Simpson Thompson
Simpson Thompson - This worthy pioneer, whose portrait will be found in this work, was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, September 18,1803. His great-grandfather, John Wilson, bought the old homestead farm, in Bucks County, directly from William Penn, and it may be remarked as something very rare in American family history that the property is still owned by his great-grandson, the subject of this sketch. John Wilson, his great-grandfather on his mother's side, immigrated with his family to America, and settled in the same township. This man was the eldest son of James Wilson, who had violated the law of the realm by marrying Isabel, the daughter and heiress of the Earl of Corsik, in Scotland, and had been compelled to flee with his bride to the County of Antrim, Ireland. Of the same family, two generations removed, was Margaret Wilson, who was, in 1685, at the age of eighteen, sentenced to be drowned in the waters of the Bladnoch, near Wigton, Scotland. An aged lady of sixty-three years, named Margaret McLachland, was condemned at the same time. Their only crime was refusing to take the oath of recantation, and to abandon the principles of the Scottish Reformation. A beautiful cenotaph of white marble was erected to the memory of these martyrs in the city of Stirling, and still commemorates their "faithfulness unto death." The following is an extract from the minutes of the Kirk session of Penningham Parish, February 19,1711: " Upon the eleventh day of May, 1685, these two women, Margaret McLachland and Margaret Wilson, were brought forth to execution. They did put the old woman first into the water, and when the water was overflowing her, they asked Margaret Wilson what she thought of her in that case. She answered, 'What do I see but Christ wrestling there. Think ye that we are the sufferers? No, it is Christ in us. for he sends none on a warfare on their own charge.' Margaret Wilson sang Psalm xxv., from the seventh verse and the eighth chapter of the epistle to the Romans, and did pray, and then the water covered her. But before her breath was quite gone, they pulled her up and held her till she could speak, and then asked her if she would pray for the king. She answered that she wished the salvation of all men, but the damnation of none. Some of her relations, being at the place, cried out, ' She is willing to conform!' being desirous to save her life at any rate. Upon which Major Winram offered the oath of abjuration to her either to swear it or to return to the waters. She refused it, saying, ' I will not; I am one of Christ's children, let me go.' And they returned her into the water, where she finished her warfare, being a virgin martyr of eighteen years of age, suffering death for her refusing to swear the oath of abjuration and hear the curates." Mr. Thompson grew up on the old Bucks County homestead, and was educated in the common schools of the county. In 1845 or 1846 he went to Baltimore, Maryland, where he remained for twenty months, engaged in the wholesale and retail grocery business. On account of ill-health he went to Philadelphia, and at the age of forty-five engaged as an apprentice to the plumber and gas-fitter's trade, with the firm of Archer & Warner. He worked at this for eighteen months, when he went to Albany, New York, and began business for himself, which he conducted till 1852. In May of that year he sailed from New York bound for California, coming via the Chagres River and the Isthmus route, making part of the journey from Gorgona to Panama upon a mule, and sleeping in the open air with a box of medicine for a pillow. He came up the coast on the steamer "Golden Gate," with one thousand five hundred passengers, among whom were some forty or fifty stowaways, who came aboard at Acapulco, and who had been wrecked upon another steamer. Those were treated rather roughly, and made to work at whatever they were able to accomplish. At last Samuel Brannan, who was on board, made a speech in their favor, and headed a subscription list with $500 for their relief. William Neeley Thompson, brother of Simpson Thompson, and Thomas H., son of the latter, had come to California via the Horn in 1849, in the ship " Grey Eagle," one hundred and twenty days from Philadelphia. William N. entered into a copartnership with Mr. Blackburn in the lumber business in San Francisco, and furnished most of the material for the State House at Vallejo, and in 1851 three hundred and twenty acres of the Soscol Ranch were taken in payment, at $12 per acre, from General M. G. Vallejo, who had erected the State House at his own expense. A town site a mile square had been laid out on the place by General Vallejo, and some of the stakes are still standing. Subsequently Mr. Thompson purchased about three hundred acres more. Mr. Simpson Thompson came to California with the intention of putting up gas works, but when he arrived in San Francisco he found that coal was $50 a ton, and that gas was only $10 per thousand feet; so he abandoned that project He spent afew days at tallying lumber as it came off from the vessels into his brother's yard. He then came to the Soscol place and took charge of it. He found that his brother had sent men up, who had planted a small field of potatoes, at the expense of $12.50 per acre for plowing alone. Nothing else had ever been done on the farm, and the men abandoned the place in disgust. Upon his arrival at the place Mr. Thompson spent the first six weeks under a big oak tree, making his own bread and doing his own washing. This tree is near the present mansion, and is surrounded by a circular arbor and cherished with the greatest care. He found the place in a state of nature; Soscol Creek, which is now confined within artificial bounds and empties into the river, spread then over a wide area, converting it into a morass. This is now reclaimed and constitutes the richest part of the Soscol orchards. The first trees were obtained from Rochester, New York, and from New Jersey. Nursery trees of many kinds were brought out, but thousands of dollars were sunk by losses in transportation. Trees packed in charcoal dried up and died, and those packed in wet moss mostly rotted on the way; but those packed in dry moss arrived in good condition. The first peach pits were planted in April, 1853, and most of, them grew vigorously, and ripe peaches were produced from them in sixteen months from the planting. When the Mexican residents saw them put out, and preparations being made for a nursery, they laughed at such a thing. They said that without water it was impossible; that barley would not grow over two feet and wheat not over six inches without irrigation, while trees would not grow at all their astonishment may well be imagined when, sixteen months after, he showed them finer peaches than they had ever seen in the State. Apples were produced from the seeds in two and a half years. Garden vegetables were produced in luxuriance and abundance without irrigation. The seedlings were, of course, inferior, but judicious grafting soon produced fine results, and the stock of apple trees in California was soon brought up to that of the East. The first basket of peaches sold from the Soscol orchards brought $23.75, or about 80 cents per pound. They were retailed at $1.25 each. The first basket of plum peaches brought $34, or $1.12 per pound. A small area, only about one-fourth of an acre, was planted in gooseberries, and the yield was three tons. The wholesale prices of fruit in 1856, as shown by the books of Mr. Thompson, were as follows: apricots, per ponnd, 70 cents; early apples, 50 cents; peaches, $9 to $14 per basket of twenty-eight pounds; peaches, best quality, $18.75 per basket,or 55 cents a pound; yellow rare ripe peaches, 60 cents per pound, In 1855 $3 per pound was offered for the cherry crop before it was picked. The prices of nursery trees were in proportion. In 1856 trees in the dormant bud sold for $600 a thousand. Peach trees one year old brought $2.50 each in 1855, and $1.50 each in 1856. Apple trees sold from 75 cents to $1.50 each, and as high as $5 was paid for a single fine tree. In 1856 the trees in the original orchard would have brought more than he could now command for the entire property. In that year the farm and orchard yielded $40,000, a greater sum than it has ever since produced. Mr. Thompson carried on the place for many years in connection with his two sons, Thomas H. and James M., but now it may be said that the latter is really the manager of the magnificent property, the father having resigned that position to him some years ago, and the elder brother being now in Texas, where they are jointly largely interested. The old gentleman is surrounded by everything that could render life enjoyable, and is held in universal respect and esteem by all who know him. The family mansion is a model of convenience, widely known for its hospitality. The grounds are laid out with great beauty, and dotted over with rare shrubs and trees from every, part of the Union. Mr. Thompson was married in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in 1826, to Miss Susan T. Simpson, who died in that county in 1844, leaving two children, Thomas H. and James M.
History of Napa and Lake Counties,: San Francisco, Cal.: Slocum, Bowen & Co., Publishers, 1881
Transcribed by Julie Appletoft, February, 2007 Pages 573-576
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