HARVEY ALVORD

Harvey Alvord, a representative farmer of Lee Township, was born in September, 1816, in Syracuse, New York, being a son of Ashael and Eva Regine (Mang) Alvord. The Alvords are American for more that one hundred years, the ancestry being Welsh. Miss Mang was a German by birth. The grandfather Alvord, and one son, fought in the Revolutionary War. Ashael Alvord was a farmer, and his son, Harvey, having received the usual district-school education of sixty years ago, afterward helped on his own account, and in 1845 removed to Missouri, where he bought a farm in Caldwell County. In 1849 he sold out and came to California, first going to mining in Placer County, where his father, who had accompanied him, died soon after their arrival, in November, 1849, aged about sixty-five. Mr. Alvord worked at mining some seven or eight months, and in the spring of 1850 went to ranching on Coats’ ranch, and ferrying across the Cosumnes. He carried on the ferry business for about three years, and farming until 1857, having become owner in 1852. In 1858 he sold out and went East, but in 1860 moved West again, settling in Nevada, Colorado, where he again followed mining until 1863. He then went to Montana, where he engaged in building and running quartz mills, having learned the business while in Colorado. He remained in Montana about eighteen years; and in 1882 moved into Wyoming. His health breaking, he returned to the Cosumnes in 1884, and bought a small portion of the old Daylor ranch from the Grimshaw estate, containing only about twenty acres, but with an excellent house upon it, where he is tranquilly spending his declining years. In 1844 he was married to Miss Mary A. Alger, a daughter of Elijah and Penelope (Rector) Alger, of Syracuse, New York. The father was a salt manufacturer, and lived to the age of seventy-two. The mother is still alive, is eighty years of age, and makes her home with Mrs. Alvord. The Algers are American for some generations. Mr. and Mrs. Alvord are the parents of two daughters: Mary Penelope, born in New York State, now Mrs. Orlando North, whose husband owns and superintends large stock-ranches in Nevada and Wyoming; and Frances Lulu, born on the Cosumnes, now Mrs. Lewis C. Rockwell, whose husband is a lawyer in Denver, Colorado. Mrs. Rockwell has seven living children: Harvey E., born in 1873: Clinton Alvord, in 1877; Lewis Orlando, in 1878; Mary Frances, in 1881; Emerson Everett, in 1883; Annie Lulu, born November 20, 1884 in Denver Colorado; and Paul Nellis, in 1887. During the absence of Mr. Alvord in Montana, Mrs. Alvord conducted the Alvord House at Idaho Springs, two and one-half years; at Golden City about eighteen months, and from 1876 to 1879 in Denver. When the Windsor was put up in that city in 1879 she felt that it would overshadow the Alvord, and not only being willing to run a second-class hotel she sold out and retired from the business. She was married when quite young, and is still hale, hearty and cheerful.

Transcribed by Karen Pratt.

Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 486-487. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.

Sacramento County Biographies