Month: March 2021

1846

Heinrich Thomann

(Jeff’s 4th Great Uncle)

Passed: Napa 1883

• Arrived in Sutter’s Fort 1846 prior to the Donner party, employed by John Sutter
• Took play in California’s first gold mining 1848, he had experience from the river Aare in Switzerland his native country where he had practical experience in washing the sands.
• 1852 purchased land from John Sutter and planted one of California’s first wine producing vineyards
• 1856 first vintage
• Saloon proprietor in old town Sacramento
• Was in Sonoma with General Guadalupe Vallejo (possibly during the Bear Flag Revolt)

1846

James C. Stice

Born: 1825

Died: 1875

(Bluford’s cousin)

• 1846 Enlisted in company B of General Fremont’s California Battalion also accompanied by Kit Carson.
• May of 1847 hired for a salvage mission to recover the remains of Jacob and George Donner’s possessions at Donner Lake following the tragic disaster.
• 1850 Sacramento, profession cattle drover

1857

Moses Stice

(1st. Generation of Stice family in Napa Valley)

(Jeff’s 4th Great Grandfather)

Born: 1805

Passed: 1893 

Wife: Elizabeth Betsy March

• 1860 purchased 70 acres of real estate in Rutherford.
• Owned vineyard in Rutherford 1880’s
• 1888 voter registration indicates him as a “Vineyardist”

1857

Bluford Stice

(Jeff’s 3rd Great Grandfather)

Born: 1825 Missouri

Passed: 1863 Baker, OR

Married: Martha Stice 12-28-1843 in Scotland, MO

Born: 1830 Missouri

Passed:1861 Napa, CA (after the birth of their 8th child)

• 1846 rumored of travels with General Fremont to California.
• 1857 led wagon train of 99 friends and family upon departure from Missouri to arrive in Napa Valley with 100. (Birth along the trail)
• 1858 purchases 148 acres of farmland with a partner in north Napa.
• 1861 wife Martha passes away after giving birth to their 8th child, he eventually settles children with family in the Napa Valley.  The youngest two children, Lafayette(Jeff’s Great, Great Grandfather) and William are left under the care of Blufords sister, Lurinda Stice. 
• 1862 sets out on news of a gold strike in Baker County, OR.
• September 29, 1862 writes a detailed letter to Napa’s local newspaper “The Pacific Echo” see attached:

“Powder River Mines

Oregon, Sept. 29, 1862

EDITOR PACIFIC ECHO:-Dear Sir:  This place is situated three miles north of Powder River, and some 80 or 100 miles above its junction with the Snake River, on the north side.  It is a flourishing mining camp, and has a population of about 3,000.  There are some 150 families here – mostly immigrants from the East.

I am satisfied that the mines here will pay fair wages – generally from $3 to $20 per day.  The miners in this camp have done but little yet, on account of having no water.  Several ditches are underway that will afford water another summer.  The miners will do well next spring.  I pitched my tent here the 12th day of June, half a mile below where the town was started.  There was then one log cabin and two trading tents; now the town has extended some 300 feet below me.  There are some 12 – 15 hotels, restaurants and bakeries, some 20 stores and 6 or 8 hay yards, and 7 butcher shops.  I will give you the prices.  Flour $16 per hundred, bacon 35 cents per pound, sugar 30, coffee 50, beans 30, rice 30, tobacco $2 per pound, fresh beef 12 1/2 cents and 15 cents, dried apples 40, peaches 50, gum boots $13 to $15 per pair, leather boots $8, shoes $3.  Clothing and everything else is about the same proportion. There is a large extent of mines here, about 100 miles in length by about 30 in width, and the miners daily are making new, and some, rich discoveries, in different localities.  The gold is generally coarse, the largest piece brought in here weighed two and a half pounds.”

•    1863 dies in hydraulic mining accident at one of his two mining claims, this area today is known as “Stices Gulch”

1858

John Thomann

(Jeff’s 3rd Great Grandfather)

Born: Canton Aargau Switzerland, 1836

Passed: 1900

• Migrated to New York in 1858 then to California via Panama at the age of 22.
• 1858 engaged in the nursery and wine business in Sacramento for two years with Uncle Heinrich Thomann.
• 1859 one of the first to make brandy in the state of California, both peach and grape.
• 1874 built 200,000 gallon cellar in St. Helena, along with a 800 gallon per day brandy distillery.(today’s Sutter Home Winery)
• 1874  130 acre ranch on Howell Mountain, 45 acres planted to vineyard
• 1880-1882 Supervisor of Napa County, “Hot Springs Township”
• Director St. Helena Bank
• Director St. Helena Bonded Warehouse
• Director St. Helena Turn Verein
• Shareholder St. Helena Water Company

1860

Lurinda Stice Harris

(Bluford’s sister)

Born: 1844

Passed: 1931

Married: February 1860 to Henry Harrison Harris(former Napa County Sheriff)

• 1860 in the vineyard business.
• 1887 Henry and Lurinda build a winery, H. H. Harris Wine cellar in Rutherford.
• First generation of the Stice family to make wine in Napa County
• 1863 upon Blufords sudden death Henry and Lurinda go on to raise Lafayette and William Stice (Blufords youngest two children)
• H. H. Harris wine cellar was eventually leased to Georges De Latour.

1890

Lafayette Stice

(Jeff’s Great, Great Grandfather)

Born: 1860 Napa, CA

Passed: 1937 St. Helena, CA

Wife: Sarah Isabelle Turner

Born: 1859

Passed: 1941

• 1890’s winemaker Brun & Chaix winery on Howell Mountain.(currently Cade 13th.)
• 1900’s winemaker at Gustave Niebaum’s Inglenook Vineyards in Rutherford.
• Winemaker at Henry Harris Winery in Rutherford.(currently Martin Estate)
• 1915 won 19 medals at the Panama-Pacific international exposition in San Francisco, more than any other CA winery, (while at Inglenook)
• Managed To Kalon vineyard in Oakville in the years prior to prohibition.
• 1919 leased Sutter Home Winery before the 18th. Amendment deadline of January, 1920.  This was an attempt to get one last crush in prior to prohibition.
• 1921 purchased 90 acres south of St. Helena, 40 acres were planted to grapes. (Today known as “Stice Lane”) during these years of prohibition the grapes were harvested and shipped across the country in small packaging for “home winemaking” as it was still allowed under the 18th amendment.
• Operated a butcher shop during some of the prohibition years.