San Joaquin County
Biographies
MRS. MARY SMITH
MRS. MARY SMITH was born in
England, February 21, 1835. In 1855 she sailed for California with her parents.
They landed in New York; took passage on the steamer Star of the West, to the
Isthmus. In order to cross the Isthmus her father, Peter Curtis, secured an
open wagon, being totally unaware of the intense heat they would have to
encounter. They would never have reached their journey’s end had it not been
for her father, who exerted all his strength in helping the mules to draw the
wagon up the hills. The heat was terrible, and Mary, our subject, came very
near being sun-struck. They were eight hours in crossing the Isthmus--from
eight o’clock in the morning till four P.M. After a long, tiresome journey by water they
reached San Francisco on the 6th of May. They stayed there but a
short time, then went to Stockton, and soon bought the ranch where she has
resided ever since. It contains 320 acres, and is situated in Castoria
Township, about three miles from French Camp and seven miles from Stockton. She
owns two more ranches of 160 acres each; one is two miles south of her present
home, and the other in Elliott Township, near Lockeford. They are all finely
improved farms.
Our subject was the wife of F. H. Smith, a
native of Dayton, Ohio, born in 1828. He came to California in 1848; had been
here but a short time when he was employed by the Government at $12 a day. At
the end of three months he went to the mines, where he was very successful. He
spent the greater part of his life in farming. He was married July 17, 1855, to
Miss Mary Curtis; they had a family of eight children, viz: Walter, Florence,
George, Peter, Sarah, Bessie, Philip and Alfred. November 8, 1885, F. H. Smith
died, leaving his wife and children well provided for.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 575-576. 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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