Yolo County
Biographies
P. J. Aiken, M.D.
P.J. Aiken, M.D., Medical Director of the Veteran Home Association, was appointed to this position September 1, 1888, where he has, for treatment, cases especially of rheumatism, asthma, catarrh, etc. He was born in Ohio in 1841, and as he grew up he was employed for a time in the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, afterwards in the United States Signal Service; was attending Washington (Pennsylvania) College when the war broke out; and he enlisted in 1862, at the age of nineteen years, and served until in 1865. He studied medicine at Jefferson Medical Collage, Philadelphia, and afterward practiced at Virginia City, Nevada, for five years; next at Winters, Yolo County.
He has four sons and two daughters. The eldest son is attending University, the second is at Yountville, the third is attending high school, and the fourth is at home.
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
Pages 800-801
Transcribed by: Bonnie Phelan
G. W. CHAPMAN
G. W. Chapman, a prominent farmer and sheep raiser of Yolo County, was born April 29, 1829, in Wilcox County, Alabama, and was three years of age when his father, W.M. Chapman, moved to Macon County, that State, where he lived until January 18,1854. Then he came to California, crossing the Isthmus, February 18. He spent nearly three years in the mines near Georgetown, El Dorado County, not striking very rich diggings anywhere. September 2,1856, he arrived in Yolo County, where he has since followed farming and raising stock, making sheep a specialty; and in this enterprise he has done well, keeping about 5,000 head though the winter season. To his industries he devotes 18,000 acres of land, on which there is no mortgage.
May 4, 1870, is the date of Mr. Chapman’s marriage to Miss Zilpah Stephens, of Cooper County, Missouri, and they have three sons and two daughters, ranging from ten to eighteen years of age.
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
Page 813
Transcribed by: Bonnie Phelan
W. M. Lee
W.M. Lee, proprietor of a furniture store in Woodland, was born in Massachusetts, the son of John and Mary (Buckman) Lee, a native of Maine: father was a dentist in New Hampshire, and his mother died in 1878, in Sacramento, this State. Mr. Lee received his education in Boston, and in 1853 came by way of the Isthmus to California, and, like nearly all others, tried his hand first at mining. He followed this for two years in El Dorado County; then for a time he was employed at painting buggies and carriages in Sacramento; next he went to Chico, Butte County; then until 1858 he was in San Francisco, where he ran the largest photograph gallery in the city; next until 1862 he was a boatman on the Sacramento River, making Sacramento his headquarters; next he purchased a blacksmith shop in Placer County, and while there he was appointed Postmaster under the administration of President Lincoln, and after filling this office four years he went upon a ranch on Dry Creek in Sacramento County, where he remained three years. Returning to San Francisco he worked at odd jobs for several years. He then built a large wagon for the purpose of traveling through California in the photograph business, but he quit that in Woodland, and resorted at carpentering for Goble Bros. and was employed on their house 130 days. He then opened his present place of business, on a cash capital of $7.50, and he now carries about $2,000 worth of goods. He has several lots in Woodland and a nice dwelling, all of which he has earned by the hard knocks of a life business vicissitudes. He is a member of the order of Good Templars.
November 3, 1884 he married Emma Graft, in San Francisco. She is a native of Sacramento County, this State.
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
Page 811
Transcribed by: Bonnie Phelan