San Joaquin County
Biographies
EDUARD SAALBACH
EDUARD SAALBACH is a native
of Prussia, now a part of Germany, where he was born March 26, 1826, his
parents being Christian and ______ (Fontram) Saalbach; the latter died when our
subject was quite young and his father married again, his second wife’s name
being Mary Hall. By his first marriage there were five children, four sons and one
daughter, of whom Eduard is the youngest.
Eduard spent the early part of his life at
home and attended school up to the age of fifteen, after which he took up
mining and for many years followed that occupation, both in the old country and
in California. In 1849 he decided to leave his native home on
account of a revolutionary spirit that manifested itself among the people of
his native country, and, not wishing to become involved in it in any way, he
came to the United States, sailing from Autwerpen on board the American vessel Kirkwood, and
landing in the city of New York on the 2d day of May, 1849. He continued his
journey over the continent as far as Wisconsin, where he found employment on a farm, where he
remained about four months. He then went to Milwaukee and there took a steamer bound for Eagle Harbor, on Lake
Superior, where he intended
to take up work in the copper mines there. Arriving there, however, he had to
spend two months chopping wood for contractors for the purpose of steamboats.
When everything was ready he entered the mines and continued to follow that
occupation for some time. The great gold excitement in California at length induced him to return to New York and set sail from there for the land of gold. He came
via the Nicaragua route and arrived in San Francisco on the 11th of November. He came up to Stockton, and from there went to Sonora, where he went to mining on Wood’s creek, remaining
about six months. Then he went into Calaveras County, near the neighborhood of Vallacito, where he
followed his vocation assiduously for thirteen years; there were four in the
party who worked the claim, and, although it was operated under great expense,
they took out large amounts of the precious metal. One little incident of a
striking character happened to the parties who owned the claim before they took
hold of it: it was the taking out of a single piece of gold weighing twenty-six
pounds; this occurred in 1850. Mr. Saalbach continued his operating on this
claim until it was entirely worked out, when he abandoned it, also the business
of mining. He came to this valley in 1864 and purchased the ranch where he now
resides, taking up the business of farming which he has successfully carried on
up to the present time.
He was married in 1860, in Vallacito, to
Kattarina Wagner, a native of Bavaria, who came to the United States in 1854, resided in Cincinnati two and a half years, a similar length of time in New Orleans, then came to California
in 1859. They have a family of seven children, six of whom are sons, the
youngest a daughter. Their names are as follows:: Leobolt F., born February 28,
1861; Fritz, July 6, 1866; Eduard, June 1, 1868; Karl, October 1, 1870; Adolf,
October 14, 1872; Otto, January 17, 1875, and Bertha, May 2, 1878; the oldest
of the children was born in Calaveras County, the others in San Joaquin County.
Mr. Saalbach’s ranch is situated on the
Upper Sacramento road, six miles from Stockton, and contains 213½ acres of good farming land, well
improved. The buildings are good and substantial, and his handsome residence,
which was put up in 1878, gives a valuable and pleasing appearance to the
place.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 374-375. Lewis Pub.
Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
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