Lillian Richie Money's Family History

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]
Surname/tag: Money

Associated with Matthew Richie

By: Lillian D Richie in 1950 - Written for Maxwell Stow Money To try to answer some of your questions -Neither my husband [Thomas Pierce Money] or his mother [Elizabeth Haugh Martin] ever talked about the father [Cornelius Commigys Money 1821-1865] and did not seem to know or care anything about his family - except once I heard him say he [husband’s father] had a sister [Catherine Elizabeth] who was married to a man named Barley and one of her daughters had written at one time and sent a little picture of herself taken on leather. She gave it to Dorothy when she was a little girl and it was unfortunately lost. It would be priceless now. I never saw it but once at the time it was given to Dorothy - there was a large picture of your great grandfather which used to hang in your great-grandfather which used to hand in your grandfather’s home. Helen would know what became of it.To the best of my knowledge he [Cornelius] had nothing to do with the Bear Flag episode. - Mathew G. Richie was one of the oldest son’s of William Richie and Sarah Maxwell. Mathew’s parents had come from England or Scotland. Sarah’s from Edinburg Scotland and both families had settled on the northern coast of New York state along the St. Lawrence River. The Richies at Sacketts Harbor and though I never knew them we had relatives there. [William] Mathew and Sarah married and all their nine children were born there, but later they moved up to Niagara Co about 14 miles from Lake Ontario.Sarah Maxwell was a direct descendent of Lord Maxwell of Scotland (that does not mean anything - only shows she came from one of the higher families. - Mathew G. Richie Your grandfathers, step-father was born at Cape Vincent N.Y. as was his brother William. they were the oldest two of six boys in a family of nine children. These two came to California in the time of the Gold Rush, but did not go into the mines. They came by boat (sailing ship) probably and the long way around the ‘horn’ as it was called, before the Panama Canal was built. They did not go into the mines but organized pack trains to carry food and other things from S.F. to the miners, and a profitable business they made of it - so William decided he had enough of that sort of life and went back to N.Y.- But Matthew did not go back for many years but remained in San Francisco. Those were the days of the Vigilance Rule and it was a tough town and I have heard him say.Somewhere he met Silas Roders who was Lucinda Martin Rodgers husband (a sister of Elizabeth Martin) Mrs Money who had by then become a widow. Silas brought about a meeting which ended in a marriage and Matthew took over the widow’s property and money. He had some money of his own and they put it all together and he managed everything. Mrs. Money (my husband’s mother) told me she had promised her husband that she would give all the boys a good education, as he realized the need they would have for it. But Mr. Richie said they would have plenty of money as he would make them all rich and they would not need so much education. And she too thought money the most important. So the boys as they grew up did all the work on the ranch for just their board and few clothes. When Joe the youngest child came of age there was no division of the property that was intended for the boys, but they did get a small wage. They were kept close at home - never had a holiday or away vacation ??? (copy cut off) mingle with the neighbors only as they met other boys at school what little time they went. The school house at that time was over next to the hill (what is now the Silverado Trail). They were small boys when the father passed away but they grew up doing the work. Though at first there was a man in charge of it, as Mr. Money had never been able to work after he moved there.***a dollar a day. work or play, rain or shine, the money’s!-- X Thomas Richie x Mary Whitcomb were the parents of four children William, Sarah, Myron and Walter.William was a salesman for his father’s business. Married a young woman a little older then himself, and committed suicide when she left him and refused to return. Myron came to California soon after Sarah married. He was married when came, and in the Alaska gold rush a man in St Helena stoked him to try his luck up there when he spent all that he had but had no luck. Later settled in Napa where he died about two years ago [1948]. Was the father of four children James, Edna, Florence and Sarah. I knew Uncle Tom, Sarah’s father, very well. As I have said his business was near? Buffalo perhaps fifty miles from Gasport where my home was, and many a week he came to stay with us. He was a good looking man and good natured. We were all happy to have him come. Helen told me Mable has the family bible which contains some records. I presume she could send up a copy but the family album I know nothing about. It would have many family pictures in it.I had heard very fabulous tales all my life which were particularly interesting because my father had a brother there. I was completely disillusioned when we arrived. But later especially after my parents came here I became as great a booster as any one. I never went back east. But sarah made two trips to visit her mother.All I know of the very early days is what I have read. There are so many books. There is one about the Donner party which is a sad tale of the hardship suffered after they were in California but ??? and with out food. Many died. The stories of the buildings of ??? all along the coast by the Spanish priests make very interesting reading. I have visited a number. Think the one Sonoma is the last one in the long chain. It contains such old early historical matter. I have been there several times. took some of my grandchildren see there when I’d be going to going to on ????(cut off) To relate how your grandmother [Sarah Richie] and I happened to come to California. On the 23rd of Sept. 1883, Mathew G Richie went East to visit my father David and another brother William who had been out here with him years before. He [Matthew] stayed at my father’s [David’s] and soon asked him if he would let me [Lillian] come home with him. My father told him he must write to his wife and see if she would like it. So he did and found out she would be pleased. In the meantime my mother had written to Sarah (who had been up to visit us a short time before) to come back and meet her Uncle from California. She did and our uncle included her in his invitation. At first she said she could not come as she had to take care of her Grandmother Whitcomb [Sallie Draper]. Her father Thomas had passed away early that year. Had been separated from Sarah’s mother for years, ever since the youngest boy was a baby [abt 1870] and the grandmother had taken all four of the children in and made a house for them. Sarah, William, Myron, Walter. Uncle Thomas supported the family, but his business was in Buffalo where he had a California Wine Depot (wholesale only). the wine was obtained from the Krug cellars through Matthew - My mother suggested to Sarah that she go back and ask her mother (now that Thomas was gone) if she and her present husband would not go and take care of the Grandmother who was quite old so that she (Sarah) could come to California. So that was done and Sarah came back. we got a dressmaker in the house to help us get ready. So one day late in Oct. the through express was flagged down at noon to allow us to get on board. We changed cars (and trains twice) once at Chicago but the second place I cannot recall. Nice Pullman cars with diners on and # ---- # very elegant we thought they were. We reached the Oakland pier in the night of the 30th but stayed in our berths till morning, when we crossed the bay to S.F. where later that day Aunt Lizzie as she told us to call her, met us for lunch and about 4 o’clock we crossed back to Oakland and took a train for Oakville but had to take a second ferry to cross to South Valley and take another train which brought us to Oakville after dark. The 31st day of Oct. 1883 your grandmother’s 21st birthday (it will be 67 years this fall [1950]) ---- We were met at the station by a team and a large spring wagon driven by Cornelius (called Neely). we were rather shocked when we arrived at the house - it did not agree with what Uncle Matt had told us, and was different from what we were used to. We found we had been filled up on false tales, but we adapted ourselves to everything, even to getting up at 4 o’clock from the very next morning. It was nothing like what Uncle Matt had told my father he would do for me. -- Some data regarding the Money family, written for Maxwell Stow Money by Lillian Richie Money widow of Thomas Pearce Money - as it was told to her.Your great-grandfather Cornelous Commigys Money came from Missouri overland in some wagon train in early days 1852 (the date I do not have). They went to Santa Rosa where other Missouri people had settled. But Mr. Money made trips back to the middle west to purchase stock which he drove back (this was in company with other men). It was in santa Rosa he met and married Elizabeth Martin and bought a home there where their five children were born. -- John Cornelious; Thomas Pearce (who was born June 11 1857) Cornelious Commingys, Joseph Calvin, Mary Florence.Mr. Money’s health failed and he was advised to get farther away from the coast. He came over to Napa Valley and bought a piece of property near what is now Oakville. 250 acres of the Caymas Rancho a Spanish grant to a man named Yount (for whom Yountville was named) I do not know how far the grant extended below Yountville but it went up to as far as Bale’s Slough, where the Bale Grant started, and that grant included the Krug place above St. Helena, and Mrs Krug was a ---- Bale.Above the Money place Yount deeded to Elizabeth Yount a large tract (1000 acres I think) She married a man named Rutherford and it was afterwards known as the Rutherford Ranch. It extended across the valley to the hill side.Mr. Money built a house on his place, which was town down in 1896 to build a house for Thomas P. Money, and is the one now on the place which was sold in 1942 - the last piece of the original property to pass out of the --------------- Money name. Mr. Money Sr. could not have lived there many years as he passed away in 1865 at his home near Oakville, Napa Co. and is buried in the St. Helena cemetery.Left a widow Elizabeth Martin - Money - and four sons and a little 3 yr. old daughter who died in 1866.His third son, Cornelius Commigys Money Jr. was born April 16, 1859 Died August 4th 1929.John Cornelius, the first born, 1855 Thos. Pearce, born in 1857 (June 11th)Joseph Calvin born Nov. 3, 1860.

1938. Some information about the Money family, came to us from a cousin of the Money boys who visited John Money in St. Helena.Her name was Catherine Money Bray - Robinson. She and her husband had come from Missouri and were at that time living in Vancouver Wash.She allowed me to copy from a paper published back there in 1936. An account of the death of Montizuma Money - Bray. To which was attached quite a little history of the Money family. I do not think any one else was interested enough to copy it. I am glad I did. You may appreciate it. -- Catherine Pearse Money a sister of Cornelius Commigys Money (the first to us) who died in 1865 Married David A. Barley - Mrs. Montazuma Money-Bray was the daughter of Catherine Pearce Money - who married a man by the name of Barley (David G. Barley) and had three children, Mildred A. Buena Vista, Montazumea L. Barley. Montizumea married, Louis H. Bray (no mention mention of who the other girls married)They had four children, two of whom had passed away before her, leaving a son Harvey W. Bray of Weepwater Missouri and daughter Catherine Money Bray - Robinson of Rolle Missouri (later Vancouver Wash). The name Catherine Money had been handed down for generations. Mrs. Robinson being the last one to carry it.The article about Montizuma Bray’s death went on to say it brought almost to a close the once famous English family that came to America when the colonies were being founded. They settled in Maryland on the Eastern shore near a place called Chestertown.There were three families who came at the same time and seem to have been related. The Money’s, Commigys’, and Pearce family’s. Cornelious had Conmiggous??? [Commigys] for a middle name and gave it to his third son Cornelous Conmiggous?? [Commigys] Money the 2nd (he in turn gave the full name to his only son) C. C. Money of Napa.Cornelius C. Money Sr. named his second son Thomas Pearce Money after a cousin. Much later the Money’s moved to St. Louis Missouri when that town consisted of a few houses on the bank of the river - Do not know anything about the other two families.- Your great-grandmother.Elizabeth Haugh Martin (as her name was writen in a little old school book that she gave to Dorthy Money, the only place I ever saw it) was born Sept. 3 1834 in Illinois. The youngest of three children Lucinda, Josh, Elizabeth. Her father died while she was small, and the only father she ever knew was her stepfather Joseph McMinn who married her widowed mother. His wife had died leaving him with three children.In 1852 when Elizabeth was 18 years old the family started to cross the plains to California (they were at that time living in Missouri) and joined with others in a wagon train. Elizabeth rode horseback and helped drive the stock. As she told it, it was an uneventful trip - that is they had no bad luck or accidents, as so many others had. They seem to have gone directly to Santa Rosa which seemed to be a “Mecca” for Missourians (opposite page) When the McMinn started to cross the plains, Mrs. McMinn left her son Josh Martin in Missouri with an Uncle (possibly a brother of Mr. Martin (deceased)Josh never joined the family here, but married and had a family. Later - indeed after I came into the family, he came out on a visit, and stayed some of the time with us. Was very fond of the little children I had at that time. Mr. McMinn and his wife [Mary Hull Dixon] had three children but I do not know where they were born - probably back in Missouri. Their names were John, Mary Ann, and Joseph (Jr).They established a home in Santa Rosa and when Cornelius C. Money married Elizabeth Martin He built a house quite near them, and there their family of four boys and a girl were born. As Florence was born in 1862 (according to the way I figure the other ages, and the fact that she died in 1866) at the age of four.Her father having died in ‘65 it must have ‘62 or ‘63 that the family moved to Napa Co. There was a walnut tree (and I hope it is there still) which I was told was planted by your great-grandmother in 1864. Am sure they had not been there many years.