Tuolumne
County
Biographies
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUTTERFIELD
“Forty-niners” are not numerous in
California at this time, but this title belongs to Benjamin Franklin
Butterfield, of Jamestown, Tuolumne County, some account of whose eventful
career it will be attempted here to give.
Mr. Butterfield was born in Gofftown, New Hampshire, July 24, 1817, and is descended
from colonial ancestors. His father,
also named Benjamin Franklin Butterfield, was born in New Hampshire, March 29,
1782, and married Dolly Maria Barron, who was born in that state July 14, 1785,
and died there some years after her marriage.
The elder Butterfield was a farmer and somewhat late in life sold out
his agricultural interests and removed to Boston, where he died at the ripe age
of seventy-eight years. Of the eight
children of Benjamin Franklin and Dolly Maria (Barron) Butterfield, only two
are living at this time.
Benjamin Franklin Butterfield, the
subject of this sketch, was educated in the public schools of his native state
and early became a clerk in a store, where he acquired a general knowledge of
business. His business took him to New
Orleans, Louisiana, after the discovery of gold in California, and there he
heard full details of the gold excitement up to that time. He was of an
adventurous turn of mind and had developed from a clerk to a navigator on our
great inland lakes, and his life has been full of hard work and interesting
events. He had saved some money and he
decided to seek more wealth in California.
He paid about two hundred dollars for passage on the California, on her
first trip to the land of gold, and arrived at San Francisco, California,
February 28, 1849, with about five hundred dollars in cash and a determination
to succeed if success should be possible.
He was unaccompanied by any relative or friend and was truly a stranger
in a strange land. With his eyes turned
toward the gold field, he came direct to Jamestown from San Francisco and has
lived there continuously ever since, during a period of fifty-one years, and
had won a reputation as an honorable and successful businessman.
On board the California Mr.
Butterfield made the acquaintance of a young man named Erastus Sparrow, from
Buffalo, New York, and they came on from San Francisco to Jamestown
together. From San Francisco they came
up the river to Stockton and they “packed” their belongings from Stockton to
Murphy’s and Angel’s. When they arrived
at the Stanislaus River they found it too much swollen to cross, and as the wet
season was on and there was no prospect that it would soon be any lower, they
found it necessary to devise some means of getting to the opposite shore. With this purpose in view, they utilized a
rubber bed which they carried, by filling it with air and placing slats under
it as a partial support. On this raft,
so oddly constructed, they loaded their property and made a safe passage to the
other side. Others, observing their
success, offered to pay them for their assistance in crossing the stream, and
Mr. Butterfield was paid one and two dollars by others whom he helped over the
river. With the rubber bed as his stock
in trade he ran a ferry there for some, and afterward sold the bed to another
enterprising pilgrim for one hundred dollars, and he states that the purchaser
made money with it also! He has seen
nails sold for one dollar each, and once saw three dollars paid for a paper of
tacks!
His first day as a miner is fresh in
his memory. He states that he made a
little hole in the bed of the creek with his shovel and in a few hours panned
out nearly an ounce of gold. He and
Sparrow opened a supply store in a tent and paid a man an ounce of gold per day
to assist them, and at the end of the year the fellow had so much gold that he
was spoiled for work and left their service.
Mr. Butterfield’s first permanent store was located an eighth of a mile
down the river bank from his present location.
After he had acquired a good property and was thinking of selling out
and going to some other point, nearly everything he owned was destroyed by fire
and he found himself confronted with the necessity of practically beginning
life anew. This he could do at
Jamestown, where he had won an excellent business reputation, better than among
strangers, and he remained and has been one of the leading men of the town to
this day.
In 1856 Mr. Butterfield returned
east and was married October 1st of that year, at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to
Miss A. M. Currier, who came back with him to
California, by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and they have had six children, as
follows: Frankland
Francisco, Sparrow F. R., Benjamin K. Grogan, Annie B., Minnie R. and Gay Heber. Annie B. died March 16, 1897 aged thirty-one
years. Frankland
Francisco is the efficient local agent of the Wells-Fargo Express Company. Sparrow R. F. is the postmaster at Jamestown
and is filling the office to the entire satisfaction of his fellow
citizens. Mr. Butterfield’s surviving
daughter has charge of his store, which she manages in a manner that indicates
that she possesses remarkable business ability.
Mrs. Butterfield is still spared to her husband and family and is one of
the honored pioneer mothers of the state.
Often referred to by his friends as a “grand old pioneer,” Mr. Butterfield
is living retired from active business and occupies a place high in the esteem
of all who know him. He is a staunch
Republican and was for twenty-five years the postmaster of Jamestown, where he
was until his retirement the leading business man. A believer in the teachings of Christ, the
motto by which he has shaped his life has been “do right,” and he has always
accorded to his fellow men the consideration for their interests required by
the “golden rule.”
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 270-272. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.