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


JOHN G. BUSCH. � Between the date of his birth in Hamburg, Germany, 
June 16, 1826, and that of his death in Mendocino county, June 19, 1910, the 
record of John G. Busch shows a long identification with frontier environ- 
ment and familiarity with conditions that have given place to the high civili- 
zation of more recent decades. When he accompanied his parents to America 
at the age of seven years, the voyage consumed a long period of monotonous 
journeying on a slow-going ocean craft typical of the vessels that preceded the 
modern steamer. The cable line had not then made possible the quick for- 
warding of messages between the old world and the new, while the wireless 
system in its modern development was undreamed of by the most optimistic 
and inventive soul. The crudity of conditions rendered existence more diffi- 
cult and arduous than at the present time. The early life of the German boy 
in America was filled with hardship and privation. The land on which the 
family settled in St. Charles county. Mo., was all in the virgin state of na- 
ture, untouched by plow, undeveloped by hand of man. To convert the tract 
into a farm capable of sustaining a family proved a task of the utmost difficulty 
and one in which the son aided the father to the utmost of his strength, sacri- 
ficing in the work all hope of obtaining an education. Arriving at the age of 
eighteen, he was permitted to leave home and work for himself. Going to 
St. Louis, he learned the trade of a carpenter with Peck & Barnett and there- 
after worked as a journeyman, then as a contractor and builder. 

The discovery of gold in California turned the thoughts of Mr. Busch 
toward the west. In a short time he began to make preparations for the over- 
land journey. Early in 1850, accompanied by two other young men, he left 
Missouri for California, traveling along the usual route until they arrived at 
the Humboldt river, when fear of the Indians caused them to travel along 
the south side of that stream. Meanwhile they had overtaken four white 
men who were hiding from the savages and these emigrants gladly joined 
them for the balance of the journey. Theirs was the first train of 1850 to 
travel on the south side of the river. For a time they pursued their journey 
by night, owing to the proximity of hostile Indians. In spite of repeated dan- 
gers and constant threatenings of attack, they were not molested by the sav- 
ages, but reached their destination in safety. The young emigrant settled in 
Amador county and at one time owned three general stores and a butcher 
shop at Drytown, but these he sold upon his return to Missouri in the summer 
of 1853. Nine months were spent in the old home and in visiting with friends, 
after which he came back to California to resume mercantile pursuits. At 
first he had a general store at Indian Diggings, Eldorado county, but in 1857 
he abandoned merchandising, removed to Sonoma county, secured a large 
body of land near Cloverdale and embarked in stock raising. During 1858 
he moved to Mendocino county and settled on a stock ranch at Point Arena, 
but at the expiration of eighteen months he removed to a ranch three miles 
north of Ukiah. After having lived there from 1860 until the fall of 1863, 
he then came to the Potter valley, soon afterwards bought the Wright and 
Potter ranches, also other property, and ultimately became the owner of a 
landed estate aggregating more than two thousand acres. His widow makes 
lier home principally on the old homestead with her son. S. H. Busch. 

The marriage of John G. Busch and Ann Sweeney, a native of Sligo, Ire- 
land, who came to California in 1852, was solemnized August 21, 1856. 
They became the parents of eleven children, namely: Charles, residing in 
Riverside ; John, engaged in copper mining ; Mrs. Mary Bailor, of Spokane, 
Wash.; George, farming a part of the old home place; Stephen H., who owns 
and farms the old home of eleven hundred acres ; Owen, farming a part of 
the old home; Mrs. Isabel Bevans, of Potter Valley; Mrs. Kate Roberts, of 
Santa Rosa ; Mrs. Frances Holbrook, of Ukiah ; Mrs. Hattie English, of Im- 
perial Valley, and Augustus, of Santa Rosa. The splendid traits of Mr. Busch, 
his sterling character and powers of endurance in hardship, his capacity for 
frontier enterprises and his adaptability to any circumstance, proved him to 
be a typical pioneer, one of those adventurous souls whose task in life seems 
to be the preparation of remote and isolated spots for the oncoming of future 
generations. No greater task confronted the men of yesterday and to their 
greatness of soul and breadth of vision we owe the advancement and progress 
of today.