Sacramento County
Biographies
Aaron
Doty Oakley, a rancher of Natoma Township, Sacramento County, about eight miles
from Folsom, was born in Essex County, New Jersey, June 25, 1817, his parents being
Aaron and Sarah (Doty) Oakley, both natives of that State. The father, born
August 5, 1783, died in 1858, and the mother, born August 20, 1788, died in
1863. The grandfather, Joseph Doty, born in 1751, was a soldier of the
Revolution, a member of the Washington Life-guard cavalry, and lived to be
ninety-three. His wife, Martha (Allen) Doty, also born in New Jersey, in 1755,
lived to be seventy-seven. They had been over fifty years married at her death.
Grandfather Thomas Oakley had come from England with his father, and was
married to Nancy Clark, a native of Holland. He owned a saw mill on the Passaic
and was drowned in his own mill-pond about 1812, but his wife lived to the age
of ninety-three, dying in 1838. The great-grandfather, also Thomas Oakley, of
Oakley Hall, England, was twice a widower, with children by both wives, when he
emigrated to America some time before the Revolution and settled at Huntington
harbor on Long Island. A.D. Oakley learned bricklaying and plastering from 1834
to 1837, earning two dollars a day as early as 1837. He located in Brooklyn in
1837, and there worked at his trade, but after the great fire in Charleston,
South Carolina, in 1838, he worked at the rebuilding of that city for about
three years. Meanwhile he was married in Brooklyn July 16, 1839, to Miss Sarah
J. Housey, born in Brooklyn April 16, 1819, daughter of John and Maria
(Ackerman) Housey, the former a native of England, and the latter of New
Jersey, of Dutch descent. Returning to Brooklyn in 1841, he continued his
business of brick-laying and plastering in that city for seven years. Having
lost his first wife December 16, 1842, he was again married in Brooklyn July
14, 1847, to Miss Sarah A. Minich, born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania,
April 20, 1827, daughter of Jacob and Anna (Gamber) Minich. The mother died at
the age of forty-nine years, and the father at sixty-six. Mr. Oakley moved to
St. Louis in 1849, and left there for California April 20, 1850. Taking 141
days to cross the plains, he arrived in Sacramento September 13, 1850. He first
followed the dairy business in a small way for one year, working occasionally
at his trade at twelve dollars a day, and acting as policeman for six months.
He then went into the teaming business between Sacramento and “Hangtown,”
keeping at one time seventeen teams on the road, and running a general store at
Placerville in 1852 and 1853. His teamsters took orders and delivered goods all
along the route. May 10, 1854, Mr. Oakley “squatted” on the place he now owns,
which was not then surveyed. It was not in the market until eight years later.
From 1864 to 1885 he has been acquiring land and now owns 880 acres. Mr. Oakley
has been a school trustee and clerk of the board twenty-eight years, and
justice of the peace from 1868 to 1884, except one term of two years. Mrs.
Oakley died May 29, 1880, leaving four children, all born in California: Eugene
Minich, born November 16, 1850; was married December 20, 1883, to Miss Eveline
Saul, a native of this State, and daughter of Charles Saul of Natoma Township,
and has two children, a boy and a girl; Henry Louis, born January 1, 1857,
superintends the cattle and farming interests on his father’s place; Carrie
Belle superintends his household and cares for his personal comfort. His youngest
child, Miss Bonnie, is a school teacher by profession, having received her
diploma or certificate from the Normal School at San Jose in 1886. Besides
these there is his oldest son, the only child of his first wife, A.D. Oakley,
of San Francisco. He was born in Brooklyn April 29, 1840, was married in this
county in 1873 to Miss Marion Van Trees, born in California in 1854. They have
four children – two sons and two daughters.
Transcribed by Debbie Gramlick.
Source: Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Pgs. 462-463. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.
©
2005 Debbie Gramlick.