San Joaquin County
Biographies
JOHN D. GRUWELL
JOHN D. GRUWELL, a farmer of
Douglass Township, was born in Quincy, Adams County, Illinois, June 9, 1830, a
son of Robert and Millicent (Daves) Gruwell. The parents, natives of Ohio,
moved to Illinois in an early day, and thence to Illinois in 1828; and there
Mr. Gruwell, Sr., became the owner of 160 acres of land, and remained a
resident there until 1833, when he moved to Lee county, Iowa. May 3, 1849, with
his wife and eleven children, he started for California. All these children
were born in Illinois and Iowa, all are now living except the oldest, who died
in 1852 at the sink of the Humboldt river, while crossing the plains. With them
across the plains came also a brother of Robert, namely Jacob Gruwell, with his
family. At Salt Lake City some Mormon acquaintances told them that it was
impossible to go through to California by the northern route, as the grass was
all burnt off. They wintered at Fort Utah, a distance of sixty miles from Salt
Lake City, with their brother. Noah N. and Labin H. Gruwell went to Salt Lake
City, found work, and there met a man named Page, whom their father had brought
from Iowa, and this man, in company with a cousin, went to the council house
and there heard the Mormons talk of murdering Jacob and Robert Gruwell,
charging that they had been parties to the expulsion of the Mormons from
Nauvoo, Illinois, and other certain localities in Iowa. The young men returned
to camp and reported the danger. Therefore the frightened men started at once for
California, by a circuitous route, leaving their families, who secured a
Mexican guide and in three days started on the southern route for this State,
their train being the first that ever passed that way. After many hardships,
privations and also loss of cattle, etc., their progress became very slow, and
soon their diet was confined to beef from cattle who had become too poor and
weak to bear the yoke. It was seen that the women and children would all perish
from hunger. James D. Gruwell and his older brother, in company with four
others, left the train at a distance of 300 miles for the nearest Spanish
settlement, the Cucamunga ranch, owned at that time by Don Prudone. They had
been informed by their Mexican guide that the distance was only sixty miles, and
they took with them only four days’ rations; when their provisions gave out
they lost all hope. They toiled on, however, four days and three nights longer,
without a drop of water or a morsel of food to eat expect prickly pears. At
Vagerous Springs they found a poor colt which had been left by Captain Waters’
pack train and this they were not long in butchering and devouring. The next
meal was a coyote, on the Mojave desert, and after that only a few acorns until
they reached the settlement. They returned to their families with six mules
packed with provisions and twelve head of beef cattle, and arrived at the train
in time to save the lives of their families and friends. They reached the
Cucamunga ranch, September 23, 1849. Robert Gruwell and his brother, after
eluding their enemies,--who were unaware that they had received any notice of
the secret plot,--came on by the way of Marysville, Sacramento, Stockton, Los
Angeles, and met their families 150 miles out from the settlement, and they
completed their journey safely together.
The father and family remained at
Cucamunga ranch until spring, and then moved up into El Dorado County, near
Coloma, and engaged in mining there until late in 1851. The parents and their
younger children then moved into Santa Clara County, where the father had
bought land. In June, 1852, with his eldest son, Noah N., he went East by the
Panama route, where Noah N. was laid up seventeen days with the fever, from the
effects of which he never entirely recovered. As soon as he was able to travel
he completed the journey, assisting his father in buying some cattle, and
married Sirena Cox, and the next spring started for California with a herd of
cattle. He arrived at the sink of the Humboldt, but relapsed and suddenly died.
In 1857 his father sold out and moved to
Lake County, this State, buying land and entering into agricultural pursuits
and live-stock raising. In 1861 he moved back into Santa Clara County, where in
the same year the mother died, aged fifty-four years. In 1883 he died, aged
seventy-six years. At the same age also his father, John Gruwell, a native of
Delaware, died in 1853. The mother had died several years before in Iowa, aged
about fifty-five years.
Mr. John D. Gruwell went to work on his
own account in 1849, mining. In 1851 he made his first purchase of land,
adjoining Santa Clara, and consisting of thirty acres. Selling this, he bought,
in partnership with his brother, Labin H., 160 acres three miles further south,
which they farmed until 1857. Then selling out, they moved to Lake County,
taking up Government land and following stock-raising and farming there until
1869. In 1870 John D. moved into this county and conducted a hotel at Peters,
during the construction of the Copperopolis & Milton Railroad. In 1871 he
bought a squatter’s right to 160 acres of land, which he preempted, and on
which he still lives, four miles east of Farmington. He has since increased the
extent of his land to 720 acres. Soon after settling here he commenced raising
wheat; at that time it was the most easterly point of the wheat-growing section
of the valley. He has a good two-story residence, with all necessary
out-building, etc.
Mr. Gruwell was married in Santa Clara,
June 19, 1854, to Miss Evaline C. Fine, born in Fayette County, Missouri, May
22, 1837, a daughter of Cornelius and Harriet Fine, both natives of Tennessee,
who died in Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Gruwell are the parents of five living
children, namely: Harriet H., Nellie F., Robert C., and Anna E., and Oscar.
They have lost their first-born, Charles N., who died August 9, 1876, at the
age of twenty-one years. Mr. Gruwell has been all over the State of California,
and has finally settled in San Joaquin County, which he thinks to be the best
portion of the State, where he is living at the present time.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 430-431. Lewis Pub.
Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
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