San
Joaquin County
Biographies
GEORGE TEAGARD HUGHES
Among the pioneer residents of San
Joaquin County, nearing four score years is George Teagard Hughes, who came to
this state in boyhood and has always been an active participant in the
industrial activity which has marked his career. For fifty years he followed farming pursuits
on a farm east of Modesto, California, his interests centering in stockraising
and dairying. He was born in Greene
County, near Jefferson, Pennsylvania, October 20, 1845, a son of William
Hiller, born June 6, 1821, at Jefferson, Pennsylvania, and Margaret Loyd (Hill)
Hughes, also a native of Pennsylvania, born at Uniontown. The Hughes family is of Welsh origin. When Hugh Hughes, an early ancestor of our
subject, was driven out of Wales for rebellion, his descendants scattered over
England, Scotland and Ireland, this branch coming from Scotland and settling
near Reading, Pennsylvania. Great-grandfather
Hughes was a soldier in the Revolutionary War.
After the war was over he was sent with a small army west of the
Alleghany Mountains to quell what was known as Shay’s Rebellion, caused by men
refusing to pay the Government tax on whiskey manufactured there. When this was accomplished he left the army
and moved west, settling in what is now Greene County, Pennsylvania, and was
the founder of the town of Jefferson, where he lived and died, being buried in
the Cumberland Presbyterian burying ground there. He was a life-long member of the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church as was also the grandfather and father of our subject. In 1853 the father, William Hiller Hughes,
moved from Missouri to California and settled in Tuolumne County at Sonora,
where he engaged in mining. From there
he moved to San Joaquin County in 1857 and settled near where Ripon now stands
and there reared a family of seven boys and five girls.
George Teagard Hughes received only
a limited education in the schools of Tuolumne and Stanislaus counties, but the
practical knowledge and experience gained on his father’s ranch were of
inestimable value in later years. The
first piece of property owned and on which he began his farming pursuits is the
land where now stands the town of Ripon, and from the beginning of his
agricultural activities he was successful, continuing from 1865 to 1912. In 1912 Mr. Hughes sold all of his farming
interests and went to Medford, Oregon, where he purchased a pear orchard; this
engaged his attention for four years when he returned to California, settling
at San Leandro, where he has since resided.
The marriage of Mr. Hughes occurred
April 28, 1875, and united him with Miss Elizabeth A. Davison, a daughter of
James and Elizabeth Davison, born near Benton, Missouri, on July 24, 1856. Her parents came to California when she was
two years old and settled on the Tuolumne River eight miles east of Modesto,
and the young people were married in the same house the parents had moved into
in 1858. They were the parents of nine
children: William Leland; Valora U.; Ruth L., Mrs. Roy S. Cameron; Myrtle M. married
Martin C. Wolfe, deceased several years ago; Estella J., Mrs. Henry A. Schadlich residing at Oakdale; Clarence L. is married and
lives at Manteca and is a farmer; Ethel F., Mrs. L. T. Young; George R., is
married and lives in Eureka; and Mabel B., is the wife of W. H. Cavill. Mrs. Hughes
passed away May 9, 1918, at Madera. For
ten years Mr. Hughes was secretary of the Grange at Modesto and as a firm
believer in the principles of the Republican Party, he has taken an active part
in the political affairs of county, state and nation. For a great many years he was a member of the
Wildey Lodge, No. 149, I. O. O. F., of Modesto. For the past thirty-five years he has been an
active and substantial member of the Baptist Church, holding the office of
deacon, trustee, financial secretary and other positions of trust and
responsibility. He enjoys the regard of
his fellow men, and is widely known and esteemed in central California.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1088. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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