Santa Clara County
Biographies
HON. ARMENIUS CALVIN PAULSELL
HON. ARMENIUS CALVIN PAULSELL. The
first marriage recorded in Stanislaus county was that of Armenius Calvin Paulsell and Almira H. Gardenhire,
the ceremony taking place July 27, 1854. The contracting parties of
this simple service, performed by a zealous preacher who had traversed the
plains to aid in the regeneration of the camps, and savoring of the crude and
incomplete and desolate in western life, are both deserving of mention in any
work bearing upon the upbuilding of the state, for the former performed his
duty as a land owner and stock-raiser, as one of the organizers and the first
president of the Farmers’ Union of Stockton, as a member of the state
legislature, and as a grain merchant, and state harbor commissioner at San
Francisco for seven years; while the latter proved one of the earnest and
helpful pioneer women of the coast, and one in whom memories of the events of
those far distant days are as clear and well defined as if they had happened
yesterday. Mr. Paulsell departed this life in
Stockton, March 27, 1893, but his wife still occupies the home at
763 South Second street, San Jose, purchased by herself and husband in
1882.
Mr. Paulsell was born in
Greene county, Tenn., January 26, 1832, a son of
Rev. John Paulsell, a Methodist Episcopal
clergyman who was born in Virginia, and who removed with his family from
Tennessee to Illinois at a very early day. Rev. Paulsell’s
meritorious career was unexpectedly cut short while he was moving his family
farther west to Missouri, and while still within the boundaries of Illinois.
His wife, formerly Mary Ann (Bailey) Paulsell,
continued with her children to Laclede county, Mo.,
where in time she married a Mr. Sands, she and her second husband both
dying in Missouri. Mr. Paulsell began his
business career as a clerk in a store in Springfield, Mo., and in 1853 he
crossed the plains with oxen, bringing a large herd of cattle with which he
started a stock-raising enterprise in Tuolumne county.
Later he bought a farm on the north side of Stanislaus river in Stanislaus county, in the San Joaquin valley, of seven hundred acres,
raised grain and stock, and eventually became owner of about thirty-five
hundred acres. Disposing of the first seven hundred acres of his land after he
had realized a liberal profit, he located in Stockton, where he became one of
the organizers and chief promoters of the Farmers’ Union, and where he was
elected to the state legislature in 1872. Later on he was appointed state
harbor commissioner for seven years, and while filling this position lived in
San Francisco, and, at the same time, engaged in the buying and selling of
grain on a large scale. He purchased the home now occupied by his widow in
1883, and it was while on a visit in Stockton in 1893, that an old kidney
trouble resulted in his death. He died at the home of his son, J. J. Paulsell.
New honors were about to be conferred upon Mr. Paulsell in recognition of his faithfulness and efficiency,
and had he lived to fill the then pending appointment, he would have been
superintendent of the mint in San Francisco. He was a stanch
Democrat, and a man of liberal ideas and progressive
mind. He was both popular and prominent, and his taking off was both a surprise
and grief to his many social and business associates. He was a successful man
in the highest sense of the term, for he not only accumulated a competency, but
he was firmly entrenched in the good will and esteem of his fellow men, a fact
which he valued far higher than any money consideration. He left to his widow
the home in San Jose and six hundred and forty acres of land in Stanislaus county. He had a large family, consisting of twelve
children, the order of their birth being as follows: Mary C., who died at
the age of thirteen years; Lee Young, who lived to be eight years old; Armenius, who died at the age of fifteen months;
Missouri Jane, now Mrs. Vernon of Dawson, Alaska;
Martha Augusta, now Mrs. Munsey of Stanislaus county, Cal.;
William Everett, a resident of Reno, Nev.; John Jefferson, a
clergyman of San Francisco; Dolly, now a sister in the Episcopal Church of San
Francisco; Mary Ann, a graduate of the Woman’s College, of New York, and a
practicing physician of Massachusetts; Franklin; Edna, a bookkeeper of San
Jose; and Jessie, a teacher in Alameda, Cal.
Mrs. Paulsell was born in
Carroll county, Ark., and is of German ancestry, her
immigrating forefather having settled in Tennessee. Her father, Jacob Gardenhire, was born in Tennessee, as was also her paternal
grandfather, George, the latter having been a large land owner and planter who
removed in early life to Carroll county, Ark. Jacob Gardenhire
became a land owner in his own right in Carroll county, and married
Catherine Matlock, a native of Overton county, Tenn., and representative
of one of the old southern families of the state. Mr. Gardenhire
prospered as a farmer and stock-raiser, and eventually had nine children
playing around his door. He was ambitious of better things, and in 1850 followed
the tide of emigration to the west, traveling for weary weeks and months in a
slowly moving ox train. Fairly successful in the mines, he was sincerely
enthusiastic over the country along the coast, and after returning to Arkansas
in 1851, began to prepare to transport his family to sunnier skies and more
fertile soil. In April, 1853, all arrangements had been made, and one bright
morning the family bade adieu to the friends and scenes with which they had
long been familiar, and turned their faces toward the land of opulence
described by the head of the house. Having traversed the distance before,
Mr. Gardenhire was chosen captain of the
company, and in this capacity kept ahead in order to secure favorable camping
places. The country abounded in buffalo, and great herds of these animals often
came in sight of the tourists, and were sometimes killed to replenish their
larder. The trip was without any serious accident, and husband, wife and nine
children were little the worse for the constant demands upon their patience and
endurance. Settling temporarily on the Tuolumne river,
Mr. Gardenhire rented a farm for a year, and in
1854 moved to San Joaquin county, where he kept a country hotel, the old
Alabama House. Later he lived at Lone Tree, on the Mariposa road,
continuing to farm until shortly before his death at the age of sixty-one. He
was a Democrat, but not an office seeker; a plain, unpretentious man,
thoughtful of the comfort of his family, and obliging as a neighbor and friend.
Another child was added to his family in California, and of the ten, nine
attained maturity, and three sons and four daughters are still living.
Until her fourteenth year Mrs. Paulsell
attended the log school house near her home in Arkansas, and on the long trip
to California made herself useful in innumerable small
ways. Her marriage occurred so soon after arriving in the state, that nearly
all of her memories are connected with her husband and his struggle for western
success. Since she crossed the plains in the ox train she has come and gone
over the same distance four times by rail, interesting herself with comparisons
of the past and present, and living over again the nights when stars studded
her canopy, and when the life of the rude camp by the wayside was hedged in by
ever-present danger. Regarding these early times Mrs. Paulsell
is an interesting talker, and the listener to her accounts of other times may
depend upon the accuracy and historical value of her narratives. She is much
beloved for the sincerity and sympathy of her nature, and her generosity to
worthy causes.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard 03 July 2016.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages
1247-1249. The Chapman Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Marie Hassard.