JOHN B. CALIO

Sacramento County

Biographies

JOHN B. CALIO

JOHN B. CALIO, farmer of Sutter Township, was born January 24, 1808, in Missouri, and was a son of Anthony and Felicia Calio, natives of Randolph County, Illinois. The grandparents of John B., were of French ancestry, and were among the first settlers of Illinois. All the earliest settlers of Illinois, specially in this section, were French. Anthony Calio was brought up in Illinois, upon a farm. Arriving at the years of majority, he married and moved into Missouri, at the head of St. Francis River. His nearest neighbor was forty miles distant, and he and his family subsisted mostly on wild game. At the end of about fourteen years they returned to his father’s place, taking charge of the same, during the days when the farmers raised their own sheep, flax and cotton, and made their own clothes. He remained there until his death in 1814; his wife survived until 1852. After his death, John B., remained with his mother until he was twelve years of age, when she again married, this time a man named Plassette, a Frenchman. Then he went to live with an elder sister, and was there four years, when he struck out into the wide world for himself, going first to Galena, Illinois, where he went on board a keel-boat on the Fevre River, at $15 a month, but made only two trips. In 1829 he started for the Rocky Mountains, for the old American Fur Company, and operated among the Pawnee, Cheyenne, Mandan, Crow and Arapahoe Indians. He became an excellent “shot” with the rifle. Was two years in the Black Hills country, and three years in the mountains. He built the first log house in Keokuk, Iowa, for Captain Culdver. It was 15 x 18 feet in dimensions. There were no inhabitants there at that time excepting Indians. Returning home in 1834, he married, and the very next day entered forty acres of land, erecting at once a log house. Both himself and his wife went to work with determination, and in a year or so were in comfortable circumstances. After a residence there until 1850, he rented the farm and started with his family to California overland. Ninety days brought them from St. Louis to Sacramento, with every animal they started with! The next day he went to the mines, and the first day he worked he netted $60. His first claim was on French Creek. November 1 he returned to Sacramento with the intention of going home to Illinois, but was persuaded by a friend to remain until spring. Building a duck-boat, on November 1, 1850, he went and camped where Beach’s Grove now is, paid a man $5 for hauling his boat down there, and went out and killed a boat-load of ducks the first afternoon. He hired a horse and took the game to market, realizing $75 for it. Ammunition, however, was very costly, powder being $1.50 a pound, and shot $1. He kept up this sport until March 1, following. Taking in a boy as a partner, he employed him to sell the game. In that time he cleared $2,900! On the 1st of March he started for the East, embarking from San Francisco on a sail vessel called the Old Belfast. Was forty days reaching the Isthmus, whence he took a steamer for New Orleans, and landed at St. Louis May 10. Going home, he sold his place, and February 1 following (1852) he started with his family for California, to make this his permanent home. Coming again by way of the Isthmus, he landed at San Francisco May 25. The same evening he took steamer for Sacramento. His wife being very sick, he found great difficulty in obtaining a place for them to remain. He finally rented a house where the intersection of Eighth and L streets is now; but at the time Mrs. Calio recovered he had no money, and he had to do his own cooking and washing. The flood came, and he had neither money nor credit, except so far as to obtain a little powder and shot, with which he went out and killed $40 worth of ducks the first afternoon! This business he therefore kept up, and by spring he had cleared $800. With this money he built a two-story house on the old lot at the corner of Eighth and L streets, and started a boarding-house, and by the proceeds of this enterprise he obtained a substantial footing. The schooling of his children cost $15 a month. In 1875 he sold out and purchased his present ranch of 155 acres, six miles from Sacramento, on the Freeport road. It is known by the name of Willow Slough ranch. This place he has improved with good buildings, orchards, etc., and he carries on general farming. He has seen his share of pioneer life, is now eighty-one years of age, and still active; his wife is seventy-one years of age, and also in good health. They have been married fifty-four years, the wedding taking place November 25, 1834. She was a Miss Marie Buesseau, a native of Lorraine, France. Her father came to Illinois with twelve children. Mr. and Mrs. Calio have had ten children, but have brought up only one son and two daughters, viz: Phillomen is the wife of C. W. Clark, of Sacramento; Mary E., is the wife of Hamilton Light, of San Francisco, and John is still on the home ranch. Mr. Calio is a member of El Dorado Lodge, No. 8, I. O. O. F.

Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.

Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 704-705. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.