Yolo County
Biographies
W. H. SOULE
a hardware merchant at Woodland, is a native of Maine. His parents, William F. and Elizabeth M. (Frost) Soule, were also natives of that State. His father was born March 5, 1800, and his mother in 1802. In the spring of 1852 they went to Wisconsin for a short time, and in the same year came on to California, by water. The ship on which they were to sail became disabled and they were landed on the Isthmus, where they were compelled to wait until a relief ship came; and the place being very unhealthful, James Soule, brother of W. H., was taken sick and afterward died at sea and was thrown overboard off Monterey, and his sister Eliza died on the very day they landed in San Francisco, and shortly after that, September 5, 1852, their mother also died, in San Francisco. There were originally five daughters and four sons, of whom four daughters now reside in San Francisco. William Soule, the father, followed mining a short time, when his health failed and he went to Puget Sound for a year. In the spring of 1854 he and son W. H. went to Port Orford, Oregon, during the “Beach” excitement, where they mined and prospected on their way back to Marysville, this State, and proceeded on to San Francisco. In 1855-’56 they followed farming in Marin County, and then in Sonoma County until 1861, when they dissolved partnership, the father going to San Francisco, where he died February 19, 1876. Mr. Soule, our subject, went to Idaho during the gold excitement and followed mining there until the autumn of the next year, then for three years he followed freighting between Sacramento and Virginia City. From 1865 to 1873 he followed agricultural pursuits in Solano County; then he purchased 320 acres on Putah Creek, in Yolo County, and occupied it until 1884; then he spent six months in Texas; next, returning to Woodland in 1886, he purchased a half interest in the hardware store of P. W. Barnes, and after a partnership of one year he bought out Mr. Barnes’ interest, and is now enjoying a substantial patronage.
Mr. Soule was born February 12, 1837, and was married in Solano County, September 2, 1871, to Mary Cunningham, a native of Canada, and they have two adopted children, William H. and Minnie A.
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
J. J. WELCH
a prominent farmer of Yolo County, first crossed the plains to California in 1850. He is a native of Monroe County, Kentucky. His parents, Richard and Jane (Harlan) Welch, were also natives of that State; his father was a farmer and blacksmith. At the age of twenty-two years Mr. Welch spent six months in Missouri, and then came on to California and began mining in Amador County; in the fall of 1851 he located in Yolo County; was in Los Angeles County from 1869 to 1874, and since then on his present well improved ranch of eighty acres; he raises live stock and alfalfa. He married Martha Browning, a native of Kentucky, and they have two children living; and they have had two who are now deceased. Three of the family are members of the Christian Church.
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
C. P. BALZARI
dairyman at Woodland, was born July 4, 1855, in Switzerland, of which country his parents, James and Constance (Mattie) Balzari, are also natives; the father, who has been a merchant most of his life, is still living there. When our subject was twelve years of age, he and his father came to California by water, landing at Petaluma, where he was engaged in the livery business until 1878; then he worked on a farm at Elmira, Solano County, until 1880, when he moved near Madison, Yolo County, and followed farming there until the next year, when he came to Woodland and started his present dairy ranch, where he keeps seventy head of cows and is the leading dairyman in that locality. He keeps the finest grades of stock. His gross income is $500 per month. He has 240 acres of land near Cottonwood in Shasta County, and twenty acres in Willow Oak Park, Yolo County.
He was united in marriage, December 23, 1876, in Yolo County, with Eva A. Merrell, a native of Michigan, born November 18, 1858, the daughter of U. P. and Almira (Finch) Merrell, her father a native of Connecticut and her mother of Michigan. They have two sons: Charles W., born July 7, 1878, and Robert A., January 2, 1884.
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
MRS. E. POCKMAN
In the list of those holding a prominent place as agriculturists in Yolo County, the name of Mrs. E. Pockman is entitled to a leading position, both on account of the excellence of her fine ranch, and because of the admirable way in which its affairs are managed. She is the widow of the late J. M. Pockman, who was one of the older and more respected residents in the county. He was a native of Missouri, and the date of his birth was January 9, 1842. When a young man he came to this State with a party of others, some of whom settled in Yolo County, among them William Hatcher, a sketch of whose life appears elsewhere in this volume. Mr. Pockman arrived in 1852, and in the following year settled in Yolo County, making it his home up to the time of his death, which occurred in April, 1882. He was married to Mrs. Pockman, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Brown, at the town of Yolo, on October 20, 1873. Mr. Pockman spent the active portion of his life in Yolo County, was a man possessed of an unusual amount of energy and perseverance, and was always actuated by the highest motives. He was a man very highly esteemed throughout the community, both for the kindness of his heart and the generosity of his nature. He provided well for his family, doing for them all that a kind husband and father could accomplish, accumulating during his life a considerable property.
Mrs. Pockman is a native of Wisconsin, where she was born in 1854. When she was a mere child her parents removed to St. Paul, Minnesota, where they lived till 1872, when they came to California. She is the owner of a splendid tract of 640 acres of beautiful farming land, all of it lying in Yolo County and all of it highly improved. She has four children, three boys and one girl.
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler