Person:John Van Benschoten (13)

From Source:Van Benschoten, William Henry. Concerning the Van Bunschoten or Van Benschoten Family in America : A Genealogy and Brief History:

JOHN WESLEY V.B. in his early years was a delicate boy, and his parents, to give him a more robust constitution, apprenticed him to a butcher. The employment agreed with him and as a consequence he learned the business thoroughly. In 1839 he went to New Orleans and there engaged in the butchering business and prospered. In that gay city he became interested in amateur theatricals, and so distinguished himself that he was urged to take to the stage as a profession — he did not do so, however. Soon after the Mexican War broke out he and a partner took the contract to supply the army with beef; the partner bought up the cattle and forwarded them to him, while Wesley kept with the army and superintended the slaughtering. Of that war experience Wesley said: " The worst was after the battles when the surgeons went around at night with lanterns visiting the hospital tents; the groans then were worse by far than the noise of battle."

John Wesley was characterized at that time as: " square-built, good-natured, skilled with the fists and no churchman."

After the war a body of troops was dispatched across the plains to California and Wesley was given the contract to supply this force with beef, which he did to the satisfaction of the government. On reaching Warner's ranch, near Los Angeles, in December, 1848, Wesley's connection with the army terminated. He then went to Jamestown, the principal mining district in the state, where he established a store and was very successful in the venture. In 1850 he located a large ranch on the San Joaquin river, and in partnership with him was Col. Grayson of the army, after whom the settlement later made there was named. Wesley proceeded to build a hotel; on March 9th, of that year, "the corner stone", as he called it, was laid, this being a section of a white oak tree cut near by. In the same year he put in operation the ferry which he owned and ran. Grayson soon tired of the life and left; John Wesley held on, lived and died there. In the early sixties he planned and laid out the town which for a while grew quite rapidly. It is said, "He saw his hopes fulfilled as to a town, but not perhaps, to the extent he expected. He lived, however, to see the plains, once a vast cattle range, turned into a fine agricultural country filled with happy, successful farmers."

Col. A. C. Ferris says : "My ranch adjoined the 'Grayson Ferry' of 'West' Van Benschoten, one of the pioneers of '49, attached to the army in Mexico, but who came through at the close of the war with Major Graham's command, first establishing himself at Jamestown in store and hotel, afterwards locating on the San Joaquin, establishing the ferry and projecting the city of Grayson, in founding which he expended his mining profits acquired at Jamestown to the amount of some $200,000."

"J. Wesley Van Benschoten was a member of the first legislative body of California, was a conspicuous star actor and carried on an extensive meat business in Columbia from the cattle on his Grayson ranch, distant about sixty miles. Van Benschoten's and my own ranch were on the San Joaquin, near the mouth of the Toulumne river, on its southern side, and but a few miles from the coast range of mountains, then the haunt of outlaws and cattle thieves, of whom Joaquin Murietta was one; and some sharp skirmishes, of one of which I will speak, took place between us ranchmen and the maurauders."

"Eight horsemen, well mounted and armed, passed the ferry one day going up the river driving a band of about thirty head of cattle bearing Livermore's brand but not the brand indicating a sale. A messenger was at once mounted on a fleet horse and sent to Livermore's pass in the Coast Range Mountains, about thirty miles, who returned with the information that the cattle were stolen. Just before his return the cattle thieves repassed having sold the cattle up the river and were making for their resort. We at once mounted all available horses, six in number, and gave chase, overtaking them in a ravine a couple of miles from the ferry. They were outlaws of the first order under the command of an American named Wood who had been a cadet at West Point. His followers were Mexicans and Chilians. 'West' Van Benschoten was our leader and at once demanded their surrender and return, which Wood answered with a shot from his revolver and put spurs to his horse. West returned fire, putting a slug from a Colt's Navy revolver through Wood's body, when a general running fight took place. Two of the eight were captured, one of them by myself with a shot-gun ; two others were wounded, but all but the two prisoners escaped, having the fastest horses. However, the next day one of the wounded was found hidden in a deserted cabin, and Wood's dead body on a side hill of the Coast Range."

Wesley was sheriff of San Joaquin Co., a member of the first Legislature of the state, as above stated, and a prominent politician in conventions of the Democratic party, as well as the founder of Grayson.

On the afternoon of January 12th, 1886, as he was engaged in taking a man across the San Joaquin river on his ferry-boat he was stricken with what is supposed was apoplexy, fell overboard, passed under the boat and was drowned.

"He lies buried in the town where he lived so long and was loved so well. He was a genial man who made friends wherever he went; was of a sanguine temperament; kind and considerate of others; liberal and enterprising; and was foremost in all schemes for the benefit of his fellow-man."

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 1100, in Van Benschoten, William Henry. Concerning the Van Bunschoten or Van Benschoten family in America: A Genealogy and Brief History. (Poughkeepsie, NY: A. V. Haight Co. Printers, 1907)
   pp. 358, 362.
2. ↑ John Westley Van Benschoten, in Find A Grave.

   Inscription:
   "J.W. VAN BENSCHOTEN, BORN OCT. 14, 1817, DIED JAN. 12, 1886"
   
   Note: Opposite side of stone = “MARY A. VAN BENSCHOTEN, AUG. 1, 1826, JUNE 12, 1908” and "JESSIE VAN BENSCHOTEN, BORN 1832, DIED MAY 6, 1870"