Collection: Books and Periodicals

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Title: A Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California (1891) Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Publisher: Lewis Publishing Company Published: 1891 Copyright: In the public domain or published before 1925 Source(s): Google Books # of Pages: 713 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-07-22 00:25:09 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 03:11:29 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 06:30:36

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

Page: of 713  

198 HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. tempered. He died in May, 1848, at the age of thirty-eight years. William Daylor, an English sailor, is said to have left his vessel in 1835. He entered Sutter’s service in 1840-41, and about 1844 settled on the Cosumnes River with Sheldon, his brotherin-law, in Sacramento County. General Kearny camped upon his rancho in 1847. He died in 1850 of cholera. He had in 1847 married Sarah Rhoads, who after his death married, in 1851, Wm. R. Grimshaw. Joseph Libbey Folsom, a native of New Hampshire, graduated at West Point in 1840, and later was instructor in that institution; came to California as captain in the United States army, and assistant quartermaster in the New York Volunteer Regiment, and was chief of the quartermaster department station at San Francisco, being also collector of the port 184749. He invested all the money he could raise in town lote, which in a few years made him a rich man. During a trip to the East in 1849 he was smart and lucky enough to find the heirs of Wm. A. Leidesdorff, and buy of them for a trifle their immense Leidesdorff estate in San Francisco. He thus became one of the wealthiest men in California. Among his possessions was the American River rancho, on which the town of Folsom now stands; and there is also a street in San Francisco named after him. His reputation is that of a most enterprising man of business, an honorable gentleman of superior education and refinement, but somewhat haughty and formal in manner. He died at Mission San Jose, in 1855, at the age of only thirty-eight years. Louis Keseburg, who was forced to subsist upon human flesh longer than any other member of the Donner party, was supercargo for Sutter in 1847 and later for Vallejo at Sonoma; was in the mines in 1848-49, kept boarding house and hotel at Sacramento, and was later a brewer at Calistoga and Sacramento. He made and lost several fortunes, the losses being mostly by fire and flood. He was an intelligent man, able in business, and in 1880 was living at Brighton, aged sixty-six, in extreme poverty. Sebastian Keyser, a native of the Austrian Tyrol, was a trapper who came overland with Sutter to Oregon in 1838, and afterward joined him at New Helvetia. He was naturalized in 1844 and obtained a grant of the Llano Seco rancho. Married Elizabeth Rhoads, who svon left him, but afterward returned to him. In 1849 he sold his interest in the rancho, and subsequently resided on the Daylor place, running a ferry across the Cosumnes for Daylor & Grimshaw, by the sinking of which cratt he was drowned in 1850. James King of William assumed the affix “of William ” at the age of sixteen, from his father’s given name, to distinguish him from others named James King. He was a native of Georgetown, District of Columbia, and came to California in 1848, made some money in the nines, clerked for Reading & Co. at Sacramento, and in 1849 opened a bank in San Francisco; 1854-’55 he was employed by Adams & Co.; in October, 1855, he founded the San Francisco Bulletin, through which he attacked local corruption in violent terms, but was apparently honest in hissentiments. He was shot in May, 1856, by James P. Casey, and his murder led to the organization of the famous Vigilance Commitee. He left a widow and six children. FOUNDING OF SACRAMENTO OITY. The city of Sacramento is located on the east bank of the Sacramento River, immediately below the mouth of the American River. The first settlement was made by John A. Sutter, in 1839, and long before there was any thought of establishing a city. The news of the gold discovery attracted to Sutter’s Fort a large immigration from all portions of the civilized world, and this point, being practically the head of inland navigation, became the first nucleus of a settlement. At first a town of canvas tents was established, and afterward the city was regularly laid out, the survey being made in December, 1848, by Captain William H. Warner, of the United States army, assisted by W. T. Sherman, now General.