Amador
County
Biographies
JAMES McCAULEY
James McCauley, a very highly
respected California pioneer of 1849 residing at Ione, was born in Virginia on
the 4th of January, 1828, at the head waters of the Roanoke River in
Montgomery County. He is of Scotch-Irish
lineage, his grandparents having removed from Scotland to the county of Ulster,
Ireland, whence representatives of the name came to America in 1720, locating
in New Hampshire, where the grandfather of our subject was born and resided for
many years, there raising his family. He
fought in the Revolutionary War, valiantly aiding the colonists in establishing
American independence. John McCauley,
the father of our subject, was born in New Hampshire and removed to Virginia
when a young man. In the latter state he
married Miss Cynthia Robinson, who was born in the Old Dominion. In the county of his adoption Mr. McCauley
became a man of much influence and was a recognized leader in the Democratic
Party. He was a warm friend of William
Smith, the Governor of Virginia, and of Hon. Ballard Preston, who served as the
secretary of the navy under President Taylor.
He was born in 1795 and died during the period of the Civil War, at the
age of sixty-eight years. By his first
marriage he had four children and by his second marriage eight.
Mr. McCauley, of this review, was
the eldest son and second child of the first marriage. His mother died in the thirty-second year of
her age. She was a devout Methodist and
an earnest Christian woman who had the warm regard of all with whom she was
associated. In the academy at Salem,
Roanoke County, Mr. James McCauley acquired his education.
He had just attained his majority when
the discovery of gold was made in California, attracting to the Pacific slope
hundreds of men from all parts of the country.
He joined a joint stock company and with mule teams they crossed the
plains, reaching their destination after a tiresome journey of one hundred
days. Although the trip was a tedious
one they were unmolested by the Indians, nor did they experience many of the
trials which fall to the lot of emigrants.
They arrived in Sacramento city, when it was only a camp. Captain George Tyler, conducted the company,
and twenty-nine others composed the party.
Mr. McCauley engaged in mining on
the Yuba River, but was not successful in his ventures there and returned to
Sacramento. Later he went to
Placerville, where he made some money, although none of the miners of that
locality had any wonderful finds. They
were all inexperienced and concluded that the gold of the rivers and creeks
must have been washed down from some great gold bluff from the mountains, and
he and others went over on a “wild goose chase” in search of the supposed gold
bluffs. After many tiresome days of
travel they returned, reporting that they could not find the great gold bluffs
from which they had expected to take the precious metal in large pieces. Subsequently they went to Georgetown. Mr. McCauley loaned his money to Messrs.
Tyler & Parrish, who engaged in taking supplies eastward along the route
over which the emigrants came. This was
an act of benevolence and at the same time a source of profit, for as they
neared their destination many of the emigrants were almost destitute, their
supplies having given out.
Later Captain Tyler and his company
became of owners of the Hardy land grant and Mr. McCauley worked for them,
taking care of cattle on Cache creek. He
was with them two years and then engaged in farming six hundred acres of land
at Cacheville until 1856. In that
venture he made some money by the raising of stock and crops, but lost much of
this, and when his funds were almost exhausted he was elected the assessor of
Yolo County, in which office he served for four years. He then engaged in conducting a hotel in
Clarksville, in El Dorado County, and when three years had passed he came to
Amador County, where, on the Q ranch, he began raising deciduous fruits. In that business he met with good
success. In 1873 he took up his abode in
Ione, where he again conducted a hotel, being the proprietor of the Arcade
Hotel and later the Commercial Hotel, which he conducted until 1892, when he
retired from active business, having in the meantime acquired a handsome
competence that supplied him with all the comforts and many of the luxuries of
life. At one time during his business
career in California he met with a serious loss by fire, which seriously
crippled him financially, but with characteristic energy he began the task of
retrieving his lost possessions and his labors were at length crowned with
success.
In 1868 Mr. McCauley became a member
of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and has since been one of its valued
workers, holding various offices and at the present time serving as the
financial secretary of the lodge at Ione.
He is a man of superior intelligence and has done some literary work in
connection with various journals. He is
a very kind-hearted man, generous almost to a fault, and greatly to his credit
can it be said that while he was born in the south and many of his friends were
in the Confederate army during the Civil War, he was a loyal advocate of the
Union cause, strongly upholding the central government at Washington. At that time he allied his interests with the
Republican Party and has since faithfully worked in its ranks. He served for one term as a justice of the
peace and is at present holding the same position. At one time he was nominated for the state
legislature, but through a division in the party was defeated.
In 1857 Mr. McCauley was united in
marriage to J. E. Winchel, a native of Illinois. She is a member of the Presbyterian Church
and all of the family attend that church and take an active interest in its
work. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. McCauley
has been blessed with five children, and the family circle yet remains unbroken
by the hand of death. Their children are
Florence, now the wife of Dr. A. L. Adams, a prominent physician of Ione;
Calla, the wife of C. M. Wooster, of San Jose; Gladys, at home; Lena, the wife
of J. M. Maddox, of Sacramento; and Erma, who is with her parents. The family is one of prominence in the
community and the members of the household occupy leading positions in social
circles.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 176-178. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Amador County Biographies