San Joaquin County
Biographies
DANIEL A. LEARNED
DANIEL A. LEARNED, farmer of
O’Neil Township, was born at the old homestead, Oxford, Massachusetts, November
6, 1820, a son of Salem and Huldah (Harwood) Learned,
both natives of Massachusetts, the father born December 9, 1775, and the mother
in April 1781. When eighteen years of age, Daniel, our subject, began
wandering, most of the time engaged in flat-boating on Western rivers, and
having the chills and fever every year. In 1848 he went to Texas, near Dallas,
where he engaged in farming two years. In 1850 he came to California across the
plains with ox teams, and arriving at Mariposa he went to mining. In 1851 he
came to Stockton, where the people were at that time sick with small-pox. He
remained but a short time. He next went to Bidwell’s
Bar, Butte County, where he mined for six weeks, thence to Slate creek and
spent the remainder of the summer mining there. That winter he mined at
Cherokee, Butte County, and in the spring of 1852 went to Oregon, Humboldt Bay
and other places, among treacherous and hostile Indians for a few months. In
the fall of that year he located land in Scott valley, Siskiyou County,
California, split rails, and with the help of a yoke of oxen and a hired man,
fenced 160 acres and plowed twenty acres of land. All supplies had to be packed
from Oregon on mules, a distance of 150 miles, or from
Shasta, California, the same distance. He bought Oregon potatoes, paying 20 to
30 cents a pound for them, to the amount of $400, and onions and flour,
obtaining 120 pounds for $160. Seed wheat and barley for eight acres cost 25
and 30 cents a pound. For several months that winter in Yreka, flour and sugar
were worth $1 a pound, and salt its weight in silver. On the 4th of
March he planted cabbage, turnips, lettuce and onions; on the 10th
and 12th sowed eight acres of wheat and barley; on the 16th
he planted an acre of onions. These facts are taken from his diary kept at the
time, which is still preserved. In June, 1854, he lost 200 acres of wheat by
frost. In connection with farming he carried on mining at Yreka and Scott’s
Bar, Siskiyou County. In 1860 he went to San Francisco, where he was married in
1861 to Miss Gennis H. Hall. They ran a dairy ranch
for two years, raised grain for three years, and then moved to Stockton, San
Joaquin County, where they purchased 240 acres of fenced land, paying $6,000
cash for it. He still resides on his farm, which is well-improved, and is
engaged in raising grain and fruit. His wife was born December 26, 1828, in
Chester County, Pennsylvania. They have five children, viz:
Willard S., born July 20, 1865; Ella H., February 8, 1864, now the wife of Fred
G. Ladd, a farmer of Fresno County; Ada S., born in
December, 1866; Horace G., April 20, 1869, and Clara D., in August, 1872.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 452-453. 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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