San Joaquin County
Biographies
JAMES UDELL CASTLE
JAMES UDELL CASTLE, a rancher
of O’Neil Township, residing in Stockton, was born in Bovina, Delaware County,
New York, February 28, 1832, a son of ¾¾ and Mary (Champlain) Castle. The father, born in
Connecticut about 1789, resided many years in the State of New York, and in
1847 moved with his family to Wisconsin, settling on a farm of 160 acres, where
he lived to the age of seventy-four. The mother, born January 28, 1793, is
living in Wisconsin in 1890, at the age of ninety-seven. She visited her son in
Stockton in 1870, remaining until 1872, and was ninety-two years old before she
began to use spectacles. Her father, William Champlain, enlisted in the army of
the Revolution while quite young and served seven years, rising to the rank of
captain. He afterward resided for some years in Vermont, and was in receipt of
a pension of $8 a month in his old age. He died at the age of ninety and his
wife (nee Cads) at eighty-seven. Grandparents Castle lived to be over seventy,
raising a family of nine children, of whom one, Mrs. Mary Warner, is living
near Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1890.
The subject of this sketch received the
usual district school education in his youth, and moved with the rest of the
family to Wisconsin in the autumn of 1847. He there helped on the farm until
the spring of 1852, when he left for California coming across the plains and
arriving in Placerville in August of that year. The first gold dust he gathered
was $40 paid him for building a board cabin, but with that amount of ready
money to procure the necessary outfit he went to mining on the American river
and worked at that industry at several points until 1856. He then came to this
county and settled down to farming with his brothers George H. and Christopher
C. near French Camp, where the former had settled on their arrival in 1852 and
the latter had joined him in 1854. The three brothers owned three-half sections
in 1859, and raised in one season, 1859 or 1860, 14,000 bushels of barley and 5,000
of wheat. In 1861 C. C. and J. U. Castle sold their joint holdings near French
Camp and bought lands in severalty in this township, the former near the
Five-Mile House on the lower Sacramento road, and the latter, six miles north
of this city at what is now known as “Castle’s Switch,” on the Central Pacific
Railroad. Here the subject of our sketch now owns 965 acres devoted chiefly to
the raising of wheat, but with enough barley for feed and some stock, giving
personal attention to the ranch from this city, where he has resided for many
years in the enjoyment of a very well appointed residence.
Mr. J. U. Castle was married in Kenosha
County, Wisconsin, in March, 1868, to Miss Emma Agnes Watkins, born in that
State, a daughter of George and Maria (Chamberlain) Watkins. The mother, born
in Connecticut in 1813, died in Wisconsin in 1888. The father, of English birth
or parentage, died about 1852, on his farm in Wisconsin, aged forty-five. Mr.
and Mrs. Castle came to Stockton after their marriage, in 1868, by way of New
York, Panama and San Francisco. Mr. Castle has since made two other visits to
the East, in 1883 and in 1886, chiefly to see his aged mother in Wisconsin.
Mr. Castle is a charter member of the
Stockton Lodge A. O. U. W., and a director of the Farmers’ Union, being the
first elected at the organization of that corporation.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 639-640. Lewis Pub.
Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
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