John Nelson Webster

John Nelson Webster, an old and prominent citizen of Alameda, was born in the township of Canajoharie, Montgomery county, New York, April 15, 1814.  His father, John Webster, was the son of Daniel Webster, a cousin of the great Statesman of that name; he died at the age of ninety-six years, having been hale and hearty up to that time.  The mother of the subject of this sketch, whose maiden name was Sirlina Phillips, was a native of Massachusetts, and died at the age of forty-seven years, a woman of excellent worth and the mother of eleven children, five sons and six daughters, all of whom grew up to years of maturity.

     Mr. Webster, our subject, left home at the age of sixteen years, and clerked a year in the store of David P. Winne, at Albany, and afterward for three other merchants in turn, for a period of over seven years.  For the next nine years he conducted for himself a grocery, drug and variety store at Fonda, the county-seat of Montgomery county.  In March, 1849, he sailed from New York for California with a party of twenty-eight others, called the Mohawk Mining Company.  Each member of this company put in $100 worth of goods as his share, which on arrival in San Francisco was found to be worth $500 per share.  They came around Cape Horn on the bark Henry Harbeck, and arrived in San Francisco September 17, being en route 193 days.  They took two and a half months' time to sell their goods, and then each one struck out for himself.

     Mr. Webster, instead of going to the mines, continued in business in San Francisco, with magnificent success.  First he speculated in a job lot of calico, and afterward in buttons.  Buying a small iron boat called a yawl, he made money hauling freight in it.  Then he bought a little sail boat for $200, and a few days afterward he sold it for $800.  He made money at everything to which he turned his hand.  One of his best investments was the purchase of a Chilian brig for $1,000, from which he immediately sold a lot of loose lumber (hewed mahogany boards) from its deck for $500; and the spars he sold for $500, - these sales alone paying for the price of the boat.  The vessel was then fitted up for a store.  From December, 1850 to May, 1852, Mr. Webster was absent on a visit to the East, and on his return to California H. P. Degraaf came with him.  They started together on another ship, and did well.  For the years 1852-3 the profits were $100 a day.  Toward the end of the year 1853, Mr. Degraaf sold out to Mr. Webster, and the latter continued in the business until 1854.  Degraaf returned to New York and is now a millionaire and president of the Bowery Bank of the city.

     June 4 of that year, Mr. Webster located in Alameda.  In February previous he had purchased the block where his house now stands, from Rev. M. C. Briggs, a pioneer Methodist minister.  About the same time he purchased four acres of Nelson Flint, and later another acre, to straighten Monroe street, - making in all about six acres.  When the narrow-gauge railroad was built through the peninsula he sold the company a little strip of land for the right of way.  When he first came to Alameda the densest portion of the city was down on High street, and his residence was the farthest off in the woods.  There was not even a wagon road in front of his house; now the cars stop at that point sixty-two times a day.  Mr. Webster has done much toward the building up of Alameda; on the property he owns he has erected fifteen houses.

     He is much interested in religious matters.  He was brought up as a Free-Will Baptist, but in 1840 he joined the Methodist Episcopal church; and he was liberal in establishing the church of that denomination in Alameda; was the first superintendent of the Sunday-school.  He has given special attention to the vocal music at his church, having now served as chorister for twenty-one consecutive years.  Of course he has contributed largely of his means to the maintenance of the church, and done much toward the raising of contributions from others.  When a debt of $3,208 lay upon the society in 1867, for the old church building, he paid it all himself.  He has now been a resident in the same cottage thirty-seven years.  He is also exemplary as a total-abstinence man, and is hale and hearty at the age of seventy-seven years.  During the forty years of his residence in this State he has not tasted of either tobacco or liquor in any form.

     He was first married in 1840 to Anor Amanda Washburn, a native of Montgomery county, New York, and they had five children; the first two died in infancy; the others are:  Edgar W., a farmer in Los Angeles county; Mrs. Jane Elizabeth Sturtevant, whose husband died in San Francisco and whose two children were brought up by Mr. Webster; one of these is the present Postmaster of Alameda; and the remaining son by the first marriage is Morris Case, now residing in East Portland, Oregon.

     Mrs. Webster died in 1847, and in 1861 Mr. Webster, while East, married for his present wife Miss Caroline Washburn, a cousin of his former wife; and by this marriage there was one son, George, who died when ten years old.

 

 

Transcribed 8-27-04  Marilyn R. Pankey