Sacramento Valley Biographies

HAMILTON SIMEON CONNOR

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta, April 2009.

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

            At an early period of American history the Connor family came
from England to Massachusetts. A son of the original immigrant was born in
the old Bay state and became the third settler in the township of Andover,
Merrimack county, N. H., where the place that he purchased has remained in
the possession of the family for more than one hundred and twenty-five
years. Simeon, a son of the pioneer settler near Andover, was born on the
homestead and remained there until his death at about forty years of age.
The next generation was represented by James R. Connor, who was born on the
home farm and succeeded to its ownership in early life, continuing there
until he died at sixty years of age. One of his sons bought the interests of
the other heirs in the homestead and still continues in the community where
the name has been known and honored through so many years. It is a fact
worthy of record that twenty-six members of the Connor family have been born
on the old homestead. 

          The marriage of James R. Connor united him with Hannah Beals, who
was born at Salisbury, Merrimack county, N. H., and died at Andover when
about seventy years of age. A woman of kindly disposition and tender heart,
she was of loved by her family and esteemed by acquaintances, and in the
church of which she was a member gave liberally of her time and means to
promote the cause of religion. Among her seven children Hamilton S., the
subject of this article, was third in order of birth, and he was born at
Andover, on the old family homestead, May 2, 1838. Nothing of special moment
occurred to mark the years of his boyhood and youth, which were passed in
the customary routine of farm work in summer and attending school in winter.
When twenty years of age, in 1858, he came via Panama to California, landing
at San Francisco on the 20th of September. At once he came to Yolo county,
where for five years he worked in the employ of his uncle, J. B. Green, on a
dairy ranch. 

          On resigning from his uncle's employ, Mr. Connor went to Nevada
and for a year worked in the lumber districts of that territory, near Carson
City. On his return to California he resumed work on a dairy ranch and for
four years managed a herd of sixty milch cows. Later he became an employe in
a meat market at Richland, Sacramento county, and after a time bought out
his employers, continuing to manage the business about eighteen months. On
selling out his market he rented a ranch in Sacramento county, upon which he
remained for a year only, and then for five years he rented a dairy in the
same county. In 1873 he purchased for $1000 a ranch of one hundred and
thirty acres on Merritt Island, four miles from Clarksburg, Yolo county, and
here he has since remained. At the time of buying the property he found
conditions discouraging, for only a few acres could be cultivated, the
balance being in brush and swamp. The reclamation of the island by the wise
management of its land owners has increased the value of his property many
fold, and now he has his entire place under cultivation and well improved.
Twenty-six cows furnish an abundance of milk for his dairy and have proved a
source of considerable profit. A portion of his farm is under alfalfa, and
several acres are utilized for the raising of garden produce.

           It was not until a considerable period after settling in
California that Mr. Connor established domestic ties. He was then united in
marriage with Miss Amanda Wilson, who was born in Iowa June 11, 1848, and in
1852 traveled across the plains with her parents to California. At the time
she was only four years of age; hence her earliest recollections are
connected with frontier scenes in the then new state of California, where
her father, George Wilson, remained for a year in Sacramento county and then
removed to San Jose. However, a year later he returned to Sacramento county
and settled at Florin, where he continued to make his home during the
balance of his life. In the family of Mr. and Mrs. Connor there are four
children now living, namely: Viola, who married Frank Kilgore, a rancher in
Colusa county; Clyde, wife of Isaac Newton Templeton, of Alameda, this
state; Carrie, Mrs. William Johnson, of Sacramento county; and Dwight, who
remains with his parents on their dairy ranch. One of the daughters, Lucy,
was taken from the family circle by death when she was twenty-five years of
age.

           Though maintaining a constant interest in movements for the
progress of his county, Mr. Connor has always refused office and has taken
no part in politics, except the casting of a Republican ballot in national
elections, and in local elections supporting those whom he considers the
best men irrespective of their political views. Whatever degree of success
he has gained may be attributed to his unaided efforts, for, while he is a
member of an old and honored New England family, his father had little
capital with which to endow his children upon starting them out in the world
and he began for himself with only such assistance as could be given by
upright and temperate habits, industrious and persevering disposition, and
willing hands.

"History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the
Sacramento Valley, Cal.," J. M. Guinn, The Chapman Publishing Company,
Chicago, 1906, Pages 484-485.