Article 1
 
 
Article 1 from Frank Price, direct descendant of Benjamin Hames. Sent to Tom McCubbin, January, 2003.
 
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A Part of the Life History of John Hames, Brother of Benjamin F. Hames
 
John, Hames, one of the oldest American settlers of California, came to the State via Cape Horn from New York as a carpenter on the ship Phoenix. He remained aboard this ship for one year, leaving her in Peru, South America, and worked at his trade in Peru, Chile, and Ecuador during the years 1842 and 1843.
 
Coming to California, he first located at Monterey in May, 1843; visited Los Angeles and San Francisco, at both of which places he worked at his trade. His next venture was taking of mill timber to the Barbadoes for Capt. Smith. Mr. Hames then built the first saw mill at Niles Station, California, in 1844-45. He located the present town of Soquel in Santa Cruz County, at which place he built mills, and made the town his home until 1883, during which time he went into the sheep business on a large scale on his ranch in the Salinas Valley.
 
Mr. Hames has seen much of the pioneer life in California following as he did his trade of carpenter and mill-wright for so many years. He knew Marshall, to whom credit is given of having discovered gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848, and was working in the mill race at the time the first nugget was picked up. To quote the words of Mrs. Hames: "The Mormon boys were working at the mills for Sutter with Marshall as foreman. One of these brothers found the gold and handed it to Marshall, who in turn gave it to Sutter, who sent it to San Francisco, where it was pronounced gold." Mr. Hames also relates the fact of himself having raised the first Stars and Stripes in San Jose, Santa Clara County. It was a small banner about six feet long. He put it on a little willow pole that surmounted an old adobe building. Tom Fallon has been credited in historical volumes as having performed this act.
 
Mr. Hames is a native of Osage County, New York, having been born there March 22, 1811. His father, Benjamin Hames, Sr., was a mill-wright by trade, and a native of the same state, who came west in the early days of Michigan settlements. He located at Battle Creek, Calhoun County, Michigan, where he built the first mill, and resided there until his death, which occurred in 1850. The maiden name of the mother of our subject was Rebecca Harding, who was born near the city of Rochester, New York.
 
The subject of this sketch was married  to Drucilla Shadden in 1846 by the Honorable  Thomas O. Larkin at Monterey. Mrs. Hames was a native of Arkansas, but came to California in 1843 with her father, Thomas Jefferson Shadden, now a resident of Oregon. This lady bore her husband eight children: Benjamin M., born in Santa Cruz on April 9th, 1847, who
 
 
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married July 3rd, 1873, Miss Etta, daughter of A.J. Copley. They have four children, namely: Bert, May, Frank and Eva. The two former are twins. The other children of our subject are: George, Susan, Eliza, Martha, Lucretia, Caroline, and Lillie.
 
Our subject makes his home with his son Benjamin of Peach Tree Valley, San Benito County. Our subject is the uncle of Mrs. Fannie Hunt, Mrs. Lucretia Wylar, Mrs. Rebecca Deleissegues, Benjamin, Jr., George, and Mrs. Carmen Munoz, children of Benjamin Hames, his brother.
 
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Your mother's grandparents on her mother's side: [don't know who this is addressed to]
Great-grandparents
Your mother's parents:
Your mother's grandparents on father's side:
Another relative: Richard Harding Davis, novelist and playwright, died at Mount Kisco. Cross Roads Farm, New York. April 11, 1916. He was born in Philadelphia in 1864, the son of L. Clark Davis and Rebecca Harding Davis...
 
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Children of Benjamin Hames and Carmen Laing:
 
 
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