Santa Cruz County Biographies

PATRICK McALLISTER

Submitted by Kathy Sedler

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

 
        P. McAllister, a pioneer resident of Pajaro Valley and a member of the 
Santa Cruz County Pioneer Association, was born in County Derry, Ireland, March 
17, 1818. He was the son of a farmer and the youngest of a family of five 
children. His father died when he was sixteen years old, and he managed the 
estate for the next three years, when he sold out to his brother and came to 
America, having previously married, when eighteen years of age, Margaret Cargan.
        After arriving in New York he proceeded direct to Wisconsin, where he 
worked in the lead mines, remaining there for ten years. In 1850 he crossed the 
plains, leaving his wife in Wisconsin, and arrived in California on the 8th of 
September of that year, the day preceding the admission of the State into the 
Union. He immediately engaged in mining at Hangtown, on the middle fork of the 
American River. In the spring of 1851 he left good diggings for a 
Jack-o'-lantern prospect at Gold Lake. Proceeding to Sacramento with nine 
companions, they bought and equipped a pack train, and had got on their way as 
far as Shasta, on the Salmon River, when they met a great many disgusted miners 
returning from the new diggings. They accordingly determined not to pursue their 
journey further, and began prospecting in the vicinity of Shasta, in Mad Mule 
Ca�on. Mr. McAllister struck it rich and sent for his wife. Such was the 
emigration from the East for California at that time that she found it 
impossible to secure passage by water; she came overland, and was met by her 
husband on the plains.
        He remained in Mad Mule Ca�on until the fall of 1852, when he moved to 
Monterey County, and purchased a farm of three hundred and eighty-six acres in 
the Pajaro Valley, about six miles southwest of where Watsonville now is. From 
that time on he engaged in farming and added to his store until now he is one of 
the substantial and wealthy men of this section. He owns another place of 
forty-five acres near Watsonville, where he now resides, besides owning four 
acres of land in the city of Watsonville. He is one of the organizers, a 
prominent stockholder, and director of the Pajaro Valley Bank. He is also one of 
the stockholders of the Bank of Watsonville.
        Three children have been born unto them, two of whom died, the eldest, 
Patrick, in infancy, before they left Ireland, and Joseph, who died in infancy 
during their residence in Wisconsin. Maggie, the surviving daughter, was born in 
Wisconsin, and is now the wife of Peter Thompson, one of the prominent stock 
raisers and farmers of the Pajaro Valley. Although they have had fifty-five 
years of wedded life, Mr. and Mrs. McAllister are still in the possession of 
reasonable good health, and are enjoying the competence accumulated by a long 
life of industry and thrift.
 
HISTORY OF SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.-  E. S. Harrison, 
Pacific Press Publ. Co., San Francisco, 1891