California Biographies

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 the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


AUGUSTUS FIFIELD JEWETT. The value of a well-defined purpose steadily pursued, 
of philosophy in viewing the obstacles and discouragements in life, and of a broad and toler- 
ant attitude toward the world and people in general, find expression in the career of Augustus 
F. Jewett, one of the conscientious and painstaking fruit-growers of the vicinity of Hanford, 
Kings county. Mr. Jewett has struggled to his present position with rare courage, worthy of 
the stern and strong New England ancestry from which he springs and of the training re- 
ceived in a refined and industry-compelling home. He was born in Hillsboro county, N. 
H., June 15, 1856, and represents a family established in America about two hundred years ago 
by a forefather who felt the limitations of his ancestral home in picturesque Wales. His par- 
ents were Fifield Holt and Melissa L. (Richardson) Jewett, natives of Maine and New Hamp- 
shire respectively. 

Fifield H. Jewett was a pioneer of 1852 who brought to the Pacific coast the sturdy traits 
which succeed independent of book education. The Maine farm offered scant opportunity for 
attending school, but it developed hard muscles and a good appetite, and consequent strength 
for controlling the circumstances in which he was placed. His dissatisfaction with the east 
was not surprising when one considers his active mind and commendable adaptiveness, and prob- 
ably no youth departed for the sun-blessed Pacific shores with more radiant hope in his heart 
than this New England farm boy. Arriving in San Francisco after a voyage by water to and 
from Panama, he worked with fair success in the mines at Georgetown on the American river. 
In 1858 he took up government land in Placer county, in the Sacramento valley, and followed 
ranching in partnership with Thomas Jenkinson, about four years. He next returned east 
for his family and brought them to the home he had prepared, and farmed until 1880. Dis- 
posing of this property in 1881, he came to what is now Kings county and bought a farm, he 
also loaned money and dealt in country properties almost up to the time of his death at the 
advanced age of eighty-five years. His life was dignified by meritorious service for the Union 
during the Civil war, when he attained to the rank of first lieutenant in the Lincoln Home 
Guards of the State Militia. He was particularly averse to holding political office, but never- 
theless served on the school board for several years, advancing the cause of education to the 
extent of his power, having often felt the loss in that direction sustained in his own youth. 
His wife, whom he brought to California in 1863, materially aided his success with her econ- 
omy and constant encouragement. Her death occurred at the age of sixty-five, and she left 
two children older than Augustus F., of whom Lucretia is deceased, and Abbie A. is the wife 
of Thomas Jenkinson, of Kings county. 

As a boy Augustus Fifield Jewett dreamed of a career of legal prominence, and mapped 
out his life in accordance with this desire. After graduating from the high school of Sacramento, 
he returned to the farm and remained there until twenty-four years of age, when he entered 
the Hastings Law School, but was soon obliged to leave, owing to the state of his health. Never 
strong, he practically lost several years of usefulness out of his life, being unable to perform 
any kind of work requiring physical exertion. Discouragement followed in the wake of months 
of suffering and inertia, and when he arrived in Hanford in 1886 to visit a sister, his spirits 
were not only at low ebb, but his financial resources were nearly exhausted. A couple of 
months served to restore partial strength and vigor, and with it came a desire to be of prac- 
tical use in the world, and to make up for his enforced years of idleness. Becoming interested 
in the handling of raisins, he rented a small vineyard, and both grew and purchased grapes, 
going in debt for all required to prosecute his business, trusting to a future good fortune to 
aid him in his ambition. He had established credit in desirable directions, and in time was 
not only able to meet his indebtedness, but began the purchase of land in his own right. In 
1889 he packed the first full carload of raisins ever shipped out of Tulare county, for Charles 
King, and has been in the raisin growing business for himself ever since. He owns a ranch 
of thirty-six acres half a mile from the city limits of Hanford, of which twenty-two acres 
are under vines and trees, and the balance in pasture. This property is worth about $300 an 
acre. He also rents other land, and is increasing his business every year. 

For some years Mr. Jewett has taken an active interest in Republican politics, and dur- 
ing 1894 stumped the northern counties in the state in the interests of protection. In Merced 
county alone he made thirteen speeches. He served as sergeant-at-arms in the California 
Assembly in 1880, and has held many positions of trust and responsibility. Among his warm per- 
sonal friends is Senator Perkins, in whose interests he has been unusually zealous. His genial 
and interesting personality has drawn toward him many other valued friends, and he enjoys 
a high degree of popularity in political, business and social circles. Fraternally he is identi- 
fied with the Woodmen of the World. While acting as trustee of Armona school district he 
did efficient work in the erection of the public school at Armona. In 1902 he married Edith 
Shriver, a native of Mariposa county, Cal., and they are parents of one son, Augustus Fair- 
fax. Mrs. Jewett is a daughter of Augustus F. Shriver, a native of Prussia, who came to Amer- 
ica with his father when eight years old, escaping from a grave political disturbance in Ger- 
many. His early years were spent in the state of Ohio, where he learned the machinist trade, 
and whence he came to California at the age of nineteen. He was fairly successful in the 
mines, and about 1859 started a machine-shop and foundry and planing mill at Mariposa, Cal. 
This he operated successfully for several years, and then removed to Merced, of which he was 
a pioneer settler and to the upbuilding of which he devoted many years of his life. He had 
the first plastered house and orange trees in the town, and plied his trade with increasing suc- 
cess. The last years of his life, which were devoted to contracting, he spent in Stockton, 
Cal., where he died at about fifty-nine years of age. He was a pioneer of both Merced and 
Mariposa counties, and as such impressed his worth upon many years of their development. 
In early manhood he married Ellen Gish, a native of South Bend, Ind., and who, after his 
death, married W. E. Elliott, with whom she is now living in Humboldt county, this state. 
Mrs. Jewett was six years old when she came to Merced county, and she was a child when 
her father died. Her education was acquired in the public schools, and her training was such 
as to develop a loving and home-giving disposition. Mr. and Mrs. Jewett are refined, hospi- 
table and gracious people, and in their quiet and harmonious life furnish a lesson in home mak- 
ing, forbearance and kindness.