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


THOMAS W. POLK.  Was born in Knox County, Indiana, March 4, 1816. In 1833 his parents moved to 
Logansport, where he resided for one year. In the spring of 1834 he went to Jackson County, Missouri, 
and helped lay out the town of Westport, and followed clerking in that place for two years. In 1836 he, 
with his father and a Mr. Scott, began trading with the Indians in the Indian Territory, which he 
followed for six years. He then returned to Missouri, and remained until the breaking out of the 
Rebellion, when he with his family moved to Dallas, Texas, where they remained one year. They then 
went to Arkansas and lived there six months. December 23, 1863, he started for California from New 
York, arriving in San Francisco January 25, 1864. He went to San Jose and began dairying and lived in 
other places until he came to Napa County And located in Cherry Valley, where he owns three 
thousand acres of land. He was married October 5, 1837. The children are, Nellie, born November 12, 
1849, and Robert T., born December 5, 1852.