Solano County Biographies

JAMES L. MILES

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

 
born in Davidson county, Tennessee, near Nashville, March 3, 1822.  His mother 
died when he was about eight years old; his father, H. D. Miles, married a 
second wife.  He remained on the farm where he was raised until he was sixteen 
years old; he then left the old homestead and walked one hundred miles to the 
mouth of Cumberland river, or the town of Smithland, in Kentucky, where he 
engaged as a common hand on the steamboat �Rio,� H. H. Harrison, commander; he 
continued to be engaged in steamboating on various boats and in different 
capacities until the 5th of April, 1850, when he left Nashville, Tenn., for 
California.  The last five years of his steamboating he was engaged as pilot on 
different boats.  He left Nashville in company with Stephen J. Buckhout and 
wife, and Thomas L. Bowers, for California.  Bowers and himself arrived at 
Hangtown on the 20th of August, 1850; he worked in the mines until the latter 
part of September, then he walked to Sacramento city, where he hired to one 
Capt. Harding, to mow grass, down below the city, where he worked until he was 
taken sick; he then returned to the city, and remained there a few days, until 
he felt able to travel; he then walked to Suisun valley, where he arrived the 
21st of October, 1850, with just one dollar and twenty-five cents in his pocket, 
and all the clothes he had in the world he had on his back, and one blanket.  He 
walked to Benicia, and gave seventy-five cents of his coin for dinner; he then 
returned to Suisun, located here and went to work at whatever work he could get, 
receiving four dollars per day for work.  He married Mary J. Quentien, daughter 
of Allen Quentien, the 18th day of December, 1851.  She, in company with her 
father and brother William, and a negro man, Isaac, crossed the plains in 1850, 
and settled in Suisun valley in October; she and her father were from Mill 
creek, four miles from Nashville, Davidson county, Tenn.  He commenced to farm 
in 1851, raising barley and potatoes; he shipped the first produce (potatoes) 
from Suisun City, in July, 1852; he shipped them on the schooner �Ann Sophia,� 
Josiah Wing captain and owner.  The potatoes were sold in San Francisco for 9 � 
cents per pound.  November 5, 1857, he returned to his native State on a visit; 
returned to California in February, 1858.  In December, 1858, moved to the 
Montezuma hills, and lived on a ranch near Nurse�s Landing, taking care of 
cattle; moved from there, in 1861, six miles northwest of Rio Vista, where he 
lived eight years; his wife died here, the 16th of February, 1866, and left him 
with an only child, and she blind; sold his ranch here in October, 1869 (480 
acres); then returned to Suisun Valley, and in July, 1870, bought a farm of 
ninety acres, of Lewis Pierce, where he now lives.  Married a second wife, 
Malinda Angeline McKinley, June 7, 1877, she having three children: Samuel, 
Elizabeth J., and Alice Lee.  He crossed the plains with mule teams; was one 
hundred days from the Missouri river to Hangtown, now Placerville.
 
History of Solano County � San Francisco, Cal. - Wood, Alley  & Co., East 
Oakland, pub 1879, pp 418-419