Tehama County Biographies

ALFRED WALTON

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

 
came to California with the Jones expedition in 1842 in the United States sloop 
Dale.  He has seen much of the world, and ranks among the pioneers of this great 
State.  A sketch of his life is as follows:
            Mr. Walton was born in Walton, England, October 22, 1822.  He served 
in the navy for three years as a volunteer, and two years more after his first 
term had expired.  He returned to Philadelphia and was there discharged, after 
which he went back to England.  He then emigrated to Iowa, and there carried on 
farming from 1844 to 1849.  In the latter year he joined a company, under 
command of George M. Dallas, to come to California.  When they reached the Green 
River, they attempted to go down the stream with canoes, and, after passing the 
mouth of the White River, they were upset and lost their provisions, being able 
to save only a sack of flour and some bacon.  Nothing  daunted, however, they 
continued their way westward and fell in with a friendly Indian, who explained 
to them, with a stick, the trail across the desert.  Thirteen of them started 
across the trail for Fort Utah.  They packed water and had for their daily 
rations a spoonful of flour mixed with water.  As a relish with this they ate 
crickets and grasshoppers, and sometimes got a rabbit away from the buzzards. 
They made the journey to Fort Utah in safety and started for Los Angeles with 
wagons.  At Desert Spring, Colorado Desert, they left the wagons and continued 
their way on foot, going through Cajon Pass.  At Los Angeles he made an 
arrangement with a man who was buying cattle, whereby he, Mr. Walton, was to 
drive a team to a place near San Francisco, and was to get his board for 
services rendered.  The stock-dealer provided the men with a gun and told them 
to kill the Spanish cattle to subsist on; and that was the way he furnished 
board!  
            In San Francisco Mr. Walton worked at whatever he could get to do 
for awhile, and was paid six dollars per day.  From there he went to the mines 
at Bidwell�s Bar on Feather River.  On the North Fork of that river he got 
plenty of gold; took out as high as $500 in a single pan, but had to dig several 
days to get down to it.  He exhausted that claim and afterward went on a 
prospecting tour.  In Shasta County he took a ranch at what is now Kimball�s 
Plain and engaged in raising cattle.  After being thus engaged for a time, he 
went to the town of Shasta, and, with John Scott, conducted a hotel.  He 
subsequently engaged in mule teaming and packing, and came to Red Bluff, where 
he followed that business six or eight years.  He was also interested in the 
sheep business.  In Red Bluff he purchased lots five and six, block fifty-two, 
near where the railroad has since been built, and there erected a home, lived 
and reared his family.  Misfortune overtook him; he trusted too much; sold stock 
and teams on time; hard times came on and the parties left the country and Mr. 
Walton was financially ruined.  During the mining excitement in Idaho, he went 
all through that country and tried to recover some of his bad debts, but was 
unsuccessful, and came back to Red Bluff a poor man.  He then turned his 
attention to any kind of work he could get to do.  In 1874 he purchased a dairy 
and engaged in the milk business, which he has since followed.  In this he has 
been very successful.  Their present house was built in 1876.
            December 18, 1860, Mr. Walton married Mrs. Mary Ann Reeves, a native 
of Ireland.  She came to the United States when she was fourteen years of age.  
They have had five children, three sons and two daughters, all born in Red 
Bluff, viz.:  Agnes, now Mrs. Henry Frank; Thomas, Alfred and Mollie.  One of 
the children is deceased.  The family are members of the Catholic Church.  Mr. 
Walton was reared an Episcopalian.  He is a lively old gentleman who has seen a 
great deal of pioneer life.
 
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing 
Co., 1891, pp 574-575