Alameda County
Biographies
WILLIAM CLARK BLACKWOOD
The subject of this sketch, whose portrait appears in this history, is the son of Samuel and Mary (McMordy) Blackwood, and was born in Seneca County, New York, June 7, 1813, being the youngest of seven sons – no daughters. Having received a common school education and worked on a farm until the year 1836, he emigrated to Michigan and settled near the town of Farmington, Oakland County, where he followed farming for ten years. In 1846 Mr. Blackwood embarked in the milling business in Wayne, in the same State, and there remained until starting for California. Making the journey by way of New Orleans and Chagres, he arrived in San Francisco by the steamer Union, June 26, 1851. After prospecting some months, in October of that year he came to the redwoods, which then stood uncut above Brooklyn, or East Oakland, where he remained until the following January (1852), when he removed to Eden Township and began farming, which he continued until 1878. Mr. Blackwood now gives his attention to fruit-growing, he having an orchard of sixty acres under apricots, plums, prunes, etc. Married, firstly, in September, 1835, Miss Elizabeth J. Woodward, who died in April, 1850, leaving four children, viz.: Samuel W., Sarah E., Mary F., and Clementine; and, secondly, Miss Jane Evert, by which union there is one daughter named Lucy; and, thirdly, Miss Elizabeth Craig. His son was educated a physician and surgeon, and served as such with distinction in the Union Army during the Civil War, and was brevetted a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Army of the United States for distinguished professional services by President Johnson. He died October, 1871, in Peru, while professionally employed as Superintendent of Railroad Hospitals in that republic by the celebrated Harry Meigs.
History of Alameda County, California…, Oakland, M.W. Wood Publ., 1883
p. 852
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
ROBERT BLACOW
This gentleman, whose portrait will be found in our pages, was born in England, December 6, 1814, and resided there until he attained the age of twenty-five years. In 1839 he emigrated to the United States, and settled in Illinois, in what was known as the “American Bottoms,” opposite the city of St. Louis. Here he maintained a residence until 1842-3, when he moved and located in the outskirts of St. Louis, there engaging in general farming and dairying, his business being to supply the inhabitants of the city with milk. On June 5, 1845, he was united in matrimony to Miss Helen Catharine Deering, a native of Germany, and four years thereafter, in 1849, emigrated via the Isthmus of Panama to California. On landing, Mr. Blacow at once proceeded to the mines, where he remained until the fall of 1851, when he took up the homestead, now consisting of three hundred and fifty-eight acres, at present occupied by his widow. Immediately after locating his claim in 1853, Mr. Blacow returned to Illinois, where he has left his wife and three children, and fitting up an outfit crossed the plains to California, and took up his residence in their new home in Alameda County. Here he died December 22, 1873, leaving the following family: William, Alice, Mary, Alfred, and Richard.
History of Alameda County, California…, Oakland, M.W. Wood Publ., 1883
p. 852
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler