John Francis Callaghan And Mary Millerick
Birth: 21 May 1865, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Father: Michael Callaghan Mother: Johanna McCarthy
Death: 5 Feb 1941, Fairfield, CA
Father: Michael Callaghan Mother: Johanna McCarthy
Death: 5 Feb 1941, Fairfield, CA
Spouse: Ellen Eliza Millerick
Birth: 11 Feb 1873, Cazadero, CA
Death: 9 May 1908, Rio Vista, CA
Father: Michael Millerick Mother: Mary Taaffe
Marriage: 3 Sep 1890, St. Joseph’s Church, Rio Vista, CA
Children: Ruth B (1891-1941)
Gertrude (1893-1894)
Francis A. (1896-1897)
Lester Orwood Joseph (1898-1968)
Madelyn Ellen (1899-1967)
Other spouse: Frances Ellen Driscoll
Birth: 12 Dec 1878, Vallejo, CA
Death: 24 Nov 1944, Vallejo, CA
Father: Jeremiah Driscoll Mother: Honora Minehan
Marriage: 27 Aug 1914, Vallejo, CA
John Francis Callaghan was born on May 21, 1865, to Michael Callaghan and Johannah McCarthy. He was the second child and first son of the family. According to family lore, John was born on the ship as it passed Australia on the way to America, but this was incorrect. In fact, he was born in Melbourne, Victoria, and was baptized at St. Francis Church there. His family left for America shortly thereafter, possibly on the RMS Auckland, bound for New Zealand and Panama. The family arrived in San Francisco in late 1865 or early 1866. They took residence at 7th and Minna in the South of Market district, where his father worked as a laborer and his mother took in laundry.
In October of 1867, his father bought the first 160 acres of the future Callaghan Ranch in the Montezuma Hills. John would live for the rest of his life on the Ranch. John always considered himself to be a citizen of Birds Landing. The town at the intersection of Montezuma Hills Road and Collinsville Road was called Montezuma Crossing. It was a short horse-ride or maybe a 20-minute walk from the Ranch. When the rains came and the roads got muddy, they might not have been able to get to the bigger towns, but they could always see friends and get letters and news at Bird & Dinkelspiel’s store and Post Office. According to the Historical Marker erected at the Store in 2008,
In 1869 John Bird constructed a wharf and warehouse on Montezuma Slough. Soon, one mile east of the wharf, a community began to evolve. A blacksmith shop came first, and then the store was built in 1875. In this year the town was officially named Birds Landing, and Bird was named postmaster. By 1878, the town boasted a butcher shop, a saloon, shoemaker, and a furniture business. In 1880, Bird bought one half interest in the store. Chris and Evelyn Benjamin bought the store from Bird in 1921, and Evelyn served as postmaster for 50 years. The post office then relocated to a tool shed and held the distinction as being one of the nation’s smallest full-service post offices.
In 1869 John Bird constructed a wharf and warehouse on Montezuma Slough. Soon, one mile east of the wharf, a community began to evolve. A blacksmith shop came first, and then the store was built in 1875. In this year the town was officially named Birds Landing, and Bird was named postmaster. By 1878, the town boasted a butcher shop, a saloon, shoemaker, and a furniture business. In 1880, Bird bought one half interest in the store. Chris and Evelyn Benjamin bought the store from Bird in 1921, and Evelyn served as postmaster for 50 years. The post office then relocated to a tool shed and held the distinction as being one of the nation’s smallest full-service post offices.
Birds Landing has its own ZIP code (94512) but, presently, no post office. The previous post office closed in 2001. Rio Vista and Collinsville were large towns with more stores, hotels, and churches, but Birds Landing was home.
The town grew up as John grew up. The wharf was built when he was four. When John was 10, the store was established in order to buy the products from some 23 neighboring ranches. According to Kristin Delaplane’s Bird’s Landing Finds Strength as Retail Center (1995),
The store’s partners allowed ranchers the choice of receiving cash (gold) or credit with liberal discounts. Eventually the store gained quite a reputation by developing a business shipping these ranch products out of the area, including to San Francisco. Sacks of grain went to Solano County destinations and to areas outside the county, including San Quentin Prison and Sacramento. The store served as the post office, sold newspapers, life and fire insurance and offered the credit services of Dun and Bradstreet.
The 1940 US Census said John only had an 8th grade education, but that was not quite correct. He did attend the Willow Spring School in Birds Landing, which was built in 1876. The school was named after a spring on the Galbraith Ranch. The school opened with 29 students and six of them were Galbraiths. According to the Educational History of Solano County (1888),
The town grew up as John grew up. The wharf was built when he was four. When John was 10, the store was established in order to buy the products from some 23 neighboring ranches. According to Kristin Delaplane’s Bird’s Landing Finds Strength as Retail Center (1995),
The store’s partners allowed ranchers the choice of receiving cash (gold) or credit with liberal discounts. Eventually the store gained quite a reputation by developing a business shipping these ranch products out of the area, including to San Francisco. Sacks of grain went to Solano County destinations and to areas outside the county, including San Quentin Prison and Sacramento. The store served as the post office, sold newspapers, life and fire insurance and offered the credit services of Dun and Bradstreet.
The 1940 US Census said John only had an 8th grade education, but that was not quite correct. He did attend the Willow Spring School in Birds Landing, which was built in 1876. The school was named after a spring on the Galbraith Ranch. The school opened with 29 students and six of them were Galbraiths. According to the Educational History of Solano County (1888),
Willow Spring—This school is situated in the town of Birds Landing. It has a neat and commodious building, well-seated with modern desks, and splendid school facilities. Miss Georgia Knott is the present teacher. The school runs eight months during the year, paying a salary of $65. There are 31 census children in the district, with an average attendance of 20. Mr. John Bird is the clerk.
Note that most of the boys in the picture are carrying bats or gloves. Baseball was huge in the area.
But John also attended St. Mary’s College for a year in 1884-85. At the time, St. Mary’s was still on College Hill in San Francisco, just south of Bernal Heights, and it was more like a high school. Some have a stereotype of rural people as uneducated, but farmers have to be extremely knowledgeable, fiscally prudent, well read, and up on current events. The science of farming is complicated and the issues of market trends require a great deal of mental effort. John, like his father before him, might not have had a college degree, but he was intelligent and a man of many skills.
The town continued to develop. Again, according to Kristin Delaplane’s Bird’s Landing Finds Strength as Retail Center (1995),
The 1878-79 directory lists the following residing in Bird’s Landing: A butcher, shoemaker and painter. A Mr. Tompkins, whose business was junk. A Mr. Winters, in the liquor business. Mr. Page owned a saloon. Mr. Sutton was in the furniture business. J. Hilton was elected the justice of the peace. The two-story town hall was built in 1882 and served both as a meeting place and where the dances were held.
What it didn’t have was a fire department. According to Jerry Bowen’s Township Began with Mormon Colony Site, “The town began to grow in the 1880s with continuing prosperity until a disastrous fire in the early 1930s.”
In her doctoral dissertation Settling the sunset land: California and its family farmers, (2006) Alexandra Kindell, PhD, uses the John Steinbeck stories in The Red Pony to describe life on a California farm in the late 1880s and early 1900s.
In each of the “Red Pony” stories, Steinbeck focused on one event to make a series of discrete points about rural California and indirectly documented the diurnal patterns of life and work of the Tiflins and their hired hand. In doing this, Steinbeck interwove the gendered divisions of labor on the ranch into his narrative as skillfully as any rural historian. Ruth Tiflin quietly cooked eggs and ham, mended socks, and made cottage cheese. As she spooned clabbered milk into a bag to hang over her sink, she watched the world of men through her window. Her husband, his hired hand, and the Tiflin boy milked the cows, slaughtered pigs, and raked hay. Jody Tiflin went about his daily chores helping his mother in the beginning, feeding chickens and filling the wood box. As he got older, he spent less time helping her, and he spent his free hours away from school with his father and the hired man. Steinbeck defined each character by the nature of his or her work, and as a boy in his early teens, Jody’s rite of passage showed his growth by transitioning from the house to the fields. These are all the same chores that men, women, and children performed in California in 1854, 1884, and even 1924. What might seem banal to modern readers was, in fact, necessary to survival in rural California.
John’s experience growing up on the farm would have been similar to that of Jody Tiflin. His mother Johanna would have taught him to read before he started formal schooling at Willow Spring school in Birds Landing. He would have had household chores from a young age, including taking care of the chickens, gathering firewood, and bringing water from the well into the house. He would have slowly moved toward outside work with his father—shepherding and shearing the sheep and ultimately sowing, weeding, and harvesting the wheat.
Life in the Montezuma Hills was also very communal. Harvest time meant “all-hands-on-deck,” and often required all the neighbors to pitch in at all the farms. In exchange for help at harvest, a neighbor might lend a steam powered tracker or one of the harvesters that requires 28 horses and mules to pull it, like the one owned by the McCormack family. John and his brothers learned to do all necessary labor on the ranch. The boys all sheared the sheep and helped bring in the wheat harvest. John seems to have been particularly adept at carpentry, while Jim was more the mechanic. John’s great grandson still has his wooden toolbox with all the tools, including the sheep shears.
The Great Register of Voters of 1892 described John as a 5-foot, 11.5-inch farmer with dark complexion, blue eyes, and dark hair. Tall, good-looking, and athletic, John was always on the lists in the Sacramento River News of attendees at the local parties, dances, grand balls, and social events. His friends at the time knew him as Jack. It is assumed that he met Ellen Millerick at one of those balls.
Note that most of the boys in the picture are carrying bats or gloves. Baseball was huge in the area.
But John also attended St. Mary’s College for a year in 1884-85. At the time, St. Mary’s was still on College Hill in San Francisco, just south of Bernal Heights, and it was more like a high school. Some have a stereotype of rural people as uneducated, but farmers have to be extremely knowledgeable, fiscally prudent, well read, and up on current events. The science of farming is complicated and the issues of market trends require a great deal of mental effort. John, like his father before him, might not have had a college degree, but he was intelligent and a man of many skills.
The town continued to develop. Again, according to Kristin Delaplane’s Bird’s Landing Finds Strength as Retail Center (1995),
The 1878-79 directory lists the following residing in Bird’s Landing: A butcher, shoemaker and painter. A Mr. Tompkins, whose business was junk. A Mr. Winters, in the liquor business. Mr. Page owned a saloon. Mr. Sutton was in the furniture business. J. Hilton was elected the justice of the peace. The two-story town hall was built in 1882 and served both as a meeting place and where the dances were held.
What it didn’t have was a fire department. According to Jerry Bowen’s Township Began with Mormon Colony Site, “The town began to grow in the 1880s with continuing prosperity until a disastrous fire in the early 1930s.”
In her doctoral dissertation Settling the sunset land: California and its family farmers, (2006) Alexandra Kindell, PhD, uses the John Steinbeck stories in The Red Pony to describe life on a California farm in the late 1880s and early 1900s.
In each of the “Red Pony” stories, Steinbeck focused on one event to make a series of discrete points about rural California and indirectly documented the diurnal patterns of life and work of the Tiflins and their hired hand. In doing this, Steinbeck interwove the gendered divisions of labor on the ranch into his narrative as skillfully as any rural historian. Ruth Tiflin quietly cooked eggs and ham, mended socks, and made cottage cheese. As she spooned clabbered milk into a bag to hang over her sink, she watched the world of men through her window. Her husband, his hired hand, and the Tiflin boy milked the cows, slaughtered pigs, and raked hay. Jody Tiflin went about his daily chores helping his mother in the beginning, feeding chickens and filling the wood box. As he got older, he spent less time helping her, and he spent his free hours away from school with his father and the hired man. Steinbeck defined each character by the nature of his or her work, and as a boy in his early teens, Jody’s rite of passage showed his growth by transitioning from the house to the fields. These are all the same chores that men, women, and children performed in California in 1854, 1884, and even 1924. What might seem banal to modern readers was, in fact, necessary to survival in rural California.
John’s experience growing up on the farm would have been similar to that of Jody Tiflin. His mother Johanna would have taught him to read before he started formal schooling at Willow Spring school in Birds Landing. He would have had household chores from a young age, including taking care of the chickens, gathering firewood, and bringing water from the well into the house. He would have slowly moved toward outside work with his father—shepherding and shearing the sheep and ultimately sowing, weeding, and harvesting the wheat.
Life in the Montezuma Hills was also very communal. Harvest time meant “all-hands-on-deck,” and often required all the neighbors to pitch in at all the farms. In exchange for help at harvest, a neighbor might lend a steam powered tracker or one of the harvesters that requires 28 horses and mules to pull it, like the one owned by the McCormack family. John and his brothers learned to do all necessary labor on the ranch. The boys all sheared the sheep and helped bring in the wheat harvest. John seems to have been particularly adept at carpentry, while Jim was more the mechanic. John’s great grandson still has his wooden toolbox with all the tools, including the sheep shears.
The Great Register of Voters of 1892 described John as a 5-foot, 11.5-inch farmer with dark complexion, blue eyes, and dark hair. Tall, good-looking, and athletic, John was always on the lists in the Sacramento River News of attendees at the local parties, dances, grand balls, and social events. His friends at the time knew him as Jack. It is assumed that he met Ellen Millerick at one of those balls.
Ellen (Nellie) Millerick, the fourth child of Michael Millerick and Mary Taaffe, was born on February 11, 1873, in Cazadero. She grew up in Marin and Sonoma Counties where her father moved the family around from Petaluma to Salt Point to Timber Cove to Stewart Point to Nicasio. When she was five, her father bought a ranch in Salt Point next to the ranch of his sister Kate Carsin. Nellie had lots of cousins nearby because the Carsins had 18 children. The area was mostly farmland, and there were many families and about a dozen schoolhouses nearby. Ellen was bright, inquisitive, and loved to read. Like her sister Annie, she might have trained to be a teacher.
At the age of ten, the family moved down to Nicasio, in western Marin. There they were somewhat close to another set of cousins, the Healions. There were only five Healion children, and they lived a half day’s travel away in Olema. But they still got together for family events like christenings and holiday dinners.
At 14, Nellie and the family moved to Grizzley Island just across the Montezuma Slough from Birds Landing. This was a much more “society-oriented” place than the other places where she had lived. While still farmland that had crossroad towns like Bird Landing and Shiloh, there were bigger towns like Rio Vista and Collinsville, each of which had its own Catholic Church. The Millericks had not lived near a Catholic church since they moved from Petaluma to Salt Point in 1871. There was also an Odd Fellows Hall in Birds Landing and a town hall in Rio Vista. There were many more social gatherings in these places than where she had lived before. It is very likely that she met John Callaghan at one of these. They became a couple and decided to get married in 1890 when her father decided to again move the family, this time to San Francisco.
John and Ellen were married on September 3, 1890, at St. Joseph’s Church in Rio Vista. He was 23, and she was 17. The headline of the newly published Sacramento River News called it “A Social Event in the Shape of a Wedding.” The article went on to say:
The popular young couple were united in marriage in the Catholic Church of Rio Vista by the Rev. Father Thomas McNaboe who performed the magnificent and impressive ceremony of the Church in his usual efficient manner. After the marriage, the relatives of the contracting parties, accompanied by the bride and groom, repaired to the elegant and spacious home of the parents of the groom, situated on the main road leading from Rio Vista to Birds Landing, where a splendid wedding dinner, consisting of all the delicacies of the season, were served. Toasts were given and responded to, after which vocal and instrumental music followed. The new couple departed on their wedding tour amidst a shower of rice and the customary throwing of old shoes. They went via Suisun to San Francisco, from which place the happy couple will visit Santa Cruz and upon their return will make their home on one of the large farms owned by Mr. M. Callaghan….
The newly wedded couple will have the best wishes of all the people in the Montezuma Hills, and also have the respect, esteem, and confidence of the whole community, which they justly deserve. 10
John’s brother Jim Callaghan served as best man and Ellen’s sister Mayme Millerick was maid-of-honor. Among others at the wedding were Mrs. Mary Halloran and her two daughters, Mary and Kate. The Hallorans had been family friends of the Millericks for generations back in Castlemartyr, Co. Cork.
At the age of ten, the family moved down to Nicasio, in western Marin. There they were somewhat close to another set of cousins, the Healions. There were only five Healion children, and they lived a half day’s travel away in Olema. But they still got together for family events like christenings and holiday dinners.
At 14, Nellie and the family moved to Grizzley Island just across the Montezuma Slough from Birds Landing. This was a much more “society-oriented” place than the other places where she had lived. While still farmland that had crossroad towns like Bird Landing and Shiloh, there were bigger towns like Rio Vista and Collinsville, each of which had its own Catholic Church. The Millericks had not lived near a Catholic church since they moved from Petaluma to Salt Point in 1871. There was also an Odd Fellows Hall in Birds Landing and a town hall in Rio Vista. There were many more social gatherings in these places than where she had lived before. It is very likely that she met John Callaghan at one of these. They became a couple and decided to get married in 1890 when her father decided to again move the family, this time to San Francisco.
John and Ellen were married on September 3, 1890, at St. Joseph’s Church in Rio Vista. He was 23, and she was 17. The headline of the newly published Sacramento River News called it “A Social Event in the Shape of a Wedding.” The article went on to say:
The popular young couple were united in marriage in the Catholic Church of Rio Vista by the Rev. Father Thomas McNaboe who performed the magnificent and impressive ceremony of the Church in his usual efficient manner. After the marriage, the relatives of the contracting parties, accompanied by the bride and groom, repaired to the elegant and spacious home of the parents of the groom, situated on the main road leading from Rio Vista to Birds Landing, where a splendid wedding dinner, consisting of all the delicacies of the season, were served. Toasts were given and responded to, after which vocal and instrumental music followed. The new couple departed on their wedding tour amidst a shower of rice and the customary throwing of old shoes. They went via Suisun to San Francisco, from which place the happy couple will visit Santa Cruz and upon their return will make their home on one of the large farms owned by Mr. M. Callaghan….
The newly wedded couple will have the best wishes of all the people in the Montezuma Hills, and also have the respect, esteem, and confidence of the whole community, which they justly deserve. 10
John’s brother Jim Callaghan served as best man and Ellen’s sister Mayme Millerick was maid-of-honor. Among others at the wedding were Mrs. Mary Halloran and her two daughters, Mary and Kate. The Hallorans had been family friends of the Millericks for generations back in Castlemartyr, Co. Cork.
The decade of the 1890s started well for the new Callaghans. John’s father bought the Stephen Markham Ranch (which he had rented for the previous eight years) in May of 1891 and built a house there for the newlyweds. Their marriage was followed fourteen months later by the birth of their first child, Ruth. Ellen had traveled to San Francisco to be with her mother and sisters for the birth, which occurred on November 3rd at 385 Gates Street in Bernal Heights. After staying for a week to recover, Ellen and Ruth went back to the Ranch. But five weeks later, a flu epidemic swept through the City, and Ellen’s parents both died.
Ellen was very close to her four sisters, especially Mayme Comisky and Annie Fredericks. When Annie got married, their sister Margaret moved to the Ranch for a time, while Kitty, Tom, and Will moved in with Mayme. Ellen often traveled down to San Francisco to spend a few days with the siblings, and they and their families would vacation at the Ranch. Each of Ellen’s other children was born in Annie’s house on Folsom Street.
Baseball was very popular in rural America at the time and Solano County was no exception. Despite being a new father, John joined the Birds Landing/Collinsville baseball club in 1892. “Captain Jack Callaghan” played center field. The team was very good and had a long-running rivalry with the Rio Vista team (sometimes known as the Rough and Readies and other times as the Rio Vistans) for which John’s son Lester would later play. His brothers were both on the team, as well as Alan Freese’s grandfather Eugene Sullivan and grand-uncle William. Jim Callaghan played right field for Birds Landing, and Bill Callaghan was the catcher. Something of an outspoken character when he was younger, Jim is quoted in the paper on January 15, 1892, speaking about the upcoming baseball game between Birds Landing and Rio Vista, that they “are going to put up good ball next Sunday and send the Rio Vistans home weeping.” Birds Landing lost, and John benched Jim for the next game.
John and Ellen were both staunch Catholics, a trait they passed on to their children. They were both baptized, married, and buried in the Church. All their children were baptized and confirmed, and they were educated at St. Gertrude’s Academy in Rio Vista. They attended mass every Sunday in either Rio Vista or Collinsville and were always active in Church social and fundraising activities. Ellen was known for her individual prayer life and it was from her that her Lester learned to pray the Rosary at his bedside every night.
Joy and sorrow went hand-in-hand over the next few years. The birth of their second daughter Gertrude, named for St. Gertrude whose Academy would be the school that educated many of the next generation of the family, brought joy in October 10, 1893. But Gertrude died at the end of January, 1894, just short of four months old. On October 26, 1896, they again experienced the birth of a child, their first son Francis Aloysius. Like his sister Gertrude, though, Frank lasted less than four months, dying on February 5, 1897. John and Ellen would have two more children, Lester (1898) and Madelyn (1900), both of whom did survive, but John always missed Frank and let Lester know it.
In 1896, John decided to enter public service. He was elected Justice of the Peace for Montezuma Township, and he held the post for six years. The family called him “The Judge,” though his granddaughter’s generation no longer knew why. (Jim’s granddaughter Nadine thought it was because “he was so judgmental.”) Due to his popularity, John was appointed as county road-master in 1897. He did the best he could to keep them open and clear, but they were not paved until the late 1930s.
Ellen loved the social life in the area. She read the society pages of the paper and knew “who was who and what was what.” She participated in all the fairs and church bazaars both in Collinsville and Rio Vista, serving as hostess for various booths and often ran the “fancy table,” which was the upper-class booth. She hosted card parties for the neighborhood ladies and was generally involved in the community.
Ellen particularly seemed to like Collinsville. It was a little closer to the farm than Rio Vista and was a booming town. By 1879, Collinsville boasted three saloons, two stores, two hotels, several wharves, a post office, a Wells Fargo office, a telegraph office, a school, several churches, and a cannery. It was the center of salmon fishing on the Delta and had a mix of Irish, Italian, and Portugese residents that must have seemed exotic. Collinsville was the railhead for one of the passenger trains from Sacramento to San Francisco. The train would unbuckle at Collinsville and be pulled across the Delta by barge (requiring several trips). Then it would be rebuckled together on the other side at Pittsburg and resume its trip to San Francisco.
In 1897, the couple completed building of a new house (referred to in the River News as “a neat cottage”) on the Upper Ranch. On what was then known as Callaghan Road, the house was fire-damaged twice, but it was rebuilt in the same style. At the start of the 21st century, the house looked very similar to what it looked like at the start of the 20th century. (In 2019, it burned completely to the ground.) Their last two children, Lester and Madelyn, grew up there, though they were born in San Francisco at Annie Millerick Fredericks’ house in Bernal Heights.
Ellen was very close to her four sisters, especially Mayme Comisky and Annie Fredericks. When Annie got married, their sister Margaret moved to the Ranch for a time, while Kitty, Tom, and Will moved in with Mayme. Ellen often traveled down to San Francisco to spend a few days with the siblings, and they and their families would vacation at the Ranch. Each of Ellen’s other children was born in Annie’s house on Folsom Street.
Baseball was very popular in rural America at the time and Solano County was no exception. Despite being a new father, John joined the Birds Landing/Collinsville baseball club in 1892. “Captain Jack Callaghan” played center field. The team was very good and had a long-running rivalry with the Rio Vista team (sometimes known as the Rough and Readies and other times as the Rio Vistans) for which John’s son Lester would later play. His brothers were both on the team, as well as Alan Freese’s grandfather Eugene Sullivan and grand-uncle William. Jim Callaghan played right field for Birds Landing, and Bill Callaghan was the catcher. Something of an outspoken character when he was younger, Jim is quoted in the paper on January 15, 1892, speaking about the upcoming baseball game between Birds Landing and Rio Vista, that they “are going to put up good ball next Sunday and send the Rio Vistans home weeping.” Birds Landing lost, and John benched Jim for the next game.
John and Ellen were both staunch Catholics, a trait they passed on to their children. They were both baptized, married, and buried in the Church. All their children were baptized and confirmed, and they were educated at St. Gertrude’s Academy in Rio Vista. They attended mass every Sunday in either Rio Vista or Collinsville and were always active in Church social and fundraising activities. Ellen was known for her individual prayer life and it was from her that her Lester learned to pray the Rosary at his bedside every night.
Joy and sorrow went hand-in-hand over the next few years. The birth of their second daughter Gertrude, named for St. Gertrude whose Academy would be the school that educated many of the next generation of the family, brought joy in October 10, 1893. But Gertrude died at the end of January, 1894, just short of four months old. On October 26, 1896, they again experienced the birth of a child, their first son Francis Aloysius. Like his sister Gertrude, though, Frank lasted less than four months, dying on February 5, 1897. John and Ellen would have two more children, Lester (1898) and Madelyn (1900), both of whom did survive, but John always missed Frank and let Lester know it.
In 1896, John decided to enter public service. He was elected Justice of the Peace for Montezuma Township, and he held the post for six years. The family called him “The Judge,” though his granddaughter’s generation no longer knew why. (Jim’s granddaughter Nadine thought it was because “he was so judgmental.”) Due to his popularity, John was appointed as county road-master in 1897. He did the best he could to keep them open and clear, but they were not paved until the late 1930s.
Ellen loved the social life in the area. She read the society pages of the paper and knew “who was who and what was what.” She participated in all the fairs and church bazaars both in Collinsville and Rio Vista, serving as hostess for various booths and often ran the “fancy table,” which was the upper-class booth. She hosted card parties for the neighborhood ladies and was generally involved in the community.
Ellen particularly seemed to like Collinsville. It was a little closer to the farm than Rio Vista and was a booming town. By 1879, Collinsville boasted three saloons, two stores, two hotels, several wharves, a post office, a Wells Fargo office, a telegraph office, a school, several churches, and a cannery. It was the center of salmon fishing on the Delta and had a mix of Irish, Italian, and Portugese residents that must have seemed exotic. Collinsville was the railhead for one of the passenger trains from Sacramento to San Francisco. The train would unbuckle at Collinsville and be pulled across the Delta by barge (requiring several trips). Then it would be rebuckled together on the other side at Pittsburg and resume its trip to San Francisco.
In 1897, the couple completed building of a new house (referred to in the River News as “a neat cottage”) on the Upper Ranch. On what was then known as Callaghan Road, the house was fire-damaged twice, but it was rebuilt in the same style. At the start of the 21st century, the house looked very similar to what it looked like at the start of the 20th century. (In 2019, it burned completely to the ground.) Their last two children, Lester and Madelyn, grew up there, though they were born in San Francisco at Annie Millerick Fredericks’ house in Bernal Heights.
In 1902, John was a delegate from Montezuma Township to the Democratic Convention in Benicia. That November he lost re-election as Justice of the Peace to republican candidate AW MacDonald. MacDonald won election again in 1904, but it is unknown if John ran against him or not. In California at the time, there was not a lot of difference between the Republicans and the Democrats and one could register to run for office in both parties. The democrats had picked up many of the Populists after the breakdown of their Movement after 1896, so they tended to be the party of the “little guy,” especially the farmers. The Republicans tended to be on the side of business. One can see why John was a Democrat at the time.
Ellen was a voracious read. Her son Lester was named after a character in a book she was reading when pregnant with him. He hated his name, but he adored his mother. She was also an avid letter writer. She and her sisters constantly exchanged correspondence. Whenever she went to the City, she would write letters to each of her children, a few of which have survived. She even often wrote to Ruth who attended St. Gertrude’s Academy in Rio Vista when she sometimes boarded there.
Life in the Montezuma Hills seems to have been like living in a bubble. The Spanish American War, the First World War, the 1906 Earthquake and Fires, and the economic ups-and-downs of the Progressive Period, the Spanish Flu, the Roaring Twenties, and the Great Depression all occurred at a distance and had indirect impact on the lives on the Ranch. It was almost like history was happening somewhere else, but not here. Crops were planted; crops were reaped. Lambs were birthed and sheep sheered. Wheat and hay sold at market, or it did not. Life had a rhythm that just continued when one was tied to the land and stayed in one place for generations.
In 1908, Ellen fell ill. She died on May 9, 1908—her son Lester’s tenth birthday. She was only 35 years old. The diagnosis was Bright’s Disease, a kidney disease known chronic nephritis that has complications of high blood pressure and thickening of the walls in the heart. Her obituary read:
Death’s Hand: Grim Reaper Takes Two Rio Vista People from our Midst.
After an illness of but a few weeks duration, Mrs. John Callaghan passed away at the home of Mrs. M. Hamill last Saturday morning at the age of 35 years and three months.
Given medical attention and tender care, she rallied somewhat and decided to return to her home in the Montezuma Hills, but a change for the worse dispelled all hopes and she was finally forced to return to Rio Vista Last Wednesday. Medical aid was of no avail and she gradually sank until the end came last Saturday.
The funeral services were held at St. Joseph’s Church on Monday morning, and were largely attended, showing the esteem this entire community held in her. Rev. JB Praught celebrated the requiem high mass for the repose of her soul and paid an appropriate tribute to her memory. The remains were taken to the Catholic Cemetery and laid to rest beneath numerous floral offerings.
Her pallbearers came from among the most important families around Birds Landing, including the Sullivans, Reardons, and Andersons. She was buried with her children Frank and Gertrude. John would join her much later.
Ellen was a voracious read. Her son Lester was named after a character in a book she was reading when pregnant with him. He hated his name, but he adored his mother. She was also an avid letter writer. She and her sisters constantly exchanged correspondence. Whenever she went to the City, she would write letters to each of her children, a few of which have survived. She even often wrote to Ruth who attended St. Gertrude’s Academy in Rio Vista when she sometimes boarded there.
Life in the Montezuma Hills seems to have been like living in a bubble. The Spanish American War, the First World War, the 1906 Earthquake and Fires, and the economic ups-and-downs of the Progressive Period, the Spanish Flu, the Roaring Twenties, and the Great Depression all occurred at a distance and had indirect impact on the lives on the Ranch. It was almost like history was happening somewhere else, but not here. Crops were planted; crops were reaped. Lambs were birthed and sheep sheered. Wheat and hay sold at market, or it did not. Life had a rhythm that just continued when one was tied to the land and stayed in one place for generations.
In 1908, Ellen fell ill. She died on May 9, 1908—her son Lester’s tenth birthday. She was only 35 years old. The diagnosis was Bright’s Disease, a kidney disease known chronic nephritis that has complications of high blood pressure and thickening of the walls in the heart. Her obituary read:
Death’s Hand: Grim Reaper Takes Two Rio Vista People from our Midst.
After an illness of but a few weeks duration, Mrs. John Callaghan passed away at the home of Mrs. M. Hamill last Saturday morning at the age of 35 years and three months.
Given medical attention and tender care, she rallied somewhat and decided to return to her home in the Montezuma Hills, but a change for the worse dispelled all hopes and she was finally forced to return to Rio Vista Last Wednesday. Medical aid was of no avail and she gradually sank until the end came last Saturday.
The funeral services were held at St. Joseph’s Church on Monday morning, and were largely attended, showing the esteem this entire community held in her. Rev. JB Praught celebrated the requiem high mass for the repose of her soul and paid an appropriate tribute to her memory. The remains were taken to the Catholic Cemetery and laid to rest beneath numerous floral offerings.
Her pallbearers came from among the most important families around Birds Landing, including the Sullivans, Reardons, and Andersons. She was buried with her children Frank and Gertrude. John would join her much later.
In a 1912 letter to Ruth, Lester, and Madelyn, her sister Annie reminded them about Nellie:
Some highlights about your mother. She loved to cook and garden (flowers). She followed the society pages and knew who was who, where they lived, and who they married. Once when she visited us, she went to the Three-hour Devotion at St. Ignatius by herself. St. Ignatius was on Hayes Street, that was just before the Earthquake. At one time (teamsters’ strike), we went to visit your folks and while we were there your parents took a vacation to Seighiro (?) Springs and we took care of the duties at home… Do you remember the horse “Duke?” Well, he was a retired racehorse, “a pacer.” Uncle Joe bought for $10 and shipped him to Collinsville and with good care he was your mother’s delight. I can still picture her driving down the wharf in Collinsville.
Less than a year later, John lost his mother. He did not handle his grief well and seems to have retreated from community life. He no longer sought office and almost never appeared in the paper over the next 30 years. When business trips to San Francisco or Fairfield occurred, his brother Bill did the traveling and represented the two parts of the upper ranch as one business concern. His relationship with his children, especially Lester, suffered as well. Lester remembers being “thrown out of the house” and sent to “an orphanage” when he was 13 or so. Around this time, John met and became involved with Frances Driscoll.
Some highlights about your mother. She loved to cook and garden (flowers). She followed the society pages and knew who was who, where they lived, and who they married. Once when she visited us, she went to the Three-hour Devotion at St. Ignatius by herself. St. Ignatius was on Hayes Street, that was just before the Earthquake. At one time (teamsters’ strike), we went to visit your folks and while we were there your parents took a vacation to Seighiro (?) Springs and we took care of the duties at home… Do you remember the horse “Duke?” Well, he was a retired racehorse, “a pacer.” Uncle Joe bought for $10 and shipped him to Collinsville and with good care he was your mother’s delight. I can still picture her driving down the wharf in Collinsville.
Less than a year later, John lost his mother. He did not handle his grief well and seems to have retreated from community life. He no longer sought office and almost never appeared in the paper over the next 30 years. When business trips to San Francisco or Fairfield occurred, his brother Bill did the traveling and represented the two parts of the upper ranch as one business concern. His relationship with his children, especially Lester, suffered as well. Lester remembers being “thrown out of the house” and sent to “an orphanage” when he was 13 or so. Around this time, John met and became involved with Frances Driscoll.
Frances Ellen Driscoll was born December 12, 1878, in Vallejo, California, to Jeremiah Driscoll (a day laborer from County Cork) and Honora Minehan. She was the seventh of 11 children and had been a seamstress. How she and John met is unknown. John and Frances were married on August 27, 1914, at St. Vincent Ferrer Church in Vallejo by Reverend Father Lamb. She was 37 and he was 49 years old. It was a small, quiet ceremony on a Thursday morning and none of the Callaghans were present. Frances’ brother Daniel and sister Mary were the witnesses. The marriage was followed by a breakfast at her parents’ house.
Several of the Callaghans had a reputation for the drink, but Frances was a teetotaler. After they married, John gave up alcohol completely. Nadine Zlatunich remembered Frances as a very nice, sweet lady. Every Sunday, after Mass, she and John would bring the funny papers to Jim's house for Nadine and her brother Bob to read when Rita brought them to visit. Being younger and not visiting as often, Dolores Quattrin did not really remember Frances at all, and all she could remembered about John was that he used to put egg shells and chicory in his coffee.
All three of John’s children moved to San Francisco in 1917. Whether the move was prompted by the relationships within the household or for economic reasons is unknown, but some combination of the two is likely. With his father Michael’s death in 1920, John did not inherit the part of the ranch on which he lived and worked. Michael wanted to make sure that it stayed in the Callaghan family and would not go to Frances. John received a life interest, meaning he could live there rent free and receive any income produced there, but the ownership was in the names of Ruth, Lester, and Madelyn. John and Frances were together for 27 years, but they did not appear in the local newspaper until his death.
In 1924, John became a grandfather for the first time when his youngest child, Madelyn had a daughter, Geraldine (Geri) Yvonne. Six years later, his son’s wife gave birth to a daughter, Dolores, as well. Dolores would be the only member of her generation to bear the Callaghan name and, other than Nadine’s son’s and Dolores’ grandson’s middle names, the Callaghan name ended with her. Because Lester and Madelyn lived in the City and John no longer traveled, he did not see his granddaughters very often. Les and Madelyn would occasionally come to visit at Christmas or during the summer, but neither drove, and the long bus ride with a toddler was difficult. When they did visit, they usually stayed in town—if the roads were too muddy to traverse—or at Uncle Jim’s house because they had more room. Neither of the girls remembered John as being particularly grandfatherly.
As John got older and became more isolated, his life seemed to be mirrored by the towns of Collinsville and Birds Landing. In 1919, a set of bridges across the Delta connected Rio Vista with Pittsburg. This spelled the beginning of the end for Collinsville. The train and shipping were replaced by truck and car traffic on Highway 12. In 1931, a fire burned down St. Charles Borromeo Church and, with the drop in population, it was decided not to rebuild it. The town slowly withered away and is officially a California Ghost Town. A fire on July 4th burned half of the remaining buildings in 2014. The Odd Fellows Hall and the warehouses in Birds Landing closed over the years, but the general store and its bar are still open. Kevin and his son Cian had memorial drink there in 2016 and talked to the Tonneson running the bar.
On February 5, 1941, John passed away of uremia at The Bunney Hospital, a private care facility in Fairfield. Having withdrawn from the community, his obituary says almost nothing about him other than “he was a rancher all his life.” No one remembered his baseball or public service days. He is buried with Ellen, Frank, and Gertrude in St. Joseph’s Cemetery.
With his death, John’s life interest in that quarter of the ranch which he occupied and worked ended in accord with the terms of his father’s will. In 1942, Lester and Madelyn decided to sell the Ranch to Neal Anderson, Jr., one of their Aunt Louise’s brothers. Frances had not known about Michael’s will and assumed she would inherit the ranch. She hired an attorney and began proceedings, but, once the facts were known, the suit was dropped. Frances moved back to 739 Louisiana Street, Vallejo, to live with her widowed sister Teresa Carrick in the house where they had both grown up. Teresa died in January of 1944, and Frances died on November 24, 1944.
Several of the Callaghans had a reputation for the drink, but Frances was a teetotaler. After they married, John gave up alcohol completely. Nadine Zlatunich remembered Frances as a very nice, sweet lady. Every Sunday, after Mass, she and John would bring the funny papers to Jim's house for Nadine and her brother Bob to read when Rita brought them to visit. Being younger and not visiting as often, Dolores Quattrin did not really remember Frances at all, and all she could remembered about John was that he used to put egg shells and chicory in his coffee.
All three of John’s children moved to San Francisco in 1917. Whether the move was prompted by the relationships within the household or for economic reasons is unknown, but some combination of the two is likely. With his father Michael’s death in 1920, John did not inherit the part of the ranch on which he lived and worked. Michael wanted to make sure that it stayed in the Callaghan family and would not go to Frances. John received a life interest, meaning he could live there rent free and receive any income produced there, but the ownership was in the names of Ruth, Lester, and Madelyn. John and Frances were together for 27 years, but they did not appear in the local newspaper until his death.
In 1924, John became a grandfather for the first time when his youngest child, Madelyn had a daughter, Geraldine (Geri) Yvonne. Six years later, his son’s wife gave birth to a daughter, Dolores, as well. Dolores would be the only member of her generation to bear the Callaghan name and, other than Nadine’s son’s and Dolores’ grandson’s middle names, the Callaghan name ended with her. Because Lester and Madelyn lived in the City and John no longer traveled, he did not see his granddaughters very often. Les and Madelyn would occasionally come to visit at Christmas or during the summer, but neither drove, and the long bus ride with a toddler was difficult. When they did visit, they usually stayed in town—if the roads were too muddy to traverse—or at Uncle Jim’s house because they had more room. Neither of the girls remembered John as being particularly grandfatherly.
As John got older and became more isolated, his life seemed to be mirrored by the towns of Collinsville and Birds Landing. In 1919, a set of bridges across the Delta connected Rio Vista with Pittsburg. This spelled the beginning of the end for Collinsville. The train and shipping were replaced by truck and car traffic on Highway 12. In 1931, a fire burned down St. Charles Borromeo Church and, with the drop in population, it was decided not to rebuild it. The town slowly withered away and is officially a California Ghost Town. A fire on July 4th burned half of the remaining buildings in 2014. The Odd Fellows Hall and the warehouses in Birds Landing closed over the years, but the general store and its bar are still open. Kevin and his son Cian had memorial drink there in 2016 and talked to the Tonneson running the bar.
On February 5, 1941, John passed away of uremia at The Bunney Hospital, a private care facility in Fairfield. Having withdrawn from the community, his obituary says almost nothing about him other than “he was a rancher all his life.” No one remembered his baseball or public service days. He is buried with Ellen, Frank, and Gertrude in St. Joseph’s Cemetery.
With his death, John’s life interest in that quarter of the ranch which he occupied and worked ended in accord with the terms of his father’s will. In 1942, Lester and Madelyn decided to sell the Ranch to Neal Anderson, Jr., one of their Aunt Louise’s brothers. Frances had not known about Michael’s will and assumed she would inherit the ranch. She hired an attorney and began proceedings, but, once the facts were known, the suit was dropped. Frances moved back to 739 Louisiana Street, Vallejo, to live with her widowed sister Teresa Carrick in the house where they had both grown up. Teresa died in January of 1944, and Frances died on November 24, 1944.
It is funny how the trajectory of a life can be changed so much over time. As a young couple, Ellen and John were popular and social. They had many friends and a position of honor and respect in the society where they lived. But the strain of the deaths of their children and of Ellen’s demise at such a young age distorted their hope and optimism, turning John into a hard man. That, in turn, twisted John’s relationship with his children in a way that limited the continuity of family devotion. Things might have been very different had Ellen lived, but it was not to be. Life seems to happen the way it is supposed to happen, regardless of the desires of those to whom it happens.