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John Shafer

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John Shafer

Birth	:	14 Feb 1824 Bedford County, Pennsylvania, USA
Death	:	7 Dec 1893 Parlier, Fresno County, California, USA
Burial	:	Mendocino Cemetery, Parlier, Fresno County, USA
Coordinate	:	36.6204400, -119.5475400
Description	:	JOHN SHAFER It would be difficult, perhaps, to find a more profitable subject for entertaining study than the lives of those early pioneers who, having set out for a promised land and weathered all the obstacles and adversities of a stormy career, lived to participate in the founding and development of the great commonwealth of the Golden State, and thereby entered into a reward for their toil and good works not always granted even the most meritorious. Among such Americans of the enviable class may well be enumerated John Shafer, now deceased, a man of insight... Read More	JOHN SHAFER It would be difficult, perhaps, to find a more profitable subject for entertaining study than the lives of those early pioneers who, having set out for a promised land and weathered all the obstacles and adversities of a stormy career, lived to participate in the founding and development of the great commonwealth of the Golden State, and thereby entered into a reward for their toil and good works not always granted even the most meritorious. Among such Americans of the enviable class may well be enumerated John Shafer, now deceased, a man of insight and great force of character, who was born at Everett, Bedford County. Pa., then called Bloody Run. on February 14, 1824. He grew up in Pennsylvania, attending the first public schools of his section, and himself taught school for several vears in Bedford County. The Shafers, of most respectable German origin, had lived in Pennsylvania from early Colonial times, and members of the Shafer family still dwell in the house made of heavy solid red cedar logs where John Shafer was born. He became a drover, and bought and sold cattle for an important firm in the East. In their interest, he went to Texas. Arizona and New Mexico, purchased cattle for the market, and drove them to Philadelphia and New York before there were any railroads in the Southwest. In 1852. he tame across the great plains, as captain of an ox team train that outfitted on the Missouri River, and he walked most of the way and was three months in crossing the continent. Arriving in California the same fall. Mr. Shafer bought swamp and overflow land on the Sacramento River,and cut off the timber for wood for the steamboats plying from Sacramento to San Francisco, before the advent of railroads ; and when food and provisions were scarce, he planted the cleared land to vegetables, and went in for truck farming as onions, etc. sold for fifty cents apiece, later putting his application to the cultivation of grain, alfalfa, apples and fruit, being one of the first to engage in the important industry of market gardening in the Sacramento Valley. On February 22. 1860, John Shafer was married at Stockton to Miss Matilda Thankful Humphrey, a native of Rochester, N. Y.. who had been reared in Michigan. She crossed the plains in 1854 with her parents in an ox team, and like her husband, walked nearly all the way. Four children blessed their union. The eldest is W. H. Shafer, the civil engineer at Selma, a leader in his profession, who has long been connected with irrigation projects in Fresno County, and whose life is elsewhere sketched in detail in this work. The second in the order of birth is the physician and surgeon, J. E. Shafer, of 2815 Woolsey Street, Berkeley. He was born at Stockton on September 28. 1863, and passed his boyhood in Sacramento County, where he attended the public schools. Later, he taught school in different parts of California and then studied medicine, and was graduated from the Hahnemann Medical College at San Francisco, a member of the Class of '97; in 1889 he was married in Santa Barbara County to Miss Jennie Harman, by whom he has had three children. Since then he has lived in and practiced at Berkeley. The third son is Frank E. Shafer, the retired oil man, who is resident in Pasadena. The youngest child was John A. Shafer, who died, unmarried, when he was twenty-one years of age. John Shafer was a public-spirited, high-minded man, and it is not surprising that the Shafers have become among the most illustrious of California pioneers. He organized the first reclamation district and built the first levee on Brannan Island; in 1873. He was particularly interested in public schools, and erected the first school house on that island, forty miles below Sacramento. He stayed in Sacramento County from 1852 to 1882, when he moved to the Mendocino district in Fresno County, and there bought a farm of 160 acres, the McClanahan place. Later, he purchased railroad lands in the same vicinity, which he also improved, planting grain and alfalfa, and afterwards vines and trees. He became well-to-do, but not rich, and was influential, so that his death from an accidental injury on December 7. 1893, seven months after the demise of his devoted wife, on May 6, 1893, was widely and sincerely deplored. He left in his descendants men and women of virility and force of character, a brainy family with a proper appreciation of historical detail, as one might expect of pioneer blood, and a strong grasp on the essentials of business procedure.∼"John Shafer, for many years one of Fresno County's most highly respected and influential farmers, died at his home in the Mendocino District early this morning. He came to California in 1852, and devoted his attention to mining in the northern part of the state. He soon secured land in the Sacramento Valley and remained there until 1857 when he went to Stockton to live. There, in 1860, he met and married Matilda T. Fish. In 1863, they moved up on the Sacramento River where they remained until 1882, when they moved to this county and located on the present home place, where Mrs. Shafer passed from time to eternity on the sixth of last May. Mr. Shafer was naturally heart sore and lonely at the loss of his life time companion, and on last Wednesday he fell an easy victim to illness and crossed the dark river to join his loved ones gone before where we all hope to meet with the good of all ages to enjoy the bliss of heaven for all eternity. Funeral services will be held at the Baptist Church tomorrow, after which the remains will be interred in the IOOF Cemetery, where the remains of his son and his wife have preceded him." - The Selma Enterprise for December 7, 1893 -

frequently asked questions (FAQ):

Where is John Shafer's memorial?
John Shafer's memorial is located at: Mendocino Cemetery, Parlier, Fresno County, USA.
When did John Shafer death?
John Shafer death on 7 Dec 1893 in Parlier, Fresno County, California, USA
Where are the coordinates of the John Shafer's memorial?
Latitude: 36.6204400
Longitude: -119.5475400

Family Members:

Spouse

Matilda Thankful Humphrey Shafer

(1825 - 1893)

Children

William Herbert Shafer

(1861 - 1946)

Frank E Shafer

(1866 - 1933)

John A Shafer

(1868 - 1889)

Flowers:

Nearby Cemetories:

1. Mendocino Cemetery
Parlier, Fresno County, USA
Coordinate: 36.6204400, -119.5475400

2. Bethel Cemetery
Sanger, Fresno County, USA
Coordinate: 36.6777510, -119.5812420

3. Del Rey Cemetery
Fresno County, USA
Coordinate: 36.6615000, -119.6106400

4. Floral Memorial Park
Selma, Fresno County, USA
Coordinate: 36.5769005, -119.6164017

5. North Selma Cemetery
Selma, Fresno County, USA
Coordinate: 36.5752110, -119.6206860

6. Reedley Cemetery
Reedley, Fresno County, USA
Coordinate: 36.5819016, -119.4569016

7. Old IOOF Cemetery
Selma, Fresno County, USA
Coordinate: 36.5577050, -119.6165660

8. Salem Cemetery
Sanger, Fresno County, USA
Coordinate: 36.6849700, -119.6152000

9. West Selma Cemetery
Selma, Fresno County, USA
Coordinate: 36.5589100, -119.6200820

10. Fowler Cemetery
Fowler, Fresno County, USA
Coordinate: 36.6116982, -119.6836014

11. Sanger Cemetery
Sanger, Fresno County, USA
Coordinate: 36.7266998, -119.5092010

12. Kingsburg Cemetery
Kingsburg, Fresno County, USA
Coordinate: 36.5043983, -119.5578003

13. Phillips Family Cemetery
Fresno County, USA
Coordinate: 36.6690420, -119.4127810

14. Seventh Day Adventist Cemetery
Dinuba, Tulare County, USA
Coordinate: 36.5313988, -119.4293976

15. Zion Krimmer Mennonite Brethren Church Cemetery
Dinuba, Tulare County, USA
Coordinate: 36.5168440, -119.4328000

16. Akers Cemetery
Centerville, Fresno County, USA
Coordinate: 36.7474100, -119.4729700

17. Fairview Cemetery
Sanger, Fresno County, USA
Coordinate: 36.7648800, -119.5699200

18. Traver Cemetery
Traver, Tulare County, USA
Coordinate: 36.4740000, -119.4918100

19. Smith Mountain Cemetery
Dinuba, Tulare County, USA
Coordinate: 36.5546989, -119.3458023

20. Redbank Cemetery
Clovis, Fresno County, USA
Coordinate: 36.8088989, -119.5761032

21. Hazelton Cemetery
Fresno County, USA
Coordinate: 36.7860100, -119.4298000

22. Washington Colony Cemetery
Fresno, Fresno County, USA
Coordinate: 36.6294510, -119.7906090

23. Kings River Cemetery
Hanford, Kings County, USA
Coordinate: 36.4150009, -119.6444016

24. Oak Grove Cemetery
Laton, Fresno County, USA
Coordinate: 36.4468400, -119.7635000