Alameda
County
Biographies
JOSEPH E. McDERMED
Numbered among the veteran pioneer agriculturists of Alameda county who have met with success, is Joseph E. McDermed, a resident of Haywards. He is now living practically retired from active pursuits, enjoying a comfortable competence, which he acquired chiefly through his own efforts. Of Scotch ancestry, he was born February 22, 1831, in Warren county, Mo., near Warrington, a son of Clayborn McDermed. His paternal grandfather immigrated to this country from Scotland prior to the war of 1812, in which he took an active part. He subsequently lived for a time in Kentucky, from there going to Missouri, where he cleared a farm, on which he spent the remainder of his life, dying at the age of sixty years.
A native of Kentucky, Clayborn McDermed went with his parents to Missouri when a boy, and assisted his father in the pioneer labor of reclaiming a farm from the wilderness. Succeeding to the occupation in which he was reared, he became owner of a farm in Warren county, and there followed farming, making a good living for his family, although not amassing great wealth. He married Elizabeth Rider, who lived to be fifty-five years of age, and died in Missouri, where her father settled on coming to this country from Germany. Mr. Rider was an early pioneer farmer of that state, going there when the Indians were so plentiful and troublesome that he had to carry his gun with him when he went into the fields to work. He cleared and improved a good homestead, on which he resided until his death, at the age of four score years.
The oldest of a family of nine children, Joseph E. McDermed received but limited educational advantages, attending the district school during the brief winter terms. When he was eighteen years old his father died, and he assisted his mother in caring for the younger children for the next two years, when the family was broken up. Then, in the spring of 1852, Mr. McDermed joined a party bound for California, and paid his way across the plains by driving a team of oxen during the trip of four and one-half months. Proceeding to Jackson, Amador county, he was there employed for five years in prospecting and mining, being fairly successful in his operations. Selling out in 1857, Mr. McDermed, with a few hundred dollars which he had made in his pockets, came to Alameda county on a tour of investigation. Being pleased with the country, he rented land near Haywards and embarked in general farming. A few years later he removed to the hills, near Dublin, where he bought a government claim of one hundred and sixty acres, and also purchased an adjoining tract of one hundred and sixty acres of railway land. This land he subsequently carried on to good advantage, setting out a small orchard, adding various improvements, and realizing a satisfactory yearly income from the productions of his ranch. In March, 1902, Mr. McDermed disposed of his farm and bought his present home in Haywards, where he occupies an assured position among the respected residents of the community.
Mr. McDermed married Sarah Lock, who was born in Ireland, and came to the United States when about eighteen years old. She died, at Haywards, in March, 1903, aged sixty-two years. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. McDermed three children were born, namely: John C., of Haywards, traveling for a cracker manufacturing company; Annie, wife of Herbert G. Cowan, a farmer of Alameda county; and Joseph E., Jr., engaged in farming on the ranch formerly owned by Mr. McDermed. Politically Mr. McDermed is a tried and true Republican, and for fifteen years was school trustee in the Murray district. Fraternally he has for the past thirty-five years been a member of the Sycamore Lodge No. 129, I.O.O.F., of Haywards. Religiously he belongs to the Congregational Church, of which he was for a number of years one of the board of trustee.
Transcribed
3-11-16 Marilyn
R. Pankey.
ญญญญSource: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Page 1047. The Chapman Publishing
Co., Chicago, 1904.
ฉ 2016
Marilyn R. Pankey.
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