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Note: The following article appeared in the San Francisco Call on 29 Mar 1899: "Woodland, March 25 [1899] - William Hatcher and his wife Sarah Frances Hatcher, have resided in California for forty-seven years. For nearly forty-six years their home has been a fertile and picturesque farm, two and a half miles north of Carbeville. This farm of 296 acres they purchased in 1858, and, in honor of their old home, named it "Missouri Ranch." The forty-sixth crop of wheat planted by them is now in a flourishing condition and harvest promises to be abundant.
On Monday, a notable event occurred at their residence. It was the golden anniversary of their wedding day and "Uncle Billy" and "Aunt Fannie," as they are familiarly called, were treated to a genuine surprise. Both are hale and hearty and are as active as many people twenty years their juniors. Both were about their usual avocations on Monday morning, "Aunt Fannie" looking after her household duties and "Uncle Billy" driving a team and drag in a nearby field, when neighbors began to arrive. It never dawned upon these good people that their neighbors and friends were assembling to do them honor and to celebrate a very important event in their lives. Both of them accepted the affections graciously and in all the happy throng that gathered in appreciation of that unforgettable ? there were none with lighter hearts than the ? and brethen who for fifty years have journeyed along the pathway of life together in beautiful harmony that has never known a cloud, confidence that has never been shaken, and that has never changed.
One hundred and sixty of the most intimate friends of the old settlers of the neighborhood were there. They brought handsome presents with them and well-filled lunch baskets. Table were arranged in the shade of stately oak trees and nearly the whole day was spent in feasting and speech-making and in the exchange of ? congratulations.
William Hatcher and Miss Sarah Frances Mullins were married in Linn County, Missouri on March 27, 1849. The groom was 23 and the bride 15. Their acquantance began as teacher and pupil. Three years thereafter they came to California. They spent one year in the mines and in 1853 as before stated, purchased the farm on which they have since lived. Seven children have been born to them. Of these, Columbus W., Mrs Hannah McLeod, George P., and Asa B. are living.
There are no two old people in Yolo County more widely known or highly esteemed than Mr. and Mrs. Hatcher, and the company that sat down to the dinner in honor of the fiftieth anniversay of their wedding was one of the most notable that ever assemble in the county"
This item appeared in a local newspaper in 1915:
"75 Years Ago, 1915
"Aunt Fannie" Hatcher has been taking in the Panama-Pacific Exposition and she is enthusiastic over her experience. Last Tuesday morning she accompanied Mr. and Mrs. J. D. McLeod to San Francisco. She is 82 years of age, but by riding in a wheel chair she managed to cover a great deal of ground and saw the most important exhibits"
This letter appeared in the Browning Leader-Record on March 6, 1919:
"Pioneer Days in Missouri"
We are in receipt of a letter from Mrs. S. F. Hatcher, of Woodland, Calif., in which she encloses sufficient funds for another year's subscription to The Leader-Record. Mrs. Hatcher has written an interesting brief sketch of a few happenings in the pioneer days when she first moved to Linn County with her parents, and we reproduce the article here:
"My parents with seven children, (I being the youngest, one year old), moved from Howard county, Missouri, to Linn county in 1834. Linn county was sparsely settled at that time, though there were quite a number of Indians living in the wooded part. I remember when I was a child my father used to hold court as he was a Squire or Justice of the peace. Everybody called him Squire Mullins. As we had no court house then, my father used to hold court in our home which was a large log house with one room. I remember distinctly how it was arranged inside. In one side of the room there was a bed in each corner with trundle beds underneath, and a bureau in the center between the beds. (This bureau is still in my brother's family as a relic of the past.) There was not another bureau in Linn county for many years after we moved there. On the other side of the room in the center was the fireplace where we did our cooking and in the corner we had shelves for our dishes and cooking utensils and dining table. In the other corner was another bed and in the center of the other two sides of the room were the doors. Father always held court at our house as we had a large room. Every man from fifteen to twenty miles around would attend court when it was called. I remember most of them stood up as there was not room for them all to sit down. In summer, mother had us children stay out of doors when court convened but in winter time she used to put us on the bed and we had to be quiet as we could while court was in session. In my mind, I can see my father as he stood behind a small stand with the Bible, and whenever a witness was sworn he would reach out the Bible and make him kiss it. I remember one time in particular when we were on the bed, of a man that was tried for stealing some hanks of colored yarn, that had been hung out to dry over night. The man that stole the yarn and the man that sued him, got to quarreling over the yarn, and began to fight. The men quickly separated them and took them out of the house. I do not remember what the verdict was. My father and my husband's uncle John Yount were the only two officers in Linn county at that time. I may tell you in the near future of the trip across the plains to California in 1852 of my husband and myself"
This birthday celebration article appeared in the local newspaper:
Woodland Daily Democrat (Woodland, CA)
October 25, 1921, Page 1 and 5
"Aunt Fannie" Hatcher Passes Four Score, Eight Mark; More Than 200 Attend Her Reception
Surrounded by children, grand-children and great-grand-children, together with some 200 guest from every part of Yolo county, "Aunt Fannie" Hatcher of Yolo, founder of Mary's Chapel and one of the most active temperance workers in the county, celebrated the 88th milestone in her eventful and faithful life at the Hatcher home in Yolo, where she is a pioneer, yesterday afternoon. C. W. Hatcher and George P. Hatcher, sons; and Mrs. J. D. McLeod, daughter, all residents of Yolo, were in attendance to assist in the birthday observance. Seven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren added to the pleasure of the occasion so far as the celebrant was concerned.
During the early hours of the afternoon the five members of the board of supervisors paid tribute to Mrs. Hatcher, by visiting her in a body. Supervisor W. O. Russell presented Mrs. Hatcher with a monster and handsome bouquet of flowers from the courthouse park, in appreciation of her earnest life and long service to family and community in which she lives. Subsequently a photograph was taken of Mrs. Hatcher holding the rare flowers presented to her by the county officialdom.
Mrs. Hatcher has had much to do with the upbuilding of Yolo county. She came here in 1852 with her husband, coming from Howard county, Missouri, where she was born in 1833. The trip was by ox-teams across the plains, with its usual hardships. Ever since that time in '52 when they landed in this county, the home has been near Yolo.
To make yesterday's affair suggestive of her long span of life and its many activities numerous relics of other days were on display for the guests. The old weaving machine, on which Mrs. Hatcher made most of the cloth going to clothe herself and family, was there, the old "squirrel" gun and the powder horn which came across the plains as a protection, candle moulds, the old family Bible, opened every morning and evening for family prayers, all these and many more served to carry the minds of all back to the primitive times that meant much to our forefathers.
Mrs. Hatcher is enjoying good health, and is mentally and physically active. She has the congratulations of all who know and love her for her simple, wonderful life"
In 1922, this article appeared in the local CA newspaper:
"Woodland Daily Democrat (Woodland, CA)
May 30, 1922, Page 7
Fannie Hatcher, Yoloan Since 1868, Describes Perilous Western Trip
(Written by Mrs. R. U. Waldraven.)
The golden sunset of life whose course began in Missouri in 1833, is being finished in quietness and peace in beautiful California. Cared for by loving ministrations of sons and daughters, the western slope is characterized by the same quiet but helpful benediction that is bestowed upon those who have 'kept the faith.'
This life from the first reads like a romance from a story book. The first chapter begain [sic] in her young girlhood in an old log fashioned school house in Linn county, Missouri. The teacher, William Hatcher, 21 years of age, was a specialist in all grades, though specialists and grades were then an unknown quantity. The pupils' ages varied from four to 25 years; the curriculum was the three R's; the teacher's most promising and satisfying pupil was Sarah Frances Mullins; the deportment was 100, her conduct irresistible, and at the close of the term, March 27, 1849, the young teacher married the little curly haired Frances, at the mature age of 16 years, and they lived happily ever afterwards.
The call of the Golden West, the lure of gold, the wander-lust of adventure, called to thousands in those days, and William Hatcher and his young wife heard the call. Books were few; the Bible and dictionary, Mr. Hatcher studied regularly. Such few books on the West as he could secure, stories of trappers and hunters, companionship with members of the Boone family were a constant delight, and in the spring of 1852 with his wife and 17-months-old son, he began the long overland task across the plains, via the Santa Fe trail. Mr. Hatcher paid his way by driving five yoke of oxen and Mrs. Hatcher helped by doing her share of the cooking for the emigrants.
In the caravan were ten wagons which were joined by others later on. The daily dangers, cares and privations of most caravans were theirs. Ministering to the sick, pointing the dying to that "better country," and burying those that died were labors of every day. Such hardships as attacks by Indians and wolves, thirst cholera, mountain fever, smallpox, and having their stock die of starvation or thirst, they experienced for five long months. Let "Aunt Fannie," as she is familiarly called, tell the story hersef [sic].
'By the time we reached Labonte stream, the cholera and smallpox broke out among the emigrants. In our train Grandma Pockman took the cholera and in the evening her son brought in some deer meat which her husband partook of and that night he took the cholera and died the next evening in great pain. After his burial his grown up daughter, Harriet, took the cholera and died within a few days. Grandma Pockman recovered and she, with her sons, and daughters, continued the journey with us to California.
'I remember yet with a breaking heart, the father and ten children, the youngest an infant in an elder sister's arms, weeping for the wife and mother they had just buried in a shallow grave by the trail and, with breaking hearts as they went on, turning back to look at the lonely grave they were leaving forever. New graves made by the preceding caravan were passed hourly; sometimes eight or ten a day were buried. Guards were stationed every night for protection from the Indians, and to prevent animals from tearing open the new graves. Very often we found graves torn open by hungry wolves and coyotes.'
'Once we passed an old tent by the wayside, and someone stopped to investigate. They saw inside three dead bodies of men that had died of the plague. We did not stop there long. When Mr. Hatcher took his turn guarding, I had to sleep alone in the wagon with my baby. We never knew whether either of us would be alive when daylight came. What with the pestilence and Indians, too, it kept us stirred up. They couldn't fire guns at night at the wolves, or the camp would think they were being attacked by Indians.
We passed through one section where there wasn't a stick for fires, and buffalo chips were our only fuel for over 700 miles. After crossing the desert, one of our oxen gave out and would not go any farther. One of the men from California who came to meet the emigrants so as to buy the worn out oxen, offered us $5 for our ox that could not travel any farther, so we let him have the ox for that amount and we traveled on with the rest of the train. The man that bought our ox rested and fed him up. In three days he passed us with the ox, among others, on his way to California, where they were worth about $100 each. We paid $175 for a cow shortly after we arrived from the man we drove for, using her most of the way in the team, and was offered $200, but we would not sell her. We sold milk from her for a good price. When an ox would give out in our team, we would yoke up some young heifers or steers to the wagon, and they would look back and bawl for their mothers.'
'As we neared California, men came to meet us selling vegetables, and we were glad to get them. A fifty pound sack of flour tied to each end of a pole and carried across a Chinaman's shoulders 40 miles sold for $35. At Jackson for a while it was a dollar a pound, the roads being so bad in winter they could not use a team. We paid $7 for a small piece of bacon; onions were a dollar each. One dollar's worth of potatoes made enough for one meal for our little family.
When we got to California we noticed how soft and sweet the voices of the people were, while the voices of the emigrants were coarse and harsh from yelling at the oxen so much. We spent the first winter at Ione Valley and raised a garden and got a good price for all we raised. In the fall of 1853 we moved to Yolo county, two miles north of Yolo. We bought 160 acres of land for $750 and named it the Missouri ranch. There were only 15 women, 32 children and 1000 men in Yolo county when we came here, and I am the only woman among the women who is living now.
Mr. and Mrs. Hatcher lived together the pure, simple life of those who love and fear God, with the Bible as their guide. Here, except the eldest child, their seven children were born and raises. Four children preceded them to the better land. Uncle Billie Hatcher died July 24, 1913, and was buried in the quiet church yard of Mary's Chapel Cemetery, near their home. Aunt Fannie is in her 89th year, and she celebrated her 88th birthday October 24, 1921. Many of her friends came to call on her. She and her husband celebrated their golden wedding anniversary March 27, 1899, when over 200 neighbors ate dinner together under the trees in the yard. Here ten years later they celebrated their 60th anniversary in a more quiet way with their children, grandchildren and relatives. Uncle Billie and Aunt Fannie have done much to help build up this great country. Their home has been an abiding place for the ministers of gospel. They began to serve the Lord in their youth and have done all they could [to] promote His cause'"
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