California Biographies, Santa Cruz County.
FREDERICK THURWACHTER. 

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

Source:
History of Santa Cruz County, California 
Pacific Press Publishing Company
San Francisco, Cal. 1892
By E. S. Harrison 

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

FREDERICK THURWACHTER. 

Experiences giving him an insight into various parts of the old world and the new were culminated by the arrival of Mr. 
Thurwachter in California, where he has made his home since the year 1854, and where for years he has been engaged in 
ranching. Born in Rheinpfalz, Germany, May 26, 1833, he grew up under native skies until he attained his seventeenth 
year, at which time the family home was transferred to the United States. This was the period of the great gold excite- 
ment in California, when many thousands of emigrants found a home on our hospitable shores, many of whom came hither 
for the purpose of founding a home for their growing families where advantages were more promising, than with the 
expectation of delving in the mines. From New York City, where the family landed in 1850, they went to Syracuse, N. Y., 
the same year, and there they continued united and contented for four years, when the ties were broken by the de- 
parture of Frederick for the Pacific coast country. 

Returning to New York City, Frederick Thurwachter there boarded a vessel bound for the Isthmus of Panama, and after 
reaching the western coast of the isthmus, took passage on a vessel which landed him in San Francisco October 13, 1854. 
A short time was there passed in visiting points of interest, after which he came to Santa Cruz county and located at 
Soquel. During the year passed there he became interested in mining, and going to Calaveras county, engaged in this 
business successfully for three years. With the proceeds of his labor he then returned to Santa Cruz county, reaching 
Watsonville July 16, 1858, and since that time he has been interested in ranching pursuits continuously. His first en- 
deavor was on rented land in this vicinity, an undertaking which fully met his expectations, and at the end of eight 
years, in 1866, he became proprietor of a ranch of his own, on the Beach road. This consists of one hundred and thirteen 
and a-half acres which at the time of purchase was barren of all improvements, and all that it has since become has 
been the work of his own hands. The improvements include a fine family residence and commodious barns suited to the 
needs of his ranch. Fifteen acres of the ranch is in Bellflower apples, which yield abundantly and add a neat sum to 
the annual income. 

The marriage of Mr. Thurwachter, October 13, 1862, united him with Miss Catherine Sweeney, a native of Ireland, but a 
resident of San Francisco at the time of her marriage. Of the children born to them three are living, Margaret Caroline and 
Ella Teresa at home, and Frances Louise, wife of Henry Schroder, also a resident of Watsonville, and the mother of 
one child, Catherine. Politically Mr. Thurwachter is a Republican.