El
Dorado County
Biographies
CHARLES MAYHEW
Charles Mayhew, one of the veteran
ranchers of El Dorado County, known as one of this community’s most highly
respected citizens and substantial businessmen, was born on a farm in Iowa,
January 7, 1867, and from young manhood has had to make his own way in the
world, his education having been mainly received in the stern school of
experience. He first came to California
in 1887, but returned east, where he remained until 1900, when he again came to
the coast and established his permanent home.
He is now the owner of a well improved and productive ranch near
Clarksville, and in its cultivation has met with very gratifying success, due
to his tireless energy, sound judgment and good management.
Mr. Mayhew was united in marriage to
Mrs. Julia Carsten, to which union was born a son, Fred, who is assisting in
the operations of the home ranch. By a
previous marriage Mrs. Mayhew is the mother of three children, Tilda, the wife
of E. J. Walker, Henry and Ernest. She
is a daughter of Henry Schneider, who was born in Zurich, Switzerland, and on
his emigration to this country settled in St. Louis, Missouri, where he
followed the butchering business. Later
he went to Kansas City, Missouri, and opened one of the first meat markets
there. In 1855 he became a butcher for
the United States government on the plains, spending two years on the frontier. He was in Utah at the time of the Mountain
Meadow massacre, was taken prisoner and was compelled to assist in burying the
dead. Finally he escaped, but endured
great hardships before he reached friends.
In the fall of 1857 he located in Placerville, California, and engaged
in butchering, but later went to Downieville and Diamond Spring, where he was
in the same line of business. He
afterward bought a farm in Pleasant Valley, where he engaged in agricultural
pursuits to the time of his death, which occurred in 1914. In Pleasant Valley he married Miss Louisa
Smidth, of New York.
Mr. and Mrs. Mayhew are popular and
have a large circle of warm and loyal friends.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 3, Pages 287-288. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden
Nugget Library's El Dorado County Biographies