Mary Benicia Semple, only daughter of Robert Baylor Semple and Frances Ann Cooper, his second wife, was born at Benicia, California, November 22, 1848. On her mother’s side she is descended from John Hancock, of Boston, the famous Revolutionary patriot and signer of the Declaration of Independence. She is also reputed to be the first girl of American (English, speaking) parentage born in California. Married August 16, 1870, at Colusa, California, Hosea B. Turman (born January 24, 1846, in Ohio), a stock trader of that place. They had four children.
