PATRICK HALEY

Sacramento County

Biographies

PATRICK HALEY

PATRICT HALEY. The long period of his residence in California, which dates from 1852, enables Mr. Haley to be denominated a pioneer of this state. A native of Ireland, he was born in County Mayo March 17, 1827, a son of William and Julia (Pace) Haley. In 1847 the entire family left the Emerald Isle to take up their abode in the New World, where they hoped to settle down and become land-holders, a privilege which was denied them in their native land. While in mid-ocean the father was stricken with a fatal illness and upon reaching Quebec, Canada, was placed in a hospital, where everything possible was done for his recovery, but his death occurred soon afterward. With her children the mother proceeded to Pennsylvania, in which state her death occurred twenty years later.

After the family had resided in Pennsylvania about five years, during which time the gold excitement in the west had reached it height, Patrick Haley determined to cast in his lot with the thousands of others who sought this Eldorado. Leaving his mother, brothers and sisters, in 1852 he came to California by the water route, landing in San Francisco. To a young man of twenty-four years who had not been separated from his family before the loneliness which he experienced upon finding himself in a strange country without money or friends can be better imagined than expressed. This condition of affairs did not discourage him, however, and he resolutely set about to find some honorable employment. In 1853 he located a claim in Yuba county, but sold out his right the following year and went to Sierra county finding work in the mines at Gibsonville. It was while living in the latter location that he endeavored to add to the meager knowledge which he had gained in the common schools of his native country, studying, in his cabin at night from text-books which he bought from an old gentleman who was leaving for Ireland. When the gold excitement broke out in the Frazer river country in 1858 he was among the thousands who thronged thither, but it is safe to presume that his luck was not startling, for it is known that he left there the same year. In Folsom City, however, better chances awaited him, for he soon found work with the Eureka Canal Company. The first day he was assigned the laborious work of digging ditches, but on the second day he was promoted to superintendent of the work, and still later was made ditching agent, a position which took him into various localities in Sacramento county, and for several years he was employed in Eldorado county. In the meantime, with an acquaintance, he became interested in mining on his own account, and when the mines became productive enough to warrant it he gave up his position with the canal company and gave his entire attention to his private interests. It was not long before he purchased his partner’s interest in the mines, running the same alone until February 1870, at which time he located in Sacramento. Shortly after locating here, in 1871, he became a director and stockholder in the Sacramento Transportation Company, with which he has since been identified. Aside from the interests just mentioned and looking after his own property which is rented to tenants, he is living retired from active life, having accumulated a competency in his various successful ventures, not the least of which have been his mining experiences.

In 1868 Mr. Haley was united in marriage with Miss Ellen Preston who like himself was a native of Ireland, but had been reared in America from her girlhood days. Two children were born of this marriage: Mary E., the wife of Peter Kerans, of Sacramento, and William, who resides in Sacramento also. Mrs. Ellen Haley died in 1873 and subsequently Mr. Haley was united with his present wife, who before her marriage was Alice Henneburg. No children have resulted form this marriage. Both Mr. and Mrs. Haley were reared in the Catholic faith and still adhere to its teachings, being communicants of St Francis’ Church in Sacramento. The family residence is pleasantly located at No. 2401 K street. Since the above was written Mr. Haley has passed away.

Louise E. Shoemaker Transcriber, November 09^th, 2007.

Source: “History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento Valley, California” by J. M. Guinn. Page 1689. Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1906.