Biographies
EUGENE ARAM
EUGENE
ARAM..--Decidedly among the most interesting residents
of the capital city is Eugene Aram, a native son, who
was born at Monterey on January 26, 1848, two days after Marshall made his
memorable discovery of gold, and within a month of the signing of the treaty of
peace between the United States and Mexico.
He was the grandson of Matthias Aram, who came
to New York from Yorkshire, England, and during the War of 1812 was a
drillmaster of the United States troops.
His son, Joseph Aram, father of Eugene, was
born in the State of New York, and formed a party that crossed the great plains to California in 1846. Having arrived while the Americans and the
Mexicans were still at war, he might have found himself in serious difficulty
had not Fremont sent a detachment of soldiers to meet him and his party in the
foothills, and to give them safe convoy against any possible attack by roving
native Californians.
Sutter's Fort was the scene of the party's
first camp, and then they pushed on as far as Santa Clara, still accompanied by
Fremont's soldiers, at which place Fremont placed Joseph Aram,
who had been chosen captain by his company of emigrants and commissioned by
Fremont, in charge of the fort; and there he remained until the close of the
war. He saw most active service in the
Battle of Santa Clara, and he later superintended building the old fort at
Monterey. He was elected to the first
constitutional convention of the state, and he was also chosen by vote a member
of the first legislature. Later, at San
Jose, he was the pioneer nurseryman; and he continued to raise fruit, for which
he had a wide and enviable reputation, until the last days of his life. In 1898 he rounded out his long and useful
career, breathing his last when he had been privileged to attain four score and
eight years. Sarah M. (Wright) Aram, who died in 1872, and was the mother of Eugene Aram, also deserves honorable mention among the California
pioneers. Descended from early English
stock in this country, her first American ancestor was one of three brothers,
and one of them numbered among his descendants a governor of New York. She first saw light in Vermont; and when her
husband proposed to hazard a journey across the prairies, she acquiesced and accompanied
him. She was a very observant woman, and
discovered gold on the south fork of the Yuba River in October, 1846, over
fourteen months before Marshall was amazed at the gold he found in 1848.
Eugene Aram---who,
by the way, had a sister in Los Angeles, the late Mrs. Sarah M. Cool---received
his first educational training in the public schools of San Jose, and in 1870
graduated from the University of the Pacific with the Bachelor of Arts degree. Then he studied law with Judge D.S. Payne,
Superior Judge for Santa Clara County, and in 1873 was admitted to practice in
the courts of California; and thereafter for some years he maintained a busy
office in San Jose. In the early
eighties he migrated to Arizona, and in 1885 he was a member of the legislature
of that territory. Returning to
California, he located at Woodland, in Yolo County, and there took up
law-practice again; and from 1895 through 1897, he served as a senator
representing the sixth senatorial district, Yuba, Sutter and Yolo, and doing
excellent work as a lawmaker.
Mr. Aram,
together with the late A.L. Hart, established a firm for the practice of law in
Sacramento; and for a short time, also, he and Archibald Yell were
partners. He has been a consistent
Republican, with a broad and sane partisanship; but he is first, last and
always an American, and during his senatorial term he was entrusted with the
appropriation of $300,000 for the Sacramento River improvement---the first
appropriation ever made for this purpose through which actual work was
accomplished.
In 1875, at San Jose, Mr. Aram was married to Miss Lizzie Jasper, a gifted and
charming daughter of J.M.C. Jasper, a prominent citizen of Wheatland, Yuba
County. An excellent woman, she breathed
her last in 1892, passing altogether too early from this life to the Great
Beyond. Mr. Aram
belongs to the Elks, in which organization he enjoys an enviable popularity.
Transcribed by Suzanne Wood.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With
Biographical Sketches, Page 368-371. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA.
1923.
© 2007 Suzanne Wood.