San
Joaquin County
Biographies
DANIEL WELLS FANNING
From the time of his arrival in
California in 1848 until his death nearly fifty years later, D. W. Fanning was
identified with various enterprises, agricultural and commercial, tending
toward the development of San Joaquin County and during that period he held a
position among the prosperous and enterprising citizens of the community. He was born in Franklinville, New York,
August11, 1823. At the outbreak of the
Mexican War he was apprenticed as a horseshoer.
He ran away and enlisted in the Second Dragoons, serving with Generals
Perry, Scott and Taylor, in the battles of Palo Alto, Buena Vista, Cerro Gordo,
Churubusco, Chapultepec, San Pasqual, Tabasco, and Vera Cruz, serving from 1846
to 1848, and receiving wounds from which he never entirely recovered. He was a farrier by
trade, which he followed during his entire enlistment. In 1848 he came to California and established
a wheelwright and blacksmith business at the Old Fourteen-mile House east of
Stockton on the Mokelumne Hill Road; later he conducted the same kind of a
business at the Half-way House and still later he removed his shop to Fishers
Bridge, now Bellota, where he passed away on June 15, 1898, his widow surviving
him until June 18, 1908.
Four children survive this
interesting pioneer couple: Mrs. Frank Creary and Mrs. Charles Cody residing in Bellota; William
Fanning of Linden, and Mrs. Anna Lusignan of
Stockton. Mr. Fanning was well known to
every teamster and freighting company who passed through Bellota during the
exciting days of gold discovery and being an expert in his trade. He was sought by every teamster to the
southern mines and they would travel many miles in order to have him do their
wagon work. Almost a quarter of a
century has passed since the death of Mr. Fanning, but among old settlers in
San Joaquin County he is remembered as one who labored unselfishly to bring
about better conditions in the district in which he settled sixty-four years
ago.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
584-587. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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