Tuolumne
County
Biographies
PYAM BARTLETT BACON
Not only has the subject of this
review witnessed the growth of California from a wild country with only a few
white inhabitants to a rich agricultural, fruit-growing and mining country
containing good homes inhabited by an industrious, prosperous and intelligent
and progressive people, but has also participated in and assisted the slow,
persistent work of development which was necessary to produce the change which
is so complete that it has come to be popularly referred to as magical.
P. B. Bacon, better known as Pike
Bacon, was born in Warrenton, Ohio, on the 23rd day of April, 1834,
and descended from English and German ancestry.
His grandfather emigrated from England to America, becoming one of the
early settlers of Kentucky. When the
country became engaged in the second war with Great Britain he joined the
American forces and fought in what is popularly known as the War of 1812. His son, John Bacon, the father of our
subject, was born in Kentucky, in 1806, and married Miss Theressa Bartlett, a
descendant of an old English and German family of large wealth. He engaged in dealing in produce and died in
1838, at the early age of thirty-two years, leaving a widow and four
children,--three sons and a daughter, all of whom survive. For her second husband the mother chose
Captain David Green, the captain of a large steamboat plying on the Ohio and
Mississippi rivers. In 1853 the family
came to California, making the journey by way of the Isthmus of Panama, where
they took passage on the Tennessee. Two
vessels left the Isthmus at the same time, and were soon joined by the third,
when they participated in a free-for-all race for the Golden Gate. Two of them reached the Golden Gate before
the fog set in, but the one which carried Mr. Bacon’s family was unfortunate
enough to be in the rear and so dense was the fog that the captain mistook the
entrance to the Golden Gate and ran on the rocks. The passengers were safely landed and the
next day was taken to San Francisco in tugs.
The Tennessee became a total wreck.
The Bacon family proceeded at once
from San Francisco to Tuolumne County where Captain Green and his stepsons
engaged in placer-mining at Nigger Gulch, a short distance from Columbia. They got very little gold from the first pan,
and, their money supply being limited, it was necessary that they work hard and
find a good claim in order to provide for their support. Prices were very high,
potatoes, pork and beans selling at thirty-seven and one-half cents per pound. Therefore they removed up to another gulch,
where they began to take out from ten to thirty dollars per day to the man,
notwithstanding the fact that they were compelled to pay ten dollars per day
for water, and even then it was very scarce.
Here one of the first questions on
riparian rights arose. At the head of
this gulch was a spring of water which had been flumed out by a miner named
Jones and used below for mining purposes.
A certain miner informed the Bacon Brothers that the custom was that all
waters in a gulch or creek belonged to the miners who were working in the said
gulch or creek. Upon this information
the Bacon brothers removed Jones’ flume at the head of the gulch, causing a
free-for-all fight between the Jones crowd and the Bacon brothers, the latter
driving the former from the gulch. The
question was afterward settled by a mass meeting of five hundred miners,
convened at the store at Gold Springs, where the water question was decided in favor
of the Bacon brothers. The same question
was involved in a suit in the superior court of this county as late as 1899, in
the case of Grant Brothers vs. Jarboe et al., wherein
the testimony of P. B. Bacon was used to establish the right of certain waters
used by the Gold Spring Marble Company.
In 1856 the Bacon brothers and a
miner named John Stockdale erected and built the first hydraulic used in
Tuolumne County, which was constructed as follows: A flume was run into the branches of a large
oak tree; at the end of the flume a large funnel made of canvas was nailed and
fastened to the branches to receive the water; the pipe consisted of canvas
sewed together with a nozzle at the end; and when the water was turned on the
pipeline gave the appearance of a large sea serpent, twisting in a thousand
different ways. This was due to the
different styles of sewing. When the
full force of the water was turned on, the man at the nozzle gave the boys an
exhibition of the clown in a circus, the force being so great as to throw him
all over the claim, and taking the combined efforts of three men to hold the
bucking machine down. However, the work
was accomplished, all hydraulic hose being made after this pattern until
finally supplanted by rubber hose.
Captain Green and his stepsons
continued to engage in mining until the big fire in Columbia, in 1857, when
they (except the subject of this review) assumed charge and control of the City
Hotel at Sonora, also the management of the stage route from Sonora to Stockton. The subject of this review then accepted a
clerkship in the general merchandise store at Columbia and continued in that
employment for three and one-half years, first as salesman, after which he
purchased an interest in the business, continuing the same until May,
1865. During this time he was appointed
the first agent for giant powder in this county, by the firm of Bandman, Neilsen & Company,
who were the first manufacturers of giant powder in the state, their place of
business being at San Francisco, California.
Mr. Bacon made the first test of this powder in the placer claim owned
and worked by Schwartz & Company near Columbia. A large rock weighing about forty tons was
drilled into and about five pounds of powder used, breaking the rock in a thousand
pieces. This test demonstrated the fact
that giant powder was far ahead of the black powder then in use, and was
afterward universally used by the miners.
In 1865 Mr. Bacon became interested
in the hardware store in Sonora now run by J. J. Collins, having exchanged his
interest in the Columbia for the same and remaining at the Sonora store for a
year. He then returned to Columbia and
became the sole proprietor of the mercantile establishment with which he was formerly
connected, and which he continued to run and manage until 1872. He was very successful, carrying on a large
business, which brought him an excellent financial return. He was also the postmaster for four years,
receiving his appointment under the administration of President Andrew Johnson. He was also elected a member of the
Republican ticket to the California state legislature, overcoming a large
Democratic majority then in this county.
He served for one year in that position, with credit to himself and to
the satisfaction of his constituents. In
1873 he removed to San Francisco and occupied a position in the United States
Mint until 1876. Subsequently he owned
and operated a blacksmith and carriage business on Howard Street in San
Francisco, but later sold that enterprise and resumed mining in old
Tuolumne. He is now the sole owner of
the Joe Hooker Consolidated Mine above Soulsbyville. In 1889 he removed to Sonora, becoming
identified with its business affairs as hardware and grocery merchant, buying
out the firm with which he had formerly been connected in 1865. He carried on this store until 1896, since
which time he has given his undivided attention to his mining interests.
In February, 1865, was celebrated
the marriage of Mr. Bacon and Miss Marion Helen Bowne, a native of New York but
reared in the state of Michigan, and a daughter of John Bowne, a pioneer of
that state. Two sons have been born of
this marriage,--John Bowne and Charles Gorham Bacon. Mrs. Bacon departed this life on the 15th
day of November, 1899, after a married life of thirty-four years, proving to
her husband a most faithful companion and helpmate. To her children she was a loving and
indulgent mother and to those who had the pleasure of her acquaintance she was a
faithful friend.
Mr. Bacon is a member of both
branches of the I. O. O. F., and is also a member of the Ancient Order of
United Workmen. His first presidential
vote was cast for Stephen A. Douglas, but since that time he has been a
reliable and loyal advocate of the Republican Party. He has a good home in Sonora, and is highly
respected in this portion of the state as a straightforward and enterprising
businessman and a citizen whose devotion to the public good is widely
recognized. He has left the impress of
his individuality not only on the industrial and commercial interests of this
section of the state but also on the legislation of California, and has borne
no unimportant part in shaping the policy and advancement of the state.
J. Bowne Bacon was born September
17, 1865. In July after her marriage
Mrs. Bacon returned to New York, by the Isthmus route, the voyage being a most
unpleasant one, for she was sick the entire trip. At Little Falls, New York,
occurred the birth of her first son.
After spending about ten months in New York and Michigan visiting, she
returned to California, crossing the plains from Atchison, Kansas, to
Placerville, California, by the overland stage route. J. Bowne Bacon is at present in charge of the
Keltz group of mines near the Stanislaus River, which
are owned by a Scotch syndicate; and is also the owner of many undeveloped
mining properties. He still retains his
position and appointment as deputy assessor but at present is not in active
service. He is a most pleasing you man
and has inherited strong traces of his father’s keen business ability.
Charles Gorham Bacon, the second
son, was born in Columbia, Tuolumne County, on March 25, 1868. He is at present the manager and secretary of
the Sonora Land & Mining Abstract Bureau, which is the leading abstract bureau
of the county, and working under the two most approved abstract systems, namely
the Rice and the Durfee, and having a complete transcript of all the records of
the county. He is also the manager and
an owner of the B. B. B. Stone Company, the quarry being located about four
miles north of Sonora. The granite
produced from this quarry has been pronounced by the best experts as excelling
all other granite in this state for monumental purposes and equal to the Barre
(Vermont) stone, which is considered the best in the United States.
He is an agreeable young man, strong
in his friendships, having inherited these traits of his mother, and in
business the character of his father.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 78-81. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.