California Biographies, Santa Cruz County. ABRAM BARDMESS. Transcribed by Peggy Hooper Source: History of Santa Cruz County, California Pacific Press Publishing Company San Francisco, Cal. 1892 By E. S. Harrison This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm ABRAM BARDMESS. While the average Californian is usually an experienced traveler, few residents of the state have traveled as exten- sively by wagon as has Mr. Bardmess of Watsonville, who by the use of the "prairie schooner" has covered altogether almost twelve thousand miles. By this means he has gained a much more thorough knowledge of the country than can be gained by the tourist gazing from the car window. As the afternoon of his busy life draws toward its evening, he is content to abandon his travels and in his pleasant home at No. 129 Main street he frequently recounts tales of the past, with the stirring adventures that came to him in his trips from place to place. The colonial era witnessed the arrival of the Bardmess family in America from Germany. The first settlers chose homes in Pennsylvania. About one hundred and eight years ago some of the name proceeded west as far as Illinois, where Peter Bardmess, a native of Pennsylvania, spent the greater part of his life. However, eventually he removed to Missouri and at the age of sixty-five he died at Greenfield, that state. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Dorcas Keith, was born in Kentucky of German lineage and died in Douglas county, Mo., at about eighty-three years of age. Fifteen chil- dren comprised their family, nine sons and six daughters, and all but one of these attained to mature years. Only four are now living, Abram being one of the survivors. Born near Pinckneyville, Perry county, 111., August 23, 1836, he passed the years of early youth in industrious application to farm labors. In 1864 he enlisted in Company F, Thirteenth Illi- nois Cavalry, assigned to the Thirteenth Army Corps, under General Steele, and he remained in the service of the Union imtil after the close of the war, being mustered out at Pine Bluff, Ark., August 1, 1865. On his return to Illinois he aided on the home farm for a year and then spent a year on a farm near Neosho, Newton county, Mo., after which he so- journed at Batesville, Ark., for about five months. Going back once more to Illinois, Mr. Bardmess remained in that state for eighteen months and then returned to his former location in Missouri. Next he settled on a farm in Dade county, Mo., and from there went to a farm near Green- field. Meanwhile he had read much concerning the west and his love of travel and desire to see the western country led him to dispose of his Missouri possessions in 1881, when he came across the country to Nevada, settling on a farm near Winnemucca, Humboldt county. Agriculture he found to be conducted along different lines there than in his previous locations and a study of the changes in soil, climate, and crops proved interesting to him. At the expiration of three years he returned to Douglas county. Mo., but in 1890 he again went to Humboldt county, Nev., this time remaining for five years. His next removal took him to Mendocino county, Cal., where he sojourned for a year. During the year 1894 he arrived in Watsonville. Two years later he went to Pomona, where he remained only seven months. His next removal took him through the Mojave valley to Eureka, Nev., where he remained for eighteen months, returning thence to Watsonville by wagon. Since then he has remained in this city, where he has a large circle of warm friends. The first wife of Mr. Bardmess, who bore the maiden name of Sophronia Lipe, died in Arkansas two years after their marriage.. The only child of that union is a son, Sherman, now residing in Watsonville. Later Mr. Bardmess married Katie Witter, a native of Germany, but she was taken from him by death only two and one-half months after marriage. His present wife, a lady of estimable character and energetic disposition, was Nancy R. Gardner, a native of Missouri. Seven children were born of this union, namely: Ira M., of Watsonville; John, who makes his home at Eureka, Nev.; Albert, living in San Francisco ; Mrs. Maggie Morgan, whose husband was accidentally killed in the lime quarry in 1906 and who makes her home in Watsonville ; Garfield, of Eureka, Nev. ; Cyrus, of Watsonville ; and Lyda, wife of Bert Stacey, and a resident of Mayfield, Santa Clara county. Prominently identified with the Grand Army of the Republic, Mr. Bardmess has filled almost all of tlie chairs in the post and in 1909 he represented his post in the Salt Lake encampment. In politics he gives stanch support to Republican principles, but never sought nor held office.