First Outdoor Christmas Tree

Research

This last week I have been looking into my Grandpa’s family line.  I have been trying to find more out on the Marshall and Morales family lines.  While looking up these lines I have been able to reconnect with distant cousins as well. 

This is really exciting  for me because I could never find anything more on the Morales family.  Now I know how many children there were and why I could never find anything on Dorothea’s parents.  Dorothea was an orphan. 

So it that it then on Dorothea?  Do I just stop looking for her parents now?  I don’t know. 

Early Memories of Angles Camp and Sournding Areas

Early Memories of R.L Hartford

The Way it was in Calaveras Co. around 1900

In 1845, when I was 2 years old, my father George Hartford, born 1661, my mother Kate (nee Brown) later Kate Chalmers, born 1889, my sister Nellie, born 1891 and I, born in 1893, left Tulare, California by horse and wagon for Calaveras Co. My earliest memory is before this trip started. A group was out at might cutting a bee tree for the honey. My mother tried to give me a taste, but I wouldn't take it. Then she smeared some on my lips and I found how good it was

Of the trip to Calaveras Co. I remember only two things. We were camped by a river (one could camp anywhere in those days) and it started to rain. My father hurriedly put the harness under the wagon. When my sister saw her first hill she said, "What's that big thing?"

The first place we stayed in Calaveras Co. was called Fourth Crossing. I don't recall if there was actually a town there My clearest memory was of a little girl crying because she had been scolded about something. How sorry I felt for her. You see, I've always been sympathetic toward the ladies.

The next place I remember was called the Harwood House. It was somewhere near Angels Camp - I dont know just where. My memories of this place was being allowed to shoot a musket my father owned, seeing young birds, probably swallows, coming out from their nests under the eaves of the house, a boat made from the rind of half a watermelon there was a small creek near the house This must have been 1898, for I had a Bryan hat. [William Jennings Bryan – presidential candidate].

My first cute saying -- we were getting ready to go into town by horse and wagon, there was no other mode of transportation except horse stages on the main roads all roads were unpaved, crooked, steep and dirty or muddy. To give me something to do while my father was shaving, he told me to go out and see what the horse was doing. It was already harnessed and hitched to the wagon. I came back and said, "He's just a wo inq," 'wo" being the word to command a horse to stop

I don't know what my father did for a living probably wood cutting. He never did any serious mining for himself maybe a little prospect hole" digging for someone else. My mother did not want him to work in the deep mines in Angels Camp as the work was quite dangerous. Angels camp was the big town of the county with several deep mines, the Utica, Liqhtner, Tickles, Gold Hill or Gold Cliff, and probably some smaller ones. The abandoned machinery of some can still be seen at their sites. From the mines, big containers on overhead cables run to a place called "The Chlorination Works, where the gold was extracted from the ores. Elevators, called skips took the men and ore to and from the working face of the mine. A great deal of timber was used to support the side tunnels.

Our next place of residence was called Rose house. It was about 1/2 mile off the road from Angels to Vallecito at Six Mile Creek, about 2 1/2 miles from Angels and 1 1/2 from Vallecito. It was a very poor 1-room-house I guess the best we could afford. We had a few chickens, and when new ones were hatched, my sister and I gave them all names. “Rum fast" is the only one I remember. We carried our water 100 yards from 6 mile creek. There is no trace of the house there now, even the road is moved to the other side of the creek. For butter and milk we walked over the hill to Birnev s farm, a family nice place. I saw a hog butchered there one day. His pitious screams seemed to indicate he knew he was going to his doom.

Sometimes we didn't have a horse and walked into Angels Camp to do our shopping and carry it home in gunny sacks. Once near Christmas I could see that there was a drum in the sack my father was carrying. I guess that was the only present I got.

Nearby was a very steep hill. We had a short ladder, maybe 8’ with the ends sawed off so they were somewhat like sled runners. We used that as a sled to ride down that hill and when the grass was dry we must have reached some fantastic speeds. So it seemed to us. I guess this was our biggest thrill. When we had a horse - or 2 - very poor animals, I am sure, we went riding over the hills with just an old blanket for a saddle. We never owned one. Indians.

One year my father got the use of a small piece of land farther up the creek and put in quite a large vegetable garden. He dammed up a small side stream for irrigation water. It was a big day when we cut the dam and let the water out. I guess it didn't pay off for he did not repeat it.

In the time my sister went to school in Vallecito and the following year I went. Of course we had :learned our numbers and letters before we went to school, which was 1 room and one teacher for the 8 grades.

There was only one high school in the county, at San Andreas, 25 miles away. That was a whole days trip. After the auto came in and roads were improved somewhat, the kids from San Andreas would come up to Vallecito which had a good natural swimming pool for a swim after school. What a difference!

Education then was considered a privilege - if you didn't behave yourself you were kicked out of school and everyone in the district knew it - a family disgrace. I don’t remember any disciplinary problems. We walked to school every day with neighbor children -- when it rained we carried a big black umbrella. Over half the kids in school had Italian names - yet I don't remember having heard any Italian accent among their parents they must have been the sons of immigrants who came there during the gold rush.

Vallecito then had 2 stores, an hotel, butcher shop hall, church, post office. Today only the post office and 1 store and twice as many houses. They go to Angels, 4 miles away to shop. The farming was on what we call marqinal land rocky, thin soil. Yet they raised good crops and had a ready market in the "big town" of Angels Camp. With the coming of the auto trucks they could not compete with rich valley farms and most farms have become cattle range. More houses but less cultivation of the land.

One break in our life was the visits of Uncle Asher Blair actually my father’s uncle. He could barely read and write. He was always promising to bring us a present, which turned out to be a frankfurter on a stick or some such thing. He always had an old decrepit horse and wagon. My father called him a tramp on wheels. He sported an “imperial" beard and played the violin a little. He used to qather mustard greens, dry them and put them into sacks. Then if he could raise a piece of bacon somehow he was all ready for his dinner.

In spite of our poverty we were not illiterate. We always carried quite a few books with us -- several volumes of Dickens, Twain, Arabian Nights, etc. The Bible. My mother was very religious (Church of Christ). My father went along for the singing. He was an agnostic. Later an ardent Socialist - Gene Debs variety - of course.

I guess my father was a pioneer, born a generation too late. He was always looking for a piece of government land to "take up,” but the good land was all gone. He had a lot of land maps.

He finally found a place - 160 acres right near the Rose house on which a man had a mining claim. There was absolutely no mining going on. My father filed a homestead on the property. This lead to some hostility and threats between the two, but no actual violence. My father built a 1 room house with fireplace there again carrying water from a spring ("Sierra Ry."?). But my mother’s health was poor and they thought the climate was malarial, so he sold his claim to the man who had the mining claim for $160 in 1903 and we moved to the coast. My mother died in Campbell in 1905.

INDIANS

Sometimes we visited the Indian "Reservation" which was just a half dozen shacks on a piece of land the Indians were allowed to use. They still followed their, old customs at times -- 1 have seen them cooking their food in baskets by means of heated rocks although they had metal pots I also saw an Indian burial on a hill near their reservation Several beautiful baskets and other personal belonging were cut up and thrown into the grave.

William Robert Proctor Jr. Interview

My brother, Kris interviewed my grandpa for school and then wrote a biography of his interview. The information below is from the interview and then from the biography.

1-Q. Where and when were you born? A. Aug 20, 1910 Angles Camp. Ca
2-Q.Family members names? A. Mother Gertrude [THIS IS INCORRECT: Charlotte] Father Willliam Robert Brothers Marshall Sisters Gertrude (Gert) & Veta (Babe)
3-Q. Where else did you live? How long? A. Stockton, Valley Home, Melones, Jamestown, Peacefully Valley (longest)
4-Q. What schools and what grades at those schools? A. 1st thru 8th Grad at Curtis Creek Elem. Sonora Union High School 3 years
5-Q. What jobs? How long? What did you do for those jobs? A. US Forsst Service1930-

W. Robert Proctor was born in Angels Camp on August 2O, 191O. His father was William Robert, his mother was Gertrude. He had one brother and two sisters. They lived in Stockton, Melones, Valley Home, Jamestown, and Peaceful Valley. He went to many schools, the main ones were Curtis Creek and Sonora High. During school he had to quit for three years because his father was sick and died. He got married On Dec. 2 1946 to Eleanor Dragone. They had a son, Robert Ronald on Nov. 3 1948.
He worked for U.S. forest Service from 193O to 1934. He then worked for Draper Mine irom 1935 to 1936. He then went to work for Pickering Lumber Corp. in 1937.
While working for Pickering, he was a railroad fireman for the logging camp at Skull Creek, above Beardsley. He lived in a house at Skull Creek with my grandma and my dad for a while. They then moved down to Peaceful Valley for a short time. My grandfather then, was an Engineer on a logging train run from Standard to Beardsley Flat then to Schoettgen Pass and back. He did that for a long time but during that time they moved to Sonora. In 1965, the railroad was shut down and he then worked in the machine shop for a while, and then he worked in the box factory until he retired in 1975, the year I was born.
He enjoyed hunting, picnicing, gardening, camping and scouts as a family. They also vacationed in Tahoe and the Redwoods, Now that he is retired he enjoys just about the same things plus cooking, reading and sleeping in his chair. He has as my grandma says, " a grandson to keep him busy and a granddaughter to keep him sweet."
I wrote this about my grandfather, because I want to be in charge of something like an airplane or a train, and we both love the outdoors. I am his grandson Kristopher Robert Proctor. I live in Sonora also. I see him as often as possible.

My Journeys Thus Far

I have been looking for my family for eight years now and trying to get closer and closer to finding something. When all that I ever find is a road to another dead end. But thus far in this journey I am loving the travelings this far. The dead ends just make me want to keep going and keep looking.