From the records of the Pioneer Association of Santa Cruz County, I have the following brief autobiography of this gentleman:
"I am a member of the Santa Cruz County Society of Pioneers, and reside on my farm, near Soquel, having been a resident of this county since 1860. I was born in Portsmouth, Scioto County, Ohio, December 13, 1829. My father died in 1837 and mother married again, and in 1847 moved with her children and new husband to Amherstburg, Upper Canada. After a year's residence there they moved to Detroit, Michigan. A year later I left home, and, returning to Canada, remained until the spring of 1844. I came home to visit mother in Detroit, where I met a brother-in-law, Davis Gharky, with whom I started on a trip to St. Louis. The trip was made on steamboats, following the chain of lakes from Detroit to Chicago, thence across the prairie by stage to the town of Peru, on the Illinois River, and from thence by steamboat to New Orleans. This was the year of the high water in the Mississippi, and nearly all of the bottom land of the Father of Waters was flooded. The steamboat upon which I took passage sometimes took near cuts through the woods.
"I lived with a brother-in law in Jefferson County, Missouri, until March 1849, when I started for California. I drove a four-ox team to St. Louis to obtain supplies for a trip across the plains, and, obtaining passage to St. Joseph, Missouri, there joined other parties for California. The train consisted of some twenty wagons, and the company elected Dr. Bassett as captain. I became dissatisfied with some of my comrades and left the train, and was followed by two other wagons. The three traveled together until they reached the Platte River, from which place, with one other wagon, they traveled together until they arrived in California. After arriving in California I obtained employment at a salary of $10 a day for driving an ox team. I mined on the north fork of the American River until the rains set in, when I went to Sacramento, then called Sutter's Embarcadero. After New Year's I went to Negros' Bar, about a mile below Mormons' Island, on the American River, and later kept a hotel for Francis & Fowler, on the Auburn road near Sacramento, at a salary of $300 a month. Out of three months' wages I got $30. I then mined at Ecker's Bar until February, 1851, when I returned to Missouri via the Isthmus of Panama. I engaged in manufacturing lumber and flour on Big River, Jefferson County, Missouri, until early in the spring of 1854, when I again crossed the plains to California, taking my wife with me. I came direct to Santa Cruz arriving in August 1854. I went to Mariposa County in the following year and engaged in the lumber business. A year later I moved to Bear Valley, and was in Fremont's employ until 1857, and then took charge of Hamlin's mill, on the Merced River, until June 1860, when I came to Santa Cruz County, where I have since resided.
History of Santa Cruz County, California
by E.S. Harrison
Published by Pacific Press Publishing Company
San Francisco, Cal., 1892
Transcribed by Yvonne Valentine
Santa Cruz County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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