CALVIN H. HOLMES
The subject of this
sketch was born near Huntington, Carroll County, Tennessee, on December 16,
1825. Here he received his education until twelve years of age, when he
moved with his parents to Benton County, Arkansas, and there finished his
schooling. On April 17, 1849, he started for California with an ox-team,
there being one hundred and ten wagons in the train, and made over
twelve hundred miles of their road on the 8th of November of the same year,
arriving at Lawson's ranch on the Sacramento River, from which place he
proceeded to the mines on Feather River, there remaining during the winter
and the following spring. From this locality he went to the mines on the
Yuba, arriving there during the summer of 1850, a portion of which he
employed in running a pack train from Marysville to Stake Range, on the
Yuba. This turning out a profitable investment, he commenced business as a
cattle-raiser, drover, and sheep-raiser, which he has since followed. In the
fall of 1850, in partnership with his brother Henderson P., Mr. Holmes
located a ranch near Marysville, on the Horn Cut [Honcut], which he sold at
the end of one year, when he returned to Arkansas, by way of Havana and New
Orleans, returning to California in 1852, bringing with him a drove of
cattle across the plains. On October 1st of this year he located near Santa
Rosa, in this county, on the farm now occupied by his brother,
Henderson P. Holmes. Still retaining this property, the
brothers proceeded to Texas in 1853, and there purchasing cattle, drove them
across in the following year to Santa Rosa. From 1854 to 1861 Mr. Holmes was
principally employed in stock-raising, and for two years of this period was
in the wholesale slaughtering business in San Francisco. In 1861 he located
in Knight's Valley, on his present splendid property, which comprises two
thousand five hundred acres of the finest land in the county. Last year,
1878, he erected his present elegant and commodious mansion, near the
Calistoga Road to the Geysers. Mr. Holmes married, March 16, 1854, in
Collins County, Texas, Miss Ella E. Huffman, of Shelbyville, Kentucky, by
whom he has: Kate H., born January 14, 1855; William F., born September 10,
1858; and Edward M., born January 31, 1862.
Source: "History of Sonoma County, Cal.," Alley,
Bowen & Co., San Francisco, 1880, pp. 499-500.
Transcribed and submitted by Sally Kaleta, July, 2007.
Was born in Shawneetown,
Gallstin County, Illinois, June 21, 1818. When about ten months old his
father died, and the remainder of the family, comprising W. T., his mother,
and a sister, soon moved to Kentucky, where his mother married. In the fall
of 1831, the subject of this sketch took up his abode in La Fayette County,
Missouri, where he remained until August, 1840, when he started for
California across the plains with a mule train. On arriving he engaged in
mining in Nevada County, where he sojourned about eight months. He then came
to this county and lived on a farm about six miles south of Healdsburg, with
his uncle, Joseph Gordon, and engaged in farming one year. He then engaged
in farming with Lindsay Carson, (a brother to the noted Kit Carson), and
made a kiln of fifty thousand bricks, probably the first bricks made in
Sonoma County. He left Mr. Carson in January, 1853. He was a soldier in
Colonel Doniphan's regiment in the Mexican War, and was present at the
battles of Brazeto and Sacramento. Was Justice of the Peace in Mendocino
township in 1855, and a member of the Board of Supervisors of Sonoma County,
in 1856-57, when he located on his present ranch, comprising one hundred and
fifty-eight acres situated on Dry Creek. He married, April 26, 1853, Miss
Jane Capell; she was born February 18, 1824, and died February 17, 1873. By
this union they have had four children, three of whom are living: Joseph B.,
born February 27, 1854, and died June 5, 1855; Elizabeth M., Born March 22,
1855; Mary J., born January 7, 1857; George R., born April 6, 1860. For his
second wife he married Mrs. Lucinda Rackliff, September 19, 1878. She was
born April 21, 1832.
Source: "History of Sonoma County, Cal.," Alley,
Bowen & Co., San Francisco, 1880, p. 500.
Transcribed and submitted by Sally Kaleta, July, 2007.
CORNELIUS
BICE
(deceased)
Born in Shelby County,
Kentucky, February 27, 1816. In 1833 he, with his parents, moved to
Jefferson County, Indiana, where he resided until 1849, when he took up his
residence in Jackson County, Missouri. In 1853 they settled on what is now
called the Hassett's ranch, and remained there until 1863, when they were
dispossessed by the authorities for being on land that was claimed by the
Fitch Grant, house burned, and all their property destroyed, without any
warning, not even allowing them time to move their goods out of their house.
They then moved to Healdsburg, near the Plaza, and lived four years, until
1867, when they moved to the "Mill Creek" farm, where they lived ever since.
In 1853 he emigrated to California, crossing the plains with ox-teams, and
came direct to this county, and settled upon land within the city limits of
Healdsburg, where he remained until 1865, when he moved to his present ranch
of one hundred and sixty-five acres, located on Mill Creek, about three
miles from Healdsburg. He also has a farm in Mendocino County, comprising
two hundred and sixty-five acres. He married Miss Mary J. Koger March 1,
1846. She was born in Patrick County, Virginia, June 5, 1827. Their children
are: John W., Martha E., Matilda E., Louvenia, Samuel C., Sarah A., Charles
A., Isaac E., Mary F., and Fred. C. Bice died at his home on Mill Creek,
with dropsy of the heart, July 17, 1879, aged sixty-three years, leaving a
wife and ten children. The children are all married, except four, who are
still at home with their mother.
Source: "History of Sonoma County, Cal.," Alley,
Bowen & Co., San Francisco, 1880, pp. 500-501.
Transcribed and submitted by Sally Kaleta, July, 2007.