| Notes |
- Timeline: William Gordon
1801 Sep - William Gordon born in Adams County Ohio to John and Mary (Art) Gordon.
Jackson County, Missouri
1823 Fur trapper for Missouri Fur Compandy ( was in Wyoming)
1820's established headquarters in Taos, Mexican Territory
1826 Jun - married Juana Maria Lucero in Taos Mexican Territory
1827 April - son, Jose Tomas "Thomas", born in Taos
1829 Sep - son, Juan de Jesus born in Taos
1831 Aug - daughter, Maria Isabella, born Taos
1833 Sep - son, Julian "William", born Taos
1835 Nov - son, Jose Manuel, born Taos
1838 Jan - daughter, Sarah Gordon, born Taos
1840 Nov - son, Jose Ricardo, born Taos
1841 Sep - came to California by way of the Santa Fe Trail, granted with several others Mexican Land, 48,000 acre
Rancho La Puente. They Established town of El Monte, the first agricultural town in California..
1841 Dec - daughter, Margaret, born Los Angeles, Mexican territory
1843 January 27, Granted 2 square leagues of land, Rancho Quesesosi, in Yolo County by Governor Micheltorena on
Cache Creek West of Woodland. He settled his family there in July. His ranch became a rendezvous for members
of Bear Flag revolt, settlers and hunters. Mentioned more as stopover than any place except John Sutters.
1845 wife, Juana Maria died and is probably buried in the family cemetary on Cache Creek. John Clyman's, "Journal of
a Mountain Man," states that Gordon was the only permanant settler on Cache Creek. (now Yolo County).
1845 Daughter Maria Isabella, not yet 15 years of age, married Nathan Coombs at Sutter's Fort by John Sutter. By 1850
she had her brother Joseph and sister Sarah living with her and Nathan in Napa.
1850 Census - Cache Creek, Yolo, California (Interestingly he had 3 miners living with him. For how long?)
1851 bought land in Napa County in Gordon Valley (named after him)
1852 California Census - Yolo, California
1855 married Elizabeth Corum
1860 Census - lived at Cottonwood, Yolo, California
1866 Sold his Ranch on Cache Creek and moved to Cobb Valley in Lake County.
1870 Census - Lower Lake, Lake County, California
1876 Oct - died Cobb Valley, Lake County, California
History Timeline
1802 - Ohio outlaws slavery
1803 - Louisiana Purchase January 18. President Jefferson asks Congress for funds for an expedition to explore the
Mississippi River and beyond in search of a route to the Pacific. Meriwether Lewis , Jefferson's private secretary,
begins planning the expedition.
1804 - May. The expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark departs, moving up the Missouri River.
1807 - Steamboat - Robert Fulton, former miniaturist and landscape painter, opens American rivers to two-way travel.
1821 - Mexico declares independence from Spain.
1829 - Mexico outlawed slavery in an effort to discourage additional American settlement in Texas.
1835 - Texas declares independence from Mexico
1836 - "Remember the Alamo!" slogan for the Texas army after Mexico crushed the Texans who attempted to protect the
Alamo in San Antonio. The war started in 1836, because the Texans wanted their independence from Mexico.
182 men, led by Colonel Travis, were greatly outnumbered by Santa Anna's forces. They were all killed,
including Davy Crockett, a famous frontiers man from Tennessee. The Texans that survived the war, kept
attacking the Mexicans until they finally won their independence.
1837 - Depression begins with "Panic of 1837"
1838 - The Indian Removal Act, A treaty signed by about one hundred Cherokees. They gave up all lands East of the
Mississippi River. Under the orders of President Jackson the U.S Army began the Removal Act. 3,000 Cherokees
were loaded into boats and taken down the Tennessee, Ohio, Mississippi, and Arkansas Rivers. In the winters of 1838 -39 the Cherokees walked 1,200 miles through Tennesse, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas. The trail they
walked became known as "The Trail Where They Cried" to the Indians but is now known as "The Trail of Tears".
1845 - Westward Expansion - When Texas declared independence from Mexico in the year 1836, Southerners were
hoping to obtain Texas as a new slave state. The Northerners did not want Texas to come into the Union and
increase the power of the south in Congress, with a resulting war with Mexico. In 1845 politicians were caught up
in westward expansion, thinking it was their nation's manifest destiny to go from shore to shore. Texas became
the twenty-eighth state. Mexico was furious about that decision, and the U.S. declared war on Mexico in May of 1846 - The years of fighting ended with the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848.
1845 - Santa Anna presidency is overthrown in Mexico.
1846 - War declared with Mexico.
1848 - Gold Discovered in California.
1848 - Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo 1848
1849 - State constitution adopted in Monterey, (California).
1850 - California became the 31st State and free of slavery.
1852 - California turned from Gold seeking to agriculture.
"History of Solano and Napa Counties, California with Biographical Sketches of The leading men and women of the Counties, who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present time., History by Tom Gregory and other well known writers., Illustrated ~ Complete in one volume, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1912, p 291:
WILLIAM GORDON.
As a representative of a pioneer family, there is no name better known in Napa County than William Gordon, a resident in Gordon valley, named after the family. Mr. Gordon was born in Toas, N. Mex., September 27, 1833, and when seven years of age was brought to California by his father, William Gordon. The latter was a native of Ohio, of Scotch descent, who came from New Mexico by way of Arizona on horseback to California. He remained in Los Angeles until the spring of 1841, then with others went to the northern part of the state, crossing Carquinez straits in a rowboat and swimming their horses behind them. On reaching the northern side they engaged some Indians to pilot them up the bay and Napa river. Arriving in what is now Napa County, they camped under some large sycamore trees on the present site of George Yount's home and for about a year the elder Gordon engaged in farming on a small scale, raising some cattle and feed and produce for his own needs. From this location he removed to what was afterwards named Washington, the first County seat of Yolo County, situated on the banks of the Sacramento river. Here Mr. Gordon met Captain Sutter and was engaged by the latter to construct a mill at that place, he having told Sutter that he was a millwright. During the construction of this mill, which was operated by horsepower, Mr. Gordon made his home in Sacramento County, on the opposite side of the river, and crossed to and from his work daily in a canoe. For this labor Mr. Gordon was given forty-two head of cattle (cows and heifers) in lieu of money.
The next move of Mr. Gordon was made two months later, when he went to a location northwest of what is now the city of Woodland and here he secured a grant of three leagues of land and settled down to farming, which continued his occupation until his death. As one of the early pioneers of California, he had to undergo many privations and hardships in establishing a home and, like the majority of those men of that period, aided in all movements that had for their object the development of that section of California. William Gordon, of this review, accompanied his parents on their migrations in California and received such educational advantages as they were able to give him and, when old enough, assisted with the work about the ranch. After he was old enough to conduct independent farming operations. he settled on Cache creek, where he remained two years. In 1862, he settled in Gordon valley. where he has twelve hundred acres of land. which he secured from his father and which was originally part of a Spanish grant. Here Mr. Gordon has a valuable property, which yields him a substantial income annually. This has been developed to its present condition by its owner, and it is conceded to be one of the most valuable properties in the entire valley. There are two hundred acres improved in orchard, consisting of apricots, peaches, prunes, oranges and almonds, one of the largest orchards in Napa County. His orange grove consists of one acre and beautifies his yard and its fruit, raised without irrigation, is of superior quality. Thirty acres arc in hay and the balance is used for pasture land for his cattle and horses, about ten head of the latter being kept for use on the ranch. All of the improvements on the place have been placed there by Mr. Gordon. He has erected several sets of buildings, commodious houses for his sons and daughters, who are all living on the ranch, and to whom he leases the property on shares, he having retired from active farm work. Ample facilities have been provided for caring for the fruit, including a dryer and an almond huller for their own use, besides which they take care of their neighbors’ almonds. This ranch is watered from the Gordon creek, which flows through the center of it, and withal it might he considered one of the show places of Southern California. Two lofty oak trees, supposed to be about two hundred years old, mark Mr. Gordon’s place of residence and stand like sentinels over his home. Besides these trees, the yard is decorated with ornamental shrubbery and flowers, giving it the appearance of a typical California city home.
In Napa, June 18, 1861, Mr. Gordon married Juliette Chapman, a native of Connecticut and a daughter of Levi Chapman, who came to California in the early ‘50s, and was engaged in mining until his death. Of the children horn of this marriage we mention the following: George E., who is farming a part of the old home place, married Clara Leonard; Frank L., also interested in farming on the old homestead, was road-overseer for several years; he married Nettie Gosling and has two children ; William H. married Rosa Chapman; Sophronia became the wife of W. A. Clark; and Loleta married Thomas H. Loney. The sons were educated in the public schools and in Napa College, and have been able assistants to their father in the development of the ranch. Each of the children has inherited from their parents those dualities that have given them a place with the representative people of their County.
Ever since locating in Gordon valley, William Gordon has aided in its development, assisting to construct roads, organized the Gordon school district and served as trustee for many years. In politics he is a Republican. although has never been an aspirant for office. His public spirit and regard for the welfare of the people have been frequently demonstrated and now in reviewÂing his life work, as he looks over his broad possessions he recalls the time when he was engaged in mining during the exciting period of 1848-9, when they were washing out their gold and often would get as much as $50 or more in one pan. He compares his present condition, when he is assured of an annual income, to the precarious occupation that he followed as a young man. Vr. Gordon is a quiet, conservative man, and while he has always worked to advance his own interests, has never neglected the duties of a citizen."
"Capay Valley, the Land & the People"Ada Merhof, pg 50-51., also p 354
The following excerpts were taken from "History of Yolo County, California, It's Resources and It's People", William O. Russell, editor, Woodland, California, 1940.
William Gordon was born on the frontier in Ohio territory of Scotch forbears. While still a boy, he moved to Jackson County, Missouri, which had only recently become part of the United States, and which was the home of the frontiersman, Daniel Boone. Boone urged all young men to go to California. "It is the paradise of this continent!" The old man urged to the time of his death. In the middle 1820's Gordon established headquarters along with several partners at Taos, New Mexico, and engaged in the Rocky Mountain fur trade until the horrors of Indian warfare ended his career as a trapper. He remained on the frontier in New Mexico and was associated with Kit Carson, Jedediah Smith and other mountain men. By 1841 he had married a native girl and acquired a family. He had difficulties with the Mexican government's supposition that he and his Americano friends were supporters of the Texas filibuster and planned to make New Mexico part of the United States. In 1841 they came to California by way of the Santa Fe Trail The California authorities ignored the warnings of the New Mexican government and granted Gordon and his partners a 48,000 acre Rancho La Puente where they established the town of El Monte, the first agricultural town in California, now a rich suburb of Los Angeles. There were twenty-five men in the party, four of whom were heads of families: Gordon, William Knight, Workman and Rowland. The following year they returned to New Mexico for their families. Gordon and Knight married sisters and Knight's oldest daughter, Mrs. J. W. Snowball recounted the trip. "The children of the train were carried over deserts and high hills, through deep canyons, and dense forests, in baskets swinging on the sides of gentle ponies. A basket hung from each side of the horse with a child, awake or sleeping safely tucked away. Occasionally the children climbed on the pony's back, or jumped to the ground to walk.
William Gordon ,William Knight, and J. R. Wolfskill, who married Knight's eldest daughter, Carmelita, came north together. It seems that Americans who married Mexicans were especially favored in grants. Gordon set himself up as overlord of Rancho Guesesosi on Cache Creek and Knight claimed title to Rancho Carmel on the Sacramento River. Wolfskill was overseer on his brother's Rancho on Putah Creek across from the present town of Winters.The Spanish "rancho" was a community of its own, with any number of adobe houses, a certain number of overseers and a vast number of Indian retainers, engaged in the raising of stock.
On 27 January of 1843 Governo Micheltorena granted William Gordon a rancho of two leagues of land in Capay Valley, assessed value of $11,000 with taxes of $107.49 in 1850. Here his first wife died in 1845 and he lived the life of a bachelor for ten years before marrying Elizabeth Corum. His eldest daughter, Isabele, and Nathan Coombs rode two mounted horses to Sutter's Fort and were married by Captain Sutter. She was just 14 years old. They returned to the ranch arriving about midnight and partook of a bridal feast of cold beef. Shortly after, Coombs purchased a Napa Valley ranch from Salvador Vallejo and they went there to live. Nathan Coombs took part in the Bear Flag Filibuster in 1846 under Knight's leadership. Gordon never took part in the Usurping of California nor the events that led up to it.
In 1851 William Gordon bought land in Napa County. It was named Gordon Valley after him.
In Yolo County he gave aid and comfort to many settlers suffering hardships on the trail from Oregon and Missouri. His place of frontier hospitality was a place of refuge for many old friends and new who traveled through the area and it is mentioned as a stopping place, sometimes for months, sometimes for years, in the many Yolo County Histories. The Grigsby-Ide imigrant train of 1845 stayed at Gordon's for part of that winter. The land was mostly used for grazing stock, but in the year 1844, William Gordon and William Knight were first to plant grain in the county of Yolo. Gordon also introduced hogs to the county that same year. In 1845 he harvested seven acres of wheat and
five acres of corn by using the water from Cache Creek which flowed from Clear Lake. William Gordon was Justice of the Peace of his precinct, the Capay Valley in1851.
Some of the younger members of Gordon's family emigrated to Yolo County from Jackson County, Missouri in 1855 and temporarily occupied a log house on Gordon's property. A Mrs. Grayson was with them.
Gordon came to California with nothing and built an estate out of perserverance and a willingness to undergo untold hardships. He retired about the time of the Civil War and moved into Lake County to spend the remainder of his life in his favorite sport-hunting. He died 3 October 1876.
The following excerpt was taken from the book, "Historic Spots in California", by Mildred Brooke Hoover, Douglas E. Kyle, Ethel G. Rensch:
Within what is now Yolo County, nine grants of land for permanent settlement were made by Mexican authorities between 1842 and the American conquest in 1846. Only five of these titles, however, were later confirmed by the United States government.
William Gordon, a native of Ohio who brought his family to California with the Workman-Rowland party in 1841, settled on Rancho Quesesosi in July 1842. This pioneering venture was located on a grant of two square leagues bisected by Cache Creek west of what is now Woodland. (The boundaries can be followed on County Roads 94B, 19 and 87 and SR16.) "Uncle Billy" Gordon had been a trapper and hunter in New Mexico, "rough, honest, and hospitable." His place on Cache Creek became a "general rendezvous for settlers and hunters" from 1843 to 1846. James Clyman, in his diary for July 12, 1845, noted that at the time of his visit, Gordon was the only permanent settler on Cache Creek. On this rancho the first wheat in Yolo County was grown. In a primitive building one mile from Gordon's home, the county's first school was started in 1847 with an enrollment of eight pupils. Gordon sold land and water right to James Moore, who began construction in 1856 of the first irrigation dam and ditch system to utilize the natural water supply of Cache Creek, which flows out of Clear Lake in the mountains of Lake County.
Rancho Quesesosi, more commonly known as Gordon's Ranch was sold in 1866, when William Gordon moved to Cobb Valley in Lake County, where he lived until his death in 1876. All that remains today is a family cemetery situated north of Cache Creek, near the former homesite on County Road 19 and marked with a plaque in 1948 by the Native Daughters of the Golden West.
CALIFORNIA PIONEER REGISTER AND INDEX 1542 - 1848 page 165 Gordon (Wm), 1841, nat. of Ohio, who became a Mex. citizen in N. Mex., where he married Maria Lucero, and came to Cal. in the Rowland-Workman party. iv. 277-9. In '42 came north to Sonoma, original passport. in my collection; and in '43 was grantee of Quesesosi rancho on Cache Cr., becoming the pio¤er settler of Yolo Co. Here he lived till about '66, then moved to Cobb Valley, Lake Co., where he died in '76, at the age of 75. His wife died in '44, her sister being the wife of Cyrus Alexander; and in '55 G. married Elizabeth Corum. One of his daughters, Mrs Sarah Ingraham, died in Gordon Val. '68; another, Isabel, was the wife of Nathan Coombs. 'Uncle Billy' had been a trapper in his early years, and continued to be fond of the hunt in Cal.; a rough, uneducated, honest, and hospitable man. In '43-6 his place on Cache Cr. was a general rendezvous for settlers and hunters, and is oftener mentioned than any other place except Sutter's Fort and Sonoma. It was in the vicinity of the modern town of Fremont. (my note: not Fremont, but Woodland) Portrait Yolo Co. Hist., 26; ment. iv. 573, 672; v. iii. 672.
An exerpt from "California Inter Pocula" by Hubert Howe Bancroft, p 629
John C Murphy one day innocently borrowed without permission a horse belonging to William Gordon, a strong-minded magistrate of Yolo County. Hearing of it, the justice sent the constable after Murphy, who was brought before Gordon, tried, convicted, and sentenced to be hanged that afternoon. The magistrate was in earnest; and it was with the utmost difficulty, and only by appealing to his sense of fairness, and to his reputation as a magistrate in criminating a man where the judge was prosecuter, that delay was gained. Finally the case was referred to another court, and the prisoner discharged, greatly to the disgust of Gordon who immediately resigned office, affirming he would no longer be judge where he could not administer justice.
1850 United States Federal Census
Name: Wm Gordon Age: 15 Estimated birth year: abt 1835 Birth Place: New Mexico Gender: Male Home in 1850 (City,County,State): Cache Creek, Yolo, California
Family:
Wm Gordon 50 Ranchero born, Ohio
Thomas 22 Ranchero born, N Mexico
John 20 Ranchero born, N Mexico
William 15 Ranchero born, N Mexico
note: Sarah and Joseph were living with their sister and her husband, Isabele and Nathan Coombs in Napa, California. Margaret and Jose Ricardo are not listed either place. (There is a Margaret Alexander age 4 living with Rufina and Cyrus Alexander in Sonoma in 1850. Could this be William's daughter, Margaret? Rufina is the sister to William Gordon's wife Maria, who died in 1845.)
1852 California State Census about Wm Gordon
Name: Wm Gordon
Race: White
Gender: Male
Birth Place: Ohio
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1800
Age: 52
Residence County: Yolo Last residence; Mexico
others with him: J Gordon age 23, born Mexico, rancher; Wm Gordon Jr, age 18, rancher, born Mexico; Jos Gordon, rancher, age 14, born Mexico
1860 United States Federal Census
Name: William Gordon
Age in 1860: 68 (looks like 60 to me)
Birth Year: abt 1792
Birthplace: Ohio
Home in 1860: Cottonwood, Yolo, California
Gender: Male
Post Office: Cache Creek
Value of real estate: $35,000, $38,000
Household Members: Name Age
William Gordon 68 (looks like 60 to me), stalk dealer
Elizabeth Gordon 38 born Virginia
William Gordon 22 New Mexico, Stalk dealer
Joseph Gordon 20 New Mexico, Stalk dealer
Robert Gordon 1 California (whose child is this? as he isn't on 1870 census)
William Walter 22 labor
John Gorden 25 New Mexico, Stalk dealer
M Seaburn 40 labor
Rosa Comore 28 ?
Olin Pattee 58 Shepherd
1870 United States Federal Census
Name: Wm Gordon
Estimated birth year: abt 1801
Age in 1870: 69
Birthplace: Ohio
Home in 1870: Lower Lake, Lake, California
Race: White
Gender: Male
Value of real estate: 6000, 300
Post Office: Lower Lake
Family and neighbors:
Elizabeth age 40 keeping house, born Kentucky
(no Robert Gordon)
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1801 - 1876 (75 years)
