SAMUEL KINGERY
Whose pleasant home and fertile farm are shown in this book, was born in Madison County, Ohio, December 4, 1824. His father was John Kingery, and his mother’s maiden name was Margaret Oolrah. Samuel was the second son in a family of nine children, there being seven boys and two girls. In pleasant Ohio he passed his early years, obtaining his education at the public schools of the country, to which he added the trade of a carpenter, thus particularly fitting him to earn a livelihood wherever he might be placed. As his father had been a pioneer of Ohio, the spirit pervaded the son, and he, in 1847, looked forward to the almost unknown land of Oregon, and to that country, in the spring of that year, set out on the long journey across the plains. California at that time was not generally known as belonging to the United States, but was then supposed to be the seat of warlike struggle for conquest. Oregon was the chief attraction for emigrants to the Pacific Coast, and thither went Mr. Kingery and his companions. Arriving in the land of his destination in due time after his long and dangerous journey, he settled in the region now comprised in Washington County. Then there was not even a Territorial Government, and with the exception of a few settlements in the valley of the Willamette and the Columbia, the whole country was a wilderness. Land was free to take, and settlers came rapidly, giving Mr. Kingery an opportunity to work at his trade as a carpenter. As a farmer and carpenter he was engaged the principal part of the seventeen years he remained in Oregon. In 1864 he removed to California, locating in Napa Valley, where he remained two years, after which he came to San Luis Obispo County, settling on a farm on Old Creek, near Cayucos, where he has since lived.
Mr. Kingery was married, July 23, 1858, to Miss Jane Benefiel, and they have five children, three being daughters and two sons.
Source: History of San Luis Obispo County, California, p346. Transcribed for the CAGenWeb Project by Cathy Portz.