Sacramento
County
Biographies
JOSEPH
WISE
Joseph Wise was born in Missouri, April 1, 1830, his parents being Philip and Nancy
(James) Wise. The father was born in
1802, in North
Carolina,
whence his parents moved in 1807 to Missouri.
He was three times married, Miss James being his second wife, by whom he
had five children. Of these three are still living, the subject of this sketch being the
oldest. Philip Wise lived to be
sixty-four, and his mother reached the age of seventy-five. Joseph Wise came to California in 1852, accompanied by his
half-brother, David, now living near Corning, Tehama County, aged
sixty-five. They mined five or six
months in El
Dorado County, with no great profit. In 1853 Joseph Wise came down to the Sacramento and worked on the place he now owns,
less than a mile north of Walnut Grove.
In 1856 he bought out the owner’s right, and eventually perfected title
to 304 acres. He had an orchard for
fifteen years, but of late years his principal industry has been raising
beans. He is now preparing to plant a
new orchard of about twenty-five acres along the river front, continuing to
raise vegetables on the back land. Mr.
Wise was married October 22, 1856, to Miss Nancy Jane Phipps, a native of Indiana, born October 22,
1840, daughter
of George W. and Nancy (Hall) Phipps.
The father was a native of North Carolina, and the mother of Pennsylvania.
The father came to California in 1849, and in 1851 went back to Iowa, and returned with his family. The mother died in 1854, and the father in
1860. Grandfather Phipps died in Missouri at a very advance age, believed to have
been 105 years, though a newspaper stated it to be 115, perhaps through a
typographical error. Mr. and Mrs. Wise
are the parents of seven living children:
Philip, born October 18, 1857, married Miss Mary Lucilia
Reach, born near Freeport, on the Sacramento.
They have two children: Joseph Clinton, born August 20, 1886, and a girl baby, born in May,
1888. They reside about a mile north of
Walnut Grove. Louisa Jane, their second
child, is the wife of H. T. Lufkin, merchant, Walnut Grove. Nancy Cordelia,
born March 27, 1861, is still a faithful helper to her mother in her household
cares. Joseph Lincoln, born October 5,
1863, has pre-empted 160 acres about four miles from Bradley, Monterey County;
William Francis, born November 19, 1865, has bought 160 acres near his brother,
Jessie, born July 16, 1869; and David Daniel, July 12, 1876. Mr. Joseph Wise has been a school trustee
twenty years, but has filled no other office, being fully occupied with the
care of his farm and family.
Transcribed by Karen Pratt.
Davis, Hon. Win. J., An
Illustrated History of Sacramento County,
California. Page 518.
Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.
©
2005 Karen Pratt.