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


A. C. TINNIN. In the days before the railroad had become a recognized possibility as a 
means of bringing into proximity the east and the west, a multitude of gold-seekers undertook 
the long and perilous journey through an unknown country, amid hostile Indians, into the 
El Dorado of their dreams. Though coming somewhat later than many, the hardships of the 
journey did not fall lighter upon A. C. Tinnin than upon his predecessors of the previous years. 
The ox-teams slowly wended their way across the plains 'from his early home in Perry county, 
Mo., and after eight months brought him to the country of the Golden Gate. Not caring to ven- 
ture his future in the uncertain occupation of mining, he turned to agriculture as offering a 
favorable opportunity .for securing a start. After two years he drifted into teaming and freight- 
ing, which in the days before the building of railroads could be conducted upon an extensive 
scale and with excellent profits. For five years he worked as a teamster and then settled upon a 
farm in the Santa Clara valley, but after a few years removed to farm land in Contra Costa 
county. The year 1869 found him a pioneer on the west side in Merced county, where he took 
up the raising of grain. During 1876 he purchased one hundred and sixty acres on the upper 
county road and immediately after purchase checked the land for irrigation, after which he 
successfully carried on wheat farming and raised large crops of that cereal each year. Though 
never active in politics he was at all times stanch in his adherence to the Democratic party. His 
death, which occurred in 1887, removed from the San Joaquin valley one of its honored pioneers 
and successful farmers. 

The marriage of A. C. Tinnin united him with Sarah Bollenger, a native of Perry county, Mo., 
and now occupying the old homestead with her youngest son, William Henry. She is a mem- 
ber of a pioneer family of the Pacific coast. During 1852 her father, A. Joseph Bollenger, 
crossed the plains from Missouri and settled in Napa county, later removing to Santa Clara 
county, where he purchased and tilled a tract of farm land. On going from there to Contra 
Costa county he homesteaded a tract, on which eventually he became interested in the raising of 
stock. To obtain needed pasturage for his large herd of cattle and dairy cows he bought vast 
tracts of range land. A fine orchard and running water made the Bollenger Canon farm (as 
the place was called) a desirable property, and when he disposed of it he received a fair advance 
on the original investment. Returning to Santa Clara county he bought a ranch for $30,000, and 
ten days later sold it for $60,000. It is needless to state that those were the "boom" days, whose 
culmination was followed by a reaction in prices almost fatal to the permanent prosperity of the 
valley. At the time of his death, which occurred in 1884 in Santa Clara county, his possessions 
were valued at $200,000, the larger part of which was gained through fortunate handling of 
real estate. In buying and selling few men had more sagacious judgment; his foresight was 
keen and his knowledge of land values almost remarkable. His wife, Sarah E., died in 1898. 
Of their four sons and three daughters, one daughter and one son are deceased. At the time 
the Bollenger family came to California their daughter, Sarah, was a girl of sixteen years, and 
not long afterward she became the wife of Mr. Tinnin at Napa. Of their union ten children 
were born and all but one attained maturity. Three daughters, Mrs. Sarah Akins, Mrs. Mary 
L. Raley and Mrs. Belsora Crittenden, reside in San Francisco. Mrs. Letitia Ewing makes her 
home at Stockton. Mrs. Ada Hendsch lives in Calaveras county, and George is at Copperopolis, 
the same county. Lee is living at Shandon, San Luis Obispo county. William Henry occupies 
the homestead in Merced county ; and Cora, Mrs. Dalzell. is a resident of Stockton. The sons and 
daughters, in the various communities where they reside, reflect credit upon the training re- 
ceived from their parents, and by probity of character and progressiveness of spirit have won 
assured positions in social and business circles.