The Gerken Family of Big Oak Flat

by Karen Davis
Herman Henry Gerken was born in Germany on October 28, 1864. He came to America in 1879 and became a naturalized citizen in 1885. He and his wife Elizabeth Bridget Long were married in Tuolumne County on February 4, 1892. Elizabeth was the daughter of John and Catherine (Harney) Long of Chinese Camp. The couple made their home and raised their family of nine children in the Big Oak Flat/Groveland area where Herman supported his family by working as a gold miner, blacksmith and local "Garrote" teamster. Following the death of his wife on January 4, 1916, Herman moved to Richmond California and went to work for Standard Oil. He later returned "to the hill" for his retirement years and died here July 23, 1933. Both Herman and Elizabeth as well as many of their children are buried in Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Cemetery.

Their first daughter, Florence Alice (Flossie), was born in 1894 and married a local man Willard Albert James in the mid-late 1910s. As a young boy of 17, Willard had served on the team which was formed in Groveland in 1909 to survey the territory around Lake Eleanor and the Hetch Hetchy Valley. He was a private in the U.S. Army during WWI and worked as a driller in the oil fields of Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas early in their marriage. Willard and Florence returned Big Oak Flat with their four young children and he was probably best remembered as the constable during the 1930s and 1940s. Willard died in 1970 and Florence in 1972.

The Gerken’s second child, Mary Ellen (Mayme), was born in 1897 and married her first husband Josiah (Si) Goldsworthy in 1915. According to his obituary in the Mariposa Gazette, Si died of pneumonia within a few months of their marriage and about one week after Mayme’s mother died of the same illness. Mayme and her second husband John McCORMICK made their home in Oakland in 1930 where John drove a truck for a bottling company. Mayme is described as "a little bit of a thing" who was kind to everyone. She was exceptionally neat and clean and wouldn’t go out of the house without fixing her hair and putting on her apron. Mary Ellen’s third husband was Robert Lee and she lived in Auburn before her death in 1983.

The next two children of Herman and Elizabeth Gerken were Alfred Joseph (who was born in 1898) and Herman Cecil (who was born in 1901). Alfred was 68 when he died in 1966 and Herman only 46 when he died in 1947. It is believed that both men remained bachelors.

The Gerken’s third daughter, Isabel Anne, was born in 1903 and had four children by her husband Willis Tanner. They made their home in Sacramento before her death in Marin County in 1997.

Genevieve Cecilia was the fourth Gerken daughter and she was born in 1906. She married John Thornton and had four children. She was living in the Bay area when she died in 1955.
John Merritt, the Gerken’s third son, was born in 1908. He and his wife Esther were living in Oakland in 1930 where he worked as a ‘housesmith’ for a sheet metal company. Their only child was a son. John died in Walnut Creek in 1991.

The youngest son, Raymond Arnold, was born in 1909. He and his wife Margaret Virginia Cushing had four children and made their home in San Francisco where they raised four children.

The last of the Gerken’s children, Uvelora Elizabeth, was born in 1914. According to family lore, some gypsies were traveling through the area when she was an unnamed newborn. They suggested that should she be named Uvelora she would never want for anything, she'd be a "golden child". Uvelora was only about 1 ½ years old when her mother died and about five when her father moved the younger children to the bay area.. Uvelora eventually married and had two children by her first husband Mr. Herrick and three children by her second husband George Javedas. She lived in Oakland in the 1970s and died in Sacramento County in 1987.

Some of the detailed information on this family was provided by Gerken descendants Mary Alice Capson and Virginia O’Reilly.

The Elwells - a Pioneer Family

by Karen Davis, Groveland Genealogy Chat Group

Charles H. Elwell, a sailor born in Massachusetts in 1818 married Rosa Ann Cory in San Francisco before moving into the Groveland area in the late 1850s. “Rose” was born in Vermont in 1829 and her father, James Cory of Massachusetts, lived with she and Charles for several years before his death in 1885.

Charles was a pioneer miner of the Groveland area for several years before establishing a wayside stop where teamsters could purchase a hot meal. This stopover, located at what was commonly called Colfax Springs, became a toll station of the Yosemite Turnpike Road Company and when the Big Oak Flat-Yosemite Turnpike Road was completed (about 1874) he enlarged his holdings and built the Eagle Hotel.

Charles died in 1896 and his wife Rose in 1910. Both are buried in Section 3 of the Divide Cemetery (as is her father James Cory).

Census reports indicate that the children of Charles and Rose include: Charles (born about 1857), Francis J. (born about 1859), Lewis C. (born June 1860), Eugene M. (born September, 1862 ), Frank and Edmund (born about 1863), John (born about 1865) and Rosa May (born April 1869). What is known about these children follows.

• Lewis C. Elwell eventually took over operation of the Eagle Hotel. He also worked as a toll keeper at the Groveland-Crocker Station Toll station before moving to La Grange in the early 1900s.
• Eugene M. Elwell married and had at least one son before dying in 1908. He and a baby boy are buried near his parents in the Divide Cemetery.
• Rosa May Elwell married Walter Joseph Coyle and raised several children in the Groveland area. She’s buried in the Mariposa Cemetery.
• Edna Margaret Coyle, the daughter of Rosa and Walter Coyle, was born in March 1889. She married Henry L. Argall and four of their children were born in Groveland between 1910 and 1920. Henry L. Argall, who was born in New Jersey in 1857 died in 1944. Edna died in 1963 and both of them are buried in the Mariposa Cemetery. Henry L. Argall had two sons from a prior marriage when he married Edna Coyle. His son Elgin Miranda Argall died here in 1940 and it is believed that his other son John William Henry Argall moved out of the area prior to 1920.

Please contact the Groveland Yosemite Gateway Museum (962-4408) if you have additional information on the Elwell (or any other pioneer) family. We look forward to hearing from you.

The Timothy Sheehan Family

A photo of a partial tombstone is currently displayed on the "Can you Help Us?" page at the website for our little museum. The stone sits under an old oak tree in the cemetery behind the Gold Rush Era Catholic church, and was placed by Timothy Sheehan in memory of his wife, Hannah. There is also an inscription for their son, John J. Sheehan. There is a story in the Sheehan family that the stone was vandalized, removed from the churchyard, found in a creek bed and returned to the church. The story doesn't say which creek bed (although we can guess), nor does it say when it was found or by whom.

From the stone we learned that Hannah predeceased Timothy, for he erected the monument in her memory. That was 1899. Hannah was 85 years old, suggesting that she was born in 1814. We learn that when Timothy died in December, 1903 he was 79 years old, suggesting that he was born in 1824. We learn that they had at least one son, John J., who was 40 years, 10 months and 7 days old when he died on 23 August 1895. By calculation, he was born in October 1854.

Obituaries from the Mariposa "Gazette" posted at one of several Mariposa Co. data sites add two additional children -- a daughter (Mrs. Baker) living in Merced, and a son William, residence not specified. We learn that the family lived near Bower Cave in Mariposa County. Census records tell us even more. Both Timothy and Hannah (called Anna in one census) were born in Ireland. Timothy was born in March 1826. In some records Hannah is as much as 11 years his senior; in others, they are the same age. Son William was born in Massachusetts about 1851. Daughter Mary was born in California about 1860. The 1900 census tells us that Timothy was born in March, 1826; that he arrived in the United States in 1849; and that he was a naturalized citizen of the United States.

The 1900 census presents a mystery, another "Can you Help Us?" issue. Mary Sheehan married John B. Baker about 1882. In 1900 she was the mother of 8 children, 6 of them living. There are 6 cvhildren in the household, including 16-year-old son Richard BENNETT (remember, his parents used the surname Baker!). In December 1903 an Irish-born uncle of John B. Baker was killed on the railroad tracks near Merced while on his way to the funeral of Tim Sheehan. The uncle's name was JOHN BENNETT. Is there another link between Richard Bennett/Baker and John Bennett beyond that of nephew/great-uncle?

Bill Koch, webmaster for the Tuolumne County Genealogical Society, is a shirt-tail relative of these Sheehans. Bill initially posed the question about Richard Bennett's surname.

Bill's genealogical report on the family says that John James Sheehan, son of Timothy and Hannah, married Mary Ann Coyle, daughter of Mathew and Margaret (Lennan) Coyle. Big ah-haaaaa! We know the Coyles! Read about the Coyles, and about a second Sheehan family in southern Tuolumne Co. in future postings to this blog.

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