Butte County
Biographies
JOHN HENRY HOAD
JOHN HENRY HOAD.--One of the Argonauts
and a forty-niner, John Henry Hoad was born in
London, England, a son of John Henry Hoad, a
wagon-maker by trade, whose progenitors were wagon-makers for generations, with
a shop at Portsmouth, which has been handed down from one generation to another
for over one hundred thirteen
years. This historic establishment
is still in the family, and is now used for the manufacture of automobiles. The
wife of John Henry Hoad, Sr., died in England,
after which he came to America and
stopped for a time in Chicago. He
liked the country and its people so well that he returned to his native country
for his only son, John Henry, Jr., and in Chicago
the two were engaged in the manufacture of wagons, with a shop in the growing
metropolis. One day a man came into their place with a newspaper which told of
the discovery of gold in California
and inside of twenty-four hours the Hoads had raised
a company of twenty-one men, and, after outfitting for the trip across the
plains, they started on their long overland journey with ox teams and wagons,
arriving during
1849. The elder Hoad kept a diary
of the incidents of their journey, and it is one of the interesting
heirlooms possessed by the family.
After
their arrival in California, the Hoads located in Marysville, where they engaged in the
general merchandise business and also began freighting to the mines with a pack
train. Some time later both father and son located on what is still known as Hoads' Ranch, at Merrimac, Butte County, where they made
the necessary improvements, built and conducted a hotel, prospected and mined,
and did farming and raised some stock. Their mining operations were stopped
when the laws were passed compelling the hydraulic operations to cease, but
they continued drift-mining for a time. The elder Hoad
died at the age of eighty-five years.
John
Henry Hoad, Jr., was married, in Nevada
County, to Mary Mallory, a native of New
York State, who came with her
brothers and sister to California, in 1862, around Cape
Horn. While out some distance from New York,
the vessel on which they were passengers was captured by the Alabama
and held for three days. After their marriage the Hoads
settled on the ranch founded by the father and son, and that continued to be
their home for years, and after the death of the father, the son became sole
owner, and farmed and raised stock until he, too,
passed to the great beyond at the age of sixty-seven. His widow died six years
later, at the same age. They had three children: John Henry, who resides in Bangor;
Mary A., Mrs. Rutherford of the Rutherford Ranch southwest of Gridley; and
Edward William, of Gridley. Mr. Hoad was a prominent
and well-known man, an energetic and ambitious citizen. He made a success his
ventures in Butte County
and left to his descendants an untarnished name as an
heritage more valued than riches.
Transcribed by Sande Beach.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 472-475, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2007 Sande Beach.
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