Sacramento County
Biographies
MARKUS GRAF
MARKUS GRAF, one of the old-time residents of Sacramento, in
a native of Germany, born at Muhlhansen, Baden, on
the 24th of April, 1830, his parents being John and Helen (Rehm) Graf, the father a grocer. Markus Graf was
reared at his native place, and there received his education, attending the
public schools from the age of six until he was fourteen, and the Sunday-school
to the age of eighteen. When he had reached the age of fifteen years he
commenced the tanner’s trade with a man named Handlosser,
and served an apprenticeship of three years. He then traveled as a
journeyman throughout Wurtemberg,
Bavaria, Saxony, Switzerland,
etc., in all about four years. He then went home and attempted to start
in business, but not finding prospects good, concluded to go to America.
In October, 1851, he sailed from Rotterdam on the sail ship ”Rhine,” and proceeded on his way to the United
States. The vessel encountered heavy
weather off the Atlantic coast, and at a point nearer Philadelphia
than New York she was beached on
the sand. They cut the masts down and filled the hold with water to keep
the vessel from drifting and toppling over, and waited for day to come.
The next day the wind was moderate. The next day two men got away from the
vessel, and, proceeding to New York,
secured a steamer to come down and rescue the people on board. The
passengers, who had remained all this time on the upper deck exposed to the
weather, were taken to hotels and houses. After two or three days there
they were taken to New York by
the steamer. The exposures to which they were subjected from the weather
may be appreciated when it is stated that they were stranded on the 6th
of January. After Mr. Graf and others of the rescued passengers had been
in a boarding house in New York
two or three days, their landlord was informed that
their baggage had arrived, and it was then brought to them. The voyage
had lasted sixty-seven days, and as he had not had enough to eat or drink for
some time, Mr. Graf was taken down with sickness and lay in hospital a couple
of weeks. After recovering he obtained work with a man named Keifer. After this he engaged with a Mr. Hoffman, and
finally at a factory on Emma street,
with a man named Golding. He worked for Golding then, and in his factory, near Albany,
also, until the latter part of 1853. In December of that year he took
passage to San Francisco on a steamer at New York for Acapulco, then crossed
the Isthmus of Panama, and proceeded to San Francisco on the steamer “Golden
Age,” landing in January, 1854. A couple of days later he proceeded to
Coloma by way of Sacramento and
Marysville, and went to work mining on Sutter Creek. After this he worked
two months for a farmer, and in 1855 came to Sacramento,
and worked a year in Pennock’s brewery. He then
bought a turning lathe, and opened a shop in Sacramento,
and in partnership with P. Gossner manufactured
billiard outfits until 1861. The business was quite extensive, and gave
employment to five or six workmen. Since that time Mr. Graf has been in
business at his present location. He was married in Sacramento
in 1874, to Miss Matilda Metzer, a native of Wurtemberg. Mr. Graf has been a member of Schiller
Lodge, I. O. O. F., since its organization, 1862; has been secretary and treasurer
of the lodge; and is a veteran Odd Fellow. He is a member of the
Sacramento Hussars, and has held the rank of corporal in that
organization. Mr. Graf has been identified with Sacramento
for over a third of a century, and has seen many changes in the city and
surrounding country since that time. He is a popular man, and has a large
circle of friends.
Transcribed
by Karen Pratt.
Davis, Hon. Win. J., An
Illustrated History of Sacramento County,
California. Pages 560-561. Lewis Publishing
Company. 1890.
© 2006 Karen Pratt.