Plumas County CA Archives Biographies.....Whitlock, James H. 1829 - 
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Author: Fariss & Smith (1882)

MAJOR JAMES H. WHITLOCK was born May 15, 1829, in Union county, Illinois. Early
in 1850 he started on the long journey across the plains to California. He left
his home on the second of April, went to St. Louis, and paid in advance for a
passage on a wagon train. Going to Fort Leavenworth by steamer, they started
overland on the fourth of May. They met with many reverses on the journey, and
when they reached Salt Lake City most of the horses were dead, and the
proprietor of the train was a bankrupt individual. Mr. Whitlock and two others
accepted one horse as their share, and started on foot to complete the journey,
accompanied by one hundred emigrants, most of whom were in the same predicament.
They hired a Mormon to pilot them into California; but after getting them across
the desert, during the passage of which some of the emigrants died, he suddenly
disappeared. On the twentieth day from Salt Lake City they finally discovered
the emigrant trail, and after many hardships and privations, arrived at Hangtown
(Placerville) on the twenty-fourth of August, Mr. Whitlock having lost sixty
pounds of flesh on the trip. He engaged in mining during the fall and winter on
Weaver creek, and make about $2,000. In March, 1851, he came to Nelson creek,
now in Plumas county, where he sunk all his money in a river claim in six weeks.
Then he mined six miles farther up, with better success. He and his two comrades
took a contract to furnish lumber for a flume, and made considerable at it by
Christmas. In the spring they all engaged in fluming, and came out dead-broke in
the fall, with numerous debts to pay. They then mined at Fiddler's flat and
Henpeck flat, on Nelson creek. In January, 1853, their camp being without the
means of subsistence, they left one man to take care of the claims, and the
rest, twelve in number, went below for food. They experienced terrible hardships
in breaking a trail through the snow, and finally the party got divided, Mr.
Whitlock's party reaching a house on the third day. The others were not so
fortunate. When they were rescued Walter Goodspeed was dead; H. Brown lived
about two weeks, and William Phillips died six months afterward from the effects
of the trip. At the fall election in November, 1854, Mr. Whitlock was elected
county surveyor on the whig ticket, and was re-elected four successive
subsequent times. Though elected in the fall of 1861 he did not qualify. He then
raised a company of sixty-six men, was elected captain, and they were mustered
in as company F., fifth infantry, California volunteers. Mr. Whitlock's
commission dated from October 2, 1861. The company left Sacramento, February 2,
1862, established Camp Drum in Los Angeles county, now Wilmington, and from
there went into Arizona. Whitlock was commanding officer at Tucson until April,
1863, when he was ordered to New Mexico, and did active service against the
Indians. For gallant conduct in a battle with the Apaches in March, 1864, when a
government train was recaptured from them, Mr. Whitlock was brevetted major. In
October his company was mustered out, and he took a position in another
regiment; he had charge of Fort Seldon, most of which he built, and afterwards
was at Fort Garland, in Colorado, with the command of General Kit Carson, where
he served the balance of his time until discharged at Santa Fe, December 5,
1866. He returned to Plumas county in April, 1867, having been absent five years
and a half. In the fall he was engaged in merchandising at Taylorville, but sold
in 1868, and in 1870 embarked in the same business at Greenville, which he
followed until 1876, when he sold again, went to the centennial, and was married
in March, 1877, at Warren, Illinois, to Miss M. H. Baldwin, by whom he has had
one son, Robert Greenleaf, now three years old. He returned to Plumas in April,
1877, and was elected to the legislature by the republicans, with a very large
majority. In the fall of 1878 he commenced business at Quincy, and was appointed
postmaster October 28, 1878.

Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties

San Francisco: Fariss & Smith
(1882)


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