Sacramento Valley Biographies

JOHN CARROLL

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta, June 2009.

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

        One of the early settlers of Sutter county is John Carroll, a
pioneer rancher, whose farm of one hundred and ninety-six acres lies in the
vicinity of West Butte, in this county. Born in County Cork, Ireland,
February 15, 1830, Mr. Carroll remained in the old country until he attained
the age of sixteen years, when he decided to start out in life for himself,
and leaving for the United States, arrived in New York with only $5 in his
purse. Here he became engaged in telegraph-line work, remaining with one man
for six years and nine months. Changing his location to Stafford,
Connecticut, he engaged in the same occupation until 1854, when he decided
to remove to the remote west, coming to California via the Nicaragua route.
On August 10, 1854, he found himself in the busy city of San Francisco, but
remained there only a day. Upon leaving the next morning he started for
Marysville, there taking the stage for St. Louis, Sierra county, where he
prospected and mined for two years and a half, receiving $6 per day for his
services. Leaving that vicinity, Mr. Carroll went to Moore's Flat
prospecting, and at that place met with his first great disaster, losing
$17,000 in one claim. This was one of the reasons which caused him to turn
his attention toward agricultural pursuits, and in 1859, he came to Sutter
county and bought a squatter's claim to one hundred and ninety-seven acres,
paying $17 per acre. As soon as this land came into market Mr. Carroll
purchased it, buying eighty acres from the government and the balance from
the state. Later on he purchased one hundred and sixty acres in the pass
which he gave to one of his sons, and two hundred and forty acres just north
of West Butte, Sutter county, a portion of which he gave to a son, farming
the remainder himself. Mr. Carroll devoted the home farm of one hundred and
ninety-seven acres to the raising of broom corn and potatoes and to general
farming. 

          While in New York, Mr. Carroll married an old friend and
schoolmate, Ellen Sheehan, who came to California in 1854 with her husband
and was with him during his mining enterprises. Her death occurred September
9, 1891. They were the parents of five children, of whom the first-born died
in infancy; the others are Maggie, the wife of Newton S. Wilson, sheriff of
Sutter county; John J., a rancher in this vicinity; Ellen, the wife of
William F. Hoke; and James, also a rancher in Sutter county. Politically Mr.
Carroll is a Democrat, but never accepted political recognition, as he
preferred to devote his time to the management of his property. He is a
member of the Catholic Church, as was also his wife. Mr. Carroll has met
with many adversities during his residence in California, one having
occurred in 1862, when high water swept away his buildings and destroyed his
crops, but he did not become discouraged, and is now a prosperous and highly
esteemed land owner of Sutter county.

"History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the
Sacramento Valley, Cal.," J. M. Guinn, The Chapman Publishing Company,
Chicago, 1906, Pages 532-533.