Yolo County
Biographies
F. M. BEE
F.M. BEE, a farmer of Yolo County, is the son of Frederick and Katherine
(Mawell) Bee, natives of the State of New York. The mother died at the home where her only son, the subject of this sketch, resided, August 18, 1889; and the father is now at San Francisco, acting as Chinese Consul. The farm, belonging to both father and son, is now managed by the latter. Born in New York State, he was brought to California when an infant by his parents, who came by way of the Isthmus. On arrival in this State, the family was first located in Hangtown, where the elder Mr. Bee engaged in mining and in the management of a provision store, employing a large number of men in the former industry. Arriving at the age of sixteen years, Mr. F. M. Bee attended a boarding-school at Oakland and quit at the age of eighteen, intending to follow bookkeeping; but his health failed and he began work upon his father’s ranch in Sonoma County, near Petaluma. Two years afterward, November 1, 1888, he came to his present ranch, intending to remain faithful in the service and care of his father, as he had already done for his mother up to the time of her death. She was fifty-eight years old when she died. Mr. Bee is yet unmarried, and is the only child. Upon the Range of 140 acres of well-improved land, he is engaged principally in the raising of wine and table grapes.
Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California, Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
Transcribed by: Betty Wilson August 2004
V. SLADE
V. SLADE, a farmer near Winters, Yolo County, was born December 8, 1822, in Baltimore County, Maryland, a son of Abraham and Elizabeth (Pierce) Slade, natives of Maryland. The father, a farmer by occupation, remained a resident of that county until his death, which occurred in 1856; the mother died at the same place a few years later. Mr. Slade was brought up on a farm, working on the home place until he was thirty years of age. He then spent two years in Illinois as a farm laborer, and in 1859 he came overland by ox teams to California, the journey occupying the time from April to September. The first two years in this State he was in Solano County, and then for some time alternately in Solano and Yolo counties; and then he purchased land in Sonoma County, which he occupied for two years; then he sold out there, in 1875, and purchased his present property, three and a half miles east of Winters,. This is a very fine place; the residence is so situated that an observer there obtains a very fine view of all the country around. The farm comprises about 260 acres of choice bottom land, well set to vines and other fruits. He also raises a great many vegetables. He has packing sheds and all necessary equipments for carrying on the fruit business.
He was married, in 1843, to Elizabeth Mathews, a native of Maryland, and of their seven children two sons and three daughters are living.
Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California, Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
Transcribed by: Betty Wilson August 2004
RUSSELL DAY
RUSSELL DAY, a Yolo viticulturist, was born April 27, 1817, in Auburn, New York, a son of Lot Day. The father, a native of New Jersey and a tanner by trade, moved to Hamilton County, Ohio, where Cincinnati now stands, in 1817; in 1820 to Wayne County, Indiana; in 1830 to St. Joseph County, same State, where in 1842 he was elected sheriff of the county and served two terms, or a total of four years. During his second term he was appointed State Marshal for the northern part of the State. In 1847 he was elected State Senator by his district, and he served two years; and in 1850 he came across the plains to California. He was a resident of Stockton until 1860, when he moved to Woodland and remained there among his children until the fall of 1872; then, at the age of eighteen years, he went to Nevada and located a claim twenty-five miles south of Halleck’s Station; but his health failed and he died there in March, 1874, at the age of eighty-three years. His remains were brought back to Woodland and laid at rest in the cemetery there. He had always been a prominent man in political circles, and energetic in all of his business relations.
Mr. Russell Day was brought up to the tanner’s trade and followed the same until 1840, when he entered the brick trade and began contracting for buildings, and continued in the same until 1851. He then was engaged by the Chicago & Springfield Railroad Company, to superintend the construction of a branch road running from Chicago to Springfield, and was engaged therein until 1852. April 20, 1853, he left South Bend, Indiana, for California, and crossed the plains with his father, who had returned from California. He located his present property September 10, 1853, taking the land from the Government, and he has been a resident thereon until the present. He converted the wild and desert-like place to the neat, attractive and fertile farm that it now is. He also has run a fine dairy, but is now turning his attention more especially to the raising of wine grapes, and is a stockholder in the Yolo Winery. His farm is now all a vineyard. It is situated thirty miles southeast of Woodland, a good gravel road existing between his vineyard and the town. He is a member of Woodland Lodge, No. 111, I.O.O.F., and is next to the oldest member of this order; he is also a member of the Encampment. He once visited the spot where Woodland is now located with the view of taking a portion of it for a home, but he gave it up and located where he now resides.
For his wife Mr. Day married Miss Abia Russell, a native of the State of New York. Their children have been: Lot, who was born December 18, 1875 and is now deceased; Russell T., born June 26, 1881.
Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California, Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
Transcribed by: Betty Wilson August 2004
JOEL WOOD
JOEL WOOD, a pioneer of 1849 now partially retired rancher, residing near Cadenasso, Yolo County, was born near Nashville, Tennessee, in January, 1823, a son of William and Mary (Goze) Wood, natives of Kentucky. His father, a farmer by occupation, remained a resident of Tennessee until his death; his wife also died in that State. Joel was but six years of age when he went to live with an uncle, and was brought up by him until twenty-two years old. Then, in 1849, in company with his uncle, William Goze, he came across the plains to California by way of the Carson and Lassen routes, arriving at Bidwell’s Bar November 16. There Mr. Wood kept a trading post and ran a ferry across the Feather River until May, 1850; then he opened a store and butcher shop at Rich Bar on the middle fork of the Yuba River and conducted them and followed mining until late in the ensuing autumn; next in partnership with L. Hibbard, he purchased land ten miles above Marysville and stocked it with cattle and horses; but a year afterward he sold out and he went by the Beckwourth route to the Big Meadows, on the Humboldt River and conducted a trading post and butcher shop there until 1852. Selling out he again went into Yolo County and settled in the Lamb Valley, where now is located the Orleans Vineyard. In 1854 he again sold out and went up into the Capay Valley, where he was one of the first settlers, being one of the five, and he had the honor of naming the valley. He had the postoffice in 1857, which was called Capay, and at that point he also had a store and blacksmith shop. For a time also he was Constable, and among the arrests that he effected were those of the desperate characters James Marble and T. Glasscock. Ever since his first location there Mr. Wood has been a resident of that valley. He now resides five miles west of Capay and one mile from Cadenasso, a station on the railroad. He is now living a life somewhat retired on seventy-five acres of choice valley land, well improved in vines and fruit trees. His children also have about four sections of choice land in the immediate vicinity.
Mr. Wood was married in May, 1858, in Lamb Valley, to Miss Emerine Clark, a native of Missouri, and their children are named and born as follows: William T., deceased; Mary B., born October 17, 1856; Albert B., November 5, 1858; Josephine B., December 12, 1860; George W., August 1, 1863; Leonard, September 20, 1865; Donald S., May 5, 1868; William S., March 27, 1870; Laura Etta, August 27, 1873; Myrtle, January 4, 1876; Joel E., August 21, 1879, and Maria M., July 24, 1884.
Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California, Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
Transcribed by: Betty Wilson August 2004