Merced County
Biographies
CAPT. HENRY GEORGE JAMES
Few men have had a more interesting, as well as serviceable career than the late Capt. Henry George James, a native of Camborne, Cornwall, England, and the son of William and Elizabeth Eva James, who had three sons, all born at Camborne, the others having been Edward and William. The elder James, a blacksmith by trade, was a member of an English exploring company which visited South America, and having accidentally broken his ankle, he was carried over the Andes Mountains lashed to a chair strapped to the back of a stalwart native. Returning to England, he immigrated to the United States, about 1832. His brother, Edward, took part in the Black Hawk War. He was a correspondent of the St. Louis Democrat and lost his life in war journalistic service. During the trouble with the Indians in this Black Hawk outbreak, the men of Iowa County, Wis., formed companies for drill, and so did their sons; and thus it happened that Henry G. James was dubbed "Captain," a title he always bore.
He came out to California in 1850, walking across the Isthmus of Panama in the more primitive days before the railroad was built there, and upon his arrival at Sonora, Tuolumne County, he engaged in mining. Later he went into the cattle business and in time became one of the largest cattle men in Stanislaus County, and for twenty years he furnished cattle, hogs and sheep to wholesale butchers in San Francisco. During his experience in furnishing beef for a butcher firm in Sonora, he once made a journey to the coast to purchase stock; meeting a company of men in charge of a band of steers, Capt. James bought what he wanted and started to drive them home. Before he had traveled far he was overtaken by the real owners of the steers, who informed him that the cattle had been stolen. The Captain and his companions pursued the thieves to San Francisco, where they obtained the assistance of Capt. Harry Love, a famous detective of that time, by whom one of the thieves was arrested. The other made his escape. While on the way back with their prisoner, Captain James and party stopped to have lunch and ostensibly to give the prisoner a trial. They assumed an air of carelessness and the thief thought that it would be a good opportunity to escape; so he crawled off into the chaparral; but several shots followed him and he was killed. No one knew whose shot did the business.
In 1873, at Salida, Stanislaus County, Captain James was married to Miss Nannie Jamison, the daughter of A. H. Jamison, a native of Arkansas, who served for two terms as supervisor in Stanislaus County when the county seat was at Knights Ferry. One daughter married John R. Barnett, sheriff of Madera County. Captain James was a Democrat and a sympathizer with, and an active supporter of the Confederacy of the Southern States. He served at one time as a trustee of Modesto. He belonged to the Masons and assisted with their ritual at the laying of the cornerstone of the Stanislaus County court house. He died at the home of his sister, Mrs. Root, at Salida in 1901 or 1902.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 407-408
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
JOSHUA CASARETTO
Another of the native sons of the Golden State who has made his influence felt in agricultural circles is Joshua Casaretto, now living in retirement on his ranch on Bear Creek about three miles from Merced. He was born at Hornitos, Mariposa County, on April 19, 1859, a son of the late Giuseppe and Catherine (Daneri) Casaretto, the former born in Genoa, Italy, and the latter at Chiavari. Giuseppe Casaretto left his native country in 1852 and came by way of Panama to California to make his fortune in the mines, but after trying his luck until 1855 he decided the surest way to fortune was in something more substantial and he engaged in working at the trade of stone mason. He had married in Italy and when he sent for his wife and son in 1855, he quit mining for his trade. They settled in an adobe house near Benton's Mill; then in the late fifties he moved to Hornitos and built a stone store building, which he later traded to Mr. Olcese, who had a store at Indian Gulch, for his building and business there, but this did not prove to be a profitable exchange for the store at Indian Gulch was soon to become extinct with the dwindling of the mines. In 1857 Mr. Casaretto moved to Merced Falls and took up his home, working at his trade and raising stock. He died of blood poisoning while at Snelling, on June 28, 1885, when fifty-eight years old. Three boys and one girl in the Casaretto family grew up and are still living: John lives at Merced Falls on the old home place; David is a butcher in Atwater; Joshua is the subject of this review; and Mrs. Julia Fee lives in Modesto. Her husband was the son of the late Peter Fee, who came to California in 1849 and conducted the first hotel in the mining section of Mt. Bullion, known as Norwegian Tent, because it was only a tent house. The elder Casaretto was a man of integrity of character and was highly esteemed.
Joshua went to the school in Indian Valley and was brought up on the mountain ranch owned by his father and spent much of his time in the saddle, during which time he learned to speak the French, Spanish, Italian and English languages fluently. In 1870 he was a joint owner in a sheep and wool growing business; and in 1872-1873, with John and David, his brothers, conducted a general store at Hopeton, but continuing his sheep business until 1884, when he was forced to quit during the Cleveland administration when wool dropped so low in price that no one could afford to keep sheep. He then turned his attention to cattle and horse raising on a part of the old home place, and at the same time was made manager of the Casaretto interests. He sold out his stock interests in 1919 and decided to retire when he moved to his present place of eighty-six acres. The rich Bear Creek land had such an attraction for him that he once more began farming, raising Poland China hogs and fruit; he also owns 1800 acres of foothill land in Mariposa County where he runs some stock, and with the help of his sons they are making a success of their ventures.
When Mr. Casaretto married on September 8, 1902, he chose for his wife Miss Marceline Leota, born on November 15, 1861, on a ranch at Mokelumne Hill, Calaveras County, the daughter of Leon Leota, born in Marseilles, France, and a man of considerable intellect and culture. He was proficient in seven different languages; came to California in 1851 and settled in the mining section. He was the second man in Calaveras County to receive a patent from the United States Government for land. Her mother was Mary Mullin, born in Ireland of Scotch parents, and she died in Oakland in 1915. Mr. and Mrs. Casaretto have two boys, Victor Emanuel and Emanuel Victor, who are assisting their father to run the ranches owned by him. Mr. Casaretto is a Republican and the family belong to the Catholic Church.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 408-409
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler