Alameda County Biographies WILLIAM TYSON Transcribed by Kathy Sedler This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives (deceased). The following sketch of this pioneer, whose portrait appears in our work, was written for the Rural Press at the time of his death: �One after another those hardy and enterprising men who helped to found our State are passing from our midst. Their lives of toil and wonderful adventure along the cloudy Sierra and in forgotten mining-camps, and over plains now smiling with golden harvests, had a freshness and a sense of delight which few of their children can ever know. Everything concerning our pioneers is of such interest that we narrate a few events in the life of Wm. Tyson, who died at his residence at Niles, on the first of last July. The surroundings of a man�s childhood do much to form his character, and it is pleasant to know that Mr. Tyson�s earlier life was passed among historic scenes. In the extreme northwestern corner of England, separated from Scotland by the Cheviot Hills, lies the county of Cumberland, whose county town is Carlisle. Once forming a part of the kingdom of Northumberland, it became later the scene of border life and frontier adventure in the days of Percy and of the Scottish marches. Peopled by a brave and hardy race of miners, mountaineers, and farmers, the Saxons mingled with the Normans less here than elsewhere, and the blue eyes and brown hair of the Saxons are oftenest seen. The Tyson family was one of worth and respectability in the rugged portion of Cumberland. They possessed the old fair-haired Saxon type, and both sons and daughters were remarkable, even in a sterner age, for bodily strength and health. William was one of eight children � five boys and three girls � and was born on the 5th of December, 1820. Dairying was the family occupation, but as William grew up, he began to show a painstaking industry and a taste for the use of tools, and his mother dying when he was thirteen, he was apprenticed to the carpenter�s trade, after the thorough way of those good old times, when trades were well learned. The earnest lad was always busy and patient, going on from step to step until he became a good house carpenter, joiner, and wagon-maker before he was twenty-one. In 1841, at the town of Maryeport, he became an Odd Fellow, and ever after kept up his connection with that Order. This was the time when much interest was felt in America among the middle and yeomanry classes. So, in the fall of 1841, following out a long-cherished plan, he came to the United States, and, going West, settled in Columbus City, Louisa County, Iowa. In 1846 he moved to the town of Grand View, and pursued his trade of wagon-making. The following year he married Emmeline Morrison, and removed to the little town of Port Louisa, where he remained until the gold excitement in California. On the 15th of March, 1849, Mr. Tyson, his wife, and infant son, with his brother-in-law, Wm. Morrison, started for California. By the 6th of May a company of nineteen wagons had been organized, for the sake of comfort and protection; but after traveling together four days, Mr. Tyson and two others left the company, and continued in advance, being able to travel faster. Game was abundant and easily obtained, Mr. Tyson being the crack shot of the party. He shot the first buffalo seen, and afterwards, whilst near Donner Lake, killed five pheasants at one shot. The party made a trail along the Truckee, and it is remembered with some amusement that they crossed that river twenty-seven times in one day. They saw the sad remembrances of the Donner party, and soon after began the wearisome ascent of the Sierra Nevada, using ten or twelve pairs of oxen to pull each wagon up, and letting them down on the western slope with heavy ropes. The 12th of September brought them safely to Sacramento, the only sad event of the journey having been the death of their child, William Perry Tyson. The early pioneers did not loaf. The Tysons, young and hopeful, went to Hangtown (now called Placerville) in El Dorado County, and opened a boarding-house. But in three weeks Mr. Tyson and his brother-in-law bought a claim for three hundred dollars, took out over one thousand dollars, sold the claim, and began work in loose diggings which paid sixteen dollars per day. Hearing of better places they started to find them, but the floods prevented their going beyond Georgetown, and they went to Sacramento for a load of groceries to start a store, but on their return the mining-camp was almost deserted. With his capital tied up in heavy groceries Mr. Tyson�s energy did not fail him, and, with the aid of his faithful wife, he packed his goods to Bird�s Valley, and again kept boarding-house. In the fall of 1850, whilst in Sacramento, he received a letter from his brother-in-law, Perry Morrison, then in San Jose Valley, which decided him to realize a long desire, and become a farmer. Closing up his business he came to the Mission San Jose, and bought a settler�s claim to a beautiful tract near the Alameda Creek. Here he brought his family; here he lived a quiet, useful life, universally respected and loved for his genial temper and uprightness. His boys and girls began to cluster around him, and the cares of life perplexed him, but he was always the same cheerful philosopher. His friends wanted him to run for office, but he always refused. As an instance of his probity, we may mention the fact that when the county treasury at Alvarado was robbed, two of the four bondsmen failed to appear; but Mr. Tyson and his brother-in-law, the remaining two bondsmen, paid the county�s claims without question. In 1872 Mr. Tyson and his loving wife celebrated their silver wedding, and it was a great occasion in the neighborhood. In the same year his eldest son, William Henry, married Miss Jennie Bonner, an old schoolmate. In 1874 his eldest daughter, Clara, married Mr. Martenstien, of San Francisco, and they have one child. In all Mr. Tyson left six sons and three daughters living. He loved home so well that he traveled but little. He went over the northern counties, however, with the publishers of the Rural and others this spring, and his mining stories, jokes, and wise sayings were a treat to us all. His years sat lightly, and none of us dreamed of his sudden departure. He was especially sorry that he could not see A. J. Loomis, of Red Bluff, his old companion across the plains. Upon the little mound where lies the man we loved, we can only lay a leaf of memory and respect for his qualities as a friend, a father, a citizen. May peace rest upon the house of the mourning, and may his sons be manly and noble, as was their father. Such quiet, untroubled lives as his are the best hope of the nation.� History of Alameda County, California�, Oakland, M.W. Wood Publ., 1883, p. 988-989