San Joaquin County Biographies This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm ALTON GARSIDE. A San Joaquin County rancher of prominence living to the north of the Galt-Elliott road, between the Cherokee Lane road and the state highway, about eight miles north of Lodi, is Alton Garside, born in Jones County, Iowa, on April 28, 1883, the son of J. F. and Rosalie S. (Bill) Garside. Grandfather Garside was a native of England, and came to the United States when only ten years of age, settling in Ohio. The father, J. F. Garside, was born in Jackson County, Iowa, the grandfather having moved to the Hawkeye State in frontier days, where the family were farmers. Alton Garside was the fourth-born child and eldest son in a family of eight children born to his parents. J. F. Garside was married in Wyoming, Iowa, on December 28, 1881, to Miss Rosalie S. Bill. She was born at Wyoming, Iowa and was a daughter of Sedley C. Bill and Miriam (Fawcett) Bill. Grandfather Bill was a New Yorker, who came to Iowa and homesteaded land in early days. Grandmother Fawcett and his wife both died in Ohio. He had three sons who came to California in the early days, one of whom returned to the East and died there. Two, William and Richard, remained in California. Richard Fawcett went into the mines in the gold�rush days and met with moderate success. He came across the plains in the Argonaut year of 1849, accompanied by William. They started out with a company of people, but later withdrew from the company and came on by themselves. They did not fare as well, however, as they had anticipated, and little by little lost their effects until they had only a mule left between them. Necessity compelled them to dispose of even this, and as a result they had to make their way into California on foot. William Fawcett became a teaming contractor. He did hauling throughout the San Joaquin Valley and the mountain camps, but did not go into the mines. He made three trips across the plains, and returned with horses and stock to California. Later, William and Richard Fawcett came down into the Dry Creek country. William acquired 200 acres near Galt, in San Joaquin County, on the south side of Dry Creek; and Richard acquired 120 acres directly north of his brother, in Sacramento County, just across Dry Creek. Later Richard sold out his 120 acres to his brother William, and the 320 acres thus acquired became the home place of William Fawcett. William Fawcett had also acquired other land before his death, and became quite an extensive landowner. Upon his death he willed the 200 acres of his ranch lying in San Joaquin County to his two sisters (who had married brothers). Miriam A. (Fawcett) Bill and Mary A. (Fawcett) Bill; and Grandfather Sedley C. Bill then bought out the portion of this estate belonging to his wife's sister, which finally brought the 200 acres into the possession of Sedley C. Bill. His daughter, Rosalie S. (Bill) Garside, Alton Garside's mother, was the fourth child in a family of seven children. She has a brother, George S. Bill, who married Miss Kate Todd, as his first wife, who became the mother of three sons. He is living on sixty acres of the old Fawcett ranch. This George S. Bill had three children: B. S. Bill, B. H. Bill, and Sedley C., who was killed by a runaway team when he was very small. J. F. Garside, after his marriage in 1881, went to Cheyenne County, Neb., and took up a tree claim, and also homesteaded government land, getting altogether a half-section. He lived five and a half years in Nebraska, and then came to Galt and settled on the ranch of eighty acres upon which they now reside, on a part of the Fawcett estate deeded to the mother of Alton Garside. Of this eighty acres, Alton Garside owns twenty, while his mother retains sixty acres. Ten of the eighty acres are irrigated abundantly by means of a pumping plant. Alton Garside is the eldest of a family of three children: Alton, Gladys M., and Fern, all living at home with their parents. History of San Joaquin County, California � Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1923 p 1555 Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.