Article 2
Article 2 sent from Frank Price, direct descendant of Benjamin Hames, to Tom McCubbin, January, 2003.
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John Hames was born in Osage Co., New York, 22 March, 1811, and was known as a roving New Yorker. His father, Benjamin Hames was surveyor/millwright by trade and a native of New York. John's father had come west in the early days of the Michigan settlement, located at Battle Creek, Calhoun County, Michigan, where he built the first mill, and lived there until his death in 1850. His mother's maiden name was Rebecca Harding, who was born near Rochester, New York.
John Hames had an adventurous nature and wanted to explore the unknown. When he was 30 or 31, his restless nature incited his first venture, and he, with his brother, also named Benjamin, shipped out of New York on the good ship "Phoenix" for a ramble around the world. The Phoenix was on a round-the-Horn voyage to China, but a year later, John and his brother left the ship in Peru. Hames worked at his trade in different South Amercian countries--Peru, Chile and Ecuador. His brother, who was a surveyor by trade, also worked at his trade in these countries. In 1842, John decided to come to California, leaving Benjamin in Chile to wed a Chilean woman, Carmen Laing.
He landed in Monterey in May 1843; six years before the famous "gold rush." His first business venture on the Pacific Coast was to ship timber to the "Barbadoes" for Captain Smith (Capt. Smith was captain of the ship for which the story, "To Years Before the Mast" was written by Dana--who later became a Captain himself, and the Danas also later became directly and indirectly related to the John Hames family.) This timber business proved a success. In 1844-45, John Hames built the first sawmill in California at Niles Canyon, and founded the town of Soquel in the Santa Cruz County. He built a lumber mill on the Soquel Creek and a flour mill at Soquel.
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It was soon after his arrival in California, after working at his trade in both Los Angeles and San Francisco, that John met a Bavarian three years his junior (John Daubenbiss), who became his partner in the saw mills and the flour mill, also later became a partner in the land grant purchased by Hames.
John Daubenbiss, who at the age of 19 came to America in 1835 and came west over the plains to Oregon in 1842; then came down to California in 1843. From 1843 to 1845 before he met John Hames, he worked helping to build a sawmill for Stephen Smith at Bodega and helped in erecting a flour mill for Mariano Vallejo at Mission San Jose. He served under Sutter in the Micheltorena campaign and was naturalized as a Mexican to qualify for a land grant in the Sacramento Valley. In 1845, he signed the San Jose call and in 1846 he carrid dispatches between Sloat and Fremont. (It was not known whether he was still associated directly with the Service when he and John Hames met and worked together.)
The beginning of Soquel as an industrial center was the sawmill erected in 1845 by Hames and Daubenbiss. They worked hard together turning the redwood into planks and boards. Most notable was the four story flour mill.
John Hames was not Soquel's first English speaking resident, for that distinction went to a Michael Lodge, a young native of Dublin, who had married a native Californian (Martina Castro) and established his home there in 1833.
The Americans who came to California in those days when it was under Mexican rule were known as wanderers. Hames was no exception. But he met a girl, in Soquel, in Monterey, San Jose, or Sutter's Fort, who induced him to settle down, and Soquel was the place of his choice.
Just where John met Drucilla Shadden, no one knows, but Thomas Shadden, Drucilla's father, with his family undoubtedly jaunted about among the early American settlements in Mexican California like the rest of the 'wanderers'. Records at Sutter's Fort showed he dropped in there frequently from San Jose, Santa Cruz and Monterey. Perhaps Soquel was even the scene of their first meeting when John was building his sawmill.
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Drucilla Shadden's family had come to California with the Hastings Party in 1842 from Missouri (although the family was originally from Arkansas) to Oregon with his wife and several children. On the way to California, the Shaddens traded one of their horses to an Indian for his six year old son. The Shaddens raised the child and kept him until he was 30 years old. The Shadden family weathered many hardships enroute. Drucilla rode mule back most of the way to California. Her family settled near Sacramento (after leaving Oregon) on the Yolo side of the river. Drucilla was 10 years old when they came across the plains and was just a little over 13 years old when she and Hames were married (by the U.S. Consul, Thomas O. Larkin) in Monterey.
There was little doubt, however, that following their marriage in Monterey, Hames took her back around the bay to Soquel. Since there were no Americans living in Soquel, she had to learn to speak Spanish. She was kind to these people, as was her husband John (his wide handed and generous nature was later cause for his loss of much of his property). One of the Spanish residents was Martina Castro, who had married Michael Lodge. Martina had four daughters and one son. They all helped in teaching Drucilla to speak Spanish.
The following year, 1846, John joined the California Volunteers, serving under Captain Charles M. Weber's Company in a war with Mexico (15 July 1846 thru 10 February 1847). He was later pensioned on account of his service by Certificate #19165.
While John was off in Fremont's California Battalion Guerrilla warfare against the fast riding Native Californians, Drucilla was at Sutter's Fort with her mother, their first child arrived; a son born 9 April 1847. He was named Benjamin undoubtedly after his grandfather and/or uncle. Ben Hames had the distinction of being the first white child of American parents to be born in California. (There has been some controversy, somewhere was said that a girl child was the first American born, but nonetheless, Ben Hames was the first white boy born of American parents.) While at Sutter's Fort, Drucilla was kind to the miners, always giving them something to eat, and in return they gave her gold. She had $1,500 which she gave to John to help buy machinery for his mills.
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When the Native Californians capitulated and California became American territory, John Hames and his girl wife went back to Soquel. Their first residence was a log house on the knoll, above the old San Jose Road. The log house overlooked the flour mill on the bank of the river. Here two cildren were born, Ellen and Henry. Henry was first to be buried in the old hillside cemetery. ("Hames Hill").
After Hames and Daubenbiss returned to Soquel, Daubenbiss went to San Jose, and in 1847 married Sarah C. Laird. Shortly, he and his bride returned to Soquel, and when Santa Cruz County was organized, he was named Soquel road commissioner in 1851, and in 1853 was elected supervisor. The Daubenbiss' had 10 children, all but one being born in Soquel. Until his death in 1896, Daubenbiss had been one of the county's leading citizens.
Mr. Hames had seen much of the pioneer life in California. He knew Marshall, to whom credit is given for having discivered gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848. Mr. Hames was working in the mill race when thefirst gold nugget was picked up. The Mormon boys were working at the mill for Sutter when Marshall, who in turn gave it to Sutter, who sent it to San Francisco, where it was pronounced gold.
Mr. Hames relates the fact of having himself raised the first stars and stripes in San Jose. It was a small banner about six feet long. He put it on a lttle willow pole that surmounted an old adobe building. Tom Fallon has been credited in historical volumes as having performed this act. This was most likely done at some formal ceremony, thusly, having been recorded
John Hames became owner of one of the big land grants of the Mexican days, buying the Rancho Arroyo Del Rodeo from three of the heirs of the grantee, Francisco Rodriquez, after the latter's death in 1848.
The Mexican grant of the Rancho Arroyo del Rodeo, west of the Soquel River, was made the same year as that of Soquel to Martina Castro. Hames had evidentally built the sawmill and flour mill on the Castro grant, latter having purchased it (or in part) from Michael and Martina Lodge. The Rancho Arroyo del Rodeo was granted to Francisco Rodriquez, who was Martina's brother-in-law. Francisco and his wife
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Rafaela Castro, had lived a number of years on the Rancho before Alcalde Bolcoff, in September of 1834, made final the grant approved by the territorial diputacion. Rodriquez was a son of Antonio, an invalido of 1799, and one of a large family, many of whose members were given land.
Rancho Arroyo del Rodeo derived its name from the fact that roundups of the herds of the Rodriquez and Castro families took place in the natural amphitheater half a mile south of the present Rodeo Gulch bridge. Francisco died in 1848, thus Hames and Daubenbiss bought the big tract from their heirs. Their title was confirmed by the U.S. Land Commission in 1855, but a survey in 1861 cut it down from 2353 acres to 1473 acres.
Benjamin Hames, John's brother, arrived in the middle fifties in California, with his Chilean wife Carmen. John vouched for him at Hihn's store in Santa Cruz, and evidentally set Ben up helping him with his mills. John built another mill at Corralitos and put Ben there. He had given Ben $3,000 to buy machinery for the mill from San Francisco, but Ben took the money, and with his wife and family left the area and went to the southern part of the state. Not too long after, he (Ben)and most of his family were killed by bandits. A daughter, Carmen, who had survived the onslaught was brought back to Corralitos, or Soquel. She married a Monoz.
When Hames and Daubenbiss had marched away in Fremont's California Battalion, they had an agreement with Martina (Castro) and her husband Michael Lodge for logging in the redwoods and had turned their mills over to them. But when they came back to Soquel in 1848, Hames pressed for payment and obtained from Lodge a promise of $5,000. Collection was made difficult; however, by the fact that high water had taken the mill out in December 1846, while it was being operated by a Henry Hill (a German who had come from Mexico with the Hijar and Padres Party in 1833, and by Guadalupe Castro, Martina's bachelor brother. After the flood, Lodge hired Adna A., Hecox, a Connecticut carpenter and preacher of Irish descent who lived in San Jose, to build a new mill, which Hecox operated until he left for the gold fields.
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It appears that because of the mishaps with the mills, John and Michael Lodge had gone to the fields, most likely to try their luck trying to get enough money to keep the mills going. At the time they were at the gold fields, Lodge apparently left to go back to Soquel and was mysteriously killed on his way home. Hames went to court to try to get some of the money back, but Martina, Lodge's widow, made the defense that under the Mexican law she was not responsible for her husband's debts.
The saw mill built by Hecox was on the west bank of the river, half a mile farther up, on the site which later was occupied by a grist mill, a tannery, and finally by O'Neill's paper mill.
John Hames had built a new residence for his family a few feet back of his original log home, and before it was completed a daughter was born--Martha. Martha was the family member who was attributed to have written most of the data on the Hames family history. Of the twelve children born to Drucilla and John Hames, the records so far as have been located have mention of only six of these children. Ben, the oldest, Henry who was first to die and was buried in the family plot, Ellen, Martha, Carolyn, and John.
Some of the recordings written by Martha Hames are in bits and pieces, with no progressive pattern; making it difficult to sort out and place the events in their proper occurrence. There are many overlapping incidences; some in contradiction to the other. As best as I can decipher and eke out these bits and pieces, I will try to put them in some semblance of order.
It seems that after John Hames' brother Ben ran off with the $3,000 given to him to go to San Francisco to buy machinery for the mills, and the fact the floods had ruined the mills while John was away in the service of his country; coupled with the fact he could not recover the $5,000 note from Lodge's estate, John lost much of his property in and around the Soquel area. The bills Ben had accumulated at the Hihn's store, John paid off with land at the beach that is now Capitola. This is probably one of the reasons he went to the gold fields to try his luck. Finding gold is sometimes a matter of luck and/or just plain hard and long work, and since luck didn't come to John, it was better to take over the ranching activity. This is when he built a lovely two-story house on the bank of the Salinas River just south of King City and close to Bradley--still known as Hames Valley.
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In the Hames valley, John raised sheep and was quite successful at this project for quite some time. The beautiful Salinas river ran down the middle of this vast grant; therefore there was always plenty of water and feed.
Since no actual time has been given when he began raising his sheep, or as to when he had actually built his new home in the valley, it can only be presumed that it was sometime between the later 1850s and 1860. It is not known at this time as to just what transpired for John to have lost much of his fortune again, but one reason can be assumed, when the U.S. Land Commission cut his land holdings over 880 acres.
Having mentioned before that John and Drucilla had twelve children, but only so far in the bits and pieces there are only five accounted for. Benjamin, Henry, Ellen, Carolyn and Martha. Three are known to have died at a very young age (death reasons unknown), and only two of these are mentioned by name--Henry and Ellen. All having passed on while the family was still living in Soquel and having been interned in the family cemetery on "Hames Hill".
With eight living daughters who within this time a part became of age to marry, thus doweries could have accounted for loss of some of his wealth, although it was rumored that two of his living sons were pretty much hell raisers, getting into one scrape after another--gambling and all the things that young men could get into in those days. These two apparently didn't have much heart for ranching either, so much of the ranch work had to be hired. This also accounts for the many families of the original Mexican/Spanish people living within the combines of the ranch. It was necessary to pay and help feed these people, and as stated previously, John was a very kind and generous man.
Benjamin, the oldest son, seemed to be the only one who took an interest in his father's businesses, as he helped his father and mother, and was always very proud of them. When the call came for some of the Californians to provide a certain quota for the Union Army, Benjamin joined the 8th California Infantry, Company A, 12 November 1864 and fought in the Civil War. He was honorably discharged, 24 October 1865. (He was pensioned for this service by Certificate # 1154861, and in later years this pension was his only means of livelihood--until his death, 26 September 1927.)
Martha, to who most of the historical writings are attributed to, never married (?), but had become a schoolteacher. Just where she taught is not known at this time (mostly in Gilroy). In her later years she lived in San Jose and lived on a pension of some sort. (Became a principal). She and one of her sisters lived together in an apartment overlooking St. James Park. It was in the time when the street or one particular street was all brick. When too old and ill to take care of herself and her sister, they were admitted into the County Old Folk's home, living their remaining days there.
Whatever it was that had concerned John with his holdings, he with several merchants from Soquel evidentally hearing of a fabulous gold strike in Mexico, headed for Mexico to see if he could recover his losses. This was in 1880. It was evident that within two years, things must have gone well, because in 1882, the mortgage was foreclosed on his home and Drucilla, his wife, found refuge in the old sugar mill in Soquel, and this is where she died. (Date unknown at this time.)
Nothing seemed to be going very well for John and he became very ill. Word was received by the family, and it was Ben who went after his father and brought him back home to Peach Tree in Monterey County, where he died in 1894.
It is kind of sad to t hink that after all the hardships, hard work, and all the talent and ambition, that there is nothing left in the local history to give credit to this man who first started and built an entire community. Even the old Hames home (Soquel), which was later occupied by the O'Neill family has been pushed aside like rubble by progress-- the new 4-lane freeway that winds down the valley has had its bulldozers push and shovel dirt so that the big pillars that once adorned the porch of this old mansion have all fallen, leaving the porch hanging. The floods from the river have eaten into the hillside and the graves have caved in and are partially washed out and down the river.
The old two-story ranchhouse is still standing where John first built it in his beloved Salinas River valley. It is well-kept and preserved by its present owners. The valley still beautiful and serene lies like a sleeping princess, not yet molested and mutilated by the surge of industrialism and subdivision. The foothills to the east and the San (Los) Padres range to the west, shelter and watch over it. The river still snakes its way lazily; sometimes quite full, other times fairly dry, but deep under it runs an unseen current
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ready to supply any who care to uncover it. Were it that easy to uncover some of the tales that the valley could tell of its past, to tell those who might search and seek for some of its history.
What remains of the John Hames story and family history are a few of the diary pages written by Martha Hames, plus a few bits and pieces of history, in which the Hames name is mentioned. Most are buried in the archives of history; many intermingled with other names and families of that day. The last of any vital knowledge and substantiation was lost just a year ago with the passing of Freida Schultz Hockett who took great interest of her history and the history in and around California. Freida was the youngest daughter of Carrie Hames Schultz Hart and the youngest sister of Harry Schultz, who is now the only living heir of that generation.
The old court house in Soquel burned down several years ago. How much, if any of this history was recorded there is not known. Also, how much was retrieved during that fire can only be assumed by the missing pages, the partly seared pages and the yellow singed and spotted pages, which are placed in a book in the Historical Archives at the Sutter's Fort Museum.
It is well to note that any persons mentioned in those days of history are just as important as that of the Hames history. I wonder, and there surely must be descendants still living who might be related in some way to the Hames family, or any of those noted in the book "The Soquel Story".