Chapter 2

JOHN STEINBECK'S ROOTS

Draft

Donald G. Kohrs
Copyright © 2021

CHAPTER 2

SAMUEL HAMILTON - FIRST TO ARRIVE

In Chapter 2 of East of Eden, John Steinbeck writes about his Hamilton ancestry providing insight as to his knowledge of the family history: "Young Samuel Hamilton came from the north of Ireland and so did his wife. He was the son of small farmers, neither rich nor poor, who had lived on one land hold and in one stone house for many hundreds of years. The Hamiltons managed to be remarkably well educated and well read; and, as is so often true in that green country, they were connected and related to very great people and very small people, so that one cousin might be a baronet and another cousin a beggar.[1]

 But just how much did John Steinbeck know about his family history and how much was there remaining to be learned about his ancestral roots, if one were interested in such matters? Well, it is best to begin in Ireland, as one must begin somewhere, and try and trace the ancestral roots of his grandfather, Samuel Hamilton.

HOUSE OF HAMILTON

 John Steinbeck’s maternal ancestors, the Clan Hamilton, also referred to as the House of Hamilton, were a Lowland Scottish clan whose ancestors fled from Scotland to Northern Ireland in the late seventeenth century.[2] Supporters of the Covenanters, the Hamilton Clan were driven from their homeland during the Claverhouse Persecutions. The Hamilton Clan settled in the townland of Mulkeeragh on the fringe of Ballykelly, County Derry in Northern Ireland. Located southeast of the village of Ballykelly, the townland of Mulkeeragh itself was only three hundred and thirty-five acres in size.

 John Hamilton and Esther (Clarke) Hamilton of Mulkeeragh were of the Clan Hamilton. John and Esther Hamilton were members of the Ballykelly Presbyterian Church and where the children were baptized.[3] Among the children born to John and Esther Hamilton was a daughter Mary, (1817-1879) and sons, William John Hamilton, (1824-1879), Robert (1828-1916) and Samuel Hamilton (1830-1904).

An article published in the Derry Journal in 2012, mentioned that John and Esther Hamilton’s farm in Mulkeeragh was along a lane which leads to Mulkeeragh Wood from Tully Road. As one walks this lane from Tully Road towards Mulkeeragh Wood, what was once the Hamilton property is located on the left-hand side of the road. [4]

In the 1920s, John Steinbeck’s uncle, Joseph, the youngest son of Sam Hamilton, visited Ireland and located his first cousins Kate, Mary, and Thomas - the children of William John Hamilton (1824-1879) and Jane Ritchie (1828-1915). At the time of his visit, the cousins were still farming the land in Mulkeeragh, raising dairy cattle, and producing dairy products that, according to Joe, “all of the population of Bally Kelly depends on.” In a letter to his older siblings, Will, George and Olive, back in California, Joe mentioned he’d learned the property holding originated from the Hugh Clarke family, and dated as far back as 1668; and the dwelling he visited was built in 1689.

The cousins explained to Joe Hamilton that the Clarke family were aristocrats from Scotland, while the Hamilton’s were only a “simple village family.” Joseph Hamilton wrote

 “If you have any good blood in you, it belongs to the Clarkes...“It appears that the Hugh Clarkes lived in the old house. They had come over from Scotland and were sort of aristocrat of that neighborhood. When the soldiers came up through Ireland to take Londonderry in a sort of messy historical situation which I do not yet understand, the Clarkes buried their pewter to keep the soldiers from turning it into bullets, joined the farmers in the villages and started for Londonderry to defend the city. Londonderry is the only walled city in Ireland. They got their just in time and it is recorded by Kate with great pride that one of the Hamiltons actually helped in closing the great gate.” [5]

 There is a long history of religious friction and bloodshed associated with Londonderry, including the Siege of Derry of 1689. During this hostile attack, Protestant supporters of William III of England held their town against the Catholic supporters of James II of England for one hundred and five days. As for the pewter-related family lore Joseph Hamilton learned from his cousins, that story was mentioned in a Northern Whig newspaper article published March 13, 1928, and read as follows:

The collection plates used at these services were loaned especially for the occasion. They are pewter plates with a history. They originally belonged to the Clarke family of Mulkeeragh and they were buried for safety in the garden there when the Earl of Antrim's 'Redshanks' were pillaging the country on their advance to the siege of Derry. Showing every evidence of antiquity, but remarkably well-preserved, the plates are now the property of the Hamilton family, Mulkeeragh, who are direct descendants of the original Clark family.[6]

 Included in the letter Joseph Hamilton sent to his siblings was a photograph and a description of the house:

“This house as you can see it in the picture goes on interminably to the left. The next house built up against it and therefore, with a little lower roof contains the dairy. The next built up against that with only a wall between and again a little lower, contains the chickens and the next the pigs. They have modernized things a bit and I believe the horses and cattle are in other sheds. In layout, but of course, not at all in appearance, the whole thing might be another King City ranch. Sheds thrown together, machinery under one, chickens under another, much and cobbles in the yard and on courthouse under a tree complete the picture.” (J. R. Hamilton. December 1, 1924) [7]

In his book East of Eden, John Steinbeck described the home his maternal grandfather left when he immigrated to America; information the author may have gathered from Uncle Joe Hamilton’s correspondence. "Young Samuel Hamilton came from the north of Ireland and so did his wife. He was the son of small farmers, neither rich nor poor, who had lived on one landhold and in one stone house for many hundreds of years.[8]

 COMING TO AMERICA

In 1843, Mary Hamilton, age twenty-one, left the farm in Mulkeeragh with her younger brother, Robert Hamilton, age fourteen, boarded a passenger ship destined for the United States.6,7   Three years later, in 1846, at age sixteen, Samuel Hamilton departed from Liverpool, England aboard the Elizabeth Denison, a three-masted full-rigged passenger ship for New York.[9]

It remains quite probable that the Hamilton siblings were not immigrants fleeing the great Irish potato famine but left their homeland to escape the extreme poverty of Northern Ireland. America offered opportunity and New York City served as one of the principal ports of immigration.

COMING TO CALIFORNIA

In the summer of 1849, three years following his arrival in America, Sam Hamilton married Eliza Fagen (1831-1918), the daughter of Northern Irish immigrants and a native of New York. The following year, their first child, daughter Lizette “Lizzie” (b. 1850 - 1923) was born.[10] In 1851, three years after gold had been discovered in the American River near Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California, Sam Hamilton left New York, sailing around Cape Horn to San Francisco.[11]

Scholars often state that Sam Hamilton arrived in San Jose and reunited with his elder sister, Mary Hamilton. Recent findings suggest that Mary and Robert Hamilton did not arrive in California until 1852 traveling either through the isthmus of Panama, or in 1853, traveling through the isthmus of Nicaragua, depending on which article one references.[12], [13], [14]

Sam Hamilton’s wife Eliza and their young daughter Lizzie, who had stayed in New York with her parents, traveled to California in 1853[15] through the Isthmus of Panama.[16] Thus lies the possibility that Eliza and Lizzie Hamilton traveled with Mary and Robert Hamilton to California.

Whichever the case, round the Horn, through the isthmus of Nicaragua or isthmus of Panama, each was a long, arduous, and often harrowing journey that involved sickness and shipwrecks, each of which Robert Hamilton experienced as noted in his obituary.[17]

Considering the year of their travel (1851-1853), the Hamilton’s took part in one of the largest spontaneous migrations in human history up to that point in time, as they were among three hundred thousand newcomers to arrive to California in just five years (1849-1854).

Maybe the gold rush or the expanded opportunities for an Irishman on America’s West coast lured Sam Hamilton to California. What Hamilton did for work when he arrived in San Francisco in 1851 remains a mystery. He possibly followed others to the gold fields, hoping to strike it rich, or he sought and found work in the rapidly growing city. Maybe he befriended a blacksmith, with whom he could work as an apprentice. Maybe he had learned his blacksmith skills growing up on the farm in Ireland. It remains a mystery how and where Hamilton learned the vocation, a trade that often requires years of apprenticeship. The skills of an apprenticed blacksmith, Hamilton eventually used to design and patent inventions that improved his wheat thresher (grain separator) machine.

SAMUEL HAMILTON

SANTA CLARA VALLEY

Regardless of what brought him West, Samuel Hamilton, in 1858, registered a pre-emption claim for two 500-acre parcels of land associated with Rancho de Santa Teresa Mexican Land Grant in Santa Clara Valley. The California Supreme Court Hood v Samuel Hamilton et al, stated Hamilton settled on the property in 1858. The date of 1858 further supported by a pre-emption claim document held in the Santa Clara archives in the County of Santa Clara, California, with Hamilton’s name dated March 20, 1858. In 1860, the U. S. Federal Census for the San Jose Township, Santa Clara County, California listed Samuel Hamilton, age 30, a farmer owning an estate worth two thousand dollars, living with his wife Eliza, 29 and four children Elizabeth 10, Thomas 3, Adesa 3, Mary 1/12, and Toby Hamilton, 20, a farm laborer.[18] Samuel 30, Eliza 29, Seven years later, on September 3, 1867, Samuel Hamilton registered to vote in the township of San Jose, Santa Clara, California.[19]  

Reviewing the individuals listed on the census as Hamilton’s neighbors, one notices the majority were farmers, with the occasional merchant, dairyman and farm laborer. Neighbors, at the time of the 1860 census, included GB Montgomery from Virginia, wife Rachael Montgomery from Ohio. Joseph Peacock from New York, David Umbarger from Virginia, wife Mary J. Umbarger from Missouri. The Umbarger property was located along what is today the Umbarger and Monterey Road in San Jose. Also appearing on the census were Francisco Narvaez, a native of California, Pedro and Gertrudis Chaboya and his family (Jesus, Alex, Salvador, Maria, Teresa, Sisto, Fulgencia, Luisa, Leonardo) natives of California.

As such, Sam Hamilton’s time on the Santa Teresa property finds him associated with many Californio families recognized in early California history, the Bernel, Chaboya and Narvaez families. On two pages of an unidentified business ledger (1860-1867), held in the archives at History San Jose, are written the transactions for a Samuel Hamilton (“the renting horses for 3-6 days, purchases of bacon, pork, pork shoulder, lard, etc.”) and a sentence (“By clipping 75 acres”).[20] These transactions suggest Hamilton, like many farmers of the Santa Clara Valley during that time period, was raising grain (wheat and/or barley), and thus a participant of the early years of California’s great grain rush. In 1860, the leading wheat-growing counties in California were in the San Francisco Bay area.[21]

HAMILTON’S LOSS

John Steinbeck in East of Eden briefly suggests the process by which property, once part of Mexican land grants, became held by U.S. citizens. Then the Americans came—more greedy because there were more of them. They took the lands, remade the laws to make their titles good. And farmholds spread over the land, first in the valleys and then up the foothill slopes, small wooden houses roofed with redwood shakes, corrals of split poles.[22] 

A topographical map of the Rancho de Santa Teresa : [Santa Clara County, Calif.] / Surveyed according to the Judicial Possession ; by Chas. T. Healy, Co. Surveyor Date: 1859Courtesy of UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/hb8b69p171/?order=1 

Sam Hamilton was challenged several times in court regarding his rightful ownership of the Rancho Teresa property, a consequence of the California Land Act enacted in 1851. Each case was tried in the District Court of Santa Clara. One case, William A. Senter, et. als. Plaintiffs vs. Blanda Castro De Bernal et als. had a long list of other defendants, among them appear the names Samuel Hamilton, Thomas Hamilton, and Richard Richards. [23]

Another case, William Hood V Samuel Hamilton et al., was brought by William Hood, then owner of Rancho Los Guilicos, a 18,834 acre Mexican land grant in present-day Sonoma County (See also Valencia v Bernal, 1864).[24] The case argued who were the rightful owners of the property, the wife, and descendants of the original owner of the Mexican land grant, Joaquin Bernal or the current tenants of the property. The court ruled in favor of the defendants who were the current tenants of the property, Samuel Hamilton et. al. [25]

Yet another case, Milus Gay vs Samuel Hamilton, 1866, contested the ownership of two 500 acre lots (referred to in the lawsuit as “lot number three of the pueblo lands in San Jose”). The case appears to have argued conflicting claims as to who rightfully owned the property. The court ruled in favor of the plaintiff, resulting in Hamilton’s loss of the claim to his portion of Rancho Santa Teresa. This loss may have been a result of fraud on Milus Gay’s part, having found a skillful lawyer to argue his case and bribing a few witnesses to support his claim that he was the rightful owner of the property.             

M. H. GAY, Superintendent of Oak Hill Cemetery, is a native of Illinois born at Payson, Adams County, April 10, 1842. His father, Milus Gay, was a native of North Carolina, born in Iredell County, in 1811 and reared there. In 1833 he removed to Illinois, and engaged in merchandising in Adams County. In 1850 he crossed the plains to California, and went into the mines at Drytown: going back to Illinois in 1852, he returned to California with his family, the journey to Sacramento occupying the time from the third of April to September 6. He also shipped out several hundred fanning-mills, and he occupied about one year in disposing of these, making San Jose his residence and headquarters.  In 1853 he bought an interest in a ranch, on a portion of which the subject of this sketch now resides, and afterward effected the purchase of a 500- acre lot, from which was withheld a forty-acre tract the site of the cemetery. (Pen Pictures from the “Garden of the World” Or, Santa Clara County, California 1888. Lewis Publishing Company. Horace A. Foote. Editor).

Following the enactment of the California Land Act of 1851, such practices were common with the settling of California land grant claims among speculators, disreputable lawyers, corrupt politicians, and land sharks. Gay’s argument stated that in 1853 he obtained rights to the property, though, to date, no evidence has been found supporting Gay’s claim.[26] A pre-emption claim in Milus Gay’s name, dated January 21, 1859, held in the Santa Clara archives in the County of Santa Clara, California. Final settlement of Gay vs Hamilton lawsuit was delivered in November and December 1870, which appears to have involved financial reimbursement (rents and profits) and the return of the property to Gay.

Hamilton also found himself named in other court cases related to property rights, Cottle v Ford, for the cutting of trees on Rancho Santa Teresa property. And if one researches the name “Cottle” and “Rancho Santa Teresa”, once again one can learn the history of the Santa Clara County property, which today serves as a County park, and its location. As mentioned in a draft of Martial Cottle Park Master Plan Final Draft - In 1864, Edward Cottle, who had immigrated to the area a decade earlier, purchased a portion of the Rancho de Santa Teresa to farm and settle his family on. Edward Cottle later deeded 350 acres to his son, Martial Cottle, who used the property for growing grain and row crops and raising cattle.[27]

Yet another connection to the Santa Clara County property records, one finds Eliza Hamilton sold twenty-six and a half acres for fifty dollars to Herman Hoffman on October 24, 1867. The property was described as located adjacent to that of Milus Gay.

THE MECHANIZATION OF GREAT CALIFORNIA GRAIN RUSH

California’s great grain rush began in 1852 with an abundant harvest of wheat and barley. In the coming years, grain production in the state flourished. By 1860, California had become the leading barley producing state in the country and by 1890, the second leading wheat producing state in America.[28]

Almost from the beginning, California’s farming of grain catalyzed the mechanization of farming. During the 1870s, the State’s rapid increase in grain production was supported by the technological advancement of reapers, mowers, and threshers. In less than a decade, these machines had become essential equipment in the farming of grain.

The invention of the combined harvester (header-thresher machine) merged harvesting and threshing into one operation.[29] Pulled by horse or mule teams, these combined harvester machines had, by the 1890s, reduced grain harvesting and threshing crews from twenty or more laborers to as few as three or four.[30]

The mechanization of farming grain had a significant impact on not only California agricultural industry, as one of California’s leading historians recognized that “California agriculture thus provided a model for commercializing farming throughout the United States.”[31]

Land barons who had acquired large holdings via the California Land Act, reaped large profits from farming wheat, which required only three or four weeks of farm labor. The advancement in harvesting technology allowed for more grain to be harvested while employing fewer and fewer laborers. The harvest was often completed by hiring the owners of expensive threshers and combines to complete the work.

Samuel Hamilton can be counted among the many who took part in the mechanized farming of grain with his patented technological inventions that improved the harvesting capability of these machines. As an owner of a thresher machine, farmers often hired Hamilton to harvest a farmer’s wheat field. As well, Hamilton would lease his machine to farmers who then harvested the wheat themselves.

THE MONOPOLIZING OF LAND GRANTS

In 1876, the San Francisco Chronicle published the following indictment against California’s land monopolists:

There never has been a State on the continent in which the land laws were so well devised for monopoly and so directly against settlement and production... where it has been as difficult as here for men of small means to obtain a clear title, at a reasonable cost, to a homestead and farm; nor a State or country on the globe where monopolists and land sharks have found it as easy as in this State of ours to secure their thousands and tens of thousands of acres for little or nothing. [32]

By 1900, seven percent of the State’s farmland owners-controlled sixty-three percent of the agricultural land. As a result, California farming eventually became more of an agricultural industry than independent farmers way of life; with an agricultural business usually owned either by a corporation in Los Angeles or San Francisco, or by local privileged elites. [33]

 RICHARD EVAN RICHARDS

AND MARY HAMILTON

Richard Evan Richards (1820 - 1868) was born Llangollen, Wales in 1820. At seventeen, he emigrated to the New York. In 1849, he traveled around Cape Horn to California and mined gold for two years on the south fork of the American river. Like other prospectors who came for the California gold rush, Richards moved to the Santa Clara region, having recognized the valley’s rich lands held great potential for farming.[34]

In about 1851, RE Richards acquired a tract of land associated with the former Mexican land grant named Rancho de Santa Teresa. About ten miles south of the township of San Jose, the property located was near the community of Oak Grove. Over the course of the next decade, Richards farmed the land, growing grain and raising livestock.[35]

In San Jose, on September 23, 1855, by Reverend Eli Corwin married Richard Evan Richards to Mary Hamilton.[36] Upon her marriage to Richards, Mary Hamilton converted from Presbyterian to her husband’s faith of Methodism. The following account mentions her having to forgo any further dancing as part of her conversion. As a girl and young lady, she had greatly enjoyed dancing and was gifted in this respect. Many of her girlhood companions had her to thank for the grace and correctness with which they executed the steps and formations. Upon joining the Methodists she never danced again, giving her undivided allegiance to this Church.[37]

On July 7, 1856, Mary Richards gave birth to their son, John Evan Richards, in Oak Grove, California, a township a few miles south of San Jose near Rancho de Santa Teresa.[38] The township of Oak Grove was later renamed Eden Vale as early settlers recognized the land’s beauty and rich fertile soil were suggestive of the Garden of Eden.

The 1860 U. S. Federal Census recorded Richard and Mary Richards both thirty-eight years old, their son John Richards, four years old, living in San Jose, Santa Clara County, California where he was a farmer owning an estate worth three thousand dollars. The census also recorded two farm laborers, George Crane, twenty-five and Ams George, thirty, living at the residence. Recorded on July 7, 1860, the Richards family were the 1157 dwelling house visited by the census taker P. B. Tully and Samuel Hamilton’s family was the 1173 dwelling house visited by P. B. Tully. Where exactly these dwellings were located in San Jose County was not recorded.

Tully recorded in the 1860 U. S. Federal Census, that Richards’ neighbors were John and Margaret Tennant. To give an idea as to where the Tennent property stood, one can follow the history of the ownership of the land. The property of the Tennant’s was later sold to Everis Anson “Red” Hayes and Jay Orley “Black” Hayes who were responsible for the construction of the Hayes Mansion which stands on the property today. Other neighbors of Richards recorded on the Federal Census of 1860 were Thos and Mariah Harmsworth, teacher; John and Maggie Tennant, Farmer; Joseph O’Connor, Blacksmith; Henry Appleton, Farmer, and William Swall, Farmer.

During this period the farming of grain advanced through the California countryside, and with this advancement, the extension of the railroad followed. The Southern Pacific rail tracks from San Francisco reached San Jose in 1864, opening the Santa Clara Valley to grain farmers. Coincidentally, the tracts of land associated with the former Mexican land grant, Rancho de Santa Teresa that Samuel Hamilton and brother-in-law Richard Richards had acquired were among other properties in the planned path of the laying of railroad tracks.

As mentioned in a newspaper article that appeared in Daily Alta California in September 1868, each of their tracts of land,1,823 feet of Richard Richards property and 722 feet of Samuel Hamilton’s property, crossed the route selected to extend the railroad from San Jose to Gilroy.[39] In addition to Richards and Hamilton, the article mentioned several of their neighbors, Teresa Chaboya, Sixto Chaboya and J. J. Chaboya, David Umbarger, and John Tennent owning property that would be crossed by the railroad’s selected route. Quoting directly from this newspaper article

“The land through which the road runs is all held under Mexican grants, and all is patented save the Pueblo claim of the City of San Jose. The road runs through the following ranches, and claims: San Jose Pueblo claim. 5 3/4 miles; Santa Teresa rancho, 5 1/4 miles: Laguna Seca rancho. 8 miles; Ojo de Aqua rancho. 2 miles; Lan Llagas, 6 miles: Las Animas, 354 miles-total, 30 1/4 miles. Most of these ranchos, however, have been sold out in comparatively small tracts, and the following list shows the names of the owners of the several tracts crossed by the road, and the length of feet which the road run-on each tract…” [40]

Sam Hamilton was challenged several times in court regarding his rightful ownership of the Rancho Teresa property. Each case was tried in the District Court of Santa Clara. One case, William A. Senter, et. als. Plaintiffs vs. Blanda Castro De Bernal et als. had a long list of other defendants, among them appear the names Samuel Hamilton, Thomas Hamilton, and Richard Richards [41]

In 1863, the Richards family moved to Berryessa, a township located a few miles northeast of San Jose, where they had purchased additional land to farm. The property associated with Berryessa was another a Mexican land grant marred with conflicting claims and falsified documents.

On July 27, 1867, Richards registered to vote in Berryessa, Santa Clara, California, United States.[42] Less than one year later, Richard E. Richards, suffering from lung congestion, died on July 5, 1868. He was forty-eight years old.[43]

After his death, Mary Richards rented the Berryessa farm while she and her son traveled to Ireland. Penned in a biography written for John Evans Richards “In 1869, Mrs. Richards and her son went to Ireland, by way of the transcontinental railroad, on a visit to her childhood home. It took seven days to cross the continent by rail and an equal time was required for the ocean passage to Liverpool. She and her son remained in Ireland for about a year.”[44]

After her return from Ireland, Mary Richards remained on the farm several more years, while her son attended Berryessa public elementary school and San Jose High School.[45]

The 1870 U. S. Federal Census, for San Jose (2nd ward, Post Office - Alviso) recorded Mary Richards, age fifty-two, was keeping house and owned real estate valued at $20,000. A substantial sum when compared with others listed on the census. Her son Richard E. Richards, age fourteen, and Catherine “Kate” Ritchie, age fifteen, of Ireland were living at the home and both children were attending school. Catherine Ritchie may well have been a young relative of Mary Hamilton who’d traveled from Ireland. Catherine Ritchie (1859-1944) was possibly a close relative of Jane Ritchie (1828-1915), wife of William John Hamilton (1824-1879).

In 1873, with his mother serving as guardian of the estate, some of the property JE Richards inherited from his father was put up for sale. A list of the properties to be sold was outlined in a newspaper posting announcing the probate sale.

NOTICE OF SALE OF REAL ESTATE

Notice is heresy given, that in pursuance of the Probate Court of the County of Santa Clara, State of California, made on the 18th day of January 1873, in the Estate and Guardianship of John E. Richards, a minor, the undersigned Guardian of the person and the Estate of said minor, will sell at prove sale, for cash, and subject to confirmation by the Probate Court on the 12th day of September 1873, or within six months thereafter, all the rights, title and interest, of the said minor, of, in or to and undivided one-half of all those certain pieces, parcels or tracts of land, lying and being situate to the County of Santa Clara, State of California, and bound and described, as follows, to -wit:

Lots 6 and 7 in Block 9, in Lathrop’s Addition, to the city of San Jose. Also, Lots 4, 5 and 6 in Block 1, in Lathrop’s Addition, to the city of San Jose.

Also, Lot 1, in Block 1, in Lathrop’s Addition, to the city of San Jose.

Also Lots 29 and 30 in Haye’s subdivision of the north part of Block 1, Range 10, north of the Baseline.

Also Lots 41 and 42 in Haye’s subdivision on the south part of Block 1, Range 10, north of the Baseline.

Also in Cook & Branham’s survey 100 varas front on the south side of Julian street, by 100 varas deep, and being the east on half of the lots 107 and 108 and west half of lots 111 and 112 in Block 10.

Also, beginning at a post marked P at the south-east corner of lot No. 9 of the partition survey of the Rancho Santa Teresa, and running thence north 40 chs. to a post marked Q; thence east 14.96 chs. to a post marked R, at the corner of Lot No. 5 of said survey; thence south 40 chs. to a post marked S; thence west 14.96 chs. to the place of beginning, containing 59 and 40-100 acres of land, and beginning lot No. 10 of said partition survey on said Rancho Santa Teresa.

Bids or offers for the whole or any portion thereof will be received at any time after the publication of this notice, by the undersigned at her residence, corner of St. John and Ninth streets, in the city of San Jose.

MARY RICHARDS

Guardian of the person and Estate of John E. Richards, a minor.

August 26th, 1873-2w

 Recorded in Bishop's Directory of the City of San Jose for 1876, the residence of Mary Richards, and her son, John E. Richards, was located at East Third Avenue between Empire Street and Jackson Street. As the names of these streets remain in place to this day, one can the neighborhood where the mother and son once lived.

Unlike his father, JE Richards did not choose to farm as the way to earn a living and support a family. The wealth inherited from his father allowed John Evans Richards to attend college and receive a law degree.

JOHN EVAN RICHARDS

AND THE SAVING OF REDWOODS

 In 1877, John Richards received a Bachelor of Philosophy degree from the University of the Pacific. Joining him among the twenty-four graduates for that year was his first cousin Lizzie Hamilton.[46] The 1880 U. S. Federal Census recorded Lizzie Hamilton living at 392 Third Street, San Jose, California with her twenty-three-year-old cousin John E. Richards, now a lawyer, and her young brother William J. Hamilton, who was attending school.[47]  Richards next entered the School of Law at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, graduating in 1879 with a Bachelor of Laws degree.[48] The year of his graduation, his mother Mary Hamilton Richards passed away on November 29, 1879, at 62 years of age.

In November 1881, John E. Richards married Mary Wallace in San Jose, California. They would have two sons, John Percy Richards, and Donald W. Richards. The Richards family were members of the Trinity Episcopal Church of San Jose.

During his first years as a lawyer, besides tending to his law practice, Richards taught political science and history at the University of the Pacific and penned newspaper editorials for the San Jose Mercury News.[49] Richards became a frequent contributor of articles to the Mercury News for years to come.

Richards, for many years, was also a frequent visitor of Pacific Grove on the Monterey Peninsula. Richards, alma mater, the University of the Pacific, played a key role with establishing the annual Chautauqua Assembly held each summer in Pacific Grove. In the summer of 1890, JE Richards presented two lectures during the Chautauqua program on “Political Economy.” In July 1894, John E. Richards presented a talk at the Chautauqua program in Pacific Grove title “An Individual View,” by John E. Richards. A series of descriptions of various localities in the county, including "The Foothills,” ‘‘Along the Uvas,” and “From Han Jose to Gilroy.”[50] In 1904, the Honorable John E Richards of San Jose, presented a lecture during the Chautauqua program titled “Personal Recollections of Famous Orators.”[51]

In 1900, John E. Richards served as one of the primary individuals responsible for establishing California’s Big Basin State Park and protecting the threatened redwood trees in the Santa Cruz mountains. The campaign to save the redwoods started with an article written by Mrs. Josephine C. McCrackin that appeared in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, and a second article written by John E. Richards that was published in the San Jose Herald. Richards worked with politicians to pass a bipartisan bill on the State floor that established protection of the old growth forest. Richards was among the first vice-presidents who formed the Sempervirons Club which included John F. Coope, Louise Jones, Josephine McCrackin, Professor William Dudley, Lt. Gov. William T. Jeter, San Francisco Mayor James Phelan, John Muir, David Starr Jordan, M.H. De Young (publisher of the Chronicle), Dr. C.W. Hibbard (editor, Pastime), Benjamin Ide Wheeler (president of the University of California), J. Henry Senger, Rev. Robert Kenna (president of Santa Clara University), James McNaughton, State Sen. Chas. M. Shortridge, Paul P. Austin, Dr. A.M. Barker, A.C. Darby, John D. Spreckels, Henry J. Crocker, and H.J. Payne (president of the Calif. Game Protective Association).

Because of their efforts, Big Basin, California's oldest State Park was established in 1902, earning its designation as a California Historical Landmark. Over the years, its original 3,800 acres have been increased to over 18,000 acres.

BEYOND THE SAVING OF REDWOODS

Five years following the designation of Big Basin State Park, John E. Richards was appointed superior judge of Santa Clara County in 1907. Six years later, in 1913, Richards was appointed associate justice of the district court of appeal, first appellate district. He was elected to that office for the unexpired term in 1914 and re-elected in 1918 for the full term, which expired in January 1931. He was named associate justice of the supreme court on February 11, 1924. Judge Richards career was one of the most distinguished in the judicial history of the west. He was recognized through the years as one of the outstanding men, not only of Santa Clara County, but of the entire state.[52]

Richards often provided the oration at the Fourth of July Celebration for communities in Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties (Saratoga (1904). Monterey (1905), Watsonville (1915), Santa Cruz (1921)). In addition, John E. Richards provided the oration on Memorial Day in Salinas in 1920.

On July 14, 1910, John E. Richards was one of the principal speakers at the Chautauqua program in Pacific Grove, California.[53] One can only presume the lecture was attended by John and Olive Steinbeck, along with their children, as the couple owned a summer cottage in the Grove.

In October 1913, Governor Hiram Johnson appointed Richards to serve as a Judge of the First District Court of Appeals in San Francisco.[54] In 1914, as a candidate for re-election for the district court of appeals, Richards’ nomination petition in Monterey County-which required the gathering of signatures of support-was managed by John E. Steinbeck.[55]

On August 11, 1915, Mollie Hamilton Martin, at age 54, passed away after a prolonged illness at John and Olive Steinbeck’s house in Salinas. Mollie had spent the last several months of her life being cared for at the Steinbeck home. A newspaper article that appeared in the San Jose Mercury noted “She leaves two sisters, one Mrs. J.E. Steinbeck, whose home she passed the last months of her illness, and Mrs. Farrell of Los Angeles and three brothers, W. J. Hamilton of King City, G. W. Hamilton of Paso Robles and J. R Hamilton of Chicago.[56] Funeral services were held at the Steinbeck home in Salinas, under the direction of H. V. Mueller followed by burial at the Independent Order of Odd Fellows/Garden of Memories cemetery.[57] Attendees included Judge and Mrs. John Evan Richards.[58] At the time of her passing, John Steinbeck was thirteen years old.

 Ten years later, in February 1924, Governor Friend Richardson appointed Richards to the California Supreme Court, a position he held until his death in 1932.

Besides many articles on law and history, JE Richards wrote a one book revealing his poetic talent titled "Idylls of Monterey and Other Verses," (1906) and another book that leaned on his knowledge of judicial issues titled "The illegality of the trial of Jesus; The legality of the trial of Jesus,”(1915).

Donald Richards, his youngest son, also became a lawyer. Like his father, one of his passions was inspiring conservation of the redwood forests, achieved by his scripting of the theatrical performance “The soul of sequoia, a forest play.” [59]

ROBERT HAMILTON

Robert Hamilton, having arrived in California in 1853, fell ill, which apparently required him to go back East. During the early 1860s, Hamilton with his bride Rebecca Gregory Hamilton and daughter, Susie returned to California. During his absence, Sam Hamilton had settled on Rancho de Santa Teresa land grant near his sister, Mary Hamilton and her husband Richard Richards who’d had previously acquired property.

A decade later, their brother Robert Hamilton returned to California with his family, and established a small farm on property associated with the Rancho de Santa Teresa land grant.

In 1865, one finds the family was living in San Jose (Rancho de Santa Teresa) where Robert had acquired five acres of land near the Cemetery on Monterey Road and built a house.[60] He then ventured into farming livestock with the purchase of three hundred sheep, which grew to one thousand in less than four years.[61] In the 1860 California, sheep raising in California boomed, and by 1870 the State ranked second in the wool production.[62] Regrettably, the drought of 1874 devastated Robert’s sheep flock. Fortunately, Robert Hamilton had another trade, that of a painter which he relied upon for income. An article that appeared in the San Jose Mercury-News, not only identified Hamilton as a painter but one who commonly drove his horse and horse and carriage at great speed.

“Mr. Robert Hamilton, a painter, was thrown from his wagon a few days ago and barely escaped having his neck broken, He was driving at great speed, as was his usual custom, and in turning a street corner was thrown violently to the ground. This should be a warning to all fast drivers.” [63]

The U. S. Federal Census of 1880,  recorded Robert Hamilton, age 50, house painter, and wife, Rebecca (Ribeca G), age 62, housekeeper, now living in the city of San Jose on Martha Avenue near Fourth Street with their children Susie R. Hamilton, age 21, schoolteacher, and Robert G. Hamilton, age 15, clerk in grocery store. [64] The exact address-143 Martha Street-was referenced in a newspaper article that mentioned Robert Hamilton’s fall while painting his home. [65]

In 1916, a newspaper article referenced Robert Hamilton having received building permits for a four-room cottage located at the Northeast corner of Third and Martha Street.[66] The reader may remember Mary Hamilton Richards, and her son, John E. Richards, lived on Third Avenue between Empire and Jackson. Also, the 1880 U. S. Federal Census recorded Lizzie Hamilton living at 392 Third Avenue, San Jose, California.

Rebecca (Ribeca G) Hamilton died in 1885 at sixty-eight years old. Robert Hamilton lived another thirty-one years, passing away in June 1916, at eighty-seven years of age. In his obituary, Robert was recognized as a California pioneer who had an interesting career, which included two shipwrecks at sea.

Robert and Rebecca Hamilton were the parents of seven children, only two of whom were living when Robert passed in 1916. Susie R. Hamilton born 1859 in Iowa as the U. S. Federal Census recorded Robert, Rebecca and daughter Susie living in Davenport, Iowa in 1860.[67]

Susie R. Hamilton graduated from California State Normal School in San Jose, taught schools in Santa Clara County for two years. She married Dewitt Clinton Agler on October 11, 1882, and had three children, Alice, Edna and Rita B. Dewitt and Susie Agler eventually settled in Portland, Oregon.[68]

Robert G. Hamilton was born in 1864 or 1865 in California. The 1880 census recorded that Robert was working as a grocery store clerk. Twenty-four years later, in 1904, he was a manager of the Italian-Swiss Colony Company of San Francisco.[69] As the largest winegrower in the State, the Company had a 1300-acre vineyard near Madera, and a winery with a capacity to produce two million gallons of wine annually.

 BACK TO SAMUEL HAMILTON

As for Samuel Hamilton, he and his young family had settled near Edenvale in South San Jose, California, for the first twenty years. During Sam and Eliza’s time in San Jose, five children, possibly six, were born: Thomas Scott “Tom” (b. 1855-1912), Adelia “Dessie” (b. 1857-1907), Mary Louise “Mollie” (b. 1860-1916), Eunice B. “Euna” (b. 1862-1898), William John “Will” (b. 1864-1930), Olive Blanche “Ollie” (b. 1867-1934). As Hamilton’s voter registration of 1867 placing him in San Jose, California, suggests the family could have moved to Salinas anytime thereafter. Thus lies the possibility that George Washington Hamilton (b. 1869-1941) was born in either San Jose or Salinas. Both the 1870 and 1880 U. S. Federal Census recorded Samuel Hamilton and his family living ins Salinas, California.

Why Samuel Hamilton left San Jose for Salinas may never be known. Having lost his San Jose property to Milus Grey, he possibly looked for a new location to make a fresh start.

Hamilton arrived in 1870 but the Southern Pacific Railroad did not arrive until November 1872. What enticed Hamilton to move his wife and children to Salinas?  Richard Richards had passed in July 1868, and his estate filings were completed in 1873. Did Mary Hamilton gift or loan money to her brother, allowing Samuel to purchase the property at Main Street and Central Avenue in Salinas in 1875? Had Sam Hamilton acquired more than enough money during his years of farming the Rancho Santa Teresa property to purchase the Salinas property? How much property did Sam Hamilton own in Salinas? John Steinbeck, himself, in East of Eden, questioned what it was that drew his grandfather to Salinas.

I don’t know what directed his steps toward the Salinas Valley. It was an unlikely place for a man from a green country to come to, but he came about thirty years before the turnof the century and he brought with him his tiny Irish wife, a tight hard little woman humorless as a chicken.[70]

What we do know is that when Sam Hamilton moved to Salinas, he does not appear to have chosen farming to support his family. Though he may have been a tenant farmer, leasing property in the Salinas Valley. There is mention in the newspapers of his daughter, Euna and one of her brothers, as tenant farmers growing grain on the San Lorenzo Ranch outside of King City. Instead, Hamilton appears to have positioned himself in a township that was in the midst of being built, becoming a landowner and blacksmith.

In the 1800s, a local blacksmith was heralded as " the master of all trades" whose skills supported numerous other occupations. Blacksmiths were the toolmakers for the frontier community, foraging axes, axles, crowbars, hammers, plows, and numerous other implements. The blacksmith was called upon to forge most anything of metal, nails, pots, hinges, and hoops for wooden barrels.

The vocation was passed forward from master blacksmiths to young apprentices, who were often young boys when they entered the apprenticeship. But where did Samuel Hamilton learn the skills of a blacksmith? Both the 1870 and 1880 U. S. Federal Census recorded in Salinas, California, list Sam Hamilton’s profession as that of a blacksmith. According to Steinbeck, in East of Eden,

“He invented and built a threshing machine and moved through the bottom farms in harvest time, threshing the grain his own farm would not raise. And in his shop he sharpened plows and mended harrows and welded broken axles and shod horses. Men from all over the district brought him tools to mend and to improve.”[71]

Hamilton’s patent applications confirm that he held the skills of a talented blacksmith, but there has yet to be found a newspaper mention or advertisement for Hamilton as a blacksmith or proprietor of a blacksmith business. Conversely, there are several advertisements mentioning Hamilton and his threshing machine invention.

SALINAS, CALIFORNIA

In 1868, Salinas, the small-town Sam Hamilton was about to move his family to, consisted of just twelve buildings, including a dry goods and grocery store, a feed stable three saloons, and a hotel. Also in 1868, the first lots in the community were being subdivided and fences built to deter the roaming cattle, allowing for fields of barley and wheat to be grown.[72] Recorded in the U. S. Federal Census Record taken on August 4, 1870, Samuel Hamilton and his family were among the 599 residents living in Salinas City, California. The census recorded Hamilton as a blacksmith who owned a personal estate valued at three hundred dollars. The children listed were Tom, age 14, Dessie, age 13, Mary, age 11, Euna, age 9 and William, age 7, all who had attended school during that past year, Olive, age 5 and George, age 2.[73] Their first child Lizzie was not on the census, leaving one to question if she ever lived in Salinas with the family.

Recorded in the Salinas Deed Index Book (1015-1850) Year Range (1869-1874), on September 1, 1871, Grantee Sam Hamilton from Grantor Eugene Sherwood, $200 gold for a parcel of land within and adjoining Salinas City with twenty-five-foot frontage on the Main Street of Salinas, commencing SE corner of Jolley’s Lot across, including 130-foot depth and 25-foot rear together with tenements and appurtenances.

In 1872, Salinas became the County Seat for Monterey County. Next, in 1873, the town of Salinas was incorporated with Samuel Hamilton included among those signing the Salinas City charter (i. e. articles of incorporation).[74] Scholars have often stated that a year or two following his arrival to Salinas, Samuel Hamilton homesteaded a ranch near King City. To date, no primary reference has confirmed this statement. If fact, it appears to have been almost two decades later that the Hamilton family acquired the homestead property.

The following advertisement appeared in the San Jose weekly Mercury, Volume XXII, Number 42, 18 February 1875.

GREAT CREDIT SALE OF SALINAS CITY REAL ESTATE!

EMBRACING OVER 250 City Lots

WE WILL, ON

Monday, the 15th day of March,

COMMENCE THE SALE

AT PUBLIC AUCTION

Of the following described Town Lots:

Forty Choice Lots

IN STONE'S ADDITION,

These are mostly CORNER LOTS and located in the heart of the city. On this Addition is located the new Presbyterian Church, also the new School House, which Has cost over $10,000.

References to Hamilton owning property in the Stone Addition would appear in the Salinas newspaper in the years to come. [ described as lots 3,4,5,8,9,10 and 22 in Block eight of Stones Homestead Addition to Salinas City as per map thereof on file in the office of the County Recorder of Monterey County, which said lots stand in the name of David Jacks].[75]

In November 1875, Samuel Hamilton purchased a sizable piece of property at the northwest corner of Main Street and Central Avenue from the famous Scotsman of Monterey, David Jacks.[76]

 Documents provided by Carol Robles suggest Samuel Hamilton owned property from the corner of Main and Central to the corner of Lincoln and West Market, with the Hamilton family home on the west side of Main, at the corner of Central. [77] Also mentioned in an article that appeared in the township’s newspaper, the Salinas Weekly Index, in 1893, was the existence of a structure referred to as the “Hamilton building”, at the northwest corner of Main Street and Central Avenue.[78]

HAMILTON’S CORNER

During his time in Salinas, Sam Hamilton appears to have established a business and/or a place of residence, named Hamilton’s Corner at the intersection of Main Street and Central Avenue. Monterey County records note Hamilton owned seven lots in Salinas by 1875; two lots were on Main Street and one on Castroville Street, all three with improvements on the land. The value of Hamilton’s land and personal property (6 horses, wagons, furniture, improvements) was estimated to worth $7595.

In 1888, the city of Salinas purchased a portion of this property from Hamilton to widen the intersection to a uniform width of 75 feet. [79], [80]

During litigation of the property, Sam Hamilton was represented by two attorneys - T. Beeman, and his nephew, John E. Richards. An article related to the litigation appeared the Salinas Index on October 11, 1898, read:

“A NOW FAMOUS SUIT.” General J. H. Dickinson, the well-known San Francisco attorney, accompanied by Attorney J. E. Richards and W. J. Martin, also of San Francisco, arrived in our city yesterday afternoon on important legal business.

The two attorneys are here look into matters in the Jacks-Hamilton land case, which is set for trial for October 31st, and they represent the defendant, while W. J. Martin, a son-in law of Mr. Hamilton accompanies them to see certain matters in the same case. The Jacks-Hamilton case has been in litigation for the past nine years. It has come to trial several times, and is yet unsettled. The point at issue is for the possession by David Jacks of the corner property of Main Street and Central avenue, just opposite the Bergess & Garrissere liquor store. Attorney D. M. Delmas is the attorney for the plaintiff, and a great legal battle to be waged purely upon technicalities is expected when the case is tried the end of this month.”

Less than a year later the following mentioned appeared in the Salinas Index on May 9, 1899 “General John H. Dickinson was down from San Francisco yesterday at attorney for defendant in the Jacks Hamilton suit.” And another column over on the same page: “SETTLED OUT OF COURT. The case of Jacks vs Hamilton et als. to quiet title to land in Salinas City situated on the northwest corner of Central Avenue and Main streets, has been settled out of court, the parties having come to a mutual agreement in regard thereto.”[81]

In 1877, the youngest child of the Hamilton family, Joseph Reuben Hamilton was born (1877 - 1943). The U. S. Federal Census Record for township of Salinas, California, taken June 15, 1880 recorded Samuel Hamilton living on Main Street just a few doors from the corner of Central Avenue, again as a blacksmith, his wife Eliza as housekeeper, Dessie, 23 and Mollie, 19 dressmakers, Euna, 18 a schoolteacher, Olive 13, George, age 10, had attended school during the past year, and Joseph, age 3.[82] Their son William, age 17, was not among the family listed, as he was, according to the U. S. Federal Census record for San Jose, attending school while living with his eldest sister, Lizzie and his cousin, John E. Richards. [83]

Thomas Hamilton’s also did not appear listed amongst the family members on the 1880 U. S. Federal Census Record for township of Salinas, California. It appears that Tom returned to the Santa Clara Valley as suggested by The Handbook and Directory of Santa Clara County for 1875. Included within this directory was a listing for a Thomas Hamilton - a farmer on Monterey Road, 10 miles Southeast of San Jose.

In the 1880 census were listed the various neighbors living near Sam Hamilton’s residence on Main Street and their occupations: James A Webster, a Tin Smith; Oliver Grimuer, a Physician; Thomas Harris, Printer; John F Hay, Grocer, James H Harris, Grocer: Herman J Stone, Brick Mason; Adolph Keney, Engineer.  In 1882, Samuel Hamilton registered to vote in Salinas, California.[84]

SAMUEL HAMILTON, INVENTOR

John Steinbeck had several times commented that his grandfather was an accomplished inventor of farming devices. In fact, Sam Hamilton patented several devices associated with the machinery for harvesting grain. In September 1883, he was awarded a U. S. Patent for a header spring;[85] and a few months later, he received a U. S. Patent for a threshing machine and separator.[86] In February 1885, Samuel Hamilton received a U. S. Patent for a plowshare attachment [87] and in 1892, for a threshing cylinder.[88]

.                 On April 13, 1892, the Salinas Index began publishing the following advertisement that ran through the year.

Notice to Threshing Men

Parties wishing New Cylinders will do well to see Hamilton’s

Patent Threshing Cylinders

And Teeth, at

Lacey & Conner’s Machine Shop

Salinas City, Cal.

No nuts to get loose; teeth always tight.

Orders filled on short notice. al3-3m

(Joseph Y Conner, George E Lacey), machinists, Sausal

A short mention describing the usefulness of Hamilton’s newly patented threshing cylinder was published in the local newspaper, The Salinas Daily Journal - the following day.

A representative of the JOURNAL was shown yesterday one of Hamilton’s patent cylinders, manufactured at Conner & Lacey’s machine shops in this city. This patent will prove a boon to threshing men, as time and money will be saved, there being no nuts to get loose, or time required in tightening the teeth, which, acting upon the principle of centrifugal force, are always tight, and the greater the rate of motion in the cylinder, the tighter the teeth. The inventor, S. Hamilton, has hit upon a valuable contrivance, which needs only to be seen to commend itself to all well-informed machine men. Call at Conner & Lacey’s and inspect this new patent.[89]

In September 1883, Hamilton lost a grain separator and derrick valued at $1250, in a fire that began in a wheat field. The mention of his loss appeared in the San Francisco Examiner on September 6, 1883 - Fires: Serious Loss from Flames - suggests Hamilton had become a participant in California’s great grain rush on several levels.

“In Salinas, about two o’clock Wednesday afternoon, a spark from a smoke-stack of S. Hamilton’s thresher set fire to a stack of grain belonging to A. J. Abbott, about two miles from towns, and in a very short time consuming a separator, rig and stock. Loss to S. Hamilton; owner of the machine, $1,250. Loss to A. J. Abbott, grain, $250. [90]

A smokestack associated with a thresher (grain separator) suggests that Hamilton was operating a steam thresher

Sam Hamilton’s children appear to have been tenant farmers of wheat in the Salinas Valley, during which time he was an owner of thresher machines leased to the tenant farmers during harvest time.[91]

Hamilton’s patent inventions for farm equipment acknowledges his contribution to the technological advancement of farming devices associated with California’s agricultural industry during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. In the years between 1870 and 1900 California was characterized as an agricultural economy applying extensive application of technology to produce the most highly industrialized farming in America. [92]

   Steinbeck, in his book East of Eden, mentioned that the Hamilton family lived “comfortably but not prosperously,” a result of Samuel Hamilton spending much of his money patenting his inventions. The author also mentioned his grandfather’s threshing machine. 

“He invented and built a threshing machine and moved through the bottom farms in harvest time, threshing the grain his own farm would not raise. And in his shop he sharpened plows and mended harrows and welded broken axles and shod horses…” “Meanwhile Samuel got no richer. He developed a very bad patent habit, a disease many men suffer from. He invented a part of a threshing machine, better, cheaper, and more efficient than any in existence. The patent attorney ate up his little profit for the year.” [93]

 A newspaper article published in the San Francisco Call on March 3, 1893 suggests Hamilton had filed a lawsuit against the Benicia Agricultural Works in an attempt to protect his various patents.

Samuel Hamilton has brought suit in the United States Circuit Court against Baker & Hamilton, proprietors of the Benicia Agricultural Works. The plaintiff asks for damages in the sum of $50,000 for the infringement upon patents on a harvesting machine and an injunction to prohibit the further manufacture and sale of the machines.[94]

A newspaper article published in the San Francisco Call on October 5, 1893, finds Hamilton lost the lawsuit he had filed against the Benicia Agricultural Works. “A Disagreement. The jury of the United States Circuit Court disagreed, yesterday, in the patent ease of Samuel Hamilton of Monterey against- the Benicia Agricultural Works. An improved header spring used on grain headers was the invention in dispute.” [95]

In a letter to Mrs. Richard Rodgers, August 26, 1954, Steinbeck wrote: 
My grandfather Sam Hamilton was always inventing things and patenting them. Mother claimed he kept the family broke with fees to patent lawyers. When he got a good one it was stolen so fast it whistled. And then he kept us broke with an infringement suit which he lost through running out of money.[96]

On May 26,1893, The Salinas Index mentioned Steinbeck’s grandfather was visiting Salinas. “Samuel Hamilton, the well-known threshing machine man, is in town from the ranch near King City.”

In fact, within The Salinas Index one finds numerous mentions of Sam Hamilton visiting Salinas May 02, 1891; September 24, 1891; March 05, 1892; May 26, 1893; November 16, 1894; March 22, 1895; September 05, 1897; December 19, 1897. The Salinas Index also briefly mentioned that on December 25, 1898 the Hamilton’s gathered together for Christmas at the ranch in King City. [97]

HAMILTON’S CORNER

As previously mentioned, during his time in Salinas, Sam Hamilton appears to have established a business and/or a place of residence, named Hamilton’s Corner at the intersection of Main Street and Central Avenue. Monterey County records note Hamilton owned seven lots in Salinas by 1875; two lots were on Main Street and one on Castroville Street, all three with improvements on the land. The value of Sam’s land and personal property (6 horses, wagons, furniture, improvements) was estimated to worth $7595.

In 1888, the city of Salinas purchased a portion of this property from Hamilton to widen the intersection to a uniform width of 75 feet. [98], [99]

During litigation of the property, Sam Hamilton was represented by two attorneys - T. Beeman, and his nephew, John E. Richards. An article that appeared the Salinas Index on October 11, 1898, reads:

“A NOW FAMOUS SUIT.” General J. H. Dickinson, the well-known San Francisco attorney, accompanied by Attorney J. E. Richards and W. J. Martin, also of San Francisco, arrived in our city yesterday afternoon on important legal business.

The two attorneys are here look into matters in the Jacks-Hamilton land case, which is set for trial for October 31st, and they represent the defendant, while W. J. Martin, a son-in law of Mr. Hamilton accompanies them to see certain matters in the same case. The Jacks-Hamilton case has been in litigation for the past nine years. It has come to trial several times, and is yet unsettled. The point at issue is for the possession by David Jacks of the corner property of Main street and Central avenue, just opposite the Bergess & Garrissere liquor store. Attorney D. M. Delmas is the attorney for the plaintiff, and a great legal battle to be waged purely upon technicalities is expected when the case is tried the end of this month.”

Less than a year later the following mentioned appeared in the Salinas Index on May 9, 1899 

“General John H. Dickinson was down from San Francisco yesterday at attorney for defendant in the Jacks Hamilton suit.” And another column over on the same page: “SETTLED OUT OF COURT. The case of Jacks vs Hamilton et als. to quiet title to land in Salinas City situated on the northwest corner of Central Avenue and Main streets, has been settled out of court, the parties having come to a mutual agreement in regard thereto.”[100]

 Then two days later, an article in the Salinas Index May 11, 1899, David Jacks to Samuel Hamilton 29x125.5 ft on the nw corner of Main and Central Avenue; lot 4, blk 1, Stone’s addition; part lot 4 on south side of Castroville Street, Salinas: $5,000.[101]

Brian St. Pierre, author of John Steinbeck, the California Years wrote “In 1899 Samuel Hamilton sold to his daughter Olive, for ten dollars in gold, a block of buildings on Main Street in Salinas that had cost him nearly two thousand dollars some years before.”[102] The cost of the property for Sam Hamilton may in fact have been $5, 000 as noted in the Salinas Index. The Salinas Index published November 02, 1904, the following announcement: Deed – Samuel Hamilton et ux to Olive B. Steinbeck, Oct. 13, 1894. $10. Lot on northwest corner of Main street and Central Avenue, Salinas: Lot 4 of Block 1 in Stone’s Addition of Salinas; Lot 4 on south side of Castroville street in Salinas.  Several days later, on November 07, 1904, the Salinas Index published (Page 1) another announcement related to Hamilton’s land holdings. Mortgage Satisfaction-David Jacks to Samuel Hamilton et ux, Nov. 3, 1904-Part of Lot 4 on south side of Castroville street in Salinas, and Lot 45 feet front on Main street.

 It might come as a surprise to many who visit the National Steinbeck Center, that the physical location of the building stands steps from Hamilton’s Corner in Salinas, California.

THE HAMILTON RANCH

It wasn’t very long until all the land in the barren hills near King City and San Ardo was taken up, and ragged families were scattered through the hills, trying their best to scratch a living from the thin flinty soil. (John Steinbeck-East of Eden)… “When Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton came into the valley they didn’t have a pot to piss in. They had to take what was left—government land that nobody else wanted. (East of Eden) …

When the Hamilton family moved to the ranch eight miles southeast of King City is not exactly clear. The homestead records for Samuel Hamilton state he settled on the land on August 3, 1887, filed a land claim on August 25, 1887, approved for the homestead on July 27, 1891, and a homestead patent on October 22, 1891.

Within a document titled Homestead, Pre-emption and Communication Proof: Testimony of Witness, Samuel Hamilton described the buildings that existed on the ranch in October 1891. “We have a house 30x12 ft. with a kitchen 12x12 ft. worth $250. A summer kitchen 12x12 ft. worth $25, chicken house worth $50, a barn 30x40 ft. worth $300, fencing worth $75, an artesian well 360ft. deep cost $1000.”           

Beyond the homestead records other primary resources suggests that after some eighteen years in Salinas, several members of the Hamilton family lived on the ranch (ca. 1889).

These family members included Samuel and Eliza, their eldest Tom who remained on the ranch until his passing; in addition, there son’s - William and George - may have lived on the property until each of them married in 1896. Will and his bride, Adela Winckler, moved to Salinas for a time and George and his bride, Mary Frances Dempsey, moved to Paso Robles. The youngest son, Joseph, appears to have been living with Dessie while attending Salinas High School, 1892-1896. He then became a student at Stanford University for four years, from 1897 to 1901. As such, it appears unlikely that Joe Hamilton lived on the ranch.

Samuel and Eliza’s eldest daughter, Lizzie, the eldest child, who married Joseph P. Farrell on December 22, 1884, never lived on the ranch.

Their second daughter, Mary Hamilton, who married William J Martin in January 1886, likely visited, but never lived on the ranch. Steinbeck’s mention of her in East of Eden reads “Mollie was married and living, believe it or not, in an apartment in San Francisco. There was perfume, and a white bearskin rug in the bedroom in front of the fireplace, and Mollie smoked a gold-tipped cigarette—Violet Milo—with her coffee after dinner.”[103]

Their third daughter, Euna, who taught at Bernabe schoolhouse in King City and the San Lucas Schoolhouse, 1888-1889, may have spent time on the Hamilton ranch.  As Steinbeck mentioned in East of Eden “Una was married to a stranger and gone away.”[104] Euna married in July 1893 to McFarland Anderson of Northport Washington where she lived until her tragic death.

Their fourth daughter, Dessie remained in Salinas with the clothing business, rather than living on the ranch. Steinbeck’s reference to his aunt in East of Eden reads: Dessie had her dressmaking business in Salinas.[105]

In 1900, Dessie was living with John and Olive Steinbeck family at their residence on Castroville Street. She passed away on the Hamilton Ranch in 1907. The youngest daughter, Olive, may have lived for a short time on the ranch. Her final term as a teacher was during the school year, 1889-1890, when she taught at the King City schoolhouse. She married John Ernest Steinbeck in December 1890, and the couple lived in King City where Steinbeck worked for the Central Milling Co. for several years.

As stated in the newspaper article announcing Samuel and Eliza’s fiftieth wedding anniversary, published on October 29, 1899, “About ten years ago they selected King City as their home.”[106] The 1890 Directory for Monterey County - San Lucas listed Samuel Hamilton as a farmer, a recognizable change having been identified as a blacksmith during the previous twenty years.[107]

As for a location for an inventor of equipment that improved farm machinery, more specifically, combine grain thresher machines, the South Salinas Valley seemed an ideal location for Hamilton to put his invention to work.

The following mention that appeared in the Salinas Daily Journal, June 20, 1889, in the Salinas newspaper provide a glimpse as to the vast amount of grain grown in the Salinas Valley. Notes by the Way, Editors Journal – At King City heading is nearly through. The yield of barley will be enormous, but the early sown wheat will be a little shrunken. San Lucas and San Ardo have good crops. Everywhere, for miles and miles, headers can be seen at work. A great deal of hay is being baled in the vicinity of King City. At Bradley heading is in full blast, also in Hames Valley. At both places the wheat crops are very heavy.

A COLLECTION OF HOMESTEAD PROPERTIES

The Hamilton ranch was comprised of a collection of family homestead properties. Each of the children, Thomas S. Hamilton, Dessie Hamilton, Eunice Hamilton, William J. Hamilton, George W. Hamilton, daughter - in-law, Adelia H. Hamilton, and two son -in-laws, William J. Martin and John E. Steinbeck, acquired one hundred and sixty acres of homestead property, one next to the other. The resulting assembly of land resulted in a sixteen-hundred-acre ranch eight miles southeast of King City that had access to little water. Two children who did not apply for homestead property were Samuel and Liza Hamilton’s oldest daughter Lizzie and youngest son, Joseph, who was just ten years old when the homestead application was submitted.[108]

In East of Eden, Steinbeck describes the process by which Samuel Hamilton gained the ranch property near King City:

When Samuel and Liza came to the Salinas Valley all the level land was taken, the rich bottoms, the little fertile creases in the hills, the forests, but there was still marginal land to be homesteaded, and in the barren hills, to the east of what is now King City, Samuel Hamilton homesteaded.

He followed the usual practice. He took a quarter-section for himself and a quarter-section for his wife, and since she was pregnant, he took a quarter-section for the child. Over the years nine children were born, four boys and five girls, and with each birth another quarter-section was added to the ranch, and that makes eleven quarter-sections, or seventeen hundred and sixty acres.

 If the land had been any good the Hamiltons would have been rich people. But the acres were harsh and dry. There were no springs, and the crust of topsoil was so thin that the flinty bones stuck through. Even the sagebrush struggled to exist, and the oaks were dwarfed from lack of moisture. Even in reasonably good years there was so little feed that the cattle kept thin running about looking for enough to eat. From their barren hills the Hamiltons could look down to the west and see the richness of the bottom land and the greenness around the Salinas River.

 A DRY ARTESIAN WELL

In his book, East of Eden, John Steinbeck mentioned the issue his grandfather had trying to locate water on his property.

Although the hill ranch was large it was abysmally poor. Samuel sunk well after well and could not find water on his own land. That would have made the difference. Water would have made them comparatively rich. The one poor pipe of water pumped up from deep near the house was the only source; sometimes it got dangerously low, and twice it went dry. The cattle had to come from the far fringe of the ranch to drink and then go out again to feed.[109]

On June 8, 1890, an article appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle that described Sam Hamilton’s extended effort to secure water for the family’s homestead property near King City, California.

A remarkable well, in the canyon that comes into the valley between King City and San Lucas, is worthy of mention here. About three years ago Samuel Hamilton commenced digging and curbing a well on his plain and got it down to a depth of 200 feet. He then got some boring machinery and with sheet-iron pipe sank it at a depth of 175 feet more, when he struck a boulder that the tools he had would not crush. The remarkable performance of the well commenced at this point. It commenced blowing a gale-worse than a Washoe zephyr – out of the pipe and would blow off a dry goods box placed over the well to keep things from falling into it. Its spell of blowing were intermittent, some-what like a geyser, and when it was at rest it gave back a true and perfect echo. At one time when the box was lashed to the top of the well the pipe collapsed its flue, so to speak, down to the 200-foot level of solid ground, dirt not having been filled in about the pipe above that point. This well is not far from the asphaltum beds near King City. Although Mr. Hamilton has already spent $3000 on the well, he proposes to stay with it, and has engaged Mr. Alsop to see things through.[110],[111]

It may have been impressed upon John Steinbeck, at an early age, with family stories of the difficult plight of the homestead property in South Monterey County, that wealth from family farming was not always a prosperous venture. Carrying these stories with him into his adult years, Steinbeck presented the troubles Samuel Hamilton experienced on the ranch near King City in his book, East of Eden.

Samuel built his house with his own hands, and he built a barn and a blacksmith shop. He found quite soon that even if he had ten thousand acres of hill country he could not make a living on the bony soil without water. His clever hands built a well-boring rig, and he bored wells on the lands of luckier men. He invented and built a threshing machine and moved through the bottom farms in harvest time, threshing the grain his own farm would not raise. And in his shop he sharpened plows and mended harrows and welded broken axles and shod horses. Men from all over the district brought him tools to mend and to improve….

Although the hill ranch was large it was abysmally poor. Samuel sunk well after well and could not find water on his own land. That would have made the difference. Water would have made them comparatively rich. The one poor pipe of water pumped up from deep near the house was the only source; sometimes it got dangerously low, and twice it went dry. The cattle had to come from the far fringe of the ranch to drink and then go out again to feed.

Besides not acquiring water on his property via the deep artesian well, Samuel Hamilton and South Salinas Valley experienced a severe drought during the years 1897 and 1898. During this period, families living in South Monterey County were destitute, many having to sell their livestock for lack of feed.[112] In the fall 1898, families were so needy they pleaded for immediate aid from the State to stave off starvation.[113]

Published in the Weekly Sun, San Bernardino, December 23, 1898, was the following account of the drought impact on South Monterey County: 

The members of the California Press Association who were at the San Luis Obispo meeting last April can readily believe the reports of famine and destitution in Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties, in the Salinas valley and vicinity. Even at that time, the land was absolutely barren, not a spear of green being in sight. The mountains were as bare as any part of the Mojave desert in midsummer, and the parched ground showed every evidence of the four years drought to which that part of the State has been subjected.

The famine, for such it really is, is not widespread, and according to the best reports, perhaps not more that 200 or 300 people will need help. These are the small farmers who have had no crops for several years, whose livestock has long starved, or have been turned loose to forage for themselves, and who now have no money to purchase their food or clothing, who have no seed for next season, should the year be more favorable, and who are therefore in absolute want”[114]

Not until March 1899 did enough rainfall arrive to provide a slight relief from the horrendous drought.[115]

 A FIFTIETH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

Following the traces of Samuel Hamilton and his living in South Monterey County, one finds him registering to vote in King City, California on October 10, 1892.[116] In the Directory for Monterey County - King City for 1892, Sam Hamilton and his son’s Thomas and William J. Hamilton were listed as farmers, and George Hamilton, a clerk.[117]

The Salinas Daily Index, September 24, 1891, noted Sam Hamilton of King City had spent several days in Salinas as a guest of his daughter, Miss Dessie Hamilton. The newspaper also noted November 16, 1894, Hamilton, a rancher near King City, was visiting the county seat to look after his Salinas property.

On July 2, 1896, Samuel Hamilton registered to vote in San Lucas, California.[118]

The Salinas Daily Index, September 5, 1897, noted Sam Hamilton of King City was visiting his son, Will J. Hamilton, head of the grocery department of Vanderhurst and Sanborn Company’s Salinas store. He returned for a visit in December 1897. The Salinas Daily Index, December 28, 1897, noted the Will J. Hamilton, Miss Dessie Martin and Mrs. W. J. Hamilton had returned to Salinas having attended the family Christmas reunion at the home of their parent near King City.

The Salinas Daily Index, January 02, 1898, followed up with a mention that Mr. and Mrs. WJ Martin of San Francisco, Mr. and Mrs. JE Steinbeck and children of Paso Robles, Mr. and Mrs. George Hamilton and daughter of Paso Robles, Mr. and Mrs. WJ Hamilton of Salinas, Miss Dessie Hamilton of Salinas, Thomas J. Hamilton and Joseph Hamilton had a family reunion on Christmas Day at the home of their parents Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Hamilton near King City.

The Salinas Daily Index, April 1, 1899, listed on the Law and Motion Calendar: David Jacks vs Samuel Hamilton. The Salinas Daily Index, May 11, 1899, reported David Jacks sale to Samuel Hamilton 29 x 125.5 feet of the northwest corner of Main and Central Avenue lot 4, block 1, Stone’s addition: part lot 4 on south side of Castroville Street, Salinas for $5000.

In October 1899, the Hamilton family gathered at the home of John and Olive Steinbeck in Paso Robles, to celebrate the fiftieth wedding anniversary of Samuel and Eliza Hamilton. Present were the children and their husbands and wives. Mrs. JP Farrell of Los Angeles, Mr. and Mrs. WJ Martin of San Francisco. Mr. and Mr. and Mrs. WJ Hamilton of Salinas, Mr. and Mrs. GW Hamilton of Paso Robles, Mr. and Mrs. JE Steinbeck of Paso Robles, Miss Dessie Hamilton of Salinas, Thomas Hamilton of King City, and their youngest son Joseph R. Hamilton, who was attending Stanford University.[119].

A mention in the Salinas Index published August 29, 1903, suggests Hamilton sold several parcels he owned in Salinas City: Monterey County Records (Recorders Office.) Mortgage – Samuel Hamilton et al to R. J. Rogers, Aug. 28, 1903, $3500- S1/2 of Sec. 21; all of Sec. 22: W1/2 of SE1/4 of Sec. 23: W1/2 of E1/2 and E1/2 of W1/2 of Sec. 26, T 20 S, R 9 E, M. D. M.

On Monday, April 4, 1904, Hamilton died at his home on the ranch near King City. He was a seventy-four years old. Two days later, funeral services were held in Salinas, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. J. E. Steinbeck.[120]

In the fall of that year, the Salinas Daily Index, November 7, 1904, published the following notice: Mortgage Satisfaction- David Jacks to Samuel Hamilton et ux, Nov. 3 1904-Part of Lot 4 on south side of Castroville street in Salinas, and Lot 45 feet front on Main street.

His wife of 54 years, Eliza Hamilton, stayed on the ranch with her eldest son Tom after Samuel died. After Tom Hamilton’s death in 1912, Eliza bought a small Victorian house at 222 Central Avenue in Pacific Grove, where she lived for four years (1914-1918). On May 3, 1918, Eliza Hamilton passed away at her home in Pacific Grove. She was eighty-seven years old.

SAMUEL HAMILTON’S PRESBYTERIAN FAITH

Beyond Samuel Hamilton, his sister Mary, and brother Robert, were baptized in the Ballykelly Presbyterian Church. Mary Hamilton remained devoted to the Presbyterian faith, until her marriage to Richard Evan Richards, upon which time she converted to the Methodist church.[121]

According to Pauline Pearson in her book, Guide to Steinbeck Country, Samuel Hamilton and his family were members of the United Presbyterian Church of Salinas.[122] During the time the Hamilton family were members of the United Presbyterian, Reverend George McCormick served as the pastor of the Congregation. Reverend McCormick serves as an example of one of the many missionary pastors sent by the ministers of New England’s Protestant churches to the shores of California.

Born in Spring Run, Pennsylvania, McCormick received his education at Shade Gap and Tuscarora Academy in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania, before attending the Amherst College in Massachusetts. He then attended Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. Reverend McCormick was ordained a pastorate, in 1872, and assumed the ministry of the congregation at Salinas, California in 1873.[123] He served as pastor of the Salinas United Presbyterian Church for the next fifty-three years, retiring from the Congregation in 1926.[124]

Beyond the reference provided by Pauline Pearson, other evidence that suggests the Hamilton family were members of Salinas United Presbyterian church, such as the King City Rustler’s reporting of the funeral for Samuel and Eliza’s eldest son, Tom Hamilton, in 1912. As described in the obituary that appeared in the Rustler: “The services, simple in character, were conducted by Rev. George McCormick of the United Presbyterian Church.”[125] 

Besides Tom Hamilton’s obituary notice, the literary writing of John Steinbeck suggests the family were members of the Presbyterian faith, as exemplified by the character Liza Hamilton, in East of Eden, who was modeled after his maternal grandmother. Within the book, Liza Hamilton was described as a dainty Presbyterian woman with a strong sense of morality and a scorn for activities considered enjoyable.

            “She had a dour Presbyterian mind and a code of morals that pinned down and beat the brains out of nearly everything that was pleasant to do.”[126]

REFERENCES

[1] Steinbeck, John. East of Eden. The Viking Press. September 19, 1952.

[2] History of the Supreme Court Justices of California, 1850-1950: 1900-1950 J. Edward Johnson, State Bar of California. Committee on the History of Law in California Bender-Moss, 1966.

[3] Ancestry Daily News. April 15, 2003. http://www.hamiltongensociety.org/steinbeck.php

[4] John Steinbeck’s Derry roots. Published Monday 23 April 2012. Derry Journal

[5] Correspondence from J. R. Hamilton. December 1, 1924, Stanford University Archives

[6] Ulster Genealogy and Local History Blog http://www.ulstergenealogyandlocalhistoryblog.com/2017/08/steinbecks-ballykelly-roots-part-2.html

[7] J. R. Hamilton. December 1, 1924. Letter to Siblings in California. Stanford University. Special Collections.

[8] Steinbeck, John. East of Eden. The Viking Press. September 19, 1952.

[9] CastleGarden.org: An educational project of The Battery Conservancy.

[10] Benson, Jackson J. 1990. John Steinbeck, Writer: A Biography: New York: Penguin.

[11] Headline: Home Gatherings. The San Francisco Call. (San Francisco [Calif.]) Volume 86, Number 151. October 29, 1899.

[12] Judge John Evan Richards in Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County, California. Published by Historic Record Co. 1922. Page 313.

[13] Headline: Robert Hamilton Dies At His San Hose Home: Pioneer Who Had Interesting Career is Buried at Oak Hill Cemetery. San Jose Mercury News, published as San Jose Mercury Herald (San Jose, California) June 11, 1916. Page 13.

[14] Robert Hamilton. History of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Page 1372. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.

[15] Headline: Mrs. Hamilton Dies in Pacific Grove. The Salinas Daily Index. Thursday, May 9, 1918, Page 2. Date of Death: 05-08-1918.

[16] Judge John Evan Richards in Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County, California. Published by Historic Record Co. 1922. Page 313.

[17] Headline: Pioneer Who Had Interesting Career Is Buried at Oak Hill Cemetery. San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, California). June 11, 1916. Page 13.

[18] U. S. census for township of Salinas California, taken July 7, 1860. "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDKD-2HW : 30 December 2015), Saml Hamilton, 1860.

[19] On September 03, 1867 Samuel Hamilton registered as a voter in the township of San Jose, Santa Clara California. ("California Great Registers, 1866-1910," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VT6T-7QJ : 26 November 2014), Samuel Hamilton, 03 Sep 1867; citing Voter Registration, San Jose Township, Santa Clara, California, United States, county clerk offices, California; FHL microfilm 977,287.

[20] Ledger for unidentified business [ranch?]. Catalog Number (1997-216-1887)

Accession number (1997-216). History San Jose https://historysanjose.pastperfectonline.com/archive/56557C50-C7CF-49A8…

[21] Competing Visions: A History of California. Robert W. Cherny, Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo, & Richard Griswold del Castillo. Second Edition. Wadsworth Publishers. 2014.

[22] John Steinbeck. East of Eden. The Viking Press. September 19, 1952.

[23] Legal Advertisements related to the partitioning of Rancho Santa Teresa. San Jose Weekly Mercury. Volume XIV, Number 31, 6 December 1866.

[24] Valencia v. Bernal, 26 Cal. 328 (1864) Oct. 1864 · Supreme Court of California 26 Cal. 328

https://cite.case.law/cal/26/328/

[25] William Hood V Samuel Hamilton et al. Reports of Cases Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of California, Volume 33 California. Supreme Court Bancroft-Whitney, 1868

[26] M. H. Gay, Pen Pictures from the Garden of the World, Or Santa Clara County, California, Horace S. Foote Lewis Publishing Company, 1888 - Santa Clara County (Calif.).

[27] Martial Cottle Park Master Plan: Final Draft. https://parks.sccgov.org/sites/g/files/exjcpb961/files/MAR-ProgramDoc-0…

[28] The Gold Rush Origins of California's Wheat Economy James Gerber Am. Lat. Hist. Econ no.34 México jul./dic. 2010.

[29] Stages of California's Economic Growth, 1870-1970: An Interpretation. Gerald D. Nash California Historical Quarterly, Vol. 51, No. 4 (Winter, 1972), pp. 315-330.

[30] A Historical Context and Archeological Research Design for Agricultural Properties in California. prepared by the California Dept. of Transportation, Division of Environmental Analysis]. Sacramento, Calif. : California Dept. of Transportation, 2007.

[31] Pisani, Donald J. 1984. From the Family Farm to Agribusiness The Irrigation Crusade in California and the West, 1850–1931. Berkeley, University of California Press.

[32] San Francisco Chronicle. March 28, 1876.

[33] Starr, Kevin. 1985. Inventing the Dream: California through the Progressive Era. New York: Oxford University Press.

[34] Headline: SAN JOSE. John E. Richards, Supreme Court Judge, Succumbs. Santa Cruz

Evening News. Volume 50, Number 22, June 25, 1932.

[35] Ibid.

[36] Headline: Married. Sacramento Daily Union. Volume 10, Number 1414. October 6, 1855.

[37] History of the Supreme Court Justices of California, Volume II 1900-1950 J. Edward Johnson, State Bar of California. Committee on the History of Law in California. Bender-Moss, 1966

[38] Ibid.

[39] Headline: The Railroad From San Jose To Gilroy. Daily Alta California. Volume 20, Number 6749. September 7, 1868.

[40] Ibid.

[41] Legal Advertisements related to the partitioning of Rancho Santa Teresa. San Jose weekly Mercury. Volume XIV, Number 31. December 6, 1866.

[42] "California Great Registers, 1866-1910," database, FamilySearch. (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VT6T-SGP : 8 December 2017), Richard Richards, 27 Jul 1867; citing Voter Registration, Berryessa, Santa Clara, California, United States, county clerk offices, California; FHL microfilm 977,287.)

[43] Headline: John E. Richards, Supreme Court Judge, Succumbs SAN JOSE. Santa Cruz

Evening News. Volume 50, Number 22. June 25, 1932.

[44] Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County, California, published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. Page 313.

[45] History of the Supreme Court Justices of California, Volume II1 900-1950 J. Edward Johnson, State Bar of California. Committee on the History of Law in California. Bender-Moss, 1966.

[46] Hamilton, Lizette Carter (Mrs. Joseph P. Farrell)., Ph B. 1877, Los Angeles. Catalogue of the Alumni of the University of the Pacific. June 1898 University of the Pacific Brower & son, 1898. Page 7.

[47] U. S. census for San Jose, California in the County of Santa Clara, taken June 17, 1880. "United States Census, 1880," database with images FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6PJ-VQ5 : 14 July 2016), William J Hamilton in household of John E Richards, San Jose, Santa Clara, California, United States; citing enumeration district ED 243, sheet 46D, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 0081; FHL microfilm 1,254,081.

[48] Ibid.

[49] History of the Supreme Court Justices of California, Volume II1 900-1950 J. Edward Johnson, State Bar of California. Committee on the History of Law in California. Bender-Moss, 1966.

[50] San Jose Mercury-News. Volume XLVI, Number 28. July 28, 1894.

[51] San Jose Mercury-News. Volume LXVI, Number 43. August 19, 1904.

[52] Headline: Supreme Justice John E, Richards Died Early This Morning at San Jose Home. Santa Cruz Sentinel. Volume 85, Number 152. June 25, 1932.

[53] Headline: Manifest Enthusiasm at Monterey Chautauqua. Los Angeles Herald. Volume 37, Number 286. July 14, 1910.

[54] Judge John Evan Richards in Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County, California, published by Historic Record Co., 1922. Page 313.

[55] Headline: Judge Richards Is a Salinas Visitor. Salinas Daily Index. June 25, 1914.

[56] Headline: Mrs. W.J. Martin is buried at Salinas. San Jose Mercury Herald (San Jose, California). August 14, 1915. Page 5.

[57] Headline: The Passing of A Good Woman. Salinas Daily Index. August 12, 1915.

[58] Headline: Mrs. W. J. Martin Passes Away.  Sausalito News. Volume 31, Number 33. August 14, 1915.

[59] Richards, Don W., Cator, Thomas Vincent, Sempervirens Club of California. 1919 The soul of sequoia. Sempervirens Club of California. San Jose, California: Hillis-Murgotten Co.

[60] Headline: Robert Hamilton Dies At His San Jose Home. Pioneer Who Had Interesting Career Is Buried at Oak Hill Cemetery. San Jose Mercury Herald. (San Jose, California) June 11, 1916. Page 13.

[61] Robert Hamilton. History of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Page 1372. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.

[62] Robert W. Cherny, Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo, & Richard Griswold del Castillo (2017) Competing Visions: A History of California. New York. Cengage Learning.

[63] San Jose Mercury-News. Volume III, Number 106. July 12, 1873.

[64] U. S. census for township of San Jose California, taken June 5, 1880. "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6PJ-TXZ : 19 August 2017), Robert Hamilton, San Jose, Santa Clara, California, United States; citing enumeration district ED 246, sheet 92A, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 0081; FHL microfilm 1,254,081.

[65] Robert Hamilton Injured. The San Jose Evening News. March 10, 1916. Page 4.

[66] Northeast corner of third and Martha, 4-room cottage-15 Building Permits, Allowing Work to Extent of $10,422 Granted by Board; The Evening News (San Jose, California) • 01-22-1916 • Page 8.

[67] "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M82Y-ZVQ : 13 December 2017), Susan R Hamilton in entry for Robert Hamilton, 1860.

[68] "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M48F-GTN : accessed 14 May 2019), Susie R Agler in household of Dewitt C Agler, Portland, Multnomah, Oregon, United States; citing ED 111, sheet 4A, line 23, family 91, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), roll 1501; FHL microfilm 1,821,501.

[69] Robert Hamilton. History of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Page 1372. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.

[70] John Steinbeck. East of Eden. The Viking Press. September 19, 1952.

[71] John Steinbeck. East of Eden. The Viking Press. September 19, 1952.

[72] Leyde, Tom (2018) Headline: The first mayor of Salinas paved the way for the town we know today. The Californian. April 9, 2018. 

[73] U. S. census for township of Salinas California, taken August 4, 1870.

"United States Census, 1870," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MN6V-RFT : 17 October 2014), Samuel Hamilton, California, United States; citing p. 5, family 55, NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 545,573.

[74] Ibid.

[75] Baker, Florence Margaret (1987) Isaac Julian Harvey. California Pioneer. Monterey County Historical Society. Page 119.

[76] Monterey County (Salinas) Book I of Deeds. Page 291.

[77] Robles, Carol. (1999). John Steinbeck, the Salinas Writer, Hartnell College. March 6, 1999. Carol Robles & Associates.

[78] Salinas Weekly Index Thursday, 9 Mar 1893. M.J. Burke is fitting up the Hamilton building, corner of Main street and Central avenue, for a hardware store which he will open in a few days.

[79] Salinas Weekly Index. October 18, 1888. Salinas City vs. HAMILTON -- The condemnation suit of Salinas City vs. Samuel HAMILTON was tried in the Superior Court here yesterday before the following 9 jurymen: John Kaler, D. Coy, M. Schmechel, H.J. Tollett, Jud Parsons, Wm. Barlow, S. Horton, A.J. Adcock and A. Metcalf. N. A. Dorn was counsel for the city and the defendant was represented by T. Beeman and J. E. Richards. The land sought to be taken by the city is 14 feet frontage on Main Street and 130 feet deep on the north side of Central Avenue at its junction with Main Street and the same quantity of land on the south side of the Avenue, in order to make it a uniform width of 75 feet. After hearing the testimony and listening to the arguments of counsel the jury fixed the price to paid by the city as follows: South side of Avenue, $95 per foot fronting on Main Street, and $105 per foot on the north side, which, under all the circumstances, is considered a fair price. October 28th, 1888, Hamilton awarded $400.00 for the property and reimbursed $41.00.

[80] Newspaper published in: Salinas Thursday, 31 Mar 1892. Samuel Hamilton, a former resident of Salinas and owner of Hamilton’s corner at the intersection of Central Avenue with Main Street, but now a farmer living between King City and San Lucas, was in town greeting his old friends last week.

[81] Headline: A Now Famous Suit. Salinas Index. October 11, 1898.

[82] U. S. census for township of Salinas California, taken June 15, 1880. "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6P9-CJB: 14 July 2016), Samuel Hamilton, Castroville, Monterey, California, United States; citing enumeration district ED 53, sheet 185B, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 0069; FHL microfilm 1,254,069.

[83] United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6PJ-VQ5 : 14 July 2016), William J Hamilton in household of John E Richards, San Jose, Santa Clara, California, United States; citing enumeration district ED 243, sheet 46D, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 0081; FHL microfilm 1,254,081.

[84] In 1882, Samuel Hamilton was registered as a voter in Salinas, California. ("California Great Registers, 1866-1910," database, Family Search (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VTXN-2NY: 26 November 2014), Samuel Hamilton, 1882; citing Voter Registration, Salinas No 2, Monterey, California, United States, county clerk offices, California; FHL microfilm 1,434,237.).

[85] Pacific Rural Press, Volume 26, Number 11, 15 September 1883. List of U. S. Patents for Pacific Coast Inventors. 284,296. Header Spring- -Samuel Hamilton, Salinas,

[86] Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 18, Number 66, 7 November 1883. Patent to Pacific Slope lnventors. Washington, November 6th. — Patents were issued to-day to the following named Pacific Slope inventors. Samuel Hamilton, Salinas, thrashing machine.

[87] Pacific Rural Press. Volume 29, Number 8, 21 February 1885. List of U. S. Patents for Pacific Coast Inventors. 311,980. Plowshare Attachment — Samuel Hamilton, Salinas, Cal.

[88] Pacific Rural Press. Volume 29, Number 8, 21 February 1885. List of U. S. Patents for Pacific Coast Inventors. 311,980. Plowshare Attachment — Samuel Hamilton, Salinas, Cal.

[89] Salinas Daily Journal (Salinas, California) 13 Apr 1892, Wed Page 3.

[90] Headline: Fires: Serious Loss From Flames. San Francisco Examiner September 6, 1883

[91] Miss Euna Hamilton, Teacher in The Salinas Schools, And Her Brother Have Leased a Portion Of The San Lorenzo Ranch, Near Kings City, And Are Preparing To Put In A Crop. Hollister Free Lance. December 17, 1886.

[92] Nash, Gerald D. Stages of California's Economic Growth, 1870-1970: An Interpretation. California Historical Quarterly, Vol. 51, No. 4 (Winter, 1972), pp. 315-330.

[93] Steinbeck, John. East of Eden. The Viking Press. September 19, 1952.

[94] The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California) March 3, 1893. Friday. Page 9.

[95] San Francisco Call Volume 74, Number 127. October 5, 1893. Page 9.

[96] Steinbeck, John. 1954. Letter to Mrs. Richard Rodgers, August 26, 1954 In: Steinbeck: A Life in Letters by Elaine A. Steinbeck and Robert Wallsten, editors. 1975 Viking Press. New York.

[97] Headline: Family Reunion at Christmastide. The Californian (Salinas, California) January 2, 1898. Sunday. Page 3.

[98] Salinas Weekly Index. October 18, 1888. Salinas City vs. HAMILTON -- The condemnation suit of Salinas City vs. Samuel Hamilton was tried in the Superior Court here yesterday before the following 9 jurymen: John Kaler, D. Coy, M. Schmechel, H.J. Tollett, Jud Parsons, Wm. Barlow, S. Horton, A.J. Adcock and A. Metcalf. N. A. Dorn was counsel for the City and the defendant was represented by T. Beeman and J. E. Richards. The land sought to be taken by the City is 14 feet frontage on Main street and 130 feet deep on the north side of Central Avenue at its junction with Main street and the same quantity of land on the south side of the Avenue, in order to make it a uniform width of 75 feet. After hearing the testimony and listening to the arguments of counsel the jury fixed the price to paid by the City as follows: South side of Avenue, $95 per foot fronting on Main street, and $105 per foot on the north side, which, under all the circumstances, is considered a fair price. October 28th, 1888 Hamilton awarded $400.00 for the property and reimbursed $41.00.

[99] Newspaper published in: Salinas Thursday, March 31, 1892. Samuel Hamilton, a former resident of Salinas and owner of Hamilton’s corner at the intersection of Central Avenue with Main Street, but now a farmer living between King City and San Lucas, was in town greeting his old friends last week.

[100] Headline: A Now Famous Suit. Salinas Index. October 11, 1898.

[101] Salinas Index. May 11, 1899.

[102] St. Pierre, Brian 1983 John Steinbeck, the California Years. San Francisco : Chronicle Books.

[103] John Steinbeck. East of Eden. The Viking Press. September 19, 1952.

[104] John Steinbeck. East of Eden. The Viking Press. September 19, 1952.

[105] John Steinbeck. East of Eden. The Viking Press. September 19, 1952.

[106] Headline: Home Gatherings. The San Francisco Call. (San Francisco [Calif.]) Volume 86, Number 151. October 29, 1899.

[107] San Jose City Directory Including Santa Clara County ... F.M. Husted, 1890 - Monterey County (Calif.)…Hamilton, S. Farmer, Monterey County-San Lucas. He is the only Hamilton Listed.

[108] U.S. Department Of The Interior: Bureau of Land Management: General Land Office Records  https://glorecords.blm.gov/search/

[109] John Steinbeck. East of Eden. The Viking Press. September 19, 1952.

[110] Headline: Monterey County. San Francisco Chronicle. June 8, 1890, Page 8.

[111] The article mention of “Mr. Alsop” is a reference to Samuel Alsop, who in 1873, began a shallow well drilling business with the digging of shallow domestic wells to supply additional water to the residents of Salinas. Sam Alsop’s well-drilling business in Salinas was later taken over by his son Roy Alsop, followed by Roy Alsop Jr. The Roy Alsop Pump & Drilling Company remains in business today on Abbott Street in Salinas, owned and operated by Steve Allison.

[112] Headline: Destitution in Monterey. Santa Cruz Evening Sentinel. Volume 3, Number 61. August 11, 1898.

[113] Headline: Driven By Want. Urgent Cases of Destitution in Monterey Co. Temporarily Provided For. Santa Cruz Evening Sentinel. Volume 3, Number 85, 8 September 1898.

[114] Headline: In Want. San Bernadino Weekly Sun, Volume 15, Number 18, December 23, 1898.

[115] Headline: Weeping Skies End The Drought Period. San Francisco Call. (San Francisco [Calif.]) Volume 85, Number 105, March 15, 1899. Page 2.

[116] On October 10, 1892 Samuel Hamilton registered as a voter in the township of King City, California. ("California Great Registers, 1866-1910," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VT6S-WPN: 26 November 2014), Samuel Hamilton, 10 Oct 1892; citing Voter Registration, King City, Monterey, California, United States, county clerk offices, California; FHL microfilm 977,080.)

[117] San Jose City Directory Including Santa Clara County ... F.M. Husted, 1892 - Monterey County King City - (Calif.) Hamilton Samuel, farmer ; Hamilton Thomas, S. farmer ; Hamilton WJ, farmer; Hamilton, George, clerk.

[118] San Jose City Directory Including Santa Clara County ... F.M. Husted, 1892 - Monterey County King City - (Calif.) Hamilton Samuel, farmer ; Hamilton Thomas, S. farmer ; Hamilton WJ, farmer; Hamilton, George, clerk.

[119] Headline: Home Gatherings. San Francisco Call. [(San Francisco [Calif.]) Volume 86, Number 151. October 29, 1899.

[120] Headline: A Pioneer’s Death. Salinas Democrat Weekly. April 6, 1904.

[121] History of the Supreme Court Justices of California, 1850-1950: 1900-1950 J. Edward Johnson Bender-Moss, 1963.

[122] Pearson, Pauline. 1984. Guide To Steinbeck County. John Steinbeck Library, Salinas, Ca.

[123] Montague, W. L. (Editor), Crowell, E. P. & Biscoe, W. S. (Assistants). 1883. Biographical Record of the Alumni of Amherst College During the First Half Century 1821-18971. Amherst College. Amherst, Massachusetts.

[124] Headline: California Pastor Ends 53rd Year with Church. The Indiana Gazette. Indiana, Pennsylvania. August 29, 1926. Page 14.

[125] Healine: T. S. Hamilton Dead. The Rustler. King City, California. Thursday, August 22, 1912. Page 1.

[126] Steinbeck, John. East of Eden. The Viking Press. September 19, 1952.