George John Wixon1

M, #14399, b. Apr 14, 1810, d. Apr 20, 1863
Relationship2nd cousin 5 times removed of Malcolm Kenyon McKown Jr.
Pedigree
Father*Barnabus Wixon Jr.1 b. Oct 5, 1790, d. Oct 17, 1870
Mother*Lydia Wixon1 b. Aug 26, 1792, d. Nov 13, 1842

Family 1

Mehitable Chase b. Jun 10, 1815, d. Dec 10, 1832
Child

Family 2

Sarah Kelley b. Jun 20, 1806
Children

Family 3

Electa Louisa Newberry b. Apr 14, 1827, d. Feb 13, 1888
Children

Chronological Events

Birth*Apr 14, 1810 George John Wixon was born on Apr 14, 1810 at Dennis Port, Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States.1 
 He was the son of Barnabus Wixon Jr. and Lydia Wixon.1 
Marriage*Aug 11, 1832 George John Wixon married Mehitable Chase on Aug 11, 1832 at Harwich, Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States.1 
Marriage*Dec 26, 1833 George John Wixon married Sarah Kelley on Dec 26, 1833 at Harwich, Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States.1 
Marriage*circa 1847 George John Wixon married Electa Louisa Newberry circa 1847 at Provo, Utah County, Utah, United States.1 
Death*Apr 20, 1863 George John Wixon died on Apr 20, 1863, at age 53 at Dennis Port, Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, from diabetes.1,2 
ObituaryApr 21, 1863  OBITUARY: Born as "George John Wixon", he went by "John". He was the first of eleven children born to Barnabus, Jr. and Lydia Wixon.

John married 1st, in 1832, Mehitable Chase (1815-1832), who died in childbirth. He married 2nd, in 1833, Mrs. Sally Snow (1806-1884), whose husband, Warren, was lost at sea and who had a son, Warren Snow, Jr. John and Sally had a daughter, Francis Howes Wixon, who died young. He married 3rd, in 1847, Mrs. Electa Lee (1827-1888), and had six children: Sarah A., who married George N. Hobbs, Mary F. ("Fanny"), who married Joseph Fletcher, Almon, Helen Jane, William H. and John.

John was in the Barnstable Militia and was a sea captain out of Dennis Port on Cape Cod. He co-owned and operated, along the Atlantic Coast, the "Roxanne" (or "Roxanna") and other schooners with his father and his cousin, Capt. Elnathan Eldredge.

John and Elnathan (and family) joined the "Abraham O. Smoot - George B. Wallace Company" during the Mormon Exodus to Utah. Electa was in the same company. They departed the outfitting post on the Elkhorn River, about 27 miles west of Winter Quarters, Nebraska, on June 18, 1847. John and Electa married on the trail and arrived at the Great Salt Lake on Sep. 26, 1847.

John and Electa moved on to California in 1849, bringing with them Electa's daughter from her 1st marriage, Martha Ann, who later married George Roger Allen, and Sarah, who we assume to be their first child (no record).

John had an inn shipped "Around the Horn" from Massachusetts that was reassembled on the old, Sacramento to Auburn road, in what is now Placer County. Called the "Miners' Inn", it was later relocated to the north side of Miners' Ravine, just east of its confluence with Graveyard Ravine, and renamed the "Franklin House". It was a few miles northwest of the gold mining community of Horse Shoe Bar, on the North Fork of the American River.

The family is listed with three children in the 1850 U.S. Federal Census and five in the 1852 California Census. John's occupation is shown as "Hotel Keeping" in the former and "Innkeeper" in the latter. The couple and all seven children are shown in the 1860 U.S. Federal Census, along with nine tenants.

John was listed as one of the "Heavy Taxpayers" in Placer County in 1859. He was shown as, "John Wixon of the Franklin House, $4,025". In September, 1860, he had Electa declare herself an "independent operator" in the local newspapers. He left the area sometime in 1861. In 1863, after falling ill with diabetes, he returned to his 2nd wife, Sally, who welcomed him back and cared for him until he died.

After John died, Sally married John Robbns in 1866. Electa married Horace Mansur in 1872. The Franklin House was destroyed in a "mysterious fire" in 1906.

Bio by Darrell Mansur, using material in the Placer County Archives, Auburn, CA (1999-2002), with additional information from Sue Simonich and James Holmes. For more, search rootsweb.com for "George Wixon".3
 
Burial*Apr 22, 1863 He was buried on Apr 22, 1863 at Baptist Church Cemetery, Harwich, Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, Find A Grave Memorial# 127902035.4
Researcher's Note*circa May, 1863 
According to information, Mr. Wixon left Dennis, Mass about 16 years ago (1847), leaving the wife of his youth, and joined the Mormons. John and Electa were married on the trail to Utah in 1847 and she bore him six children. This is from a journal by George Morris. The couple stayed in Utah a short while and then went to California in spring of 1849.

Also supposed to have been married before and she had a daughter from that marriage.

Prior to Horace, Electa was married to George John Wixon and emigrated to California with him in 1849. They operated the Franklin Inn on the north side of the Old Sacramento to Auburn Road, now Auburn-Folsom Road, along Miner's Ravine. It had been moved from another location further west where it was called the Miner's Hotel. The interior lumber (and possibly the whole inn) had been shipped "Around the Horn" from New York. It burned down in 1906. The inn was remembered as a popular resort in local history, as recorded in "Yesteryear; Loomis and the Surrounding Area, Vol. I," by Vivian Rasmussen, 1994 (at the librarian's desk at the Loomis Library). It notes that the only evidence remaining is a lilac bush that still blooms brightly in the Spring. The Wixons were neighbors of Horace and Abby Mansur, who lived "next door " on property that had been called the Jones Ranch, in the Horseshoe Bar area of what is now Loomis, CA.

Although Electa was "Mrs. Wixon" when she married Horace Mansur in 1872, she appears to have had an earlier marriage and child before marrying George Wixon on the trail to Utah in 1847 . Other variations of the surname have included "Nixon" and "Wixom," both apparently from mis-reading hand-written records. "Wixon" was used on her license for marriage to Horace Mansur and on several deeds and she used that surname for her son William in her last will and testament. Her given name has been often mispelled as "Electra" or replaced with variations of her middle name or nickname, such as "Louisa" (which likely was her middle name), "Lettie" or "Lecty," but she used "Electa" on her marriage license, deeds and will, all observed in person by me. The marriage record (with Horace Mansur) and deeds are in the Placer County Recorders Office in Auburn, CA (see Marriages, Book B, Page 246 and deeds Book G, Page 562; Book O , Page 475; Book S, Page 368 and Book Z, page 547). The will and probate records are in the Placer County Archives.

Leaving them in 1863, he returned to Dennis, Mass and to his former wife, who received him kindly and administered to him in his last sickness, having remained faithful and true to her marriage vows.1
 

Citations

  1. [S802] Site - Ancestry.com, online at http://www.ancestry.com
  2. [S57] Gravestones - Capecodgravestones.com, online at http://www.capecodgravestones.com
  3. [S19] Obituary - Online, Newspaper or Funeral Home.
  4. [S58] Gravestones - Death Cert, Find-A-Grave, BillionGraves.