San Diego County
Biographies
JOHN H. MYERS,
the owner of the St. Cloud Hotel, Oceanside, was born in La Salle County, Illinois, December 31, 1834. His father, John Myers, of Illinois, was a mill owner, both saw and flouring mills. His mother was Ellen (Hayes) Myers. They had a family of ten children, of which the subject of this sketch was the fifth. When only four years of age the family removed to Missouri and remained there six years, when they returned to Illinois. In 1850, when only sixteen years of age, he came to Hangtown, Placer County, California. He arrived there August 27,1850, and engaged in mining, with good success, for four years. He then opened a little store of miners' supplies. He removed from there in 1884 and went to a place twenty-one miles from Stockton, where he located a Government claim of 160 acres of land and built a hotel. In less than a year he sold out and became a teamster for a year. He next went to Tulare County and then went back to the mines. He settled at Fine Gold Gulch, where he engaged in the butchery business and remained there about a year, when he returned to Stockton and became a contractor and worked on the construction of the asylum. Soon afterward he returned to Tulare County, and from there went to Los Angeles County and engaged in buying stock and driving it to Tulare County. He continued in this business until 1880 and then removed to the Sweetwater, fifteen miles east of San Diego, and took a Government claim of 160 acres. Then he went to Los Angeles County, and from there to Phoenix, Maricopa County, then to Tombstone. While at the latter place he located another Government ranch. His nearest neighbor was six miles on one side and fifteen miles on the other. During all this time he was a stock-raiser and mined at intervals. After this he went to Los Angeles and took the contract for sprinkling the streets. In December, 1885, he came to Oceanside and opened a restaurant and hotel. In 1887 he built his present brick hotel. It is 48 x 50 feet, three stories high. It is substantially built and well designed to accommodate the traveling public. It contains thirty commodious rooms. Both Mr. and Mrs. Myers give it their personal attention, and see to the comfort of their guests. Mr. Myers was married to Miss Isabel Stroud in 1875. She was born in Texas in 1858. Her father, Samuel Stroud, was a soldier in the war with Mexico, and was also a member of the Sixteenth Texas Volunteers in the Southern army all through the war and received no injury. Mr. and Mrs. Myers have four children: Levi Jackson, born in Los Angeles County, April 25, 1876; Mable, born in the same place, February 8, 1879; Maud, born in Tombstone, Arizona, March 9, 1881, and Lester Allen, January 23, 1890, at Oceanside. Mr. Myers was Sheriff of Mariposa County for one year, and was a member of the Common Council of Los Angeles two years. In 1832 his father was in the Indian war and had the honor of killing the Indian chief, Stallion Panther, which resulted in bringing the war to a close. In 1853, with a party of fifteen, Mr. Myers had the honor of being the first white man ever in Yosemite valley. They followed a party of Indians, and fought seventy-five warriors, burned down all their camps and killed twenty-five, driving them all out of the valley, after which white people settled there. Mr. Myers, when quite a boy, fought and killed a large California lion with rocks while his hunting dog and the lion were fighting. The lion measured nine feet, and his skin was sent to San Francisco for one of the largest drug stores in the city.
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.- 281-282
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
EMIL H. BOSCHER,
of San Diego, is a native of Germany, being born in Urlau, Wuerttenberg, February 26, 1844, a son of Thaddeus B., a physician, and Josephine (Miller) Boscher. In 1859 the family emigrated to America, locating in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Emil was the second son in a family of three children. In 1861 he went to St. Louis, Missouri, and enlisted in the Light Artillery Battalion of Missouri Volunteers; took part in the battle of Carthage, Missouri, under General F. Siegel. Returning to Mt. Vernon he was mustered out, on account of expiration of time of service. While he was in the army his father died, and, his mother and sister being dependent on him, he returned to Milwaukee, where he learned the drug business, remaining three years, when he went to Chicago, faithfully serving in his profession also three years. In 1867 he came to San Francisco and went from there to Portland, Oregon, and remained one year in the drug business there; then returning to San
Francisco, he took charge of one of the most prominent pharmacies in that city for five years. In 1873 he located in Stockton, California, carrying on a successful drug business on his own account, for thirteen years. Hearing of the rapid growth of San Diego and its wonderful climate, he sold his drug store and opened in San Diego, corner of Fifth and H streets, one of the most elaborate and complete pharmacies in the State of California, where, by business integrity and competency, he is now the leader of his profession.
Mr. Bosher is a member of the G. A. R., Knights of Pythias, Knights of Honor and Ancient Order of Foresters of America.
In 1873 he was married in San Francisco to Miss Ida Weil, a lady of great refinement and culture.
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.- 282
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler