Found in Find a Grave

Found in Find a Grave

California Biographies

Mendocino and Lake Counties, California

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

Source:

History of Mendocino and Lake Counties, California

With Biographical Sketches

History by Aurelius O. Carpenter And Percy H. Millberry

Illustrated, Complete In One Volume

Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914

SAMUEL TATE PACKWOOD.� Of the comparatively recent comers

to Lake county there is no better known resident than Samuel T. Packwood,

who arrived here from Washington in 1905. As farmer and capitalist he has

within a few years become one of the most important business men of the

county, where he has established the reputation which might well have been

predicted by those familiar with his career in his old home state. His achieve-

ments there in the matter of starting and carrying out irrigation projects were

so noteworthy as to place him among those who directed her most vital enter-

prises and to gain him state-wide fame.

The history of the Packwood family in America dates from the period

of the French and Indian war, when two brothers, from Scotland, came here

as soldiers in the British army for service in that conflict. After its close they

settled in Virginia, and had their share in the activities of that colony. Their

descendants are numerous, and longevity, large stature, strength and self-

reliance are family characteristics which have persisted in all the succeeding

generations. Samuel T. Packwood's paternal great-grandfather back in Vir-

ginia held a reunion at which four hundred of the family were present. His

son, Elisha Packwood. a native of Virginia, lived to be about ninety years

old, dying in California, where he had eventually settled.

John Packwood, father of Samuel T. Packwood, was born in Virginia

February 22, 1804, and always retained the distinguishing traits of the old-

time frontiersman and planter. Gradually he pushed on westward, among the

most venturesome pioneers, until he reached the Pacific coast, though he did

not settle here permanently. He was married in Indiana to Abigail Tinder,

a native of Kentucky, whose parents were early settlers in Indiana, and many

of the Tinders were Baptist missionary preachers. Mr. and Mrs. John Pack-

wood lived for a time in Missouri, thence coming out over-the plains to what

is now Oregon, then included in Washington territory, in the year 1845.

Passing through the Willamette valley, he located on Puget sound for a few

years, in 1849 bringing his family to California. Here he settled at Coloma

near where gold was originally discovered in this state while digging a mill

race for a sawmill, and he established a ferry across the American river just

above Salmon Falls, in what is now Eldorado county. Later he built a toll

bridge over the river, on the road between Sacramento and Hangtown (now

Placerville, owning that as well as the ferry and operating both. He was

also interested m ranching, both as a farmer and stockman. His wife died

at Salmon Falls in 1852, when but thirty-one years old, and was buried there,

and in the spring of 1853 he returned to Missouri with his family, by way of

the Isthmus of Panama. At that time he had $15,000, a fortune for those days

and he loaned out considerable money in Missouri. His death occurred in

Barry county that state, in 1879. Ten children were born to John and Abigail

(Tinder) Packwood, viz. : Peggy, who is now eighty-two years old is the

widow of George Shaser, and lives on the Snohomish river, at Sultan Wash

She had thirteen children. Orpha died in Kansas during the time of the Civil

war. leaving three children. Lucinda, a resident of Texas, is the wife of

Frank Proctor, a farmer, and has a large family. Melinda married Charles

Galhack, and died in August, 1913, at Olympia, Wash., leaving a large family

Mary, widow of William Packwood, lives near Los Angeles and has a family ;

her brother Samuel has seen her but once during a period of forty-two years.

Isaac died unmarried. Samuel Tate is mentioned below. Ann died in Newton

county, Mo. ; she was married and left one child. Elvira married Andy Lee

who died leaving a large family ; she lives near Twin Falls, Idaho. Elizabeth,

living at Exeter, Barry county. Mo., is the wife of Thomas McClure, a farmer,

she has one child.

Samuel Tate Packwood was born July 4, 1842, in Platte county, Mo and

was seven years old when he first came to California. He was almost eleven

when the family returned to Missouri, and his education was such as the

common schools of the day afforded. He was still living in his native state

when the Civil war broke out, and he had the very unusual experience of

serving in both the Confederate and Union armies. In 1861 he enlisted in

Shelby's Brigade of General Price's army, and served until the spring of 1864,

when he was captured by the Federals and taken to the government prison

at Rock Island, Ill. In the fall of 1864 he enlisted in Company K, Second

United States Volunteers, serving with that regiment until he received an

honorable discharge on November 22, 1865, and participating in the battles

of Wilson Creek, Pea Ridge and many other noted engagements. At the

expiration of his term he returned to Missouri, settling in Barry county and

engaging in farming and kindred pursuits. In 1874 Mr. Packwood started

west with his little family, wife and two children, their two wagons and two

mule teams forming part of a train of forty. At Colorado Springs a daughter

was born and named Colorado (she is usually called Collie) for that reason.

The journey was very trying, Mr. Packwood having contracted mountain

fever, with which he was ill for three weeks while they were en route, never-

theless when they arrived in Washington after a six months' trip theirs were

the only ones, of the forty wagons which set out together, to pull up at West

Kittitas. Mr. Packwood was practically "broke," having but fifty dollars

in money, his cattle and mules and two wornout wagons. There he settled

and engaged in farming, his principal crop being hay, though he also raised

some wheat. Land dealing also came to be one important branch of his busi-

ness activities, and he bought and sold extensively. But it was the problem

of irrigation and the various projects for handling it that eventually claimed

most of his attention and brought him his greatest reputation. When the

Tulane ditch was made in 1875 he worked on its construction for a dollar and

a half a day, and from that time was connected with the construction of every

important irrigation canal in Kittitas county up to the building of the Cascade

undertaking, which cost three hundred thousand dollars. He was the princi-

pal stockholder and became president of the Cascade Canal Company, and

has been financially interested in every irrigation company in the county,

having been president of the Ellensburg Canal Company and of the West

Side Canal Company. Most of his investments have been in such interprises,

and in his home county he was a recognized authority on the subject in all

its phases, scientific and commercial, and looked to as a leader in the pro-

motion and successful completion of irrigation projects. In other respects

also he figured prominently in Kittitas county. He was instrumental in

securing the legislation providing for the organization of the county, and in

1883 had his services recognized with appointment as one of the commis-

sioners of the new county, and at the first election there was honored with

the office of sheriff. In December, 1884, he resigned as county commissioner

in order to assume his duties as sheriff January 1, 1885, and he served until

1889. For two terms he served as justice of the peace at West Kittitas. In

1878 he had been chosen captain of the Home Guards organized to protect

the settlers from the Indians. An active factor in the development of all the

resources of his county, as well as in the placing of her government affairs on

a sound basis, he was heavily interested himself in valley lands, and in live

stock, and had one of the most valuable ranches in the Kittitas valley, where

he resided most of the time to be conveniently near certain business interests.

His family, however, maintained the home at Ellensburg, where he also had

various concerns.

In September, 1905, Mrs. Packwood having long been a sufferer from

asthma, he removed with his family to Lakeport, Lake county, Cal., in the

hope of benefiting her health, with gratifying results, her affliction having

practically disappeared with the change of climate. After a brief residence in

Lakeport they settled on the farm of one hundred acres, adjoining the village

of Upper Lake, which Mr. Packwood purchased in 1905. He has since bought

several other tracts, but has sold most of them. Mr. Packwood has acquired

other interests in the vicinity, being a director in the Farmers' Savings Bank

of Lakeport. Though a comparatively new resident of Lake county, he has

taken his place among its most substantial citizens. The qualities which

won him standing in years of successful business and public life in his old

home have been well manifested at his present location. Men of his ability

and vigorous mentality are acquisitions to any community, valuable for their

initiative and executive qualities, and appreciated wherever their worth is

known. Mr. Packwood is an Odd Fellow and a thirty-second-degree Mason.

He is a Democrat in political association.

At Rocky Comfort, Mo., December 24, 1860, Mr. Packwood was married

to Miss Margaret F. Holmes, who was born in the state of Mississippi and

when nine years old went to Texas with her parents, Isham and Millie B.

(Jones) Holmes, the former a native of Virginia, the latter of Georgia. They

moved to Missouri when Mrs. Packwood was a girl of thirteen years, and

are buried in Newton county, that state. Mrs. Holmes died when fifty-seven

years old, Mr. Holmes living to his seventy-third year. Their family consisted

of twelve children: Mary was the wife of Robert Callahan and resided in

Texas, where she died leaving five children ; Sarah, deceased, was the wife

of Mark Lowry and had a large family (their home was in Mississippi) ;

William, a farmer, who died in Texas, was married and left children ; Stephen,

who lives near Gilmer, Texas, is a widower ; Jane, deceased, was the wife of

Zachariah Potts, a Confederate soldier who died while serving in the Civil

war, leaving her with four or five children ; James, a farmer, died in Newton

county, Mo., leaving a family of six children ; Elizabeth, of Upshur county,

Texas, is the widow of C. C. Reynolds, a farmer, and has a very large family ;

Ann, who now lives with her sister, Mrs. Samuel T. Packwood, is the widow

of Michael Murry, a miner, who resided at King county. Wash. ; Martha

and Amanda were twins, the latter, the widow of William Shannon, living in

Sutton county, Texas (she has two children) ; Martha was the wife of Radford

Tidwell and died leaving three children ; Margaret Farnetta is the wife of

Samuel T. Packwood; Modena, whose home is at Mount Vernon, Wash., is

the wife of Edward Russell, and has a family of five children

To Mr. and Mrs. Packwood have been born eleven children, four dying

in infancy and six still surviving, viz. : John I., a farmer of Lake county, living

one mile east of Upper Lake, is married to Miss Ida Swasey, and they have

three children, Aleta, Bessie and John; Lizzie, who died at Ellensburg, Wash.,

was the wife of Martin Hollenbeck and left four children, Clyde, Samuel,

Harry and Martin ; Colorado (Collie) is the wife of G. H. Bradshaw, of Ellens-

burg, Wash., and has four children, Nettie, Elizabeth, Lucretia and Dorothy ;

Oliver Franklin, a farmer, living one mile east of Upper Lake, married Eliza-

beth Bradshaw, who is from Tennessee, and has four children, Samuel, John,

Carl and George; William, who lives on his father's old farm near Ellens-

burg, Wash., engaged as a farmer and stockman, married Tennessee Harold,

and they have two children, Delphia and Adeline ; Harry and Harvey, twins,

are unmarried and live at home. Mrs. Packwood is a member of the Christian

Church at Lakeport.