MRS. SARAH MUGFORD.—(1923) For the past ten years Mrs. Sarah Mugford has resided on
her three-acre home place on Fruitridge Road, where
she conducts a small dairy. Mrs. Mugford has
witnessed the wonderful growth and progress of this section of Sacramento
County, for it was but sparsely settled when she purchased her home place. She
is a native Californian, born at Placerville, then
known as Hangtown, on August 18, 1857, the eldest
daughter of Henry J. And Mary (Thomas) Hartley, natives of
England and South Wales, respectively. Henry J. Hartley was married
in 1856, and shortly after started across the plains with an ox-team train to
California, arriving at Hangtown in the fall of the
same year. He prospected in the vicinity of Folsom, but gave up mining to
follow his trade as a stone mason. Ten children were born to them, eight
daughters and two sons, of whom six survive: Mrs. Mugford,
of this sketch; Mrs. Edner, of Placerville; Mrs. Pilotti,
of Diamond Spring; Mrs. Mary Pritchard, residing in Oakland; Mrs. Alice Johnson,
residing in Berkeley; and Hattie Hartley, of Marysville. Mrs. Harley, the
mother was one of the first of the pioneer California women to help in getting a
public school started in Eldorado County; the first
school was held in an old building in 1857, and each family paid twenty-five
cents tuition per week.
On
January 19, 1874, Miss Sarah Hartley was married to John Mugford,
who was born in Cornwall, England, in 1835. He accompanied his brother
Samuel to California via Panama in 1855, and was engaged in mining until 1869,
when he received an injury which caused him to seek a different occupation. Removing
to Carbondale, he bought 160 acres of land; but after paying for it, he was
obliged to turn it over to the railroad. The family then removed to Sutter
Creek, where they later bought land. From this land he cleared the timber,
which he hauled to Sutterville for fuel in the mills
at Sutter Creek. Mr. and Mrs. Mugford were the
parents of eight children. William is married and has three children, one
of whom is married and has one son five years old. William Mugford
and his family reside in Sacramento, where he is foreman in the bolt shop of the
southern Pacific Railroad Company. Leona is now Mrs. Frank Carroll, and
they have two sons and one daughter. Jane is the widow of James Langdon;
she has three children, and family reside in
Sacramento. Samuel has a wife and six children; John is married and has one
son; Bessie is Mrs. Frank F. Silva, and they have six children; Arthur is at
home, and is one of the stockholders in the Northern California Milk
Association; and Minnie is deceased, survived by five children. Mr. Mugford
became a United States citizen in 1867, and thereafter voted the Republican
ticket; he passed away May 6, 1898. Mrs. Mugford
has been an active member of the Free Methodist Church for more than twenty
years.
Transcribed 4-29-07 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento
County, California With Biographical Sketches,
Page 722. Historic Record Company,
