball at the Planter's House", which mentions a party that took place at the hotel in honor of the new owner: D. T. Hall. He was also enumerated in the 1860 federal census as already being occupied as a hotel keeper.

Hall was married four times, though none of his wives are listed in my records as a widow of Wakefield's. However, Hall's fourth wife did marry John Russi following Hall's death, which verifies one fact from that quote from Cross' book.

Hall's first wife was Arietta Jones, a native of Peoria, Illinois, whom he married in Sacramento on April 6, 1853. A year and a half later they had a daughter they named Ellen Arietta. Less than two weeks after Ellen was born, Arietta died, presumably of complications from childbirth.

Arietta Hall's headstone in the Planter's House Cemetery

Hall's second wife was Almira Doan, a native of Lyme, Ohio. Their wedding took place in El Dorado County on February 26, 1855. Now, this is only a guess on my part since I have no records to prove it, but I'm thinking Almira may have been Wakefield's widow, and the date in the paragraph I quoted above from Cross' book was a typo. Was that supposed to say "Wakefield continued to run Planter's House until 1853, when it burned"? Not 1863? That would make much more sense to me. It would have given Wakefield plenty of time to rebuild the hotel before dying of smallpox, and also would agree with the 1860 census records that state Hall was already running the hotel by then. My records do not show what happened to Almira to end her marriage to Hall.

1860 Federal Census, Mud Springs Township, showing the Hall family (line 1), including Hall's brother, Almira, Ellen (daughter from Hall's first marriage), Almira's brother, wife and child, and a couple hotel guests

Hall's third wife was a New York native named Catherine, from whom he divorced in 1874. Beyond that meager bit of information, I know nothing else about her.

1870 Federal Census, Mud Springs Township, showing the Hall family (line 13), including Catherline, Ellen (daughter from Hall's first marriage) and several hotel guests

Hall's fourth and final wife was Elizabeth Sims, A Louisiana native known familiarly as Lizzie. They married in Shingle Springs on March 11, 1880, when Hall was 54 years old and his new bride was a mere 15 years of age. They had four children together, three boys and one girl: Lawrence S., Alvin Sims, Avice Aimee and Norvin N.

1880 Federal Census, Mud Springs Township, showing the Hall family (line 9), including Lizzie, her sister and several hotel guests

Hall flirted with death once in 1873 when he was shot in the face. The identity of the gunman was never determined, and while his injuries were severe, Hall eventually recovered. Death finally caught up with him on November 5, 1893, though, when he died suddenly and unexpectedly. While seemingly in good health, he experienced a severe headache, and within minutes collapsed lifeless. His body was buried in the small cemetery that had been established many years earlier next to the Planter's House hotel, near the grave of his first wife Arietta.

Daniel Hall's obituary in the November 11, 1893 issue of the Mountain Democrat (page 5, column 3)

The scan quality of the newspaper page his obituary was printed on is poor, so here is a transcription of it for easier reading.

Another pioneer and old-time resident of El Dorado county has fallen out of the procession. At about 11 o'clock last Saturday night, while in apparent good health, D. T. Hall of Shingle Springs was seized with a pain in his head and in a few moments expired. He was a native of New York and came here in 1851 where he has since resided. Having chosen a location and a line of business, he was a good stayer and generally successful. He was a blacksmith, hotel-keeper and farmer, and during a residence of 42 years at Shingle Springs, he had been kicked twice by vicious horses and once shot by an unknown coward, receiving injuries that would have killed an ordinary man. He survived to die a natural death at the age of sixty-eight years. Five children, four by his last wife and widow, and Mrs. Samuel Spong, a daughter by his first wife, survive him. He left them a handsome estate, consisting of the Planter's House and a large farm well cultivated and stocked. He was buried Tuesday the 7th inst., with funeral services by Rev. C. C. Peirce which were a deserved tribute to his memory.

1900 Federal Census, Mud Springs Township, showing the widow Lizzie and her children (line 93), living with Lizzie's sister, brother-in-law and nephew

Brief mention of a headstone being put into place for Daniel Hall in the April 27, 1895 issue of the Mountain Democrat (page 8, column 2)

Cemeteries developed next to many of the roadhouses in the early days of the gold rush. As the roadhouses themselves disappeared over the years, so did the evidence of many of the cemeteries we now know existed but no longer know just where. A few of them do still exist though, but changes in land ownership has most of those on private property today. Such is the case of the old Planter's House Cemetery. It is behind an antique store on Mother Lode Drive in Shingle Springs, on a bluff between the shop and highway 50. For many years the tiny cemetery was accessible only during the antique store's business hours because the property is fenced and the gate is locked after hours. But, the store owners were eventually convinced by the county to provide 24/7 access to the cemetery and a year or two ago they created a path outside their fenced property line to allow visitors free access.

December 24, 2009 photo of the Planter's House Cemetery -- recent heavy snowfall caused many trees in the area to fall, like this one that covered nearly the entire tiny cemetery

Sources:
Suzi Mickus
Sue Silver
The early inns of California (1844-1869) by Ralph Herbert Cross
Folsom Telegraph, March 22, 1873
Mountain Democrat, June 21, 1862; November 11, 1893 and April 27, 1895
U.S. Federal Census, 1860, Mud Springs Township, El Dorado County, California
U.S. Federal Census, 1870, Mud Springs Township, El Dorado County, California
U.S. Federal Census, 1880, Mud Springs Township, El Dorado County, California
U.S. Federal Census, 1900, Mud Springs Township, El Dorado County, California

Alexander Morrison

2010-12-13T00:00:00.000-08:00

Alexander Morrison's headstone in the American House Cemetery

Alexander Morrison
Born: October 20, 1816 (Scotland)
Died: August 15, 1893 (Clarksville, El Dorado County, California)
Interred: August 16, 1893 (Morrison Ranch Cemetery - aka American House Cemetery, El Dorado Hills, El Dorado County, California)
Occupations: Stock Raiser, Rancher

Alexander Morrison was born in Scotland, as was his wife Jessie (nee Coatsworth). They came to California sometime in the 1850s to raise a family, which consisted of four children, two of whom (possibly twins) died in 1858, approximately a week apart, at the age of five.

1880 Federal Census, White Oak Township, showing the Morrison family (line 9)

Alexander and Jessie, as well as their last two children, were buried in a small, private cemetery located on their ranch land. Also buried in this cemetery are Jessie's brother Thomas, and Thomas' wife Laurinda as well as one of Alexander and Jessie's grandchildren. It is believed that the first two children, who died young as I already mentioned, may also be buried here, but no markers exist to prove that assumption.

Alexander Morrison's obituary from the August 19, 1893 Mountain Democrat

The cemetery is on a small hill near present day Highway 50. In the early days of the gold rush, before the land it occupies was owned by the Morrison family, a road house existed here. It was called the American House. After gold was discovered and thousands flocked to the area, dozens of road houses were built along the route between Sacramento and the gold fields in and around Coloma. These road houses provided crude lodging and meals to the hopeful Argonauts traveling east, as well as those headed back west, usually homeward bound, disappointed and frustrated at their inability to strike it rich.

Today, the cemetery is still on private property, though no longer owned by the Morrison family.

American House Cemetery

Sources:
Suzi Mickus
Mountain Democrat, August 19, 1893
1880 Federal Census, White Oak Township, El Dorado County, California

Frank Harris

2010-12-06T00:00:00.000-08:00

Minnie, visiting the grave of Frank "Shorty" Harris (and Jim Dayton)

Frank "Shorty" Harris
Born: July 21, 1856 (Rhode Island)
Died: 1934 (Big Pine, Inyo County, California)
Interred: November 11, 1934 (Death Valley -- by the West Side Road, Inyo County, California)

Occupation: Prospector

Frank "Shorty" Harris

Shorty

Frank Harris was born in Rhode Island on July 21, 1856. By the age of seven he was an orphan. The 1870s found him heading west via train as he stopped in the mining towns of Leadville, CO and Tombstone, AZ, as well as some Idaho mining camps. Eventually, he made it to Death Valley and he remained in the area for the rest of his life.

Frank stood all of 5' 4", which quickly earned him the sobriquet "Shorty". He was described as having big ears, blue eyes and a bushy mustache, and he was known as a spinner of tall tales (or, an outright liar), but he was well liked and regarded by the local denizens anyway. When he had money, Shorty was generous to a fault, providing funds and aid to many who were down on their luck. When Shorty, himself, was broke, those he had helped out previously returned the favor.

Shorty had a well-deserved reputation for being able to "smell" gold. He made several significant discoveries, though he rarely profited from them. He preferred prospecting and drinking rather than the hard work of mining, and almost always let his discoveries go for a pittance.

Shorty was in Goldfield, Nevada during the town's booming heyday, but he had arrived too late to participate in the hunt for gold there, since there were no remaining good locations to stake out. He then headed into the Funeral Mountains in Death Valley, where his friend Jack Keane had found some gold at the site where the remains of the Keane Wonder Mine exist today. (It is now fenced off and closed to the public by the National Parks department, claiming unstable ground and cyanide contamination in the area.)

The Keane Wonder Mine's mill

Looking southwest, toward the Death Valley floor, from near the top of the Keane Wonder Mine mill

But, again, Shorty was too late and all of the good sites had been claimed. So, Shorty partnered up with a man named Ernest "Ed" Cross, and the two headed east, back toward Nevada. On August 9, 1904, as Cross was preparing their breakfast, Shorty was busy chasing down a mule that had run off during the night. Tripping over a rock, he fell down. As he stood back up and brushed himself off, he looked around him incredulously for a short while before shouting back to Ed to forget about breakfast and come help him scoop up some of the rocks. They gathered as much as they could carry, then headed to Goldfield for an assay. The results from the assay showed the rock was extremely rich in gold, though accounts I've found differ greatly on the exact dollar amount per ton.

The old Cook Bank, arguably the most famous ruins remaining in the ghost town of Rhyolite, the town that grew from the Bullfrog Claim discovery

In Rhyolite, looking east toward the jail and the pockmarked mountain behind it, which is littered with open mine shafts

Shorty always claimed he was the one who made the Bullfrog Claim discovery, but some 40 years later, Cross asserted that he was the one who first found the gold bearing rocks. Whether Cross' later claim is true may never really be known, but once the site had been found, Shorty celebrated by going on a bender. Six days later when he finally sobered up he learned that he had lost or sold his interest in the discovery to either 1) a man named J. W. McGaliard in exchange for $1,000 and a mule, or 2) someone named Bryan for $25,000 -- depending on whose account you believe (#2 was Shorty's own version from a 1930 interview for AAA's magazine). Cross, however, joined with McGaliard (indicating to me that story #1 is the most likely true version), and the two formed the Original Bullfrog Mine. They took the name from Shorty's name for the Bullfrog Claim, so called by him because the color of the green rocks reminded him of the animal. Cross eventually sold his claim in the mine for $125,000 and bought a ranch in Escondido where he moved with his family.

One of many open shafts dug straight down into the ground in the middle of Rhyolite

A 1909 photo of Rhyolite, looking northwest from the mountain behind the jail (which is visible at the bottom of the photo) -- the prominent three-story Cook Bank building can be seen just left of center. To it's left, at the edge of the photo, the three story Overbury building can also be seen.

Shorty, meanwhile, continued wandering the desert. Later in 1904, he convinced Leonard McGarry, the Bullfrog Postmaster, to provide him with a grubstake. With another partner, this time George Pegot, he headed to the Panamint Mountains on Death Valley's western side. There, they found gold pockets on the side of Hunter Mountain which assayed at $250 per ton. This created a new rush of argonauts to the area, forming the Gold Belt Spring Mining District. Again, Shorty celebrated by getting drunk, spending much of the rush inebriated, and once again failed to profit from his find.

The following year, in 1905, Shorty again convinced some people to provide a grubstake, and this time with partner Jean Pierre "Pete" Aguereberry, headed toward Ballarat. Before they made it to the town, Aguereberry spotted gold flecks in a rock and they each staked out claims, naming the discovery Providence. This time, instead of celebrating by drinking himself into a stupor, Shorty's grubstakers rushed him to San Francisco to find investors and created the Cashier Gold Mining Company, and Shorty came out of the deal with 50,000 shares of company stock and $10,000 in cash.

The town that came into existence around the Providence claim was named Harrisberry after the two discoverers of the gold, but soon somehow changed to Harrisburg, omitting Aguereberry's contribution to the discovery. Today, little is left of the town.

1900 Federal Census for Panamint Precinct, Inyo County, California, enumerating Frank Harris (line 16)

Shorty continued to prospect and drink for the rest of his life, but made no more gold discoveries quite as significant as those already mentioned. He lived in Ballarat most of the time, and when he wasn't out prospecting, he was generally found in Chris Wicht's saloon. One year on the Fourth of July, he celebrated as usual by drinking until he passed out. His friends came up with an idea for a practical joke to play on him, and a crude coffin was quickly built and Shorty was put inside. When he showed signs of regaining consciousness, they held a service over his "body", then started carrying the coffin out of the saloon toward the cemetery. As soon as the fog lifted from his mind enough for him to realize what was going on, he shot up, jumping out of the coffin, and ran out of town. He wasn't seen in Ballarat again for several months.

Shorty's cabin in Ballarat no longer exists, but it probably looked something like this one which still remains

Shorty always preferred traveling on foot or by mule/horseback. He didn't trust automobiles, which were becoming more and more popular late in his life. He felt they were too expensive and difficult to maintain. As he said: "I never had much use for a flivver." He did apparently own one at some time, though, but as he once related, he used it to get even with a Native American who had cheated him. He did this by selling it to the man at an incredibly low price, then sat back and watched in delight as the constant struggle to maintain the vehicle -- buying tires and other parts -- nearly bankrupted the entire tribe. (Remember, Shorty had a penchant for exaggeration...)

Eventually, Shorty moved to a cabin in Big Pine where he died in 1934 at the age of 78 years after a lengthy illness. Before his death he wrote his own epitaph. He wanted the marker on his grave to read "Here lies Shorty Harris, a single blanket jackass prospector". The site he chose for his grave was in Death Valley. He wanted to be buried next to his old friend Jimmy Dayton, who passed away more than three decades earlier.

The marker on Shorty's (and Dayton's) grave(s)

Jim Dayton worked on the mule team wagons hauling borax to the city of Mojave. On one trip when he was late arriving in Daggett, a search party set out looking for him. They found his dehydrated dog, barely alive. The dog led them to Dayton, who lay dead under a mesquite bush about a half mile from the old Eagle Borax Works, and very close to Badwater, the lowest point in the United States. Dayton's six mules were also dead, still attached to the wagon in their tangled traces. Dayton was buried on the spot and the grave was covered with the bones from his dead mules.

As he wished, Shorty's body was transported to Death Valley by Dewy Albright and was buried next to Dayton. The body was lowered into the ground exactly at sunset, and the burial service was officiated by Chaplain Henry from the Cow Creek CCC camp. In attendance were more than 300 people including Christian Brevoort Zabriskie (President of the Pacific Coast Borax Company and namesake of Death Valley's Zabriskie Point), Bob Montgomery (original owner of the Montgomery-Shoshone Mine, the most productive mine in the Rhyolite area), and 150 men from the Cow Creek CCC camp. While many people had died and/or been buried in Death Valley prior to this, Shorty's burial is claimed to be the first in the valley's history to be accompanied by a Christian service.

The view west from Shorty's grave, looking toward the Panamint Mountains

Shorty's grave is next to the West Side Road, an unpaved and occasionally rough road on Death Valley's floor

Just south of Rhyolite, there is a collection of sculptures and art decorating the Nevada desert, much to the chagrin of the Bureau of Land Management. These works are cared for by the non-profit organization called the Goldwell Open Air Museum, formed in 2000. One of these sculptures, entitled Tribute to Shorty Harris, by artist Fred Bervoets, depicts a pickaxe wielding prospector/miner being followed by a penguin. Why a penguin? As the artist explains, he chose a penguin for the sculpture because it seemed the most out of place in this context, and thus represented how "alien" the artist himself felt in the desert. Personally, I prefer the more fanciful explanation from Clint Boehringer, former BLM caretaker for the Rhyolite town site: When Shorty got drunk, he didn't see pink elephants. He saw penguins.

Ashley, near the "Tribute to Shorty Harris" sculpture in the Goldwell Open Air Museum south of Rhyolite

Sources:
Historical Site in Inyo County, California: Shorty Harris Grave in Death Valley National Park
Legends of America - Frank "Shorty" Harris, which includes the full quoted interview with Shorty Harris as originally printed in a 1930 edition of the Magazine of the American Automobile Association of Southern California
Southern California's Best Ghost Towns: A Practical Guide by Philip Varney
DesertUSA - Shorty Harris
Death Valley History - Shorty Harris
A Mine of Her Own (Women Prospectors in the American West, 1850-1950) by Sally Zanjani
1900 Federal Census, Panamint Precinct, Inyo County, California
Goldwell Open Air Museum - Permanent Collection
Wikipedia.org

Gertrude Pring

2010-11-29T00:00:00.000-08:00

Gertrude Pring's marker in Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard

Gertrude Pring
Born: circa 1854 (Tennessee)
Died: 1881 (Tombstone, Pima County [now Cochise County], Arizona) - Suicide
Interred: Boothill Graveyard, Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona

Gertrude and her husband Charles N. Pring lived on Toughnut Street in Tombstone. Charles was a stock broker. His job selling mining shares kept him away from home often, leaving Gertrude at home alone. Eventually, after countless months of solitude, Gertrude's loneliness and despair drove her over the edge, and she took her life with an overdose of chloral hydrate.

Charles and Gertrude enumerated in Tombstone's 1880 census

Her body was buried in Boothill Graveyard among the prostitutes, cattle rustlers, gunmen and occasional regular citizens.

Sources:
Tombstone's Boothill by Ben T. Traywick (1994)
Essential Guide For Your Tour of the Original Boothill Graveyard - self guided tour pamphlet from the Boothill Graveyard gift shop
1880 Federal Census, Tombstone, Pima County, Arizona

James Murphy

2010-11-22T00:00:00.000-08:00

James Murphy's marker in Coloma's Saint John's Catholic Cemetery

James J. Murphy
Born: April 1824 (Cork County, Ireland)
Died: October 20, 1906 (Auburn, Placer County, California)
Interred: October 22, 1906 (St. John's Catholic Cemetery, Coloma, El Dorado County, California)
Occupations: Miner, Cattle Rancher

James was born to Richard and Jane (nee Lodge) Murphy in 1824. As a young man he emigrated to the United States, finding himself in New York state where he married Catherine O'Connor, another native of Ireland, in 1853 in Plattsburg, Clinton County. Shortly after they were married they traveled to California where they lived the rest of their lives. They first stopped in San Francisco, where their first child was born, a son named Richard. In the late fall of 1854 the small family moved to the Coloma/Lotus area, where James and Catherine had two more sons and two daughters: George Thomas, James Andrew, Mary Ellen and Frances.

1860 Federal Census, White Oak Township, El Dorado County, California - Murphy family enumerated starting on line 2

James worked as a miner for a while before eventually settling on cattle ranching to make a living. Eventually, his two youngest sons would also become ranchers, as well as running a popular resort at Lake Tahoe, while the oldest son, Richard, made his living as a captain at Folsom Prison.

1870 Federal Census, White Oak Township, El Dorado County, California - Newly widowed James and his children enumerated starting on line 19

Catherine Murphy's marker in Coloma's Saint John's Catholic Cemetery

Catherine passed away in May, 1870. James never remarried, remaining a widower until his own death 36 years later. They were both buried in the tiny cemetery behind the Saint John's Catholic church in Coloma. An elaborate headstone was placed over Catherine's grave but James' remained unmarked until a small, simple one was put in place in 1997, donated by his grandson.

1880 Federal Census, White Oak Township, El Dorado County, California - Murphy family enumerated starting on line 17

1900 Federal Census, White Oak Township, El Dorado County, California - James Murphy enumerated starting on line 65

Mountain Democrat, October 27, 1906, page 8 - containing James' obituary

Sources:
Coloma Cemeteries -- edited by Lynette Mizell, Coloma Cemetery Committee, 1997
Suzi Mickus
Mountain Democrat, October 27, 1906, page 8
1860 Federal Census, White Oak Township, El Dorado County, California
1870 Federal Census, Coloma Township, El Dorado County, California
1880 Federal Census, Coloma Township, El Dorado County, California
1900 Federal Census, Coloma Township, El Dorado County, California

Brady Brothers

2010-11-15T00:00:00.000-08:00

I'm still on vacation and spent most of this past week on the road, so had no time to put anything together again. But, rather than leave this empty for another week, here's a quick, simple one...

The Brady brothers' marker in Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard

Brady Brothers

Born: circa 1871 and 1872

Died: 1883 -- Drowned

Interred: Boothill Graveyard, Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona

These two young boys, whose given names are no longer known, were swimming in the San Pedro River when one started to struggle. The other sprang into action, trying to save his brother, but unfortunately both boys drowned in the process. They were 11 and 12 years old.

Their bodies were transported to Tombstone for burial in the now infamous Boothill Graveyard.

Sources:
Tombstone's Boothill by Ben T. Traywick (1994)
Essential Guide For Your Tour of the Original Boothill Graveyard - self guided tour pamphlet from the Boothill Graveyard gift shop

Dutch Annie

2010-11-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

Dutch Annie's marker in Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard

Dutch Annie
Died: 1883
Interred: Boothill Graveyard, Tombstone, Cochise County, California
Occupation: Prostitute, Madam

Dutch Annie

Queen Of The Red Light District

Many of the more respectable towns of the old west prohibited prostitution, but Tombstone embraced it. The working girls were treated just as well as any other person who made their living through an honest day's toil, such as in the mines or the gambling halls and saloons.

Dutch Annie, whose real name was never known, was a prostitute and a Madam in those Tombstone "boom" days of prosperity and lawlessness. Generous to a fault, she was known to frequently provide money to men in hard times, allowing them to make a new start on their lives and improve their current situation. Because of her kindness and generosity, she was well regarded by the town's residents who frequently referred to her as the "Queen of the Red Light District".

Following her death in 1883, she was buried in the now famous Boothill Graveyard. A huge funeral procession followed the hearse transporting her body to the cemetery with more than a thousand buggies in the parade carrying countless mourners, including not only nearly all of the girls from the Red Light District, but also the town's dignitaries, businessmen and other citizens.

Many of Tombstone's prostitutes worked in these small cribs along the sides of the Bird Cage Theatre's second floor level

Others worked in larger rooms like this one below the Bird Cage Theatre's stage, or in other buildings throughout the town

Sources:
Tombstone's Boothill by Ben T. Traywick (1994)
Essential Guide For Your Tour of the Original Boothill Graveyard - self guided tour pamphlet from the Boothill Graveyard gift shop

Herman Goldner

2010-10-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

Herman Goldner's marker in Jackson's Givoth Olam Cemetery

Herman Goldner
Born: 1827 (Prussia)
Died: June 7, 1906
Interred: Givoth Olam (Hills of Eternity), Jackson, Amador County, California)
Occupations: Store Owner, Postmaster, Justice of the Peace

Prussian immigrants Herman Goldner and Rosalia Hoffman (sister of Rachel Haines) lived in California's Amador County following the Gold Rush. Rachel, whom I featured in an earlier post on this blog, emmigrated from Prussia to California to be with her sister Rosalia, and became married in a ceremony performed in the Goldner home in 1865. Three short years later, the Goldners buried Rachel after she passed away at the young age of 24.

Herman owned and operated a variety store in Jackson. He also served as Jackson's Postmaster from 1885 to 1889. Both before and after his service as Postmaster he also served the town as Justice of the Peace, from 1882 to 1884 and again from 1890 until his death in 1906.

1860 Federal Census, Township 1 (Jackson), Amador County, California - showing the Goldner family (line 29)

1870 Federal Census, Township 1 (Jackson), Amador County, California - showing the Goldner family (line 26)

1880 Federal Census, Township 1 (Jackson), Amador County, California - showing the Goldner family (line 5)

The Goldners had eight children: five girls and three boys. Two of the boys are buried in the Goldner plot with their parents in Jackson's Jewish cemetery. Rosalia was the first in the family to pass away, at the age of 42 years, and Herman never remarried during the final, widowed, 25 years of his life.

Rosalia Goldner's marker in Jackson's Givoth Olam Cemetery

Rosalia Goldner (nee Hoffman)
Born: circa 1839 (Prussia)
Died: November 21, 1881
Interred: Givoth Olam (Hills of Eternity), Jackson, Amador County, California

The Goldner children were:

Johanna Goldner
Born: circa 1859 (California)
Occupation: Schoolteacher

Matilda Goldner
Born: circa 1861 (California)
Occupation: Schoolteacher

Alfred Goldner's marker in Jackson's Givoth Olam Cemetery

Alfred Goldner
Born: circa 1863 (California)
Died: October 10, 1910
Interred: Givoth Olam (Hills of Eternity), Jackson, Amador County, California)
Occupation: Store Clerk (possibly at his father's store)

Ragina Goldner
Born: November, 1864 (California)

Robert Goldner's marker in Jackson's Givoth Olam Cemetery

Robert Goldner
Born: February, 1866 (California)
Died: December 25, 1924
Interred: Givoth Olam (Hills of Eternity), Jackson, Amador County, California)
Occupation: Clerk

Rachel Goldner
Born: January, 1869 (California)
Occupation: Schoolteacher

Edith Goldner
Born: April, 1874 (California)

Isador Goldner
Born: December, 1874 (California)
Occupation: Wells Fargo Agent

1900 Federal Census, North Jackson Precinct, Amador County, California - showing the Goldner family (line 57)

The birth dates for Edith and Isador seem suspect to me, being only eight months apart, but that is how they were reported in the 1900 census for Jackson. Also, in that census, you will notice that most of the Goldner children remained single and living at home well into at least their 20s and 30s.

The Goldner family marker in Jackson's Givoth Olam Cemetery

Sources:
A Traveler's Guide to Pioneer Jewish Cemeteries of the California Gold Rush by Susan Morris
1860 Federal Census, Township 1 (Jackson), Amador County, California
1870 Federal Census, Township 1 (Jackson), Amador County, California
1880 Federal Census, Township 1 (Jackson), Amador County, California
1900 Federal Census, North Jackson Precinct, Amador County, California

James Keane

2010-10-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

James Andrew Keane's headstone in Coloma's Saint John's Cemetery, behind the Catholic church

James Andrew Keane
Born: April 14, 1831 (Ireland)
Died: March 1, 1904 (Uniontown, El Dorado County, California)
Interred: March 3, 1904 -- St. John's Catholic Cemetery, Coloma, El Dorado County, California
Occupations: Miner, Farmer

James Andrew Keane and Mary Agnes Grogan were both natives of Ireland. They emigrated to the United States and were married on January 26, 1865 in Placerville, California. As did many other hopefuls who flocked to California in search of their riches, James tried his hand at mining first, before switching to the more lucrative business of farming. He and his family lived in Uniontown (known as Lotus today), a town adjoining Coloma, where there was a community of fellow Catholic families.

James and Mary had eight children, the first of whom, a daughter named Henrietta, died in infancy. The rest of their children survived them.

1880 Federal Census for Coloma Township, showing the Keane family (line 32)

1900 Federal Census for Coloma Township, showing the Keane family (line 31)

James Keane passed away in March of 1904 from age related complications, leaving behind him an estate that was worth approximately $10,000. James was buried in Coloma's Saint John's Catholic Cemetery, next to his infant daughter Henrietta. Two years later, Mary passed away and was buried with them, sharing a single headstone with her husband and Henrietta. Their son Henry was also later buried in the family plot.

Mountain Democrat, March 5, 1904 obituary for James Keane

Saint John's Catholic Church - the cemetery is directly behind the church

Sources:
Coloma Cemeteries -- edited by Lynette Mizell, Coloma Cemetery Committee, 1997
Suzi Mickus
Mountain Democrat, March 5, 1904, page 4
1880 Federal Census, Coloma, El Dorado County, California
1900 Federal Census, Coloma, El Dorado County, California

Foo Kee

2010-10-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

Foo Kee's grave in Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard

Foo Kee
Born: China
Died: Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona --Stabbed
Interred: Boothill Graveyard, Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona
Occupation: Candy Store Owner

Foo Kee, a native of China, owned and operated a candy store in Tombstone where the Wagon Wheel Restaurant and bar exists today. Foo Kee and his close friend Wing Lung would occasionally smoke opium in the store, an activity they were doing on the day Foo Kee died.

As they smoked and were feeling the effects of the drug, a group of young boys entered the store. When the boys realized the two Chinamen were in a drugged stated, they began to have fun with the men, disrupting the party as they strew the store's wares around the interior of the small building. When the men protested, the boys became physically abusive, pushing and shoving Foo Kee.

Wing Lung drew a dagger that he had hidden under his robes and he made an attempt to defend his friend, slashing the blade through the air in the direction of the young boys. He managed to slice open one boy's hand as he held his hand up to ward off the blow. As Wing Lung took another stab at the boys, he lost his balance as well as his aim, and the knife blade found his friend instead, stabbing Foo Kee in the chest, piercing his heart.

Wing Lung never forgave himself for the accidental death of his friend, but the citizens of Tombstone did. Or, at the very least, they simply didn't care. There is no record that Wing Lung was ever arrested, charged or prosecuted for the slaying.

Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard

Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard

Sources:
Tombstone's Boothill by Ben T. Traywick (1994)

Isaac Peiser

2010-10-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

Isaac Peiser's headstone in Jackson's Givoth Olam Cemetery

Isaac Peiser
Born: December 26, 1839 (Peiseru, Russia)
Died: January 6, 1877 (Jackson, Amador County, California)
Interred: Givoth Olam Cemetery, Jackson, Amador County, California
Occupation: Tailor

Isaac Peiser was a native of Russia. He emigrated to California after the gold rush, and resided in Jackson, where he worked as a tailor. An advertisement in the local newspaper in May of 1870 specifically gave his occupation as "Merchant Tailor".

On January 6, 1877, Isaac passed away of consumption, an early term for what we call tuberculosis today. He was buried in Jackson's Givoth Olam (Jewish) Cemetery, as the following obituary from the January 13, 1877 edition of the Amador Dispatch describes:

Died - In Jackson on January 6, Isaac Peiser, a native of Poland [sic], aged 32 years. He had been suffering for some time with that incurable disease consumption, of which he died. He was one of our most worthy citizens and his demise is sadly regretted by all who knew him. He was buried in the Jewish Cemetery on Sunday under the auspices of Congregation B'nai Israel, of this place. He was also a highly respected member of the Masonic Fraternity.

The B'nai Israel temple was located where the Jackson elementary school is today, on Church Street. Isaac was buried next to his son Nathan, who died in 1871 at the age of four months and seven days. Less than a month later, Abraham, another son of Isaac's, died of diphtheria at the age of seven years, and was also buried next to his brother and father.

Abie (Abraham) Peiser's headstone in Jackson's Givoth Olam Cemetery - there is no headstone for Nathan

Jackson's Givoth Olam Cemetery

An infrared photo of Jackson's Givoth Olam Cemetery

An infrared photo of Jackson's Givoth Olam Cemetery

Sources:
A Traveler's Guide to Pioneer Jewish Cemeteries of the California Gold Rush by Susan Morris
A Few Of Our Friends (In the Amador County Cemeteries) by Catherine A. Cissna and Madeline Church (1994)

Cornelius Cole

2010-09-13T00:00:00.001-07:00

The Cole family marker in the Hollywood Forever memorial park

Cornelius Cole
Born: Tuesday, September 17, 1822 (Lodi, Seneca County, New York)
Married: January 6, 1853 (San Francisco, San Francisco County, California) to Olive Colgrove
Died: Monday, November 3, 1924 (Hollywood, Los Angeles County, California) - Pneumonia
Interred: Hollywood Cemetery (now called Hollywood Forever), Hollywood, Los Angeles County, California
Occupations: Surveyor, School Teacher, Attorney, Gold Miner, District Attorney, Author, Journalist, Publisher, Politician, U.S. Representative (1863-1865), U.S. Senator (1867-1873), Rancher, Farmer, Vintner, Real Estate Developer

Cornelius Cole

California's Grand Old Man

Cornelius Cole was born in 1822 on his father's farm in New York, the seventh of twelve children born to David and Rachel (nee Townsend) Cole. David, who had served as a Captain in the Revolutionary War, was of Dutch descent while his wife, Rachel, was English.

Following his graduation from the local district school, the young Cornelius Cole briefly worked as a surveyor before moving on to the Ovid Academy, then Lima Seminary, Geneva College and eventually Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He was known as a good debater, and joined the Psi Upsilon fraternity at a time when Greek letter fraternities were not considered in favorable terms ("the depth of all evil", as Cole later explained). Membership in the fraternity was grounds for discipline, including possible expulsion, so these organizations and their activities were kept secret. While in the fraternity Cole participated in the initiation of a new frat brother: Chester A. Arthur.

Cole graduated with honors and taught school for a while, but soon decided he wanted to study law. He obtained a position with the firm of Seward, Morgan and Blatchford, studying under their guidance and he became admitted to the bar on May 1, 1848. His employers in the firm eventually went on to prominent political careers, as did Cole himself. William Seward became Secretary of State for Abraham Lincoln, Christopher Morgan became New York State's Secretary of State, and Samuel Blatchford was a U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

Cole had done some traveling as a young man, visiting the Indian territory that later became the states of Nebraska and Kansas. Now, with news of James Marshall's gold discovery in California reaching the United States, that feeling of wanderlust came over him again and he decided to head even further west. On February 12, 1849 he set out for California, accompanied by his brother Elijah, friends Charley Scofield, James Caywood and three other friends who lived in the neighborhood. They traveled from New York to Pittsburgh via sleigh where they boarded a steamboat for Saint Louis. In Saint Louis they were swindled by merchants who convinced the group to buy some mining supplies they were told would be needed. These items they overpaid for were eventually left by the side of the trails to lighten their load, long before they ever reached the gold fields in California where the supplies were not really needed anyway.

From Saint Louis, they then traveled to Independence, Missouri, where they spent several weeks as they waited for better weather. On April 24, 1849, they continued west. Near Wakarusa, Kansas they left the Santa Fe trail and began heading in a more northwesterly direction. Cole bought a small black pony at that junction because he was tired of walking, and he rode the rest of the way to California. Three months after they left civilization in Independence, they finally reached California as the first group of gold seekers to do so via an overland route, as opposed to by ship as all others up to this point had done. Cole and his small group camped by the American branch of the Sacramento River on July 23, and the next morning visited Captain John Sutter at his fort.

After resting at the fort for three days, Cole set out with his brother Elijah and their friend James Caywood, headed for Coloma, where Sutter's Mill was located. They arrived to find a small settlement forming near the mill which, itself, was already falling into decay from disuse. Their stay in Coloma was brief, and they soon headed north to the Middle Fork where they visited John Greenwood, who lived with his wife and son at the site which eventually became a town named Greenwood in his honor.

Continuing north, Cole and his party stopped at a site below Canyon Creek on the Middle Fork where they spent two months mining. They found little gold at first, but quickly honed their skills and learned what signs to look for, and before long they began bringing in a profitable amount of gold, moving on when they could no longer dig up more than an ounce per day for each of the three men. They often found more than the one ounce per person that they had set as their minimum acceptable daily find.

When the Canyon Creek area began playing out for them they moved on to Oregon Gulch. Here they had much better luck, making $100/day per person for a stretch of a couple weeks. On December 11, 1849, they dug up $1,849, the most they ever made in a single day. Cole always remembered the exact amount because the number matched the year. This was also the last day they worked their claim, as winter had arrived and it began raining heavily and eventually snowing. That winter they sold their claim in Oregon Gulch to a group of English miners for the sum of $1,000. Eventually, millions of dollars in gold were taken from the area.

In the spring of 1850, loaded with gold, he and one of his companions left on foot for Sacramento. They stopped for food and rest at several of the roadhouses that had been established along the route as they took four leisurely days to make the trip. From Sacramento, Cole took a steamboat to San Francisco where he invested the money he had made in the gold fields, quickly losing it all. Needing money and work, he started a law firm with fellow New York attorney James Pratt. This firm was short lived, however, as two disastrous fires in 1850 burned down the neighborhood, destroying their offices, books, papers and several personal possessions belonging to their clients. After the fires, Cole returned to Sacramento where he started another law firm of his own.

When he and his partners were mining on the Middle Fork of the American River, two Mexican men joined them and shared their camp for a short while. One day Cruz and Mariano disappeared, and with them went most of the household items that belonged to the miners. Now, a year later as a newly established attorney in Sacramento, Cole stopped at the local police station one day to find the two Mexican men being held as accessories in the murder of a French man in Amador County. Despite the fact that they had stolen most of his belongings only months earlier, Cole promised to help them and said he would return the next morning to hear their side of the story. Very early that next morning he was awoken by the police who told him that the Amador County authorities had arrived much earlier than expected and were already headed back to Jackson with Cruz and Mariano for trial.

Cole quickly got dressed and hurried after them, arriving in Jackson just as a kangaroo court was convening and a mob was preparing to string the men up. Cole pleaded with the mob for a fair trail and the case was hastily argued before a panel of jurors. After an hour of deliberations, the jury (which had not been sworn in), announced there was insufficient evidence presented that day to warrant an immediate execution and they recommended the prisoners be remanded to the county authorities for a proper trial. This did not please the crowd, who dragged the two Mexican men to a nearby tree. Cruz was strung up while Cole and a nearby sympathizing bystander spirited Mariano away. One victim appeased the mob and Cole and Mariano were not pursued. Cole took him back to Sacramento where he then helped him escape to safety.

A helping hand lend when you can,
You owe this to your fellow man.
-- Ideals in Verse

The Whig Party was self destructing at about this time and a new party was created, called the American Party. Many people referred to it as the Knownothing Party because its members were reluctant to divulge their political purpose. Cole was a Democrat by education, but the Democrats were pro-slavery, and Cole was strongly in opposition to the institution. The Whigs and Knownothings preferred to just ignore the issue of slavery and anti-slavery agitation was discouraged.

Because of Cole's law practice and the cases he took on he was beginning to become known as a vocal opponent of slavery. He was one of only two such attorneys in Sacramento, the other being Edwin B. Crocker. Despite pro-slavery proponents greatly outnumbering the anti-slavery contingent, California chose to adopt a free constitution, outlawing slavery. With no political outlet for the abolitionists and anti-slavery voices, Cole and a small group of Sacramento citizens decided to form a new political party with a written pledge to oppose all further aggressions of slavery. The Republican Party was created in California with Cole very instrumental in it's inception. Opposition was so great at the beginning that the few people who joined the party and participated in its events were continually threatened with bodily harm or even death.

The origin of the Republican Party, August 4, 1856

Olive Colgrove, 1852

In the spring of 1852, on a visit with his friend Colonel Whiting, Cole saw a daguerreotype of Whiting's sister-in-law, Olive Colgrove. Cole was smitten and soon made plans to return east for a visit. He arrived in New York in May. Olive had also heard quite a bit about Cole and she was just as anxious to meet him as he was to see her. They saw each other for the first time at a morning church service, but protocol kept them from introducing themselves that day. They didn't meet in person until the following day when he visited the Colgrove home to deliver messages from Colonel Whiting. They spent a lot of time together over the following couple weeks until it was time for Cole to return to California. Olive wrote fondly of Cole in her diary, and later that year Cole's brother Elijah returned home and delivered a gift to Olive from Cole -- a daguerreotype of himself.

Cornelius Cole, 1852

Cole and Olive planned to get married in New York, but some cases he was handling for his law firm kept him in California. Against her mother's wishes, Olive instead traveled to California, accompanied by her brother Silas and Cole's brothers Elijah and Gilbert. They sailed from New York on December 3, 1852 and arrived in San Francisco on January 6, 1853. Cole and Olive were married later that evening. It was a stormy night and travel was difficult, so the wedding party was necessarily small. There was only one other woman besides Olive in attendance.

The newlyweds remained in San Francisco for ten days before traveling to Sacramento. They set up temporary lodging in a boarding house for a few months, finding a more permanent home four months later when they moved into a two story house on O Street. In the meantime they traveled to Santa Cruz to visit the Whitings, a trip that made Olive the first (white) woman to cross the Santa Cruz Mountains in recorded history.

In 1856, with financial help from a few politically like-minded friends, Cole began publishing the Sacramento Times, a Republican newspaper. Olive contributed an occasional article, while Cole shared the editing duties with James McClatchy, who would later go on to found the Sacramento Bee, which is still in publication today. The Sacramento Times, however, did not last long. The newspaper folded a couple months after John Frémont, the first Republican Party Presidential candidate, failed to win the election.

Cole was elected as the Sacramento City and County District Attorney in 1858. Unlike the previous D.A.s, he took the job seriously and enforced the laws instead of turning a blind eye or accepting bribes. This angered many people and death threats were almost a daily occurrence, but he refused to let them affect his work and lifestyle and carried on his daily routine as normal.

Two years later Cole campaigned for Leland Stanford in California's gubernatorial election, traveling with the candidate throughout the state. Stanford won the governor's position and that same year Abraham Lincoln was elected as the first Republican President of the United States. With Lincoln's election, Southern states began to secede from the Union even before he was sworn in as President. The pro-slavery sympathizers in California were just as upset to have a Republican governor and a movement was begun to secede California from the Union and form a new territorial government to be named Colorado. The secession attempt was mired in legal and political complications in Washington, D.C. and before the red tape could be cleared up the Civil War began and California's attempt to legally secede was set aside and eventually forgotten.

Unhappy that the legal attempt to secede had been given up on, General Albert Johnston, a Confederate sympathizing army officer serving in California, began discussions with San Francisco attorney Edmund Randolph to devise plans to remove the state from the union by military force. Randolph's assistant overheard their plans and fled to Sacramento where he divulged the scheme to Cole and McClatchy. They forwarded this information to the federal government in Washington, D.C. who responded by dispatching General Edwin Sumner to the west coast to take command of the Department of the Pacific from Johnston.

The Sacramento Valley flooded in 1862, causing extensive damage to Cole's law office as well as the family home. He moved his family to Santa Cruz, where they had friends. After a brief visit to Washington, D.C. in early 1863, Cole received a commission as Captain of the Santa Cruz Cavalry in the Second Brigade of the California Militia. Later that year Timothy Phelps decided not to run for reelection as California's Representative in Congress and Cole decided to throw his hat into the ring. He was one of three candidates in the state for the position, and the only Republican in the number. He won his seat by a healthy majority of over 20,000 votes and moved to the nation's capital early, weeks before Congress convened at the end of the year, so he could spend time with friends and family, particularly his brothers George, Elijah and David, who were serving in the Union Army.

In November, Cole traveled to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to attend the dedication of the site as a burial ground. His trip was delayed by the many military trains which had the right of way due to the war, but he still managed to arrive in time, getting there late in the evening on the tenth. Lincoln gave his now famous speech the following day, from memory - without referring to notes. At the time most people were disappointed with the speech, including Cole as he admitted later. People thought it was too short.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
-- Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

The 38th Congress convened in December 1863. Cole was assigned to the Committees on Post Offices and Post Roads as well as the Select Committee on the Pacific Railroad. A couple years earlier Cole and several other prominent Californians had formed the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California with the goal of building a railroad over the Sierra Nevada Mountains along a route surveyed by Theodore T. Judah. Cole's appointment to the Select Committee on the Pacific Railroad created a conflict of interest and he was forced to sell his shares of original stock in the company to Leland Stanford for a little under $4,000. Due to Cole's efforts as a Congressman over the following years on behalf of the company, those shares were soon valued at several million dollars.

As a Representative he introduced a bill to establish the Bureau of Freedmen's Affairs, which would put the freed slaves under the charge of the War Department. This would allow them to fight for the Union, which he knew would be the ultimate threat to the pro-slavery South. Cole knew they could fight effectively because his brother George had some previous experience leading several black regiments in the war. The Freedmen's Aid measure became law on March 3, 1865. It also provided a temporary measure to aid the freed men and women in their transition to freedom while preventing any long-term dependency by them.

That country is in an unhappy state
Where laws against the poor discriminate.
-- Ideals in Verse

Cole also introduced bills to establish mail steamship service between the United States and China and Japan, as well as supporting another that authorized a grant to California to preserve the Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove as a state park, 26 years before it eventually became a national park. He also served on the Senate Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds which improved the buildings and infrastructure of Washington, D.C.

In July 1864, Cole went to the front at Petersburg to visit his brother George, who was fighting there with Ulysses S. Grant. They were fired on by hidden sharpshooters but were not hit. One bullet came to a rolling stop directly in front of Cole and he picked it up to keep as a souvenir. He slept on the ground with the troops, his sleep interrupted several times by troops marching nearby and the shells exploding behind the front line. When he returned to Washington, D.C. he found the area in a panic because of Confederate General Early's close proximity. The capital wasn't properly defended because nobody thought it would be threatened. Government employees from various departments were called on to organize companies and a number of marines from a nearby Navy yard were called to help. Cole joined the Army as a private and served until regular army troops arrived to defend the Capital, convincing Early and his troops to retreat. Though Cole's brief service in the military qualified him for a pension, he never claimed it.

While a Congressman, Cole became good friends with Abraham Lincoln and visited with him often. On several occasions he simply walked into the White House and the President's office unchallenged by any type of security, often to find Lincoln with his back to the door so engrossed in his work that he didn't even notice or sense the presence of another person. This lack of security concerned Cole and he mentioned it to Lincoln but was met with indifference and a lack of care. So, Cole reported his apprehensions for Lincoln's safety to Edwin Stanton at the War Department. Sentries were frequently to be seen on duty after that, patrolling the White House grounds and halls.

Cornelius Cole, 1865

Cole failed to win reelection and his term in Congress ended on March 4, 1865. Rather than return to California immediately he stayed in D.C. for about a month. He again visited with his brother George and Ulysses S. Grant at the last of the fighting on the Petersburg front. The wounded from the fighting were taken to private homes that had been commandeered to serve as makeshift hospitals. Olive helped to nurse the wounded and dying soldiers and took dictated letters to be sent to their homes. The Coles were back in Washington, D.C. in time to participate in the celebration following the April 9 surrender by Robert E. Lee.

Olive (Colgrove) Cole, 1865

Cole left Washington, D.C. on April 14th. Before leaving he spent the afternoon with Lincoln in the White House where they had a friendly conversation and made their goodbyes. While the Lincolns made preparations to attend the play "Our American Cousin" that evening at Ford's Theater, the Coles caught the late evening train headed to New York where they were scheduled to board a California bound steamer the following morning. En route to New York he was awakened with the news that Lincoln had been shot and Secretary of State Seward stabbed.

I have always looked upon this unexampled crime as the culmination of a spirit engendered by slavery and the legitimate offspring of man's inhumanity to man.
-- Memoirs of Cornelius Cole

The following morning, in New York, he met up with the rest of his family who had traveled ahead of him, and he was informed that Lincoln had passed away. Seward, though severely wounded would recover from his attack, though it would take several months and he was left permanently scarred.

The Coles left New York, sailing for Panama, where they traveled across the isthmus and boarded another steamship to finish the journey back to California. Soon after his arrival back in the state Cole learned that his name was on the list of those proposed to be named as California's new U.S. Senator, filling the seat of James A. McDougall who intended to vacate the office when his term ended in March 1867. Cole was selected by an overwhelming majority at the joint convention in December 1866.

Cole became a Senator on March 4, 1867, joining the reconstruction government during the period following the Civil War. Leland Stanford, who would later become a Senator himself, wished he could have been so during this period of rebuilding the nation that had been torn apart by the war. Following Cole's election, Stanford wrote a lengthy letter to him expressing those wishes and describing how he, personally, would like to see the newly rebuilt country take shape.

Surely we have seen a great revolution towards the right make great progress and I never was more hopeful than now that the time is not very far distant when every citizen will be considered and admitted to have equally one with another the right to a voice in the government. This is with me adopted as a principle and I want to see it carried out to all its legitimate consequences, of course you will understand from this that I am not only in favor of Negroes voting but also of women.
-- Leland Stanford, in a letter to Cole, February 9, 1867

In March 1868 Cole participated in the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, though he felt the proceedings were ill advised. Johnson had been too conciliatory toward the defeated South, causing many to feel as if he were acting traitorous to the U.S. The impeachment resulted in a majority vote to impeach, but not the required 2/3 majority. Afterward, Cole said he was glad they did not get a conviction, even though he had voted for it.

While a Senator, Cole was asked by a San Francisco based fur company to open negotiations with Russia for the lease of the Alaskan Territory. While they waited for the current lease to expire, the talked turned to an outright sale of the land to the U.S. after the timber and mineral wealth were put into consideration. Cole had nothing to do with that part of the negotiations, though he was later occasionally given credit for the idea. Secretary of State William Seward negotiated the sale, convincing the Senate to ratify the treaty. It was a hard sell because the U.S. was short on gold following the expensive Civil War and the sale would require a large amount of it. The country's national credit was low at the time and it was thought that by showing that the U.S. could afford to pay as much as $7,000,000 in gold, that would go a long way toward convincing other nations we were comfortably solvent and not in any immediate danger of bankruptcy. Many believed this line of thought was dangerous and could only further damage the nation's credit, rather than strengthen it, and the deal was dubbed "Seward's Folly".

After the Alaskan territory was acquired, Cole introduced two bills in the Senate. One provided for a territorial government for the area and the other protected the fur bearing animals from being hunted to extinction.

The 1869 session of Congress ended late and Cole didn't have enough time to make his annual trip back to California. Instead, at the request of President Ulysses S. Grant and his secretary General Babcock, Cole joined an expedition to Santo Domingo, which today is a providence of the Dominican Republic. The U.S. government was considering acquiring Santo Domingo as a territory. While the Civil War was raging the people of Santo Domingo were very averse to their country being acquired by the U.S. because they were of African descent themselves and were afraid of becoming slaves. But, now that slavery had been abolished they were more receptive to the idea because it would protect them from Spain, who had only recently been driven from the island but remained near enough, in Cuba and Puerto Rico, to still be a threat. The expedition to the island nation was given the appearance of a pleasure cruise but the members of the party were also quietly obtaining information with regard to annexing the island, a proposal that eventually failed to receive the 2/3's majority of the votes in Congress on July 1, 1871, despite Cole's favorable report.

The expedition party landed first in the harbor of Puerto Plata where they found the buildings mostly of new construction, since the Spanish conquerors destroyed the town as they left three years earlier. While in Puerto Plata they met General Santa Ana, who by his own admission no longer remembered how many times he had been President of Mexico, and was currently living on the island in exile. He had been previously living in exile in Havana but had been ordered to leave by the American Consul and because of his treatment there, was mad at and untrusting of Americans. But, he was pleasant and cordial with Cole and his party anyway.

Following their visit with Santa Ana the party continued on to Samana Bay on the island of Carena, then on to Santo Domingo. On arrival they learned that President Buenaventura Baez was away on a military expedition near Haiti, so they immediately set sail again, headed west to meet him before returning home to the United States.

1870 Federal Census for San Francisco, showing the Cole family on line 23 - click the image to see the full page where you will find that the Cole's 7-year-old daughter Cornelia was enumerated with the next family listed on the page instead of with the Coles - I have no idea why...

On March 22, 1870, Cole introduced a bill into the Senate which eventually provided a government supplied pension to Captain John Sutter, the man Cole had met 20 years earlier as he, himself, headed toward the gold fields in Northern California. The following year, Cole made a speech to the Senate in favor of the proposed repeal of the income tax. The tax had been levied to aid the country in it's reconstruction after the financially draining Civil War. Cole called this tax on the people "odious and repulsive to the last degree". The proposed repeal failed, as we all know too well. Also, in his last days as a U.S. Senator, Cole was instrumental in securing the necessary appropriations to have Pennsylvania Avenue, in front of the White House, paved.

Late in his term as Senator, the Western and Central Pacific Railroads devised a plan to take control of Goat Island in San Francisco harbor with the intention of building a bridge to it so they could use the island as a depot. Approximate 24,000 residents of San Francisco signed their names to a protest of the plan and sent it to Cole. While Cole had been instrumental throughout his political career as a Congressman and Senator in fighting for the cause of the railroad companies, which were run by several personal friends and former colleagues of his, in this particular case he felt his loyalty was owed to the people of San Francisco overall instead of a handful of friends, and he fought the proposal at every step of the way until he saw it defeated on the Senate floor. His actions in the Goat Island Controversy caused not a little ill will between him and his friends in those companies.

While they lived in Washington D.C. during Cornelius' political career, the Coles were active in the social scene, in which Olive was a favorite of many of the "movers and shakers" of the time. They hosted several parties which were attended by many of the dignitaries of the era. One guest that was a particular favorite of theirs was Samuel Clemens, also known as Mark Twain. Some time later, Olive recalled a humorous tale Twain had related at a party of theirs in which he explained how he had managed to become tattooed.

In his inimitable drawl he said that one evening he went out to get a sunset view of the pyramids, whereupon he was seized by the natives, and while one of them stripped him of his coat and held him as in a vise, the other rolled up his shirt sleeve and fell to tattooing the sphinx and a pyramid upon his arm. All this he acted out for us, growing even redder than usual in the face as he writhed in illustration of the struggle he had with the Egyptians and the torture they inflicted. No doubt the fact was that he had coolly sat down upon a flat stone and hired the natives to tattoo him.
-- Olive Cole, reflecting on an anecdote Mark Twain related during a visit to the Cole home in Washington, D.C.

Despite several newspapers printing predictions that Cole would be reelected to the Senate, he didn't even receive the nomination. As was already said, he had earned some disdain from a few very powerful people because of his involvement in the Goat Island debate. He also had to fight a tough battle with his opponent, Aaron Archimedes Sargent, a man who many years earlier had filed a patent on a sheep ranch in California's Nevada County, effectively jumping a mining claim Cole had been working. Sargent received the nomination and was eventually elected to the Senate to replace Cole.

Cole retired from public life in 1873 when the Senate session ended, and he moved his family back to San Francisco where he resumed his law practice. He returned to Washington, D.C. briefly, a short time later, to argue a cotton tax case for a client before the Supreme Court. While he was there, friends urged him to return to the Senate temporarily to fill a seat left empty by the resignation of Eugene Casserly. Cole was tired of public life by this time, though, and requested to not be nominated. The following year a newspaper article suggested Cole should be the Vice Presidential candidate under Presidential candidate Hamilton Fish of New York. This plan failed to materialize.

While Cole was in Washington, D.C. working on that cotton tax case, Ulysses S. Grant's son Jesse lived with the Cole family in San Francisco. Jesse was a good friend of Cole's son Willoughby, and the two planned to attend college together. Many years later, another of Cole's sons, George, was living in Vienna as an art student, where he was a frequent guest and travel companion of the Clemens family, who were living overseas in exile while Sam worked his way out of debt.

May 17, 1898 letter from Samuel Clemens to Cornelius Cole, mentioning George Cole

In 1879 Cole visited Los Angeles again. He had visited the area many years earlier, before he began his political career, and this time was very impressed with the rapid growth of the city. When he returned home from the trip he suggested to the family that they should move to Southern California. Years earlier he had represented Major Henry Hancock in a legal fight to retain the title of his Rancho La Brea, when his claim of ownership was in dispute. Cole won the case and Hancock paid him by deeding one tenth of the land to Cole, nearly 500 acres which would eventually become a large part of the city we know today as Hollywood. Cole often thought of moving there to live permanently and he decided this was the time. Olive reluctantly agreed to leave her comfortable home in San Francisco. They built a new home, six miles from the city of Los Angeles. The home was surrounded by wheat fields, vineyards, orchards, sycamore and eucalyptus trees, hiding any other home from view, giving them a sense of isolation. Cole named this new homestead Colgrove, Olive's maiden name.

1880 Federal Census for San Francisco, showing the Cole family on line 46, taken shortly before they left for Southern California

1880 Federal Census for San Francisco, showing the rest of the Cole family, carried over onto the next page

The Cole sons Seward and Shuyler took charge of the farming operations on the ranch while Cole and son Willoughby opened a law practice in Los Angeles at 232 N. Main Street. Cole also wrote articles for magazines and newspapers, as well as serving as an advisor for the city government. Cole was also active in civic improvements to the city, such as widening and paving streets, planting trees and improving public parks.

1900 Federal Census for Cahuenga, showing the Cole family on line 58

In the winter of 1905, Cole started writing his Memoirs. When it was published, it introduced him to a whole new generation, and by 1912 his newly acquired fans began showing up occasionally at Colgrove for a visit. Of course, Cole was always happy to receive them and spend time talking with them. About a decade later Cole would begin writing another book, which was called Ideals in Verse. This book, published in 1924, was a collection of short verses he wrote down over the years as they came to his mind.

1910 Federal Census for Los Angeles, showing the Cole family on line 91 (and elsewhere on the page)

On October 10, 1910, Willoughby died. Cole and Olive were both devastated by this, as Willoughby was the first of their adult children to die. They had lost an infant son in 1873, but until this time the rest of the family had remained intact.

On January 6, 1913, Cole and Olive celebrated their diamond (60th) anniversary. It was a private celebration at home with their family. Cole was almost 91 years old and he still worked at his law practice (now, without partner Willoughby) every day, and he would continue to do so until his death. He never fully retired.

Los Angeles Times, January 7, 1913 article describing the anniversary:

A Diamond of Sixty Facets

Four generations celebrate the anniversary at the old family home.

Linking the years in a golden chain four generations long, former United States Senator Cornelius and Mrs. Cole looked back yesterday in happy retrospect, while their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren presented themselves, bringing flowers and congratulations on the attainment of the diamond wedding anniversary.

Sixty years ago the Coles were married in San Francisco. California wore swaddling clothes then, but her lure was golden to the young man from Lodi, New York. His party was the first to make the perilous journey across the plains in the year 1849. Olive Colgrove came four years later by the Isthmus route, and these two were married upon her arrival in San Francisco.

The former Senator is nearly ninety-one years of age, but attends to business daily at his law offices in the Lankershim Building. One of the founders of the Republican party, he has adhered to its tenets unfalteringly. In Sacramento he published one of the first Republican newspapers in California. In 1863 he was elected to the national House of Representatives, and later in 1866 to the Senate. He is one of three survivors who participated in the Johnson impeachment trial, the other two being former Senators George F. Edmunds and Thomas A. Hendricks.

The Ex-Senator was a law student in the office of Secretary Seward, for whom one of his sons is named, and aside from his service as District Attorney of Sacramento City and County, and the months spent in mining in El Dorado County, he has practiced his profession continually since his admission to the bar in Oswego, New York, in 1848.

Mrs. Cole is eleven years his junior, and as active in her sphere as he in his. One of the charter members of the Friday Morning Club, she retains her interest in that organization. She is also a member of the Hollywood Woman's Club, President of the Colgrove Parent Teachers' Association, and is active in community library work, taking her turn as custodian of the library nearest her home.

"When he published the Sacramento Times," she said yesterday, "Mr. Cole was often threatened with violence, but he stood true to his colors, and when he became a candidate for office, many of his former enemies voted for him. Yes, I sometimes helped on the paper, handling the scissors and wrote an occasional column of comment. Often it was three o'clock in the morning before we were finished."

Most of the immediate family live in the vicinity of the Colgrove homestead.

On a Sunday morning in August 1918, Olive failed to emerge from her bedroom at the usual hour, so daughter Lucretia entered to investigate, finding Olive in a comatose state. Olive had appeared to be in her usual state of good health the night before when she retired for the night. The doctors were summoned and the family waited for any positive report from them, but it wasn't to be. She passed away without regaining consciousness.

Olive's headstone in the Hollywood Forever memorial park

Cole tried to put up a strong front for his children and grandchildren, keeping to his usual daily routine of going to work, but privately he grieved for his lost companion of 65 years. Cole and Olive had always been in the habit of staying up late, long after everyone else in the family had gone to bed. They would sit in front of the fireplace and talk deep into the night. Cole continued this habit, now by himself, staying up late watching the fire. One night, not long after Olive's death, Lucretia thought she heard a conversation coming from the living room and she crept in quietly to investigate. She found Cole sitting in his usual chair, as he recited one of his favorite poems to Olive's empty chair. Tears welling up in her eyes, she just as quietly returned to her room.

That so much change should come when thou dost go,
Is mystery that I cannot ravel quite.
The very house seems dark as when the light
Of lamps goes out. Each wonted thing doth grow
So altered, that I wander to and fro,
Bewildered by the most familiar sight,
And feel like one who rouses in the night
From a dream of ecstasy, and cannot know
At first if he be sleeping or awake,
My foolish heart so foolish for thy sake
Hath grown, dear one!
Teach me to be more wise,
I blush for all my foolishness doth lack;
I fear to seem a coward in thine eyes.
Teach me, dear one -- but first thou must
Come back!
-- To An Absent Lover by Helen Hunt Jackson

Cornelius Cole, 1922

On his 100th birthday, in 1922, he went to work at his law offices as usual where he was congratulated by his employees and associates. In the evening he celebrated at home with family and friends at a small party in his honor.

Earlier that year, in April, he was presented with an Honorary Doctor of Law degree by his alma mater Wesleyan, in a celebration of their 90th commencement, which was also the 75th anniversary of Cole's own graduation. When he received the invitation his family tried to talk him out of traveling east because of his age and their concern that it would not be beneficial to his health, but he insisted and proved up to the task even to the point of evading his daughter Cornelia one afternoon during the trip. She thought she had convinced him to lay down and rest for the afternoon but later discovered him outside where he had spent the day walking around the hotel grounds, visiting with the many people who were there hoping to get a glimpse of him.

All these colleagues, big and little, of Mr. Cole are dead and many of them are only names to the younger generation. But Cornelius Cole lives on and returns to the scene of his comparative youth. The California papers may point to him as an example of longevity, but he is our native son, not California's, for he was born in Lodi, this state, and learned law in William H. Seward's office. He went West in 1849 and stayed in California because she seemed to need lawyers as well as miners.
-- New York Herald

Some seek for notoriety and others seek for fame,
Short-sighted persons often think they are the same.
-- Ideals in Verse

After he accepted the honorary degree at Wesleyan, he traveled to Washington D.C. for a visit. On June 27, 1922, he visited the House of Representatives, where he had served so many years earlier. While there he was invited to address the House. A recess of five minutes was declared, from 12:23 to 12:28pm, giving him the opportunity. When he finished speaking the full House, both Republicans and Democrats, gave him a standing ovation that lasted a full minute.

Mr. Speaker and gentlemen of the House of Representatives, I suppose you are fully aware that you are the representatives of the foremost nation of the world. You are here as the representatives of the founders of the government. You will remember that when it was founded by our ancestors it was but a small part of America and a small part of the New World. Our ancestors made a wonderful discovery at that time. It was the discovery that all men are created with the right of enjoying life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Our ancestors were not discouraged, although few in number; they were violently opposed, but they persisted, and after a period of war waged for several years to defeat their discovery, they succeeded in establishing it, and the result is this great Republic.

Our destiny no one can forecast. Our hopes are wide awake. From a few weak colonists we have become what we are today, and I think we ought all to remember, above all things, the wonderful character of those who created the Republic and the government in America.
-- Cole's address to the House, at the age of 99

Cornelius Cole on his 102nd birthday in 1924

Early in the morning on November 2, 1924, Cole was composing a thank you note to someone who had recently given him some books. He suddenly turned to his daughter and said, "I've done enough for today. I'm very tired." He laid down to rest for a few hours. When he insisted on getting up and back to work his daughter convinced him he should continue to rest so he would be strong enough to go to the polls on Tuesday to vote. He never did get to cast his vote in that election. Monday morning he was examined by his doctor and it was determined that Cole had pneumonia. He passed away later that day at the age of 102 years, one month and 17 days . Following a small private funeral at his home on Tuesday, his body was buried at Hollywood Cemetery, next to Olive.

Cornelius Cole's headstone in the Hollywood Forever memorial park

Obituary in the Oakland Tribune, Monday, November 3, 1924 (Obit is continued on page 2)

If you can't be born in California, get here as soon as possible. The climate promotes longevity.
-- Cornelius Cole

The famous Hollywood sign on Mount Lee looming above the cemetery

* * * * *

Decades after Cole was buried, Hollywood Cemetery fell into decay due to neglect and corruption on the owner's part, and the cemetery was in danger of closure and bankruptcy when Tyler Cassity purchased the property in 1998 for $375,000. Cassity renamed the cemetery Hollywood Forever, and put millions of dollars into the land, completely restoring and beautifying the grounds and turning it into a sort of tourist attraction, where fans flock daily to visit the grave sites of many of Hollywood's earliest celebrities and pioneers. Because of the restoration, a ban on the sale of burial plots that had been implemented during the bleak days of looming bankruptcy was lifted and many modern-age celebrities are again choosing to be interred there after they pass away.

One of the things Cassity implemented as he restored and improved the cemetery is the "Life Stories", video biographies about the people buried at Hollywood Forever, which you can view at kiosks located throughout the cemetery grounds or on the cemetery's web site. Included among them is a 26-minute Life Story about Cornelius Cole and his extended family. There are a few "facts" mentioned in the video and on the web site that are not correct, however. (1. Cole was not a Captain in the Army during the Civil War, but his brothers George, Elijah and David were all high ranking officers in the Union Army. Cole served as a lowly buck private, and only for a couple weeks at that. Cole was a Captain in the California Militia, however, 2. As I already mentioned, it was not Cole's idea to buy the Alaskan Territory outright, as his granddaughter states in the video, a fact which Cole himself refutes in his own memoirs, and 3. His last words were not "I've done enough for today. I'm very tired." -- he said that the day before he died.) But, overall, the Life Story video is definitely worth a view and includes many photos that I didn't use here since this bio is already too long as it is.

* * * * *

Four years after Cole's death a proposal was suggested to add a statue in his honor to the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington, D.C. Each state was allowed two statues depicting their state's most prominent pioneers. California already had it's allotted two: Thomas Starr King and Father Junipero Serra. The proposal wasn't carried through and Cole never was honored with a statue, though California did eventually get a third one. That one was unveiled much more recently in honor of Ronald Reagan.

August 4, 1928 article in the Los Angeles Evening Express suggesting adding Cole to the Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C.

Several streets in the Los Angeles area are named for Cole and other members of his family: Cole Avenue, Eleanor Avenue, Seward Street, Willoughby Avenue, Waring Avenue (named for Lucretia's husband) and Barton Avenue (named for a grandson). Also, Vine Street, famous worldwide because of it's intersection with Hollywood Boulevard, was so named because it was built through the middle of what was once Cole's vineyard. Also, the town of Coleville, in Mono County near the Nevada Border, was named for Cornelius Cole.

Sources:
Memoirs of Cornelius Cole
Cornelius Cole, California Pioneer and United States Senator by Catherine Coffin Phillips
Allen Ellenberger's Hollywoodland blog
Hollywood Forever
Wikipedia
Oakland Tribune, Monday, November 3, 1924
1870 Federal Census, San Francisco, San Francisco County, California
1880 Federal Census, San Francisco, San Francisco County, California
1900 Federal Census, Cahuenga, Los Angeles County, California
1910 Federal Census, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California

Emanuel Linoberg

2010-09-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

Emanuel Linoberg's grave in the Sonora Hebrew Cemetery

Emanuel Linoberg
Born: 1818
Died: March 12, 1858 - Apoplexy
Interred: Sonora Hebrew Cemetery, Sonora, Tuolumne County, California

On March 12, 1858, at the young age of 40 years, Emanuel Linoberg passed away suddenly. His obituary was printed two days later in Stockton's San Joaquin Republican.

Sudden Death
Mr. E. Linoberg, an old resident of Sonora, died very suddenly on Monday last, of apoplexy. His funeral was attended by the Masons, Odd Fellows, Hebrew Bonevolent Society, Firemen, and a large number of citizens.

Linoberg was buried in Sonora's Hebrew Cemetery in a plot with an elaborate wrought iron crib surrounding it. His headstone, intricately carved, depicts a grieving woman crying, with two small children by her side. The marker includes both Hebrew and English text.

Linoberg's widow, Pauline, eventually remarried to Louis Linoberg, Emanuel's brother, and she moved south to Mariposa, a mining town in Mariposa County, where Louis lived. Years later, Louis and Pauline moved to San Jose. It was in San Jose where Pauline went into business for herself, opening a millinery (a women's hat store).

Sonora Hebrew Cemetery - Emanuel Linoberg's grave is on the left, under the tree

A closer look at Emanuel Linoberg's headstone

Sources:
A Traveler's Guide to Pioneer Jewish Cemeteries of the California Gold Rush by Susan Morris

Jefferson Baird

2010-08-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

Jefferson Baird's headstone in the Plymouth Memorial Cemetery

Jefferson Baird
Born: December 15, 1826 (Perry County, Pennsylvania)
Died: May 12, 1906 (Jackson, Amador County, California)
Interred: Plymouth Memorial Cemetery, Plymouth, Amador County, California
Occupations: Carpenter, Farmer, Miner, Ditch Digger, Lumberman, Justice of the Peace

Jefferson Baird was born in late 1826 in Pennsylvania. In the spring of 1839 his parents moved the family to Iowa. It was in Iowa where Baird learned to be a carpenter, though his primary occupation was working on the family farm. When news of the gold discovery in California reached Iowa, Baird left Iowa and headed west to make California his home for the rest of his life.

He arrived in Sacramento in 1850 and stayed there briefly before moving on to Rough and Ready, a mining town in Nevada County, where he spent a year. From there, he headed south to El Dorado County where he lived in the mountain community of Grizzly Flat. Baird worked in this area digging mining ditches until 1856, when he bought a sawmill and went into the lumber business.

On September 14, 1868 Baird married Mary Ann Brown. Together they had one son, George Milton Baird, who was born in 1869, and in 1898, at the age of 28 years, was killed in an accident at the Ford Mine in San Andreas, Calaveras County.

The Baird family enumerated in the census for El Dorado County's Mountain Township (line 23)

Son George's headstone in the Plymouth Memorial Cemetery

Baird's lumber business was successful and he soon had enough money saved up to buy a ranch in Amador County from Leonard Ballou Sharp, which he purchased in April, 1872 for $2,000. He quickly bought an additional 160 adjoining acres, making the ranch 320 acres total in size. He still maintained the lumber mill in El Dorado County for a few years, but eventually sold that and in 1876, moved to his ranch three miles northeast of Plymouth, where he again made his living as a farmer.

Baird's wife passed away in 1877. Five years later the farm proved to be not quite the success his lumber mill business had been, and Baird was forced to sell the entire 320 acres to James Stillwaggon, which was possibly a move calculated to avoid foreclosure. Baird moved south to Jackson where he remained for the rest of his life.

Wife Mary's headstone in the Plymouth Memorial Cemetery

Baird was active in his community, serving in many positions, such as the Board of School Trustees for the Williams District of Amador County. He also served on the Grand Jury in 1883, and in 1894 was elected Justice of the Peace for Township 5 as a member of the Republican Party.

Baird was a member of the International Order of Gnostic Templars, and when the County Lodge convened in Payne and Richardson's Hall in Sutter Creek on September 18, 1886, Baird attended as a delegate from the Live Oak Lodge.

1900 census for North Jackson, showing Baird as a patient in the County Hospital (line 22)

Baird died in 1906, in Jackson. He was buried in the Plymouth Memorial Cemetery next to his wife and son.

Sources:
History of Amador County, California, With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers
The Shenandoah Valley Area of Amador County, California, 1854-1904
1870 Federal Census, Mountain Township, El Dorado County
1900 Federal Census, North Jackson, Amador County

Joseph Ziegler

2010-08-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

Joseph Ziegler's grave in Tombstone's Boothill

Joseph Ziegler

Born: circa 1855
Died: November 1, 1882 (Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona)
Interred: Boothill Graveyard, Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona
Occupation: Miner

Joseph Ziegler worked as a miner near Tombstone, Arizona. On November 1, 1882 he was working with fellow miner Ed Williams. They were laying track for the ore cars in a local mine when they got into an argument. The subject of the argument is no longer known, but it became very heated and both men were unwilling to let it go. They carried it with them after work and into town later in the day.

The quarrel eventually ended near the corner of Fifth and Toughnut Streets. Behind an icehouse Williams pulled a gun and shot Ziegler to death. Since Ziegler had no weapon on him, it should have been a clear case of murder. But a jury of Williams' peers saw differently. He was convicted on the much lesser charge of manslaughter, which had a maximum sentence of five years.

The view northwest toward the courthouse from Third and Toughnut, two blocks west of the murder

The view southeast from Fourth and Toughnut - the murder took place just right of center in this photo

Sources:
Tombstone's Boothill by Ben T. Traywick (1994)
Essential Guide For Your Tour of the Original Boothill Graveyard - self guided tour pamphlet from the Boothill Graveyard gift shop

Charles Steckler

2010-08-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

Charles Steckler's headstone in the Givoth Olam Cemetery

Charles Steckler
Born: March 3, 1824 (Bohemia)
Died: September 3, 1880 (Jackson, Amador, California) - Suicide by hanging
Interred: Givoth Olam Cemetery, Jackson, Amador, California
Occupations: Grocery Store, Saloon and Dry-Goods Store Owner

Charles Steckler was born in Bohemia and migrated to the United States in the mid 1800s, winding up in the small mining community of Jackson. He owned a number of businesses in Jackson and the surrounding communities, including a grocery store (with partners Moses Brumel and P. Vertimer) and saloons in both Jackson and Volcano. The grocery business closed in 1858, the same year his first wife passed away, and he later opened a dry-goods store. In advertisements for the dry-goods store he stated "I sell cheap for cash only".

1860 Census for Jackson, showing Steckler (line 19) and second wife Caroline, with two small children - one from his previous marriage

On the morning of September 3, 1880, at about 8am, Steckler was found hanging in the back room of his dry-goods store in an attempt to commit suicide. It is unknown how long he had been hanging there, but it couldn't have been very long, as he was still alive when found. However, he had successfully injured himself too severely to be saved. He was cut down quickly as soon as he was found and a doctor was summoned, but Steckler passed away within minutes of being discovered. He left no note behind and the reasons for his suicide are unknown. His business was successful and as far as anyone knew, his life at home with his family was also a happy one.

Amador Dispatch, Saturday, September 4, 1880:
A SAD AFFAIR - One of Jackson's oldest and best citizens commits suicide! This (Friday) morning about 8 o'clock, Jackson was thrown into a commotion and her citizens enveloped in gloom, by the announcement that Mr. Chas. Steckler, one of our oldest citizens, and most respected and prosperous merchants had, only a few minutes previous to that time, committed suicide by hanging himself in the back room of his store. It is not definitely known how long he had been hanging when he was discovered by someone who cut the rope by which he was suspended, as speedily as possible. And although life at this time was not entirely extinct, yet it was too late for medical aid to restore him and he expired within a few minutes after he was found. He had come down from his residence as usual, about 7 o'clock and partially opened his store, after which he was not seen until found about one hour afterward suspended as above stated and almost lifeless. It is not yet known what drove him to commit this rash deed, unless he was laboring under some form of insanity which has been suspected for some time past, symptoms of which have been noted on several previous occasions. In business he seemed to be prospering better even than for several years past; and his habits were strictly temperate and exemplary. He was one of Jackson's oldest business men and had the respect and confidence of the entire community. He leaves a wife and six children besides hosts of friends to mourn his sad fate. In religion he belonged to the Jewish creed, a native of Austria, and aged about 56 years. He was a member in good standing of the Masonic, Odd Fellows, and Pioneer fraternities in this place. A Coroner's inquest will be held on the body of the deceased this afternoon when some more particular facts in connection with the tragic affair may be elicited. The deceased will be buried in the Jewish cemetery on Sunday morning at 10 o'clock under the auspices of the Masonic, Odd Fellows, and Pioneer societies.

Steckler was a member of the Masonic and Odd Fellows fraternal organizations. The symbols for both appear on his headstone in Jackson's Jewish Givoth Olam Cemetery. Buried on his right is Caroline (1834 - September 23, 1860), a Furth, Bavaria native, who was Steckler's second wife. His first wife, Rogasen, Prussia native Hette (d. September 11, 1858), is buried on his left. Following Caroline's death, Steckler had married a third time, to a woman named Dora. He had one daughter from his first marriage, two sons from his second marriage, and four children from his third marriage, one of whom was born on October 20, nearly two months after Steckler's death.

Steckler family plot

Givoth Olam Cemetery

Jewish custom requires mourners to wash their hands after visiting loved ones' graves - a basin is provided at the cemetery gate for this purpose

John Blair

2010-08-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

John Blair's marker in Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard

John Blair
Interred: Boothill Graveyard, Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona
Occupations: Thief, Cattle Rustler, Outlaw

John Blair was a cattle rustler and member of the Double 'Dobe Gang in southeastern Arizona in the late 1800s. As he participated in a rustling trip he managed to contract smallpox. This was discovered by his cohorts after he had returned to their camp outside Tombstone. His friends found a small shack at a safe distance from camp and quarantined him there. They also found a Mexican woman who had recovered from smallpox sometime earlier and was now immune, and they convinced her to take care of Blair and nurse him back to health.

A week later, the Mexican woman showed up in camp to announce "Señor Juan, he ees very dead."

One of Blair's friends rode to Tombstone, where he went to Boothill, selected a good spot for the grave, and proceeded to dig a hole much deeper than was normally considered acceptable. While he was busy digging the grave, another of Blair's friends went to the shack. While standing at the doorway, this man tossed a coiled rope inside the shack toward Blair until he finally managed to get the loop around his legs. Cinching the knot tight, he tied the other end of the rope to his horse's pommel, or saddle horn, and the funeral procession began.

Once Blair's body had successfully cleared the door of the shack and was outside, the rider coaxed his horse into a gallop and wasted no time as he hurriedly dragged the body over the rough terrain to Boothill Graveyard. Blair's body was unceremoniously dumped into the deep hole and the end of the rope that had been tied to the saddle was tossed in after him, then the two men swiftly filled the hole with dirt, sand and rocks.

Later that night as the gang sat by the fire getting drunk, one of Blair's cohorts was overheard musing out loud, wondering how John was going to manage to get the rope off his feet when it came time to stand before the Lord on judgment day.

1880 census for Tombstone showing a John Blair (line 9) - I don't know for certain if this is the same man, but it is likely

Sources:
1880 Federal Census, village of Tombstone, Pima County, Arizona (Tombstone later became part of Cochise County)
Tombstone's Boothill by Ben T. Traywick (1994)

Commodore Young

2010-08-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

Commodore Perry Young's marker in the Coloma Pioneer Cemetery

Commodore Perry Young
Born: March 15, 1816 (Hawkins County, Tennessee)
Died: September 19, 1894 (Coloma, El Dorado County, California)
Interred: September 21, 1894 - Pioneer Cemetery, Coloma, El Dorado County, California
Occupations: Miner, Alcalde (Justice of the Peace)

Commodore (his given name, not a military rank or title), born in 1816, was the tenth of twelve children his parents had. When he was twelve years old his father died. Commodore stayed at home with his mother for several years, working the family farm. When his mother moved to Pettis County, Missouri in 1830, he moved with her.

In 1849 he migrated to Oregon on the overland route and by early 1850 found himself in California where he prospected and mined for a brief period of time in the Georgia Slide area. By late 1850 he had returned to Missouri to be with his family again. It was in Missouri where he became a Mason, having been received into the order at Georgetown in 1851.

As he remained a Masonic lodge member over the years, he served in various administrative functions. For four years he was the Master of the Acacia Lodge. He also served as treasurer for a couple years as well as lodge secretary for an undetermined (by me) amount of time.

After living in Missouri for a couple years he again traveled overland for California, this time making El Dorado County his permanent home. He mined for gold in Diamond Springs for a while with a man named M. G. Griffith, then from 1861 to 1864 he tried to make his fortune in Grizzly Flat. Eventually, he moved to Coloma where he served as Alcalde, or Justice of the Peace.

Commodore Perry Young, far right, mining with Charles Johnson, Dan Teuscher and Rufus Burgess -- this photo is from a calendar printed by the Buffalo Brewing Company

1870 Coloma Township census showing Commodore Perry Young (line 24) living with a man named Thomas Perry, possibly a brother

1880 Coloma census showing Commodore Perry Young (line 28)

He died in Coloma in 1894 at the age of 78, and was laid to rest in the Protestant Cemetery, which is known today as the Coloma Pioneer Cemetery. His grave was either unmarked to begin with or the headstone disappeared with time. In 1997 a new marker was placed on his grave, as well as several others in the cemetery which were also unmarked for whatever reason.

Commodore Perry Young's obituary -- Mountain Democrat, September 22, 1894

Sources:
Suzi Mickus
History of El Dorado County, California -- published by Paolo Sioli, 1883
Coloma Cemeteries -- edited by Lynette Mizell, Coloma Cemetery Committee, 1997
1870 Federal Census, Coloma Township, El Dorado County, California
1880 Federal Census, Coloma, El Dorado County, California
Mountain Democrat, September 22, 1894

Edward Storey

2010-07-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

Edward Storey's grave in Virginia City's Masonic Cemetery

Edward Farris Storey
Born: July 21, 1829 (Georgia)
Died: June 2, 1860 (near Pyramid Lake, Washoe County, Nevada)
Interred: Masonic Cemetery, Virginia City, Storey County, Nevada
Occupations: Farmer, Military Veteran

Edward Storey was born in Georgia to John Thompson and Lucy (nee McLester) Storey, the sixth of their ten children. By the time Edward was 19 years old, the family was living in Texas, where Edward married Adella Coloway on January 2, 1849 in Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas. The following year, in or near May, Edward and Adella had a daughter they named Juliann Adella.

1850 Federal Census, Caldwell County, Texas, showing the Storey family (line 17)

Adella died soon after this time and in 1853 Edward moved with his daughter Juliann to Visalia in Tulare County, California. His stay in Visalia was brief and the following year found him in San Juan Bautista, San Benito County, where he founded a Masonic Lodge. A few years after that he uprooted again, this time moving to Virginia City, Nevada, where he was among the first wave of hopefuls to arrive following the discovery of the rich Comstock Lode silver fields.

While in northern Nevada he organized and commanded Company K of the Nevada Militia, known as the Virginia City Rifles. His company fought in the Pyramid Lake War, also known as the Paiute War. The Paiutes were upset at the sudden influx of white men streaming into the area in search of silver and in the process interrupting the Native American's way of life and food gathering practices, including fishing at Pyramid Lake, a body of water on the Truckee River Basin in today's Washoe County, 40 miles northeast of Reno. The war began with several small skirmishes, including attacks on Pony Express stations, causing the service's only delays in delivery service, and culminated in two battles near Pyramid Lake.

The first battle took place in May 1860. The Paiutes, with some help from local Shoshone and Bannock tribes, lured the white men into an ambush. It was a rout for the Paiutes, resulting in 76 dead white soldiers and a small number of Native Americans (the exact number was not recorded). The white men retreated as they prepared and organized themselves for another attack, including adding Federal troops among their number. The second battle took place in June and was a decisive victory for the white settlers, with only four of their own dead to the Paiute's 160. Captain Edward Farris Storey was one of the four white men killed in this second battle at Pyramid Lake. He was buried in the Masonic Cemetery at the new Virginia City settlement. His tall headstone stands on a hill at the highest point in the current half dozen or so cemeteries at the northeastern end of town.

The entrance gates to Virginia City's Masonic Cemetery

Following the second battle at Pyramid Lake the federal government built a fort at the lake to keep the Native Americans at bay. A cease fire was negotiated by August of 1860, and the following year the fort was abandoned.

At the time of the Comstock Lode discovery and Pyramid Lake War, the area was still part of the Utah Territory. The following year, in February, Virginia City incorporated under the Territorial laws of Utah. A month later, on March 2, 1861, the Territory of Nevada was organized and the charter for Virginia City was amended to provide licensing of saloons selling liquor as well as providing billiard tables, bowling alleys and other amusements. The authorities in Utah never permitted liquor whenever it was possible for them to prevent it, and that sentiment did not go over well with the type of people who made up the early population of Virginia City after silver was discovered and miners flocked to the area.

Later that year, on November 25, 1861, a new county was formed by the first session of Nevada's Territorial Legislature. This county was comprised of Virginia City (established as the county seat four days later), the small town of Gold Hill to the south and nearby American Flat. It was named Storey County after Edward Farris Storey. Today, Storey County is the second smallest county in the state (only nearby Carson City County is smaller), yet at the time of it's creation it was the most populous. Three years after it's creation, on October 31, 1864, Nevada became the 36th state to join the union.

The plaque on the front of Storey's grave marker

Virginia City Cemeteries

Sources:
The Family Story Online (Particularly this page)
StoreyCounty.org
Visit Virginia City, NV
Wikipedia: Pyramid Lake War, Edward Farris Storey, Pyramid Lake, Nevada and Storey County, Nevada

Joseph Staples

2010-07-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

Joseph Staples' grave in Placerville's Union Cemetery

Joseph M. Staples
Born: circa 1826 (Ireland)
Died: July 1, 1864 (Somerset House, Rescue, El Dorado County, California) - Gunshot
Interred: July 2, 1864 - Masonic Section, Union Cemetery (Placerville, El Dorado County, California)
Occupation: El Dorado County Deputy Sheriff

Late in the evening on Thursday, June 30, 1864, sometime between 9:00 and 10:00pm, a group of bandits dressed as Confederate soldiers held up two Pioneer Line stagecoaches heading from Virginia City, Nevada to the Carey House stage stop in Placerville, California. The crime happened at a spot called Bullion Bend, which today is north of highway 50 on the old Pony Express Trail road. Nobody knows exactly how many robbers were involved. The number differs between reports, but it was somewhere between six and fourteen.

Stage driver Ned Blair was stopped first and the robbers demanded he throw down the Wells Fargo & Company strongbox, but when Blair explained it wasn't on his stagecoach, they instead relieved him of the six bags of bullion he was transporting. Behind Blair's coach was another driven by Charlie Watson. Watson saw Blair's coach stopped ahead and assumed Blair had experienced some sort of mechanical difficulty, so Watson stopped to see if he could help. He was immediately greeted with the business ends of several guns. Again, the robbers demanded the strongbox, which Watson was carrying. They also took the two bags of bullion he was transporting.

Before fleeing with the money and silver, the robbers gave Blair and Watson a receipt for the stolen goods. The receipt explained that the money was needed to outfit new recruits from California enlisting for the cause of the Confederate Army, and was signed by a Captain R. Henry Ingrim. It was commonly believed that the party of Confederate robbers were part of Quantrill's Raiders.

The robbers split up, heading to nearby roadhouses for the night. A small number of men went to Thirteen Mile House, about a mile from the scene of the robbery, while the rest fled southeast to Somerset House. The strongbox and bullion were cached somewhere along the escape route for later retrieval.

Original site of the Somerset House - now private property, a ranch field

Early the following morning, at about 1:00 or 2:00am, Sheriff William Rogers sent Deputies George C. Ranney, John Van Eaton and Joseph Staples southeast to follow the trail of the main group of men, while he and a small posse went to the robbery site to investigate. Sheriff Rogers' party found a pair of the robbers at Thirteen Mile House in the morning and the two were arrested without incident.

The small group of deputies were able to track the main band of robbers to the Reynolds family's Somerset House roadhouse, where they had stopped for the night. Ranney quickly determined that they were outnumbered, and he sent Van Eaton off to obtain reinforcements. Supposedly, Staples had been embarrassed a few months earlier in another encounter when it was claimed he had shown a lack of bravery. He wasn't going to let that happen again and despite Ranney's insistence that they wait for backup, Staples stormed into the roadhouse, gun drawn, demanding the surrender of the fugitives. Ranney had no choice now, so he also ran in to assist. Both men were met with a hail of bullets. Staples was fatally shot almost immediately. Ranney managed to shoot Thomas Poole, one of the robbers, in the face, before he felt overpowered and attempted to escape, running for his horse. He had been shot at least three times, though, and losing strength he fell to the ground.

Maria Reynolds, the roadhouse proprietor, convinced the bandits to leave Ranney alone and not finish him off. The band of robbers, minus Poole, fled south, but not before taking the guns from the two deputies and Poole, as well as stealing all of the cash the deputies had on them.

Almost two months later, Deputy Van Eaton and Under-Sheriff James B. Hume, a close friend of Staples', tracked down and arrested eight men implicated in the robbery. The men arrested in Santa Clara County included: Henry Jarbes, George Cross, J. A. Robertson, Wallace Clendenin, Joseph Gamble, John Ingren, H. Gatley and Preston Hodges. They and Thomas Poole, who survived his wound, were transported to Placerville where they were charged for the crimes based on evidence given by fellow conspirator Allen P. Glasby, who had turned state's evidence.

Only two of the men were ever convicted for the robberies and shootout, though. On November 22, 1864, Hodges and Poole were both found guilty by a jury of their peers. Hodges was sentenced to twenty years at hard labor, while Poole was sentenced to death. Poole's execution by hanging was carried out in Placerville (known as Hangtown for a reason) almost a year later, on September 29, 1865. The attorneys for the other men arrested managed to arrange for a change of venue to Santa Clara County where they were all acquitted on all charges.

Staples was buried the day after his death. He was placed in the plot that had been reserved for his friend James Hume, in the Masonic Cemetery that is now part of Placerville's Union Cemetery, which later combined a number of small, adjoining cemeteries into one larger one. Staples' funeral services were provided by the Neptune Engine Company No. 2, which he had been a member of.

Joseph Staples was the first El Dorado County Sheriff Deputy to be killed in the line of duty, and for almost a century he remained the only one to have done so. He didn't lose that distinction until Sunday, October 22, 1961 when Deputy Ora Clyde Owen was run down by a drunk driver in South Lake Tahoe as Owen was directing traffic at an intersection following an unrelated automobile accident he had been involved in. Other than those two, there has only been one other line-of-duty death in the El Dorado Sheriff force; that of Deputy Michael L. Cole who died in an automobile accident on Tuesday, February 26, 1991. To this day, Staples is the only El Dorado County Sheriff Deputy to have been killed by an assailant's bullet in the roughly 160-year history off the department. Deputy Ranney, who had been seriously wounded in the same gun battle, recovered from his injuries and lived until 1912.

The stolen money and bullion were never recovered, except for a handful of coins and a single silver bar. It was commonly believed that it still lay hidden where the robbers cached it, somewhere between Bullion Bend and Somerset House. Many people have searched for it during the past century, but so far it has not turned up.

In 1986, Bob Jensen, a retired chief of the state's Bureau of Narcotics, noticed that Staples' headstone had been vandalized. It was broken near the base and had been knocked over. He called this to the attention of the County Sheriff, who fixed it and also had a new granite marker made in Staple's honor. The repaired and new markers were unveiled during a memorial service for Staples on July 1, 1986, the 122nd anniversary of his death.

The new marker placed on the 122nd anniversary of Staples' death

July 2, 1986 Mountain Democrat story about the shootout and headstone rededication - part 1

July 2, 1986 Mountain Democrat story about the shootout and headstone rededication - part 2

April 6, 1972 Mountain Democrat story about plans to move the memorial marker at the site of the robbery

Sources:
Mountain Democrat (several dates)
The Officer Down Memorial Page, Inc.
Suzi Mickus

Wilbur and Ross

2010-07-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

Holcomb Valley as seen from the Holcomb View Trail

In Southern California's San Bernardino Mountain range, a few miles north of present-day Big Bear Lake, there is an idyllic valley which was the location of the largest gold rush in Southern California, following William F. Holcomb's discovery of a quartz ledge on May 5, 1860. It was by no means as extensive as the more well known rush to the northern mines in the 1840s and 1850s, yet for a few years as many as 1,500 hopeful prospectors called the area home. In the center of the valley grew a town called Belleville, named for the blacksmith's daughter Belle Van Dusen, the first child born in the area. Well... The first white child, that is. Or, I suppose you could say, the first child known to be born in the area. The boom didn't last long, as the gold quickly ran out. The town and valley were deserted by the late 1870s, and today very little remains in the area as evidence that this once thriving community used to exist.

The Big Bear Discovery Center on the north shore of Big Bear Lake provides a free map/brochure you can use on a self-guided auto tour of the valley. The roads in Holcomb Valley are not paved and a high clearance vehicle is strongly recommended. Depending on the time of the year and the condition of the roads, 4WD or even a snowmobile may be necessary. With that said, I have made the 18-mile loop drive many times in passenger cars (1997 and 2004 Chevrolet Cavaliers), but be warned: you're on your own back there and AAA's roadside assistance program does not cover you on unpaved roads -- believe me, I found that out the hard way. I have seen the Holcomb Valley Road in extremely poor condition with ruts a good foot or more deep, but when I drove through there last week it appeared that most of the road had been recently graded and was very smooth. Notice, I said "most", not "all". The last few miles are always in very rough condition; washboarded and littered with sharp rocks in the roadbed.

Also keep in mind, a National Forest Adventure Pass is required when you park a vehicle anywhere in Holcomb Valley. This can also be obtained from the Big Bear Discovery Center.

With a community of well over a thousand people for several years, it's a pretty safe bet that there was a cemetery somewhere in or near Belleville. But, there is no sign of one today. If one did indeed exist, all traces have disappeared over time. There are, however, two known graves in Holcomb Valley - one a mile or so west of Belleville and another a shorter distance east of the town. Little is known about either of the men buried in those two graves.

The first grave you'll find, west of Belleville, is for a man named Wilbur. His grave isn't actually listed on the free Gold Fever Trail auto tour guide pamphlet, but as you're driving on Holcomb Valley Road you'll find a sign indicating it can be seen a short drive up a spur road heading north. Wilbur was apparently one of the early miners in the area, but anything else about his life, death and burial are no longer known. His grave always seems to be decorated with one or more American flags, which leaves me wondering if he might have been a military veteran.

Wilbur's grave in Holcomb Valley

The second grave is listed on the auto tour guide and you'll find it on the eastern side of town after you pass by the Van Dusen cabin, which was moved here from its original location some years back. This second grave is for a man named Ross, who was accidentally killed while cutting down a tree for lumber. He was buried on the spot where he fell, and someone built a hand-carved picket fence around his grave to serve as a crib. That crib was later stolen or destroyed by vandals, and in 1995 a rough-hewn wooden crib was constructed around the grave to replace it. Visitors to the area like to leave pine cones on his (and Wilbur's) grave, and the area around it has been picked clean of them. Even though there are many pine trees near the grave, you'll have to hike some distance before you'll find a stray pine cone on the ground to leave on the pile in his memory.

Ross' grave in Holcomb Valley

The home of Jed Van Dusen, his wife and daughter Belle

Video tour of Holcomb Valley (click on the video to watch it on YouTube, where you can see it bigger)

Video of last section of Holcomb Valley Road - it's worse than it looks in the video (click on the video to watch it on YouTube, where you can see it bigger)

Sources:
Gold Fever Trail map/tour guide from the Big Bear Discovery Center on highway 38 in Fawnskin, CA
Off-Road.com: The Ghosts of Holcomb Valley
Mountain Project
Wikipedia

Melville Casper

2010-07-05T00:00:00.000-07:00

Melville Casper's marker in the Nevada City Jewish Cemetery

Melville Casper
Born: November 27, 1879 (California)
Died: April 23, 1894 (near Sweetland, Nevada County, California)
Interred: Nevada City Jewish Cemetery, Nevada City, Nevada County, California

Born in California, Melville was the oldest child of German immigrants Kaskil and Sophia Casper. His siblings included two brothers (Albert and Ervin) and two sisters (Matty and Irma). Melville's father Kaskil was a successful businessman, owning a clothing store, several mining claims -- including shares in the Harmony Mine, and an investor in community lighting. Kaskil was active in the Nevada City government and aggressively promoted the efforts to light the town's streets at night using incandescent lighting.

1880 Nevada City census showing the Casper family (line 1)

On April 23, 1894, at the age of 14, Melville was boating in the reservoir of the Manzanita Mine near Sweetland when he was killed in an accident. His body was taken to the small Jewish cemetery in Nevada City where he was buried. A rather unique marker stands over his grave today, shaped like the trunk of a tree.

A 1905 photo of the Manzanita Mine

Another 1905 photo of the Manzanita Mine

The Nevada City Jewish Cemetery is difficult to find and you would never even know where to look unless someone told you how to find it. Access used to be available via a private driveway belonging to a house next to the cemetery, but the new owners of the home have decided they do not want to allow people to use their driveway, and today you need to come in the back way, behind the parking lot of a large apartment complex. The gate is kept locked and permission to enter must be obtained in advance from the Commission for the Preservation of Pioneer Jewish Cemeteries and Landmarks in the West, formerly associated with the Judah L. Magnes Museum in Berkeley.

The Nevada City Jewish Cemetery (Melville's grave is in the far corner)

Sometime after Melville's death, Kaskil moved his family to Vallejo, in California's Solano County. While there, he continued his business interests, including promoting and investing in providing lighting to the community of Vallejo.

1900 Vallejo census showing the Casper family (line 73)

Sources:
A Traveler's Guide to Pioneer Jewish Cemeteries of the California Gold Rush by Susan Morris
Ancestry.com
1880 Federal Census, Nevada City, Nevada County, California
1900 Federal Census, Vallejo, Solano County, California

Mary Azevedo

2010-06-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

Mary's and her baby's marker in Columbia's City Cemetery

Mary Katrina Azevedo
Born: circa 1850 (Sao Jorge, Azores Islands)
Died: 1879 (Tuttletown, Tuolumne County, California) - Burned to death
Interred: Saint Anne's Churchyard (later moved to Columbia's City Cemetery), Columbia, Tuolumne County, California

Mary was born with the maiden name Silva sometime around 1850, in Sao Jorge, one of several Portuguese islands called the Azores archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean. Mary had at least one sibling, a brother named Antone Bettencourt Silva (Bettencourt being their mother's maiden name), who lived from November 1, 1849 to January 1, 1943.

Joseph Pereira Azevedo, also a native of the Azores, worked as a sailor. After returning to port from a voyage, he and Mary were married. They then sailed to California where they lived on a farm along the shore in Tiburon, a town in Marin County just north of San Francisco. There, they raised vegetables for a living until 1872 when they moved to Tuttletown, a small mining community in California's Tuolumne County, north of Columbia. (Interestingly, Tuttletown is where Mark Twain lived with the Gillis brothers for three months, and is where he wrote his famous "Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" story.)

As with the Taylors, who I wrote about last week, Mary and her infant son died tragically in a fire. One day in 1879, while she was holding the boy, Mary dropped an oil lamp. The burning oil splashed, igniting the clothing they were both wearing, and they died in the blaze. The boy's exact age is not known, and neither is his correct name, though we know it was either Juaquin Pereira or Domingo Pereira Azevedo.

Mary and the baby were buried in the churchyard surrounding Columbia's Saint Anne's Catholic church. Fourteen years later, another of Mary's children, 17-year-old Leonora Pereira Azevedo, died as a result of a glandular infection in her neck. She, too, was buried in the family plot with her mother and brother.

Leonora's marker, which she shares with another brother, in Columbia's City Cemetery

Saint Anne's Catholic Church in Columbia

Another look at Saint Anne's Catholic Church, this time from the churchyard which is still used as a cemetery today

In 1911, miners wanted to dig for the gold they knew was in the ground surrounding the church, and many of the bodies buried there were dug up and moved to the other side of town to be reburied in the non-denominational public City Cemetery (which itself had been moved en masse some 56 years earlier). Mary and her two children were all placed in a single grave near the northwestern boundary of the cemetery, where it borders the Odd Fellows Cemetery. Over the following years, many other family members were buried in this new family plot, as well as the northeastern end of the cemetery where many of Columbia's military dead are interred.

Joseph's marker in Columbia's City Cemetery

Columbia City Cemetery

A marker inside the Columbia City Cemetery gate

Sources:
Patricia Mohr
FindAGrave.com

Catherine Taylor

2010-06-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

Catherine's marker in the El Dorado Cemetery

Catherine A. Taylor
Born: circa 1833
Died: March 11, 1870 (El Dorado, El Dorado County, California) - Died in house fire
Interred: El Dorado Cemetery, El Dorado, California

Catherine and her husband Alvin J. Taylor lived, and were probably married in Indianapolis, Indiana, where Catherine had family. In the mid 1800s, they moved to California, settling in the small town known as Mud Springs, which we know today as El Dorado. In the early morning hours of Friday, March 11, 1870, their home caught fire.

Mountain Democrat, March 12, 1870

Note: Although the above notice says the fire happened on "Thursday night, 10th inst", it occurred after midnight, which means the date of the fire was actually Friday morning, March 11, 1870.

Alvin and four of his and Catherine's six children managed to escape the burning home, but Catherine and two children failed to make it out alive. Those who were fortunate enough to escape with their lives were badly injured in the process. Alvin and two of his seriously burned children were taken to the nearby Oriental Hotel where Doctor Hinman treated them, attempting to relieve them of their pain.

The March 19, 1870 Mountain Democrat ran a longer account of the tragedy than the brief mention it had given the previous week (in the image above). The newspaper also printed their official death notice in this issue.

Mountain Democrat, March 19, 1870, page 2: Death notice for Catherine and her children Frances and Alvin

Mountain Democrat, March 19, 1870, page 3: Article about the tragedy

Since the scan of that newspaper page is of poor quality and difficult to read, I transcribed it as best I could to reproduce in this blog post:

Terrible Calamity at Mud Springs
-----

A correspondent of the Democrat at El Dorado, (Mud Springs,) in this county, sends us the following in regard to the terrible calamity which happened at that place on Thursday night of last week, mention of which was made in our last issue: "Shortly after midnight on Thursday the tenth instant, our citizens were startled by the cry of "fire," "fire." Many seemed to realize some direful accident long ere they reached the scene of the conflagration, which proved to be the residence of Mr Alvin Taylor, situated in the northwestern portion of this place. When your correspondent first arrived, there weren't more than a half dozen persons, besides the unfortunate family, on the premises. We were shocked to learn from Mr Taylor that his wife, a daughter aged thirteen, and a boy aged two years, were within the raging elements; all instinctively [unreadable] but all efforts to save them would prove utterly futile, nevertheless, most heroic exertions were made by Mr Edward O Hale, Thos Fitzgibbons, John Leonard, and others. O Hale repeatedly entered the house only to be driven back with resistless force, and slightly burned on the face and hands. The attention of our citizens were [unreadable] toward those [unreadable] living of this most unfortunate family. Mr Taylor, who was almost crazed, was finally moved litterally (sic) by force from the home, and taken with two of his small children, both horribly burnt, to the Oriental Hotel, where their sufferings were partly relieved by Mrs Harvey, Mrs Gardner, Mrs Walker, and others, until the arrival of Dr Hinman, whose skill and prompt energy in such cases very quickly, by soothing treatment, relieved them of their terrible agony. Mr Taylor himself is very much burned in the face, hands and feet; the little boy, eight years of age, bears up nobly under his cruel misfortune, seldom complains, except when he speaks of his mother; the little girl, just four years old, is perhaps the most seriously injured, although Dr Hinman assures us that there need be no alarm for her safety. Mrs Taylor was most respected by her acquaintances, and bereaved by her friends here. Her daughter, Frances, was a general favorite in our [unreadable], and long will they despite her untimely end. Mr Taylor and his wife were from Indianapolis, Indiana, where Mrs T has a large number of relations to mourn her untimely death. It is seldom the lot of mortals to witness such a distressing sight as was presented to our vision Thursday night last, and may we never again see another. Mr Taylor lost everything he had by the fire, and is now cast upon the world with four helpless children, all under the age of ten years. We have raised here, about two hundred and fifty dollars toward there (sic) relief, which will only partly meet the expenses of a long and tedious sick bed of the sufferers. The readers of the Democrat, or at least many of them, it is hoped, will aid us to relieve the distressed family, by sending their note to the editor, or Geo Blanchard, Esq of Placerville, or Mr Elias Winslow, of this place."

Frances and Alvin's shared marker in the El Dorado Cemetery

The four-year-old girl mentioned in the above article, whose name has not been determined, was apparently not so lucky as the prospects for her safety predicted. Four months later when what was left of the Taylor family were enumerated in the 1870 federal census, Alvin is listed as living with only three children, all boys. The four-year-old girl is noticeably missing, and her whereabouts are not known to me. There is no headstone for her with those of the other three who perished in the fire.

1870 Federal Census, Mud Springs Township, showing Alvin and his three surviving sons: Byron, Loren and Ezra (line 14)

Sources:
Suzi Mickus
Mountain Democrat, March 12 and 19, 1870
HeritageQuest Online (check with your county library for access, if your library offers it)
Ancestry.com
1870 Federal Census, Mud Springs Township (El Dorado), El Dorado County, California