Sacramento
County
Mrs. Mary Lee
was born in Springfield, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, January 4, 1820, her
parents being Austin and Nancy (Harkness) Pennock, both natives of the New
England States. They were married in
Salem, New York, and afterward moved to Pennsylvania, where they made their
home from 1809 to 1833, when they moved to Carthage, Hancock County, Illinois,
where they farmed until 1867, thence moved to Beloit, Wisconsin, where Mr.
Pennock died in October, 1868, in his eighty-fifth year; his wife died in
November, 1871, in her eighty-ninth year, near Osage Mission, Kansas, where she
had moved after her bereavement. They
had seven children of whom four are now living, viz.: Silas, resident in
Minnesota; Daniel, resident in Beloit, Wisconsin; John, resident in Sacramento
County, California; and Mrs. Lee, the subject of this sketch, Mrs. Lee was in
her fourteenth year when her father moved from Pennsylvania to Illinois, where
she was married in 1840 to Absalom Newnham, a native of Ohio. In April, 1852, a party of thirty families,
called Callison’s Company, was organized to go to Oregon. They all met at the Missouri River, where
they separated again into smaller companies.
They had no trouble with Indians on the way, but many of the children
were sick with the measles, and cholera was raging on the plains, and three of
their party died with it, viz.: Mr. Newnham, who died about seventy miles below
Fort Laramie, on the 1st of June; Mrs. Briston two days later; and Mrs.
Browning, who died this side of the Snake River, near Fort Hall, about the 1st
of August; she had contracted the disease by eating salmon bought of the
Indians. They crossed the mountains
about the 7th of September, traveled up the Willamette River about
100 miles until they reached Mount Pleasant, in six months and seven days from
the time they started. They stayed
there till the 1st December,
then went down to Oregon City, remained there three weeks waiting for the
steamer. Mrs. Lee came by water to
Sacramento; the voyage was very rough and stormy, lasting seven or nine
days. They arrived in Sacramento a few
days before Christmas, 1852. In the
fall of 1854 Mrs. Lee (then Mrs. Newnham), with her family of four children,
started for the East with the intention of remaining there. About the middle of October they left San
Francisco on the steamer Yankee Blade, which was then considered to be a good
steamer, and had been previously sold to other parties, and was then making her
last trip for the old company. After
she had been out twenty-four hours she struck a rock and beat a hole in
her. The crew could do nothing, and she
finally sunk. There were about 1,400
passengers on board of whom, as far as could be ascertained, thirty-seven were
washed ashore during the night. They
were buried the next day. Mrs. Lee,
with two children, were taken on a small boat, in order that they might be
taken to land; but when she was that two of her children yet remained on the
boat she insisted on returning. Saying that all should die or be saved
together. About nine o’clock she and
the children were taken to shore in one of the small boats. They lay in the sand, with others of the
passengers, a week before they were take back to San Francisco. Their food consisted of mussel soup, with a
few crackers washed ashore from the wreck.
They used the cans to make the soup in, pearl oyster shells for spoons,
and life-pre-servers for buckets to carry water, which had to be brought about
a mile. As it was considerable trouble
to get the oysters, and crackers were scarce they had only one meal a day, and
that about noon. On the last day of
their sojourn there, just as they were about to partake of their soup, the
joyful news came that a steamer was waiting seven miles down the coast for
them. They drank a little soup and
started, having to make their way through the trackless sage-brush and
sand. It was a weary walk, but they
were very thankful for the opportunity to get away from the desolate
place. They all got safely on the boat
before dark, and were kindly received, and a bountiful supper was prepared for
all. They arrived at San Francisco the
next day, about ten o’clock, and Mrs. Lee returned to Sacramento. After this event Mrs. Lee remained here
until 1869, when she made a trip East, with no intentions of remaining there,
however. She met with a stormy voyage,
which, however, did not prove fatal to any one. The children of her first marriage are: Mary J., wife of George
Cirby, resident near Roseville, Placer County; Nancy A, wife of Joel D. Bailey,
of this county, James, resident in this county, and Alice E., wife of James
Patton, of Sacramento County. Mrs. Lee
was married to Richard H. Lee in October, 1856, by which marriage there is one
child: Emily, wife of Albert G. McManus, of Sacramento County. Mrs. Lee is now making her home with her
son, James Newnham.
Transcribed by
Karen Pratt.
Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Page 496-497. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.
©
2005 Karen Pratt.