Copyright has not been assigned to The Society of California Pioneers. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Society of California Pioneers as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must be obtained by the reader.
Description
Available also in the original handwritten form in the member's Biographical File, and online Copyright has not been assigned to The Society of California Pioneers. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Society of California Pioneers as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must be obtained by the reader Autobiography & Reminiscence of Robert Hamilton McIlroy, Tres Pinos, Calif., 1901. The Society of California Pioneers R.H. McIlroy was born in Harrison County, Ohio, September 22, 1820. In 1830 he settled with his parents in Pike County, Illinois. In 1842 McIlroy married his wife, Mary Ann Nelson. On April 1st, 1849, McIlroy left his wife and two children to cross the plains for California. When he returned in 1851 to retrieve his family, his son had already died. He traveled across the plains with an ox team and two other men. At the head of the Humboldt River their team gave out after neglecting to heed McIlroy's advice to lighten their load at Fort Hall. McIlroy left his partners and started for California on foot. He arrived at Johnson's Ranch, on Bear River, on August 12, 1849. The next morning he left for the mines in the company of two other foot travelers. They stopped on a Bar on the Yuba River just below Foster's Bar. After traveling through mines until Dec. 15th, McIlroy landed in Sacramento and went into the mercantile business. He started a store and a boarding house on Mormon Bar on the American River. In 1850 McIlroy suffered from Typhoid Fever. He was responsible for raising a company of State Militia, Company E, 1st Cavalry, which he presided as Captain. He also raised a Volunteer Company in Santa Clara County to recruit the 1st Volunteer Cavalry for the Civil War. In 1852, McIlroy moved to San Jose and engaged in farming and stock-raising until 1864. In 1864 he raised a company and went into the Army and served as Captain until 1866, when he went into the Sheriff's Office. He served in the Sheriff's Office of San Jose until1870. He also served as Deputy U.S. Marshall, Deputy Revenue Collector, Justice of the Peace, Notary Public, and Post Master Autobiographies and Reminiscences of California Pioneers, p.59-62, Vol. 2. This is a typed transcript, bound into a volume, of the member's autobiographical reminiscence created as an institutional record for the Society of California Pioneers. The original handwritten version exists in the member's Biographical File. This reminiscence includes a reference to a photograph of the member in a set of bound volumes, but there is no longer a photograph of this member in our collection. This reminiscence provides a description of McIlroy's overland journey to California and his activities upon arrival. It gives a brief account of the cholera epidemic in Sacramento in 1850. It also serves as a list of McIlroy's public service.
McIlroy, Robert Hamilton--1820-1904 Pioneers--California--Biography Frontier and pioneer life Gold mines and mining Overland journeys to the Pacific California--History--19th century
Time Period
California -- History -- 19th century
Place
Pioneers California Biography History 19th century. California, Northern.
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