OLIVER SANDERS

OLIVER SANDERS was born in Woodstock, Connecticut, December 25, 1825, his parents being Oliver and Nancy (Paine) Sanders. His grandfather Sanders was also named Oliver, and a native of Rhode Island, where his father also was born in Glouchester. His maternal great-grandfather fought in the Revolutionary war, and his grandfather, Amos, was known as Major Paine. He died about 1842, aged eighty-two. His father was a farmer in Connecticut, and the subject of this sketch lived on it, with occasional absences on coasting voyages, until 1849. He received a common-school education, supplemented by a course in the local academy. February 17, 1849, he left New York City for California, by way of Cape Horn, in the ship Henry Lee, of the Hartford Union Mining and Trading Company, the one that arrived in San Francisco September 17, being seven months, less four days, at sea. He mined only one month, when, being in what is now Sacramento, on an errand, he was offered by Charles Howlett, a comrade of the late voyage, $300 a month to join him in the butchering business for Robinson, Van Cott & King. Robinson afterward died Supreme Judge, at Honolulu, Sandwich Islands. The flood of that winter closed the deal, and he then joined two others, one being John Gilbert, another comrade of the voyage, all three engaging in the business of draying, with two or three teams, according to the pressure of business. They hauled more lumber and other building material than any concern in that line. He went through the cholera of 1850 in safety, but not being very well he was advised to go to the Napa Valley Mountains for the benefit of his health. He went, accompanied by seven others, of whom one George Davis, died of cholera, and brought back a lot of venison for Thanksgiving, November 29, 1850, besides a slaughtered bear, for which they received $375, and $8 apiece for the four quarters of the skin, which were bought at that price, merely to ornament the harnesses of some opulent drayman. Once they brought in a load of nineteen deer, most of which was thrown into the Jack River, there being no sale on account of cholera, the city being deserted. Money was so flush that on July 4 of that year he and one of his partners were paid $50 for the forenoon's work in unloading and hauling for Webster & Co.. It was said that the cashier of the firm was paid $1,200 a month for his services. Mr. Sanders and his brother were paid $100 for playing their violins for one night for a dancing party at "Buckner's." In 1851 Mr. Sanders sold out his interest in the teaming business, and came out to the Cosumnes, expecting to go into partnership with Reynolds, a rancher, in the hay-cutting business. That arrangement having fallen through, he went to work for $150 per month wages, and received a possessory title to 160 acres for his pay. The title was contested and he sold out to the owner of the land-grant title, Emanuel Pratt, being promised $1,000, but actually receiving only $600. In 1853 he went to butchering at Michigan Bar, where he remained until 1857. He was a member of the police force of Sacramento for about two years. He had bought a squatter's possessory right to 160 acres in the Hartnell grant, and in 1858 he bought of Hartnell's agent, for $1,000, one-half mile by four miles (more or less) frontage on the Cosumnes, and four miles deep, covering the 160 already bought. His father having died in May, 1858, he went East in April, 1859, and returned by way of the Isthmus, leaving New York about February 5, 1860, and arriving in Sacramento in March, 1860. Mr. Sanders was married in December, 1862, to Miss Emma Sauze, a native of London, her father being French and her mother English. They had emigrated to Salt Lake City in 1854, Mrs. Sanders being been only seven years of age. Finding themselves deceived, the father stole away, and the mother and children followed in 1855 under the protection of Colonel Steptoe, of United States army. Mr. Sanders farmed on his place until about 1882, when he sold 1,310 acres at $30 per acre, and purchased an adjoining ranch of over 2,000 acres, which he still holds. In 1878 he bought, near the wire bridge, a small tract of five acres, on which were a number of buildings, where he lives, working his ranch, at some inconvenience, from there. He lived in Sacramento from November, 1878, to March, 1880, in order to give his children a better schooling. He has been constable for twenty-five years, with brief interruptions. Mr. and Mrs. Sanders are the parents of six living children: Amos Anthony, born in October 1863; Theodore Nelson, in April, 1865; Edward Stebbins, in March, 1871; Harry Brastow, in May, 1873; Oliver, in February, 1876; and William, in April, 1879.

An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. By Hon. Win. J Davis. Lewis Publishing Company 1890. Page 278-279.

Submitted by: Nancy Pratt Melton.