Sacramento
County
Biographies
HUGH
McELROY LA RUE
HUGH McELROY LA RUE, a leader among the representative business
men of Sacramento, was born August 12, 1830, in Hardin County, Kentucky, north
of and adjacent to the county which bears his family name. At that early day the State of Missouri was
being rapidly settled up, in great part by some of the best Kentucky
families. About the year 1839 the family
removed to Lewis County, Missouri, when the Indians, even if nothing else, were
plentiful. Mr. La Rue early evinced a
desire to extend his travels to the far West, and as early as 1845, when he was
but fifteen years of age, he began talking about his intention to cross the
plains. It is not, therefore, surprising
that the excitement resulting from the discovery of gold should lead him to
become a member of a party in V. A. Sublette and Dr. Conduitt’s
expedition across the plains. This
party, however, had been formed before the news of the gold discovery had
reached there. They crossed the Missouri
River at Booneville, and April 29, 1849, left independence, that State, which
was their last point within the limits of civilization. They came by way of the Platte River, and the
South Pass, by Sublette’s cutoff and Fort Hall (the Oregon trail), and came
into this State, crossing the Truckee River about twenty-seven times in thirty
miles; and about August 12 reached the Bear River mines at Steep Hollow. Near this place, during the following six
weeks, Mr. La Rue had his first mining experience. After visiting Grass Valley, Nevada County,
and Deer Creek, he located at Fiddletown, Amador
County, now called Oleta, being one of the first party of white men to build a cabin at that point, and
discovered and worked the first mines there.
The name “Fiddletown thus originated: Soon after the arrival of Mr. La Rue and his
party at that point, a number of men from Arkansas, among whom were several
violin players, settled near them, and, the winter being rather too wet to
permit of mining comfortably, they passed their time largely in violin playing,
card playing and dancing. In this
Arkansas party were the Gentrys, Logans,
Rubottoms and Bettis. Mr. La Rue next went to Willow Springs, four
miles west of Drytown, bought out a small
eating-house there and conducted it until about the 1st of
March. From there he went to Marysville,
and thence made, in the spring of 1850, a trading expedition to Shasta with a
stock of groceries and provisions, which he sold directly from the wagon at
that place to the merchants and miners at very remunerative prices, as his
goods were the first to arrive there.
His flour he sold at 40 cents a pound; pork, ham, sugar, coffee and rice
$1 to $1.25 a pound; whiskies and brandies, about $8 a gallon; and other
articles in proportion. After making one
more trip to that point, he came to Sacramento, June, 1850, and engaged in
blacksmithing and wagon-making. The
cholera epidemic of that year broke up the business and he went out upon the
Norris grant (Rancho del Paso), rented a piece of land and began the
cultivation of vegetables, and afterward grain, and thus employed himself until
1857, when he planted an orchard of seventy-five acres, principally in peach
trees,--the most extensive orchard in this vicinity. In this enterprise he was doing well until
the floods of 1861-’62 damaged his orchards.
Norris failed that year, and Mr. La Rue bought the property, but the
floods of 1868 utterly destroyed this tract and ended the venture. In 1866, however, Mr. La Rue purchased 800 or
900 acres of land in Yolo County; but after a while he felt the necessity of
moving his family into town, for the sake of schooling his children, and also
for the sake of being nearer to the Yolo ranch, to which he had added by
purchase from time to time until it reached 2,000 acres. After the floods of 1868 he sold his interest
in the Rancho del Paso tract and gave his undivided attention to the Yolo
ranch. He now has about 100 areas of vineyard, sixty acres of almonds, grain of
different kinds, 250 mules and horses, and about 100 head of cattle, Herefords
and Durhams; and is making a specialty of mules,
importing jacks from Kentucky. This
interest is now in charge of and managed by his son, J. E. La Rue. In 1885 he bought a vineyard of ninety
acres—in a 140-acre tract—at Yountville, nine miles above Napa; it is now all
in vines. This place was settled in 1846
by Charles Hopper. It is remarkable for
it fertility, and is in charge of another son, C. L. La Rue. Of his political and public career, it may be
mentioned that in 1857 the subject of this sketch made a canvass for sheriff of
Sacramento County on the Democratic ticket, was elected by a small majority of
seven or eight votes, but, the case being contested in the courts, he lost the
office. In 1873 he was again a candidate
for the same office and was elected by a handsome majority. In 1879 he was a member of the State
Constitutional Convention, elected from the Second Congressional District. In 1863—’64 he was a member of the Assembly,
and was speaker during both sessions. He
was a prominent actor in the movement for the erection of the exposition
building of the State Agricultural Society; also in the revision of the general
railroad laws, in the county government act, the bill reorganizing the
Senatorial and Assembly districts, the laws relating to taxes, etc. He was the Democratic candidate for Senator
in 1888, in which canvass he ran ahead of his ticket. He has been a member of the State
Agricultural Society since 1867, was its president in 1879, 1880 and 1882, and
has been a director since that time, and
superintendent of the pavilion during the exhibitions. While Speaker of the Assembly and President
of the State Board of Agriculture, he was ex officio member of the Board of
Regents of the State University, and he has held, and is holding, many official
positions of less notoriety. He has been
a member of Sacramento Lodge, No. 40, F. & A. M., for thirty-one years; and
is also a member of the Royal Arch Chapter.
In 1856 he became a member of the Sacramento Society of California
Pioneers, in which body he is a member of the board of trustees; he is also a
member of the Sacramento Grange, of which he is the present master. Mr. La Rue was married in Colusa County, this
State, in 1858, to Miss E. M. Lizenby, daughter of
Thomas Lizenby, formerly of Lewis County, Missouri,
and a half-sister of the Rev. Dr. William M. Rush, formerly of Colusa, and now
Attorney-General of Arizona. They have
four sons: Jacob Eugene, Calhoun Lee,
Hugh McElroy, Jr., and John Rush. Their
only daughter, Marie Virginia, died in 1888,--an inexpressible loss.
Transcribed by Karen Pratt.
Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 577-579. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.
© 2006
Karen Pratt.