Yolo-Sacramento-San Francisco County CA Archives Biographies.....Tufts, J. B. 1824 - 
************************************************
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 December 13, 2005, 9:13 pm

Author: Tom Gregory

J. B. TUFTS

    The family represented by this honored pioneer of the west descends from a
long line of patriotic ancestry associated for several generations with the
military service of the United States. His father, a graduate of West Point and
an officer distinguished for his knowledge of military tactics, served at
northern barracks for a long period and then was stationed for years at a fort
in North Carolina. He owned three hundred and twenty acres in New York state and
also had valuable property in New York City. In marriage he was united with Mary
Davis, a niece of Jefferson Davis and the daughter of a commanding regimental
officer. The grandfather died in Albany, N. Y., and left a large estate to
descendants so widely scattered that it became necessary for the officials to
advertise for the heirs.

    J. B. Tufts was born in New Jersey, November 8, 1824, and he was educated
principally in New Jersey, leaving home at the age of twenty-one years to make
his own way in the world. Starting in the printing business he had learned all
of its details in two years and later he embarked in the card-printing business
in New York City, where with a partner he rented rooms on a first floor. While
living in the east, in 1849, Mr. Tufts married Mary, daughter of John M.
Kingsland, a former sheriff of New York City, where she was born and educated.
They became the parents of ten children, but lost three at birth, the others
being George K., William, Charles, Andrew, Lucy, Dolly and Belle. All are
married and at this writing there are twenty-three grandchildren and fifteen
great-grandchildren.

    It has been the privilege of Mr. and Mrs. Tufts to celebrate the sixtieth
anniversary of their marriage. In a beautiful residence, far removed from the
eastern home where they were married, they received the congratulations of their
hosts of friends upon the attainment of the auspicious occasion and all united
in wishing for them the enjoyment of many more years of happiness and prosperity.

    The discovery of gold in California was the attraction that drew Mr. Tufts
from the bright prospects of his eastern business. At New York he took passage
on the only ship that ever came from there to Sacramento. After a voyage of six
months he and his partner left the ship at San Francisco, where they had planned
to engage in business. They had brought with them $4,000 worth of groceries and
butter, and sold the latter at from $4 to $5 per pound. They also brought lumber
worth $600 per thousand feet and seventeen thousand pounds of sheet iron worth
$2 per pound. Unable to lease a lot in San Francisco for less than $5,000 annual
rental they chartered a schooner for $1,000 and took their cargo to Sacramento,
where they utilized their six thousand feet of lumber in the erection of a
two-story building. The sheet iron also found a place in the structure. With
their other property they had brought from the east ten casks of brandy and all
of this they sold to a merchant on J street.

   From June until July of 1850 Mr. Tufts engaged in the restaurant business on
Front street, San Francisco, as a partner of Senator Stewart of Nevada. He then
formed a partnership with a penniless man who claimed to have considerable
experience. With the money earned by Mr. Tufts the two men purchased an ox-team
and loaded a wagon with groceries and a large supply of meat (twelve beeves).
They crossed the desert on foot and without water and opened a shop where
emigrants approached from the east. Customers were abundant and always hungry.
The meat was sold at $5 per pound and was paid for by the emigrants with their
horses or mules. When the partners had sold out their entire supply of food they
started back with four hundred head of horses and mules. Mr. Tufts went on ahead
and left the partner with the stock. Later he learned that the man sold the
animals for $6,000, but from that time to this he has never seen nor heard of
the rascal, who made it convenient to vanish to parts unknown. Mr. Tufts then
ran a hotel at Washington, Yolo county, besides running a ferry. In this work he
was fortunate to have for a partner Jacob Lewis, the owner of a fine hotel in
Sacramento. Later he bought for $17 an acre five hundred acres of land, some of
which he sold for $50 an acre. The last of the tract he sold to G. G. Briggs for
$600 an acre, reserving the right to keep the house, which he moved to ground
bought at $10 per lot. Since 1878 he has resided at Davisville, Yolo county,
where he is a large property owner and where, before his retirement from all
public and business cares, he served as postmaster, road supervisor and justice
of the peace. Although now retired, he maintains a warm interest in all local
and state activities. Few have done more than he to advance the welfare of his
community and none has displayed a more steadfast interest in all movements for
the material, moral and educational upbuilding of town and county.


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]




File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/yolo/bios/tufts152nbs.txt

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

File size: 5.9 Kb