Napa-El Dorado-Monterey County CA Archives Biographies.....Withers, James M. 1814 - 
************************************************
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 February 17, 2007, 11:44 pm

Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1891)

JAMES M. WITHERS, whose ranch is about six miles from Napa on the Sonoma road,
has been a resident of California most of the time since 1850. He was born in
Lincoln County, Kentucky, in 1814. His parents, John and Sallie (Morgan)
Withers, were natives of Virginia and moved into Kentucky in the latter part of
the last century, bought a farm and lived there until they died. The last member
of the family who owned the place died there as recently as last September
(1889). On striking out in the world for himself, Mr. Withers was engaged in
trading through the Southern States until 1843, when he moved to Missouri and
followed farming there until 1850; he then crossed the plains with ox teams,
reaching Placerville, August 1. For the first year he engaged in merchandising;
he then returned by water to the East, but on the way was shipwrecked at El
Rosani, in the State of Sonora, Mexico; after walking thirty miles to a rancho,
the party sent a man on horseback to San Diego, to bring down a vessel to
transport the shipwrecked passengers and crew to Panama, a distance of 700
miles. After waiting sixteen days, the vessel, a steamer, took them along, and
Mr. Withers made his way to New York without further mishap. After visiting
Kentucky, and occupying his Missouri farm two years, he sold out all his
interests there and came to California, again crossing the plains, in 1854, and
bringing with him a stock of cattle from Missouri. He spent the next two years
in butchering and selling them, besides others which he bought in the mines. In
1856 he again returned to the East, by the Panama route, intending to make his
home in the older States, but the difference in climate determined him to make
his permanent home on the Pacific coast, and in 1857 he again crossed the
plains, having with him his wife and son, and bringing a stock of cattle and
horses; and he has since that time made his home continuously in the Golden
State. For several years he traded in cattle and sheep in Oregon and Idaho. In
1868 he settled in Monterey County and engaged in wheat-raising until 1876. He
then came to Napa County and purchased his present home, 350 acres, for which he
then paid $30,000. This farm he has managed as a stock and grain ranch. In his
politcal views he has always been liberal, first as a Whig and then as a
Republican since the formation of the latter party. In 1845 Mr. Withers married
Miss Mary Christopher, a native also of Lincoln County, Kentucky, her parents
having been natives of Virginia, Mr. Withers has two children living; Milton,
now a resident of San Francisco; and Annie, now the wife of W. G. Duhig, of Napa
County.

Additional Comments:
Extracted from

Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California.

Illustrated, Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast
from the Earliest Period of its Occupancy to the Present Time, together with
Glimpses of its Prospective Future; Full-Page Steel Portraits of its most
Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers and also of
Prominent Citizens of To-day.

"A people that takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendents." – Macauley.

CHICAGO
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1891.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/napa/bios/withers707gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cafiles/

File size: 3.9 Kb