Solano County Biography
Simon S Drake
Simon S Drake - farmer, Section 16, post-office, Vallejo; was born in Chichester, New Hampshire, September 15,1831, and remained there till 1848, but did not leave the State till the Spring of 1854, when he moved to Fillmore County, Minnesota, there engaging in general merchandising, pre-empting land, and farming, until the early part of 1857, when he returned to the Eastern States and settled in Massachusetts, but remained there only two years. On January 6,1859, he sailed from New York, via Panama, arriving in San Francisco in February, and immediately went to Sacramento, and there worked on a dairy farm till the following September, when he proceeded to South San Francisco and entered the employment of John J. Haley, then proprietor of the International Hotel. In the Spring of 1860 he moved to Contra Costa County, and rented a farm from Victor Castro, but in the following Spring he left that portion of the country and sought employment in the Mare Island Navy Yard, in the plumbers' department. Leaving Mare Island in the Fall of that year, he proceeded to Idaho Territory, and commenced mining on Newsom Creek, which he prosecuted till November, 1862, keeping also a miners' store, when, at that date, he once more returned to San Francisco. In February of the following year Mr. Drake proceeded to Austin, Nevada, and was employed as engineer at different mills till 1865, when, on February 10th, he once more went to San Francisco, from which city he proceeded to his home in the East, on the 15th of the month. While at Lynn, Massachusetts, he engaged with his brothers in the grocery and provision business, which he continued till April, 1866, when he left for Minnesota, and from thence went to Kansas City, Missouri, arriving there July 4,1866. He next proceede'd to Ray County, Missouri, where he worked as an engineer for two years. On October 7th, 1868, he was married to Miss Mirza C. Craven, and soon after left for California, but after a few months returned to Missouri for his wife, coming back to California in November, 1869, and settled on his present farm of 360 acres. Mr. Drake is a member of the Grangers, as well as of the Ancient Order of United Workmen a nd Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He has by his wife three children - Walter Frank, born in Bay County, Missouri, September 18,1869; Harry Clyde, born April 14, 1871, at Vallejo; and Joey Howard, born September 23,1872.
History of Solano County, California
Pages 346-347
Transcribed by Julie Appletoft, February 2008
Solano County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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