Placer
County
Biographies
MARTIN ANDREW SCHELLHOUS, SR.
From
the early period of the pioneer development in California until the time of his
death, Martin Andrew Schellhous was a highly esteemed resident of California,
his last days being spent near Roseville.
He was born in Ohio in July, 1819, of German lineage. His paternal grandfather came from Germany to
America about 1756, and served as a soldier during the Revolutionary War; he
was with Washington at Valley Forge and was wounded in two battles. The maternal grandparents, named Anderson,
were Scotch people who emigrated from Vermont to Huron County, Ohio, in
1812. The father of our subject, Martin
Green, Schellhous, was born in Vermont in 1790, became a resident of Ohio in
1808; and in 1812, he commanded a brigade under General Harrison in the War of
1812. After the war he settled in Huron
County, Ohio, where he engaged in farming.
In 1832 he removed with his family to Michigan, which was then a
territory, and in1835 he was elected a delegate to the convention which framed
the first constitution of the State; afterward he was a member of the
legislature for a number of years. He
passed away on his farm in Michigan on the fifty-ninth anniversary of his
birth, January 1, 1849.
Martin
Andrew Schellhous, our subject and the eldest son of the family, pursued his
education in the district schools, at intervals, until he was eighteen years of
age, and was then sent to the State University at Ann Arbor, where he remained
for several years, pursuing the higher branches of learning. He remained in Michigan until March, 1849,
when he started across the plains to California. Several had seen the evidences of gold, and the
news of the rich finds had reached the east.
Many young men came to the Pacific Coast with the hope of rapidly
acquiring a fortune and among the number of Martin Andrew Schellhous. He traveled with a company of friends and
neighbors, the journey being made across the plains with ox teams. They did not reach Salt Lake City until
August, and there exchanged their outfit for pack horses, as it was too late in
the season to cross the mountains with ox-teams. When they had proceeded
about 200 miles their company was fired upon by a band of 400 Indians; this was
about one o’clock in the afternoon. The
emigrants returned the fire and the battle lasted until night. The Indians killed two of their company,
stampeded all of their horses and carried away their provisions and blankets;
with the aid of some Mormons who were on their way from California to Salt Lake
City, Mr. Schellhous and other members of the company returned to that place,
where they obtained some mules and provisions, and in November, 1849, they
again started for the Golden State via the southern route through the desert,
reaching Los Angeles in February, 1850, after a long and tedious journey. In the southern city they chartered a small
sailing vessel and proceeded to San Francisco, where
they arrived in April; then taking another vessel up the Sacramento River, they
finally reached the mines. Mr.
Schellhous and his brother engaged in placer mining and soon took out between
five and six thousand dollars in gold.
In the fall of 1851, Mr. Schellhous returned to Michigan with the
intention of returning to California the next season.
In
March, 1852, Mr. Schellhous was united in marriage with Miss Caroline Ferris,
and with his young wife and some members of his own family he again started
across the plains. This time the party
suffered from the cholera and experienced many other hardships and trials. The
disease caused the death of one of his sisters and a child; the former had
partly recovered, but in her enfeebled condition was stricken with the mountain
fever which terminated her life and she was laid to rest at Diamond Springs,
California. Mr. Schellhous brought with
him a number of cows and turned his attention to farming, stockraising and
fruit culture. He purchased a ranch of
240 acres, two and one half miles from the present site of Roseville, improved
and developed his property, making it a rich and highly cultivated tract. So successful was he in his operations that
before his death he had accumulated 400 acres of land. He was also successful in stockraising. For a number of years he held the office of
justice of the peace in Placer County.
He was a man of good education, of marked ability and force of
character, and his influence for good in the community was a potent element in
its advancement. Unto Mr. and Mrs.
Schellhous were born eleven children, ten of whom lived to reach manhood and
womanhood: Helen married Fred Bisco, a conductor for the Southern Pacific Railroad
Company, who died leaving his widow in Rocklin, later she removed to Roseville,
where she passed away on May 8, 1923, leaving two children: Mrs. Mabel Scott, of Stockton, and Mrs. Amy
Van Vleit, of Sacramento; George C. (married Luna
Kingsley, who died in June, 1889) and Martin A., ranchers near Roseville, are
represented elsewhere in this history; Carrie, single, who with her brother
Loren F., also single, resides upon the old home place, of which they own and
operate 200 acres; John M., a rancher and fruit grower on Dry Creek, is also
represented in this work; Stella, residing in Roseville, married William Sawtelle, a leading merchant of Roseville, who died leaving
two children, Carl and Gladys, the latter now the wife of Berkeley Anderson;
Edwin J. is a rancher and fruit grower on Dry Creek, where he owns 160 acres of
land, 100 acres of which was a part of the old homestead. He is a director in the Roseville Banking
Company. Annie, who owns 100 acres of
the old home place, is the wife of James Haines, fruit grower at Modesto,
California. Earl, who married Miss Pearl
Lewis, born in Iowa, and the mother of his four children, Bessie, Lyle,
Dorothy, and Marvin, was formerly a rural mail carrier, but is now a farmer
residing on his fifty-four-acre ranch on Dry Creek. Mrs. Schellhous survived her husband, who
passed away in September, 1873, at the age of fifty-four years, until 1906,
when she too passed to the Great Beyond honored and respected by all who knew
her. In the death of Martin Andrew
Schellhous the community mourned the loss of one of its most valued citizens;
he left to his family, not only a comfortable competence, but an honored name,
for his was ever an upright career in which fidelity to duty and
trustworthiness were among his characteristics.
He enjoyed the confidence of his fellow-men in an unusual degree and his
life is well worthy of emulation.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“History of Placer & Nevada Counties,
California”, by W. B. Lardner & M. J. Brock. Pages 464-467.
Historic Record Co., Los Angeles 1924.
© 2013
V. Gerald Iaquinta.