JOHN ROONEY

Sacramento County

Biographies

JOHN ROONEY

JOHN ROONEY, farmer, Brighton Township, was born in Ireland, August 14, 1826, a son of John and Ann (Garland) Rooney. His parents had nine children, of whom six lived to be grown up: Peter came to the United States in 1835, and died in Alabama; Patrick came to Alabama in 1830 and to California in 1853, and died here; John was the third child; Mary came in 1835 to the United States and died in Massachusetts; Mrs. Katharin Murray emigrated to America about 1842 and now resides in Peru, Illinois; and Bridget is still in old Ireland. Peter, the eldest, made that part of Alabama his home which the other members of the family also intended for their permanent residence. Mr. John Rooney, the subject of this sketch, came to the United States in 1847, when he was just twenty-one years old. He was very young when his father died, being the youngest child at the time, and was brought up on the farm. He sailed from Liverpool to New York, and from there to Boston, near which place at Roxbury, his sister, Mrs. Mary Hoey was living. Two months afterward he went into King County, Alabama, where Peter was living. November 20, 1849, he started for California, sailing from New Orleans to Chagres, Panama, and thence to San Francisco, landing there January 27, 1850. He arrived in Sacramento February 2, when this place was “all slough holes.” Proceeding to the mines at Georgetown, El Dorado County, he remained there about nine months, and enjoyed good success. At this time, in May or June, a friend from Alabama, John Hopper, obtained from him and his partner, Smith, $10,000, without security, for speculating purposes. By Christmas Hopper was “busted,” and Rooney and Smith came down and took up this land for security. It consisted of 160 acres, about one and a half miles from where he now lives. They put in a crop of barley and made considerable money, about $5,000 net. Mr. Rooney carried on this farm and also the Alabama mine in El Dorado County, both which paid well, the mine yielding sometimes as high as $800 a day; his success, of course varied; but he netted $25,000 by 1853, since which time he has been farming. His first place he kept until about 1879, when he purchased his present place, consisting of 610 acres, five miles from Sacramento, on the Coloma road, bordering the American River. It is a fine, productive place. Here his principal crops are alfalfa and hops. His fine residence he built when he purchased the place about ten years ago. In regard to political principles Mr. Rooney was during the war a Douglas Democrat; in 1864 he supported Lincoln, and since 1868 he has been a Democrat. In 1853 he visited Alabama, and there married Mary Clark, a native of Ireland, who came to the United States with her mother in 1850. Mr. And Mrs. Rooney have had four sons and one daughter: John, the eldest son, died February 4, 1885, at the age of twenty-four years; the other children are living: Peter W., married Mary Powers; Mary is the wife of Thomas O’Neil, of Sacramento; Steven A., married Mary Tagney; and James is the youngest. The sons are all resident upon their father’s farm.

Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.

Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 645-646. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.