BUTTERFIELD, B BIOGRAPHY

 

BUTTERFIELD, B.F.

Among the many resident pioneers is the subject of this sketch. He was born in Goffstown, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, on July 24, 1817. He was educated in the common schools of Goffstown, and taught in merchan­tile pursuits For some years he sailed on the lakes be­tween the ports of Buffalo and Chicago. He came to this State on the first trip of the steamship “Falcon” from New Orleans to the mouth of the Chagres River, up the river in a canoe, and came across the Isthmus on a mule, and from Panama to San Francisco on the first trip of the old steam­ship California, which arrived in San Francisco February 28, 1849.

Here he remained till the latter part of March, then came to Jamestown.  At a point now called old Jamestown, on the opposite side of the creek from the main camp, he erected a store, made of canvass and logs, and commenced general merchandizing, and has continuously followed that business to the present time. This is the oldest store in the county, and Mr. Butterfield was one of the first to em­bark in mercantile pursuits in old Tuolumne. Married Amanda Melvina Currier, a native of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

“A History of Tuolumne County, California” B.F. Alley, 1882. Pg. 360-361.

Submitted by: Nancy Pratt Melton