Alameda County Biographies

JAMES MOFFITT

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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


 
            Was born of Scotch-Irish parentage, in the city of New York, March 
17, 1831, where he received his early education and resided until his fifteenth 
year.  At that early period of his career he shipped on board the frigate 
Savannah, under Commodore Sloat, Captain Mervin commanding, and sailed for 
California in 1846, arriving in Monterey in the same year.  He remained on board 
the Savannah until 1849, when he was honorably discharged at San Francisco, 
after which he betook himself to his profession of engineer on the waters of the 
coast until 1859, when he established his residence in San Francisco, continuing 
in the same occupation until his settlement in Brooklyn Township, Alameda 
County, where he still resides.  Feeling that his services might be useful to 
the country in the then emergency of war, Mr. Moffitt joined the State Militia 
in 1862, and served with it until peace was declared, but only in this State, 
the services of his corps not having been called for beyond its boundaries.  He 
was also a member of the Union League and Minute Men, and was honorably 
discharged by Governor Low.  Mr. Moffitt has been identified with the Fire 
Department from his youth up to the present time.  In 1841, when only ten years 
old, he joined the old Volunteer Fire Department in New York, as torch-boy, so 
continuing until 1845.  In the mean time he found employment in the Novelty 
Machine Works, at the dry dock, foot of Tenth Street, on East River, where he 
acquired the profession of engineer, and was subsequently employed in the old 
Knickerbocker, Vanderbilt, and Bay State, until his departure on the frigate 
Savannah for California.  As early as 1851 he joined the Volunteer Fire 
Department in San Francisco, and served in Companies Two, Eight, and Ten, during 
his residence there.  He was also one of the founders of the Volunteer Fire 
Department in Oakland and Brooklyn, and continued an active and efficient member 
until the organization of the present paid department in 1878, since which time 
he has been conspicuously identified with the new organization, and has been 
several times elected to the chief offices of the department.  He is now the 
oldest active member of the Brigade living in Alameda County, and is serving in 
the capacity of ---------- the East Oakland Department.  In 1859, while residing 
in San Francisco, Mr. Moffitt was married to Miss Margaret Mulgrew, and is now 
blessed with the following-named sons and daughters:  Frank J., now a Deputy 
Sheriff of Alameda County, and a popular journalist; Mary, Maggie, Martha, 
Elizabeth (deceased), Joseph, Emma, George, Harry, and Nellie.  All these, like 
their parents, are fine examples of physical perfection, and vigorous young men, 
women, and children, and constitute as happy and pleasant a family as can be 
found in the whole land.  Mr. Moffitt resides on Fourteenth Street, near 
Thirteenth Avenue, in East Oakland, surrounded by a loving family, in the 
enjoyment of the good-will and respect of a community in which he is a liberal 
and public-spirited citizen.  After forty years of active and well-spent life, 
he still seems to be in the prime of manhood, and like Longfellow�s �Village 
Blacksmith,� �a might man is he, with large and sinewy hands, and the muscles of 
his brawny arms are strong as iron bands.�
 
History of Alameda County, California�, Oakland, M.W. Wood Publ., 1883, p. 944