Butte County
Biographies
JAMES K. P. MACHAMER
JAMES K. P. MACHAMER.--An old-timer with stimulating war memories, who looks back upon stormy days in early California and loves to recall the past while in the circle of his many friends, is James K. P. Machamer, who was born in Freeport, Stephenson County, Ill., on July 10, 1849, the son of James Machamer, a native of Union County, Pa. His grandfather, of Scotch descent, was a machinist who served in the Revolutionary War. John Machamer early removed to Illinois and settled there as a farmer, taking up government land a mile and a half outside Freeport. At that time the nearest market was Chicago, and it took three weeks to haul grain and hogs from the farm to the market. After the hard life of such a pioneer farmer, John Machamer died, bequeathing to his children the record of years of useful activity as a citizen and a neighbor. His wife, who had been Christina Wittamoyer, was a native of Pennsylvania, and became the mother of two girls and four boys, of whom only two boys are still living. The eldest brother, Samuel, was in the Civil War, serving some time in the Forty-fifth Illinois Regiment of Volunteer Infantry, and then reenlisting and going through the war in the Seventh Illinois Cavalry.
The second youngest of these children, James Machamer, was brought up in Freeport and there attended the public school. In the spring of 1862 he joined a special regiment organized in Stephenson, McDonough and Henry Counties, Ill, and composing the Seventh Cavalry, and being only thirteen and a half years old he enlisted without his father’s consent. He was mustered in at Dixon, in February, 1862, in Company L, of the Seventh Illinois Cavalry, a regiment that furnished its own horses. After assembling at Camp Douglas, Springfield, he was sent with his regiment to join the Army of the Cumberland. He saw active service at Decatur, Nashville and Franklin, and at Nashville was wounded by a bayonet on the right knee-cap at the same time that he was unhorsed. After being in the hospital he returned to his regiment, and later he had three horses shot under him. Bullets also pierced his hat and clothes. He was mustered out in November, 1865, at Springfield, Ill., and was given an honorable discharge.
Taking up civil life again, Mr. Machamer studied for about a year in the Night Business College at Freeport, and then entered a clothing store and clerked until he came to San Francisco, on April 15, 1868. He came by railway to Ogden and staged it to Sacramento, and in San Francisco found employment in a cutlery store run by Mr. Price, on Kearney Street. His next move was to enter the Lane Hospital, from which he graduated as a trained nurse, and he also learned the undertaking business. For seven and a half years he was in the employ of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company as freight clerk, making thirty-eight round trips between San Francisco, China and Japan on the one steamship Pekin. Then he resigned and entered the employ of the Oceanic Steamship Company in the same capacity, and made thirty-six round trips to Melbourne and Sydney on the Mariposa. He also made three round trips to the South Sea Islands, on one of which he was caught in a typhoon; and it was then that he vowed that if he got out alive he would never go to sea again. On his return to San Francisco, therefore, he resigned, and traveled throughout the United States, finally returning to San Francisco.
In 1902, he came to Chico and entered the employ of the Bidwell fruit ranch, and the following year came over to Oroville to engage in placer-mining in the employ of Major McLaughlin. Later, he was in the undertaking business, and became an embalmer with A. B. Reynolds, then Reynolds and Hamilton, now Hamilton and Riley, and with this well-known establishment he continued until May, 1918, when he retired.
Mr.
Machamer is a loyal Republican, of value to his
party, and a popular member of W. T. Sherman Post, No. 96, G.A.R. at Oroville,
where he has been the Q. M. Major for some years.
Transcribed by Vicky
Walker, 3/11/08.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 804-807, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Vicky
Walker.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies