Alameda County Biographies

ROBERT BLACOW

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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	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