Alameda County Biographies

BENAJAH BENEDICT

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 

	This much respected pioneer of Alameda County, whose portrait will be found in this 
volume, was born in Addison County, Vermont, December 1, 1825, and is the son of Jonas A. and 
Soloma (Towner) Benedict.  His parents moving to Crown Point, Essex County, New York, when he 
was six years of age, there he received his education, grew to manhood, and resided on his 
father�s farm, until determining to tempt fortune on the Pacific Slope.  On April 20, 1852, he 
sailed in the bark Southerner, around Cape Horn, for San Francisco, where he arrived on the 22d 
of October.  It was not to loiter in that city that he had braved the dangers of the deep and 
made the wearisome voyage; no, he almost immediately went to the gold-producing canons of the 
Sierras, but not finding there the riches that he had expected, he made his way back to San 
Francisco, and there remained until January 11, 1853.  At this date he first came to the Contra 
Costa, for Alameda County had not yet been created, and, locating in the vicinity of Union City, 
embarked in farming operations on the land at present owned by John Shinn.  There he remained 
until October, 1853, when he removed to the Encinal of Alameda, and commenced agricultural 
pursuits on land now owned by Capt. R. R. Thompson, and upon which that gentleman has erected 
his handsome mansion.  In December, 1854, he transferred the scene of his labors to Bay Farm 
Island, rented land from Mr. Cleveland, on which he farmed until 1856.  In the following year he 
was associated with Mr. Mc Donald in tilling the soil, and in 1859 he erected and occupied the 
house in which he now resides.  Mr. Benedict owns on the island about seventy-five acres of land, 
which is chiefly devoted to the raising of asparagus and hops, while he is largely interested in 
the latter industry with Jacob B. Shirk, in Washington Township.  This enterprise Mr. Benedict 
has succeeded in bringing to a high state of perfection, and with the high prices ranging during 
the past year for that commodity the yield has added considerably to his already well-filled 
coffers. The benefits that he has conferred upon the small community of the Island are many. His 
advocacy and support of our public school system shows that he firmly believes that the only 
royal road to knowledge is by the early training of the young, and that it is the �mind that makes 
the man.�  Married, February 19, 1857, Mrs. Persis A. (Cleveland), widow of Chester Hamlin, who 
has two surviving children.

History of Alameda County, California�, Oakland, M.W. Wood Publ., 1883, p. 847