Yolo County
Biographies
JOSHUA
BRADSTREET TUFTS
For thirty-three years Joshua Bradstreet Tufts lived on his five hundred acre farm a mile from Davisville, locating there in 1855, and upon disposing of the same in 1888, took up his abode in the town whose growth he has closely watched since its starting in 1860. His life has been full of action, determination and consequent success, and has embraced many experiences while the country was accustoming itself to the ways of the white men. His attitude toward the state of his adoption has been that of the strong and conservative easterner, starting out with few advantages and less money, yet bound to make the best of the opportunities by which he was surrounded. The setting of his youth was on a farm on the other side of the country, in Middlesex county N. J., where he was born November 18, 1824. Small but promising New York city profited by the mercantile ability of his paternal grandfather, Joshua, who had a store on the corner of Washington and Vesey streets, said store being still in the possession of the family. The family history in America goes back to the landing of four brothers on the coast of Massachusetts about the time of the arrival of the Pilgrims.
John Mills Tufts, the father of the pioneer of Yolo county, was born in New York city in 1790, and in early youth evidenced ability of high order and an aptitude for scholarship. He became an unusually well-informed and well-read man, never relaxing his interest in current events of the general progress of the world. His young manhood started out auspiciously at West Point Military Academy at the age of eighteen, and after graduation he entered the regular army, remaining with it until his honorable discharge in 1823, with the rank of colonel. Directly after his retirement from military service he married Mary Davis, niece of Jefferson Davis, the father of the Confederacy, and daughter of John Davis, the establisher of his family in Smithville, N. C. Mrs. Tufts was born in Smithville, and met her future husband while he was stationed there when in the army. The only child in his father’s family, Mr. Tufts returned to the paternal farm at Tufts’ landing, N. J., and because of the approaching age of his parents undertook the management of the property, a few years later removing to a farm in Middlesex county. He inherited his father’s business ability and became a wealthy man, devoting his entire active life to country rather than city pursuits, and becoming prominent in politics to the extent of representing Middlesex county in the state legislature. He was a quiet, unassuming man, a scholar and gentleman, and possessed a certain gentle force and sincerity which lent weight to his council and opinions. His death occurred in Rahway, N. J., in 1879, his wife having predeceased him in 1837, after less than thirteen years of married life. Besides Joshua, the oldest in the family, there were six other children, of whom George died in the service of his country during the Civil war; William died in Brooklyn, having been city weigher for many years; and Lucy, Mary, John and Philip are deceased, the two last mentioned passing away in Rahway, N. J.
Until his twenty-first year Joshua Tufts lived on the Middlesex county farm, and then went to New York city and learned the printer’s trade, serving an apprenticeship of two years. He continued to work at his trade there until 1849, in which year he married, on April 23, Mary Kingsland, a native of New York, and with whom he set sail the following day on the bark Clyde, destined for San Francisco by way of the Horn. His emigration to the west had been long contemplated, and in preparation of the new life to be begun under such promising circumstances he had on board provisions to start a wholesale commission business in San Francisco. The project did not prove practicable, however, so he took the goods to Sacramento and started a retail store, continuing the same until selling out in June, 1850. Noting the splendid chances for wide-awake stock man in that part of the state, he managed to secure the services of a man as enthusiastic as himself, and together they planned a business of such magnitude as to net them both an ample fortune. As a nucleus for his enterprise Mr. Tufts went out on the plains to meet the emigrants who were then nearing the end of their journey, and who would be glad to sell their horses at a low figure. Buying three hundred horse in this way, Mr. Tufts returned with them to Sacramento, leaving them with his partner while he went on a foraging expedition for pasture land on the other side of the American and Father rivers. When he returned to Sacramento he found that his partner had disposed of the horses and escaped with the funds, an experience which cost him exactly $3,000.
Nothing daunted, Mr. Tufts came to Yolo county and took up one hundred and sixty acres of land west of Sacramento and near Washington, where he built a hotel, which he ran for seven months. He then engaged in a stock-business on his land for a short time, and later bought an interest in a ferry and toll road in the southern part of Yolo county. This proved a much more satisfactory departure, for in two years’ time he took in $50,000 from the people who crossed the ferry and used the toll road to go to market in Sacramento, but the expense attached to keeping it in repair was so great that he disposed of it, and in 1855 bought a farm of five hundred acres a mile west of Davisville. Until Davisville began to assume the proportions of a small village in 1860 he successfully conducted a store, hotel and blacksmith shop on his farm, thereafter coming to the assistance of the struggling town by starting his sons in a general merchandise business there. At the present time his son Andy is conducting this old-time store, now regarded as one of the reliable landmarks of the section. In 1888 he sold his farm and has since lived retired in his pleasant city home, surrounded by the luxuries permitted by his success.
In the early days Mr. Tufts performed many services of a public nature, and invariably lent his influence to the side of order and progress. As far back as 1855 he set out the first orchard in this part of the state, and after he started farming always made it a practice to keep up with the times and introduce the most modern laborsaving machinery on his place. It would have been impossible for so public spirited a man to keep out of politics, and as early as 1852 he was elected county supervisor on the Democratic ticket, filling an office which required not only tact and discretion, but actual bravery. The taxing of the grants at that time made the supervisor’s office a very busy place, and an unpleasant one as well, as there were many people who rebelled against payments, which they found difficult to meet. He served from 1852 until 1856, and felt distinct relief at the termination of his arduous services. He has been a member of the Presbyterian Church for many years, and is an active worker and elder of the Davisville church. Seven of his ten children are living, the order of their birth being as follows: George, a carpenter and builder of Berkeley, Cal.; Lucy, now Mrs. Hoag, of Davisville; Charles, a farmer of Yolo county; Dollie Annie, living at home; Andy, a merchant of Davisville; William, a business man of Fresno, Cal.; and Belle, of San Francisco, Cal. Notwithstanding that old age is approaching his threshold, Mr. Tufts retains his physical and mental vigor, and his old-time enthusiasm seems keen and infectious as ever. He has won the sincere regard of all who have chanced to pass his way since he cast his lot with the toilers of the west, and is one of those who have wrested wealth and success from crude but promising materials.
Transcribed
by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: "History of the State of California and
Biographical Record of the Sacramento Valley, Cal.," J. M.
Guinn, Pages 635-636. The Chapman
Publishing Company, Chicago, 1906.
© 2017 Joyce Rugeroni.
Golden
Nugget Library's Yolo County Biographies