Contra Costa-San Francisco County CA Archives Biographies.....Howard, Nathaniel S. 1819 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com November 27, 2005, 4:02 am Author: W. A. Slocum & Co., Publishers (1882) NATHANIEL S. HOWARD.—Born in Wareham, Plymouth county, Massachusetts, January 19, 1819, and is the son of Nathaniel and Mary (Briggs) Howard. Here he was educated at the common schools and resided until attaining his seventeenth year, save the period between ten years and sixteen years of age, which Mr. Howard served on board ship. At the age first mentioned he proceeded to Fairhaven, Bristol county, where he served an apprenticeship to the carpenter's trade, and followed it until 1849. On August 1st, of that year, our subject formed one of a company to purchase the ship Florida, at a cost of forty thousand dollars, with cargo. In this vessel Mr. Howard sailed around the Horn to San Francisco, where he arrived January 1, 1850. Soon after disposing of the cargo at a handsome sum—one hundred thousand dollars—Mr. Howard proceeded to the mines on Merced river, where he commenced the search for gold in Solomon's gulch. At the close of a twelve-month he returned to San Francisco, commenced working at his calling of a carpenter, and so continued until 1856. In September of that year he removed to Contra Costa county, acquired his present farm of one hundred and sixty acres, and has since resided there, with the exception of one year, 1864, which he spent in Austin, Nevada, during the silver-mine excitement of that place. Married May 30, 1844, Elizabeth S. Hitch, a native of Fairhaven, who died June 22, 1876; by this union there are: Lizzie A. (now Mrs. Smith), Millie S., and Kate F. Additional Comments: Extracted from: HISTORY OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, INCLUDING ITS GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, TOPOGRAPHY, CLIMATOGRAPHY AND DESCRIPTION; TOGETHER WITH A RECORD OF THE MEXICAN GRANTS; THE BEAR FLAG WAR; THE MOUNT DIABLO COAL FIELDS; THE EARLY HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT, COMPILED FROM THE MOST AUTHENTIC SOURCES; THE NAMES OF ORIGINAL SPANISH AND MEXICAN PIONEERS; FULL LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF THE COUNTY; SEPARATE HISTORY OF EACH TOWNSHIP, SHOWING THE ADVANCE IN POPULATION AND AGRICULTURE; ALSO, Incidents of Pioneer Life; and Biographical Sketches OF EARLY AND PROMINENT SETTLERS AND REPRESENTATIVE MEN; AMD OF ITS TOWNS, VILLAGES, CHURCHES, SECRET SOCIETIES, ETC. ILLUSTRATED. SAN FRANCISCO: W. A. SLOCUM & CO., PUBLISHERS 1882. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/contracosta/bios/howard46nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/cafiles/ File size: 2.9 Kb