In 1850, Jonathan and two brothers, Ezra and Jesse joined a wagon train and left on the 4 to 5 month trip to California to follow their brother Alva who came the year before. According to one account Indians attacked them at least once during the trip. They joined Alva at Shasta and worked in the mines there for several years.

In 1856 Jonathan and Alva moved to the Sacramento Valley and began working on farms. Alva eventually bought his own land.
In 1869 Jonathan Sikes established a homestead on a quarter section of land under the Homestead Act of 1862. It was located in the Tremont District, of Solano Co. just south of Davis, Yolo Co.
See his Homestead Certificate for more.

In 1874 Caroline, her husband, Newton Palmer and two children (*) took the train and headed for California. In those days the train trip took 10 days. Mr. Palmer got ill with TB during the trip and wired his brother in Middletown, Calif. asking for help. His brother, who had met Jonathan on the journey across the plains, wrote a letter to Jonathan, asking him to meet the train in Davis and put his brother and his family up until he could come and get them. Jonathan met the train, but Mr. Palmer died a short time later. Jonathan never heard from the brother in Middletown, so he offered Mrs. Palmer, Caroline, a job on the ranch since she had two young children to support and nowhere to go.

Caroline was concerned about taking this job; that this might be looked on as improper by the neighbors. Several of these neighbors advised her to take the job since she had no other way to support her children. They said as long as she conducted herself as a lady there would be no talk of her acting in an improper manner, so she accepted the job.

Jonathan and Caroline were married on April 1, 1875. They had four children, Clara, Alice, George Alvin and Elsie. They had an appreciation for music; Clara became a piano teacher and Alvin played the violin.

Their son, Alvin continued to farm the ranch when Jonathan retired and moved to Davis in 1910. Jonathan passed away there on Jan. 23, 1913, and Caroline died in 1915.

* Notes
1: An orbit for Richard S. Woodley *, Caroline's younger brother, indicates "he accompanied her to Calif. in 1875 where he remained for a time."
2: The 1880 Census indicates Caroline's second child, Maud, was born in Calif. in 1872 or 1873.

Sources:
"Past Reflections, Growing up on the Sikes Ranch" and "Epilogue", Jean Sikes, 1992
* An orbit for Richard S. Woodley, supplied by Lois Frantz Vulpi.
See Also: Davis Cemetery
and Sikes Information Sources.

Descendants

Ancestors