Sacramento County
Biographies
VINCENT,
DANIEL and PETER
GLANN
VINCENT, DANIEL and PETER GLANN.—These three sons of Nathaniel and Catharine (Mercereau) Glann, having been closely associated in business in this county, their lives and labors and the results will be treated conjointly in this sketch. Vincent Glann was born July 10, 1825, and lived with his parents until 1846, working successively on the farms in Hammondsport, Tiffin and Toledo from the time he was able to render any assistance until he reached his majority. Promptly thereupon he demanded wages and received $1 a day from his father for the first week after he had arrived at legal manhood. He then went to work for his uncle, Henry Mercereau, and a Mr. Ketchum. In 1847 he worked on a section of the railroad; in 1848 he worked for Doctor Miner as a farm hand; in 1849 for Edward Upton. As a farm laborer he received $12 a month and board, and his engagement always closed with the opening of the deer-hunting season, he being an expert deer-stalker. From his youth up he has had a passion for hunting, seldom going to school without taking his gun, which he concealed in some convenient thicket. In 1850 he and his brother Henry rented the farm of their uncle, Henry Merereau, and held it three years at $300 a year. They have ever since remained closely associated, “a sort of moral partnership,” in their Toledo interests. In 1853 they bought the Doctor Miner farm of 96.48 acres, and afterward some other farms. Vincent Glann left his home November 5, and New York, November 15, 1855, for California by the Panama route, arriving in San Francisco, December 10. His father had preceded him in the spring to visit his sons, Daniel and David, at Elk Grove in that county, where Vincent and his cousin, Peter Mercereau, who had accompanied him, spent two weeks visiting their relatives and hunting. With his father and cousin he started for the American River, by stage from Sacramento to Hangtown, afoot to Georgetown, across the Middle Fork at Gray Eagle and thence by Sage Hill to Michigan Bluffs. Stayed there fourteen days. Father and he then proceeded to Last Chance, and there he hired out as a miner at $75 a month. The winter soon broke and so did his employer. Mr. Glann had meanwhile taken up a claim in January, 1856, and this he proceeded to work. Alone he dug a ditch to bring water to his claim, and with his brother Daniel, who had preceded him to the mines, he built a cabin. Working with his whip-saw he constructed sluices and took up a hydraulic claim of seventy-five feet frontage and extending back to the center of the hill. He added two other claims of equal dimensions, representing the three by his own work, two days a week to each. Then with two partners he tried Miller’s Defeat farther up, which proved also a defeat to him, as on settling up on August 1, 1856, his partners reported no assets. Concluding to try the lower country for a season, he traveled back to his cabin where he left his blankets, and pushed forward in light marching order for the plains looking for farm-work. After a weary tramp he reached Elk Grove and went to work for Norman Woodbeck, on the Cosumnes, pressing hay, at $55 a month. His brother Daniel having also returned from the mines they worked together pressing hay for various parties, and in building a dam. This brought them to November 1, when they returned to the mines, having accumulated enough to buy the necessary provisions and other supplies for a winter’s campaign. Daniel went to mining at Keokuk Point, and Vincent went to Last Chance. In the spring he sold two shares of his claim to two Swedes. After a time, desiring to find some diggings that could be worked in summer, he went on alone to Miller’s Defeat. Here he struck a good spot in 1857. In the winter of 1857-’58 he again worked with his partners at Last Chance. In the spring of 1858, the three partners bought a half interest in the Canada-Hill claim. The four owners worked both claims and did a good business; the fourth partner returned to Sweden, having “made enough.” Mr. Glann sold his interest to two Danes who were acceptable to his partners, and came down to Sage Hill, where he bought a claim, his brother Daniel being still at Keokuk Point. In his new claim he took a partner, L. Morse; and they worked it together. Peter Glann arrived in the mines in November, 1858, and worked with his brother Daniel. The water gave out late in the spring of 1859, and Vincent Glann went on a sporting tour, while Peter Glann came down to Bird’s Valley. Meanwhile Vincent and Daniel bought an interest in the old Specimen claim, and the former went to work there, Daniel and Peter coming down to the Sacramento Valley, where the former, in partnership with his brother-in-law, David Upton, had bought 1,130 acres on the Mokelumne. In December, 1859, Vincent bought out Upton’s half interest in the ranch, and also 320 acres near Elk Grove. In 1860 Vincent and Daniel went back to the mines, and worked there till water failed, when Daniel returned to the ranch. Vincent went to Auburn, Placer County, and was there engaged as an assistant or guide to a surveying party, occupied with laying out a road from Auburn, Placer County, to Virginia City, Nevada. He was able to render good service as guide, from his experience as prospector and hunter while enjoying an exceptional chance on Lake Tahoe and elsewhere on the road, to indulge his love of hunting. In 1861 Peter Glann enlisted as a volunteer, Daniel attended to the ranch, and Vincent still worked the old Speciman claim. In 1862, Peter returned after eighteen months’ service in the army, having been wounded in the left arm and partially disabled. He rejoined his brother Daniel on the ranch, while Vincent still kept on mining in the old Speciman claim until 1868, returning every summer to the ranch, when the water failed at the mines. From the profits of mine and farm, “by slow and steady accumulation,” the three brothers continued to buy land at intervals for nineteen years longer. Seventeen distinct parcels of land were thus united into one compact ranch of 5, 310 acres, all earned by their joint labor. It is devoted to general farming, to the raising of horses and cattle and the running of a dairy of 150 cows or more. They also buy and sell stock of others’ raising, and run a bee ranch. Vincent still owns land in Toledo, a farm abutting on Darr street, of which he deeded an acre a year ago for a church site, never asking by what sect of the Christian name the church was to be erected. Of the three brothers, Vincent and Peter are bachelors. The former “kept bach” even before he was of age to marry, hunting in the winter and farming in the summer. He is by nature a veritable Nimrod—a mighty hunter. Even now his eye gleams brightly as he tells of his hunting exploits in by-gone year; nor has he entirely given up the line or gun. Daniel Glann was married June 7, 1884, to Miss Annie Gertrude Keema, a daughter of Frederick Karl Keema and Anna (Koch) Keema, his neighbors. He died March 14, 1887, aged fifty-three years, leaving a widow and one child: Annie Catharine Glann, born January 29, 1885.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of
Sacramento County, California. Pages 655-657. Lewis
Publishing Company. 1890.
© 2007 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.