San Joaquin County
Biographies
PETER CLAPP
P. CLAPP, a farmer of
Castoria Township, was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, March 12, 1824. His
parents, Salmon and Eleanor (Newcomb) Clapp, were also natives of the Bay
State. The original American family of his name came over in the Mayflower. Mr.
Salmon Clapp was a stone quarryman and vessel owner, built wharves in Boston,
and died in 1836. In 1838 the subject of this sketch went to Quincy,
Massachusetts, and learned the printers’ trade in the Passage office;
when his brother Charles started the Quincy Aurora, he went with him. In
1849 he came to California, leaving Boston, November 4, on the schooner
Lamartine, touching at Rio Janeiro and Valparaiso, arriving at San Francisco at
the end of 145 days, with a party of six friends. They at once built a small
boat out of the lumber which they could manage to gather up upon the wharves,
and in this went to Sacramento, the trip taking two days. A few days afterward
Mr. Clapp went to Sonora, Tuolumne County, and was engaged there and at Poverty
Hill and Jamestown five years in mining, being very successful. He then went
into the butcher business at Poverty Hill. Two years later he thought he would
return East, but getting within about two miles of where he now lives, he
stopped there and engaged in chopping wood and hauling it to Stockton. After
that he located on 160 acres of land where he now resides, to which he has
since added by purchase until he now has 1,600 acres. He has also bought the
property where he tied his boat when he first came to Stockton, and his brother
Noah now lives there. He now devotes his time mostly to raising grain, but was
formerly quite extensively engaged in cattle and sheep raising. He has long
been a member of the San Joaquin Society of California Pioneers.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Page 536. 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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