Alameda County
Biographies
JOHN BARTON
This gentleman, whose portrait appears in this work, is the son of Elijah and Hannah (Ward) Barton, and was born in Leicester, Worcester County, Massachusetts, September 13, 1813. In 1818 he removed, with his parents, to Kent, Litchfield County, Connecticut. Having received his education in the common schools of that place, at the age of nineteen years he obtained a clerkship in a mercantile establishment there, and remained until the year 1838. Being then twenty-five years of age, he removed to Buffalo, New York, and in 1839 embarked in business, which he continued six years. For the succeeding two years he resided in Cincinnatus, Cortland County, New York, following the like avocation, and then emigrating to Richmond County, Ohio, there connected himself with the firm of P. B. Cornwall, and remained until he determined to try his fortune in the Land of Gold. On March 15, 1850, taking passage per steamer Cherokee, Mr. Barton sailed for Chagres, thence proceeding to Panama, he there boarded the Panama, and anchored in San Francisco Harbor April 21, 1850. Like nearly all pioneers of that date, our subject went to the gold-bearing regions. For the first two months he wielded the pick and rocker at Georgetown, El Dorado County; but this he soon abandoned, and returning to Sacramento in the month of October, embarked in the auction and commission business, on First Street, between J and K Streets, under the style and firm of Barton & Boolden, subsequently known as Barton & Grimm. In the year 1855 our subject entered into the salt trade under the firm name of Barton Brothers, and in 1858 commenced the importation of that commodity from Carmin Island, opposite the town of Loreto, in the Gulf of California. On March 25, 1868, the Union Pacific Salt Company was organized, and the most extensive salt-making concern on the Pacific Coast established. After incorporation, the company purchased Rock Island, containing about one thousand acres and situated in Washington Township, at the debouchure of Alameda and Eden Creeks. In 1870 work was commenced, and in 1873 it was so increased that employment was given to a large number of men. A history of this industry will be found on page eight hundred and twenty-four of this work. On the organization of the Union Pacific Salt Company, Mr. Barton was chosen to fill the position of its President, and office he has since occupied. But this has not been the only enterprise on the coast with which our subject has been associated. He was one of the original promoters of the Sutter-street Railroad, San Francisco; in 1863 he became a director and a member of the Finance Committee of the Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company, positions he now holds in that institution. In 1872 he located in Alameda, and in 1879 erected his present fine mansion in that town. In Mr. Barton we have another of those living examples of what a life of earnest industry can attain. His resolve “to be up and doing” has brought wealth and its adjuncts of comfort and freedom from care. “The whips and scorns of time” have passed him by, and at the “grand climacteric” we find him leading a peaceful and contented life, surrounded by the much-to-be-desired solace of a comfortable home and a happy family. Married October 14, 1858, in Buffalo, Miss Isabella Barton, a native of that city, by whom he has: William Ferris and Grace Thompson.
History of Alameda County, California…, Oakland, M.W. Wood Publ., 1883
p. 844-845
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
ELIAS LYMAN BEARD
(deceased). The subject of this sketch was born in Lyons, Wayne County, New York, October 15, 1816, but when quite young was taken by his parents to Jackson County, Michigan, and in the following year to Peru, Miami County, Indiana, where he assisted his father who was a contractor, and later took contracts for himself, among the enterprises he was engaged upon being the construction of the Wabash and Erie Canal. In 1836 he settled in La Fayette, Tippecanoe County, in the same State, where he was engaged in grain and saw milling, being shipper of the first load of grain on the above-mentioned aqueduct. Later he engaged in the pork-packing trade, and owned a stone quarry in that place, while to him is the honor of having shipped the first load of corn from the State of Indiana to the New York market. In 1844 he contracted to build for the Government, and saw to their completion the splendid docks of the Navy Yard at Memphis, Tennessee; after which, he returned to his home in La Fayette, and conducted his milling, quarrying, and mercantile pursuits, until he made up his mind to tempt fortune on the Pacific Coast. Leaving Indiana in February, 1849, he proceeded to New Orleans, and there took ship for Matamoras, whence he made the journey across Mexico to Mazatlan, at which place he secured a passage on board the Government boat Edith, among the passengers being Mr. Sam. Martin of Oakland, and arrived in San Francisco in May, 1849. After passing a month traveling through portions of California he finally settled at Mission San Jose in June of that year, and became largely interested with Johnj M. Horner in land there. It was a bold venture at the time – this purchase of some thirty thousand acres – the Pico interest in the Mission Grant. The title to the land was so uncertain that it was a great risk to lay out money on it. Fences had to be made of wire, and the miles and miles required of it cost a great deal of money. Farming implements, too, were expensive, and the price of labor was very high. Of course the interest on money was high also, and the result of the farming experiment was considered at that time very uncertain. All flour, as well as other supplies, were being imported from the East, and there were as yet no mills to grind the wheat in California, if it could be grown. But Mr. Beard was a man for large enterprises, and of indomitable courage, and in spite of all obstacles and risks he entered upon the business of grain and fruit raising on what then seemed to be a magnificent scale, and the result fully justified the soundness of his judgment, and demonstrated the agricultural capabilities of the country. In 1852 he had six hundred and forty acres of grain that yielded, on the average, fifty-six bushels to the acre. His yield of potatoes was sixty thousand bushels, averaging, for the most part, three hundred and thirty bushels to the acre. According to the Rev. Dr. Willey, in the Pacific of May 19, 1880, the size of these potatoes was something marvelous. It was common to find some of three pounds weight, and frequently those weighing from three to five pounds. He says: “I remember during one day at Mr. Beard’s, when there were nine of us grown persons at the table and a single potato, weighing four pounds, served us all, and there was plenty left for three persons who came afterward, and both the quality and the flavor were unexceptionable.” The Mission orchard inclosure then comprised fifteen acres. Besides vines, fig-trees, olives, peach, and quince trees, there were in this orchard three hundred and fifty full-grown pear-trees. The yield of one of the largest of these trees was fifteen hundred pounds of fruit, the gross income from which was $400. The gross receipts from the vineyard in the year 1851 were $16,000. Having been joined by his wife, a son, and step-son, Mr. Beard took up his residence on land purchased from Thomas O. Larkin, and from the produce of the old orchard acquired a handsome competency. But such were his sanguine hopes of the future of California that he invested all his means in partial payments upon ranches, and the depression in values which soon followed swept away all his accumulations, and left him a poor man. In the year 1858 he took charge of the Mariposa estate in connection with General Fremont, but this undertaking proving a failure, he then contracted to purchase a mile square of land, embracing the now town of Salinas, expended largely in fencing, and put in a crop of wheat, but the season proved unfruitful, and he lost his investment. At the beginning of the Civil War he joined General Fremont at St. Louis, and distinguished himself for his energy and force of character by the rapidity and zeal with which he executed contracts for fortifying the city – contracts which amazed people by the brief time allowed to fulfill their requirements. In 1865, himself and his step-son, Henry G. Ellsworth, procured a perfected title, by patent from the United States, to nearly four thousand acres of land on the ex-Mission of San Jose, and were again the possessors of a competency. But not content with this, his sanguine disposition led him into sundry enterprises, embracing an attempt to develop an oil-well at Matole, Humboldt County, and to open mines in various parts of the country. After speculations, all of which proved unsuccessful, he made an attempt to recuperate these losses by dealing in mining stocks, which finally swept away his entire fortune, and he died, May 8, 1880, so far as worldly goods are concerned, a poor man, leaving a widow, who is beloved by all who know her – a woman endowed with the finest social and tenderest womanly qualities of character; and a son, a sketch of whose life is given below. Mr. Beard was the first President of the California State Agricultural Society, organized in 1854, and the first fair under his administration, in what was then known as the Music Hall, San Francisco, proved most satisfactory and prosperous.
History of Alameda County, California…, Oakland, M.W. Wood Publ., 1883
p. 845-846
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
JOHN L. BEARD
The son of the above, E. L. Beard, was born in La Fayette, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, June 18, 1845, and there resided until his coming to California with his mother in 1850. He lived with his father at the Mission San Jose until the year 1867, when he took up his abode on his present place, about two miles and a half from Centreville, where he is engaged in farming and fruit-raising. Married and has two children, namely, Jessie and Eldridge L.
History of Alameda County, California…, Oakland, M.W. Wood Publ., 1883
p. 846
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler