JOSEPH F. STILL

Sacramento County

Biographies

JOSEPH F. STILL

JOSEPH F. STILL.--The parents of Mr. Still, Joseph W and Rachel (Fugitt) Still, were Kentuckians. In 1807 they moved into Missouri and settled in the Boone’s Lake Country, now Howard County. A few years later Mrs. Still returned to Kentucky on a visit, with two children, traveling all the way on horseback, in company with an old lady and a gentleman named Horn. She picketed the horses out at night. It was an exceedingly rough and adventurous journey for even a man to make in those times; but she belonged to that sturdy class of pioneers who were inured to hardships and the wild experiences of a frontier life. While Mrs. Still was in Kentucky Joseph F., the subject of this sketch, was born November 18, 1812. As soon as she was able to stand the journey, Mrs. Still, now with three children, started on the same road back to Missouri on horseback. In Missouri the settlers were few and they all had to use special means to protect themselves against the Indians. In the war of 1812, which was opening at this time, the Indians were in sympathy with the British and kept up their hostilities even after the war had closed; and during this dangerous period Joseph W. Still was killed in Randolph County, at a point to which he had followed the savages. When the subject was ten years old, his mother married a man named Brown, and then the family moved into Clay County, same State, still further out upon the frontier, Missourian-like. At the age of eighteen Mr. Still started out in the world for himself, and hired out to a house carpenter to learn the trade, and continued with him until he was of age. September 12, 1837, he married Mary B., daughter of Rev. Thomas Turner, an old Baptist minister. Then, with his bride, he moved into the Platt purchase, in Missouri, and lived at different places in that section, always keeping as far westward as he could get, until 1849, when he started for California, in a train with ox teams, crossing the Missouri River May 6. At noon the first day out they elected James Long as the captain of the train. They traveled up the Platt River to the vicinity of the mouth of the North Platt, crossed the South Fork by way of Ash Hollow, went up the valley of the North Platt to a point near the mouth of Sweewater, crossed the North Fork of the Platt, traveled up the Sweetwater to the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains and on to the Big Sandy, where the road divided; one branch, known as the Fort Bridger road, leading to Salt Lake, and the other, “Sublette’s cut-off.” Taking the latter, via Fort Hall and Snake River, they came on to the long-looked-for point of destination. On reaching Bear River, July 4, they fired a salute for American Independence. On the desert they passed two days and two nights with only a five-pound powder-keg of water. They reached Placerville August 28, 1849, after a long, tedious journey. Mr. Still then began making rockers for gold mining, tearing up his wagon bed for this purpose. He made $6 a day at this business. Within forty steps of where he was at work they were taking out pounds of gold dust, which was more than he could stand; and he commenced mining also, but without collecting much gold for several days. He mined in Placerville until February, 1850, when he went over to Canon Creek, El Dorado County, at a point called George’s Flat and mined there with varied success. The best day’s work was when three of them took out over $2,200. On the last day they took out $1,600. Then they sold out for $4,000 and settled on the D ranch in Ione Valley, which point derived its name from a large brand they placed on their cattle. They arrived here on the 1st of July, entering the live-stock business. In October following Mr. Still returned to the East, leaving his interests here in charge of his partner. Taking steamer at San Francisco he reached Panama in twenty-one days from San Francisco. On leaving the Golden Gate he turned around, waved his hat and bade good-by to California, feeling perfectly satisfied to return East, and remain there; but after he had spent two years in Missouri the excitement in the beautiful land he had left was too much for him, and he and his wife, in 1852, came again to the Golden State, overland, leaving Missouri River May 5 and reaching Sacramento August 27, making the same trip he had made in 1849 to a day. The first winter here he spent in a hotel which he rented called the Ione. It was merely a stopping place, situated four miles east of Stanislaus River, on the Stockton and Marisposa road. Then he spent a year and a half at Redwood City. Moving back into Mariposa County, he remained there until the fall of 1856 and then he located two and half miles above Galt, on Dry Creek, where he now has a ranch of 500 acres. Two years ago he moved into Galt. In 1887 Mr. and Mrs. Still celebrated their golden wedding, having all their children and grandchildren excepting one of them; also one great-grandchild. In their own family were six children, two having died. They have twenty-four grandchildren, and have had four great-grandchildren, but only one is living.

Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.

Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 606-608. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.