Person:John Hume (5)

Notes for JOHN HUME: John moved with his family across the country, from New York to Michigan, to Indiana, where they settled. He attended school in Indiana and became a lawyer by 1849. He left home with his younger brother James on March 26, 1850, with a gold mining company they had formed, heading for California. Their route took them through Chicago, Maquoketa and Council Bluffs. Instead of traveling with a wagon train, they took their own five wagons and 18-20 horses, and followed the Platte River west to Fort Laramie. They were at Laramie on June 13, 1850, and arrived in California on August 20, 1850. During a stop at Salt Lake, they met the Mormon leader Brigham Young, who offered John a teaching position. The story of this journey is told in a biography of his brother: "Wells Fargo Detective: the Biography of James B. Hume," by Richard Dillon (published by Coward- McCann, NY).

The 1850 census lists the two men twice -- in East Lima, IN with their parents, and in Placerville, CA. By the time of the California enumeration (November), John was practicing law, James was established as a "trader." They were living next door to each other along with Alonzo Streetor (28, b. NY), Nathaniel Roof (27, b. IN), and William L. Orton (25, b. NY). This may have been the remnant of their gold company.

By Nov. 1851, John was a partner in the law firm of Roberson, Sanderson and Hume. He was elected to the State Assembly on Nov. 4, 1856, with the second highest number of votes among 24 candidates. He lost the district attorney's race to S.W. Sanderson (his partner?) on Sept. 7, 1859, but won two years later, on Sept. 4, 1861.

In the 1860 census, John, age 35, and Martha, 21, were listed in El Dorado County (p. 99, family #1101) with little Wilson ("W.T."), eight months, a female domestic named C. Bates (age 23, b. Ireland), and N. (Nannie) Tackaberry (15, b. MO), Martha's younger sister. John had real property valued at $1,200 and personal property worth $2,000.

John sent his young son to Indiana to attend school with his relatives there. The youngest son, Robert Alexander, was listed in the probate of John's estate. I believe this boy survived to adulthood. He was living with his mother in Wm. Ayers' household in 1870.

John died in LaGrange County, Indiana while visiting his family there.