El
Dorado County
Biographies
JAMES AKINS
One of the most prominent of the
California pioneers of the early mining days in north California was the late
James Akins, and although he has been dead for many years, no history of the
romantic era of the days of gold-panning could be written without mention of
his career. He made a success in life,
and was a man respected and honored by his associates and by all of whom he
came in contact. James Akins was born at
Rochester, New York, and while he was yet in his infancy his parents took him
to Branford, Canada. There he was reared
and attended school, after which he was apprenticed to the wheelwright trade
for a period. While yet a young man, he
came to California, going to Diamond Springs to join a brother-in-law, Peter
Schiff, and to work for him in his carriage shop, doing the woodwork on the
vehicles there manufactured. He
continued in the carriage manufacturing business, and was subsequently in the
employ of the Pioneer Carriage Company, which had shops in various places. While thus engaged, Mr. Akins constructed the
first funeral hearse built and used in the Sacramento Valley. The Pioneer Company operated stage lines from
Sacramento, California, to Reno, Nevada, and for the purpose of building stages
for the company, Mr. Akins went to Virginia City. He eventually returned to Placerville, and
here passed away in September, 1868.
In 1866 James Akins was married to
Miss Franceska Wax, who family came to California prior to the arrival of the
Akins family in this state. Her parents
were natives of Germany and left the Fatherland in 1847 with the port of New
Orleans as their destination. Korbenia Wax, the father of Franceska Wax, was a tailor by
trade, and also an accomplished musician, having organized and played in
various bands. On April 18, 1852, in
company with an aunt, Paulina Wax, who married Peter Schiff, he joined a large
covered-wagon outfit at Des Moines, and crossed the plains by way of Carson
City and Summit to Placerville. En route
they took as passengers two men, with the result that provisions became
dangerously short, and much suffering was thereby entailed in the party. After arriving in Placerville, the Wax party
encamped on the site of the old high school, and there Miss Franceska Wax first
saw raw gold in the creek as she was drawing water. Here also they met General John Sutter, who
persuaded them to locate at Diamond Springs, where they built the first house. The Wax family remained at Diamond Springs
until 1855, when they moved to Missouri Flats, El Dorado County, and there
homesteaded three hundred and sixty acres of land. The father of the family died here in 1858
but was survived by his wife, the mother of Franceska Wax until 1890. Mr. and Mrs. Korbenia
Wax were the parents of three children, two daughters and a son, namely: Franceska, Joseph and Louise. An uncle, William Wax, was born on April 5,
1858, and is a California pioneer now residing at Columbia, in the vicinity of
Sonora.
The widow of James Akins was married
a second time when she became the wife of Michael O’Keefe, who had come to
Placerville, California, in 1855. He
built and owned the toll road known as the Turnpike Grade from El Dorado to
Placerville. After the toll road was
taken over by the county, Mr. O’Keefe established himself in the furniture and
undertaking business in 1878, and for many years he had the only funeral hearse
in this section of the state. He died
November 12, 1905, and the estate was left to Mrs. O’Keefe’s children,
namely: Margaret L. Akins, Francis J.
O’Keefe and Kreseencia O’Keefe. The last
named died in 1909, and the brother, Francis J. O’Keefe, passed away in
November, 1926.
The furniture and undertaking
business established in Placerville by Michael O’Keefe is now being ably
conducted by Miss Margaret L. Akins, who gained thorough experience therein as
an assistant of her stepfather and has always been a close student of her
work. She is a licensed embalmer and
funeral director and also carries an excellent stock of up-to-date
merchandise. Miss Akins is an
enthusiastic collector of Indian baskets and antiques, which diversion she
acquired from her mother, who was a well known friend and patron of the Indians
in this vicinity. The basis of Miss
Akins’ superb collection of Indian artifacts is the group of baskets gathered
by her mother among the Red men of El Dorado County. Miss Akins gives her political support to the
Democratic Party, and is very active in club and social work. She is a member of the Episcopal Church at
Placerville, the Order of the Eastern Star, and Native Daughters of the Golden
West, and the Rebekahs.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 3, Pages 386-390. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden
Nugget Library's El Dorado County Biographies