1853 Foulks House

The year was 1853, Euphemia Pugh Foulks, a widow with five children struggled to make a living in the town of Mansfield, Ohio. Euphemia, lovingly known as Effie, had lost her husband, Alfred Foulks, more than five years earlier. She had made the decision to make a life for her family in California.

In 1852, Effie’s' brother, Dr. Jonathan Wood Pugh, and her oldest son, John Foulks, then 16 years old, came to California to see what the new frontier had to offer. Dr. Pugh led his first wagon train across the plains and mountains and, eventually, found land south of Sacramento that he deemed suitable. He put options on this land for his sister. It was truly a new and wide open land and he felt that Effie and her children could be successful here. Dr. Pugh returned to Mansfield, leaving John with friends, and recommend that Euphemia go to California.

On April 2nd, 1853, Euphemia and her four remaining children, George, Louisa, Statira and Josephine prepared for their trip west. After selling their property, furnishings and goods, they packed everything else they owned to take with them. Effie wanted to take her piano, but she decided not to. She did include a drop leaf table and rocking chair, which were two of her favorite family pieces. The family went to Cincinnati, Ohio, and then boarded a large river boat steamer, traveling down the Ohio River to the Mississippi then up to St. Louis. Dr. Pugh had arranged for rooms at a hotel for a week while he completed acquisition of the wagons, teams, and supplies they would need. From there, they departed on their journey west from St. Joseph, Missouri.

The wagon train included eighteen people from the Pugh and Foulks families, one hundred cattle, thirty horses and a few cowboys going west to hunt for gold and care for the cattle. With the wagons full of bags of flour, salt, hard bread tack and bacon, furniture and household goods, there was little room for riders. The Children took turns riding in the wagon, but walking most of the way each day. The men hunted for fresh meat along the way. The wagon train traveled along a road that led to Oregon, California and the Pacific Ocean. Many wagon trains traveled this route so the ruts were deep from those who had gone before. It rained as they crossed the Platte River so they carefully stayed on the trail to avoid damage or loss of a wagon or livestock.

In June, they met their first Native American, a Lakota Sioux. The Lakota wanted to make a trade - his tomahawk for Josephine's hair, which was in one big long braid - but Effie wanted no part of such a trade. Instead, she whipped the oxen to go faster. On June 28, the wagon train arrived at Independence Rock. In the distance, one could barely see some mountains and it was beginning to get very hot. They passed many graves, both with and without names and they were told that hundreds of people had died from cholera the year before. They saw a large herd of buffalo, so many that it was as if someone painted the grass dark brown. The buffalo were grazing on the horizon so the train steered away fearing they may stampede and scare their cattle.

They finally reached Carson City on July 20th, 1853. They were reunited with John who made the trip from Franklin Township to Carson City to meet his family once again and help them cross the Sierras. On August 28th they reached Donner Lake. It was slow going over the mountains and they could only travel over two or three ridges per day and time was of the essence as winter would soon arrive. On September 5th, they reached the summit of the Sierra's and the first snow had already fallen. The decision to leave Ohio in April had been a good one.

On September 20, 1852, the family finally reached Sacramento after having traveled for half a year from Mansfield Ohio. Sacramento was smaller than they had thought but there were lots of people. Most of those people were miners who had gold fever and came to town to buy supplies then go right back to the creeks in the foothills. Effie and her family came south of Sacramento to Franklin Township and looked at the land her brother had selected.

Euphemia received a land grant of 320 acres, a larger tract of land than most people in the Mansfield area owned. She and her children lived in the covered wagon during the winter of 1853-54 while their house was being built.

Euphemia continued living in the house which was named, "Oakwood", after a large stand of native oak trees on the property. Her children continued their education in Elk Grove. George graduated from Elk Grove Union High School and attended Healds Business College in San Francisco. He was employed by the Central Pacific Railroad as station agent and operator at Verdi, Nevada for several years. He was also in the sawmilling and lumber industry in the Verdi area. George returned home in 1881 to continue working the 320 acres for his mother. He had planted his first grape vines on one acre in 1860. Effie had brought grape vine clippings from Ohio, which had inspired his interest. He had maintained that interest and became a pioneer in the grape culture. Mission grapes were his favored and principal variety. He expanded the vineyard from one to seventy acres while the rest of the ranch was devoted to general farming and raising livestock.

The 1853 Foulks home, the oldest remaining original residence in the Elk Grove area was moved to our site in December 2005 to await restoration. This home was built in 1853 on a ranch located at the present day intersection of Elk Grove Blvd. and Bruceville Road. Slated for demolition, it was donated to the Society by developer Frank Stathos for restoration. We are now working to restore it back to its original 1853 condition. In 1853 the home consisted of three rooms, a parlor, a kitchen and dining room combination and upstairs sleeping quarters. A small lean-to addition that was added in the late 1800s has been kept and will eventually house our Research Library.

Groundbreaking for the little house finally took place in May 2008. Part of the process was in getting permits approved, which took nearly 18 months for approval. The groundbreaking ceremony was conducted by the Native Sons of the Golden West, Elk Grove Parlor #41. Pictured are Craig Fulster of Fulster Construction, contractor for the project; Bob Russo of the Native Sons of the Golden West; Council member Sophia Scherman of the City of Elk Grove; Director Elaine Wright of the Cosumnes Community Services District and Pat Braziel representing Sacramento County’s 5th Supervisor District.

A potluck lunch was hosted on the grounds by the Historical Society and many descendants of Euphemia Foulks were in attendance.