Jesse
Courtright FRUCHEY was another of the adventurous young California pioneers who
here gained a goodly measure of success in connection with early gold mining,
and he kept pace with and assisted in the general development of the state, his
ability and sterling character having marked him for service in public offices
of trust and responsibility. He passed
the closing years of his life in San Francisco, and was nearly seventy years of
age at the time of his death, on the 1st of August, 1896.
Mr.
FRUCHEY was born in Tiffin, Seneca County, Ohio, on the 23rd of
August 1828, he having been the elder of two children and the younger having
been Sarah Jane. He was a son of Andrew
and Margaret (COURTRIGHT) FRUCHEY, the former of whom died September 4, 1834, a
victim of an epidemic of cholera, and the latter of whom died of same disease
fifteen days later. The father was
citizen of prominence and influence in Seneca County and had served as mayor of
Tiffin. The subject of this memoir was
but six years of age when thus an orphan, and he was reared in the home of W.
O. DILDINE in his native county. His
early educational advantages included those of an Ohio college of the period,
and he was about twenty-two years of age when, in 1850, he came to California
and promptly identified himself with pioneer mining activities at Placerville
and Sacramento. For a time he shared a
cabin with Mark TWAIN, the great American humorist, who is best known by that
pen name, and the friendship of the two continued for many years. Mr. FRUCHEY became a close friend also of
Bret HARTE and of Tom SAWYER, the latter of whom was immortalized in one of the
books of Mark TWAIN. Mr. FRUCHEY went
to Coloma, Sutter County, in company with Mr. MARSHAL, who had discovered gold
at the point, and later he continued operations in many other mining camps, his
success having been very appreciable.
Finally he became crippled by rheumatism and returned to San Francisco. From 1858 to 1862 he was keeper of the
lighthouse at Fort Point, and he then returned to the mines. In the early ‘60s he was a member of the
House of Representatives in the California Legislature, and he served also as
sheriff of San Mateo County, besides having been elected to this office
likewise in Eldorado County. At the
time of his death he was one of the oldest members of Mount Moriah Lodge of
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons in the City of San Francisco.
In
February, 1880, Mr. FRUCHEY married Mrs. Sarah Josephine YOUNG, who was born in
Boston, Massachusetts, and who survived him a number of years, no children
having been born of this union.
Transcribed
by Deana Schultz.
Source: "The San
Francisco Bay Region" Vol. 3 page 13-14 by Bailey Millard. Published by The
American Historical Society, Inc. 1924.
© 2004 Deana Schultz.