California Biographies

Source:
History of Napa and Lake Counties
San Francisco, Slocum, Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1881

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper 2011

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


FRANCES W. HEWES.  The subject of this sketch is the son of Rev. Charles W. and R. M. Grafton Hewes, 
and was born in Lonsdale, Rhode Island, September 17, 1848. When he was but three months old his 
parents moved to Lansingburgh, New York, and in 1857 they moved to Albany, and here Francis 
received the principal part of his education at the common schools. He there resided until the fall of 
1862, when he, with his parents, moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, and there remained for the following 
seven years. In the fall of 1869 he came to California, and first found employment in the store of 
Hewes & Richards, Mr. Hewes being an uncle, of the subject of our sketch, and the gentleman of the 
golden spike fame, it being he who gave the golden spike that bound the two iron lines of the national 
highway together. The subject of our sketch remained in his uncle's store for two years, and then, 
owing to ill-health, was advised to follow agricultural pursuits, his father having purchased a fruit ranch 
of twelve acres one mile from St Helena; in December, 1871, Francis moved to the place, where he has 
since resided.