Tuolumne County Biographies

L. F. JARVIS

Submitted by: Nancy Pratt Melton

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


The subject of this sketch was born in Surrey, Hancock County, Maine, on August 
23, 1819.  He received his primary education at the common schools of Surrey and
Ellsworth, and his academic learning at Exeter, N. H., and at Bowdoin College in 
Brunswick, Cumberland County, Maine. He studied law in Bangor, with Judges 
Hathaway and Shepley, and after being admitted to the Bar practiced his 
profession at Ellsworth.  In 1849, he came round the Horn to this State, landing 
in San Francisco on April 7, 1850.  He first settled at San Jose; thence going 
to the south fork of the American River, where he was engaged in mining.  He 
came to this county in 1851, and took up a residence at Columbia, and soon after 
moved to the place where he now lives, giving it the name of Vine Springs.  Mr. 
Jarvis has sixty acres of land planted with grape vines, and an orchard of the 
same size.  He has an excellent wine cellar, and all the necessary appliances 
for making fine wines.  Near his house are two large springs, the water of which 
is conducted by means of a hydraulic ram to the house, and by ditches to the 
wine cellar and other parts of the farm. Mr. Jarvis married Mary A. Robinson 
(now deceased), a native of Ellsworths, Maine.
Mr. Jarvis has in his possession a number of rare and invaluable heirlooms, the 
large and richly chased silver tankard presented to Sir William Pepperrell by 
the mayor of the city of London after the capture of Louisburg, also a large and 
beautiful silver candlestick, belonging to Sir William, and in his parlor hangs 
a life-size portrait of St. Paul, by one of the masters, which though nearly 250 
years old, is in perfect preservation and appears almost to start from the 
canvas.

�A History of Tuolumne County, California� B.F. Alley, 1882. Pg. 379-380.