Sacramento County
Biographies
WILLIAM F. McCRAKEN
WILLIAM F. McCRAKEN was born in Waukegan, Illinois, August 28, 1855, his parents being James G and Jessie E. (Loveday) McCraken. His mother died in 1857, and he was reared by his grandparents Loveday, who lived in Chicago many years, where the grandmother still survives at an advanced age. His mother was English by birth, and his father an American, of Scotch or Irish extraction. His early education was chiefly at Immanuel Hall, a military academy, under Episcopalian auspices, its rector being Rev. Roscoe Park, a graduate of West Point. Meanwhile his father, was a stock-raiser, with a special preference for horses, had come to California about 1860. He owned cattle ranches at three different points before he finally settled on the Cosumnes about 1868. Conjointly with Governor Booth and Colonel James as equal partners, he bought 2,700 acres. The ranch had at one time been owned by General W. T. Sherman, who had encamped on it years before with some troops at a point on the river bank, which has since been washed away. Mr. McCraken eventually bought out his partners,—first Governor Booth, and later Colonel James. The tract was reduced by Government to 1,734 acres. He rented his ranch and lived in Sacramento for several years before his death, which occurred in 1880. Meanwhile William F., his son, was a clerk in San Francisco for several years, with various parties, insurance agents and money-brokers, and among others with Hutchinson and Mason. He thus acquired a good knowledge of business affairs. In 1880 he was married to Miss Mildred Seffens, who was born April 15, 1861, at Dutch Flats, where her parents resided for twenty-five years, and kept a hotel. The father settled there in 1852, and when he brought his wife home in 1854 she was the first white woman in the place. After the railroad reached that point it lost much of its trade and travel, and Mr. and Mrs. Seffons removed to Santa Clara County, where they purchased a nice ranch about two miles from San Jose, and lived there until their death, some eight years later. Upon the death of his father, in 1880, Mr. McCraken came to reside on his half of the estate, his sister, Mrs. J. L. McCord, of Sacramento, owing the other half. Most of the ranch is worked by renters, but Mr. McCraken retains, under his personal supervision, about 200 of his 867 acres. He gives special attention to fruit and alfalfa, and the raising of horses. This last he recognizes as a trait inherited from his father, and perhaps reinforced from maternal ancestors, several of the Lovedays being distinguished in military life, and the successful soldier usually loves a good horse. His ranch is all under cultivation, and will grow any crop without irrigation. Even oranges can be raised in the Cosumnes valley, or has been proved by a few experiments.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of
Sacramento County, California. Pages 659-660. Lewis
Publishing Company. 1890.
© 2007 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.