Sonoma County Biography
Mary Jane Thomas
For over half a century Mrs. Thomas has been a resident of her present location in Sonoma county, near Sebastopol, and in the meantime has witnessed a marvelous transformation in her property, as well as in the entire country. When she first located on the ranch as a young bride her husband had purchased a squatter’s right to it from a Mr. Griffith, and afterward secured legal right to the land by purchasing it from the government. The barren, uncultivated tract that it then was would not be recognized in the finely improved and productive ranch that it is today, yielding bountiful harvests of Gravenstein apples, prunes and cherries, and considered one of the finest fruit ranches in this section of country.
In maidenhood Mrs. Thomas was Mary Jane Leffingwell, and was born in Lee county, Iowa, in 1841, the daughter of William Leffingwell, and the granddaughter of Joseph Leffingwell. On the paternal and maternal sides she is of New England ancestry, both her father and mother being natives of Connecticut, and both born in 1805. Both are also deceased, the father passing away in October, 1884, and the mother in 1889, at the age of eighty-four, the death of both occurring in San Luis Obispo county, Cal. Mrs. Thomas has but a limited knowledge of her birthplace in Iowa, for she was a child of eight years old when with her parents, three brothers and four sisters, she set out to cross the plains in 1849. That winter was passed in Utah, and in the following spring they resumed their journey and finally reached Sacramento. After staying there long enough to get rested from their long journey they went to Yuba county, where, in the vicinity of the mines, the father established and operated the first mill in the county. In addition to this grist and saw mill he also added to his income by maintaining a boarding house at Pilot Hill, and he also kept a hotel in Placer county for some time, in Hangtown, now known as Placerville. Altogether the family continued in Yuba county for about three years, at the end of which time, in 1852, they came to Sonoma county. Locating in Petaluma, Mr. Leffingwell erected the first hotel in the town, which was carried on by Samuel N. Terrell, Mr. Leffingwell’s attention being given more particularly to his ranch in the vicinity. The closing years in the lives of this early pioneer settler and his wife were passed in San Luis Obispo, both reaching good old ages.
In 1858 Mary Jane Leffingwell became the wife of Robert B. Miller, who was born May 27, 1833, in Virginia and who came across the plains to California with ox-teams in 1852. The young people began life on the ranch of one hundred and sixty acres seven miles from Sebastopol which was the home of Mr. Miller until his death, August 10, 187. The only child born of this marriage was Alva O. Miller, whose marriage with Viola Colwell has resulted in the birth of three children. Several years after the death of her first husband, Mrs. Miller became the wife of Zachariah A. Thomas, in 1874, his death, December 18, 1905, leaving Mrs. Thomas a widow for the second time. Through sunshine and shadow she has continued to make her home on the ranch on which she first settled as a bride in 1858, in the care of which she is now assisted by her son Alva O. Miller, who with his family resides on the ranch with her. Here may be seen one of the finest fruit ranches in this part of the county, apples, prunes and cherries being raised in large quantities, and all of the fruits are of a choice quality and therefore readily salable.
History
of Sonoma County, California
History by Tom Gregory : Historic Record Company, 1891
Los Angeles, Ca. 1911
Transcribed by Roberta Hester Leatherwood
May 7, 2011 Pages 907-908
Sonoma County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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