California Biographies Mendocino and Lake Counties, California Transcribed by Peggy Hooper This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm Source: History of Mendocino and Lake Counties, California With Biographical Sketches History by Aurelius O. Carpenter And Percy H. Millberry Illustrated, Complete In One Volume Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914 JEROME MACK SLEEPER.� It is over fifty years since Jerome Alack Sleeper took up his residence in the section of Lake county where he is still living, having been a resident and voter of what is now the West Upper Lake precinct from 1863 continuously to the present. Beginning as a renter, he soon pre-empted one hundred acres, and through the various changes of buy- ing, selling and trading gradually came into possession of the rich estate which he and his sons are now cultivating, three hundred and six acres in one body, much of which is alluvial land of unsurpassed fertility. In his own words, his swamp land "is the Nile duplicated." Here the celebrated White Creaseback bush bean, a snap string bean white in color and superb for can- ning purposes, flourishes at its best. It has been Air. Sleeper's star product for many years, for he began raising these beans twenty-five years ago, when the first seed was sent out from the department of agriculture, and has had banner crops, of which he has no trouble disposing. Besides being one of the agriculturists to whom Lake county looks for the realization of her best possi- bilities, he is a citizen esteemed for his personal qualities above the average. He is of eastern birth, a native of Vermont, where his parents, David and Caroline Jackson (McLaughlin) Sleeper, were also born. David Sleeper was a merchant, and for a number of years conducted a general store in the city of Buffalo, N. Y. Returning from there to his native state, he embarked in the general mercantile business at Chelsea, and he lived to be over ninety years old, his death occurring in Vermont. He had married there when well along in middle age, and his wife, who was born in Chelsea, died fifteen years ago at Copper Lake, when eighty-seven years of age. Of the tour children born to them, one died when six years old; Vann is deceased; Jerome Mack is the only survivor, Carolina Estella being also deceased. Jerome Mack Sleeper was born December 17, 1840, and grew up in his native state, enjoying very fair common school advantages and also attending the academy at Chelsea. For a time he was employed as a house painter, and indeed in his youth and early manhood he turned his hand to any kind of work which could be had, working hard with only moderate returns for his labor. He taught school, bought wool for a home firm, and used his talents in what- ever enterprises the locality afforded. In the early part of the Civil war he enlisted for the Union service, but was never mustered in, his father being opposed to the idea of his entering the army. Not long afterward he came to California, making the journey by water, in 1863. on the Ariel, which on a former voyage had been captured by the Alabama, but released. Landing at San Francisco March 22, 1863, he came to Lake county, stopping at Napa on the way, and at once began farming and stock raising, renting first one hundred and twenty acres of the place he now occupies, and he has also rented other tracts in the county � considerable land all told. In 1865 he pre-empted one hundred acres, and in the course of his deals in land has sold about one hun- dred acres of his purchases. The three hundred and six acres which he now owns is all in one body, and one hundred and thirty acres is swamp land which he bought. Some of the land he acquired was thickly studded with timber, oak, ash, pepperwood. etc., and he has cleared from forty to fifty acres of it, his property being in most profitable condition. His swamp land lies one hundred feet lower than Scotts valley and is overflowed every winter, the sediment left by the high waters providing all the replenishment and fertiliz- ing it needs, and its fertility is apparently inexhaustible. It is famous for its profuse production of snap beans, and the White Creaseback variety to which he gives his attention is the best string bean raised in California for canning, white in color, and regarded as unexcelled. When the first seed was sent out by the government Mr. Sleeper experimented with this then untried crop, with such good results that for years he has cultivated beans on a large scale. Mr. Sleeper has not been too much taken up with business to attend to his duties as a citizen, and he has shown a live interest in the affairs of his locality, where he wields an appreciable influence because of his high stand- ing. He took an active part in the agitation over the county seat, and upholds all measures which he considers conducive to the general welfare. In politics he has been associated with the Democratic party, but his ideas are somewhat socialistic in their tendency. Mr. Sleeper married Miss Mary Evaline Sleeper, a second cousin, and seven children were born to their union : Flora Jackson, Mrs. Ganter, of Upper Lake ; Ellery D.. who operates the home farm ; Mary Estella, Mrs. Mason, of Upper Lake ; Van Buren, a farmer living about one mile west of Upper Lake; Roma, who died in infancy; Macline (called Budge), wife of Albert Mason, living with her father; and Ned M., who also lives at home. Besides Mr. and Mrs. Sleeper raised two other children, who had lost their mother. Mrs. Sleeper died October 10, 1912, at the age of fifty-six. She had taken much pleasure in helping to plan the large and commodious farmhouse which Mr. Sleeper has had finished within the last year, and had long looked forward with delight to the time when she would have an up-to-date home in which to enjoy her declining years. Her death was sincerely mourned by many besides those of the immediate family circle.