Central California Biographies

A memorial and biographical history of the coast counties of Central California : illustrated : containing 
a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its discovery to the 
present time, together with glimpses of its auspicious future, illustrations and full-page portraits of 
some of its eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers, and prominent citizens of 
to-day (1893)

Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Publishing Company
Author: Barrows, Henry D; Ingersoll, Luther A

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

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

 


J. A. BLESSING, a California pioneer of 1850, and a prosperous farmer of San Benito 
county, residing near Hollister, is deserving of some personal mention in this work. 

Mr. Blessing is a native of Virginia, born on the Red river, son of Abraham and Mary 
(Anderson) Blessing. By the death of his parents he was left an orphan at the age of 
two years and was cared for and reared by strangers. When a youth he went to Mis- 
souri and at the age of twenty crossed the plains from that State to California, coming 
via the northern route, and after a journey of seventy-five days landed in " Hangtown " 
on the 1st of July, 1850. He spent twenty-five years in the mines of Placer, El Dorado 
and adjoining counties, and in 1875 came to San Benito county and located near Hollister. 
Here he owns a fertile farm of eighty acres. Mr. Blessing was married at San Francisco, 
in 1863, to Mrs. Ruth Roe, a native of Lenawee county, Michigan. They have five children: 
William A., Estella M., Mary. Alice, John Franklin and Oliver C. The two daughters and 
one son are married.