Sacramento County
Biographies
MRS. NANCY JANE WISE
MRS.
NANCY JANE WISE.--- To the pioneer women of California
much credit is due for the part they have taken in helping to develop and
advance the state, and especially to those who braved the dangers of the
overland trek and came here to build up a home amid primitive conditions,
enduring hardships and doing without the pleasures and refinements to which
they were accustomed in their Eastern homes.
Among these must be mentioned Mrs. Nancy Jane Wise, who was in
maidenhood Miss Phipps, born in Indiana, October 22, 1841, a daughter of George
and Nancy (Hall) Phipps, both "Hoosiers," and parents of a family of
five children. In 1849 George Phipps
came to California and mined until early in 1851, when he returned to his
Eastern home to get his wife and children and bring them to the Western
frontier. The same year, they began the
long overland journey via the Salt Lake route.
That year the Indians were very troublesome, and the train of wagons
ahead of the party of which the Phipps family were members continually
encountered the red men; but each train helped the other, the men of the
parties joining forces to ward off the attackers. They would leave their women and children
under guard in a corral made by circling their wagons, the tongue of each wagon
running under the wagon ahead, this making a substantial barricade, within
which the stock was also protected. Mrs.
Wise was nearly captured by the Indians on the plains. She had gone for water; and while she was
filling a canteen, an Indian grabbed her by the hair. She crawled back and forth under his horse til her mother and father came; and her father choked him
until he let her go.
At the end of the never-to-be-forgotten
journey, the family arrived in California and located in Stockton, in 1851,
where Mr. Phipps ran a hotel. It was
George Phipps who set out the trees on the present grounds of the state
hospital in that city. After two years
spent in Stockton, Mr. Phipps went back East to close up some business, and
there died from small-pox in New York.
The wife and mother died when Mrs. Wise was twelve years old. Her dying request was that Nancy care for her youngest brother, George, only a small child
then; and this she promised her mother to do.
In 1855 Nancy Phipps and her brother George came to Walnut Grove, on the
Sacramento River; and there, besides keeping the home together, the faithful
daughter carried out her trust by taking in washing and doing other household
work, the only kind of work to be obtained in those days, and thereby supported
her brother and herself. She was only
fourteen years old when they came to Walnut Grove, where she lived in the
family of Mr. and Mrs. Sharp, doing the cooking and housework, which was heavy
for a girl of her years, for they kept a hotel, or boarding-house. She continued there until she was fifteen
years old, and then, on October 23, 1856, became the wife of Joseph Wise.
Mr. Wise was a native of Cape Girardeau,
Mo., and a son of Phillip Wise. He and
his brother had come to California in 1852 and after mining for a while came to
Walnut Grove where he worked at odd jobs.
After he married they leased land, and then bought about 300 acres near
Walnut Grove. At that time it was mostly
overflow land, with seemingly no bottom to it, and only small patches could be
farmed. Mr. Wise later acquired title to
this land, and it has remained the family home since that early date, making
Mrs. Wise today the oldest resident on the river at Walnut Grove. The husband and father passed away on
September 11, 1914. Mr. Wise was a
school trustee for thirty years, and a man of sturdy character and fine
principle.
Eight children, four of whom are now
living, were born to Mr. and Mrs. Wise: Phillip, deceased, Louisa, deceased; Cordi, now Mrs. Henry McDonnell, of Healdsburg; Joseph,
William, and Jesse; and Docia and David, both
deceased. Two of the sons, Joseph and
Jesse, reside at Walnut Grove near their mother; and William operates a larger
tract on Tyler Island, but makes his home in the bay region. Of the original acreage left by the father,
Mrs. Wise retains sixty-four acres for herself, and the balance of the estate
has been divided among her children. On
June 1, 1922, Mrs. Wise’s residence burned down. It was rebuilt at once by this stanch representative
of pioneer days, and she now resides in her new home.
Mrs. Wise has long been interested in
reclamation work. She early realized
that large substantial and permanent levees are the only effective safeguard
from damage by the yearly breaks in the levees.
So she was one of the first to urge the forming of a district, so that
the work could be carried out in a permanent and effectual manner. The results have proven the success of the
project, and now she has a portion of her ranch set to pears, peaches,
apricots, cherries and apples, while the balance is devoted to grain and
vegetables.
In the early days of Walnut Grove, there
was no physician nearer than Sacramento.
Mrs. Wise is naturally very sympathetic, and a good nurse; and whenever
people were sick they would send for “Aunt Jane,” who always responded
cheerfully, going into their homes and nursing them, using the simple remedies
she had always found so effectual. In
those days, trips were made by foot or by rowboat, or in a lumber wagon, as
there were no automobiles and very few roads.
Mrs. Wise is familiarly called Aunt Jane by everyone. She is loved and esteemed by everybody for
her many acts of kindness, and her deeds of charity towards all, whether rice
or poor, regardless of color or creed.
She is deeply religious, and an earnest Christian. In the early days she held Sunday school in
her home. She joined the Methodist
Episcopal Church about thirty-five years ago.
Since then she has been a consistent member and earnest worker in the
church, and regrets very much that she did not see the truth years before. Her health has been restored through her
faith, and she is happy in the truth and wants everyone to know and follow the
Lord. While she endured much privation
and many hardships in the early days, yet now she feels rewarded and is better
off for having served and sacrificed.
Transcribed by Suzanne Wood.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With
Biographical Sketches, Page 428. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA.
1923.
© 2007 Suzanne Wood.