LYSANDER MAKEPEACE LINCOLN

 

Lysander Makepeace Lincoln, one of the most prominent pioneers of Sacramento County, was born in Taunton, Bristol County, Massachusetts, January 13, 1824, a son of Benjamin Lincoln. There were Benjamin Lincolns for five generations born in the same house where L.M. was born. His mother, nee Sophia Makepeace, was born in Norton, Massachusetts, December 17, 1795, and died in June 1853. His father was a cotton manufacturer, and built and ran a factory in Wareham, Massachusetts, where the family moved in 1824. After following that business a number of years, the hard times of 1837 came on. He died in that place December 25, 1841; he was born December 11, 1789. He had seven sons and two daughters, of whom six are now living. One is Mrs. Sarah W. Edwards, an old resident of this county, and the widow of Thomas Edwards, an old Californian, who came here in 1850, and brought his family in 1852. He died June 7, 1877, in his sixty-third year. James L., the eldest son, is an old sea captain, who has recently come to California. Mr. Lincoln, whose name heads this sketch, went to sea when he was fifteen years old, in a whaling vessel, and followed ocean life for nine years, making voyages to the principal ports of the world. Leaving New Bedford in the latter part of 1839, he went to Cape Verde Islands, spent a season in the southern part of the Indian Ocean, and then went to the Sunda Islands, where he witnessed a curious sight, namely, the suttee, which consists in burning the body of a living widow with the corpse of her deceased husband! Then he went to Cocos Islands; next passed a season again in the Southern Indian Ocean, and thence came home by way of Madagascar, the Cape of Good Hope, the island of St. Helena, etc. Afterward he visited the Azores, or Western Islands, and various other places along the western coast of Africa, South America and the West Indies, Gulf of Mexico, etc. For his fourth voyage he started in December 1845, and came around Cape Horn, and passed three seasons on the upper northwest coast and on the Japan Sea. In the meantime he, with the crew of his vessel, saved the crews of two other wrecked ships, one French and one German, and never received any reward. On arriving at the Sandwich Islands, they found the people frantic in coming on board to buy every article of merchandise they had, even paying exorbitant prices for them. On inquiry as to the cause, it was found that they had received news of the gold discovery in California, and they were preparing to come hither as soon as possible to supply the market in the mining camps. Here Mr. Lincoln left his ship, which was homeward bound, drew his $200 and took the schooner Honolulu for San Francisco, arriving in October 1848. With a party of five others, mates and second mates, they rushed on to the mines at Placerville, where they spent the ensuing winter. While there, Mr. Lincoln saw three robbers hung, by lynch law, the execution giving the name of Hangtown to the place; it has long been called Placerville. In the spring he sent to his old home in Massachusetts the first California gold ever sent to that neighborhood, and it created great excitement. He wrote to the people there that if they could prove that the specimen was not gold, then California was a humbug. He mined at points between Placerville and the several forks of the American River until July 1852. At this time Thomas Edwards and family arrived, and Mr. Lincoln came down to the valley and engaged with Mr. Edwards in a dairy. They first leased Mr. Brockway’s ranch for a year and then bought a settler’s claim for the Edwards property on the Freeport road, a mile and a quarter below the city limits. In two or three years Mr. Lincoln sold his interest to Mr. Edwards and became one of about thirty to buy settlers’ titles to land in the Sutter grant, his being near Sutterville. Twenty-one years elapsed before the lawsuits over these matters were finally settled, and Mr. Lincoln came out with about 150 acres of land. Since that time he has sold off a portion of this tract, leaving him about ninety acres of the best land in the valley. As a Republican and public-spirited citizen, Mr. Lincoln has taken active part in various county, congressional and State conventions. For twelve or fifteen years he has been justice of the peace and school trustee for Sutter Township. He is a life member of the Sacramento Society of California Pioneers, having two shares of stock in their property and franchises. Mrs. Edwards has four children living – three sons: Eustes R. went to Massachusetts and learned the trade of machinist and now is engaged in farming and fruit-raising; Benjamin Lincoln, on home farm; George, a graduate of the State University, and now employed by the Bancroft Publishing Company; Sophia E., now Mrs. Gay, at home. Mr. Gay is in the freight office of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The home place consists of 279 acres, and there is also a farm of 105 acres on the river.