Yolo County CA Archives Biographies.....Eddy, Hiram S. 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com January 18, 2006, 6:45 pm

Author: Tom Gregory (1913)

HIRAM S. EDDY

    An intimate knowledge of many sections of the country had been gained by Mr.
Eddy by personal residence therein, and of all the localities with which he
became familiar none compared in his estimation with California, where, in
Capay, Yolo county, he made his home until his death, September 3, 1911. From
Cattaraugus county, N. Y., where his birth occurred, he removed at the age of
seven years to Illinois in company with his parents, George W. and Betsey Eddy,
natives, respectively, of New York and New Hampshire. The family settled in Lee
county, ninety miles from Chicago, and the father took up government land.
Afterward he gave his entire time and attention to the development of his farm,
his only connection with other work being the taking of a contract to build two
miles of the Illinois Central Railroad near his homestead.

    As early as 1853, while Minnesota was yet a territory, Hiram S. Eddy became
a pioneer of Fillmore county, near the Iowa state line. The country was new and
he turned the first furrows in the soil, afterward raising a large acreage of
wheat and earning needed money through the work of a thresherman. When the Civil
war began his sympathies were with the Union and during March of 1864 he
enlisted in the regular government service as a member of a Minnesota battalion
organized to defend the northwest from Indian attacks. From Rochester, the place
of enrollment, he was sent to Fort Snelling, on the Mississippi river, and
drilled there for thirty days. Next he was stationed at Sioux City for thirty
days. A similar period was spent at Fort Rice, whence the men were ordered to
the Yellowstone region in Montana and from there back to the Black Hills in
South Dakota. The Missouri river was crossed at Fort Union. The most important
engagement of the period occurred at Cold Springs, N. Dak., where six thousand
warriors of the Sioux tribe attacked four thousand Union soldiers. The battle
was fought fiercely for three hours and then the savages retreated into the
mountain fastnesses, leaving five hundred dead and wounded. While only twelve
Union men were killed, a large number received serious wounds.

    After having piled in one immense mound the dead of the enemy, including
even their ponies and their dogs, the Federal soldiers marched to the Bad Lands
and engaged in scouting in that region. Later they were ordered to Fort Ridgely,
Nicollet county, Minn., a short distance northwest of St. Peter, on the
Minnesota river. In the spring of the following year they were returned to Sioux
City. During the summer they engaged in scouting in the Red River valley and
around Devil's Lake. Next they were stationed at Fort Snelling and from there
went to Fort Randall, where Mr. Eddy was detailed as quartermaster in charge of
all the supplies. During the winter the regiment was stationed at Sioux City and
in the spring of 1866 they were ordered to Fort Snelling, where in May they
received an honorable discharge. One of the most serious attacks made by the
Indians during this period was the Blue Earth massacre, where many white
settlers were murdered and the entire community plundered. For these
depredations thirty-nine Indians afterward were hung.

    Minnesota remained the home of Mr. Eddy from 1853 to 1867 and he then
removed to Kansas, where he took up government land in Douglas county. For a
time he was prospered in his farming ventures and he laid the foundation of a
subsequent success, but ill fortune intervened and brought to naught all of his
labors. The grasshoppers laid waste the fields of grain, robbed the trees of
their leaves and the gardens of their vegetation, left the pastures and meadows
brown and bare, and even ate the bark of the trees. Nothing was left for farmers
or for their stock, so Mr. Eddy gave up his land, abandoned the stock and
started to find a more desirable location. This naturally brought him to
California and in 1875 he became a resident of Yolo county. For some time he
engaged in the livery business at Woodland, but after the death of his wife and
after he himself had accidentally suffered a severe injury resulting in a broken
hip-bone, he gave up all business activities. Never active in politics, he was
inclined to be independent in his opinions, although he cast his first ballot
for Abraham Lincoln and inclined toward Republican principles.

    While living in Minnesota occurred the marriage of Mr. Eddy to Mrs.
Christina Smith, a widow, who was born in Indiana and who died in California in
April, 1909. They became the parents of six children, of whom Charles died at an
early age. The only daughter, Mattie J., is the wife of T. L. Dryden and the
mother of three daughters, Marie, Hazel and Babe. The eldest son, Hiram G.,
married Elizabeth Holmes, and both are now deceased; they were the parents of
five children, Ernest, Granville (deceased), Harold, George (deceased) and
Christina. The second son, Franklyn J., married Lucy Sturtevant and they are the
parents of three children, Charles, Hazel and Mabel. The third son, Herbert,
chose as his wife Miss Flora Gary, and their family comprises three daughters,
Ida, Martha and Flora. The youngest son, Lyman A., married Miss Leona "White and
has two children by the union, Clyde and Velda. For some years he has owned and
operated a livery barn at Capay and in this stable he keeps a full equipment of
teams and buggies, besides having two automobiles for passenger traffic between
Capay and Woodland.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

HISTORY OF YOLO COUNTY CALIFORNIA
WITH
Biographical Sketches
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified With Its Growth
and Development From the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
TOM GREGORY
AND OTHER WELL KNOWN WRITERS
ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME

HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA [1913]


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