San Joaquin County
Biographies
JOHN SENECA LADD
JOHN SENECA LADD, a rancher
of O’Neil Township, and resident of Stockton, was born in
Danville, Caledonia
County, Vermont, April 28, 1832, a son of Seneca and Pamelia (Estabrooks) Ladd, both
natives of Vermont. The mother, born in 1808, died August 26, 1846; the
father survived her twenty years, and died aged sixty-eight years.
Grandfather Samuel
Estabrooks, of Scotch parentage, and by occupation a farmer, reached the age of
ninety-nine, and his wife, Susan E. (Colby) Estabrooks, was eighty-five years
at her death. Great-grandfather Colby was a soldier of the Revolution, and
reached the age of ninety-eight. Grandfather Warren Ladd, also a farmer, and
his wife, lived to an advanced age. Seneca Ladd, a blacksmith by trade, left
his shop in Danville in 1850, and set out for California by the Panama route. Arriving on this coast he mined about two years on the Tuolumne
river, and returned to Vermont in 1852, by the Nicaragua route.
The subject of this sketch received the
usual district-school education, supplemented by an academic course in Phillips’
academy, in his native county. He then entered the service of Fairbanks’ Scale Company, in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, and remained with that concern until he set out for
this coast. He came by the Nicaragua,
being among the first who took that route, arriving in San Francisco August 16, 1851. He first went to work in that city,
and on February 15, 1852, went to the mines in Tuolumne County, where he remained two winters.
In 1854 he went into the freighting
business with his brother, George S., under the style of Ladd & Brother,
and followed that line for fifteen years. In 1866 the brothers bought 800 acres
on the Mariposa road, near Collegeville, eight miles east of Stockton, and went to raising wheat and stock. They divided
this land about 1870 and John S. afterward sold his portion. He owns 354 acres
three miles south of Stockton, to the cultivation of which he has given his
personal attention for many years.
Mr. Ladd was married in San Francisco, March 12, 1863, to Miss Mary C. Swan, born in Methuen,
Massachusetts, February 5, 1841, a daughter of Caleb and Judith
(Pettengill) Swan, both natives of that town, and of New England descent for several generations. The mother was seven years younger
than the father, and survived him seven years, both dying at the age of
seventy-three years. The father John Pettengill died in 1827, aged seventy, and
grandmother Hannah (Burbank) Pettengill died in 1853, aged seventy-five.
Great-grandmother Judith Pettengill reached the remarkable age of 103 years,
dying in 1835. Grandmother Swan (by birth Ingalls) was of New England descent
for several generations, and the Swans were among the first settlers in Methuen, Massachusetts. Mr. and Mrs. Ladd have three living children, born
in this county: Mary Alice, born January 21, 1864, was graduated from the High
School, and received a diploma from the Normal School. She was married in this
city, July 30, 1887, to Milton Henderson Kingsbury, who was born in Bangor, Maine, in 1860. They have twin children, born August 30,
1888, and named Mary Alice and Amanda Gage Kingsbury. Pamelia Estabrooks Ladd,
born October 22, 1863. John Seneca, Jr., born December 27, 1873.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 359-360. 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
Genealogy Databases
Golden Nugget Library