Yolo-Yuba-Sacramento County CA Archives Biographies.....Minis, William 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 January 29, 2007, 10:10 pm

Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1891)

HON. WILLIAM MINIS.-In retracing the genealogy of this gentleman, we find that a
grandfather, John Minis, was a native of the north of Ireland and came to the
United States in old age with five sons, landing at Pittsburg in the year 1800.
The eldest of these sons, William Minis, was the father of the gentleman whose
name heads this sketch. He first settled in Butler County, Pennsylvania, and
then moved into Beaver County, same State, where he remained until his death,
which occurred in 1859. He married Mary Cochran, also a native of Ireland, and
they brought up two sons and two daughters; both the daughters are deceased.

  The younger of the sons, the subject of this sketch, was born in Beaver
County, Pennsylvania, March 7, 1819, and spent his younger days with his father
upon the farm, indeed until he was thirty years of age. Being in a "backwoods"
section of the State, his advantages for education were limited to what could be
obtained in the pioneer log school-house, and a short term at an academy. During
the early gold-mining period, a company of 300 members was formed at Pittsburg,
called the "Pittsburg Company," to come to California. This was joined by Mr.
Minis, who at the time was living eighteen miles distant on the Ohio River. They
came upon a chartered steamboat to St. Joseph, Missouri, where Mr. Minis and
three others left the company and joined a stock company with Captain Winters at
the head. They crossed the Missouri River April 7 and landed at Sacramento
August 7, 1849, among the first immigrants of that year. Going immediately to
the mines on the Yuba River above Marysville, at a place called Long Bar, Mr.
Minis and his comrades began work; but as there was much sickness there they
soon returned to Sacramento. They next went to Clear Creek, twelve miles west of
where Shasta is now, and camped there about six weeks, during which time they
buried one of their number at that place. Of sixty miners at that point, twenty
sickened and died. But gold was plentiful; every man able to work took out from
the dry diggings there $50 to $500. The rainy season approaching, they returned
to Sacramento, arriving there a few days before Christmas, 1849, and wintering
in and about that city.

  In the spring three of Mr. Minis' mess companions went to the mines, while he
and another man named Wells built a house on the Coloma road, as a wayside
hotel. This was conducted by Mr. Minis about fifteen months, when he sold out
his interest and joined his messmates at Ford's Bar on the American River, and
worked there in the river mines until the autumn of 1852. Then, together with
his companion, J. J. Lytle, he came into Yolo County, settling on the banks of
Putah Creek, and followed agricultural pursuits there until 1858. They intended
to buy land at first, but the title was not clear. In 1857 the grant upon which
they settled was continued to William Wolfskill; and in that year Mr. Minis
purchased the old Tule House seven miles west of Sacramento, which in those days
was the great place for making money, Sacramento being the commercial center.
After running that house about three years he sold out and bought 2,000 acres of
land in this county, which he fenced for grazing purposes; and on it he built a
nice residence. Altogether, he expended upon the place about $10,000; but the
flood of 1862 came and everything went down the river. This of course left Mr.
Minis in financial straits. In the spring he settled in the little town of
Washington, in Yolo County, directly opposite Sacramento, and remained there
until December, 1865. During that fall he was elected Sheriff of Yolo County and
at the end of two years he was re-elected,- thus serving four years. In 1869 he
was elected joint Senator for Solano and Yolo counties, and served a term of
four years. On going out of the Sheriff's office he was elected Justice of the
Peace and Town Recorder for Woodland. In 1875 Mr. Minis was elected Surveyor
General for the State of California, which office he held from January, 1876, to
January, 1880. For the next six years he was a grocer in Woodland; but in the
autumn of 1886 he was elected County Treasurer, and in the fall of 1888 was
re-elected, and is therefore holding that position to the present time. In 1853,
while living upon the Wolfskill grant, he was elected County Surveyor, and
re-elected several times, without opposition. In 1856, while he was keeping the
Tule House in Yolo County, he was elected to the Legislature and served four
months. He has always been a Democrat, and an efficient worker for the party;
has never been beaten for office but once; has also been a faithful attendant at
the county and State conventions of his party for more than thirty years past.
He has never been known to have an enemy.

  In 1857 Mr. Munis [sic] was married to Mrs. Elmira Gale, a native of Ohio, and
by this marriage there was one son, George, who is now in the United States Land
Office at Sacramento. By the present marriage there is one daughter, Mollie, who
is the wife of F. E. Lambert, of Sacramento, and the mother of two children.


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/yolo/bios/minis599gbs.txt

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

File size: 6.3 Kb