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Note: "WILLIAM COON. --- A pioneer of Butte County, the late William Coon was born in Ohio, September 30, 1819. He migrated to Illinois, where for many years he was engaged in farming in Coles County. His wife was also named Coon, her Christian name being Elizabeth; she was born in Maryland, July 21, 1819.
"In 1860, William Coon brought his wife and five children across the plains, starting April 3, with ox and horse teams and coming via St. Joe, thence up the Platte, on across the mountains via the Honey Lake Route, to Butte County. He located on a preemption two miles west of Durham, where he built a residence and made improvements and became a successful farmer and an influential man. His wife died in 1892, aged seventy-three years, leaving him five children: Louisa, who was Mrs. Lowrey, died in Sacramento; Allen, deceased; Mrs. Frances Duffield, who resides in Corning; Mary Jane, who is Mrs. Richardson; and Emmett, who resides on the home place at Durham.
"Mr. Coon was interested in the cause of education, and with his neighbors, built the White Schoolhouse, where the children of the neighborhood attended and received their instruction in the early days. He was enterprising and progressive, and was elected Supervisor of Butte County, being reelected and serving two terms. He also served as road overseer and as deputy tax collector. He died, December 25, 1898, almost eighty years of age. His wife had always been a devoted member of the Christian Church, while he was a Universalist. Fraternally, he was a member of the Odd Fellows." See sources, p. 840.
From Ross County, Ohio to Coles County, Illinois:
In 1841, at the age of 22, William and his wife Elizabeth (Coon) Coon moved from Ross County, Ohio, traveling overland to Coles County, IL, along with a number of relatives: his father Michael; his nephew Riley Coon and his immediate family; William and Mary Ann (Coon) Kiser; William Snider; William Gray; as well as more distant relatives: Michael Coon, Adam Coon, and Matthias Beckom.
The Coon Ranch was located three miles northeast of Charleston, Coles, IL.
On April 29, 1845, William and brother Isaac Coon bought jointly from John W. Trower and wife Jane, for $100, the NW1/4 NE1/4 of Section 16, T 12N, R9E in Coles County, IL, 40 acres in Charleston Twp., southwest of the county seat and adjoining the east boundary of their father's homestead. On March 24, 1850, William and wife Elizabeth, Isaac and wife Susan, for $100 sold the south half of this property to Joseph Rosebrough; on the same date William bought from Samuel Rosebrough for $100 the SW1/4 NE1/4 Section 28, T 13N, R 9E, 40 acres in Seven Hickory Twp., near other land owned by his father. Two years later after his first trip to California William bought from Samuel Rosebrough for $300 an additional 40 acres in this township, the SE1/4 NE1/4 Section 28 T 13N R 9E. These two purchases from Rosebrough were included in the deed of April 11, 186, whereby William and Elizabeth and Isaac (whose wife Susan had died en route to California) conveyed to Henry Seitz all their remaining real estate in Coles County. (Coles County, IL Deeds 3:107; M:256; 254; 6:427, 428)
Prospecting for gold in California:
William Coon first went to California in 1850 at the age of 31. For fifteen months he was engaged in mining in El Dorado Co. and during that time saved $1000 which he took with him on his return to Illinois. He crossed the plains both ways and lacked one month of being absent two years. (Northern California History and Biography, 1891, Lewis Publishing Co.)
McTeer, p. 224, states that William made two round trips to California before bring his family West. Mary Jane Richardson, his daughter, stated that "he first came around Cape Horn by boat but went back to Illinois by ox team. My grandfather, Jesse Coon (William's grandson] remembered William as traveling via the Isthmus of Panama. No matter how he came and went, travel by water, at some time certainly is plausible.
At the time of the 1850 census William Coon was somewhere among the gold seekers, but his wife and children were in Coles Co., living in Salisbury Precinct (Hutton Twp.) in the home of her father Michael Coon: Elizabeth Coon age 32 born in Maryland with three children born in Illinois, Louisa age 9, Allen age 6, and Frances age one year. A letter written to his wife Elizabeth in Coles County, IL, dated October 12, 1851, from Placerville, El Dorado County, CA:
Mrs. Elizabeth Coon. Dear and affectionate wife, It is with pleasure that I take this opportunity to inform you and earnestly hope that those few lines may find you enjoying the same blessings. I received a letter that informed me of the dreaded disease Cholera being in Charleston and has taking of a number of people, and among them my Sister [Harriett Snider, d. Aug. 1, 1851] which filled me with sorrow. I hope that it did not continue there long. I hear from other letters that the cholera still continues there. I am afraid to get a letter from you for fear of hearing bad news of Cholera. I am afraid I shall not get another letter from you on account that I wrote to you that I would start home in this month. I cannot get started home before the first of December on account that we can not sell to a good advantage. We have a fair prospect of selling after the rainy season commences. Do not think that I have forgotten you nor think the time long before I arrive home. Allen and Louisa I have not forgotten you. Be good children and I will bring you a peace [of] gold. Here is the view of Sacramento for you."
Another letter written to his brother Isaac Coon, who had already returned to Coles County, perhaps because of their father's death in Coles County, tells of the mines:
"Mr. Isaac Coon. Dear Sir: -- I will give a few lines to inform you about the mines. We are still at the same old place. We are mining in the Johnston Canyon; we took out 164 dollars this week. One slug weighed 22 dollars. We have made in the last six weeks 600.64 dollars. We have a large claim yet. We have made twelve hundred dollars sens Wm. A. Doyle started home. Tell the boys they had better of staid and worked out their claim. The men they sold to has been taking out about eighteen hundred dollars sens they started home. The canyon is about worked out. There is a great excitement at Hangtown at this time about mining. Sens you went home thair has been good kiota digings got about Hangtown and Weaver. Thair are comany forming ruging runnels in the mountains. They have started once on Weaver and have struck it on both sides, pays $1.50 to the bucket Thair is another runing from the head of Ceder to the head of Spanish that pays well. All the flat between Wever creek and Dimond Springs are now being thoud up and ploud and scraped to up. It pays from the top down. Thair will be more gould maid this winter if it sets in to rain erly that was ever maid. I must finish my letter. I do not expect to write any more if I start home the first of Dec. Yours truly, William Coon"
ON TO CALIFORNIA
In 1860 William brought his wife and five children across the plains. "The travelers left Charleston, IL, in the early afternoon of April 3, 1860, and 'drove eighteen miles to a relative, Henry Coon (who lived in North Okaw Rwp, Coles County); that was our first night away from home.' (Personal Reminiscences of Frances F. Duffield as told to her granddaughter Lottie M. Bogart.)
The Coon entourage had five wagons with twenty-seven people. It was agreed that each family would drive two wagons on the trip. William Coon's wagons carried his wife Elizabeth and five children: Louisa, Allen (going on seventeen), Frances, Jane, and Emmett. Isaac Coon's wagons carried his wife Susan McCord Coon (pregnant, she dies along the way), and their children, America, Marilda, Caroline, Perry, Martha, Albert, and Robert; Susan's sister, Sarah Freeland and her son, Tom Freeland; Isaac's nephew, John Snider, aged 15. The fifth "Coon" wagon belonged to Malon Gray, his wife Harriett Weaver Gray, their three daughters, Lizzie, Maggie, and Susie; his brother George Gray, aged 21, and their sister Almira Gray Hatfield.
"A memorandum made by Stephen G. Lewis names others who came across the Plains in 1860 in the same train as the Coons, but this list, based on hearsay and later recollections, cannot be regarded as wholly authentic or complete; it is not clear how many of these people were from Illinois or were previously known to each other or to the Coons:
KELLOGG, William?, wife & 3 children (one daughter later married Tom
Freeland)
RILEY, Jimmie - born 1844 Ireland
RILEY, Robert - born 1833 Ireland
COLTERY (COLTRY), Tom
WARREN, Mrs. Warren and 2 children
PRICE, Mr. and Mrs. and 3 children
GAUNTON, Pyke
LAUGHMAN (LAUGHLEN), Albert
LAUGHLEN (LOFTON), Si and 2 daughters
WELCH, P. R.
FERGERSON, Ervin
DUNN, Frank (a stone cutter)
MAMELBY, Mary ?
DUNBAR, Mr.
ROSEBROUGH, the late Mr.
VANLANSHAM?, father, mother & 3 children
ERVING, Mrs.
WELCH, P. R.
Frances Duffield continues with her reminiscences: "We traveled along and came to St. Joe (Missouri), crossed the river (Missouri), fell into company with other people, and joined up with other wagons and parties, one being Si Lofton (Laughlen?). That was his fourth trip across the Plains, we made him captain because of his experience. Everyone liked him. He knew the best roads and the best ways.
"We got along nicely, fording the Platte River in Nebraska where it was a mile wide. We picked up and added to our train. Now there were twenty-five wagons. Each family had from three to four men. The young men wanting to come to California worked their way across taking care of horses, oxen and wagons. We had no trouble with the Indians; we were threatened a little, but nothing came of it.....April, May and June were long gone. The Coons had spent July plodding wearily along the Humboldt cheered only by the knowledge that they could turn off soon on the Applegate-Lassen Route and Nobles Trail to Northern California. But first there would be a stop at Great Meadows (now Rye Patch Reservoir) to rest both men and animals -- and women. Susan Coon was near her term, and approaching exhaustion.-------On August 8th the Coles County contingent turned west from the River toward Antelope Spring (now Willow Spring). While they camped the night at the foot of Majuba Mountain near Little Antelope Spring, Susan went into labor and a little son was born ---her eighth child (one little boy was buried back in Illinois while his father was in California in '57!). This time Susan could not rally her strength; in spite of all efforts of friends and family she slipped away on the 11th, two days after the birth.
"But life and migration must go on. Two days later, on August 13th, Susan was buried near the spring, her grave marked by a slab of local sandstone chiseled by fellow-traveler Frank Dunn to read, "Susan wife of Isac Coon, Died Aug 9th, 1860 aged 40 years, Coles Co. Ills." Mrs. Warren, another mother in the party, was able to take the baby and provide for him until they reached California and could buy a cow."
"Stephen Lewis' account concludes the story: 'After the funeral the train started on for California, crossing over the mountains by way of Rabbit Hole, Gerlach and Deep Hole, followed Smoke Creek to Honey Lake Valley and then into Susanville; Prattville was the next stop, then the Stokes place, Soda Springs, and then a place about ten or twelve miles from Oroville where they stayed about two weeks. [They] then moved to Butte Creek near Durham and stayed there about a month; Isaac Coon, William Coon and Malon Gray went out in a spring wagon and drove all over the country, through Sacramento and as far as Santa Rosa. On their return they said this area [Dayton-Durham] was the best they had seen. Isaac bought the McConnell place, a squatter's right; William Coon took up land in the Durham District; and Malon Gray took up the old Turner place adjoining the William Coon property.' " The Coons and all finally arrived in Butte County, CA on September 15, 1860, 165 days after leaving Coles County, IL.
William Coon located on a preemption two miles west of Durham, where he built a residence, made improvements, became a successful farmer and influential man. Much of the land between Durham on the east and Dayton on the west, where William settled, was the former Samuel J. Hensley Grant (Aquas de Vieves) which was rejected by the government in 1861 and returned to public lands for settlement.
William served the county as supervisor for two terms, road overseer, school trustee, and deputy tax collector. William and Elizabeth arrived in the Dayton area ten years prior to the railroad, which would be responsible for the growth of Durham and the decline of Dayton. They lived equal distance between the two towns. "He and his neighbors built the schoolhouse where the children of the neighborhood attended and received their instruction in the early days. This early schoolhouse seems to have been known as "The White School." Its exact location is not now known, except that the minutes of the Board of Supervisors for May, 1871, of which William Coon was a supervisor at this time, refers to a road across Butte Creek to the White Schoolhouse near the lands of Peter Jones. This would place the school somewhere between Durham-Chico Road [today the Midway] and Fimple Road. The biography of Emmons White, Jr. states the first winter he was in California, he taught near Durham and from the windows could be heard the driving of spikes for the California and Oregon Railroad. [Butte County Historical Society Diggin's, Fall Edition, Vol. 15, No. 3, 1971, p. 12] and (History of Butte County 1918 by George C. Mansfield, p. 840)
COMMUNITY SERVICE: 1870 through 1872: William Coon sat as a county supervisor covering one of three districts. He served along with Thomas Byrne, J. N. Turner the first two years, and with George B. Rogers and Thomas Byrne the third year.
LAND TRANSACTIONS AFTER ARRIVING IN CALIFORNIA: -------- On 11 April 1861 Isaac with William Coon and wife Elizabeth, all of Butte County, CA, sold to Henry Seitz of Coles County, for $3000, the following lands in Coles County: S1/2 of NE1/4, NE1/4 of SE1/4, and N1/2 of SE1/4 of SE1/4, all three in Sec. 28 T13 R9; S1/2 of NE1/4 of NW1/4, 20 acres in Sec. 16 T12 R 9 (William's half of his father's homestead); in E1/2 of N1/2 of the NW1/4, 10 acres also in Sec. 16 T12 R 9. (Ibid., 6:428) This deed, acknowledged in Butte County, CA on the date it was drawn, represents the final transfer of Michael Coon's real property in Coles County.
On 19 February 1879 William and Elizabeth of Butte County, CA executed a quitclaim to Jonathan Stites in order to clear title on the following land in Coles County, IL: the N1/2 NE1/4 and NW1/4 NW1/4 NE1/4, 30 acres more or less, in Section 16 T12N R 9E. These two parcels owned jointly by William and brother Isaac had been conveyed on February 7, 1859 and January 3, 1859 to Francis M. Webb by Isaac and Susan acting alone, probably because William was not then in Illinois.
On 13 May 1896 William Coon of Durham, Butte County, CA then aged 76 years, wrote in the autograph album of Allen C. Jobe, his great-grandson: "I had four brothers and two sisters, names Samuel, Jacob, George, Isaac, Margaret, Harriet." (Copy in handwriting of Lizzie (Duffield) Jobe now in the possession of Neta Belle Pyle of Chico, CA.) This statement agrees in general with the Ohio census records previously quoted and so is assumed to be correct, but since no records pertaining to Michael's sons Samuel and Jacob Coon have been found in either Ross County, Ohio, or Coles County, IL, the reasonable conclusion is that they died before reaching maturity; certainly they did not outlive their father, nor did they leave heirs to benefit from his estate.
BUREAU OF LAND RECORDS, BUTTE COUNTY, CA: On April 1, 1871, a land patent was issued to William Coon for 160 acres, four separate parcels described as follows (1) SESW Section 26, Township 21-N, Range 1E; (2) Lot 22 SWSW Section 26, Township 21-N, Range 1-E; (3) Lot 23 SWSW Section 26, Township 21-N, Range 1-E; (4) N1/2NW Section 35, Township 21N, Range 1-E.
Excerpt from "Family History" by Grace Jamerson Coon - 1976: "Jesse's grandfather, William Coon, came out to California in 1860. As they crossed over the mountains in California they ran out of food. Grandpa Coon went out over the hill where Coon Creek is today and shot a deer. He decided that when they opened up timber claims that he would homestead the 160 acres which he found. This was done in Marysville, CA on 17 Feb. 1871. In 1892, they built a family cabin, which still stands today 2019 and remains in the ownership of his descendants.
After crossing the mountains they came down into what is now Durham, Butte, CA and homesteaded 160 acres. Dad, Emmett Coon, was one year old. Of the 160 acres he kept 80, gave 40 acres to Jane Richardson and the other 40 acres to his brother Allen. When they first settled they raised cattle and planted grain. In 1916 they planted an almond orchard."
Weekly Butte Record, Saturday, May 1, 1880, pg 2 col 6:
"Dayton Democratic Club. The Dayton Township Democratic Club
"The Dayton Township Democratic Club met on Wednesday evening, April 28th, and was called to order by R. R. Fimple.
"On motion, R. R. Fimple was elected temporary Chairman and James Boydstun temporary Secretary.
"William Coon, John Ball and James O. March were appointed to draft by-laws and regulations.
"On motion, R. R. Fimple and John Ball were placed in nomination for Vice-Presidents, and on ballot were elected.
"James Boydstun was elected permanent Secretary.
"James Fritter and R. W. Boydstun were placed in nomination for Treasurer. Fritter receiving the largest number of votes, was declared elected.
"Boyd Ball was elected by acclamation as Sergeant-at-Arms.
"James O. March, John Turley, Henry White, John Ball and T. V. Fimple were elected by acclamation as Executive Committee.
"The following resolution was unanimously adopted:
"Resolved. That the members of the County Central Committee of Butte county from this township use all honorable means to induce the said Committees to hold Primaries and County Conventions in the manner and according to the old and time-honored usage of the Democratic party.
"After the election of officers of the club every member was called on to express his views of the political situation, and every officer of the club was openly invited to do so, which request was fully complied with by the officers elect, and it was evidently from the enthusiasm manifested that the November election will prove Dayton to be the banner precinct of the county, one thing is certain, their first meeting was simply immense, the large hall not affording sufficient seating room for those present. Several visiting Democrats were present from other precincts and were called upon to express their views, all of which accepted the invitation, and the meeting exhibited great enthusiasm, and adjourned with three cheers for the success of the party in November."
1870 census Oroville Post Office, Butte, CA: Wm Coon, aged 50, birthplace OH, real estate valued at $4,000, personal property $1,500; wife Elizabeth aged 50, birthplace MD; Mary J. aged 16, and Emet M. aged 12.
1880 census Dayton, Butte, CA: William aged 60; wife Elizabeth aged 60, and Emmett aged 22, birthplace IL.
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