CAPT. ISAAC BLUXOME

Capt. Isaac Bluxome.  For all time must the great State of California pay honor to those sterling and resourceful men who constituted the vanguard of the great army of immigration that swept foreward into this commonwealth in the historic year of 1849, which marked the discovery of gold and ushered in the year of development and progress in the state.  He to whom this memoir is dedicated was one of the gallant '49ers of California, played well his part in the stirring events of the pioneer days, marked the later years with excellent achievement, and lived to see California become one of the foremost commonwealths of the Union.  This honored pioneer passed the closing period of his long and useful life in his pleasant home at 1422 Hyde Street, San Francisco, and was sixty-four years of age at the time of his death, November 9, 1890.

     Of staunch English and French ancestry, Captain Bluxome was born in New York City, in the year 1826, his father having been an Englishman of sterling lineage and his mother having been a daughter of Gen. John DeCamp, who served as an aide-de-camp on the staff of General Washington in the War of the Revolution.  Mr. Bluxome gained his early education in a school conducted by a clergyman, Rev. Francis Hawkes, at Flushing, Long island. At the age of sixteen years he found employment in a hardware establishment in the national metropolis.  He continued to be thus engaged until he was about twenty years of age, at which time his great love for soldiery had gained him notable prominence as a member of the Seventh Regiment of New York, better known as the "Kid Glove Regiment."

     In January, 1849, he took passage on the bark Madona and sailed around the horn for California.  He arrived in San Francisco in June of that memorable year of gold and attendant excitement.  Within a month he was engaged in the mercantile business and his establishment, along with hundreds of others, was destroyed in the great fire that swept the city at that time. As soon as conditions permitted he resumed business and gained secure place as one of the substantial and representative business men of San Francisco.  The following record of his life in California is well worthy of presentation:

     "When Isaac Bluxome arrived in San Francisco the city was under a reign of terror, by reason of the activities of the 'Hounds,' and organization of thieves and ruffians to which, it is said, many young men whose families in the East were respectable had been attracted.  Captain Bluxome took a prominent part in ridding the city of this dangerous element, as he became a member of the Citizens Bank of Safety in 1949-51.  He took the lead in forming a citizen soldierly, and was the founder of the First California Guard and captain of Light Battery A.  Isaac Bluxome is better known as 'No. 33' to those citizens of San Francisco who know of the early day of the city only through history.  The birth of the 'Committee of Safety,' better known as the Vigilance Committee, was caused by the necessity for the protection of the interests of the citizen owning property.  Criminals and ballot-box stuffers had made it impossible to have an honest election, and the courts were suspected, in many instances, of favoring the criminals at the expense of justice.  That William T. Coleman was the president and Isaac Bluxome the secretary was not known to the public while the committee was in power.  Everything was done with a secrecy and effectiveness that were a cause of dread to the persons against whom the committtee's work was directed, and the action of the organization was resolute and fearless.  All published notices concerning the meetings and activities of the committee was simply '33 Sec.' The orders of the committee were signed in the same way, and the mysterious person designated at 'No. 33' was one whom the criminals swore to kill. Undoubtedly Captain Bluxome would have been killed had his identity been discovered."

     In noting the death of this honored pioneer the same newspaper article refers to him as "one of the most noted of the men who built up San Francisco in the days of the '50s."

     The funeral of Capt. Isaac Bluxome was held from his home, 1422 Hyde Street, and surviving pioneers, representative men of affairs and other friends in all stations of life, assembled to pay a last tribute to his memory.

     In the year 1864 was solemnized the marriage of Captain Bluxome and Miss Gertrude T. Truett, daughter of Miers F. Truett and granddaughter of Gen. Henry Dodge, a distinguished officer of the War of 1812, who served as governor and also as United States senator from Wisconsin.  Mrs. Bluxome survived her husband several years and was one of the loved and revered pioneer women of San Francisco at the time of her death.  Mr. and Mrs. Bluxome became the parents of nine children, all of whom are living at the time of this writing, in 1923, and the most of whom reside in California.

Transcribed 6-10-04  Marilyn R. Pankey

Solomon Bailey BOSWELL

Solomon Bailey BOSWELL wrote his name among California pioneers through an active and successful career as a business man in San Francisco, where his memory is still cherished by the old timers and where some of his family still resides.

He was born in Montreal, Canada, in 1828.  He acquired an academic education there, and as a young man of twenty-two started for California in 1850.  For about two years he was a miner for Grass Valley, where twice he was flooded out.  He and his partner slept with their gold dust under their pillows at night.  In 1852, Mr. BOSWELL moved to San Francisco, and was engaged in the produce business, joining the old firm of SHATTHOCK and GEDDES, which then became BOSWELL, SHATTHOCK and GEDDES.  The firm owned a sailing vessel, the Brother Jonathan, and on one of its trips up the Columbia River Mr. GEDDES was drowned.  The firm was then dissolved, and Mr. BOSWELL engaged in the stock brokerage business, and for many years the firm S. B. BOSWELL and Company enjoyed a high reputation as dealers in mining stock.

The late Mr. BOSWELL was a Knight Templar Mason.  He was a republican in politics, and his party once requested him to become a candidate for mayor of San Francisco, but he refused.  He died in 1884, at the age of fifty-six.

In 1853 he married Catherine DOWNES.  Their two children were daughters, May Frances BOSWELL and Edith Marie BOSWELL.  May Frances BOSWELL married Hugh B. JONES, of Montreal.  Edith became the wife of Frederic R. KING, a son of Thomas Starr KING.  Mr. Hugh JONES is in the real estate business in San Francisco.  Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. JONES: Hugh Beaven, Edith Boswell, Gladys Katherine, Monta J. and Rhoda Boswell.

Charlie Jenkins BOSWORTH

Charlie Jenkins BOSWORTH, resident manager for the Fidelity and Casualty Company at San Francisco, is a native son, and record of his family in California dates from the first year following the discovery of gold.  His father, Solomon Dewey BOSWORTH, was a splendid example of the old type of Californian pioneer.  He was born on a farm at Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1824.  He entered Union College in 1843, and after graduating, and after tutoring and teaching school for about three  years, he heard of the wonderful opportunities in California and set out for the Pacific Coast late in 1851.  Before coming to California he married Miss Emma Whitberk LANSING, of Schenectady, New York.

As Solomon Dewey BOSWORTH landed in San Francisco in the spring of 1852, he immediately proceeded to the gold diggings in Grass Valley, Nevada County.  In 1854 his wife Emma Whitbeck LANSING, joined him and they occupied a house on Church Street, directly north of the Methodist Church.  Seventy years later this house, with some alterations, is standing in a splendid state of preservation.

In the early ‘50’s a notorious character, known as Jennie-on-the-Green, was conducting a dance hall at the corner of Mill and Walsh streets in Grass Valley, and cutting frays and shooting craps became so numerous in her place that she was warned by the authorities to find some other location in which to live, if live she desired to.  Accordingly she disposed of the place to Lola Montez, another famous character, who made wonderful improvements in the house and grounds.  After reigning for a while in Grass Valley Lola decided to go to Australia, and the purchaser she found for her property was Solomon Dewey BOSWORTH.

It was in that old Montez house, which is still standing there as a memory of the days of old, the days of gold, that six of the eight children born to Solomon Dewey BOSWORTH and Emma Whitbeck LANSING came into the world.  Solomon D. BOSWORTH died at Grass Valley in July 1896.  His widow passed away in San Francisco in September 1913.

The habits of riding and hunting represented the chief tastes of the boys were among whom Charlie Jenkins BOSWORTH grew up.  All his associates were splendid horsemen and good shots at the early age of twelve.  As there was no closed season for game in those days, the boys had constant opportunity to improve their skill as marksmen and hunters.  Charlie Jenkins BOSWORTH was born at Grass Valley, October 24, 1861 and in 1875, at the age of fourteen moved to San Francisco, attending the Pacific Business College, then located on Post Street, between Stockton and Powell.  Graduating there, he went to work for a large mercantile establishment, and had about ten years of this kind of experience.  Then after a three months visit at the old home in Grass Valley, he became a mines foreman near Washington, Nevada County, his experience in the practical operations of a mine covering about a year.  He resigned to try his luck again in mercantile pursuits, and for about a year held a position in Los Angeles.  It was on his return to San Francisco that he entered the employ of the Fidelity and Casualty Company of New York.  With that old and well known organization his service has been continuous for more than a third of a century.  At first, he was an accident insurance solicitor, then city agent, then general agent, and for some years has held the position of resident manager.

Mr. BOSWORTH married at Santa Cruz, California, November 21, 1891, Miss Anna Louise HOFFMAN, a native of Yreka, California, and a daughter of Christian HOFFMAN.  Mr. BOSWORTH’s second marriage occurred October 23, 1919, at Berkeley, California when Julia Pauline STERNE became his bride.  She was born in Mariposa, California, a daughter of Joseph Amador STERNE and Elizabeth M. STERNE.  Mr. BOSWORTH has three children, the two of his first marriage being Charles Lansing BOSWORTH and Anna Gertrude BOSWORTH, and the youngest and third child is Lansing BOSWORTH, but none of them are married.  Charles Lansing BOSWORTH is a graduate of the University of Farm School at Davis, California, is now employed with the Associated Oil Company of California, and during the World War was a second lieutenant in Battery A, Fortieth Field Artillery, serving for about two years.  Charlie Jenkins BOSWORTH served as a private in the California militia in 1882.  He is a republican in politics and some of his social and church affiliations are represented by his membership in the following clubs: San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, Merchants Exchange Club, San Francisco Commercial Club, the Astronomical Society of The Pacific, California Academy of Sciences, Piedmont Civic Center, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, California State Fish and Game Protective League, Lagunitas Rod and Gun Club, Pepper Gun Club, Eureka Gun Club and Piedmont Republican Club.