Sacramento County
Biographies
AMOS MARCUS LOWELL
Amos Marcus
Lowell was born in San Francisco, January 25, 1852, being a son of Marcus and
Ellen Mar (McAra) Lowell. The father, a
native of New York State, came to California in 1849, and followed mining for
two years. In 1851 he went to making
brick in San Francisco, and was there married in 1851 to Mrs. Ellen Mar (McAra)
Hollman. See sketch of Caroline
(Hollman) Ehrhardt. After two years at
brick-making Mr. Lowell moved to Sacramento with his family, including the four
children of Mrs. Lowell, by her former marriage. He conducted an academy for young ladies for about two years in
that city, and was afterward engaged in the freighting business for some
years. In 1858 he took up 160 acres on
the Mokelumne, and afterward became owner of 2,500 acres there, a large portion
of which was overflowed or swamp land.
In the great flood of 1862 he lost heavily, and, becoming disgusted with
such lands, he sold out and returned to Sacramento, and resumed the freighting
business. In 1864 he was again in San
Francisco engaged in constructing a macadamized road toward the Cliff House, on
which he again lost a considerable amount through damage by heavy rains,
requiring the reconstruction of the road.
Back again to Sacramento County, he went into the business of distilling
at Brighton for three years, and lost about $20,000 in various trading
ventures, even to Honolulu once or twice, but has never recovered fully from
past disasters. Mr. and Mrs. Marcus
Lowell are the parents of the following children: Amos M. (see above); William Harrison, born June 12, 1853; Charles
Henry, February 22, 1859; Isabel Mary, October 12, 1860, now the wife of Charles Summermacher, a native of
Sacramento; Ira Nehemiah, born February 28, 1862, and Emma Matilda, born in
1864. The subject of this sketch left
home at the age of thirteen, and went to work on a farm for Mr. Henry
Ehrhardt. In 1870, with his brother William
H., he rented a dairy of seventy-five cows from Mr. Ehrhardt, which they
carried on for two year. He then
rented, with his brother-in-law, George W. Fountain, the John Julian ranch of
216 acres, where they carried on a dairy business of sixty cows, besides
raising some fruit and hay. In 1873,
again with his brother William H., he carried on a milk business at Winnemucca,
Nevada, for two years, returning to this county in 1875. In 1876 the two brothers rented 6,000 acres
at Fremont, on the Sacramento, where they milked 350 cows, and had 1,100 head
of cattle all told. There they engaged
in making cheese, and did very well, but by the floods of 1878, 1880 and 1881,
they lost all they had made, and withdrew from the business. In 1881 the subject of this sketch went into
the brick-making business for one year at Mountain View, in Santa Clara
County. He then rented the Freeman
ranch of 400 acres, eleven miles south of Sacramento, on the lower Stockton
road, for two years. In 1885 he
superintended the construction of the levee in the Pearson district, and
afterward went to work in the railroad shops in Sacramento, in the carpentering
department, for two years. In November,
1887, he went to work for the Sacramento Transportation Company as
superintendent of their brick-making business, just below Freeport, where he is
still employed. In 1881 Mr. Lowell was
married to Miss Ida M. Davis, born in Illinois, daughter of J. Y. and Mildred
(Butler) Davis, now of San Francisco.
They are the parents of two children: Amos Marcus, Jr., born May 16,
1882, and Mildred Ellen, born August 24,1884.
Transcribed
by Karen Pratt.
Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Page 495-496. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.
©
2005 Karen Pratt.