San Joaquin County
Biographies
LYMAN LYSANDER HUNTLEY
LYMAN LYSANDER HUNTLEY, a
rancher of Dent Township, was born in Allegany County, New York, September 8,
1826, a son of Harlow and Elmira (Partridge) Huntley. The father, born in
Massachusetts about 1804, and the mother in Connecticut about 1806, were married
in Allegany County, New York, in 1825. They moved to Erie County, New York,
about 1830, and in that and the adjoining county of Ashtabula in Ohio they
spent twelve years. In 1842 they moved to Pike County, Illinois, where they
died, the mother in 1875, and the father in 1879. They were the parents of
twelve children, all of whom grew to maturity, and of whom ten are living in
1889. A son, William, was killed in the battle of Pittsburgh Landing, and
Hattie, the youngest child, died in Pike County, Illinois, of diphtheria, at
the age of eighteen. Grandfather Amos Huntley, a native of Massachusetts, died
in the State of New York, aged about sixty-eight; and grandmother Adah (Pardee)
Huntley was nearly ninety. Grandfather John Partridge, a native of Connecticut,
died in DeKalb County, Illinois, aged seventy-five; and grandmother Roxanna
(Loveland) Partridge was seventy-eight at her death.
The subject of this sketch received the
usual schooling of those days, and worked on his father’s farm until he was
twenty-one. He was married in Pike County, Illinois, September 18, 1847, to
Miss Matilda Brown, born in that State January 5, 1829, of Dyer and Jane
(McMullen) Brown. The father was born in Canada, of American parents, and the
mother in Ohio. Upon the death of the latter in 1853, Mr. Brown came to
California with his seven children, including Mrs. Huntley, who with her
first-born thus rejoined her husband at Dry Town, Amador County. Mr. Brown
lived to be eighty-four, dying at Mr. Huntley’s in March, 1889.
The subject of this sketch came across the
plains in 1850, arriving in Grass Valley on August 18, of the first wagon train
by the Truckee route. He mined one month at Michigan Bar in Sacramento County,
then at Dry Town in Amador County six years. Having accumulated a little money,
he bought some cattle and moved down on the Stanislaus, where he now resides, a
mile north of the river. He there pre-empted 160 acres in 1857, and in 1889 is
the owner of 1,000 acres, of which 600 are across the river in Stanislaus County,
and 320 form the homestead ranch. He put in a crop in 1858, but carried on
cattle-raising till 1863, when the land began to be fenced in and cattle could
no longer have a free range. Since 1863 Mr. Huntley has devoted his attention
to the raising of wheat and barley, and the care of his large family of ten
living children: Estella Jane, born in Pike County, Illinois, September 8,
1848, now Mrs. John Hall, of this township (see sketch of Mr. Hall); one boy
died an infant in Illinois; Edward Everett, born in Dry Town, Amador County,
California, May 14, 1854; Julia May, also in Dry Town, October 9, 1856. Those
that follow were born in the present home of the family: Frances Ella, December
3, 1859; Laura Ann, August 7, 1862; Hattie Grant, April 8, 1865; Mary Susan,
September 28, 1867; Robert Pardee, December 20, 1869; Jesse Horace, April 22,
1873; Edith Ethel, January 9, 1876. Edward E. was married to Miss Hattie
Thornton, and they have three daughters and one son, and are living on a 320
acre farm across the Stanislaus, given them by Mr. Huntley; Julia May, now Mrs.
David Dean Hahn, of Fresno County, has three girls; Frances Ella, now Mrs. John
F. Warner, of San Diego; Laura Ann is living at home; Hattie G., now Mrs.
William Boyd, of Stockton, has a boy and a girl; the four youngest go to school
to Oakdale, seven miles away, for the opportunity of a superior education. From
1883 to 1888 Mr. Huntley resided on his property in Stockton, chiefly for the
purpose of giving his children superior advantages in education, as he much
prefers a country life. He has been a school trustee for twenty years, mainly
because of his interest in the proper education of children. He was among the
first to join the San Joaquin Valley Society of California Pioneers, and is
still a member. In 1889 he made an important addition to his home, enhancing
the comforts and happiness of its inmates.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 640-641. Lewis Pub.
Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
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