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 W. SHOEMAKER.� Experiences during the era of Indian war- 
fare in the west give to the history of Mr. Shoemaker a touch of romance 
and adventure. When he crossed the plains to Oregon in company with his 
mother and stepfather, James Morse (his own father having died when he 
was a very small child), the entire west was in the infancy of its material 
development. James Morse was a cousin of Morse, inventor of the telegraph. 
Railroads were as yet unbuilt in the west. The trail of the mountaineer and 
the plainsman furnished the only route of travel, while the "prairie schooner" 
was the sole conveyance in use by overland emigrants. Born in Grayson 
county, Ky., in 1840, he was a boy of twelve when the family arrived in 
Oregon in the fall of 1852 and at that plastic age impressions ineffaceable 
were made on his mind by the strange journey and the isolated environment. 
His the task of aiding in the cultivating of a tract of raw land in Lane county, 
Oregon, where without any advantages of schooling or cultured surroundings 
he grew to manhood, self-reliant, resolute and fearless. In 1858 the family 
located near Hydesville, Humboldt county, Cal., and there he resided until the 
war. 

With characteristic loyalty the young frontiersman offered his services 
to the Union at the opening of the Civil war. Early in 1861 he joined the 
mounted scouts. Out of seven hundred and fifty volunteers he was one of 
thirty picked men who served as mountain rangers. His choice for such 
responsible work proved his reputation for fearlessness and military skill. As 
quartermaster of the company, he traveled with the troops through the 
mountains of northern California for five years and meanwhile met the 
Indians on many a bloody battlefield. More than once he was wounded in 
these skirmishes: On one occasion he was shot in the side and in another 
battle a bullet passed through his horse and flattened against his shin-bone. 
The savages were still hostile and troublesome when he received an honorable 
discharge and returned to other employment. He was selected as a man 
suitable for the difficult task of taking a drove of cattle to Idaho, but on the 
way the herd was stampeded by the Indians and many of them were lost. 
Barely escaping with his life, he finally reached Idaho nearly dead from a 
wound in his right leg, but was young and hardy and soon recovered. After 
he had engaged in mining in various parts of that state for five years he re- 
turned to California in 1873 and settled in Mendocino county. 

Securing a quit-claim deed to five hundred and forty acres of mountain 
land situated six miles west of Ukiah on the Low Gap road, Mr. Shoemaker 
has made his home on the property from that year to the present. It is 
little short of remarkable in this era of change to find a man quietly pursuing 
the even tenor of his was on one homestead for over forty years of uninter- 
rupted contentment and industry. Outside enterprises have not appealed to 
him. With the aid of the income from the ranch and the pension granted by 
the government in consideration of his services in the Civil war, he and his 
family have been prosperous and have surrounded themselves with all the 
comforts of existence. The location of the ranch appeals to lovers of the 
picturesque, for it lies in the foothills more than two thousand five hundred 
feet above the level of the sea. One hundred and sixty acres are in redwood 
and tanbark, while the balance is in grazing land. The owner has planted and 
developed a vineyard, has given considerable care to an orchard of assorted 
fruits, and has also kept on the ranch cattle, sheep, hogs and poultry. Draft 
horses of fine breeds have been raised on the ranch, where now is to be seen 
Allenby, a stallion of almost ideal points, and where also are kept a number 
of high-grade mares. During the spring of 1913 Mr. Shoemaker was bereaved 
by the death of his wife, who bore the maiden name of Elizabeth Mahurin, 
and was born in Los Angeles, being the daughter of a California pioneer. 
Surviving her are two children, namely : Mary E., now the wife of Harry 
Bassett of Santa Cruz, and William G., who is with his father on the home 
ranch. Politically he has always been a Republican. On the organization 
of Ukiah Lodge, A. O. U. W., Mr. Shoemaker became one of its active 
members and in his earlier years he took a leading part in its philanthropies. 
Throughout the long period of his residence in the county he has been a 
constant contributor to public-spirited projects, has aided in the development 
of agriculture and horticulture as important industries of the county and has 
been interested in every movement for the permanent benefit of the people.