Sacramento County
Biographies
FRANCIS HANFORD RUSSELL
F. H. RUSSELL is a pioneer of Sacramento,
who was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
July 11, 1825, the youngest of eleven children, five of whom were
boys. His father, Francis Russell, was a native of Chester
County, Pennsylvania. When
a little over thirteen years old (April 1, 1839), he went to work as a clerk in
his brother’s hardware store, and for nine years, nine months and nine days
continued with him. His friend in the store was John Whiteside, and for
several years the subject of "going West" was discussed between
them. In 1846 he entered man’s estate, and to celebrate the event he
received $100 and a new suit of clothes, when he at once started off on a trip
to "see the world." He went to Ohio, to Michigan
(where he had a brother), and to Chicago,
where he met a party of fifteen young men who were making a pleasure
trip. There were no railroads out of Chicago at that
time, but a stage line ran to Galena,
198 miles, and the fare was $3. On this stage
trip he first met Governor Stoneman, then a young
lieutenant on his way from General Kearny. The stage was upset and Stoneman and Russell became acquainted and went on to St.
Louis together. Years afterward, when Stoneman had become Governor of California, he met him
again and the incidents above related were recalled. The trip made, his
$100 spent, he returned again to the store a "wiser of not a better
man." He came to the coast in 1849, with two companions, Sam Crist and Henry Good, arriving in Sacramento
on the 12th of August. They camped here for a month, and then
went to the mines. The ups and downs of mining life need not be related
here. Suffice it to say that in February, 1854, he returned to New
York, via the Nicaragua
route, and on the 1st of May was married to Justice E. Danner,
daughter of George Danner, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
a well-known Pennsylvania man,
who owned the receipt for the noted Hostetter’s
Bitters. Mr. Russell returned at once with his wife and engaged in the
drug business, under the firm name of Fowler & Russell, afterward Russell
& Kirk; this was in 1860. In 1863-‘64 he was mining in Nevada, and
afterward was interested in land and was engaged in farming in Sutter
County. In 1853 he was elected treasurer of that county. Returning to
Sacramento in 1885, he was elected public administrator
for two years, and latterly, with his won-in-law, F. Y. Williams, he has been
ranching in Placer County. His
family consists of one son and three daughters: Margaret, now Mrs. Griffits; Caroline H., now Mrs. F. Y. Williams; Mary I.,
and B. U. Russell, the youngest of the family. Their home is on H
street.
Transcribed 9-12-07 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated
History of Sacramento County, California. Page 635.
Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.
© 2007 Marilyn R. Pankey.