Alameda County Biographies

JOHN J. RISER

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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


 
This pioneer of California, was born in Wurtemburg, Germany, June 4, 1824, and 
there resided with his parents until the year 1831, when they emigrated to the 
United States, and first settled in Ohio.  At the end of a twelvemonth they 
fixed their residence in Richland County, in the same State, and finally, in 
1840, located in Marion County, where our subject learned the boot and shoe 
maker�s trade.  In 1842 he moved with his brother to the State of Illinois, and 
after residing for a time in Hancock County, transferred his abode to Quincy, 
Adams County.  At the end of one year and eight months he returned to Hancock 
County, and in 1844 paid a visit to the Atlantic States, returning in 1845, and 
joining his brother in his labors.  In the following year, 1846, on the 
declaration of war between the United States and Mexico, Captain James Allen, of 
the First Regiment of Dragoons, received instructions from Colonel Kearney, 
commanding the troops at Fort Leavenworth, to visit the Mormon camps, and accept 
the service for twelve months of four or five companies, for service in Mexico, 
this force to unite with the Army of the West at Santa Fe, and be marched thence 
to California, where they would be discharged.  On July 16, 1846, five companies 
of over four hundred men, all told, were mustered into the service of the United 
States at Council Bluffs, Iowa Territory, and in the ranks of Company C, James 
Brown, Captain, was the subject of this memoir.  With his enlistment commenced a 
series of hardships, which Mr. Riser encountered cheerfully, and without 
complaint, as became a true soldier.  The march from Santa Fe, through what is 
now called Arizona, into California, was a continued succession of privations; 
the weak succumbed, only the robust survived.  During this march of a thousand 
miles, stragglers were many, and the famished not few.  On July 16, 1847, the 
battalion was mustered out of the service, and re-enlisted for eight months.  At 
the end of enlistment, he, with twenty-three others, made a wagon-road to Salt 
Lake City in 1850.  Mr. Riser established himself as a permanent resident of 
this State, although he paid a two year�s visit to Utah between 1848 and 1850.  
On the 11th day of April of the latter year, he started to cross the plains to 
California by ox-team, and arrived July 7th.  During that summer he stayed in 
the vicinity of Sacramento, after which he moved to Auburn, El Dorado County, 
and there remained until June, 1851, when he came to Alameda County and 
commenced farming.  In October, 1854, he acquired his present  property, 
comprising eighty-five acres, and situated in Washington Township, where he is 
now residing.  Mr. Riser married December 25, 1848, Helen R. Allen, a native of 
the State of New York, and has:  Catharine, George C., Charles W., May Belle, 
Franklin A., and Helen R.
 
History of Alameda County, California�, Oakland, M.W. Wood Publ., 1883, p. 965-966