Yolo County
Biographies
DRURY R. CLANTON
An encouraging example of the farmer born to his work, who has ever seen its brightest side, has obtained the greatest possible good out of it, and finally lays aside his implements that he may spend the remainder of his life in comparative retirement, is found in Drury R. Clanton, one of Yolo county’s most prosperous and popular farmer-citizens. Besides owning a half section of land near Woodland he also owns a cheerful residence in town, which he purchased about 1880. Mr. Clanton was born in Montgomery county, Mo., January 24, 1831, a son of John M. and Mary (Griggs) Clanton, the former born near Nashville, Tenn., and the latter in Kentucky. When he was a small child his parents moved to Adams county, Ill., where he was reared and educated in the primitive schools of the day. By 1853 D. R. Clanton had departed for the west, and the parents during the spring of that year outfitted and joined him in Yolo county, Cal., settling on a quarter section of land which was presented to the father by his son Drury, who was already well established in the west. Here he farmed for many years, raising grain and stock on a large scale, and here his faithful wife died in 1867. Later in life he retired to Woodland, where his death occurred in 1892, at the age of eighty-four years.
After leaving his home in Adams county, Ill., in the spring of 1850, Drury R. Clanton experienced the usual adventures of the fortune seeker who was willing to risk a journey across the plains, and his spirit was not in the least daunted because he arrived at the end of his journey in Weaversville without a cent in his pocket. He pawned the gun with which he brought down game on the prairies to buy his first meal in the town, and then went to the mines and operated with indifferent success. Freighting he found more remunerative and continued with success for a couple of years. After giving up this occupation he came to Yolo county in 1852 and took up a quarter section one and one-half miles north of Woodland, on which he raised a crop of barley the next year. When his father came out he gave him his ranch and house, and in company with his three brothers took up a section of land, each boy having one hundred and sixty acres, and each building a house, Drury R. Clanton putting up the largest and best house. The father’s farm proved to be in a Spanish grant, and as he refused to pay the price asked for the land, he lost it. At this juncture he was again offered a home by his Drury R., who invited him to take his home, while he himself moved to the foothills. There he engaged in the stock business successfully, having at one time as many as five hundred head. Selling his foothill ranch of twenty-two hundred acres he bought three hundred and twenty acres of his brothers, later secured another quarter section, and finally bought a quarter section from his father, thus making him owner of a whole section of land. Still later, for $14,000, he bought the quarter section which he had previously given his father.
In the spring of 1862, in company with David Hayes, Mr. Clanton started for San Francisco with a herd of ninety-five head of cattle and a trained and faithful horse, which knew as much about driving cattle as he did himself. Horse, owner and cattle traversed roads scarcely marked and often extremely muddy, going by way of Benicia and the Oakland ferry, and arriving in San Francisco on a well-remembered Sunday morning. It chanced to be against the law to drive cattle through the streets on the Sabbath day, but Mr. Clanton was obliged to get his stock to a certain corral on the other side of the town, and in the emergency relied upon the intelligence and sagacity of his remarkable horse. Placing the horse in the rear of the herd, he himself walked upon the sidewalk in front, and the police, seeing no one driving the cattle, endeavored to interfere with horse, only to get bitten and kicked. Thus the procession wound its way through the town, following the leader on the sidewalk (who was, however, not known to be connected with them) and yielding to the entreaties from the rear on the part of the horse. This little incident is still recalled by certain venerable citizens of San Francisco who happened to be abroad that particular Sunday morning. Mr. Clanton received $50 a head for his cattle, and thereafter returned to his home in Yolo county.
In 1882 Mr. Clanton sold one-half of his section of land, a transaction which in his estimation was the poorest day’s work of all his busy life, as it was the indirect cause of a chain of misfortunes that would have daunted a less courageous or fearless man than Mr. Clanton. Not long after this sale he bought into the Jesus Maria grant, owned by Wilcox & Farris, of Sacramento, which contained twenty-two hundred and eleven acres, lying on Cache creek three and a half miles north of Woodland. He paid down about $44,000, and the balance was to be at the rate of seven per cent interest, but after the $44,000 had been paid, the Wilcox & Ferris people raised the interest to ten percent, and through their influence at the banks of Sacramento and San Francisco prevented Mr. Clanton from borrowing the money at less than ten percent, at the same time crowding him for the money. Mr. Clanton traveled many weary miles in trying to raise the money, and finally, partly through Dr. H. P. Merritt and other friends, he secured the last payment of $52,000, and six weeks later he paid the last installment, and that night slept better than he had for many months.
In his young manhood, Mr. Clanton married Margaret Smith, a native of Harrison county, Mo., and a daughter of Mrs. Julia Hayes, whose former, Mr. Smith, died in Placer county of mountain fever, soon after completing his journey across the plains in 1849. Subsequently his wife married Jacob Hayes and removed to Oregon, in 1865 returning to Yolo county, where she died, at the age of eight-two years. Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Clanton, as follows: Mary Ada, deceased, who became the wife of E. Streeter, and the mother of Edward, Gladys, and Keith Streeter; Irene, the wife of A. W. Fox, who has a daughter, Verna; Laura, the wife of W. T. Criteser, who has one child, Darwin C.; Elma, the wife of J. H. Beers; Claudie, the wife of F. E. Meed; and Clarence, a farmer o Yolo county. Mr. Clanton has been identified with the Odd Fellows for many years, and is now past grand of Lodge No. 111 of Woodland. Mr. Clanton has been a hard worker throughout his life, a man with a definite purpose in life, and one who has well understood the value of honesty and integrity in dealing with his friends and business associates. His success speaks for itself and commends itself to the consideration of ambitious and thinking members of the younger generation.
Transcribed by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: "History of the State of California and
Biographical Record of the Sacramento Valley, Cal.," J. M.
Guinn, Pages 653-654. The Chapman
Publishing Company, Chicago, 1906.
© 2017 Joyce Rugeroni.
Golden
Nugget Library's Yolo County Biographies