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JAMES TANNAHILL (p. 321)
Of good Scotch descent, Mr. Tannahill was born in the “Land o’ Cakes” in July 1824. As early as 1850, he found himself mining on Curtis’ Creek, which pursuit he followed for a short time, going afterwards to Stockton, but again returning in the fall of ‘50 and started a store at what is now Groveland, but which at that time was called Garrote. Continuing assiduously in that business, he has ever since maintained agreeable business relations with the inhabitants of that section. Until a few years since, he had also conducted certain milling operations. Married, Christmas 1859, Miss May A. Dexter, formerly of Providence, Rhode Island. Two children: James Alexander and Cordelia Agnes.

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HENRY THOMPSON (p. 396)
This pioneer settler was born in the Duchy of Schleswig, Holstein, on July 20, 1825. He went to sea when twelve years old and followed a mariners life till he arrived in this state in the fall of 1849. He remained in San Francisco and was boating on the bay for a short time, then started for the mines, making a halt at Spanish Bar on the American River. He returned to the city, where he engaged in business till he was burned out, and then went to Vallecito, but again returned to San Francisco to go to the mines at Mission Bar, where he remained during the winter of 1852. During the winter he went to Nevada City and purchased provisions and had to pay 10 cents a pound to get them hauled twelve miles, that being the distance to his camp. In May 1853, he came to his present place of residence, near Tuttletown, where he has since lived and has engaged in farming, mining and raising carp. He built the first carp pond in the county and now has three ponds with a school of about three hundred fish. Mr. Thompson married Mary Mills May 1, 1853. She is a native of England and was born September 30, 1833. Henry A., Mary E., Belle C., Frederick M. and Katie are their children.

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J. P. TIBBITS, M.D. { John Power Tibbits } (p. 415-416)
This old settler of Tuolumne County is a native of Canandaigua, Ontario County, New York and was born May 2, 1806. In 1828 he commenced the study of medicine at Buffalo, New York. He located at Steubenville, Ohio, in 1830 and in 1834 removed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he practiced his profession four years, then graduated at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia in 1836. He resided in Pittsburgh until 1845, at which time a fire destroyed all his property, and he then located at Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1849 he came to this state, arriving in San Francisco on the 5th of July of that year. He at once went to Big Bar on the middle fork of the American River, where he mined and practiced his profession. In the fall of that year he returned east and in the following spring, with his family, again came to California, settling in Sonora on the 23rd of August 1850. In the fall of 1851 he built his Barnum House, near the head of Washington Street, which hotel he kept until it was burned in 1853. He remained in Sonora, living with his son-in-law, Captain Green, of the City Hotel, until the spring of 1854, then moving to San Francisco. After a residence of two years in that place, he went to Iowa Hill, Placer County, where he lived until 1862, then going to Idaho, thence to Montana and Washington Territories, but afterwards returned to San Francisco, where he lived three years. He came to Columbia in 1872, where he devoted his time to mining and the practice of his profession. He married Rachel O’Hanna Bartlett, a native of Jefferson County, Ohio. This estimable lady, with Mrs. Holden and Mrs. Brodigan, were the only American female residents of Sonora in the early part of 1849. Mrs. Tibbits was a lady of refinement, holding advanced ideas and much respected by all who knew her, not only for the many excellent personal qualities, but as one of the pioneer mothers of California.

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P. M. TRASK { Prentice Mellen Trask } (p. 344-345)
This gentleman, one of Tuolumne’s old settlers, was born in Franklin County, Maine, on May 9, 1829. At the common schools in Franklin County he was educated and was raised in agricultural pursuits. He came to California via the Isthmus of Panama and arrived in San Francisco in July 1852. He came direct to this county, first settling at Columbia, where he mined for about eight years. In 1860 he settled on his farm, located one mile north from Columbia. He has planted a vineyard of about twelve acres, which is now in bearing. Some of his grapes are sold in the market and others are manufactured into wine. He has also planted about three acres of fruit trees, which are now in bearing. Fruit and hay are the principal products of the ranch. Mr. Trask married Susan M. Pierce on September 19, 1854. She is a native of Penobscot County, Maine. They have three living children: George M., Florence M. and Clara J. One deceased, Charles A.

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E. N. TWIST { Elias Newton Twist } (p. 319)
Born in Livingston County, New York, on March 3, 1821. The son of a farmer, he passed his minority upon the paternal acres, going when twenty-one to Ohio and subsequently to Wisconsin, eventually coming to California. The date of his arrival was the spring of 1850. His first mining was done at Placerville, afterwards working at Mokelumne Hill. In September 1852, he came to Tuolumne and began mining at Table Mountain. After six months spent there, he proceeded to Algerine and remained until 1868, when he moved on his ranch of one hundred and sixty acres on the Sonora and Jacksonville Road. Mr. and Mrs. Twist have one child, Ennis.

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JOHN VAN HARLINGEN (p. 376)
Is a native of Warren County, Ohio, where he was born on April 26, 1826. He was raised and educated in his native county, from which he moved in 1846, settling in Louisiana. He left New Orleans on Feb. 18, 1849 and came to California via Mexico, arriving here on June 24th of that year. He came to Sonora on the 26th of the following August and at once engaged in mining, which occupation he followed for about three years. He was elected County Coroner and Public Administrator in 1877, which position he now holds. He married Elizabeth Roth and by this union has six children.

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JOHN WALKER, M.D. (p. 351)
One of the pioneer settlers of this county was born in Wilmington, New Hanover County, North Carolina, on March 26, 1825. He left New York City on December 1, 1849, taking passage on the steamer “Panama”, Capt. Bailey, coming via Panama and arrived in San Francisco in January 1850. After taking a trip to Stockton and through Calaveras County, he returned to San Francisco, thence going to Sonora, where he arrived some time during the fall of 1850. During the Doctor’s residence here he has been engaged in the practice of his profession and has also interested himself in mines and mining, together with inventing machinery whereby gold may be the better extracted from the quartz. This plain statement of a few facts is all the writer is allowed to give of a busy and extremely useful and valuable life.

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THOMAS W. WELLS (p. 374)
Mr. Wells was born in Sonora on the 13th of August 1857. He commenced the study of the photographer’s art at Sonora and finished at San Francisco under the direction of J. H. Peters. His photograph gallery is now located at the southeast corner of Washington and Dodge Streets. The photographic business was first commenced here by Bachelder Bros., then passing into the hands of Wm. H Rulofson, and later of Daniel Sewell, after which it was purchased by Mr. Wells, who is now the only photographer of the county. Mr. Wells married Maggie J. Harrington on June 27, 1881. Mr. Wells has signalized himself by a close devotion to his art that has resulted in the production of extremely good work. No pains are, in his estimation, too great to insure first-class pictures and specimens of his work will compare favorably with the best done in San Francisco.

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C. C. WHEELER { Charles Carroll Wheeler } (p. 386-387)
The present popular and genial proprietor of the Windsor House, corner of Ninth and Washington Streets, Oakland, was an inhabitant of Tuolumne in former years. He was born in Waterville, Kennebec County, Maine, in 1834, but was reared in Norridgewock, in that state. His life has been mainly spent in mining and business pursuits in California and Australia, he having spent three years in the search for gold in the latter country and, after much travel, locating and mining at Table Mountain, near Shaw’s Flat. One year of farming on Johnson’s Ranch succeeded to the four years spent at the Flat and then Mr. W., having in the meantime married, proceeded to Oakland and established the first of the express lines connecting San Francisco with the towns (then small) on the opposite side of the Bay. Merchandising at Placerville, Solano County, and similar pursuits at Healdsburg, Sonoma County, succeeded to the express business and, finally, in the centennial year, he returned to Oakland and opened the excellent and convenient hotel which he now conducts. Mr. Wheeler married Miss Angeline G. Stetson in Columbia during his residence in Tuolumne. The officiating clergyman, Mr. L. Hamilton, was called upon twenty years later to officiate at the china wedding of the married couple, all the parties residing in Oakland. This pleasant circumstance has received a tinge of melancholy from the recent death of Mr. Hamilton. Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler have two children.

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H. W. WILLIAMS { Henry William Williams } (p. 320-321)
Is a Swede, who came to America in 1840, then at the age of sixteen years. For a livelihood, Mr. Williams followed the sea, until his voyage via the Straits of Magellan to this country in a schooner commanded by Captain Wild, where he has since remained, devoting his time to mining and to improvements in mining machinery. His wanderings, which were numerous, as were those of almost every one of the early miners, began upon his departure in 1851 from San Francisco for Taylor’s Bar in Calaveras County. Mining there for a twelvemonth, he went to Campo Seco next and became a saloon-keeper until 1854, when, coming to Tuolumne, he stopped for a time at Big Oak Flat and then at Deer Flat, mining at those places with small success. One summer passed at Turnback Creek, “let him out” of mining for awhile, and he then devoted himself to the butcher business at Roche’s Camp. Six months more saw him at Sonora, clerking in a store, soon to leave that employment for another trial at the meat-block. He followed the business of retailing meat at Sonora, Soulsbyville and Confidence, successively, until finally becoming possessed of certain mining claims at Arastraville, he located himself there, constructing an arastra and is now engaged in improving his mining property.

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WILLIAM WILSON (p. 320)
Mr. Wilson had the good fortune to be born in the good old State of Maine; consequently he is a “down-easter” - very far down east, too, his birthplace was, for he was raised in Hancock County, almost on the eastern verge of the United States. Like nearly all of the able-bodied young men of his section, he worked at lumbering. Reaching the ambitious age of twenty-one, he cut loose from the home ties and, setting out for fresher fields and greener pastures, he came to Big Bar on Sullivan’s Creek, where he toiled for ten years. Resuming his old occupation of lumberman, at the end of that time, he became head-sawyer at Smith’s Mill until 1871, when he accepted a similar position in Marshall’s Mill, retaining it for two years, after which he moved to his present location in Arastraville to engage in quartz mining and in running a couple of arastras.

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GIDEON WING (p. 313-314)
In the town of Sandwich, County of Barnstable, Mass., Mr. Wing was born on March 1, 1836. In the public schools of the town in which he was born, he was educated. When seventeen years old, he apprenticed himself to the tinsmith trade in the city of New Bedford, Mass., which, when learned, formed the basis of his business operations in the present time. On November 26, 1862, he arrived in San Francisco, having come from New Bedford via Panama. On December 1, 1862, he arrived in Columbia and at once entered into the hardware and tin business and now keeps an establishment of that kind on Main Street. He was elected to the City Council of Co­lumbia and was selected as its President in the days when she was a city of more importance than any other in the county. He was also at the head of the Fire Department for a period of nine years. He was also appointed Assistant Assessor of Internal Revenue for the Third District. His division was composed of Tuolumne, Calaveras, Mariposa and Mono Counties. He was appointed Deputy Collector of Revenues of the First District, which position he held for four years. Married Malinda Pauline Schwilk, a native of Kentucky, on May 4, 1870. Frederick S. and Laura A. are his children.

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HON. STEPHEN WING (Appendix p. 45-46)
This gentleman, a prominent resident of Columbia for eighteen years, but now an officer of the United States Mint in San Francisco, has kindly furnished the following details of his life:

Reared in Massachusetts, his birth occurring on February 16, 1823, Mr. Wing made the Cape Horn passage to California in the winter of 1849-50, arriving in San Francisco in the spring following. The fall of 1853 found him in Tuolumne, where for a year he resided in Jamestown, engaging in the sale of tin ware and stoves. Removing one year later to Columbia, he maintained a continuous residence there until the year 1872. During these years he continued in the hardware traffic with good success. During this prolonged residence Mr. Wing’s qualities caused his election to several prominent positions of trust. Before 1860, while the town was still active and prosperous, its citizens chose the subject of this account trustee of their interests, he becoming President of the Board. During “war times”, the gentleman’s patriotic tendencies led to his choice as Captain of the military company known as the Columbia Home Guards, succeeding Captain A. E. Hooker. Still later, in 1868, Mr. Wing became State Senator, which office he occupied for two terms. After leaving Columbia in 1873, his history has included a year spent in the service of the government as Assistant Assessor of Internal Revenue. In 1873 he commenced to reside in San Francisco, receiving at that time his appointment as Transfer Clerk of the United States Mint, which office he has ever since held. He now resides with his wife, neeMiss Mabella Earley, at No. 23 Glen Park Avenue, San Francisco.

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THOMAS J. WITT (p. 402)
The present District Attorney of Tuolumne County is a Tennesseean by birth. Residing first in Rea County, Tennessee, and later in Arkansas, he crossed the plains in 1857 and settled near Sacramento. He studied law with Judge Cross, of Visalia, during his six years’ residence in Tulare County and on coming to Sonora in 1878 he completed his legal studies in the office of Hon. Caleb Dorsey. Being admitted to the Bar in 1878, he was the next year elected to the responsible position which he now holds.

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GEORGE WRIGHT (p. 354-355)
Bonnie Scotland is the place of Mr. Wright’s nativity and he was born May 9, 1824. On the 7th of February 1849, he left Edinburgh for London, leaving the latter place on March 1st of that year, having engaged his passage in the bark “St. George” of London, the first ship which left that port for San Francisco and which arrived at the latter place on October 12, 1849. Having learned the cabinet and chair maker’s trade in the old country, he was able to get work as a carpenter at $12 per diem, afterwards engaging with the proprietors of the Delmonico Hotel as their private carpenter, working until they failed in the spring of 1850. In March he went into the redwoods at Corte Madera to get out lumber for wharfing and there was burned out, leaving there about the end of April for San Francisco. Left the latter place May 1st in a ship’s long-boat, bound for the diggings in Tuolumne County in company with John Wallace and James Willson and arrived in Sonora May 6, 1850 to saw lumber to be used for building purposes. In July of that year, he went to Sullivan’s Bar, remaining until the following fall, when he moved to Campo Seco. Upon the 28th of June 1851, he left the latter place for Summit Pass, as he had enrolled himself as a member of the Tuolumne County Water Company, who were to make a ditch for mining purposes, and was actively employed by that company eighteen consecutive years and has been a member of that company thirty years and ten months. He now resides on his ranch, south of Springfield. Mr. Wright married Mary Ann Merritt March 29, 1864 and has a family of four boys and four girls.

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T. M. YANCEY { Tryon Milton Yancey } (p. 371-372)
The subject of this narrative, whose portrait appears in this work, was born in Pulaski, Giles County, Tennessee, on September 23, 1826. When nearly nine years old his parents took him to Marshall County, Mississippi, where he was educated. When the war with Mexico came on, Mr. Yancey enlisted in the First Mississippi Infantry, commanded by Jefferson Davis, in which regiment he served with honor till the close of the war. Mr. Yancey early in life learned the printer’s trade, following it until after returning from the war, until he came to this state. In 1851, he crossed the plains and first made a halt in California at Sonora, Tuolumne County. He came to Columbia on the 17th of September 1852, where he was engaged in mining until May 1853, when he went on the Gazette and continued on the paper until 1858. In October of that year he was appointed Deputy Sheriff, in which office he remained for three years. In 1863, he moved to Mono County and was appointed one of the Commissioners of the Mono road. In the following year we find him at Silver City, Idaho, where he remained about one year, and returning to Sonora, entered the Democrat office and there remained for eleven years and four months. He was elected Sheriff of Tuolumne County in 1876 and, so faithfully has he discharged the duties of his office, he has been his own successor to the present time. One cannot speak too highly of Mr. Yancey’s administration as Sheriff. Common thieves, highwaymen, stage robbers and murderers have all found their detection and conviction sure, if their depredations were committed within the jurisdiction of our Sheriff. Mr. Yancey married Rosa B. Crowell on the 12th of September 1860. She is a native of Maine. Their children are Louisa (now Mrs. Geo. McQuade), Mabel, Edna, Henry L. and Nellie.

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