San
Joaquin County
Biographies
MRS. MARY A. LEWIS
Among the honored pioneers of San
Joaquin County is Mrs. Mary A. (McHugh) Lewis, who resides on a portion of the
old McHugh ranch on the Upper Sacramento Road eight miles from Stockton. This ranch contains 136 acres of rich and
fertile land, which is devoted to fruit and grain raising. She was born at Columbia, California,
September 22, 1865, a daughter of Patrick and Elizabeth (O’Connor) McHugh,
natives of Ireland. Both parents crossed
the plains to California in early days and were married in San Francisco and
went to Columbia, Tuolumne County, where Patrick McHugh engaged in mining. Mr. McHugh worked nine years for one man in
St. Louis, Missouri, at seven dollars per month and even then saved money so he
could defray his expenses to California.
He had three brothers, Timothy, John Bernard, and Mike, who also came to
California. The two former came to
California with Patrick, mined together for a while and then began farming in
San Joaquin County in 1868 and owned about 1,100 acres of land together. All have now passed away; Patrick McHugh died
in February, 1893, his widow surviving him until April, 1906. Six children were born to this pioneer
couple: Anna died at the age of one
year; Katherine, Mrs. Pat Dolan, resides near the old home; John died at the
age of forty-eight years; Mary A. is the subject of this sketch; Elizabeth,
Mrs. Odor, resides on part of the old McHugh ranch; and Arthur J. makes his
home with Mrs. Lewis.
Mary A. McHugh received her
education in the Calaveras district school and remained at home until her
marriage, which occurred in Stockton on May 11, 1890, and united her with
Jefferson D. Lewis, a son of Peter and Susan Lewis, natives of Virginia and
Nebraska, respectively. Jefferson Lewis
was a lad of twelve years when his parents settled in San Joaquin County. He worked for the Holt brothers for many
years during harvest time, then he rented an
eighty-acre ranch in the Waterloo district which he farmed to grain. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis were the parents of two
children: Arthur J., a farmer near the
old home, has three children; Jefferson assists his mother and has one
child. Mrs. Lewis reared a cousin,
Katherine O’Connor, from nine months old, who has been brought up as her own. Mr. Lewis passed away in September,
1893. Mrs. Lewis inherited 36 acres of
the old McHugh ranch on which she built a fine residence in 1917, and where she
now makes her home. Twenty acres is
devoted to orchard, ten acres to vineyard, and the balance is hay and grain
land; the ranch is irrigated by means of a pumping plant. Mrs. Lewis is a Republican in politics and a
member of the Catholic Church, and is numbered among the representative and
well-known pioneer women of her locality, enjoying the good will and esteem of her many friends.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
951-952. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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