Yolo County Biographies


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



 
W. H. SOULE
 
a hardware merchant at Woodland, is a native of Maine.  His parents, William F. 
and Elizabeth M. (Frost) Soule, were also natives of that State.  His father was 
born March 5, 1800, and his mother in 1802.  In the spring of 1852 they went to 
Wisconsin for a short time, and in the same year came on to California, by 
water.  The ship on which they were to sail became disabled and they were landed 
on the Isthmus, where they were compelled to wait until a relief ship came; and 
the place being very unhealthful, James Soule, brother of W. H., was taken sick 
and afterward died at sea and was thrown overboard off Monterey, and his sister 
Eliza died on the very day they landed in San Francisco, and shortly after that, 
September 5, 1852, their mother also died, in San Francisco.  There were 
originally five daughters and four sons, of whom four daughters now reside in 
San Francisco.  William Soule, the father, followed mining a short time, when 
his health failed and he went to Puget Sound for a year.  In the spring of 1854 
he and son W. H. went to Port Orford, Oregon, during the �Beach� excitement, 
where they mined and prospected on their way back to Marysville, this State, and 
proceeded on to San Francisco.  In 1855-�56 they followed farming in Marin 
County, and then in Sonoma County until 1861, when they dissolved partnership, 
the father going to San Francisco, where he died February 19, 1876.  Mr. Soule, 
our subject, went to Idaho during the gold excitement and followed mining there 
until the autumn of the next year, then for three years he followed freighting 
between Sacramento and Virginia City.  From 1865 to 1873 he followed 
agricultural pursuits in Solano County; then he purchased 320 acres on Putah 
Creek, in Yolo County, and occupied it until 1884; then he spent six months in 
Texas; next, returning to Woodland in 1886, he purchased a half interest in the 
hardware store of P. W. Barnes, and after a partnership of one year he bought 
out Mr. Barnes� interest, and is now enjoying a substantial patronage.
            Mr. Soule was born February 12, 1837, and was married in Solano 
County, September 2, 1871, to Mary Cunningham, a native of Canada, and they have 
two adopted children, William H. and Minnie A.
 
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing 
Co., 1891
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler