San Joaquin County
Biographies
JOSEPH B. MESSICK
JOSEPH B. MESSICK, a rancher
of Douglass Township, was born in Delaware, February 28, 1820, a son of George
and Mary (Carey) Messick, both members of the Society of Friends. The mother, a
native of Delaware, died young, in 1824, having borne six children. The father,
a native of Philadelphia, died in 1838, aged fifty-two.
J. B. Messick received a fair education in
his youth and learned the trade of cabinet and wood turner. Traveling west in
the exercise of his craft, he was married in Indiana, May 22, 1842, to Miss
Elizabeth Cole, a native of New York, born July 8, 1824, a daughter of Calvin
and Lavina (Slocum) Cole, who moved to Shelby County, Indiana, in the spring of
1825. The father died about 1855, aged sixty-two, and the mother, a native of
Vermont, died in 1858, aged sixty-nine. Grandmother Prudence (Hard) Cole, of Welsh
descent, lived to be eighty-four. The Slocums are American for several
generations.
In 1850 J. B. Messick crossed the plains,
entering the mines at Ringgold, Placer County, on August 21. He worked a short
time for low wages. September 18, with a comrade of his journey across the
plains and another partner, he bought a claim, and they had the good fortune to
gather in $225 each in five days. Having previously been able to make living
wages, they came to Stockton. While Mr. Messick went to work for Andrew Wolf at
$200 a month, his partners went to Sonora on a prospecting tour. They concluded
to go into the manufacture of miners’ tools in Sonora, and Messick bought the
lumber and iron on credit. After one month he followed his partners to Sonora
City, in November. They bought out the third partner January 17, 1851, and
before the close of the month wound up the business. They tried mining again
until May, making $5 a day each. Mr. Messick remained in Sonora five years, and
was sometimes interested in mining claims, but that was the extent of his
personal experience in mining. He then went into the manufacture of “long-toms”
and rockers. In 1852 he engaged in the sash, door and blind business, just in
time to lose $8,000 by the fire in June of that year. The town was again swept
away by fire in November, 1853. Working at various jobs another year, he came
down into this township in October, 1855, and took up a quarter section of
land. He went into cattle-raising, having at one time 200 head. He also kept a
hotel, and his place being on the Camp Seco road, he made money for four or
five years, until the travel died down. He has given accommodations to as many
as eighteen teams on a single night on this road. He then went into dairying,
milking twenty-eight cows, and through all changes did some general farming,
which is the only thing which abides with him. His farm is reduced by adverse
claims to eighty-five acres, of which three are in orchard, on the bank of the
Calaveras.
Mr. and Mrs. Messick are the parents of
four living children--Thaddeus Warsaw, born in Indiana, December 2, 1843, now a
machinist, living in Calaveras County, has nine children; Lavina Jane, born
January 10, 1847, now Mrs. Charles Fagan, of Modesto, the mother of four
children; Octavia V., born February 25, 1849, now Mrs. John Gilman, of
Lockeford, mother of seven children; and Chester Weed, born December 17, 1850,
married to Rachel White, and father of three children.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Page 254. Lewis Pub. Co.
Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2008 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
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