Sacramento Valley Biographies

David Megowan

Transcribed  by Sally Kaleta, March 2009

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


            .In point of years of continuous residence upon one
farm no resident of Yolo county surpasses the record established by David
Megowan, who as early as 1849 came across the river from Sacramento and
selected the claim that still forms his homestead. Fayette ranch, as the
place is called, stands three miles south of Washington and about an equal
distance from Sacramento, and comprises three hundred and twenty acres of
well-improved land with a substantial residence, commodious barns and
granary, and a varied assortment of cattle and horses, together with the
facilities necessary for the proper management of a dairy business.
          The owner of Fayette ranch, whose name has been identified with
the agricultural interests of Yolo county for more than one-half century,
was born in Lexington, Ky., June 16, 1825, and is a son of David and Nancy
(Foster) Megowan, natives of Pennsylvania. The maternal grandfather, John
Foster, was an extensive planter and the owner of about two hundred slaves.
The paternal grandfather, Stewart Megowan, a native of Belfast, Ireland,
immigrated to America at an early age and fought in the service of his
adopted country during the Revolutionary war. Afterward he became a pioneer
of Kentucky, where he followed the carpenter's trade and also took contracts
for buildings. Near the Henry Clay homestead he owned a tract of six hundred
and forty acres, where the race track and a part of the city of Lexington
now stand. At the time of his death, when sixty-eight years of age, he was
considered one of the successful and prosperous men of his locality. In his
family were five sons, Stewart, James, Robert, David and Joseph, of whom the
eldest served under General Jackson in the battle of New Orleans as captain
of a company.
          Reared in Pennsylvania and Kentucky, David Megowan Sr., became a
prominent farmer and a pioneer pork-packer of Lexington, Ky., and on the
death of his father inherited, with other property, a number of slaves. Not
being an advocate of slavery, he tendered the slaves their freedom, but
their devotion to him was so great that they refused to leave him. At the
time of his death he was sixty-eight years of age, and his wife lived to be
seventy. In religion she was actively connected with the Presbyterian Church
and he con-tributed liberally of his means to its charities and other
activities. Of their large family (comprising six sons and six daughters)
David Jr., is the sole survivor. To him the best advantages of his home city
were freely given by his parents, and he was educated largely in the
University of Kentucky. When nineteen years of age he went to Cincinnati,
Ohio, and for two years studied architecture under a leading architect of
that city. On his return to Kentucky he began to take contracts for designs
and plans of buildings, and continued in the occupation until 1849, when
news came of the discovery of gold in California. At once all of his plans
were changed. New hopes sprang into his mind, and the quiet life he had
planned in his home state was changed for other ambitions connected with the
still unknown west.
         By the payment of $500 into its treasury, Mr. Megowan became a
member of the Cincinnati Mining & Trading Company and came across the
plains. The company owned mines and stores and drove across the plains on
this trip a train of one hundred and twenty-five mules, to be used in
equipping their packing trains in the new country. For two years after his
arrival in California Mr. Megowan engaged in selling goods at the mines as a
partner of two other men, but the burning of the stock entailed a heavy loss
upon him, and proved such a discouragement that he abandoned the business.
As before stated, he selected his present homestead in 1849 and at once took
steps to become the possessor of the land. Returning to Missouri in 1854, he
married Miss Euphrasia Armstrong, a native of Ohio. The young couple for
their honey-moon enjoyed the overland trip to California, which, in spite of
many anxieties for the welfare of their band of horses and house-keeping
necessities, passed uneventfully and safely. Since settling on the ranch Mr.
Megowan has made a specialty of the stock business and still superintends
his stock and land not-withstanding his advancing years. In their family he
and his wife have four children, two of whom, Mary and David, remain at home
to assist in the care of the place and brighten the declining days of their
parents with their affectionate care. The other daughter, Cora, is the wife
of Thomas A. Snyder, of Washington, Yolo county, and the younger son,
Claude, follows the occupation of a veterinary surgeon at Sacramento. In
politics, Mr. Megowan is a Jacksonian Democrat. He is a director and an
honored ex-president of the Sacramento Pioneer Association, which has
claimed an enrolled membership of seven hundred, but only twenty-six of this
number are now members.
          The success that Mr. Megowan has attained should not be a wonder
to future generations. He comes from brave Revolutionary stock and the
ambition and courage he has manifested in the peaceful vocation of
agriculture is the outgrowth of ancestral traits. His ancestors were
numbered among the first families of their respective countries and to him
belongs the distinction of being one of the real pioneers of Yolo county.

"History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the
Sacramento Valley, California," J. M. Guinn, The Chapman Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1906, Pages 271-272.