WILLIAM MILGATE

Sacramento County

Biographies

WILLIAM MILGATE

William Milgate, a rancher of Natoma Township, about eleven miles from Folsom, was born in England, December 24, 1812, his parents being William and Hannah Margaret (Pyles) Milgate. The mother died near Newham, and the father emigrated to America in 1824, with seven daughters and two sons. James, the only brother of the subject of this sketch, is living in Cleveland, Ohio. The grandfather, also named William, lived to the age of eighty. The father first settled in Lyons, New York, but afterward moved to Darien in that State, where he died. The subject of this sketch was apprenticed to a shoemaker in Geneva, New York, in 1829, and learned his trade partly there and partly in Canada, where he spent most of the year 1831. He was married in Buffalo, in March, 1832, before he was twenty, to Miss Hannah Gilkey, born in Cayuga County, New York, in 1813, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Carey Gilkey. Mr. Milgate worked at his trade in and near Buffalo for about five years, and afterward traveled to more distant points, still working at his trade. In 1849 he established a shoe store in Savannah, Missouri, which he sold out two years later, when he moved to Council Bluffs. In 1853 he crossed the plains with wife and children, two sons and a daughter, and worked at his trade one winter in Salt Lake, where another daughter was born. In May, 1854 they proceeded on their way until they reached Buckeye Flats, where Mr. Milgate mined that season. In 1855 he moved to Sacramento, where he kept the Globe Hotel on K street, but only for a season. In the fall of 1855, with his two sons, he came to what was then known as Wall’s Diggings, where they mined with fair success, and in 1856 the wife and daughters joined them at “Walltown,” which has ever since been the home of the family, though the town has gradually faded from the landscape. It had at one time a population of over 200, besides being a trading center for an extensive mining district, with three general stores, two taverns, two butcher shops, two billiard saloons, a clothing store and a bakery. In 1858 Mr. Milgate opened a saloon, and in 1859 bought one of the general stores, carrying on business in Walltown almost to the end. He did not see it’s rise, but he has witnessed its decline and fall. Meanwhile he had filed the necessary papers and received a United States patent to 160 acres, dated October 20, 1875, and eighty acres June 4, 1887, which he uses chiefly as cattle pasture. He has also done some quartz mining in later years, but has done little of anything since 1886. He had a stroke of paralysis in that year, from which he partially recovered after sixteen months, only to be again stricken down June 14, 1888. He is still bedridden, a year later, but is otherwise in fair health and spirits. Mrs. Milgate died August 22, 1866, leaving four children: George Carey, born in Buffalo, April 19, 1833. He learned the trade of plumber and tinner, and in 1871 went into business in that line at Council Bluffs, Iowa. He was there married in 1874 to Miss Eliza Caffle, born in England, a daughter of James and Eliza, both now living in Council Bluffs. They have four children: Eveline, born May 24, 1874; Grace, April 28, 1879, both in Council Bluffs; Frank born in Sacramento, January 2, 1884; Annie Olive, born in “Walltown,” April 11, 1888. George C. Milgate, having returned to California with his family in 1882, settled on his father’s place in that year. William James, also born in New York in 1837, is now proprietor of the Fountain Stables in Sacramento. He also owns about 1,200 acres in Natoma Township. Aurelia, born in New York State in 1841, became the wife of James Burrows, a native of Wisconsin, and died November 23, 1876, leaving three daughters and one son. Her youngest daughter, Marion, born February 4, 1876, was taken into the family of her grandfather, the subject of this sketch, and there reared. Marion Milgate, born in Salt Lake City, April 16, 1854, now Mrs. Charles Haines, also of Walltown, has two children, a boy and a girl. Mr. William Milgate was married June 22, 1867, to Miss Hannah Wardle, born in England, May 31, 1833, a daughter of Ralph and Harriet (Chalsworth) Wardle. The parents emigrated to America in 1862, and settled in Salt Lake City, whence they moved to Reese River in 1864, and after eighteen months came to Sacramento, where the father died July 17, 1886, aged seventy-four years, four months and one day. Mrs. Wardle, born June 7, 1807, is still living in 1889, and residing with her daughter, Mrs. William Milgate.

Transcribed by Karen Pratt.

Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 543-544. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.

Sacramento County Biographies