PEYTON RUSSELL

Sacramento County

Biographies

PEYTON RUSSELL

Peyton Russell, farmer, Brighton Township, was born December 28, 1818, in Ross County, Ohio, his parents being Lawrence and Mary (Huff) Russell. His Father, also a farmer, was a native of Greenbrier County, Virginia, and his mother was born in Salem, Highland County, Ohio. Lawrence Russell, after his marriage, moved to Ross County, Ohio; next to Warren County, Indiana; and twelve years afterward removed to De Kalb County, Illinois, where he resided from 1841 to 1856, when he died, aged about seventy-one years. His wife died in 1865, at the age of about seventy-two. They had thirteen children, six of whom were sons. Twelve grew up. The name of the deceased were: Matilda, Susan, William, Sarah, Eliza and Rebecca Jane. The living are: John, a prominent farmer in De Kalb County, Illinois; Mary Ann, wife of Robert Robb, in Kansas; Peyton, subject of this sketch; Milton, in Kansas; Harriet, wife of Mr. Luce, in Belvidere, Illinois, and Sanford, also in Kansas. Peyton remained at his paternal home until he was of age, the last three years of this period being the chief assistant of his father. He then went to farming on his own account, on his sister’s place near by. The next year he went to Mercer County, Ohio, for three months; then worked four months on the farm of Wilhoyt & Orr, in Morgan County, Illinois; next, returning to his father’s place in Indiana, he accompanied his father and some other members of the family to De Kalb County, Illinois, where his father had purchased a farm, and worked it for two years. While engaged there, in 1842, he married Elizabeth Carnes, a native of Pennsylvania, who died in 1844. He then went to Linn County, Iowa, near Cedar Rapids, remaining about three months with his mother-in-law; was next a short time in Illinois, eight months in Tennessee, five months in Georgia, four in South Carolina, at a point about twenty-five miles above Savannah,--at all these places engaged in farm work, usually as overseer; was then two years in Florida, and returned by way of New Orleans to Illinois, where he was engaged five months on his father’s farm; was next six weeks in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, leaving there on account of sickness (bilious fever); then in Texas five months and finally by way of New Orleans, leaving there July 7, he came to California by the Nicaragua route, arriving at San Francisco July 31. After looking around through several counties here for three months he took a ranch of 160 acres thirteen miles east of Sacramento, cultivated it two and a half years and sold it. Next he followed butchering three months in Sacramento, sold out, followed the auction business five months, was in Oroville, Butte County, in 1856, three months; in Spanish Town, in the same county, four months; in Oroville again four or five months, and followed mining in that county in 1867-’68. Marrying Margaret O’Shea at Oroville, he left the same day for Santa Cruz, and was there three months; returning then to this county, he settled upon his old ranch, which he rented from the owner. A year afterward he rented another ranch, on which he remained a year. In 1860 he bought a quarter-section of land from Dasonville In Brighton Township. In 1874 he purchased his present ranch of 150 acres, upon which he has remained since 1876. For twelve years he had seven acres in orchard, chiefly peaches. He has one child, Mary by his first wife, and she married William Baker, and resides in Placer County.

Transcribed by Karen Pratt.

Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 524-525. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.

Sacramento County Biographies