The Summers Family of California

The year 2004 was the celebration of the Sesquicentennial (150 years) for Summersville, Carters and Tuolumne ----- the town that had three names. In 1854, the first Anglo family settled in this community, which we now know as Tuolumne. The area was populated for thousands of years by native peoples, referred to as the Miwok, or Me-Wuk, (meaning "the people"). Most everyone generally knows that a man by the name of Frank Summers (b.1826-d.1856) came to this area with his new wife and young daughter and found gold and new wealth along with tragedy.

We begin with Samuel Summers (1796-1852) who was born in the State of Virginia. Samuel married Elizabeth McWherter (b. 1802 - d. ??). Samuel and Elizabeth had thirteen children, five boys and eight girls.

They were:

Lee Ann (b. 1819);

George M. (1820-1992);

James William, (1821-1877);

Nancy M. (b. 1823);

Franklin "Frank" (1826-1856);

Jesse N. (1827-1890);

John "Jack" (1832-1905);

Katherine (b. 1834);

Emily (Sarah?) (1835-1852);

Mary Frances (1837-1920);

Eliza G. (b. 1840);

Virginia "Jane" (b. 1842);

Belle (Isabelle) (b. 1845).

Belle was born in Missouri. All the other children were born in Kentucky.

One of the sons of Samuel and Elizabeth Summers, Frank Summers, who was born in Kentucky, married Elizabeth A. McGlacklin, who lived in Gentry County, Missouri. They had a daughter named Lee Ann, who was born in 1849 in Missouri. This is "our" Lee Ann Summers. Lee Ann was named after Frank Summers' eldest sister.

In 1850 Frank Summers decided to go to California (by himself) to visit his brothers, John, James and Dr. George Summers, who were already in California and participated in the gold rush of 1849. Frank booked passage aboard a ship taking the Cape Horn route and disembarking in San Francisco. He then went to the Shaw’s Flat area of the Mother Lode, where his three brothers lived. They were very successful in their search for gold.

In 1851, Frank Summers returns to Missouri to bring his wife Elizabeth and daughter Lee Ann and move permanently to California via the Overland Route, following the North Platte River, also known as the Oregon Trail.

In early 1852, just after the winter snows and the grass was tall enough for the large and strong oxen to feed on, a wagon train for the 2000-mile cross-country trip was made up of Missouri friends and neighbors. Such beliefs that California was the "end of the rainbow" the wagon party also included Frank's father Samuel and mother Elizabeth and the rest of their children. In May of 1852, they were on their way. Their oxen-drawn wagon train crossed the Missouri River by flat boat.

Then tragedy struck the Summers' family on the hot and dry alkali trail. Frank's younger sister, Emily (age 17) died the first month out. Frank's father Samuel (age 56) died in Nevada during the last month of the trip. As with the many thousands of deaths of the early pioneers on the Oregon Trail, many were wrapped in old, worn out blankets or quilts and placed in shallow graves, covered by rocks along the trail. There was no time to mourn your loss. You had to move on to the end of your rainbow, California.

The Summers' family left the Oregon Trail and traveled along the Humbolt River until they reached the Humbolt "Sink". They then took the Carson River route, which eventually led to old Hangtown (now Placerville).

In November of 1852 they reached Shaw’s Flat. It was a grueling six-month trip, which was normal for a group traveling at that time by the overland trail route. Frank, his wife and young daughter moved into a log cabin he constructed near Shaw’s Flat made from materials brought by Frank when he made his trip around Cape Horn to San Francisco Bay by ship two years earlier.

Two successful years pass. In the fall of 1854 Frank Summers sold his interest in his mining claim to his partner, Tarlton Colwell, because it was worked to a near finish. Frank moved his family and belongings to an area 10 miles east of Sonora California by an oxen drawn wagon and followed a dirt trail for two days to a desolate area along side a creek about 10 miles and filed squatters rights alongside the west bank of a small creek, named Turnback Creek. The area at that time was considered part of Cherokee Camp, which was the first placer camp in the east belt of the Mother Lode. Frank built a log house with a dirt floor and a fireplace. It was a place to call home. This area was located about where the West Side Lumber Co had their mill site, and is now known, of course, as Tuolumne.

At this time we will mention how the local creek running through Summersville-Carters-Tuolumne received its name. According to Lee Ann Summers in her book "Early Days of California", William Trengrove, Sr., father of Mrs. Joseph Barron, of Soulsbyville, with two companions, in 1853, ventured into the hills east of Sonora. They traveled without charts or maps prospecting for gold. They reached a beautiful creek. They allege that they were the first Anglos to visit and admire its beauty. However, upon hearing an unearthly noise some distance up the creek, they knew they were in the vicinity of an Indian camp. As they were concerned for their safety, they changed direction and turned back. They inscribed their names on a large tree on the west bank of the creek and also gave the creek the name of "Turnback Creek", a name that remains today.

On April 2^nd, 1855 Frank and Elizabeth Summers had a second child, John Eberle Summers. John was the first Anglo child to be born in the area.

By early spring of 1856, the area became the scene of a wild gold rush. Long Gulch and Cherokee sprang up almost overnight. Frank Summers was very successful at gold mining. He worked the area with his brothers and all were part owners of the "Eagle Ranch" and the Summers Quartz Mine with a five-stamp mill.

Life seemed to become a little better now. There was plenty of meat available from the game (squirrels and rabbits) and wildfowl in the area. There was an abundance of wild berries, grapes and acorns. Frank and Elizabeth planted a garden from seeds brought with them from Missouri. Their new life had a lot to offer.

Tragedy strikes the Summers Family. A detailed account of the murder of

Franklin Summers at age 30, March 26, 1856.

[The following is an excerpt from the "Mining Business of LaGrange", a journal for miners in Stanislaus County in 1856.]

"A DISASTROUS AFFAIR: A bloody affray [sic] occurred in LaGrange (also known as French Bar) March 26, 1856, in which Frank Summers and Martin Anderson lost their lives, and a man by the name of Kincaid was dangerously wounded. Ill feeling had been brooding between the Summers' boys and the James Dickinson family for some time before, about the location of some swamp and overflowed land in the neighborhood of Horr's Ranch, or what was then Dickinson's Ferry (also known as Roberts Ferry). The matter in one shape or another, had been in litigation between the parties for several years, and finally came on for trial on Wednesday, the 26^th of March 1856, before Judge Creanor in the Fifth District Courthouse. The cause [sic] was tried during the day. The contestants had strained every point to gain an advantage before the law, but were yet to meet in deadly conflict before the day had closed. It was near dark when court adjourned.

"The Dickinson party, consisting of some fifteen of twenty had left the courtroom, and it was supposed had started home. George and Frank Summers remained in the court-room conversing with each other, and had turned to leave the building when James Dickinson entered with some of his friends, and on reaching Summers, struck George in the face with his fist, a scuffle ensued, in which all participated.

"After some tussling and scuffling the firing commenced. Several pistol shots were fired in quick succession. George Summers was knocked down and shot at six times while lying on the floor. Frank Summers was shot in the thigh, his right arm broken into splinters above the elbow, and one ball entering his breast passed obliquely through the left lung, coming out under the left shoulder blade.

"A bystander says….. 'He received the last shot as he attempted to escape through the window - that he was met by a man from the outside of the house, and shot by him, causing instant death, the ball entering his breast.' His body was afterwards found a short distance from the house, lying in a ditch, where he had run before falling in the agonies of death. Martin Anderson, a young man and friend of Dickinson, received a ball in his abdomen, causing his death. Kincaid, another of the Dickinson party, received a wound in the upper part of the thigh, from which he afterwards recovered. John Clark, then Deputy Sheriff, received a wound in his arm while endeavoring to quell the affray.

"In George Summers account of the affray, he says: …..'I was struck in the face. I thought one man took hold of me by the hair of the head, pulled me about half-bent, and held me in that position, whilst some others gave me blows. After some little tussling they jerked me to the floor. About this time I heard the report of a pistol, several others in quick succession. I could see no one for the men over me. I was stamped, beaten and shot at I suppose, as I have been creditably informed that six ball holes were in the floor near where my head lay, endeavoring to blow my brains out. The firing ceased, they drew me out of the house by the hair of my head, believing me to be dead, without a doubt, and still continuing to stamp me. My deceased brother was by my side when the row commenced. I saw him no more until I saw him a corpse.'

"Frank Summers left a mother, a widow and two little children to morn his loss. This lamentable affair was deplored by all good citizens, and the loss to the family was irreparable." ----- (End of Journal article)

After news and rumors of the murder of Frank Summers began to spread throughout the community, the local miners threw up a cordon of protection around the home of Elizabeth and her two children in their time of sorrow. You must remember that during this time (1856) Elizabeth was 24 years young and a widow in a wild gold rush mining camp. There were very few respectable ladies around town during this period.

Elizabeth soon opened up the house her husband Frank built just before his death in an area briefly known as "Quartzville." She turned it into a boarding house for miners, because she had to provide for her young, fatherless family. It did not take long for her entrepreneurship to be successful with her Missouri style, home-cooked meals.

In late 1856, Elizabeth Summers gave room and board free of charge to William and James Blakely, two brothers who were miners from Cornwall, England. William and James made a fabulous discovery of rich quartz gold and founded the ore-rich Eureka Mine. Once the mine produced huge amounts of gold, the brothers were able to repay the kindness that was offered by Mrs. Summers. No one could know of the future success of the Blakely investment at that time. In addition to repaying their debt, the Blakely Brothers, who by now were the richest and most influential members of the community, offered to rename the area from "Quartzville" to "Elizabethville" in her honor.

Mrs. Summers declined the honor, but stated she would be pleased if the community was named after her late husband, Frank Summers. All agreed and it was decided that the area would be called "Summersville", honoring her request.

In 1857, a controversy arose over the employment of Chinese labor in the placer diggings, and a vote was taken in the C.H. Carters' General Store at Long Gulch. The losing side walked out and then turned around and, without any warning, opened fire on the wooden building and those inside, critically injuring many and instantly killing Bob Clod with a bullet through his heart. According to an account by Lee Ann Summers, the Carters General Store resembled a slaughterhouse with shattered windows.

One of those seriously injured was William Charles Connally, the future husband of the widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Summers. The other seriously injured gentleman was Ben Edmondson.

Both Mr. Connally, who was shot through both shoulders, and Mr. Edmondson, who was shot through the thigh, was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to recover from their serious wounds under the care of Mrs. Summers. Medical care was uncertain in those days. They lived in Mrs. Summer's boarding house as tenants. It took several months for them to recover fully.

The owners of the Eureka Mine, William and James Blakely continued to live at Mrs. Summer's boarding house until they sold their Eureka mine. Mrs. Summers had a busy boarding house. Her daughter, Lee Ann, was of the utmost help in raising her brother, John E. Summers.

At this time, Elizabeth was living near her brother-in-laws, John and James Summers and their families. The Summers brothers were always a close-knit family.

At the same time a number of developments were happening in the newly named settlement of "Summersville." In 1857 a street ditch was prepared to furnish water to all East Belt miners. William and Penn Price brought dairy cows to Jack Fry's ranch, which was also called Buckhorn. The rich Lady Washington, Grizzly and Bonito mines were discovered.

Lee Ann Summers reported that the famous Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) arrived in Summersville. He dined on home-style Missouri cooking and boarded at Mrs. Summer's boarding house. During these hard times, even Missouri style biscuits and gravy with pig sausage were a sought after delicacy. Mr. Clemens was also from Missouri. After a lengthy discussion between Elizabeth Summers and Mr. Clemens of their ancestors, in true Missouri style, they decided that to all the rules and laws of Missouri, there were cousins.

After William Connally's recovery from his gunshot wounds, Mrs. Elizabeth Summers, who by now had developed a close relationship with her boarder and patient, married Mr. William Connally on August 26^th, 1858.

In 1859, the first Summersville School was established. It was a three-month school, but did not last long. The teacher was a lady from Boston. She disliked the Summersville area, the ways, the people, and classed everyone as ignorant. Lee Ann Summers reported that the first day the teacher brought a rawhide whip; the second day she taught several pupils its proper use.

In later years, the school was reestablished. The name of the Summersville School was originally misspelled due to a typographical error of the time on legal documents, leaving off the "s" after Summers. The school district is still known as Summerville School District today. That is where we get the Summerville School name in Summersville

Around 1859-1860, placer mining was beginning to wane. Quartz mining was now profitable. Times were changing. Families were making permanent homes; small orchards and household gardens were in evidence. Comfortable family residences were being built.

Mr. & Mrs. William C. and Elizabeth A. Connally had four sons (George, Frank, Charles, and William Jr.) and one daughter (Alice Lee) from their marriage. Those children, together with Lee Ann and John Summers made a large family. They moved to what was known at the time as the Connally Ranch, out on the old King David Apple Colony Ranch.

Mr. William C. Connally Sr. was an early pioneer and a native of Alabama. After his arrival and marriage in California, he was elected to the California State Assembly and died in Sacramento. He was brought home and buried in Summersville at Carters Cemetery.

----- Conclusion -----

Lee Ann Summers was married three times in her life. Her first marriage at age 18 was to John R. Richards, a Blacksmith from Wisconsin on March 7, 1868. In 1869 they had a son named Burton L. Richards. That marriage ended in a divorce.

Her second marriage at age 31 was to W.C. Whipple, in Bridgeport, CA and her son from that marriage was named Charles Frances Whipple, born August 23, 1881 and died Jan 7, 1953, in Sacramento. According to family correspondence (about 1884), they separated and later divorced.

Her third marriage at age 39 was to Charles Haslam, who was 49 years old at the time. They were married on February 17, 1889 and they had no children. Mr. Haslam died in 1901 at age 79 and Lee Ann became a widow at age 69. Mr. Haslam, who was a widower, was previously married to the former Harriet Douglass of Columbia. Charles Haslam once owned an apple ranch, now called the Sierra Glen Apple Ranch in the Belleview/Big Hill area.

Very little information regarding the personal life of Lee Ann has been discovered. In later years, she often was referred to as Mrs. L.A. Haslam. In the Museum there is evidence that she was involved in a photography business in Carters.

In the matter of her father's death, there is no indication of what happened to the individuals that shot and killed Frank Summers. This was 150 years ago; was it presumed to be "mutual combat" or "self-defense"? There was no trial, only a coroner's inquest. There is no known record of Frank Summers burial.

Summers Family Researcher Ruth Hansen Brown states the McHenry Museum in Modesto, CA has a receipt showing that $10 was paid by the County to a doctor for Frank Summers' autopsy. Is Frank buried in Modesto?

In May 1856, Wilse Walkingstaff murdered young James Ham in a jealous rage over a young woman. Mr. Ham was the first to be buried on a hill under a live oak tree in what became known in 1856 as Summersville Cemetery. In 1860, Lee Ann's cousin, Silas Gibbs, only eight days old, was the first child to be buried in Summersville Cemetery (now known as Carters Cemetery). Baby Silas was the fourth child of William Dulaney Gibbs and Mary Frances Summers, a younger sister by 11 years to our Frank Summers.

In addition to miners, many farmers, cattlemen and ranchers were beginning to populate the area from Summersville to Marlow Camp to Blanket Creek.

For a short time, miners called the area "Summers Camp." Prominent families including the Lord, Baker, C.H. Carter, Daly, Walling, Ralph and Ingall's families, moved into the area. In 1865, the Summerville Elementary School District was established. In 1882, Frank Baker began amassing his 600 acres of homestead land. Mr. Baker donated and deeded a portion of his ranch property for a school in Summersville. This is where the present Summerville Elementary School exists.

Because of an Act of Congress in 1820, land patents for town sites created on public domain land were authorized. In 1876, the Summersville Townsite was surveyed and a patent was issued in 1884.

By the 1870's, Summersville was a thriving community with stores, hotels, saloons, doctor, lawyer, butcher shops, drug stores, express office, fraternal organizations, several churches, cigar manufacturer, livery stables, barber shops, milliners and dressmakers.

In 1888 Summersville residents wanted to have their own post office designation. The Post Office Department denied the application, because another post office in Contra Costa County, called Somersville, was already established. The Post Office Department, fearing confusion, suggested that Charles H. Carter general store house the post office. Since Mr. Carter was already taking care of the official mailbags for the area, it was agreed that the new post office would be called "Carters."

The official name for this community was resolved when the Sierra Railway completed its main line into the Depot Plaza in 1899. The railroad station was dubbed "Tuolumne", within the post office boundaries of Carters. In 1901, a post office was established in the West Side Lumber Company's office at Main Street and Bay Avenue (called "New Town"). In 1905, the Carters Post Office (in "Old Town") was abandoned. However, by 1908, the Old Town and the New Town post offices were combined at the West Side building and the area was finally called Tuolumne.

Lee Ann's mother, Mrs. Elizabeth (Summers) Connally, died on December 5^th, 1901 at age 69, possibly in Visalia, CA where she was living with her other daughter, Alice Lee (Connally) Winwood (Lee Ann's half-sister).

Lee Ann moved to Campo Seco in November 1924, four years before her own death. Lee Ann (nee: Summers) Richards-Whipple-Haslam died Feb 28, 1928 in Shaws Flat at age 79.

The Summers Family had a reunion on May 1, 1993 in the Tuolumne Depot Park. Approximately 100 family members attended. Most of the attendees were descendants of James Summers, John "Jack" Summers, and Mary Frances (Summers) Gibbs.

Where did they all go? Some of the descendents of the original Summers family currently reside just over the Sonora Pass in Inyo County and Mono County. Many reside in the central San Joaquin Valley area. Most are spread out all over the country.

For example, in 1879 for six months, Dr. George Summers, MD, Frank's eldest brother who once lived in Summersville, contracted to operate the Bodie, CA County Hospital.

In 1877, other Summers family members formed the "Summers and Company Meat Market" in Bodie. They operated a large slaughterhouse and had a virtual monopoly in the meat business. But by 1883, Bodie "fizzled out" and there were no more customers for beef.

The TCMM Pioneer Exhibit Gallery has photographs of many Summers Family descendents. Some of the photographs are of Elizabeth Summers; Lee Ann Summers; Charles Whipple; Mr. & Mrs. James Lee and Ada Dell Gibbs; Dolly, Eldridge and Dell Connally; George and Katherine (Connally) Marshall; Charles Eldridge Connally and Mary Louise (Gianelli) Connally's wedding day at Long Gulch in 1893; Mr. & Mrs. John and Ida Dell (Connally) Love wedding day on June 20, 1917. There is also a painting by artist Ada Dell (Gurley) Gibbs (ca.1949).

Take a memorable stroll along the quiet walk of time to visit and pay respect to the old Long Gulch – Summersville - Carters pioneers by visiting the historic Carters Cemetery in Tuolumne on Cemetery Lane. Some of the family descendents still reside in Tuolumne today. Absorb a little pioneer history and walk up and down the aisles of the 150-year-old graveyard and view the pioneer plots and names of many prominent families of Summersville, Carters and Tuolumne ----- the town that had three names.

Research notes: As with any historical or genealogical research, the spelling of names, accuracy of dates and places can vary. With oral histories handed down from generation to generation, this happens quite often. This leads to a little confusion with just "who-is-who," which can be misleading. What is mentioned in one census can be the opposite in another census. Census records are not reliable. We attempted to be as accurate as possible. There was no speculation. (We didn't make it up.) If there is something you feel the TCMM Historical Research Committee should be aware of, or if you just have a question, feel free to E-mail the Historical Research Committee at Info@TuolumneMuseum.org .

[For purposes of this research article, we attempted to locate the gravesite in Carters Cemetery for Lee Whipple-Haslam. According to cemetery documents, there was no record of her interred there, as reported in her obituary in a local newspaper. We examined the hundreds of headstones, but our Lee Ann was not located. However, our search will continue.]

Research Sources

TCMM credits and appreciation to the following:

---Georgia Kinney Bopp Family Genealogy Book "Summers Family in California", the GKBopp database, and Ruth Hansen Brown. Both are descendents of Samuel and Elizabeth (McWherter) Summers.

---The book "Early Days in California", by Mrs. L. Haslam, published in 1928 by the Mother Lode Magnet.

---Personal notes by Marie Rozier, Museum Co-founder, from the Tuolumne Museum archives.

---Joseph Celentano, TCMM Historical Research Committee.

---Sharon Marovich, Tuolumne County Historical Society.

---Joyce Crawford, Researcher, Tuolumne County Genealogical Society.

---Ann Williams, Researcher, Tuolumne County Genealogical Society.

- OBITUARY -

"AN OLD PIONEER

AT FINAL REST"

The Sonora Union Democrat

Tuolumne County, California March 3, 1928

"The shadows fell for Mrs. Lee Whipple-Haslam, a pioneer woman of Tuolumne County last Tuesday at 10:30 AM, at her home at Camp Seco. The immediate cause of her death was acute dilation of the heart, which followed a complication of all ailments to her vital organs.

"Mrs. Whipple-Haslam was born in Missouri and was aged 79 years when she passed. Her father, Franklin Summers, was a pioneer of 1852. A year later he went back to his Missouri home and returned to Tuolumne County with his wife and daughter, the child being four years old when she arrived here in 1853. Here in the rough days she grew to womanhood and imbibed at first hand much of the early history of the county, which she subsequently wrote and had it published in book form. She was a woman of high character and a keenly intelligent mind and a marvelous memory, which made it possible for her to recall the incidents of early days and portray them long after she has passed the meridian of life.

"Deceased spent most of the years of her life in Tuolumne County. In early youth she lived at Shaw's Flat, and in her young womanhood at Summersville, now Tuolumne. The older town was named after her father and uncles.

"She is survived by two sons, Burton L. Richards and Chas. Whipple, two half brothers, George and Frank Connally, a half sister Mrs. T.C. Winwood, and two grand-daughters and several great-grand children.

"The funeral was conducted Thursday afternoon at 2 o'clock by Undertaker O'Belrne from his chapel in Sonora, thence to the Methodist Church in Tuolumne, where services preceded interment in the family plot in the Carter cemetery."

Seated on the front porch of the George Connally home in Carters is from left to right:

Elizabeth Summers Connally (age 65), Charles Whipple (age 17) and

Lee Ann (Summers) Whipple-Haslam (age 48).
(The name of the horse is unknown.)

Above photograph on display at the Tuolumne City Memorial Museum.

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