NOAH BISHOP GILL

Sacramento County

Biographies

NOAH BISHOP GILL

Noah Bishop Gill, a rancher of Cosumnes Township, was born in Kentucky, January 16, 1836, his parents being Rev. James William and Susannah (Bishop) Gill. The father was born in Virginia in 1808, and became a preacher of the “Christian” of Campbellite Church. He was married in Pulaski County, Kentucky, moved to Delaware County, Ohio, thence to Indiana, and from that State to Iowa. In 1852 he came to California, and returned to Iowa on Christmas day, 1853. In 1854 he bought a farm in Marion County, Iowa, which he sold three years later. In 1857 he again came to California, and died in 1869. The mother, Susannah Gill, was a daughter of Joseph Bishop, a Kentucky farmer, and died comparatively young. Grandfather Thomas Gill, a native of Ireland, was a soldier in the war of 1812, and afterward worked at his trade of blacksmith in Virginia, where he died in 1855, aged sixty-five. His wife, Grace Ellen, was of German descent. N. B. Gill came to California with this father and stepmother, across the plains, arriving in Stockton, October 6, 1857, after a journey of 163 days from Omaha. He soon went into the teaming business, his first job being the driving of a twelve-mule team for two months. He afterward became a cattle-herder, his occupation taking him into Nevada, Utah, Montana and Idaho, spending three years on the frontiers, during two of which he saw no whites except his comrades of the same calling, and was frequently in danger from hostile Indians. An unpleasant experience of that period was traveling on one occasion with four companions for five days without food, and the difficulty of restraining his comrades,--he being the oldest and captain of the band,--from a too free use of food when they reached plenty. He afterward worked in the Michigan Bar pottery in various capacities ten or twelve years, and in the copper works on Copper Hill two years. He entered 160 acres at his place, about three miles south of Michigan Bar, in 1871, filed pre-emption and homestead papers, and has but recently secured a patent from the general Government. He has sold a portion to the owner of the neighboring pottery, and retains the title to about eighty-four acres, well adapted to general farming, and with irrigation capable of raising fruit. In 1882 he was taken sick with pneumonia, and was in feeble health for three years, losing the use of one eye, with the other somewhat impaired. Mr. Gill was married May 20, 1860, to Miss Margaret Lorinda Baker, born in Indiana, in May, 1841, her parents being Regnal Prather and Mary (Holmes) Baker, both deceased, the mother in 1873, aged sixty-two, and the father in 1883, aged seventy-two. Grandfather William Holmes, a native of Kentucky, died in Missouri in 1843, aged eighty-seven; his wife, by birth Margaret Quinn, was eighteen months younger, and survived him eighteen months. Great-grandfather Holmes, whose name was also William, was an English emigrant, and lived 100 years, lacking one month. Grandfather William Baker died comparatively young, but his wife, by birth Helen Prather, the daughter of a German father and English mother, lived to be sixty-five. Mr. and Mrs. Baker, with their three children, came to California in 1853, and located at first in San Jose Valley. Mr. Baker put in a crop, but it was almost destroyed by squirrels. In 1854 he came to Michigan Bar and went to mining. He filed pre-emption papers on 160 acres, about one and a half miles south of the village, which is still occupied by some of his heirs. Mr. and Mrs. N. B. Gill have had four sons and one daughter, of whom only one, Alfred Allen, born June 18, 1869, is now living.

Transcribed by Karen Pratt.

Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 540-541. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.

Sacramento County Biographies