WILLIAM HENRY FRYE

 

William Henry Frye was born in Bourbon County, Kentucky, May 28, 1813, is parents being James and Elizabeth (Baxter) Frye. The father died July 23, 1822, at about the age of forty-five, the mother surviving until April 24, 1847, then in her sixtieth year. Grandfather James Frye was the first of the family to settle in Kentucky, having moved thither from Virginia. Soon after the birth of W.H. Frye his parents moved to Missouri, settling in Pike County. His formal education consisted of three months’ schooling, but on this scant foundation his thirst for knowledge, aided by exceptional natural ability and great industry, has reared a superstructure of wide and varied information of which a college graduate need not be ashamed. He made such progress by private study that while yet a young man he taught school with success, occasionally referring to an older teacher in difficult cases. As his judgment and power of reflection grew with his years and experience he came to be recognized as an exceptionally well informed man, and now, at seventy-six, though physically aged his intellectual power retain their wonted vigor, enhanced by special acuteness of perception, the ripened fruit of his many years of independent thought and close observation. In early years Mr. Frye worked on his father’s farm, and in young manhood had the courage to buy out the interest of the other heirs, but the panic of 1837 made the burden too heavy and eventually compelled the sale of the place. He afterward traded for some two years, chiefly in pork and tobacco. In March 1849 he started across the plains and reached Weaverville September 6. He had a pleasant journey. He started in a large train, but two wagons separated from the train and came through by themselves. In 1852 he commenced buying and selling cattle; and in 1853 raised his first crop of barley on what is now his homestead ranch, sixteen miles south of Sacramento, on the lower Stockton road. He first took up 160 acres, then unsurveyed, to which he has since added by purchase three other quarters of as many adjoining sections, thus becoming the owner of 640 acres in one body. He also owns 170 acres five miles north on the same road, now occupied by his oldest son. Mr. Frye raises wheat and barley, and until recently raised considerable stock. For some years he also carried on a dairy business, but now gives his chief attention to wheat, raising only such stock as he needs on his ranches. Mr. Frye was married January 7, 1854, to Mrs. Sarah Hough, born in Cortland County, New York, October 20, 1823, the daughter of Rodney and Sophia (Watts) Sanford. The father, a native of New York State, born March 16, 1793, died in Ohio, March 18, 1840. The mother, a native of New York, also died in Ohio, under the age of fifty. Her grandfather Sanford reached a good old age, and grandfather Isaac Watts was over eighty when he died. Mrs. W.H. Frye has had four brothers, all born in the State of New York: Arthur W., born February 15, 1816, became a Presbyterian minister in Ohio, served as Captain in an Indiana regiment in the Civil War, and died in Detroit, Michigan, in March 1887; Whitfield, born April 30, 1818, a lawyer by profession, has resided for some years at Wahoo, Nebraska; Philo Watts, born January 14, 1821, is a farmer in Palo Alto County, Iowa; DeWitt Clinton, born October 14, 1827, is a farmer in Ohio, and served in the Civil War. All have reared families. Mrs. Frye is a lady of a high order of intellect who also takes a deep interest in the welfare of humanity. Though well advanced in years she still presides over the local Sunday-school, a labor of love for the rising generation. She is not only a loving wife and devoted mother but her maternal solicitude embraces all children within reach of her influence. Her four sons have grown to intelligent and upright manhood under her loving care and watchful oversight, and her heart still reaches out toward the young for whose moral welfare she labors with unflagging zeal and earnest sympathy. The home is a large, handsome structure, containing all the comforts and luxuries necessary to a rational enjoyment of life, and thoroughly permeated with wholesome intellectual and kindly spirit of both parents. Mr. and Mrs. Frye are the parents of four sons: Edward William, born January 21, 1856; Charles Thomas, June 13, 1858; Eugene Hough, January 1, 1861; Jacob Henry, September 28, 1863. Each went to school from about the age of seven to eighteen, and all have inherited and cultivated a love of reading. Edward William was married September 7, 1881, to Miss Mary Hustler, born at Marysville, California, October 11, 1856, daughter of Asbury B. and Martha J. (Humfreville) Hustler, both now living in this county below Courtland. The father is a native of Maryland and the mother of Ohio. Both have been in California since 1854, the father having made his first visit to the State in 1852. Grandfather William Hustler, also a native of Maryland, died at the age of about eighty at Carlisle, Ohio. Grandmother Fanny (Burke) Hustler, born in Wilmington, Delaware, died at Carlisle, Ohio, of cholera, contracted while nursing the sick in the epidemic of 1832. Grandfather Jason Humfreville, born near Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1804, died near Courtland, California, in 1875. Grandmother Mary Ann (Ellsworth) Humfreville, born in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1811, died near Courtland, California, September 21, 1881. Mrs. E.W. Frye was educated in the district schools, and afterward taught school for some years before her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Frye are the parents of two sons: Harbert Henry, born June 25, 1883, and an infant son, born August 1, 1889. Charles F. Frye was married October 12, 1886, to Mrs. Mary (Day) Bascom. The other sons are unmarried.