Person:Lilburn Boggs (4)

Jackson County, Missouri, 1830 census:^[3]

Boggs, Lilburn W.

Males

under 5 = 1

5-9 = 2

10-14 = 2

30-39 = 1

Females

under 5 = 1

15-19 = 1

20-29 = 1

Cole County, Missouri, 1840 census:^[4]

Boggs, Lilburn W.

Males

under 5 = 1

5-9 = 3

10-14 = 1

15-19 = 1

40-49 = 2

Females

under 5 = 1

10-14 = 1

30-39 = 1

Slaves

Males = 1

Females = 3

Sonoma County, California, 1850 census:^[6]

Boggs, L. W. [m] 53 yrs Merchant (personal estate = $15,000) b. Kentucky

      Panthea 48 yrs b. Kentucky

      Albert G. 19 yrs Clerk b. Missouri

      John 17 yrs Clerk b. Missouri

      Theodore 16 yrs b. Missouri

      Minerva M. 14 yrs b. Missouri

      Geo. W. 11 yrs b. Missouri

      Sophia 9 yrs b. Missouri

      Joseph C. 5 yrs b. Missouri

1. ↑ Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.

   Judge Silas Bent

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6} Find A Grave.

   Lilburn Boggs

3. ↑ ^3.0 3.1 Jackson, Missouri, United States. 1830 U.S. Census Population Schedule
   p. 302.
4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 Cole, Missouri, United States. 1840 U.S. Census Population Schedule
   p. 66.
5. ↑ United States. U.S., Appointments of U. S. Postmasters, 1832-1971. (Ancestry.com [database online])
   vol. 19.
6. ↑ ^6.0 6.1 Sonoma, California, United States. 1850 U.S. Census Population Schedule
   p. 15B, dwelling/family 119/118.
7. ↑ Napa, California, United States. 1860 U.S. Census Population Schedule
   Mortality Schedude, p. 1, Line 29.

   Boggs, L. W. "(ex Gov)" 64 yrs b. Kentucky d. March Farmer Disease of the Heart (ill for 10 mos)

8.   Carpenter, Aurelius O., and Percy H. Millberry. History of Mendocino and Lake Counties California: with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the counties .. (Los Angeles: Historic Company, 1914)
   pp. 314-17.

   HON. LILBURN W. BOGGS. --- The life which began in Lexington, Ky., January 14, 1798, and closed in Napa county, Cal., March 19, 1861, was lifted out of the ordinary routine by the romance of war service, of political turmoil and of victorious achievement. While ex-Governor Boggs is claimed in the annals of Missouri as one of the early governors of that commonwealth and as a leader during the dangerous period of Mormon hostilities, his name also is identified with the pioneer period of western development and with the opening of an overland trail for emigrants prior to the discovery of gold. Much as he loved Missouri and dear as was the home of that interesting and eventful period of his career, he developed an attachment equally deep for the California home of his last years and experienced the gratification common to all high-principled men when success in the west enabled him to pay to the last penny the large indebtedness into which he had been plunged by reason of the great panic of the latter '30s. To retrieve these losses in his own state had seemed impossible, so at an age when many men would have feared launching their bark in a strange stream he came across the plains to make a new financial start in the world. The subsequent discovery of gold aided him greatly in his business afifairs and enabled him to make good the losses of the past, besides leaving him a competency for his declining days. It was given to him to devote to California about fourteen years of stirring activity and then his health began to fail, dropsy of the heart developed and after suffering for more than a year he passed from pain into the peace of eternity.
   
   The Boggs family originally settled on the eastern shore of Maryland, but during the latter part of the eighteenth century John M. and Martha (Oliver) Boggs sought a home in the then unsettled regions of Kentucky, where the former died in young manhood, leaving a son Lilburn W., to take up the burden of self-support in boyhood years. To this lad destiny brought an early experience in warfare. At the age of sixteen he enlisted in the war of 1812 and under Capt. Levi Todd, of Fayette county, Ky.. he spent eighteen months at the front, taking part in the battle of the Thames or Tippecanoe besides other minor engagements. On his return he became a bookkeeper in the old Insurance Bank of Kentucky, but at the age of eighteen went to St. Louis and from there removed to Franklin on the Missouri river, opposite the present site of Boonville. Later he was stationed at Fort Osage as deputy factor for paying Indians their annuities, while in St. Louis he had married Miss Julia Bent, daughter of Judge Silas Bent, and she died early in 1821, leaving two sons, Angus and Henry Carroll. In addition to the work at Fort Osage he engaged in business for a time at Marias DuCene. While the family were living at the latter post his elder son had a narrow escape from death. The two small boys, Angus and Henry Carroll, were amusing themselves sliding on the ice, when the elder slid a little too far and fell into the opening. The swift current swept him down under the ice to a point where there was an air-hole. An old Indian, whose wigwam was near by, witnessed the accident. Without a moment's hesitancy he seized a rail, ran down on the ice, laid flat on his body, shoved the rail along in front of him over the thin ice and finally reached the spot where the small boy was becoming exhausted from the cold and from his vain efforts to retain a hold on the breaking ice. Reaching out with great care the Indian grasped the child, hauled him on the ice and bore him to safety, then stalked off to his wigwam with as little concern as though he had not risked his life in a most dangerous and courageous act. The father of the child was known as the "Big Trader" among the Indians and he at once sent for the rescuer, thanked him most earnestly and inquired as to how he could reward him. Pointing to a huge pile of trade blankets the Indian replied "One blanket." Such was the gratitude of the father that the Indian not only received one blanket, but as many as he could carry and other articles dear to the heart of a savage were also heaped upon him.
   
   The second marriage of ex-Governor Boggs was solemnized in 1823 and united him with Panthea G. Boone, daughter of Jesse Boone and granddaughter of the famous old Kentucky pioneer, Daniel Boone. A new home was established at Harmony, Mo., on the Neosho, a branch of the Osage river, at which point Mr. Boggs was engaged in trading with the Indians for furs and pelts. The first child of the second marriage was born at Harmony, Thomas Oliver Boggs, a comrade of Kit Carson on the plains and for more than forty years a resident of Las Animas, Colo., and engaged as a trader among the Indians as an agent of the great Bent's organization of furriers. From the post at Harmony the family removed to Six Mile Settlement in Jackson county. Mo., where in October, 1826, occurred the birth of the second son, William M. Boggs, also a plainsman and later captain of the emigrant train to California. From Six Mile Settlement the family removed to Independence, where Mr. Boggs engaged in the mercantile business. All of the children of his second marriage were born in Jackson county with the exception of a son, George W., whose birthplace was Jefferson City.
   
   The personal qualities of Mr. Boggs were so attractive, his intellect so profound and his interest in the state so great that naturally he rose to influence. After serving as representative, senator and lieutenant-governor he was honored with the office of governor. After the burning of the old state house he was engaged to visit the east and purchase supplies for the completion of the new capitol, a splendid structure for those times, begun about 1837 and finished in 1840, constructed of white freestone, with six granite columns in front, thirty feet between cap and base, six feet in diameter, and placed in a circle at the main entrance, over which on a stone slab appear the names of Governor Boggs and the other state officers. His service as governor was filled with anxiety and trouble, but he persisted in independent appointments despite of enmity aroused. He was no weakling, to be controlled by party machinery. Dissensions arose with leading statesmen who regarded themselves as supreme in power, but no criticism could turn him from a course he believed to be right. His frontier friends and backwoods associates were treated with a hospitality gracious and cordial; the poor were welcomed to his home with as much tact and kindness as the rich received. Many a man was indebted to him for a start that in after years led him to fortune and success. His greatest trouble as governor was with the Mormons, who had formerly lived near Independence, Mo., but after hostilities that threatened the shedding of blood had been exiled, retreating to Nauvoo on the Mississippi river in Illinois. The later troubles of this sect in Illinois are a matter of history and only terminated with the shooting of Joe Smith in the Hancock county jail in Carthage and with the exile of the Mormons to the then desert of Utah. Meanwhile the activity of Governor Boggs in causing their removal from Missouri had embittered Smith and he had prophesied that the Governor would die of violence within twelve months. Shortly after that prophecy Orin Porter Rockwell had attempted to assassinate the Governor, who by the merest chance escaped death. Two balls lodged in the left side of his brain, one lodged in the fleshy part of his neck and one passed through the hollow of the neck and came out at the roof of the mouth. The attempted murder prostrated him for a year, but did not prevent his election to the senate and his splendid service in behalf of his district in that body.
   
   On completion of his service as senator, ex-Governor Boggs settled on a farm near Independence, thence went into that town and later purchased a farm in Cass county, but the death of his eldest daughter, Martha, at that place caused him to become dissatisfied and he returned to Independence. Meanwhile a number of his friends had investigated the country west of the Rocky mountains and had given favorable accounts of natural resources and climate, but doubted the advisability of families attempting to cross through the unexplored intervening country. Captain Rickman, who had been west as far as Yerba Buena (now San Francisco) advocated the idea of a trans-continental railroad and he and the Governor would converse for hours over the feasibility of such an enterprise. As early as 1842 the Governor wrote an article on the subject addressed to Shadwick Penn, then the editor of the St. Louis Republic. The article described an overland route for the railroad via Santa Fe (much the line later taken by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe) with the exception that his starting point was to be Independence, Mo., and his terminus, San Diego, Cal. His estimate of the cost of construction was based on such cost in Pennsylvania and was remarkably near the true cost of the later undertaking. The original article on the subject is still preserved and is in the possession of the Sonoma Pioneer Society.
   
   Against the advice of many timid and conservative counselors the Governor determined to migrate to California. His eldest sons. Angus and Henry Carroll, who were married and living on farms in Jackson county, did not care to accompany him, although the latter followed in 1850. The eldest child of the second marriage had gone to Bent's fort and so it was the fourth son, William M.. who had charge of the expedition which left Independence May 10, 1846. Just before starting William M. Boggs married Sonora Hicklin, daughter of John Hicklin, who in early life had been an intimate friend of the Governor and his comrade on expeditions among the Indians. At Ash Hollow on the Nebraska river William M. Boggs was chosen captain of the party which included about one hundred families. The wisdom of the choice was proved by the success of a most dangerous trip. All of his party reached their destinations in safety with the exception of the Donner family and their immediate friends, who decided to take a cut-off against which the captain advised. Their terrible sufferings in the Sierra Nevada mountains and their subsequent fate are matters of history. Being an expert marksman Captain Boggs supplied the large expedition with buffalo-meat and other game and was therefore exceedingly popular, besides which he showed the pluck in hardships that invariably wins admiration from others.
   
   Previous to the arrival of the Missourians in the Sacramento valley in November, 1846, they were met by Colonel Fallon of the Fremont party, who Informed them that the American flag was flying in California and that recruits were being gathered for the army of Colonel Fremont. Later General Vallejo tendered the ex-Governor the use of his house on the Petaluma rancho and there the family spent the wet winter in 1846, with no society except an occasional visit from the General. In the spring the Governor entered into merchandising in Sonoma, where Colonel Mason, the military governor of California, appointed him alcalde of the northern district, his jurisdiction to extend to Sacramento and to include Sutter's Fort, thence extending northward to the Oregon line and down the coast to the bay, including all of the country north of the bay of San Francisco. Among the duties of the alcalde was the performance of marriage ceremonies and frequently Governor Boggs rode thirty or more miles in order to officiate at weddings. He read the service at the marriage of Dr. Robert Semple, the founder of Benicia, and Miss Frances Cooper, daughter of Stephen Cooper, who erected in 1848 the first hotel at Benicia. He also united in marriage William Edgington and Nancy Grigsby, daughter of Capt. John Grigsby, of the Bear Flag party; also many other young couples of pioneer prominence. Other duties of the office of alcalde included the trying of cases and the maintenance of order, with authority to call on the military if necessary. It happened that in one case Captain Sutter had been ordered to appear before the court, but instead of responding in person he sent an Indian with gold dust amounting to about $300, stating that gold had been discovered on the American river and his business was of such importance that he could not obey the summons. This was the first news received at Sonoma concerning that most interesting event. People at once rushed for the mines, but the Governor continued at Sonoma, took charge of gold dust for returning miners, built up a very large trade as merchant and in a few years had amassed a small fortune. In 1852 he sent two sons to Missouri to buy fine stock and in that way some splendid Durham cattle were brought into Napa county that proved most valuable in the future history of the stock industry there. His last years were passed happily on his farm in Napa valley and at death his body was interred in the Tulucay cemetery in that county, where his wife, who passed away September 23, 1880, was buried by his side. Many of the most important state papers of Governor Boggs were lost or destroyed by fire, a fact greatly deplored by the representatives of the present generation as well as by patriots interested in the preservation of early history. One of the documents still in existence, dated at Copenhagen, April 21, 1840, and signed by the Royal Society of Northern Antiquarians, informs him of his election as a member of that society, organized in furtherance of the perpetuation of pre-Columbian history of America. The letter is partly in the Danish language and is a beautiful specimen of penmanship, signed by the president as well as the secretary, and bearing the legal seal of the society. By chance this document has been preserved, while many other papers equally interesting and perhaps even more important, have passed out of existence, depriving the family of the pleasure of a complete understanding of events entering into the history of this pioneer governor and shaping his policy in public affairs. Enough, however, has been preserved to indicate his forceful intellect, splendid capacity for leadership, intelligent .grasp of national issues and rare devotion to his country and his home.

9.   Carpenter, Aurelius O., and Percy H. Millberry. History of Mendocino and Lake Counties California: with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the counties .. (Los Angeles: Historic Company, 1914)
   p. 127.

   The outrage that aroused the deepest resentment in the hearts of these simple and long-suffering redmen, and which constituted the direct inciting cause for the massacre of that pair of cruel yet remarkably daring pioneer whites, was the gold hunting expedition. In the spring of 1849, in the gold excitement, a party was organized at Sonoma to go prospecting at the headwaters of the Sacramento river. The expedition, as organized, comprised Sam and Ben Kelsey, ex-Governor L. W. Boggs (who, however, did not go with the party), William M. Boggs, Salvador Vallejo, Alf Musgrove, A. J. Cox, John Ballard and Juan Castinado.