Digby Nova Scotia to Knights Ferry, California

Isaac works in Tuleburg

It is a mystery to me why and how Isaac Dakin grew to manhood, decided to leave Digby and head southwest. All that I know is that Isaac was born in 1826 in Digby and by the 1850's was a blacksmith in Tuleburg, California. Tuleburg, later known as Stockton, was a port that supplied central California from ships traveling up the Stockton River from the San Francisco Bay. The area exploded with activity as would-be goldminers known as '49ers' descended on the area surrounding Sutter's Mill. Isaac worked in a blacksmith's shop when he met Laura Marie Jameson.

Stockton is to the northwest from Knights Ferry about 45 miles Farmington is about half way to Stockton

Contested Dates

It is a bit fuzzy exactly what happened here, because there is more than one source of information. According to John Criswell, writing about Knights Ferry history, Laura and Isaac were married in Tuleburg, gathered all their belongings and moved to Knights Ferry in 1853. He writes: "On April 2, 1853, two ox-powered freight wagons pulled into Knight's Ferry and stopped in the plaza on Main St. One wagon, loaded with blacksmithing equipment and supplies, was driven by Isaac Dakin. The other, containing personal articles was driven by Isaac's new bride, the former Laura Jameson." The Dakin Family Bible contests this dating. The Bible was given to Laura on January 21, 1861 and records in a flourishing hand that Isaac and Laura were married December 31, 1859. Irene Paden, daughter of Isaac & Laura's first child, Wilbur, writes in Big Oak Flat Road to Yosemite that Isaac and his family built and occupied their house in Knights Ferry in the late '50's. All this is to say, when there is more than one source there is likely a controversy. Gratefully, the rest of the story only briefly interupts John Criswell's Knight's Ferry's Century Old Structures, 1981.

Oh, Canada!

An Interesting Mix
It appears that the rejection of Puritanism ran wider than religious conviction. The Dakin brood had a diverse and complex expression of loyalties and aversions. After Timothy became Quaker and moved with his wife Lydia to New Amsterdam (Dutch colony) there seems to be a partial change of direction in the next generation. Thomas, who was mentioned briefly in the last post, reverses field, at least in political pursuasion.

Heading North
A year after his mother's last child was born, twenty-five year old Thomas Dakin was married to Rebecca Hitchcock in near by Amenia, New York (1772). Rebecca was from the Connecticut coastal town of Norwalk some 25 miles south of Danbury. They began having children 8 years later with Daniel (1780). Three years later, with a second child in tow, the Dakins move from New York to Digby, Nova Scotia. There the rest of the Dakins were born in or around Digby: Isaac (1783), Jacob (1786), Rebecca (1788), William F. (1791), and Thomas (1796).


While today moves are often inspired by economic pressures, in these early years, as we have seen, families move in response to religious and political forces (which may also have economic implications). Thomas and Rebecca seemed to have moved to Digby, because they were Loyalists to the Crown.

A Political Flavor
In 1783, Admiral Robert Digby established Digby, Nova Scotia. The central theme of the new municipality was loyalty to the King (George III, no less). The movement at the time was called United Empire Loyalists and many American loyalists became part of the colony. Thomas' name appears among 300 others on a Land Grant of Confirmation for Digby February 20, 1784. As recently as 2008 there was a Dakin reunion in colaboration with 3 other families gathering 75 people from California, Texas, and other unlikely contributors to Nova Scotia. Even more surprising was that these families celebrated their Loyalist roots!

The Trades
The Nova Scotian Dakins that followed were particularly focused on shipbuilding out of near by Centreville and fishing out of Grand Harbour, New Brunswick. One of the oldest structures in Digby is still known as the Woodrow/Dakin House. For other interesting bits of history Google: Admiral Digby Museum.

The Next Generation of Canadian Dakins
The last of Thomas' offspring was, again, Thomas (b. Trout Cove, 24 October, 1796) The children seem to have taken turns being born either in Digby or Trout Cove, a near by town. Thomas married Eliza Morton (b 21, April, 1800) in May, 1822. Eliza was born in Digby Neck, another Digby spinoff. Their children consolidated their landings in one place: Centreville, NS. They were Lucy Ann, Charles Morton, Isaac, Silas, Robert Henry, Margaret Catharine, Albion Leonard, Solomon Morton, Thomas Allen and Mary Eliza (died as a child).

This is the Isaac We Are Looking For
This Isaac Dakin is the one we know from Laurel Glen. He was born in Centreville, Nova Scotia. but the next time we hear from him he is living in Stockton, California and courting a young woman named Laura Maria Jameson. Stay tuned.

What's in a Name?

Oblong Boy marries Normal Girl
Some years ago, someone told me the story of going to Illinois and picking up a newspaper that had an article with the title "Oblong Boy Marries Normal Girl." The article recounted the wedding of a young man from Oblong, IL, marrying a young woman from Normal, IL. The person's point was that context determines meaning. In a moment you will see the connection with Timothy Dakin's family and that odd names seem to be a theme of this part of the Dakin story.


Maybe Not Completely in Concord
In Hulda's 54th year (1723), Timothy was born in Concord, MA. We can assume that he grew up in Concord and in 1744 was married to Lydia Fish. The religion of Timothy is list in a little used line of the vitals as "Society of Friends (Quakers)" and to re-enforce the importance of that notation, the couple's first (for whom we have birth record) child, Thomas, was born in Quaker Hill, NY.


If There Is Anything I Can't Stand It Is An Intolerant Person
So how did Timothy become a Quaker? The only clue I've turned up is that Lydia was from Portsmouth, RI. The irony that Rhode Island was the only colony that provided religious freedom for its residents when all of New England was filled with those who had come to New England to escape religious perscution seems to have been totally lost on Puritans in general and probably those in Concord. Many a Quaker had been convicted of witch craft so Rhode Island was an oasis of sorts. Though it is far from certain, it could be that Lydia came from a Quaker family and was instrumental in converting Timothy. How Timothy met Lydia and, even more, how he could have left the watchful eye of his parents at age 20 to become entangled with a woman of another faith is yet a mystery. What is not a mystery is that once he became part of the Society of Friends, Timothy (and Lydia) left Concord or perhaps never lived in Concord at all for friendlier climes.


More Contention
The next step has a couple of interesting twists. The child after Thomas, was born in Oblong, NY. Oblong was not a town, but rather the description of a section of land under despute between Conneticut (English) and New Amsterdam (Dutch) later called New York, colonies. Oblong is in Putnam County, NY, on the other side of the state line from Danbury, CT.


A Name Preserved
If that were not curious enough. The child's name was "Preserved Fish." It is difficult to imagine a more cruel misuse of parental power than to name one's child Preserved Fish. Coming to the defense of the parents one might argue, well Lydia's maiden name was Fish so the middle name could be explained as keeping the family name alive. Perhaps, "preserved" had a spiritual connotation. Maybe, the child had been miraculously spared death during child birth. A little more looking provides another explanation, at least for Timothy & Lydia's child. Lydia's father's name was Thomas. His father's name was "Preserved Fish." Lydia appears to have had some some serious influence in religion and names in the family.


Strong Women
It was somewhat unusual for the mother's family names to be given to the first two male children, especially one that one which rather than being preserved deserved extinction after its first use. It appears that in the last two Dakin generations, moms were a considerable force within the family.



The children of Timothy and Lydia came along about every 2-3 years between 1745 and 1771: Ruth, Thomas, Preserved Fish, Worster, Mercy, Phebe, Mary, Paul, Timothy, Joshua, Zebulon, and Ebenezer.

Dakin Immigrants

Dakins Arrive in North America
Now that we know a little bit about the most recent Dakins, let's go back a ways to Henry's roots as the Dakins move across the pond and to the United States. Henry's parents and their people stretch in a line back to those living in the British Isles in the early 1600's. Sorry, no pictures of the folks in England, but when our new computer arrives I'll post pictures of Concord, MA, taken on a visit there. Back in England and into their days in New England, their memory is often summarized in lines of names and places, dates of births, marriages and deaths. So it will not take long to recount that history, though it lasted some 200 years (1635 to 1826). There some interesting twists to it. And here we will also speculate on some odd names, follow the line into, out of and back into the US, and try to account for some strange dates.

Concord, Massachusetts
It is easy to find the beginning point. Thomas Dakin was born at an undisclosed location in England on May 6, 1624. Thomas and his parents, John and Alice (?) came to America in 1635 on the ship "Abigail" and made their home in Concord, MA. It is difficult to tell whether the family came directly to Concord. Concord was established in 1635 by Rev. Peter Bulkley and Simon Willard. It was called Concord in acknowledgement of the peaceful acquisition of the 6 square mile area purchased from local Indians. The soil was rich for farming and the confluence of two rivers, the Sudbury and Assebet Rivers, provided a bounty of fish. "He (Bulkley) was noted even among Puritans for the superlative stiffness of his Puritanism. "

Puritan Settlement
It is likely, then, that the town Bulkley established followed his lead and that the Dakin family were not only Puritans, but that, like the Puritan experiment in Boston, the town was seen as a religous enclave whose market, government and culture were dominated by Puritan directives.

Thomas was 36 when he married Susan in Concord. The two had four children John (named for Thomas' father), Simon, Mary (who died as a child) and Joseph. The entire family continued to live out their lives at Concord, MA. Simon Sr. was born in approximately 1663. Simon's wife, Elizabeth, introduced 7 children to the world, all in Concord, MA. The first of the children was named Simon (born May 20, 1694) in the (almost) universal practice of naming the first son after his father. Simon Sr. was 31. Inexplicably, the next two children, Ebenezer and Samuel are born in "the Carolinas" in 1696 and 1700. Whether the family went on a short busines venture or what is difficult to tell. Since we don't know Simon Jr.'s occupation it is difficult to tell what would have drawn them to live in the Carolinas for 4-5 years.

Simon Jr's mother, Susan, died during this time away on February 26,1698. Simon Jr's father, Thomas lived another 10 years dying at age 84.

Unusual Marriage
Simon Jr married Hulda Cheney from Newbury, MA (some 35 miles to the noretheast and just above Boston) in 1718. Here we run into sa curious and almost unbelievable set of numbers. Hulda, the record says, was born in 1669, about the time that his mother was probably born! Which would make her 49 when she was married (25 years older than Simon Jr) and 54 when the second of 4, Timothy, was born (the last child we have birth records for). But, since there were two live births after, Hudah was pregnant at 56. It seems like a typographical error, except births and marriage of Hulda's parents seem to substantiate her age. Hulda's parents were married in 1663 and she was the 4th of 13 children, making the timing for her birth in 1669 about right.

When I first saw her birth date, I had speculation that numbers had been transposed and she was actually born in 1696, 3o years later. In 1696 her parents would have been 57 and 53 and her father had been dead for 2 years. Oh well.

Loyalists or Patriots
To this point, the Dakins have been in the new world (not yet the United States) for almost 100 years. The whole time (as far as we know) they lived in Concord, MA. All indications are that the clan that came from Thomas & Susan in 1635 would have been sizable in 1723. So far as week know all continued to live in Concord. Concord continued to grow and support adequately its residents and provide the kind of community life for which the will soon fight to protect against the British. It seems all the more likely that if those in Concord including the Dakins were prepared to violently sever relations with the country of their cousins, they were not feeling all that close to Britain in the first place. Perhaps, they still felt the remnant feelings of resentment for religious persecution that motivated their immigration.

We are a 100+ years from our friends Isaac Dakin & Laura Jameson who lived in Soquel. We'll get to them in the next post or two.

Part of Something Bigger

Laurel Glen Fruit Farm circa 1890.

What follows is the 1955 Santa Cruz Sentinel article referred to in the last post. The article included the picture above and described the Soquel area in general and Laurel Glen in particular.

Ever since the earliest explorers sailed along the coast of California and wrote in their records impressions of the forest-crowned mountains adjacent to Monterrey bay, the Santa Cruz hinterland has been noted for its verdure and fertility.

With the coming of the early settlers, scattered Indian "rancherras"Became the ranchos of the Dons, whose Spanish background was apparent with the picturesque adobe casas, Where often grew "roses of Castile.

The interim between the era of Mission life and the advent of Americans and other foreigners was the day of large and influential Californian families, a time of picturesque and romantic life. These families received large grants of land through the county. In 1833, Martina Castro, a sister of Rafael, who was granted the Aptos rancho, Received the Soquel, And in 1844 the Augmentation.

When the carefree days of the fandango and 'los rodeos' finally faded, the American gringos gradually replaced the earlier ranchos with their farms and New England type dwellings.

Over the Grade

Time was when the "old San Jose road," winding up the canyon of Soquel creek, was a main highway to the Santa Clara valley, "over beyond Loma Prieta. "Up through the rolling hills there appeared many a vineyard and orchard, with smiling homesteads - houses and barns and orderly rows of orchard trees between.

On the forested slopes of the 'hills of Santa Cruz' decayed vegetation had for centuries enriched the soil. To this recurring enrichment is due the marvelous fertility of the mountain acres.

In succeeding years, the thrifty farmer, where had grown vast forests, developed fruit farms, enriching their owners and improving the country. The mountain slopes and glens had sufficient exposure to the sun and with rich, well moistened soil were adapted to the growth of fruits and vegetables.

Finest Farm Produce

Famous vineyards produced best grapes from which award-winning wines were made. Mountain apples, still on the finest, peaches, prunes, plums, vegetables of all kinds have long come from the adjacent hills.

Ferns still raise their fronds among the crested heights, And intervening patches of redwood forest are diversified with madrone, Oak, maple, spruce and many other woodland natives.

Today's picture of the well --watered acres of the famous Dakin ranch, known for many years as Laurel Glen Fruit Farm, with its neat orchards, buildings and open acreage, was taken about 65 years ago. Located four miles from Soquel, On Laurel Glen road, off the Old San Jose road, it was an outstanding example of the farms thereabouts which heralded the present era. (Note scattered stumps in foreground, indicating recently cleared ground.)

Laurel Glen was founded by Isaac M. Dakin, A native of Maine, who married a Vermont girl and brought a touch of New England to the Soquel region by way of Knight's Ferry, California, where their children were born.

A Look Back

Laurel Glen Fruit Farm

(Theres is not date on this picture only "Santa Cruz News")









In "Grandfather Dakin's Farm" Ruthalee Dakin Mauldin tells the story of her 1991 visit to the house at Laurel Glen where she grew up during the 1920's.

"You will probably find it very different from the way it was when you lived here," said Bill Weston, the current owner.

Bill's wife Danny and my sister Alice had met by chance at an optical office in San Jose. After Danny had given her address as Laurel Glen Soquel, Alice asked her if she knew the Dakin place. It was quickly established that Westons now owned the Dakin place and were living in the house that Grandfather built in the 1870's while they built a new home above the old apple orchard. Then she issued an invitation to a tour, so here we were.

Bill opened the back door and as we entered the kitchen I saw the was right about the changes. The kitchen had once been a dim, cozy place. It had had a wood-burning cook stove, the business end of which held water pipes that wiggled around in its innards, absorbing heat to provide hot water for baths, laundry and dish washing. There was plenty of wood from the orchards and forest around the farm to keep a fire burning and even when it went out in the night a slight aura of warmth remained in the morning.

In one of the early renovations the walls of the room had been pushed out to include not only the old screened porch, but also part of a tiny bedroom that had been mine. It is a light, bright room. Gone is the old stove, the old sink and, of course, the old table at which Papa, Alice and I had sat on the evening of my eighth birthday. Mama had died a couple of weeks before and Papa was trying to be cheerful for our sakes. He read stories by the dim light of a kerosene lamp. We had had electricity, not for long, but we had it. That night the lights had gone out. It seemed symbolic.

We went on past the bathroom with "modern" plumbing into the dining room. Its shape was as it had been. It had had to be relatively large, because Grandmother and Grandfather Dakin had run a small resort in the summertime for a few years. there had been five tiny bedrooms upstairs and three or four rooms in a "bunkhouse" across from the back door. If all were filled there would be a minimum of nine people to feed. Grandmother and Aunt Alice must have had help for cooking. These guests came from San Francisco on the train and the two young men of the family, Papa and Uncle Wilbur, hitched horses to the surreys and met them at the depot in Capitola.

As we moved across the dining room toward the veranda that still stretches out from the long west wall of the house, we came to the door of the only remaining downstairs bedroom. It had not changed. For me the little room held two of the most vivid memories of life in this house: one was the morning I had climbed up onto her bed and Mama had lifted the covers to give me my first glimpse of Alice, the tiny, tiny little sister who'd been born a few hours before. The other was the night, almost exactly 4 years later, that a nurse brought my sister and me to stand in the same doorway for our last glimpse of our mother. The nurse must have known Mama was dying, but just pointed out how good Mama was about taking the medicine she was being given at the time. Useless medicine. She had pneumonia and there was not yet any penicillin.

The little group had moved on and I turned from the doorway to join them. The living room was almost unchanged, although the openings into the adjoining rooms had been greatly enlarged. The old fireplace, no longer usable, was still there. It had been the focal point of all evening gatherings. Even in summer, nights in the Santa Cruz mountains are cool. Papa worked at entertaining. I remember his striding back and forth under the oak trees down near the carriage house memorizing stories. Someone told us that once when a number of neighbors were gathered around the fireplace he slipped out unnoticed and in time, knocked at the door dressed as a tramp. Even though everyone there knew him, he was not recognized as he caught them up in his well rehearsed stories.

Last, we came into the sun room, made by a couple who had lived there with their invalid son. It had been created from the front bedroom, the south veranda, the front hall and the once gracious staircase landing. The Newell post was gone and some crummy stairs had been stuffed into a closet area.

Looking out from the windows that were where the veranda had been we could see, down the drive and up to the left, the remaining one of the three cottages that had been there during the resort days. Each had had its own cooking and toilet facilities. This must have meant its own outhouse. (The main house had quite a large privy--two little rooms with three seats in each! There was a vine-covered board enclosure across in front of the doors and down the side toward the house. How did the folks from San Francisco feel about these primitive arrangements? We will never know, but some must not have been too unhappy as there were repeat guests over the years.)

At some time two of the cottages burned down. When Alice and I lived on the farm, the remaining cottages were occupied by renters who took over the orchards and the grain field. In his youth Papa had worked for Phoebe Hearst, William Randolph's mother, and had learned to speak Spanish in order to go to Mexico for her. With his Spanish he was able to communicate very well with the renters even though they were Portuguese. Even with the crops taken care of, Papa's focus still was on horticulture. He had been 60 years old when Alice was born, 64 when Mama died, a little late to learn to take care of two children and himself. Our mother's mother over in the little town of Sunol fell heir to my sister and me. Papa moved into the cottage and sold the farm. People named Brown used it for their summer place for several years and now it is the Weston's.

What a treat to be able to wander about the old house again! There was more to come: our host and hostess invited us to see their new home. As we walked toward it, on the right was the big laurel tree that had been the shelter for my solitary play with imaginary friends. On the left there had been an old barn, the barn that had had corrals on two sides, one for our Jersey cow, Jewel, and one for the riding horse, Bess, and assorted workhorses. Below the barn, through the pear orchard and a few redwood trees is Moore Creek. Grandfather dammed it to make a tiny lake for guests to use for boating and swimming on days when the young men didn't take them to the beach and the boardwalk.

Looking up through the apple orchard we saw the Weston's new home. It is an impressive structure, set in a place that gets maximum sunshine. Inside it is unusually beautiful, filled with fascinating, beloved things from both their families.

The old house is unoccupied again, but when the Weston grandchildren visit they can stay there, unknowingly surrounded by the spirits of past generations of occupants and guests.

Henry Dakin Remembered

This is a transcript of a letter to the editor by Robert Burton dated August 4, 1955 under the banner: Voice of the People.

About Henry Dakin

Editor: Your picture of the Laurel Glen Fruit farm in your July 31 number of the Sentinel-News brought back many pleasant and interesting memories of its late owner, Henry Dakin.

Henry Dakin possessed all the sagacity, wisdom and inventiveness one might inherited from Maine and Vermont parents. His ability was along horticultural lines. Some years back the California Cultivator featured his farm as a horticultural wonderland. Of special interest was the orchard of avocado trees which is said to be one of the oldest, if not the oldest, such orchard in California.

During his youth, Henry had done a tour of duty in Mexico as foreman on one of the Hearst ranches. He became interested in avocadoes in their native home, expecially the Fuerte variety, which he claimed to have introduced in California. Far from confining his activities to the Laurel Glen farm, at certain times of the year h3e would disappear for a month or two with a bundle of grafting and budding wood en route for southern California, where he became one of the most famous budders and grafters of these trees in the commercial orchards; which were just beginning to be established in that land, which he considered no better than what he had at home. Many such trees are also found in Santa Cruz county and city. The original trees are still on his place and in good production under the care of Ray Bethel, former city water foreman of this city.

Tourists who return home from Hawaii often bring home macademia chocolate candy as a famous exotic rarity may be interested to know that there are very old and large macademia nut trees on Henry's place and, what is more, they are in bearing. Being native trees from Australia, very little was known about them until recently, when they began to cultivate them in southern California. It is difficult to know how Henry procured the origiqanl trees or seeds.

There are hundreds of acres of walnut trees that woe their good and uniform quality to Henry's grafting.

An ornamental to which he gave much thought was the English holly. In their native habitat these trees come as either male or female trees. The male tree is the most symetrical and beautiful, but, of course, only the femalebears the berries of traditional Christmas fame. Henry, by close observation, found a sport (mutation) on one of the trees which bore both male and female characters. This became the foundation stock for considerable budding and grafting of these trees.

His place was so full of various varieties of fruit trees that it was a handicap when it came to cultivation and marketing.

Far from being a recluse, Henry was a most gregarious and public spirited man. Knowing at frst had the difficulties of marketing fruit in these early days, he associated himself with such men as the late Fred Hihn and other progressive growers into an association for the marketing of apples. In due time it failed. When asked for the reason, Henry said:

"Men working together or jointly will make mistakes they never would make by themselves."

A deeply religious man, not of trhe sectarian type but from a conviction which comes from deep and silent contemplation with God and his great works, he acquired a sortr of prophetic outlook and an intimacy with his soul.

One of his most common topics being the weather, especiallythat part which pertains to the rainfall. He claimed that by communion with god he could not only prophecy, but also set the amount of rainfall. He was, therefore, a frequent visitor at our weather station to consult the past and present records.

Not until after his death did we dare say much about it for fear Henry might come inot disrepute for having spoiled the sset of cherries, the drying of clothes, the wettingt of picnics or the dampening of weddings. Thatwas our secret even if wewere not convinced. Henry was firm in his beliefs, and you did not change him by arguing.

His passing was a distinct loss to his many friends, who admired in him his honesty, his loyalty, his self education, which bordered on wisdom, and his industry. Heleft theworld a better place because of better people and better trees.

Crippled in his old age and unable to carry on political discussions as formerly, he called us to his death bed at last for what might have been a confession. His last words were: "Watch Roosevelt; he is responsible."

That was after Pearl Harbor. Henry can, therrefore, be said to have been a staunch Republican, the Maine and Vermont variety, until his dying day. Like his ancestors, he w2as a great lover of freedom and of our institutions.

He is buried in the Soquel cemetery, near the road he so often traveled on his way to Santa Cruz market and friends; also past the school house where he received the fundamentals of his education for which he was ever so grateful.

Robert Burton

1187 Prospect Heights

Ruthalee Dakin Mauldin: Robert Burton, as I recall, was a science teacher at Santa Cruz High School. He and Mrs. Burton had three or four children. They were interesting, vital peole. During WWII he went somewhere in the Pacific to grow fresh produce, especially melons. These proved more helpful in enabling the wounded to live and recover than the chemical vitamins. While there he made exquisite plates of configuration, foliage, flowers and seeds of the local vegetation. Wish I could remmber where he was! He said he had to hire natives to beat the bushes around the melon fields to keep the rats from coming and eating the crop as it ripened. Mondy meant nothing to these people, but Mr. Burton could do slight of hand tricks that kept them coming back to keep the rats out for him.