San
Joaquin County
Biographies
ALTON GARSIDE
A San Joaquin County rancher of
prominence living to the north of the Galt-Elliott Road, between the Cherokee
Lane Road and the state highway, about eight miles north of Lodi, is Alton
Garside, born in Jones County, Iowa, on April 28, 1883, the son of J. F. and
Rosalie S. (Bill) Garside. Grandfather
Garside was a native of England, and came to the United States when only ten
years of age, settling in Ohio. The
father, J. F. Garside, was born in Jackson County, Iowa, the grandfather having
moved to the Hawkeye State in frontier days, where the family
were farmers. Alton Garside was
the fourth-born and eldest son in a family of eight children born to his
parents. J. F. Garside was married in
Wyoming, Iowa, on December 28, 1881, to Miss Rosalie S. Bill. She was born at Wyoming, Iowa, and was a
daughter of Sedley C. Bill and Miriam (Fawcett) Bill. Grandfather Bill was a New Yorker, who came
to Iowa and homesteaded land in early days.
Grandmother Fawcett and his wife both died in Ohio. He had three sons who came to California in
the early days, one of whom returned to the east and died there. Two, William and Richard, remained in
California.
Richard Fawcett went into the mines
in the gold-rush days and met with moderate success. He came across the plains in the Argonaut
year of 1849, accompanied by William.
They started out with a company of people, but later withdrew from the
company and came on by themselves. They
did not fare as well however, as they had anticipated, and little by little
lost their effects until they had only a mule left between them. Necessity compelled them to dispose of even
this, and as a result had to make their way into California on foot. William Fawcett became a teaming
contractor. He did hauling throughout
the San Joaquin Valley and the mountain camps, but did not go into the
mines. He made three trips across the
plains, and returned with horses and stock to California. Later, William and Richard Fawcett came down
into the Dry Creek country. William
acquired 200 acres near Galt in San Joaquin County, on the south side of Dry
Creek; and Richard acquired 120 acres directly north to his brother in Sacramento
County, just across Dry Creek. Later
Richard sold out his 120 acres to his brother William, and the 320 acres thus
acquired became the home place of William Fawcett. William Fawcett had also acquired other land
before his death, and became quite an extensive landowner. Upon his death he willed the 200 acres of his
ranch lying in San Joaquin County to his two sisters (who had married
brothers), Miriam A. (Fawcett) Bill and Mary A. (Fawcett) Bill; and Grandfather
Sedley C. Bill then bought out the portion of this estate belonging to his
wife’s sister, which finally brought the 200 acres into the possession of
Sedley C. Bill. His daughter, Rosalie S.
(Bill) Garside, Alton Garside’s mother, was the fourth child in a family of
seven children. She has a brother,
George S. Bill, who married Miss Kate Todd, as his first wife, who became the
mother of three sons. He is living on
sixty acres of the old Fawcett ranch.
This George S. Bill had three children:
B. S. Bill, B. H. Bill, and Sedley C., who was killed by a runaway team
when he was very small.
J. F. Garside, after his marriage in
1881, went to Cheyenne County, Nebraska, and took up a tree claim, and also
homesteaded government land, getting altogether a half-section. He lived five and a half years in Nebraska,
and then came to Galt and settled on the ranch of eighty acres upon which they
now reside, on a part of the Fawcett estate deeded to the mother of Alton
Garside. Of these eighty acres, Alton
Garside owns twenty, while his mother retains sixty acres. Ten of the eighty acres are irrigated
abundantly by means of a pumping plant.
Alton Garside is the eldest of a family of three children: Alton, Gladys M., and Fern, all living at
home with their parents.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1555. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Genealogy
Databases