Yolo-Sierra-Yuba County CA Archives Biographies.....Minor, Napoleon 1832 - ************************************************ 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 3, 2007, 11:04 pm Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1891) NAPOLEON MINOR.—In forming an estimate of any section, we instinctively turn to the ranchers and farmers of the region, as the surest test of the stability and future prospects of the place. If we find them prosperous and progressive, we know assuredly that the section must be good and carry away the best opinion. Judged by such a standard, Yolo County has no competitor in California in the vastness of its resources and the certainty of the brightest future. Indeed, it is on all sides admitted that Yolo is the county of comfortable homes and well-to-do farmers, a county where all have plenty and most an abundance of the good things of this world. Prominent among the representative agriculturists of Yolo County is found Napoleon Minor, a pioneer citizen and a worthy man in every respect He was born in New London County, Connecticut, October 30, 1832, and is the son of Thomas B. and Marian (Dolbear) Minor. Before proceeding to give a detailed account of Mr. Minor's life, it will be well to refer to the name Dolbear, which will be recognized at once as one of the older and more distinguished of New England. John Dolbear, from whom the family is sprung, came originally from Shropshire, England, where he was born in March, 1747. His son was George Dolbear of Boston, Massachusetts, who married Mary Sherwood, of Fairfield, Connecticut, and died January 1, 1790. His son, George Benjamin, born December 25, 1752, died January 26, 1828, married Margaret Fox, born November 15, 1755. Their children were Mary, born October 12, 1782, and died January 25, 1828; Lucy, born January 8, 1785; Benjamin, born November 28, 1789; Guy, born November 24, 1790, died June 18, 1823; and Marian, the mother of the subject of this sketch, born December 20, 1795. Mr. Minor remained at his birthplace until twenty-two years of age, when in 1854 he set out for California on board the ship Northern Light. Reaching San Franciscn, [sic] he remained there but a short time before going to Downieville, where he prospected for a time. Thence he went to Marysville and for three weeks worked on Webb's Ferry. After that he took a job of cradling grain at $4 per day for George Leet. A month later and he was at Yuba City working on a thresher at $2.50 a day, a job that lasted two months. He then bought a team and went to freighting from Marysville into the mountains. This business he continued from 1859 to 1861. In the following year, in partnership with Mr. C. French, he took a band of sixty-five mules to Colusa County to graze. That was the year of the great floods in the Sacramento Valley, and for a while they were kept busy hunting high spots for their stock. They also bought hay, etc., of James Winkler, on the Sacramento River at St. Louis in Sierra County; in 1867-'68 they bought goods and sold them at Pine Grove. As soon as they could they went back to Marysville with their stock and went thence, to the Butte mountains, and from there to Spring Valley, where they left their stock for the winter. In the following spring, Mr. Minor freighted to Austin, Nevada, and other points, and then, coming down to the valley, rented land of the California Pacific for four years. In 1871 he sowed 790 acres to wheat, and on account of the dry season only harvested 9,000 pounds of grain. Nothing daunted him, however, and by 1875 he was enabled to purchase the fine ranch which is still his home, and which lies about a mile west of Davisville. It consists of 600 acres of the best land, where in addition to general farming he raises a great deal of stock. Mr. Minor is a man of indomitable energy, a hard-worked and a shrewd business man, but generous and public-spirited, and has accomplished very much during his life. He was married in August, 1870, at Sacramanto, [sic] to Miss Mary E. Rogers, a native of Connecticut. She died universally regretted, December 1, 1878, aged thirty-three years and ten months, leaving two children,—Maud E., born July 24, 1871, and Lorenzo G., born May 6, 1873. On October 26, 1881, Mr. Minor was married for the second time to Miss Louise Wolf, a native of Keokuk, Iowa. They have three children: Arthur N., Louise L. and Albert L. 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/minor654gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cafiles/ File size: 5.4 Kb