San Joaquin County
Biographies
ESPER HANSEN DUE
ESPER HANSEN DUE, a rancher
of Dent Township, was born in Bornholm, Denmark, October 30, 1834, a son of Esper and Ellen Margaret
Due. The father, a farmer and blacksmith, died at the age of eighty-four, and
the mother at eighty-two. The grandparents on both sides were also long-lived.
The subject of this sketch learned the trade of his father and worked with him
and others as journeyman for four or five years. He emigrated to America in 1859, arriving in New York a few days before July 4, the celebration of which
astonished him not a little. He then came to California, via Panama route, and on his arrival in San Francisco set out for Sonora, where he worked at his trade about three months. He
then tried mining that winter, with the result of losing all he had. He then
settled on the Stanislaus at Burney’s old ferry, about 1861, working at his
trade for three years. He then sold out with the intention of going to Europe,
but, coming to Stockton, was there married in September, 1864, to Miss Anna
Gannon, a native of Ireland, then at the age of twenty years, who had been a
resident of the United
States since nine
years of age and of California since 1861. The father died in Ireland at the age of fifty-five. Mr. Due moved to Merced County, in 1864, and started a shop at Merced Falls, where he remained until 1867, when he returned to
this county and settled near Collegeville, where he bought 160 acres, which he
farmed. He also conducted the Fifteen-Mile House and 480 acres, farming the 640
for about four years. In 1879 he sold out and moved to his present place, about
a mile north of Atlanta, where he purchased 320 acres, increased in 1884 to
640 acres, chiefly devoted to wheat. He has a very good residence of ten rooms,
a complete outfit of implements necessary to successful farming and a liberal
supply of outbuildings, including a fine tank with excellent water.
Mr. and Mrs. Due have had nine children,
of whom the first two died in infancy, and the fifth, Mary Francis, died in
1882, aged eleven. Six are living in 1889: Emma, born June 3, 1868, finished
her education in the Sisters’ Academy in San Jose, was married July 31, 1889, to Francis Alexander
Mondon, born in this county in 1864, of French parents. Mr. and Mrs. Mondon
went to Europe for a wedding tour, but will probably settle in this
country on their return. The other surviving children are: Georgie Ella, born
January 8, 1870; Thomas Esper, June 21, 1873; John Albert, May 9, 1877; Katie
Frances, June 1, 1882; Helena Marguerita, December 5, 1884.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Page 336. Lewis Pub. Co.
Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
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