Calaveras
County
Biographies
THOMAS G. PEACHEY
The subject of the present sketch is
one of the highly respected old settlers of California, having arrived in the
state on the 26th of June, 1851.
He was born in the City of London, England, on the 9th of
June, 1828, and is of English and Huguenot ancestry. His father, Thomas Bell Peachey, was a native
of England, born in Greenwich, and followed the occupation of sailor, being
present at the siege of Copenhagen, where he received a wound on the shin from
the bursting of a shell. He served seven
years in the British navy, following the same life for the next fifteen years
before the mast, after which time he engaged in business as a painter; but in
1843, he came to America. He remained in
New York City, where his line of work was so superior that he soon was engaged
as the superintendent of the paint shops where the vessels belonging to Commodore
Vanderbilt received their coasts of paint.
Eight years earlier he resolved to try the gold fields and took the trip
to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama.
Our subject and his three sisters
had come from England with their father and our subject accompanied him to
California; the following year his brother Henry came and in 1857 his mother,
followed by his sister, Lucy Jane, who is now Mrs. Lewis, a widow, living at
San Andreas. The maiden name of this
Spartan mother who had crossed sea and land to join her loved ones had been
Mary Ann Garard.
She had married Thomas Bell Peachey December 22, 1816. After joining her husband they resided on
Little Johnnie Creek; but Mr. Peachey did not make a marked success of mining,
although he visited several localities.
He died October 15, 1884, age eighty-three years; his wife having
preceded him two years before, at the age of eighty-two. They had lived lives of honest industry and
died with the respect of those who had known them in life.
Until his fourteenth year Thomas G.
Peachey attended school in London, England, and in his fifteenth year
accompanied his parent to the United States.
He learned his father’s trade and was with him in all of his mining
experiences, a strong affection binding them together. When the Republican Party was formed Mr.
Peachey took a strong interest in its principles and became well known
throughout his section as an able and progressive man. He was made superintendent of schools for his
county in 1880, serving in that capacity for three years under the new constitution
of the state. He was a member of the
board of education and taught school in the county for twenty-three years,
taking a deep and earnest interest in the education of the youth. Many of the best educated men of the country,
who were then of the rising generation, were his pupils and gladly and
thankfully testify to his faithful efforts on their behalf. In 1891 his fellow citizens honored him by
securing his appointment as postmaster of his town under the administration of
President Harrison, which position he filled in the most satisfactory manner. In the same year he was appointed notary
public, and has since done much work in that office.
Mr. Peachey was married, August 3,
1870, to Miss Charlotte C. Fletcher, but on March 7, 1872, the young wife
passed away, an infant of a year also dying June 9, thus doubly bereaving
him. Eight years later, January 3, 1880,
he was united in marriage to Miss Jane Drucella
Price, and two little daughters have been added to the family, Lucetta Maybel and Bertha May. They are left to comfort their father, as
Mrs. Peachey died April 2, 1885. He
considers that he has been particularly blessed in having had the companionship
of two as lovely characters as were both of his wives.
One of the most admired cottages in
the village of Altaville, adjoining Angel’s Camp, was
bought by Mr. Peachey, where he has a small farm of four acres, a small space
of garden land and a valuable quartz mine.
Mr. Peachey conducts also a cigar store and is the only wholesale dealer
in the newspaper business in Angel’s Camp.
His long residence in California has made him familiar with many legal
points and his advice is much sought by litigants.
Socially he is a member of the I. O.
O. F. organization and has been so for thirty-five years, a veteran of the
order. His classical knowledge and
literary attainments make him a reliable authority on many points. He has the merited reputation of being one of
California’s honorable and respected pioneers.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 290-291. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Calaveras County Biographies