San Joaquin County
Biographies
WILLIAM HILLER HUGHES
WILLIAM HILLER HUGHES, a
rancher of Dent Township, was born in Greene County, Pennsylvania, June 6,
1821, a son of James and Mary (Hiller) Hughes. The father, a native of that
State and a farmer by occupation, lived to be over seventy, dying in 1863. The
mother, also a native of that State, died comparatively young, but she had
borne ten children, dying a few weeks after the birth of the youngest child.
Four of her children are living in 1889, the oldest being seventy-one.
Grandfather Thomas Hughes was an emigrant
to Pennsylvania, and was there married to Miss Elizabeth Swan, a native of the
State. He was a justice of the peace in Greene County for many years, and was
universally recognized as a man of the strictest integrity. His judgments were
never appealed from, as they were governed by his sense of right and justice;
and he was very successful as an arbitrator between angry litigants. He lived
to a good old age, as did his wife also. They had four sons and five daughters
who grew to maturity and raised families. Grandparents William and Margaret
(Meyers) Hiller were Pennsylvania Germans, and also lived to an advanced age.
They had three sons and five daughters, all of whom raised families.
The subject of this sketch received a very
limited education, was brought up to farming, and picked up the trade of
carpenter. He worked on his father’s farm until his twenty-fourth year, when he
was married, January 12, 1845, to Miss Margaret Hill, a daughter of Caton and
Margaret (Olden) Hill, born near Johnstown, Licking County, Ohio, in 1823. The
father was a native of Ohio, and the mother of Pennsylvania.
Soon after his marriage Mr. Hughes rented
a farm near Jefferson, Greene County, Pennsylvania, which he held about three
years, and in the spring of 1849 moved thence to Missouri. He there rented a
farm one year in Clark County, where his wife died in March, 1850, leaving a
son and a daughter: George F., born in 1845, now a rancher of Stanislaus
County, with four daughters and two sons; and Mary Frances, born in 1847, now
the wife of Ezra E. Underwood, a rancher and at one time supervisor of
Stanislaus County, but now living in Santa Cruz. They have three sons, of whom
the second, Alfred, is married.
Mr. William H. Hughes was again married,
March 20, 1851, to Miss Eliza Jane Dye, born in Ohio in 1831, a daughter of
John and Nancy Dye.
The Dyes were among the pioneers of
Scotland County, Missouri, having moved there from Ohio. Mr. Hughes bought 200
acres in that county, on which he raised corn chiefly. In 1853 he sold out and
came to California, with his wife and three children. Arriving in Sonora,
September 24, 1853, he went to mining at Shaw’s Flats, and followed that
pursuit until February, 1855. He then bought 160 acres of timber land three
miles south of Sonora. This he cleared and went to raising hay, which he sold
for $65 a ton in Columbia, in 1856. In November, 1857, he moved to this county,
and bought a settler’s right to 160 acres near Ripon, which he pre-empted and
entered when it came into the market. He has made his home there ever since,
raising wheat and barley chiefly. About 1860 he bought the half section
adjoining, and soon afterward the remaining quarter of the section. About 1870,
he bought 281 acres adjoining on the north, including most of the site of the
village of Ripon, in which he sold the first lots, and afterward exchanged his
portion for a ranch outside. He owns 330 acres in Castoria Township and 981 in
Stanislaus County--in all about 2,300 acres. He erected a handsome and
comfortable residence in 1874, at a cost of over $2,000.
Mrs. Hughes died March 11, 1888, leaving
eight children: John L., born in Missouri, in June, 1852, owns 800 acres in
Stanislaus County, and has two sons and two daughters; Lucy Ann, born in March,
1854, now the wife of D. F. Northrup, also a native of this State, a rancher,
but residing in Stockton, has one daughter, Nancy Jane, born in 1856, now the
wife of Samuel Foster, a rancher of Stanislaus County, has two daughters; James
G., born in 1858, owns 640 acres and farms 330 acres of his father’s estate,
both in Castoria Township, and has four sons and two daughters; Medora, born in
1861, now the wife of John Dirst, a rancher of Stanislaus County; Francis
Marvin, born in 1863, farms on his father’s land in Stanislaus County, has two
boys; Minty May, born in 1865, now the wife of John T. Bloomer, at one time a
trader and notary public at Ripon, but now residing in San Pedro, Los Angeles
County, has two sons--Thomas Clarence, born July 27, 1875, the only child still
under the parents’ roof, and attending school at Ripon.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 642-644. Lewis Pub.
Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
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