Tuolumne
County
Biographies
WILLIAM JENNINGS
William Jennings is numbered among
the California pioneers who came to the Pacific coast in 1849, the year before
the admission of the state into the Union.
He is a native of Ohio, born in Milan, Erie County, on the 16th
of December, 1825, and is English and German lineage, the progenitors of the
family having been early settlers in Connecticut. His grandfather, Isaac Jennings, was a sea
captain and was lost on one of his voyages.
His son, Seth Jennings, the father of our subject, was born in
Connecticut and married Miss Emily Kline, a native of Westchester County, New
York, and had removed to Ohio in 1822, and her parents had been early settlers
of Erie County, where they secured and developed a farm, assisting in the work
and progress and reform of the Western Reserve; and Mr. Jennings also secured a
wild tract of land, which he transformed into a rich and valuable farm. Both he and his wife reached the advanced age
of eighty-four years and were people of sterling worth in the community in
which they made their home. In public
affairs the father took an active part, was postmaster and justice of the
peace, was a man of great rectitude of character and
his good judgment made him a leader among his fellow townsmen. In the family were three children, two yet
living, John and William.
The latter was reared to manhood in
his native town, and through the summer months he was a sailor on the lakes,
while in the winter season he pursued his education in the little yellow
schoolhouse in the neighborhood, also working in the shipyards; but the
discovery of gold in California aroused a spirit of adventure within him, and
determining to try his fortune by going to the Pacific slope, he left his Ohio
home on the 28th of March, 1849, proceeding by train to Cincinnati,
where in connection with others, he chartered the steamer John Hancock to take
the party to St. Joseph, Missouri. On
the 1st of April, 1849, with a train of one hundred and forty
wagons, they started on the long journey across the arid plains, but the first
day out they discovered that so large a party could not travel to good
advantage and the train was divided. On
the fifth day a second division was made and with his section Mr. Jennings
continued the journey, which was made by way of Fort Hall, down the Snake River
and up Goose Lake to the Humboldt River, at length arriving safely at Weavertown.
Mr. Jennings engaged in mining at
Cold Springs and made some money at that place.
In the spring of 1850 he went to the north fork of the American River,
where he lost all that he had earned, after which he returned to Cold Springs,
where he again met with creditable success in his mining ventures. Later he removed to Jackson, then in
Calaveras County, where he successfully operated in the mines until the spring
of 1851, when he went to San Francisco and thence to Feather River, but
continued his mining operations in Nelson Creek, with poor success,
however. Accordingly he went to
Marysville, where he borrowed money and then proceeded to the Yuba country,
devoting his energies to mining on Bullard’s Bar,
where he and two companions secured twenty-four hundred dollars. In the fall he returned to Jackson, secured a
position in a hotel there, where he acted as clerk, waited on the table, made
the beds and did every kind of work that was needed. Subsequently he rented the hotel, which he
conducted for six months, after which he purchased the old French Hotel bar and
billiard room, which he conducted for five years, with profit. On the expiration of that period he engaged
in farming on Willow Creek, purchasing a claim of three hundred and twenty
acres, which he cultivated for some time, also giving his energies to stock
raising. In 1864 he came to Drytown, where he was elected a supervisor of the county
and served for three years, after which he was elected county treasurer, which
important office he capably filled for eight years. He discharged his duties in a manner highly
satisfactory, making an enviable reputation as a reliable and obliging public
official. In 1871 he opened a grocery
and provision store in Drytown, which he conducted
until 1894. The following year he opened
his saloon, in which he is now doing business.
Mr. Jennings was happily married in
1854 to Miss Ann Maria Dill, and to them were born
four children: William Seth, who died in
this thirtieth year; George Choat, a mining man from Drytown; Mary Kate, the wife of William Coyle; and Frank
W., who is living in Portland, Oregon.
Mrs. Jennings died in 1890, in the sixty-fourth year of her age. Mr. Jennings is a member of the Masonic
fraternity, having taken the initial degree in Drytown
Lodge, No. 174, F. & A. M., in 1867.
He is past master in the lodge and is also a Royal Arch Mason. In politics he has been a lifelong
Republican. He belongs to the Pioneer
Society of Sacramento and he and John G. Norton, of Toledo, Ohio, are the two
members now living of the party of twelve who started with him to California.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 284-286. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.