A new article has been added at Newspaper Abstracts > United States > California > Contra Costa http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/index.php?action=displaycat&catid=561 Also visit our new sister site: http://www.Genealogy101.com Direct link to article: http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/link.php?id=37703 Submitted by: Eileen Gillette Article Title: Contra Costa Gazette Article Date: December 13 1919 Article Description: Captain Durham Of Concord Passes Away At Home On Friday Article Text: Captain J. A. (Joshua Elder) DURHAM for many years a resident of Ygnacio Valley passed away at his home there on Friday afternoon following a brief illness. His death came as a result of the infirmities attendant on his advanced years, he being four score and ten at the time of his death. Captain DURHAM was for years one of the active citizens of Contra Costa county and his friends an acquaintances in all sections are numbered by the hundreds. He was generally interested in matteers of civil and community life and in his passing Contra Cosa county has lost a man whose life and activities were important factors in moulding the early history of this section. The well known and prosperous farmer of Contra Costa county, was born in Sumner county, Tennessee, December 6, 1829. Losing his mother at an early age, his father transfered his residence to Arkansas; from there , at the expiration of a year, he proceeded to Berry county, Missouri, where the deceased attended school six years. He then returned to Arkansas with his father for six more years, and finally back to his former home in Missouri, where he maintained a continuous residence until March 1850. At this date he proceeded to Independence, and joined a government train., proceeding to Laramie as a teamster. Here he associated himself with a train of Mormons en route for Salt Lake City, where he passed the winter and in the following spring continued his journey towards California arriving in Georgetown, El Dorado county in June 1851. In the vicinity of that place DURHAM prospected mining until the years 1853, when he moved to San Joaquin valley and found employment of different ranches until 1870-- farming, running a stage and at one time owning the ferry at the mouth of the Stanislaus river. In the last mentioned year DURHAM came to Contra Costa county and purchased valuable property, three hundred and five acres, four and a half miles from Pacheco, situated in the Ygnacio Valley , where he engaged in farming and stock raising, a large portion of his attention being devoted to the breeding of thoroughbred horses of which he had some remarkably fine specimens. DURHAM was also possessed of four hundred and thirty four acres at Bay Point, all valuable, fertile land. He married firstly, in San Francisco, October 2, 1862, Miss June (should be Jane) E. SHERMAN, a native of Ohio with whom he had seven children, viz Burnett S., Melvina I., Fannie, Cora E., Levi R., Amelia and John (deceased); secondly, in Pacheco, October 10, 1877, Miss Malvina (Melvina) E. STRICKLAND, a native of Illinois, by whom there are no issue. The deceased was the father of Lee DURHAM for years a resident of this city and assistant cashier of the Bank of Martinez. He was also the father of Mrs. A.B. McKENZIE. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ CA-Old-News ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ NewspaperAbstracts.com - Finding our ancestors in the news! TM http://www.NewspaperAbstracts.com