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From Genealogy of the Wolfskill Family, http://bellavistaranch.net/genealogy/wolfskill.html: "John Reid Wolfskill was born Sept. 11, 1804 in Madison Co., Kentucky, and followed his brother William west in 1838, first to New Mexico and later to California. William, who had Mexican citizenship, helped John in 1842 obtain from the Mexican government a grant of land on Putah Creek, near the pioneer settlement Winters in Yolo County. John's common-law wife Carmalita (Carmel) Lucero Tapia (1812-1851), who had been born in 1812 in Santa Fe, New Mexico and whom John never married, came with him. They had one son together at Putah Creek, Edward Wolkskill (1850-1939), who was known as Ned. Carmalita died at the ranch in 1851, not long after Ned's birth, afterwhich John married his second wife Susan Cooper on Jan. 10, 1860 in Colusa, Calif. Susan, who had been born March 25, 1827, gave John several children, and many of their descendants today are connected with the town of Winters. John died May 28, 1897 in Winters, and Susan died there Jan. 15, 1906. Both are buried in the Winters Cemetery with several of their children. Edward "Ned" Wolfskill\ul \ulnone , the only child of John Reid Wolfskill and Carmalita Tapia, was born Oct. 08, 1850 at Putah Creek in Yolo County; and married Annie Bollinger (1850-1891) of Missouri on March 25, 1871 in neighboring Solano County. Ned, along with other family members, wrote several letters with infomation about the family that Ned, late in his life, donated to the University of California at Davis, in association with a donation of land to the University by his half-sister Frances. Ned's daughter Aldanita Susan Wolfskill (1884-1958) was a reasonably well-known opera singer for a few years in San Francisco. Ned died on July 21, 1939 in San Francisco, and is buried with his wife Annie in the Winters Cemetery."\par
Per WintersExpress.com: "John Reid Wolfskill, the areas earliest American settler, 1842, states: "Remember, Youth, as you pass by, As you are now so once was I; As I am now so you must be, Prepare for death and eternity." These cheerless words, etched in stone, are the legend left by John Reid Wolfskill, the pioneer of Solano County. He was the first English speaking man to settle in the area around what is now Winters. There, he worked, prospered, raised a large family, and died. Born in 1804, John Reid Wolfskill was one of five brothers, all of whom eventually left their birthplace in Madison County, Kentucky to come west. John Wolfskill arrived in Los Angeles in Feb. 1838. He worked for his brother for two years, then he took the advice of a friend, Juan Jose Warner, and headed north to seek a place of his own. He first stopped at Sonoma to ask General Mariano Vallejos permission to scout the area for a suitable place to settle. The General allowed him to look over the territory, but made it clear that under no circumstances would the land be granted. Again on the advice of Warner, John Wolfskill scouted the area around what is today Winters. It was there, along the banks of Putah Creek that Wolfskill saw what he considered to be the best land for settlement. The area was slightly higher than the surrounding valley floor and the constant source of water provided by the creek a crucial factor to any agricultural was plentiful. Wolfskill relied on the presence of wild oats as an indication of soil fertility and water distribution. Mark West, a friend of Wolfskills living in Sonoma, asked Vallejo to reconsider the possibility of a grant. He refused. In 1841, Jacob P. Leese, the son-in-law of the general also intervened on Wolfskills behalf. If was finally agreed that a grant of four square Mexican leagues, over 17,750 acres, would be approved by Vallejo, clearing the way for a grant by the Mexican governor of California. On May 24, 1842, the grant was made by Governor Juan Bautista de Alvarado to William Wolfskill, a naturalized Mexican citizen. In that same year John Wolfskill headed out from Los Angeles with a herd of cattle, oxen, and a few horses for the property that he was later to describe as "...four leagues of the finest land in the world." Once on the property, named Rancho de Los Putos, John Wolfskill put his livestock out to graze and constructed a small shack out of mud and reeds. This served as his home for the first few years. Along with grazing cattle, Wolfskill also planted and tended fruit trees, barley, corn, beans, and vines. For the first three years water was hauled by bucket from the creek. Most of these projects were carried out by Wolfskill with the help of a few Indians who still inhabited the area. (A small pox epidemic had decimated the native population in 1837-39). Various American and Mexican adventurers who happened through the region also helped him occasionally. Until 1849, the property was in William Wolfskills name. In that year, one half of the property was transferred into Johns name. His portion was the section on the south side of the creek, in what is now Solano County. Legal problems arose with the land grant when California became part of the United States, but in 1854, upon the petition of William Wolfskill, the grant was confirmed by the Board of Commissioners appointed to settle private land claims in the State of California. During the more than 50 years that John R. Wolfskill lived in the Winters area, his concentration on different types of crops and products shifted. In the days before the gold rush of 1849, his main emphasis was on fruits, vegetables and livestock. When the gold rush started he was among the first purveyors of fresh fruit. By the time the mania for gold had subsided, enough of the original gold seekers and others had settled permanently in greater bay and valley areas to provide a good, steady market for Wolfskills produce. His ranch continued to meet the demand for fruits and vegetables in the Sacramento and San Francisco markets for the next four decades. Although there is no data on profits the estimated value of his holdings grew phenomenally. According to the U.S. Agricultural Census Schedule for 1850, Wolfskills total assets were valued at $5,000. By 1870, the estimate was $190,000. For transportation, Wolfskill had the insight to goods to Sacramento. Later, he hauled his produce to Suisun City and there put it on boats for San Francisco. With the connection in 1869 of the Vaca Valley and Clear Lake Railroad to Elmira, four and one-half miles away, fruit from the Winters area could be shipped to the east coast for sale by commission. Up to his death in 1897, John Wolfskill continued to grow crops of many varieties. His emphasis was heavy on wheat in the 1870s but he eventually returned to the orchard and vine products. He had figs, olives, oranges, apricots, black walnuts, Muscat vines, Eastern Shellbark hickory nuts, pecans, French Madeira nuts, peaches, plums, apples, lemons, limes, pomegranates, almonds, persimmons, and melons of many varieties. It is difficult to determine sources for these crops. There are e references to olive and vine cuttings and figs and blood oranges from the Mission San Francisco Solano. Other reports credit shipments from Kentucky and Los Angeles as sources of seeds and products for the Wolfskill ranch. Though obviously prominent, and a motive force for his brothers, John Wolfskill seemed unconcerned with publicity or prestige. According to his grand-daughter, he was a man without pretensions. His friends were usually other farmers or people with strong interests in the land. Not often in the public eye, he was content to graft new varieties, to experiment with new methods of pest control or irrigation, or in his later years, to read farm journals. For social ritual and entertainment, he restricted himself to visiting county and state agricultural fairs, and he frequently participated in exhibitions of farm products and on occasion, won. He was fascinated by gadgets and brought some back with him from each fair that he attended. Reportedly a generous man, he provided a small school for the children of laborers in the 1880s and he and his wife, Susan, the daughter of Major Stephen Cooper, made calls on the poor and the sick bringing with them good wishes and baskets of vegetables, fruits and smoked meats. One of the most famous homes in the area was built in 1892 when the earthquake destroyed the Wolfskill home. Appropriately referred to as the "Wolfskill Mansion," the new building was a two-story structure built around a large central fountain and a spacious patio area. A hand painted mural was on the walls of the den, and the entire house was furnished with oriental rugs and carved oak furniture. The wall paneling was made from the wood and bark of walnut and oak trees on the property itself. This home was later destroyed by fire. At the age of eighty, when his short biographical statement was taken by a friend, John Wolfskill said that he preferred the quiet life of the country to the life of "excitement of the business man." After his death his daughter Francis took over the property and operated it with the help of her second husband, Lawrence Wilson. In 1934, when she died, she left approximately one hundred and seven acres of the grant to the Department of Pomology of the University of California, Davis, with the understanding that the property was to be used as an experimental horticulture station and the line of olive trees planted by Wolfskill in 1861 was to remain standing. In 1936, the ownership of the property was transferred and since then has been operated by the Davis campus. The accomplishments of the experimentation are impressive. Work there has resulted in the development, naming, and release for commercial orchard use of five new cling peach varieties, six new plum varieties, a new almond variety and several new strawberry varieties. Experiments are also continuing in olive, walnut and fig varieties and tests are being conducted to determine the effects of chemical thinning procedures used on apricots."\par
From Wikipedia: "John Reid Wolfskill (September 16, 1804 - May 27, 1897) was a California pioneer who helped establish development of California's agricultural industry in the Sacramento Valley in the 19th century. In 1842, Wolfskill was the first settler to plant vineyards and fruit trees there.[1] Born in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky and a pioneer of Solano County, "he was the first English speaking man to settle in the area around what is now Winters, California".[2] His brother, William Wolfskill, had migrated earlier to California and also contributed to its agricultural development. After they were settled, their younger brothers Milton, Mathus, and Sarchal Wolfskill joined John on his land grant \i Rancho de los Putos,\i0 later renamed as the Wolfskill Ranch. In 1935 Wolfskill's descendants donated 100 acres of the ranch to University of California, Davis for use as an experimental orchard. Wolfskill was born near Richmond, Kentucky on September 16, 1804. He was the son of Joseph and Sarah Reid Wolfskill. His paternal grandfather, Joseph Wolfskill, was a native of Germany, who immigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He lived in North Carolina a while, and then moved to central Kentucky. His maternal grandfather, John Reid, after whom Wolfskill was named, was a native of Ireland and immigrant to the British colonies. He was taken prisoner by the British at Charleston, South Carolina, in the American Revolutionary War. He later settled in Kentucky.[3] The Wolfskill family were among early migrants from Kentucky to Missouri in 1809, where they settled at Boone’s Lick near the Missouri River west of St. Louis, which was developing rapidly based on the lucrative fur trade.[3] John and his siblings grew up on the frontier. In 1828, Wolfskill set out for Santa Fe, New Mexico, which was part of Mexico. His older brother William Wolfskill had gone there some time before and worked as a fur trapper in the area for ten years. From there John traveled to Paris, Durango, Colorado also part of Mexico, and to Chihuahua, Mexico. He worked as a guard in Mexico for the transport of silver treasure between Chihuahua and Matamoras, a total of eleven expeditions during the next four years. After some time, Wolfskill took passage from Matamoras by ship to New Orleans, and thence up the Mississippi River, returning to his former home in Missouri. He lived and worked there for two or three years. In 1836, he returned to New Mexico. Planning to buy mules to sell in Missouri, he went to Oposura, Sonora. Indians stole all his mules during his journey. He was trying to raise money to join his brother William in Los Angeles, California, from where John had last heard of him. Wolfskill determined to set out from Santa Fe for California.[3] Wolfskill's brother William, who had become a naturalized Mexican citizen, was able to own land under the Mexican government rules, and received a large land grant in May 1842 in that area that developed as Winters, California in what is now Yolo County.[4] He and John named the property Rancho Rio de los Putos, after a nearby creek.[4] The name was derived by Spanish colonists from Lake Miwok \i puṭa wuwwe,\i0 meaning "grassy creek." [4] John was later joined here by three of his younger brothers; Milton, Mathus, and Sarchal.[5] A 1987 history of Yolo County identifies Wolfskill as the first settler to plant fruit trees and vineyards in this area, in 1842.[1] According to a biographical note by the University of California, Wolfskill began to cultivate a few crops in 1851 along Putah Creek (formerly called Rio de los Putos by Spanish colonists),[6] along with an orchard and vineyard in the Sacramento Valley. He bought fig, pear and English walnut trees, and grape cuttings in Los Angeles.[6] Initially he had devoted the rancho chiefly to stock-raising, selling meat supplies to the many mining camps which were booming in the late 1840s and early 1850s during the early mining period. In the 1860s, he and his brothers switched to wheat-growing, and enclosed their land with fences to keep animals out. Wolfskill and his brother, William, divided their interests in the rancho, each taking one-half. John devoted most of his rancho to fruit-culture. A branch railroad was built to cross the ranch not far from Wolfskill’s old home, the nearest station being Winters. In 1858 at the age of 54, Wolfskill married Susan Cooper, a daughter of Maj. Stephen Cooper. They had been with the Donner Party, but had pushed on before getting trapped in the Sierra Nevada (U.S.) by winter. They had four children together: a son Edward and three daughters, Melinda, Jennie, and Frances. Wolfskill ultimately divided his ranch among his children. In his last years he lived with his married daughter Frances and her husband Samuel Taylor.[3] Wolfskill died in 1897.[3] In 1935, Wolfskill's heirs deeded 100 acres of the Wolfskill Ranch in Winters to the University of California, Davis, which had been founded in 1908. The land was to be used for an experimental orchard.[7]"\par
References: 1. Larkey, Joann Leach; Walters, Shipley; Wellings, Marjorie; Yolo County Historical Society, Yolo County Superintendent of Schools (October 1987). Yolo County: Land of Changing Patterns : An Illustrated History. Windsor Publications. p. 18. 2. "Historic Winters". wintersexpress.com. Winters Express. Retrieved 12 August 2014. 3. Historical Society of Southern California and Pioneer Register, Los Angeles (1898). Annual Publication of the Historical Society of Southern California and Pioneer Register, Los Angeles (Public domain ed.). The Society. pp. 274–. 4. Gudde, Erwin G.; Bright, William (2004). California Place Names: The Origin and Etymology of Current Geographical Names (4th rev. and enl. ed.). University of California Press. pp. 304–305. ISBN 978-0-520-24217-3. 5. O'Neil, Dorothy M. (2009). Winters. Arcadia Publishing. pp. 7–. ISBN 978-0-7385-6914-7. 6. "John Wolfskill - History". Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California. Retrieved 12 August 2014. 7. "Olive harvest and walking tour at Wolfskill Ranch in Winters Part of UC Davis centennial celebration". Daily Democrat. 8 October 2008. Retrieved 12 August 2014. 8. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Historical Society of Southern California and Pioneer Register, Los Angeles's "Annual Publication of the Historical Society of Southern California and Pioneer Register, Los Angeles" (1898)\par
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Per 1850 U.S. Federal census John Wolfscole is living in Solano, California, born abt 1805 Kentucky Head Farmer \par
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Per 1852 California State Census John Wolskill is living in Solano County, California, age 48, born abt 1804 Kentucky Head Farmer, last residence Missouri\par
Per California, County Marriages, 1850-1952, John R. Wolfskill, age 55, married Susan Cooper, age 30, 10 January 1860 in Calusa, California. GS Film #1293947, Digital Folder #004666511, Image #00551\par
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Per 1860 U.S. Federal census John R. Wolfskill is living in Vacaville, Solano, California, born abt 1805 Kentucky Head Married Farmer, spouse name Susan\par
Per 1870 U.S. Federal census John R. Wolfskill is living in Vacaville, Solano, California, born abt 1804 Kentucky Head Married Farmer, spouse name Sarah [Susan]\par
Per Selected U.S. Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880: Name: John R Wolfskill Location: Vacaville, Solano, California Enumeration Date: 12 Jul 1870 Schedule Type: Agriculture OS Page: 7 Line Number: 30\par
Per 1876 California Voter Registers (1866-1898) John Reid Wolfskill is living in Silveyville, Solano County, California, age 72, born abt 1804 Kentucky Farmer. Registered 16 September 1876.\par
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Per 1880 U.S. Federal census John R. Wolfskill is living in Silveyville, Solano, California, born abt 1804 Kentucky Head Married Farmer, spouse name Susan, father born NC, mother born KY\par
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