Placer
County
Biographies
ABRAHAM BRISTOL
As a representative of a class of
pioneers who have been the builders of a great commonwealth we present Captain
Abraham Bristol, of Lincoln. He has the
honor of being numbered among the California pioneers of 1849, his memory
serving as a link between the primitive past with its mining camps and the
progressive present with its thriving towns and cities having all of the
improvements and accessories known to the older civilization of the east. The Captain was born in St. Lawrence County,
New York, on the 27th of June, 1824.
On crossing the Atlantic his ancestors, natives of England, located in
the Empire state. His father, Levi S.
Bristol, married Miss Olive Day. They
were both natives of St. Lawrence County and removed to Oswego, New York, where
the father engaged in taking and executing contracts on city works. In 1839 he removed west to Chicago, finding
there a small town which had been incorporated only two years previous. From that point he made his way into the
country, securing a tract of government land in Du Page County and transforming
it into richly cultivated fields. There
he resided until his death, which occurred in the sixty-fifth year of his age,
his wife surviving him for four years.
On their removal to Illinois they were accompanied by their five
daughters and two sons.
Through the summer months Captain
Bristol, during his boyhood, might have been found in his father’s fields,
assisting in the work of plowing, planting and harvesting. In the winter season he attended the public
schools of the neighborhood. On
beginning to earn his own livelihood he worked as a farm hand, being thus
employed until 1849, when lured by the discovery of gold in California he
crossed the plains with a company of young men from Will and Du Page
counties. They started with thirteen
wagons drawn by oxen and took with them provisions for a year. They made a safe and successful, though
tedious journey, being for one hundred and twelve days upon the way. They came by way of Carson Valley to
Placerville, which was then known by the less romantic but more suggestive name
of Hangtown. Captain Bristol began
mining in the gulches and obtained plenty of gold. On one occasion he secured a nugget worth one
hundred dollars. His company, consisting
of five members, secured an average yield of gold to the value of twenty
dollars each day. In 1853 he returned to
his home in the east, by way of the Isthmus, for his brother had died in the
meantime and he felt that it was his duty to be near his parents and care for
them in their declining years. After
remaining at home for about two years he engaged in steam boating on the
Mississippi River in the employ of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad
Company, and had command of a vessel for many years. In that way he earned his title of captain.
While in Illinois he was married to
Miss Carrie Hugnin, and two children were born to
them in that state: Herbert, who is now
operating a gold dredge at Calaveras River, and a daughter. In 1875 Mr. Bristol returned to California,
where two years later, he was joined by his son. In 1883 he sent for his wife and daughter,
but the daughter’s health was poor and they remained in the east, where both died.
Captain Bristol has been in the
employ of the Pottery Company since the establishment of its works at Lincoln,
and for fourteen years acted in the capacity of stationary engineer and he is
still one of the trusted and valued employees of the firm. As one of the brave California pioneers who
crossed the plains in 1849 he certainly deserves representation in this
volume. He engaged in hauling lumber for
the Marshall saw-mill from Coloma to Hangtown.
The lumber sold for four hundred dollars a thousand feet and was
manufactured into gold washers, at a cost of sixty-five dollars each. People who now reside in California can form
little conception of what the roads were in that day, making teaming very
difficult. Everything else was in a primitive
condition. Mining camps, consisting
mostly of tents or rude shanties, were scattered over the state, but there were
no churches or schools, commercial or industrial enterprises of any importance
and the miners who came from the east in search of gold laid the foundations of
a commonwealth that is now second to none in the Union, and is recognized as a
leader in many branches of industrial activity.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 781-783. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.