Sacramento
County
Biographies
James McCleery,
a pioneer of 1849, was born in Beaver County, in western part of Pennsylvania,
January 11, 1817. The McCleery family
are all of Scotch origin. The grandfather of the subject of this sketch
came to Boston in the early days. His
mother, nee Sarah Welch, was a Pennsylvania Quakeress, a native of
Westchester County, that State. After a limited schooling, Mr. McCleery learned
the trade of wagon-maker, at the manufactory of James Wilson, at New Brighton,
Pennsylvania. At the end of three years
he went to Warren, Ohio, and started in business there for himself in 1855, in
company with an older brother. Moving
thence to Galena, Illinois, he followed his trade there for eleven years, under
the firm name of McCleery & Pitts.
In the spring of 1847 he married Miss Sidney, daughter of Captain George
Garritt, of Philadelphia, who had moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and died there
in 1840. In February, 1849, Mr.
McCleery started with a party for California, and crossed the plains with ox
teams, by way of the Truckee route and Sublette’s cut-off, arriving in this
State August 17. His first business
enterprise was the manufacture of shingles, getting his stock from the redwood
timber back of and near where the city of Oakland now is. Shingles were then worth $40 per
thousand. But the news spread abroad,
and one day in February, 1850, there arrived in San Francisco twenty-one ships
laden with shingles and lumber, and the price went down to $6 per thousand! and
this ended the enterprise. Then Mr.
McCleery came to Sacramento, and proceeded to the Oroville Mining district,
thence to Big Bar, on the American River, thence to Todd’s Valley, and
afterward, in company with the late Charles E. Green, of Davisville, he went to
Shirt-tail Canon, in Placer County; thence he went to Nevada City, being
attracted by reports of the Gold Lake discoveries, which were a humbug. In 1851 he returned to Sacramento, arriving
on the day of the first case of cholera here.
He soon formed a partnership with Charles Fitch in the furniture trade,
on Fourth street. At this time he was
in very poor health, owing to exposure in the mines and the doctors advised him
to return East if he wished ever to see his kinsfolk. He made the trip, joined his family at Philadelphia, and soon
afterward left for St. Joseph, Missouri, expecting to locate there; but the
severity of the climate induced him to locate in St. Louis, which he did in
1852; but he could not be satisfied there, and on Christmas day started for
California. Coming direct to
Sacramento, he engaged in the wagon-manufacturing business in partnership with
Ed. Kimball, a brother of the famous wagon-manufacturer of San Francisco. Continuing in this business until 1865, he
was elected by the Republican party to the office of third trustee for the
unexpired term of David Kendall, and was re-elected for the next full
term. Subsequently he was Deputy
Assessor for three years, and again held the office of third trustee. Still later he acted as Deputy State Census
Marshal, and School Census Marshal. In
1838 he became connected with the Odd Fellows, and is now the oldest member of
Sacramento Lodge, No. 2, of which he was Director and Secretary for over ten
years. He has also passed all the
chairs of the subordinate lodge and encampment, and was a member of the Grand
Lodge of California for ten years. He
is a member of the Exempt Firemen’s Association, of which society he has been
president; and was also secretary of the Pioneer Association 1883-’84.
Transcribed
by Karen Pratt.
Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of
Sacramento County, California. Page 501. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.
©
2005 Karen Pratt.