Calaveras
County
Biographies
HIRAM A. MESSENGER
The family of Messenger, of which
Hiram Ashley Messenger of Gwinmine, Calaveras County, California, is a
representative, is descended from English ancestors who came to America before
the Revolutionary War; and Mr. Messenger’s grandfather, Cyrus Messenger, was a
colonel in the colonial army. Mr.
Messenger’s father, also named Cyrus, was born in Berkshire County,
Massachusetts, and married Hannah Case, a native of Canton, Connecticut, and a
member of an old and honorable New England family. He was a farmer and a member of the state
militia and a reliable and worthy citizen, who lived to the age of
seventy-eight years, his wife dying at sixty-seven. They had nine children, of whom only three
now live and of whom Hiram Ashley Messenger is the only one in California. One of his brothers fought for the
preservation of the Union in 1861 – 65.
Hiram Ashley Messenger was born at
Peru, Berkshire County Massachusetts, July 27, 1832, and was educated in the
public schools of his native county. In
1852, when in his twentieth year, he started overland for California with a
company from Michigan, paying seventy-five dollars for his board and other
privileges; but when he arrived at Green River he exchanged his chance to come
with that party to California for an opportunity to go to Oregon with another
party, with whom he traveled only a week, however, when he obtained a job of
driving an ox-team, hauling freight between St. Joseph and Salt Lake, Utah.
He came on to California and from
Lathrop packed his blankets to Stockton.
The next day after he arrived at Stockton he went to Latimer’s, now
North Branch post office, and from there to Mokelumne Hill, then a big mining
camp with a permanent gallows on which undesirable citizens were hanged from
time to time! He worked for a time for
the “water company” and during the succeeding winter he mined with some
success. He entered the employ of the
water company in the following spring and next winter “tended ditch” near Cape
Horn. In the spring following he worked
for Andrews and Cadwaller “driving” lumber for the completion of the flume then
under construction to Mokelumne Hill.
Then for two years he sold lumber in the Mokelumne lumber yards and
afterward was employed on the Chili Hill ditch at Campo Seco, and then he sold
water for the water company until 1857, when he was employed on the Calaveras
ditch at Murphy’s under “Cap.” Hanford.
Later he mined on his own account at Campo Seco, at Oregon Gulch and at
Lancha Plana, where he was successful enough to take about forty dollars a
week. Later he mined at Jenny Lind,
Whisky Hill and South Gulch, where he went with a family named Copeland. In 1861 he discovered copper mines and did
the first copper mining in that locality.
In 1864 he sold out his interest, for five thousand dollars, and raised
a company, at his own expense, and spent a year fighting Indians in Arizona,
his command having been duly mustered into the United States service and
mustered out the last of June, 1866, at the Presidio at San Francisco. He rendered the government good service, for
which he was paid in greenbacks that netted him forty cents on the dollar when
he exchanged them for provisions.
Returning to Campo Seco he associated himself with W. C. Whetstone and
bought the Cosgrove ranch, consisting of one thousand acres, and began raising
hay and grain. In 1884 when the railroad
was built, he sold a part of his interest, but still retains a fine tract two
and a half miles from Valley Springs, where he has a good orange grove and
raises many olives, the place being under the management of his son-in-law.
In 1894 Mr. Messenger removed from
his ranch to Gwinmine, where he conducts an extensive boarding house and fills
the office of postmaster. Politically he
has been a lifelong Democrat, but enough has been said of his record during the
war to establish the fact that he was a staunch Union man. From the office of lieutenant in the home
guard he was advanced to that of captain in the United States service, and he
won the title worthily and bears it honorably.
He was made a Master Mason in 1862 and is thoroughly posted in the work
of the order, and has for many years been the master of Campo Seco Lodge, No.
100, F. & A. M. His sons are also
Masons, and Mrs. Messenger and two of their daughters are members of the Order
of the Eastern Star. He has been an Odd
Fellow for twenty years, was active and prominent in establishing the order at
Mokelumne Hill and has passed the chairs in both branches. In 1879 and 1880, just after the adoption of
the new state constitution, he was a member of the California legislature and
has always done everything in his power to advance the interests in his state
and county. A friend of agriculture and
horticulture, he has been a director of the San Joaquin County Fair Association
and in the organization promoting fairs in Amador County. With Senator Voorhees and Mr. Downes he is a
stockholder in the Lincoln mine.
In 1859 Captain Messenger married
Harriet L. Wilkins, a native of Nashua, New Hampshire, who came to California
in 1854, and they have had five children.
Their son, Nelson C., is married and lives at Angel’s Camp. Their daughter Mary Frances married Edward
Maher and lives at Campo Seco. Maud W.
married William Putnam, who has the management of her father’s ranch. Hiram H., a man of a family, is a worthy
citizen of Gwinmine. Harriet Marion is a
student at the state normal school. Mr.
and Mrs. Messenger and their family are well known and respected, and to the
Captain and his good wife is accorded the especial
honor due to California pioneers.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 358-360. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Calaveras County Biographies