Stanislaus
County
Biographies
MARTHA ELLEN TUCKER
The state of Maine has supplied to
the west some of its most excellent citizens and more than one member of the
old family of Dingley has become prominent in one way or another. One of its most notable representatives in
public life for many years was the Hon. Nelson Dingley, editor and statesman
and author of the Dingley tariff bill.
Of this same family came Samuel Dingley, an honored California pioneer
of 1850, who was born in Maine in 1810 and married Mrs. Sarah Sherman, also a
native of the Pine Tree state. Samuel
and Sarah (Sherman) Dingley, who were the parents of Martha Ellen Tucker, of
Modesto, Stanislaus County, have a most interesting history in connection with
early modern civilization in California.
Mr. Dingley came to this state fifty years ago by way of the Isthmus of
Panama and mined at different camps and kept hotel at Keeler’s Ferry.
In 1853 he sent for his wife and she
came from her old home in the east by way of the Isthmus, bringing with her her two little daughters, Martha Ellen and Emma
Frances. The latter died September 21,
1879, age twenty-nine years, and the former is now Mrs. Tucker, who has kindly
furnished to the editors of this work the brief history of her parents and her
family here given and who at this date (1900) has been a resident of California
for half a century. She relates that the
family remained at Keeler’s Ferry for some time, until their hotel was
destroyed by fire. They then removed to
Knight’s Ferry, Stanislaus County, and Mr. Dingley built another hotel on Buena
Vista hill. This second hotel was
burned, as is supposed, by Indians, but was rebuilt by Mr. Dingley and managed
by him until it was again burned, without insurance, after which he engaged in
stock raising on his ranch above Knight’s Ferry, an enterprise which he
continued with success until he removed to Oakdale, where after several years
he died June 30, 1886, at the residence of his daughter in his seventy-sixth years,
as the result of an injury received by being thrown from his buggy. He was an intelligent, progressive citizen, a
Republican, and during the war a strong Union man. His good wife died October 17, 1874, in the
fifty-sixth year of her age. A son and a
daughter were born to Mr. and Mrs. Dingley after they came to California: Albert Dingley, now the county clerk of
Stanislaus County; and Etta, who is the wife of John Richards of Fresno.
Martha Ellen Dingley attended the
public school at Knight’s Ferry and finished her education at the Stockton
Female Seminary. She was married at
Knight’s Ferry, December 17, 1868, to Simon Enslen, who left his old home in
the east and crossed the plains to California in 1854 and became a prominent
sheep grower and general businessman, popular for his personal worth. Mr. Enslen died January 22, 1880, aged
forty-eight years, leaving a widow and two daughters, in good
circumstances. His elder daughter is the
wife of Albert Holthom; his young daughter is the wife of John McMahon, and
both live at Modesto. February 15, 1882,
Mrs. Enslen married John Franklin Tucker, a native of Kentucky and a member of
an old and respected family of that state and a prominent businessman of
Modesto, where, as a member of the firm of Tucker & Perley, he is a leader
in real estate circles. Their union has
been blessed by the birth of two sons, Clarence Eugene and Elmer Carlyle. Mr. and Mrs. Tucker have a wide acquaintance
throughout central California and Mrs. Tucker is highly esteemed by early
settlers in all parts of the state.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 394-395. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.