Sacramento County
Biographies
ALEXANDER SCROGGS, Sr.
ALEXANDER SCROGGS, Sr., a pioneer of
marked character and a capitalist, was born in Trumbull (now Mahoning) County, Ohio,
April 22, 1818; was brought up on the farm of his father, Aaron Scroggs, a native of Cumberland County,
Pennsylvania. In 1840 he emigrated to
Quincy, Illinois; was in Monmouth, that State, in 1840-‘41, and then in
Whiteside County, same State, until 1849, engaged as a carpenter. In March
of the latter year he left for California, in company
with Captain Woodburn and a Mr. Miller, in a party made up at St.
Joseph, Missouri, which had
fourteen wagons. Coming by way of Fort Hall and the Truckee
route, and the scene of the great disaster of the Donner party, they arrived on
Deer Creek September 6. They followed gold mining on Bear River until the
rain season set in, when they came to Sacramento. At
that time Mr. Callahan, the builder and proprietor of the Golden Eagle Hotel,
was keeping a canvas boarding-house on the corner of
Seventh and L streets, adjoining a horse market, which was then conducted by
Captain Smith & Co. In the spring of 1850 Mr. Scroggs
followed Captain Whitehead and his company to the mines at the head-waters of
the Calaveras River,
and afterward to Downieville and the Gold
Lake mining region. He
returned to Sacramento during the
cholera siege here. Subsequently he followed mining on Bear
River and at Johnson’s Crossing. Next he engaged in
carpentering, at which he made $10 a day. In the spring of 1852 he was in
the mines again, and soon cleared $1,000. Then he resumed his trade in Sacramento
and followed it for many years. In 1854 he married Miss Jane Elwell, a native of the State of New York,
who came to California in 1850 on
the steamer Eudora. Since then she has made three trips to the East, one
time on the vessel named Yankee Blade, which was wrecked at Point Euquella, and she was obliged to return. Both Mr. and
Mrs. Scroggs own considerable real estate in this
city. Their children are: Alexander, Jr.; Sarah Irene, now Mrs. Worneth; Almira Jane, now the
wife of T. E. Reikart, of Dixon,
and John, the youngest son.
Transcribed 9-20-07 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated
History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 763-764.
Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.
© 2007 Marilyn R. Pankey.