Sonoma County CA Archives Biographies.....Wickersham, Isaac G. 1820 - 
************************************************
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 March 1, 2006, 6:21 pm

Author: Alley, Bowen & Co. (1880)

Wickersham, Isaac G. No man has held a more prominent position in Sonoma than he
whose name appears above and whose portrait has a place in this work. He was
born of respectable, well-to-do Quaker parents at Newberry, York county,
Pennsylvania, on the 26th of. August, 1820, and is the youngest son in a family
of eleven children—his father died in 1825— of rather delicate physique, but of
an active nervous temperament. At the age of fifteen he left the confortable
home of his mother and commenced the battle of life on his own account, meeting
with many hardships and travelling much over the United States and Canada.
Engaged in various honorable employments, by industry and economy overcoming all
obstacles in his youthful career, avoiding bad company, with a fixed
determination that his name should never be coupled with a dishonest or
dishonorable act, and wherever he is known, either in his youthful wanderings or
latter life, he has enjoyed the confidence of all. In 1840, we find him
Secretary of the Indiana State Anti-Slavery Society, and taking an active part
in the Harrison presidential campaign, and a law student in the office of Judge
Elliott at Newcastle, Henry county, Indiana, where he remained until the Spring
of 1843, having been admitted to the bar. He resolved to go farther west, and
located at Keokuk, Lee county, Iowa, where he engaged in the practice of his
profession with reasonable success. In the Spring of 1853, being in poor health,
and having travelled over much of the United States and Canada, and having
accumulated ample means to entitle him to a little recreation, he conceived the
idea of a tour through Mexico and California. Proceeding to New Orleans, thence
to Vera Cruz, where in company with others who had joined him they purchased
horses and proceeded north to the City of Mexico, where he remained about ten
days, and thence on horse-back to Acapulco, not having slept in a house or on a
bed, except while in the city of Mexico, since leaving Vera Cruz; thence by
steamer to San Francisco, from there to Sacramento, where he purchased a horse
and blankets and started alone to inspect the mines. Finally he crossed the
Sierra Nevada mountains, meeting the emigrants at Carson sink. His active
temperament could not allow of his being idle and, having some ready means, he
commenced purchasing cattle and cutting hay. In November, 1853, he arrived with
his cattle at Petaluma, but not finding a desirable market for them in that Fall
he determined there to await the Spring. During the Winter, he occupied his time
in the erection of a house in the then infant city of Petaluma, but with no
intention of permanently locating there. In 1854, he cut about three hundred
tons of hay on the flat immediately north of the city, where he used the first
mowing machine operated on the Sonoma side of San Francisco bay. Shortly after
this event, he commenced the practice of his profession; in 1855, he was elected
District Attorney, an office he filled with much ability for two years; with his
legal business he combined that of Notary Public, and also engaged in the
lending of money. In the year 1865, he established the private banking firm of
I. G. Wickersham & Co. in Petaluma and in 1867, erected the first bank building
in that city, while, on January 1, 1875, the banking house of I. G. Wickersham &
Co. was organized as a National Gold Bank. Mr. Wickersham has been inseparably
connected with many benefits conferred upon the city where he has made his home,
as may be attested by a reference to our history of Petaluma township. It is a
pleasure to look upon such a career rewarded with comfort and plenty. He has
taken and is taking a great and leading interest in the affairs of the Episcopal
church in his town, and though of a modest and retiring disposition, his
knowledge of the world and keen acumen will stand him, we hope, in good stead
for many years to come. Mr. Wickersham married May 21, 1867, Lydia C. Rickett, a
native of Fall River, Massachusetts, by whom he has now living four children,
two boys and two girls.

Additional Comments:
Petaluma Township

Extracted from:

HISTORY
—OF-
SONOMA COUNTY,
-INCLUDING ITS—
Geology, Topooraphy, Mountains, Valleys and Streams;
—TOGETHER WITH—
A Full and Particular Record of the Spanish Grants; Its Early History and
Settlement, Compiled from the Most Authentic Sources; the Names of Original
Spanish and American Pioneers; a full Political History, Comprising the Tabular
Statements of Elections and Office-holders since the Formation of the County;
Separate Histories of each Township, Showing the Advancement of Grape and Grain
 Growing Interests, and Pisciculture;
ALSO, INCIDENTS OF PIONEER LIFE; THE RAISING OF THE BEAR FLAG; AND BIOGRAPHICAL
SKETCHES OF EARLY AND PROMINENT SETTLERS AND REPRESENTATIVE MEN;
—AND OF ITS—
Cities, Towns, Churches, Schools, Secret Societies, Etc., Etc.
ILLUSTRATED.
SAN FRANCISCO:
ALLEY, BOWEN & CO., PUBLISHERS.
1880.


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/sonoma/bios/wickersh832bs.txt

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

File size: 5.5 Kb