John Meirs Horner

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During the previous three or four years, I had been wrought up over the subject of religion. The Methodists were the most persistent in my neighborhood, and my preference was for them. In these days came ministers of a new sect, calling themselves Latter-day Saints, with a new revelation, preaching the gospel of the New Testament, with its gifts and blessings. It attracted much attention; people listened and some obeyed, thereby enjoying the promised blessings. Members of the Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian faith, as well as non-professors began to join them. Among the latter class were my father, mother and sisters. I was the first of the family to obey, being baptized by Erastus Snow, in the Layawa Creek, on the second day of August, 1840.

In the spring of 1843, I went up to Nauvoo. Here I was introduced to and shook hands with the Prophet Joseph Smith. I stopped in Nauvoo during the summer and was one of the four men who laid the brick in David Yearsley's three story house, and in the Masonic brick lodge, under the guidance of Brother George Woodward, who was one of the four. Mixing mortar, handling the trowel, the square, the saw, the plane, etc., was new work for me, but, as in the case of using farm tools, I found it a great help in after years.

There being no labor in Nauvoo, in the fall I went home but the following spring I returned to Nauvoo, where at the suggestion of Brigham Young given at a meeting of the Seventies, my name was placed upon their books as one of their number. About this time a convention was called for the purpose of making a nomination of some one for President of the United States. The Prophet was unanimously chosen, and many delegates were appointed to electioneer in a number of the states, to endeavor to elect the Prophet president. I was sent back to New Jersey; I ordered a thousand or so of the Prophet's 'Views of the Powers and Policies of the Government of the United States,' printed and took these with me. One night, while speaking to a full house of attentive listeners, I invited all to speak who wished to at the close of my lecture. One gentleman got up and said: 'I have one reason to give why Joseph Smith can never be president of the United States; my paper, which I received from Philadelphia this afternoon, says that he was murdered in the Carthage jail, on June 27th.' Silence reigned, the gathering quietly dispersed, but the grief and sadness of this heart was beyond the power of man to estimate.

Finally the word came that the Saints were going to leave Nauvoo for California, then a province of Mexico, and counsel was given for the eastern Saints to charter a ship and go around the Horn to California. [In 1846, a group of Mormons came to the San Francisco Bay region aboard the ship The Brooklyn. Two of them were John M. Horner and his newly wedded wife, Elizabeth Imlay.]

Yerba Buena was no place for an ambitious farmer, but as farming was my profession, and I had brought some farming tools with me, I was anxious to get to work. So after thirty days, Brother James Light and I, with our families, left to fill a contract made with Dr. John Marsh, to put in a field of wheat on shares on his farm which was situated on the the lower San Joaquin. We put in forty acres. It grew well; the land was good, while the rains were early and abundant that year. After the wheat was sown and there being nothing more to be done at the doctor's, in March, 1847, I moved over to the Mission San Jose, where I found farming prospects more favorable. In this vicinity, my large farming operations were afterwards prosecuted. At the mission in March, I plowed and sowed wheat, barley, peas and potatoes and made a garden planted with different kinds of truck. All of this sowing and planting were of no avail, as the plants were destroyed by grasshoppers, an affliction from which my farm never after suffered, although I followed agricultural pursuits in that neighborhood for thirty odd years. Later I planted a small patch of potatoes on what I thought suitable soil, about one and a half miles from where I resided.

The wheat at the doctor's was harvested and stored in his granary, but when our share was called for, the doctor gravely informed us; 'You have no wheat here, your share was destroyed by elk, antelope, and other wild animals; my share alone was harvested.' So we got nothing for our labor. Thus ended my first year of farming in California. Although I got no dollars out of it, I did get experience, which I profited by in after years. I had tested the soil in different places with several different kinds of farm produce, and learned the most suitable season for sowing and planting. Nearby, I bought a piece of land from an Indian [actually, Spanish; it was either Pacheco or Vallejo or both] and built a small house upon it, moving into it in the spring of 1848, with a determination of making another farming venture that year.

There being no fences, nor fence material for miles, I went to the redwoods, twenty-five miles distant, for fencing. I made a pen to hold animals, fenced a small garden plot, sowed it with various kinds of garden seeds, intending to transplant them later on into open ground. Since human plans are not infallible, the plants were never transplanted, for the reason that gold was discovered about this time. The gold fever broke out with epidemic violence and took nearly all the people, ourselves included, off to the mines. We did not get much gold, but got the ague without much exertion. We were a happy couple when we got back to the farm, although our garden was destroyed and our hogs gone wild. Our house was only walls, the roof and outer and inner doors were made of rough slabs and were hung with raw-hide hinges. Our windows were muslin, and we had ground for the floor, but it was our mansion. We enjoyed and improved it as time went on ... Having had our experience in the mines, we bade them farewell, and thus ended our
second year in California.

My mind turned to the farm; farming was my profession. I had a good piece of land and my experience gave me confidence in the soil; and, as if the fates had decreed it, farm I must and farm I did. My farm had no wood or timber upon it. My 1847 experience taught me that no success could be obtained without fencing the land, as stock were on the plains by the score. On account of the water and green feed on and around my farm, they made it their feeding ground. So I prepared the seed, with a determination of fencing and farming all the land I could during 1849. On the 10th of March I started for the redwoods to make rails and posts for my prospective fence. I took with me three Indians (the best help I could get), four yoke of oxen, tools and one wagon. Night overtook me and we camped about ten miles from our destination. During the night an unusual and unexpected snowfall occurred completely covering the hills and plains. The grass was entirely hidden by the snow, and the cattle came out of the hills bellowing through the valley, seeking food.

Fortunately, after two days, the grass began to show on the hills, and in a few days we were again able to labor in the hills. We worked some three days preparing fence material, when we loaded the wagon and reached home within the week. The Indians suffered considerably as they were working in the snow with bare feet, but fortunately the sun shone brightly, warming the logs and rails. The first remuneration from my first three years of farming venture in California was two dollars paid me for watermelons in September of this year. October and November brought to California a large number of gold hunters, coming both by land and sea and the appetites of these people seemed to crave nothing so much as vegetables since some of them had and others were rapidly contracting scurvy. As I was the only farmer in the territory who had vegetables for sale, I was much sought after. This crop was worth about eight thousand dollars, but unfortunately an early rain sent a flood of water over my field from a brook nearby, and continued so long that one-half of my potatoes were destroyed before I could secure help, help being so scarce. However, what I did gather was partial compensation for my long struggle; besides my success was gratifying, and I put that down also in my ledger as a further credit. Thus ended my farming venture in 1849.

In the beginning of January, 1850, my brother William came to me by way of the Panama, consuming six months time on the journey. He had also been bred on a farm, was young, about twenty-one, ambitious and very industrious. I received him as a partner in my business. We worked and flourished together during the next four years, perhaps as no other farmers ever flourished before in the United States in so short a time. My experience, my location, my established business, our skill and industry, together with the property I had acquired, all became capital in our hands. We worked them to the utmost of our ability, knowing that we were almost the only farmers in the territory that year. We knew, too, there would be a good sale for all the garden produce we could raise. We extended our fence enclosing about five hundred acres. We established a commission house in San Francisco under the name of J. M. Horner & Company to sell our own and others' produce. This year we purchased one hundred acres of land, at the landing, on the Alameda river and laid out the town of Union City upon it. We made extensive reparations for increasing our business in 1851. We bought teams, imported agricultural implements from the eastern states and wire from England for fences. This year our crops were large and a ready market was found for all we raised. We secured by purchase the steamer Union to carry our produce to market. I was the largest contributor to the first agricultural fair ever held in California ...

We extended our agricultural operations in 1852 by purchasing more farming land. I sent my brother back to New Jersey on business, and he brought back with him my father and mother and all their children and grandchildren, two of my wife's sisters, and a brother, and some other young people [see census information at end]. Flouring mills not being sufficient in California at this time, we built one at Union City, with eight-run of burrs, at a cost of $85,000 and ground our grain and that of others.

We equipped and ran a stage line in connection with our steamer, as far up the valley as San Jose, twenty-five miles; thus completing a through passenger line from San Francisco to San Jose. We opened sixteen miles of public roads, mostly through our own lands, and fenced the larger part on both sides. We purchased 1,950 acres of a confirmed grant of excellent land bordering on Alameda River near Union City. The extent of our property in Santa Clara county was valued at $9,000; we bought 5,250 acres of land adjoining the city of San Francisco. [A portion of this land was named Horner's Addition, which was just south of Mission Dolores.  Mr. Horner laid out the streets and gave them names.  Although many of the street names have been changed, Elizabeth Street still exists and thus honoring his wife.]

The position I held in the community at this time made me much sought after as an endorser of notes, a signer of bonds, and a loaner of money to the impecunious. As I had been raised in purely a rural district of New Jersey, and was unacquainted even in theory with the 'tricks of the trade,' the unwise course of endorsing notes, Or loaning money without adequate security, had never entered my head. I loaned and endorsed freely hoping to do good thereby. I have no recollection of refusing any one asking for an accommodation, or requesting notes endorsed, up to 1854.

Our worldly prospects at this time were bright, and our property was ample to gratify every wish, and was yearly improving. As I nor my brother ever drank strong drinks, smoked or gambled or dissipated in any way, no cloud of doubt ever crossed our mental vision, that our property should not always continue to increase as we attended strictly to business. Our crops were large this year. We viewed them as ample to pay every endorsement and every obligation we had out, as well as to pay the expenses of harvesting and marketing time. Our property was unencumbered, large, and our farming in full operation.

These were our possessions and prospects when the first wave of money panic struck California and swept over America with such disastrous results from 1853 to 1859. It is said that during two months of 1857, in New York, discounts at the banks fell off $24,000,000 and deposits $40,000,000; interest went up to 36 per cent per annum and there were six thousand failures, involving an indebtedness of $300,000,000. Yet, how small are these compared with the direct and indirect losses suffered by the whole people during those years of panic. Men of families, wealth and enterprise, were driven from their homes and reduced to poverty. At the same time thousands of tons of farm products were never sent to market for there was no sale; good potatoes were ten cents a bushel but there was no ten cents. All this happened in the golden state of California in 1854 where millions of gold and silver were dug from its mines every month. A man with a few hundred dollars in gold coin was independent, while the owner of scores of thousands of property was poverty stricken. For the first time we commenced mortgaging our property, and at this time money could not be borrowed on our San Francisco real estate. We did succeed in mortgaging it to C. K.  Garrison for $50,000 interest four per cent per month, compounded monthly, and payable in advance. He drew on New York, we received the money there. One month's interest was $2,000 and payable in advance, we received of him only $48,000. It was about one-sixth of the amount we had paid for the property and the improvements, as it swept away the entire property. Thus slipped from us the property we had paid $290,000 for. Our $18,000 steamer went to pay a $7,000 endorsement. In parting with our flour mill, we did a little better; but the panic continued so long and was so heavy upon property values, that the purchaser sold it for $5,000. This property had been depreciated in value by the panic, $80,000. The Mission lands that had cost us $70,000, including improvements, went from us for an endorsement debt of $10,000. However, the squatters had done as much as the panic to render this property of little value. Our home farm of one thousand acres, which we had purchased four times, went off for an endorsement of $7,000.

Although our labors and struggles were temporal matters, yet spiritual things were not altogether  neglected. My brother and I erected a schoolhouse in a central locality, for accommodating our neighborhood and hired and paid a teacher. To this school all were welcome. In this house we held church every Sabbath during our prosperous years and for a long time after. Prayer meetings were frequently held evenings in the houses of different members. Some Mormon Battalion boys, and some ship Brooklyn families had settled around us. We had baptized some good people of other faiths, who left for Utah upon the first opening. In fact, the Battalion boys had married, and I may say, all the more faithful Latter-day Saints in our settlement left for Salt Lake at different times.

We were not left altogether as Elders were frequently passing to and from missions. Brothers Amasa Lyman and C. C. Rich from San Bernardino sometimes visited us; also Brothers Parley P. Pratt, Orson Pratt, Addison Pratt, George Q. Cannon, David Cannon, Joseph Bull, and many other worthy brethren. I never mourned over the loss of my property as many other losers did, but endeavored to forget and go ahead again. I have regretted repeatedly that I did not do my duty more completely when I had it; but I must attribute it to ignorance or procrastination, not selfishness. I should have paid and could have paid a tithing on $25,000 as readily as the $1,500 I did pay. At that time I was too humble, too happy and too thankful to my heavenly Father to have refused in my feelings to have paid my debt to Him. I fully realized it was my obedience to the counsel of His servant in sending me to California, and His continual blessings, that had placed me in the enviable position I then enjoyed.

One other thing I have also regretted. President Brigham Young wrote advising me to be cautious, as reverses frequently visited people doing large business, and suggested that I send $30,000 to the Trustee-in-trust, as a precautionary measure that would serve a good purpose as a future help, if misfortune should overtake me. From ignorance, procrastination, or misfortune coming so quickly, the wise counsel was not acted upon. 'Get out of debt, while times are good and keep out.' I fear some of our brethren will be as slow acting upon this wise counsel as I was in obeying the counsel given to me.

As affliction seldom comes singly, so it was in my case. Aside from the loss of my property, I was otherwise afflicted. My only daughter sickened and died while my property was being confiscated. Lock-Jaw came upon me with a heavy fever, which lasted a long time. My wife was despaired of by my physicians, relatives and friends ... but an unexpected favorable change took place. My recovery was slow and my sickness left me with but little use of my legs; for weeks I used a crutch in getting around. I was granted a new lease of life by the Great One and for a purpose unknown to me. One of my first ventures after the loss of my property and recovery was building a bridge over the Alameda River under a contract with the county. I saved $300 by this labor. I contracted to drain a small lake in the neighborhood, got paid well for my labor, as in both cases I did most of it personally. The owners of a piece of land in San Francisco, not having a clear idea as to their title to it, offered us a share of what we could get out of it if we would work it up. We received over $3000 for this labor. About this time, we had an extra dry year in California, and believing vegetables would be a paying crop in the fall, we looked around for an opportunity of producing some, and finding Alameda River Mill was idle, we rented the use of the water which went to waste in the bay, and some land near by, made our ditches, and in June commenced to water, plow, and plant a crop of vegetables, mostly potatoes. From this venture we realized $7,000. So, little by little, we regained our feet, but our progress was slow, in fact, rather backward, during the last few years we remained in California.

At this time my oldest son was cultivating sugar cane in the Hawaiian Islands, and hearing that Mr. Claus Spreckles was about to open the largest sugar plantation known, he advised us to see Mr. Spreckles and get a contract from him to cultivate cane for him. If we could do so, he thought, we would do better in the Islands than in California. We saw Mr. Spreckles and contracted with him to go to the Islands and cultivate cane on shares. In fulfillment of this contract we sold our farms, chartered a schooner, and placed therein our families eighteen souls, our household effects, horses and farming tools, and started for the Islands, where we arrived on the 25th day of December, 1879."

John Meirs Horner died in Honolulu, Hawaii on May 16, 1907 at the age of 86. Some of his descendants still live in Hawaii.

From: Geoff, Kamuela, HI 18 Jun 2003 ... I believe you may have erroneously reported the time and place of John Meirs Horner\'s death. The May 16, 1907 edition of the Honolulu Advertiser reports that he died at home in Kukaiau on the island of Hawaii at 11:00 pm on May 14, 1907. There follows a rather long article about Mr. Horner and his remarkable life, some of which is from his own autobiographical writings, also quoted on your site.