California Biographies San Bernardino County and Riverside County History of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties By: John Brown, Jr., Editor for San Bernardino County And James Boyd, Editor for Riverside County With selected biography of actors and witnesses of the period of growth and achievement. Volume III, the Western Historical Association, 1922, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, ILL This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of the submitter. JESSIE F. MAYHEW Jessie F. Mayhew, who is now enjoying an honorable retirement in a comfortable home at 354 Central Avenue, Chino, is one of the few survivors whose intimate recollections of San Bernardino runs back fifty years. He has lived a life of intense activity, and almost altogether out in the opening , enduring the discomforts and danger of the desert and the range. He was born January 1, 1848, at White Sulfur Springs, Mississippi, son of Jesse and Eunice (Clay) May- hew , the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of Mississippi. They had a family of five sons and two daughters. Jesse Mayhew Sr. was a Cali- fornia forty-niner. crossing the plans by way of the Santa Fe Route and driving a Government team through to Yuba, California. He followed mining with varied success for several years. In 1853 his wife, his son Jesse F., and one of the daughters set out to join him, coming by way of New Orleans and the Isthmus of Panama, Jesse F. Mayhew being packed across the Isthmus on the back of a native. From them a steamer took them north, and at Yuba City they joined Jesse Mayhew Sr. On the arrival of his family the father turned to ranching and teaming, and in 1860 came south to Los Angeles and in 1864 moved to San Bernardino. He mined one season in the Holcomb Valley, and then went to the El Monte and did farming in the locality and also operated a freighting team until 1865. He was one of the freighters between Los Angeles and Prescott, Arizona. It was about that time that Jesse F. Mayhew began parti- cipating in the active life of the frontier. Though a boy, he drove a team of six or eight mules for his father, passing over the old toll road through Cajun Pas, a road then owned by John Brown Jr. It was customary to combine eight or ten such teams in a single party, since only in numbers were they safe from Indian attack. The teams would be on the trail all day and at night guards were slung out to protect the camp. The freighters had to haul hay enough to feed the stock as far east as Soda Lake, thence depending on the natural grass, and grain was also part of the equipment for feed. Freight rates were twenty-five cents per pound from Los Angeles to Prescott, and the trip usually consumed sixty days. When the Indians became especially hostile United States soldiers were appointed to escort such trains. One detachment of soldier guards was stationed at Rock Springs, and Mr. Mayhew recalls the fact that all the privates deserted, leaving only the lieutenant, who quit in disgust and resigned his commission. In 1866 Jesse Mayhew Sr., bought a half league of ground for fifteen hundred dollars from the Chino heirs. This land was near the present town of Chino and in the old Rincon section. Jesse Mayhew built a grist mill, the first one in this entire valley. It was a water power mill and was constructed in 1875. He also did stock raising and dealt in horses and mules, driving them to market in Idaho and Utah. The first drive consisted of 500 head. Jesse May- hew Sr., died at Downey, California, and his wife died at Oceanside but was buried at Downey. Jesse F. Mayhew in such pioneer circumstances had no opportunity for school. He began doing some of the very hardest and most arduous work when only a youth. In 1868 he married Emily Hickey, who was born September 12, 1848, in Texas, daughter of Isaac Hickey, a Baptist Minister. She was a small child when her parents when the parents crossed the plains by ox team to California. Mr. and Mrs. Mayhew had seven children: Felix, who was born on the Rincon ranch, is in the mining business at Yuma, Arizona, and is married; Mrs. Eva McDonald, the second child, was born at Santa Ana and died in Arizona.; Elmer, born at Rincon, is a teamster at Tucson, Arizona, is married and has four children.; Clay, here in Pinal County, Arizona, now lives in Stafford County, that state, and is married; Goldie, born in Pinal County is the wife of Arrow Smith, of Garden Grove California; Gracie, born on Rincon ranch, died at the age of seven; Dixie is the wife of William E. Phillips, of Rincon ranch. After his marriage Mr. Mayhew leased and farmed a tract near Santa Ana, but in 1877 removed to Pinal County, Arizona, where for thirty-five years he engaged in the cattle business and teaming. While there he was elected and served twelve years on the Board of County Supervisors. He has always been a stanch democrat in politics. While in Arizona he twice lost all of his accumulated property, but in term he learned his lesson and more than recouped his losses. In 1913, on returning to California, he bought property at Garden Row, but sold that and in 1920 located at his present home in Chino. His life throughout has been among the new settlements and his experiences are all of the frontier. He knows San Bernardino County from the days of the early Mormon settlement and from the horse drawn stage to the auto stage and railway. His experience preceded the building and operation of telegraph and telegraph lines, railways and improved highways. At an age when most modern boys are thinking of en- tering high school he was he was driving an eight horse mule team far into the desert and frequently among hostile Indians.He has the sturdy honesty and self reliance of the old time frontiersman. Pages 1126 to 1127. Transcribed and submitted by Sally Kaleta, March 2010.