Ventura County Biographies

O. F. Hawley

Submitted by Sandy Neder

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

 
O. F. Hawley is a California pioneer. He was born in Canada, December 28, 1830, 
the son of Charles Hawley and Cynthia (Laboree) Hawley, both natives of Canada. 
His grandfather, Amos Hawley, was a native of New Hampshire, and his grandfather 
on the maternal side, Rufus Laboree, was a native of Connecticut, and the 
ancestors of both families had long been residents of America. He was the fourth 
of a family of thirteen  children, and the first twenty years of his life were 
spent in Canada. In 1852 he came to California, and worked in the mines in 
Mariposa County, with ordinary success. After being there a year he went to San 
Francisco, and February 16, 1853, sailed in the Monumental City for Australia, 
where he arrived after a voyage of eighty days. He went directly to the mines, 
where he worked for a year and a half, having fine success. He washed as high as 
$200 in gold in a single day, with an old-fashioned rocker. Upon his return to 
California he went to the mines in Nevada County, and worked at river mining in 
the South Yuba, with indifferent returns. In 1862 he went across the country to 
Idaho and prospected where the city of Auburn is now located. The next year he 
went to Boise Basin, being more successful and remaining there two years and a 
half. He was one of a company of five who worked four or five claims at one time 
and took out as high as $10,000 in a single week. Mr. Hawley took out $4,900 in 
one week, with five hired men, each receiving $6 per day. They employed four men 
to work at night, to save the water and also the gold. The water cost 50 cents 
per inch for twelve hours' use. When he left the gravel mining he sold his 
claim, and, with his brothers, went to Nevada and prospected in quartz-mining. 
They had hard luck and met with heavy losses. After this Mr. Hawley bought a 
ranch in Placer County, where he farmed four years. Then his wife died, and he 
sold his farm and went back to the mines in Nevada County, where he obtained a 
situation as a water agent and remained there ten years. At the expiration of 
that time he came to Southern California and at Carpenteria rented land for five 
or six years, which he devoted to the production of Lima beans. When he came to 
his present location he purchased eighty acres of choice land, a part of which 
he has since sold, retaining forty-three acres. This contains a nursery of 
walnut trees and a variety of fruit trees. 
    Mr. Hawley was married, in 1865, to Miss Matty Wheelock, a native of New 
York. They had two children: Ida B., born at Columbia Hill, Nevada County, is 
now the wife of John Dickerson, and lives near her father; Frank A., born in 
Placer County, resides with his father. After five years of married life, Mrs. 
Hawley died December 18, 1870. Mr. Hawley afterward married Miss Anna Carrol, a 
native of New York. They have had two children, born in Nevada County, Clarence 
and Lee, aged eight and twelve respectively. Mr. Hawley is a Royal Arch Mason, 
and has been a life-long Democrat.
 
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF THE COUNTIES OF SANTA BARBARA, SAN LUIS 
OBISPO, AND VENTURA, CALIF. by Ida Addis Storke, 1891, p 561