El Dorado County Biographies


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



 
JOHN CARTHECHE
 
            Was born in Zea, Greece, in 1822.  His father, George Cartheche, was 
a sea captain, and engaged in the revolutionary war in Greece, and also in the 
war between Russia and Turkey that raged before the revolution in Greece.  John 
attended school until he was 16 years old, and then went aboard of his father�s 
ship as a sailor boy, and under the tutorage of his father learned navigation.
            At the age of 21 he was made captain of a schooner; he had the 
misfortune to lose her in a bay in the Grecian waters, and was so chagrined that 
he would not return home but shipped aboard an English vessel as a sailor, but 
being quite expert in learning the �ropes� he was soon made second mate of the 
ship.  He sailed as such for four years.
            He came into New York and shipped on an American vessel.  He 
continued to sail on the American boats until 1849, when he came around Cape 
Horn to San Francisco and went at once to the mines in El Dorado county.  In 
1857 he followed the Frazer  river excitement.  After his return to California 
he engaged in the tobacco and cigar trade, together with a restaurant.  He was a 
Deputy Sheriff of the county, under Maurice G. Griffith, for four years, and two 
years under James B. Hume; for the following six years he was again in business 
for himself in Placerville.  Since this time he has been acting as a messenger 
and detective for Wells, Fargo & Co., in the mountains of Southern Utah.  Mr. 
Cartheche has no family of his own, but has been magnanimous in the expenditure 
of his means in educating others, having supplied the means necessary to 
complete the education of three young men and one young lady.  He is a member of 
the Masonic Fraternity for the past thirty years.  Is a member of the Chapter 
R.A.M. and of Placerville Commandery K.T. No. 4, of which he was Eminent 
Commander, and has filled offices in other lodges.
 
Historical Souvenir of El Dorado County, California with Illustrations & 
Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men & Pioneers - Oakland, Cal. - Paolo 
Sioli, Publisher, 1883. p - 224
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler