San Joaquin County
Biographies
WILLIAM DELOS BUGBEE
WILLIAM DELOS BUGBEE, city
weigher of Stockton, was born in Painted Post, Steuben County, N. Y., August
25, 1819, a son of Elisha and Teresa Elvira (Peeso) Bugbee, both deceased. The
father, a native of Massachusetts, learned the trade of shoemaking, was married
in Cherry Valley, New York. He was accidentally drowned in 1821, by falling off
a raft, leaving three children, all living in 1890: Lucy Ann, now Mrs. Samuel
Moe, of Eureka, Humboldt County, California, aged seventy-six; Jane L., now the
widow of Thomas L. Noyes, late of Washington, District of Columbia, aged
seventy-four; and W. D. Bugbee, the subject of this sketch, aged seventy on his
last birthday. The mother, a native of Connecticut, by second marriage to Edward
Stubbs, moved with her family to Hornby and then to Bath, both in Steuben
County, New York, and in 1829 to Washington, District of Columbia, where she
died at the age of sixty-three.
The subject of this sketch was educated
chiefly in Washington from 1829 to 1835, when he went to Philadelphia to learn
the trade of machinist, staying, however, only one year. He then made a trip to
Havana, Cuba, and thence to Boston, to Worcester, Massachusetts, and then to
Providence, Rhode Island, where he enlisted in the Second Dragoons, United
States army, joining his regiment at the seat of war in Florida before the
close of 1836. In 1838 he returned to Washington, and a few months later went
to Cincinnati, where he worked for some months as clerk in the Denison House. In
the spring of 1839 he went further west, and taught school at Caledonia,
Illinois, during the winter; the following year, 1840, at Fayette, Howard
County, Missouri, and the third year, 1841-’42, in Randolph County, Missouri.
In 1842 he again returned to Washington, and toward the close of the year went
to New Orleans, Louisiana, arriving December 25, 1842. There he served as clerk
in the office of the Jeffersonian Republican until 1847, then went into
the grocery business till July, 1850.
Mr. W. D. Bugbee was married in New
Orleans, February 20, 1845, to Miss Mary E. Dickinson, born in Arkansas, March
9, 1827, a daughter of Judge Townsend and Mary (Moore) Dickinson, both natives
of the State of New York. The mother died in Arkansas, aged thirty-three years;
the father in Texas, in 1851.
In 1850 Mr. Bugbee moved to Batesville,
Arkansas, where he was engaged in trading and speculating until 1854, when he
came across the plains to California, arriving in San Francisco in September.
He saw enough of mining on the way, above Marysville, to satisfy him that it
was not a desirable vocation. In San Francisco he embarked in the grocery business,
remaining until 1856, when he came to Stockton. Meanwhile Mrs. Bugbee had
joined him in San Francisco, with their two children, in 1855, having come by
the Nicaragua route. In 1857 he bought a 320 acre ranch of fine farming land on
the Sacramento lower road, about ten miles from this city, and engaged in
farming until 1868, when his health failed him. He then came to this city and
has resided here since. He was appointed city weigher in 1870, and has held the
position to this time. He owns several lots and a $5,000 residence in this
city. He also owns 640 acres in San Bernardino County. Mr. W. D. Bugbee is a
member of Yosemite Lodge, No. 196, American Legion of Honor.
Mr. and Mrs. Bugbee are the parents of
four living children, having lost four others. The living are: Philip
Jefferson, born in New Orleans June 18, 1850; married in San Bernardino County,
now a merchant in Redding, Shasta County, has one child, Irene Florence, born
in 1887. Frank Marshall, born in Batesville, Arkansas, in May, 1854, a painter
of this city, was married to Miss Clara Fanning; Florence Bugbee, born in this
county in October, 1857, is an artist in painting and resides with her parents;
William Scott Bugbee, born in this county in December, 1859, is a partner with
his brother in Redding, under the style of Bugbee Brothers, the firm being also
interested in mines.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 509-510. Lewis Pub.
Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
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