California Genealogy and History Archives
Biographies
of
Sacramento County
|
GEORGE
WASHINGTON CAVITT The
arduous labors connected with the improvement and cultivation of a ranch
occupied the time of Mr. Cavitt throughout almost the entire period from
his arrival in California during 1865 until Ms death, January 24, 1907.
His birth occurred in Rush county, Ind., in 1832, and some years later,
in 1845, his parents removed from there to Iowa, where they engaged in
farming pursuits until 1864. In that year he started for California, and
settling in Sacramento county he eventually became the owner of eighty
acres of ground. In that long era of agricultural and commercial
upbuilding he witnessed the transformation of the commonwealth from a
broad expanse of undeveloped and sparsely settled land into a region of
prosperity and even wealth. In the difficult task of improvement he bore
an honorable share. To the labors of such indefatigable pioneers may be
attributed the present high standing of the entire state. Beginning to
till the virgin soil ere yet a furrow had been turned in it and keeping
up the labor of cultivation long after bare tracts had been transformed
into finely improved ranches, he contributed his quota to the general
agricultural prosperity and proved beyond question the adaptability of
the soil to many important crops now grown with profit. When he came
across the plains at the close of the Civil war rapid transportation was
unknown. Large expeditions of emigrants were organized as a means of
protection against the assaults of Indians. Oxen were utilized as motive
power and supplies were conveyed in the old-fashioned "prairie
schooner," in which also rode all the women and children together
with the least rugged of the men, while others of the men acted as
cattle-drivers or guards. Immediately after his arrival Mr. Cavitt took
up land at Antelope, Sacramento county, and there he passed his
remaining years busily engaged in general ranch pursuits on his
eighty-acre ranch, situated two miles southeast of Antelope and fifteen
and a half miles from the city of Sacramento. Mr.
Cavitt was married February 28, 1856, to Rebecca J. Perkins, a native of
Virginia, who survived him for a few years, passing away May 8, 1911.
Four children came to bless their union and crown their last days with
affectionate devotion. One of the sons now resides in San Francisco; the
other son and one of the daughters remain at the old homestead and
superintend the eighty acres of almond trees, finding both pleasure and
profit in the thrifty management of the finely improved ranch. The
children were born as follows: William C, November 30, 1856; Thomas T.,
September 20, 1858; Ida Bell, January 30, 1860 ; and Eva T., April 10,
1867. Mrs. Eva T. Stackhouse, who likewise owns an interest in the old home ranch, but makes her home in Sacramento, ]-)assed the uneventful years of childhood upon that farm and attended the country schools. When she left the homestead it was as the wife of Nathan Stackhouse and they became the parents of four children. The deepest sorrow that has come to the family has been the loss of two daughters, one of them, Hattie M., when a lovely young lady of twenty-two years, and the other, Mildred, when a loved child of only four years. George Alvin Stackhouse resides with his mother in Sacramento. The other surviving child, Effie A., born in Alameda county and educated in Sacramento, is now the wife of A. C. Moore, a native of Maine. A daughter, Angela Moore, blesses their union and represents the third generation in descent from that honored old. pioneer, George Washington Cavitt. Could he now speak it would be to endeavor to inspire in the hearts of the rising generations a deep affection for their native commonwealth and an unselfish loyalty toward its progress, inasmuch as a region, matchless in fertility and climate, with commercial prospects limited only by the energy of its people, forms a monument to the privations of the pioneers as well as the business sagacity of the citizens of the twentieth century. |
|
Source: Transcribed by Peggy Hooper 2011 |