Butte County
Biographies
MRS. MELISSA PATRICK SALMON
MRS. MELISSA PATRICK SALMON.--In an
early period of the history of Butte County,
Mrs. Melissa V. Patrick Salmon became identified with the development of that
section lying south from what is now the city of Chico. She was born in Randolph
County, Mo., April 11, 1831, a
daughter of Johnson Wright, a Virginian by birth and a Methodist minister. He
served as an assemblyman in Missouri
and, on one of his trips home from the legislature, arrived leading his horse
which had three rocking-chairs strapped to its back. These were a present to
his wife, as that kind of a chair was a rarity in that section. Mrs. Bee
Compton of Chico has one of those
chairs. Mrs. Patrick Salmon's grandfather, Evans Wright, was born in England
and came to America prior to the
Revolutionary War and settled in Virginia.
Her father married Elizabeth McCullom, a native of Kentucky,
and their union was blessed with four children, of whom Melissa Virginia was
the youngest.
Miss
Wright was educated in the schools of her native state and there she became the
wife of William Garrison Patrick, on August 1, 1850. He was born in Howard
County, Mo., March 9, 1825. They settled down to life on a farm in Randolph
County, where four children were born to them, and lived there until coming to California
in 1858. Upon arriving in this state they came to Butte
County and settled on a quarter section of land
two and one half miles southwest of what is now the city of Chico.
Mr. Patrick proved up on this land, but when his wife inherited a portion
of the Wright property from her brother, Thomas Shelton Wright, he sold out and
settled upon the ranch that afterwards became known as
the Patrick ranch.
This
property was surveyed from a grant in 1853 and negotiations were entered into
between Mr. Wright and General Bidwell for some eleven hundred forty acres,
although the patent to the property came direct from the United States
Government to Mr. Wright and his heirs. Mr. Wright died on December 9, 1863,
and Mr. Patrick was appointed administrator of the estate. The legal
requirements to secure clear title to the land had not been completed at the
time of the death of Mr. Wright, and Mr. Patrick carried the matter along, and
when he died it devolved upon his widow to finish the transaction whereby she
could get title to the property. This she did, with the aid of General Bidwell
(through
long years a friend of Squire
Wright), who gladly assisted her in securing the government patent to the land.
Mr.
and Mrs. Patrick settled down in their new home and farmed very successfully,
and by dint of hard work and good management they began to buy land. In 1866
Mr. Patrick made a trip back to Missouri after stock and
was accompanied by his daughter, Rebecca Jane, whom he left in Missouri
when he was ready to come back to California.
The following year, 1867, Mr. Patrick, his wife and their six children made the
overland trip to Missouri, and it was while en route that their infant daughter, Emma, died and
was buried in Nebraska. After
spending about a year in the East, Mrs. Patrick and her daughters returned to California
via Cape Horn, while Mr. Patrick and his son brought a
band of stock over the plains. In the band were two fine Jacks that he used for
breeding purposes and they did much
to raise the standard of mules in this section of the county. He exhibited them
at the State Fair in Sacramento, in
1868, and one took first prize, a silver cup, which Mrs. Compton now has, and
the other, the second prize. On
the steamer Mrs. Patrick and her
children occupied a stateroom adjoining that of General Bidwell and his bride,
who were just returning to Butte County
after an extended wedding trip. Mr. Patrick died on the ranch on March 9, 1870,
leaving his widow with
six children. She endured many
privations and hardships to rear her children and to conclude the requirements
to secure title to her property, two hundred forty acres, to which she added,
by good management, one hundred eighty-three acres adjoining, two hundred
eighty-four acres lying southeast from the ranch, and one hundred twenty-one
acres near by. She also owned considerable property in Chico.
Of the original property in the Patrick ranch, Mrs. Bee Compton and W. G.
Patrick are now the owners.
Seven
years after the death of Mr. Patrick his widow married Christopher Columbus
Salmon, a native of Tennessee, who came to California
in 1859 and thereafter farmed and raised stock until his death.
Mr.
and Mrs. Patrick had eight children born to them, namely: Mary Evans, who
married Sylvester G. Eastman and resides near Chico;
Rebecca Jane, widow of Jerome Moore and the mother of six children, the four
living being William LeRoy (Lee), Martha Cordelia (Mattie), Francis Burnham, and Eletta
V.; Elizabeth F., who married S. C. Schoonover, and had three children, the two
living being Dorance Mason and William (Mrs.
Schoonover died in 1905; her three children were born in Missouri and were
brought to California by their parents in 1858, coming via water); Thomas
James, the first child born in California, died April 1, 1918, the father of
three children, the two living being George Grover and Frances Folsom; Bee, who
married Adam Compton and resides near the old home place; William Garrison,
living on the old home ranch with his wife and their three living children,
Melissa Bee, William Garrison, Jr., and Anna Marie; Ethel, a son born in
Missouri, and Emma, a daughter born in California, both died in infancy.
Mrs.
Patrick was a splendid representative of those fearless and courageous women
who endured the trials and discomforts of frontier life, to whom
the present generation is greatly indebted for their aid in establishing and
promoting everything that made for improved conditions, educationally, socially
and religiously. After a residence in California
covering a period of forty years, Mrs. Melissa V. (Patrick) Salmon passed on to her reward on December 1, 1898, thus closing a life filled with
kindly deeds.
Transcribed by Sande Beach.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 491-493, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2007 Sande Beach.
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