Solano County
Biographies
JOSIAH ALLISON
a fruit-raiser of Vaca Valley, has been a resident of California since 1854, when he brought his family here. He first crossed the plains to California in 1850. His parents were Charles and Hester (Stull) Allison. His father, a native of Pennsylvania, came with his father to Ohio. landing at Marietta November 11, 1789, as one of the settlers under the auspices of the Ohio Company, each member of which was granted 100 acres of Government land. He brought his family there in a flat-boat from Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and remained the most of his life in Ohio, and spent the last two years in Iowa, dying in 1847.
The family and other settlers were obliged to occupy the part called the Campus Martius on the Ohio River, near its confluence with the Muskingum River, owing to a war with the Indians. Mr. Allison’s grandfather, being a good shot, was one of those who supplied the settlers with game during that time. During this war, 1791-’95, the settlers passed years of anxiety and danger within and under the protection of Campus Martius and “Pocketed Point.” An aunt of Mr. Allison, Mrs. Nancy Allison Frost, now in her 106th year, still lives near Marietta, in the enjoyment of good health. In 1795 the family moved up the Muskingum River, almost opposite to where Lovell now stands. Here his father was brought up, and he lived in Ohio, etc., as before stated. He was a soldier in the war of 1812.
Mr. Allison, the subject of this notice, was brought up in Washington County, Ohio. In his twenty-fourth year he removed with his family to southeastern Iowa, settling in Van Buren County, in 1840, where he lived until 1854 upon a farm he had entered. In 1850 he crossed the plains for this State, coming by way of Salt Lake and entering California near Placerville. He was on the route from May to July. The first year he engaged in mining; he then returned to Iowa by the Panama route, and remained there on his farm until 1854; then he sold it out and brought a drove of cattle overland to California, and also his family along with him. Locating near Vacaville, he bought a tract and engaged in farming and the rearing of live-stock. In 1855 he also planted 100 peach-trees, paying $40 for a handful of twigs, apple and peach, with which to bud his trees; thus he was one of the earliest fruit-growers of Solano County. He continued interested in these pursuits until 1886, when, having 100 acres in fruit, he sold out.
Mr. Allison was married in 1840, to Miss Julia Baldwin, a native of Washington County, Ohio, and a daughter of David and Lavinia (Wheeler) Baldwin, natives of Connecticut, who settled in Ohio early in the present century. Mr. and Mrs. Allison have six children living: David E., now in the commission business in San Francisco; Charles H., in business in Elmira; Harriet J., now the wife of Thomas Mansfield, of Mount Tabor,Oregon; Orestes H., in business at Elmira; Josiah E., a commission merchant in San Francisco; Hester L., now the wife of Luther J. Harbison, of Vacaville; Eliza M. married Zebulon B. Donaldson, and died in 1873, leaving one daughter.
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
pp 527-528
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
CAPTAIN A. W. STARR
Superintendent of the Star Mills at South Vallejo, has been a resident of the Golden State since 1853, and has lived in Vallejo for the past nineteen years, and in charge of the mills for the past ten years. He was born in Huron County, Ohio, in 1834, his parents being Orange and ------ Starr, natives of New York State, who were among the early settlers of Ohio. At the age of fourteen years he entered business life as a clerk in a country store in Plymouth, Ohio, and continued there until he was eighteen years old; then he came to California, by way of Panama, arriving in San Francisco in February, 1853. Proceeding at once to the mining district, he kept a store there ten months, and then was clerk in a store in Sacramento until 1861. In September, 1861, he assisted in raising a company of cavalry, was appointed Second Lieutenant and served during the war in different portions of the State, part of the time in Northern California against the Indians. His was Company F, Second Regiment of California Volunteer Cavalry. In the spring of 1853 [?] he was promoted to First Lieutenant and a few months afterwards Captain. June 6, 1866, he was mustered out, in command of his company. In February, 1867, he entered the regular army as Second Lieutenant, attached to the Eighth United States Cavalry, and remained in service until 1871, meanwhile, in 1868, being promoted First Lieutenant, and in December, 1869, to the Captaincy, and during this period of service he was in Nevada and New Mexico.
Becoming tired of the inactivity of the military service, he took charge of the mills at Vallejo, and has since remained as their manager. Their capacity is 2,000 barrels per day, 250 tons of wheat, 1,300 bags of bran, 500 bags of middlings. It has two engines: one, of 600 horse-power, was manufactured by the Union Iron Works in San Francisco, and called the O’Neil engine, and the other is a 300-horse-power Corliss engine. Coal from the Pittsburg mine in Mt. Diablo is use. The mills are six stories high, each floor fully occupied. The market is principally in Great Britain and Europe, the main office in Liverpool. This mill has been running since 1869.
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
pp 595-596
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler