Yolo-Solano County CA Archives Biographies.....Nissen, Reuben B. 1845 - 1910
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com December 8, 2005, 11:27 am

Author: Tom Gregory

REUBEN B. NISSEN

    In a region remote from North Carolina, where he was born July 5, 1845, and
where he passed the uneventful years of youth, it was the destiny of Reuben B.
Nissen to pass the busy afternoon of life and to pass from a serene twilight
into the rest of eternity. He did not come direct from the Atlantic seaboard to
the shores of the Pacific, but stopped for three years at Knobnoster, Johnson
county, Mo., and thence proceeded westward in the year 1870. For eight years he
followed the carpenter's trade at Elmira and rose from day wages to the work of
a contractor and builder, in which he met with fair success, and he followed the
building business after he located at Esparto. Eventually he turned to
agricultural pursuits and became the owner of nine hundred and eighty acres near
Esparto, where he resided from 1878 until his death, February 13, 1910.
Prominent among associates, he was called upon to fill the office of school
trustee and in that capacity aided in the upbuilding of the district schools. On
one occasion his friends selected him for the office of supervisor, but he
refused to serve in the position. The cares of business kept him from returning
to his old southern home and renewing the associations of boyhood, but a number
of his relatives visited him in his western home, among them being his three
brothers, W. M., a prominent wagon manufacturer of North Carolina, C. F. and S.
J. Two sisters, two nephews and two nieces also came to visit him from North
Carolina and he further enjoyed a visit from a sister living in Missouri, so
that the ties of kinship were maintained with affection throughout his entire life.

    The marriage of Reuben B. Nissen at Maine Prairie, Solano county, January 6,
1875, united him with Miss Mary Virginia Wyatt, who was born in Grundy county,
Mo., and at a very early age came across the plains in 1864 with her parents,
James N. B. and Ann (Williams) Wyatt. Although very young at the time, she
recalls many events of the journey with surprising distinctness. When the
emigrants were in camp on the Platte river they were surprised and alarmed by
the sudden advent of a man on horseback, without hat or boots, his clothing in
rags and an arrow in his back. He told them that the Indians had killed his
parents and taken captive his wife, a beautiful young woman with long hair. Dr.
A. Wynn, an uncle of Mrs. Nissen, cut the arrow out and made the man as
comfortable as the circumstances permitted. He was put on a wagon and taken with
the expedition as far as Fort Laramie, where he made heart-rending pleadings
that the party would remain until he recovered so that he could come on to
California with them.

    There were thirty wagons and one hundred persons in the train. They crossed
the Platte river in four wagon beds, caulked and tied together. Ten men took
hold of the sides of the craft. When they could touch bottom they would shove
the boat along. When they could not touch bottom they would swing on the boat
and let it float. All of the running gear of the thirty wagons, as well as the
one hundred persons and their belongings were crossed in the wagon beds and it
took twenty-one days to get across and prepared to move forward. While camping
on the Platte an electric storm arose. The downpour of hail, with the vivid
lightning and terrific thunder, frightened the cattle so that they ran away and
the Indians captured them. Some of the brave men of the expedition followed the
savages, shot them, rescued the stock and returned to camp with every animal
safe. Mrs. Nissen well remembers the great rejoicing when the men and stock came
safely back to camp.

    When camp was made a long distance from any fort it was the custom for the
emigrants to arrange their wagons in a circle. The stock were placed within the
circle and all night long each man would stand guard at his wagon with his gun
in his hand. The ox-teams would sometimes give out from tender feet. When an ox
began to walk lame it would be taken out and a cow put in its place, while the
tired ox had a chance to recuperate with the balance of the herd driven back of
the wagon train. The churning on the trip was not after the method followed in
the Woodland and Winters creameries. After the cows had been milked in the
morning, the milk would be placed in the churn and at night, when camp was made,
the butter would be in round balls about the size of a marble.

   During the long journey of six months and ten days between Grundy county,
Mo., and Cloverdale, Sonoma county, only one death occurred. A small child was
buried at Fort Laramie on the 4th of July and the accidental presence of
soldiers with their band of music made the ceremony very impressive,
particularly for the small children, who felt-sad at the thought of leaving
their beloved playmate in the lonely little grave in that strange land. Few of
the travelers were ill, the most serious trouble being an epidemic of the
whooping cough. Every Sunday services were held with excellent singing and
earnest preaching. During the week nights the young-people would have parties
and dances, so that there was some enjoyment in the midst of the hardships. The
only mirror in the expedition was the property of her mother, Mrs. J. N. B.
Wyatt, who"" was accustomed to hang it out on the wagon every Sunday morning, so
that the men could come there to shave. Some would come to look at their faces
and study the changes in their features since they left home. There was no
silverware in the party, nor any china or cut-glass, but every woman had her new
outfit of tin dishes. The first night that the provisions were placed on the
ground a baby (F. M. Wyatt of Winters) started to creep across the improvised
table in a hurry and the rattle that followed was amusing for everyone.

   Four sons came to bless the union of Reuben B. and Virginia Nissen. The third
oldest, Babe, born September 16, 1889, was taken from the home by death April 6,
1891. The eldest of the family, Clarence R., a stockman, born September 9, 1883,
married Elsie M. Taber and they have two children, Virginia M. and Clarence
Reuben, Jr. The second son, Claude S., born November 12, 1886, manages the home
place, with the assistance of the youngest son, Frank W., born June 13, 1895.
These two brothers have one hundred and twenty-five head of hogs as well as a
large number of other live stock and in the threshing season they run a combined
harvester on their own place, also doing threshing for others and averaging
twenty-five acres per day. The home farm, "Rose Mound," occupied by the widow
and the two youngest sons, comprises one hundred and ninety acres, located in
Lamb valley, three and one-half miles southwest of Esparto, of which more than
one-half is in pasture and in grain. Seventy-five acres are in apricots,
peaches, pears, prunes, almonds and apples, bringing in a large annual revenue.
The rest of the holdings has been divided between the sons. They are young men
of energy and are adding lustre to an honored pioneer name.


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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