San Diego County
Biographies
LEONARD L. LYNCH,
was born at Harrington, Washington County, Maine, September 27, 1828; his parents were natives of New England. The family consisted of four children, only two of whom survive. The educational facilities of the time and place being limited the subject of this sketch was only permitted those of the common school. At the early age of thirteen years he went on board ship as a common seaman, coasting between New York and other eastern ports. He followed this business several years; also spent one season on the fishing banks at Labrador. About 1845 he sailed from Boston to the Mediterranean Sea, on the bark Elvira, Captain Gorham, of Cape Cod, in command. He took over an assorted cargo to Malta, and then sailed to Palermo, Sicily, and brought back a cargo of fruit. In 1846 and 1847, he went out as first mate of the Clarissa, a square-rigged brig from Rockland, Maine, to Wilmington, North Carolina, then took a cargo of naval stores to New Orleans, during the Mexican war. He was there taken sick and left the vessel. On recovering he sailed as mate on the brig Lawrence for Havana, then to Sisal, Laguna and Tabasco, taking a cargo of logwood and mahogany back to Havana, where the vessel was sold for a slaver and was sent to the coast of Africa. Mr. Lynch returned to New York in the spring of 1848, and made a voyage to Jacksonville, Florida, and the West Indies, and in the fall sailed on the Gen. Lincoln, and was wrecked on the Duck Ledges near Rockland, Maine. The vessel went to pieces, they all got on the ledge from head of main top gallant mast but two, who were frozen before they could be taken off. They were exposed sixteen hours, midst terrible suffering. Mr. Lynch there lost all his charts, maps and instruments, of which he had a very valuable assortment, and was perfectly capable of taking all reckonings and observations, having sailed as master out of Newburyport, Massachusetts. After several voyages to the West Indies, September 5, 1849, he sailed before the mast for California, many of the crew being mates and captains. It enabled them to reach California during the year of the great gold excitement. They were on the ship Albatross, of Boston, and made but one stop, at Valparaiso for water. They carried an assorted cargo and forty passengers, and were 180 days on the voyage, arriving at San Francisco February, 1850. In the summer of that year he ran a steamboat on the Sacramento river, and in the fall went to Rhodes' diggings near Folsom, Sacramento County, and there opened a grocery store and did some mining at Negro Bar, now Folsom. He remained until 1853, when he returned to Sacramento and built the Union Hotel, paying $300 per 1,000 feet for green lumber. He continued in this hotel until the fall of 1858, when he sold out and went East, going and returning by the Isthmus of Panama. He was absent sixteen months, visiting his family and friends in Maine. He returned in the fail of 1859, arriving in the spring of 1860. He went to Sacramento and again opened a hotel called the Philadelphia House, in which he continued about twelve years, selling out in 1873. In 1875 he came to San Diego, and took up a ranch of 160 acres at Poway, and began honey-bee culture, which he still carries on with good success, also cultivating his ranch. He has a fine orchard of six acres, set out with a variety of fruits, and fifteen acres of raisin grapes, all bearing, and has several horses and a large number of fowls.
Mr. Lynch has never married. By integrity, economy and strict attention to business, he has lived a life filled with incident and marked with success, and though at the age of sixty-one years is still active, alert, and conditioned to enjoy many years of usefulness.
SOURCE: An Illustrated History of Southern California: Embracing the Counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower California… Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890. p.- 149-150
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
GEORGE W. BOWLER.
Among the
members of the San Diego Pioneers' Association we find the name of George W.
Bowler, who at the early age of four years began his pioneer course. In leaving
Kansas City, Missouri, the home of his nativity, being with his parents, he
traveled by wagon to the less civilized country of Montana, and at the
age of eight years they again started on their pioneer course by wagon for San
Diego, California, which at that time, January, 1868, was a wild, unsettled
country. He was born in Kansas City, Missouri, August
24, 1860. His father was then in the employment of the Government as engineer of
the roads across Kansas, New Mexico and that vicinity. The subject of this
sketch was third in a family of six children, only four of whom survive; he
received only a common-school education and then learned the trade of printing,
and, feeling that the "pen was mightier than the sword,"—though having received
but a common school education himself,—he would aid in enlightening others
through the medium of the press; and as compositor he was connected with the San
Diego News from 1875 until 1880. He then went to Colorado, and for
eighteen months was secretary of the Lady Franklin Mining Company at Silver
Cliff. He was then employed by the Colorado Coal and Iron Company as agent and
weigh-master for five years, traveling through the State. Returning to San Diego
in 1887, he entered into the real-estate business, in which he is still
employed. His father died in 1871, but his mother is still living, and is a
member of his family.
Mr. Bowler was married at Williamsburg, Fremont County, Colorado, August 24, 1882, to Miss Mary Woodside, a native of Alton, Illinois. They have two children, both of whom are still living: Gertrude and William.
SOURCE: An Illustrated History of Southern California: Embracing the Counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower California… Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890. p.- 150
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler