Los Angeles County, CA, Biographies

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


ELIJAH MOULTON 
 
was born in Montreal,   Canada, in 1820. His father, Elijah Moulton, was a 
native of Massachusetts, and moved to Montreal at an early day. Mr. Moulton 
traces his ancestry back to the French. He was apprenticed to learn the cooper's 
trade of a Scotchman in Montreal, but on account of the old gentleman's ill 
treatment of him, he ran away when his time was half out, and went to West Troy, 
New York. From there he went to Cincinnati and spent one year. Then he went to 
Akron, Ohio, and followed his trade for some time, after which he went into 
Pennsylvania, and from there to Michigan, then to Ohio, and in 1843 he concluded 
he would like to see some of the rough side of life and its hardships. He 
accordingly hired himself out to the Union Fur Company, and set out for the 
Rocky Mountains. They started from St. Louis and went westward to the month of 
the Yellowstone River, and there remained until the spring of 1844. At this time 
he asked and obtained leave to join Jim Bridger, in an expedition to California. 
They trapped in Montana and the Black Hills, then to Bridger's Fort, to Fort 
Laramie, to Fort Pier, Missouri, and back to Bridger. Then the company set out 
on a trapping expedition to Arizona in the fall of 1844. In the spring of 1845 
they came to California, where our subject severed his connection with the 
company, and went to work for Don Louis Vignes, and continued with him till 
1851, with the exception of two trips he made to the mines. He then bought a 
piece of land located near Wolfskill's, and in 1855 took charge of William 
Wolfskill's property, and continued with him three years, when he bought 160 
acres in what is now East Los Angeles. This was before there was any city here, 
and Mr. Moulton has been an eye witness of the wonderful growth of the City of 
the Angels. He was the first deputy sheriff of Los Angeles, under George 
Burrell. He was marshal of the city and a member of the city council in 1860 and 
1861. Mr. Moulton served in the war with Fremont. and belonged to the Mexican 
veterans. He can relate some of the most interesting incidents of the war, and 
of the hardships they endured. For days at a time they were without food, and on 
one occasion he and another man used the stars and stripes as a seine to catch 
some fish to eat. Financially Mr. Moulton has been eminently successful. He was 
for some years in the dairy business. He has recently sold land and city 
property to the amount of nearly $100,000. He still owns several houses and lots 
in East Los Angeles, and also property in Santa Monica. He married a daughter of 
Mr. William Wolfskill, and by her had one child. Both mother and child died in 
1861. He was again married, and has an interesting family. Their residence is on 
Lyle street in East Los Angeles. Mr. Moulton is a self-made man and highly 
respected by all who know him, and it is only justice to him, in writing the 
history of his county, to say that of the pioneers he is a true pioneer.
 
An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, California �  Chicago, The Lewis 
Publishing Company, 1889   Page 557
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler