A native of Clay County,
Indiana, born November 9, 1837. In 1845 he removed with his parents to Iowa,
and settled in that portion of the State now known as Jasper County. Here
they remained until May 7, 1849, when he with his parents emigrated to
California across the plains with ox-teams. After a wearisome journey of
seven long months, they reached a point called Larsen's, where they remained
about three months; thence to a little town on Feather River, known as Yuba
City, Yuba County. After a residence here of one year, a rival city -
Marysville - sprang up, which completely demolished our infant city in a
business point of view, and, like many others, they deserted it and took up
their residence in the rival city, remained there one year, and then
proceeded to the mining district in Brown's Valley, and remained until 1853,
when they took up their residence at a place known as Keystone Ranch. Here
his father engaged in the saw mill business, and built a large hotel styled
the "Keystone House." After a short residence here he returned to Brown's
Valley, thence to a mining camp called Ohio Flat, in Yuba County, near
Forbestown, and engaged in mining and hotel keeping until 1857, when he came
to Sonoma County and settled on a portion of the Sotoyome Grant, in
Alexander Valley, named in honor of Cyrus Alexander, one of the pioneers of
the county. In 1864, the subject of this sketch entered the Sotoyome
Institute at Healdsburg, and there completed his education in 1866. He then
returned home, but lived most of the time with his brother until November
18, 1878, when he was united in marriage to Miss Lucy M. Crigler of
Mendocino County, a native of Monroe County, Missouri. He at once engaged in
farming in Alexander Valley. In September 1871 he proceeded to Healdsburg
and engaged in the grocery and general produce business. On account of his
wife being in ill health, he was obliged to sell out his business in about
eighteen months' time, and moved to Cloverdale, where he remained about two
years, when his wife's sickness terminated in consumption, and finally
resulted in her death on June 4, 1876. He then returned to Healdsburg and
once more engaged in the same business under the firm name of Gum &
Ferguson. He married secondly on May 12, 1878, Miss Mary E. Miller, formerly
of La Porte, Indiana. He then made a trip East, accompanied by his wife, and
on his return purchased the grocery business of S. J. Johnson, in
Healdsburg. Removed to Masonic Block, where he may be found at present.
James W., born March 1, 1870, and died on January 25, 1872, and Minnie I.,
born June 9, 1872, are the names of his children by his first wife. By his
present wife he has one child, George P., born June 24, 1879.
Source: "History of Sonoma County, Cal.," Alley,
Bowen & Co., San Francisco, 1880, pp.505-506.
Transcribed and submitted by Sally Kaleta, July, 2007.
Was born in Clay
County, Indiana, September 3, 1835. He resided in this, Owen, and Green
Counties until about nine years of age; the then, with his parents (in
1854), moved to Jasper County, Iowa, this county then being unorganized, it
being on the extreme frontier of the new State; his father, William
Washington, having the honor of naming both county and county seat, calling
them after two heroes of the Revolutionary War, Jasper, the county, and
Newton, the county town. In 1849 they crossed the plains to California, with
ox-teams. After a tedious trip of nine months, (losing one yoke of their
cattle by Indians, and the subject of this sketch narrowly escaping the loss
of his life, by the falling of a tree at the hour of midnight on 28th
November, across their tent, in which four of his sisters and brothers and
himself were sleeping, the top of the tree falling on another tent, killing
four men, the Alford family, from Missouri), they finally, about the middle
of December, landed, by the famous "Lamsen Route," in the fair land of gold.
They spent the remainder of the winter in the vicinity of what was known to
early comers as Lawson's Ranch, and in the spring of 1850 they settled at
Yuba City, Sutter County, where they remained one year; they then spent a
few months in Marysville, after which they opened a boarding-house in
Brown's Valley, Yuba County, where they remained, connecting quartz mining
with their business, until the fall of 1852, when they repaired to Keystone
Ranch, where they conducted a saw-mill, until the fall of 1853, when they
returned to Brown's Valley, (still holding their quartz mining interests),
where they followed mining and the boarding-house business until the summer
of 1855, when a new mining locality was discovered in the north-western part
of Yuba County, known as Ohio and New York Flats; to the first named place
they removed in the summer of 1855, where they again engaged in mining and
boarding-house business, until the summer of 1857, when they came to this
county and settled on the place that John Nelson now owns, located in
Alexander Valley (his father having taken up his abode in Healdsburg). He
married, August 2, 1864, Miss Elizabeth Mood. By this union they had three
children, Erwin, Clarence, and William; the latter died October 12, 1869, at
the age of one year, one month and twenty days. Mrs. Ferguson died October
19, 1869. He again married, July 24, 1870, Mrs. Sarah J. Bassford, she then
having two children, Ida and Claudius. By the latter marriage they four
children, Mary, Mattie, Alimeda, and Albert. His occupation is farming and
stock-raising.
Source: "History of Sonoma County, Cal.," Alley,
Bowen & Co., San Francisco, 1880, pp. 506-507.
Transcribed and submitted by Sally Kaleta, July, 2007.