Napa County Biographies
John Bachelder
John Bachelder - Was born in New Hampshire, March 7,1817. At the age of twenty he began life for himself. In 1838 he went to
Boston, where he was book-keeper in the Middlesex Canal Depot. At the end of three years he became a partner in a
similar business enterprise. In 1844 he began the dry goods business in Boston, which he followed for four years.
In 1847-8 he invented the Bachelder improvement for sewing machines, which consisted of the yielding
presser-foot and feeder. In 1852 he began cotton manufacturing at Lisbon, now Sprague, Connecticut, and
continued in that business for sixteen years, and was also in the meantime interested in a woolen mill near
Norwich, Connecticut. He came to California in 1873, and in 1875 began the manufacture of wind-mills, etc.,
at Napa, which he still continues. He was married in July, 1842, to Miss A. Wason. Their children are Herman,
Emma L. and Charles S.
History of Napa and Lake Counties,: San Francisco, Cal.: Slocum, Bowen & Co., Publishers, 1881
Transcribed by Julie Appletoft, February, 2007 Page 408
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Last updated February 1, 2007