Solano County Biographies

S. K. NURSE

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

 
            This prominent citizen of Solano county was born in Monroe county, 
New York, February 12, 1820, in which place he received his early education, 
residing there until 1839 when he moved to Oakland county, Michigan, and for one 
winter taught school there.  In the spring of 1840 he returned to his native 
county and in the following winter again taught school in the district where he 
had been educated.  In the following spring he left for Ohio and then commenced 
the hard work of his life:  for a portion of the year toiling at a threshing 
machine, and in the others varying it by school teaching.  In 1842, in spring, 
Mr. Nurse proceeded to Rochester, New York, and there commenced the study of 
medicine and dentistry which he prosecuted till that fall when he took the field 
as a dentist, traveling as such until the autumn of 1845, when he attended a 
course of medical lectures at Cleveland, Ohio.  Once more we find Mr. Nurse as a 
traveling dentist, and in 1847 he entered the telegraph office at St. Louis, 
Missouri.  In the May following he removed to Springfield, Illinois, being 
employed in the office as a telegraph operator, where he continued until 
December 31, 1848, when he sailed by way of Panama to California, arriving in 
San Francisco on May 19, 1849. His first summer in the Golden State Dr. Nurse 
passed in the mines, then in company with L. B. Mizner of Benicia, run a stage 
some two months from that place to Sacramento when the steamer �Senator� 
arrived, which closed that business.  Late in the fall he went to San Jose, 
Santa Clara county; in the following spring he departed for the southern mines; 
and in May, 1850, he came to Benicia, Solano county, where he resided but a 
short time, sailing thence for South America, in which country he remained one 
year being engaged in railroad surveying.  On January 6, 1852, he once more 
arrived in Benicia where he lived until the month of May, 1853, when he settled 
in Denverton, then a part of Montezuma township, and built the first house 
erected there, it being, in size, twelve feet square.  Since those days times 
have greatly changed.  Mr. Nurse now possesses a large warehouse and store on 
the grounds where he located in 1853.  He has handed his name to posterity in 
the well-known �Nurse�s Landing,� a point of export of grain; while in 1855 he 
was elected on the first Board of Supervisors which sat for the county.  He has 
occupied the position of Postmaster at Denverton for the last one and twenty 
years; is a member of the Masonic Order and was a member and Master of Benicia 
Lodge, No. 5, one of the oldest in the State; while he has held the office of 
High Priest to the Solano Chapter, No. 43.
            Mr. Nurse has once, in 1852, paid a visit to his native State of New 
York, remaining there, however, but four months.  He married December 2, 1863, 
Mrs. D. A. Nurse, who was born in Monroe county, New York, June 5, 1830; she 
being a widow of D. A. Nurse � a brother of the subject of this sketch � who 
resided here as early as 1853.  The circumstances of his death are not out of 
place here.  Mr. Nurse and wife were on their way east to make a visit.  They 
sailed from San Francisco on the steamer �Golden Gate,� accompanied by Miss 
Katie Cogswell, a sister of Mrs. Hollister, formerly of Suisun township.  The 
steamer started out well laden with human freight, and was considered one of the 
best on the line.  When she arrived near Manzanillo, on the coast of Mexico, on 
July 16, 1862, she burned to the water edge, and nearly all the passengers were 
lost, and among the number was D. A. Nurse and Miss Cogswell.  Mrs. Nurse was 
rescued after being three hours in the water.  She took the next steamer for San 
Francisco, arriving there without accident.  The following year she was married 
to Dr. S. K. Nurse as above stated.
 
History of Solano County � San Francisco, Cal. - Wood, Alley  & Co., East 
Oakland, pub 1879, pp 484-485