San Joaquin County
Biographies
HAMILTON J. KEEN
HAMILTON J. KEEN, rancher,
was born in Eastport, Maine, December 25, 1825, his parents being Jonas, a
mechanic by trade, and Maria (Warren) Keen, both natives of Maine. They had
four children--three sons and one daughter. When the subject of this sketch was
about four years old his mother died. He remained with his father until he was
seventeen years old, during which time he worked a few years at the carpenter
trade, with his father. In 1843 he went to Boston, where he remained six years working at his trade. In
the spring of 1849 he took passage on the sailing vessel Susan Jane, bound for San Francisco, via Cape
Horn. It was a merchant
vessel, heavily loaded with lumber. There were twelve passengers on board, all
men. It took five months and eleven days to make this voyage. They encountered
a gale, in which they came very nearly being shipwrecked upon the rocks of the
Falkland Islands; otherwise the voyage was pleasant until they arrived at San Francisco, October 11, 1849. He remained there until March 1,
engaged at his trade. He then went to Sacramento and worked there at his trade for four weeks. On the
1st of April he went into the mines at a place called Horse Shoe
Bar, on the American river, where he and five others put in a flume of 11,000
feet, and lost money by the operation. In 1855 he went to Oroville, on the Feather river, where he was married in February, 1858. He left
there during the same year and went to a place called Smartsville. In the
spring of 1859 he gave up mining and came to this valley, where he has since
made his home, giving his attention to farming. He bought a squatter’s claim to
160 acres in what is now known as Liberty Township. In 1864 he gave up the first claim, and purchased
the place where he now lives, of the same man, Levi Allen. It is situated in
section 25. He owns about 800 acres, all cultivated land, under the best of
improvements; he has paid as high as $80 an acre for some of the land; has
superintended the working of it himself, and through his own industry and
business ability has placed himself in the list of our most successful farmers.
Politically Mr. Keen has been a consistent and valuable member of the
Republican party ever since he has been in this State. He is a member of the U.
B. Church, having joined it at Woodbridge sixteen years ago.
His wife, whose maiden name was Martha A.
Ware, is a native of Virginia, having moved with her parents to St. Louis,
where her parents died, leaving the family to the care of their uncle, P. G.
Camden, Mayor of the city of St. Louis. She afterward accompanied her married
sister across the plains, arriving in California in 1853.
Their family consists of three children,
viz: Walter H., Camden W. and Amy. They have lost one daughter, Ida, who
died at the age of eleven months. Their first son, Walter, is engaged in the
manufacture of combined harvesters. The second son, Camden,
is a graduate of the San
Joaquin Valley College at Woodbridge, California, and is now a law student in the university at Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Their daughter, Amy, is a student at the San Joaquin Valley College at Woodbridge, California.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 384-385. Lewis Pub.
Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
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