WINTER, WILLIAM HENRY: 1819-1879.
The following sketch of William Henry Winter was prepared by his youngest son, De Winter, in 1937. Mr. De Winter's manuscript, insofar as the biographical section is concerned, is given as it was written except for the addition of correct information as to his father's college course which has been taken from the Wabash College archives. William Henry Winter's book, written with Overton Johnson, commands the highest price from collectors of any Indiana production. Further information regarding it will be found in the sketch of Overton Johnson.
" William Henry Winter was born in 1819 in Vigo County, Ind. His father, William Winter, is supposed to have been born in Virginia , his mother in Massachusetts . Her maiden name was Arnold. William Winter was her second husband. One of the daughters by her first marriage married Maj. Elston of Crawfordsville . A daughter of Maria Elston married Senator Henry S. Lane; another married Gen. Lew Wallace, author of Ben Hur. William Winter died in early middle life, and his widow married a man named Crawford, after whom Crawfordsville was named. [This is incorrect: Crawfordsville had been named many years before and for a Secretary of the Treasury, who made Government Land Office appointments]. W. H. Winter was brought up in and around that town. In 1834 he enrolled in the preparatory department of Wabash College, Crawfordsville , and continued through 1835-36. He was enrolled there again in 1839-40.
"In 1843 Winter joined an expedition to the Pacific coast. It started from Independence, Mo., went up the Platte River, by Fort Laramie, on to Fort Hall , Id., and into Oregon . At Willamette Falls, the company divided, one party remaining in Oregon , the other going down into California . Winter was with the California page: 345[View Page 345] party. In May 1844, his party left Sutter's Fort, crossed Nevada into Idaho , and joined the Oregon party at Soda Springs. There Winter turned over to Overton Johnson the notes he had made on the entire route and on the scenery and resources of Oregon and California . Johnson took them back to Indiana and published a book there, based on the notes, which gave a full description of the expedition. The book was published in 1846. This book is very rare and a valuable item of Californiana.
"How W. H. Winter spent the first year or so after he left the company is not certain. Probably he explored the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys more fully than he had before. In the winter of 1845-46 he was employed as a carpenter at the rancho of Gen. Vallejo in Sonora. He must have helped erect some of the old buildings now there. He left Sonora shortly before the Bear Flag Incident, and went to Sutter's Fort.
"In July, 1846, he left Sutter's Fort on muleback to return to Indiana . He rode south into Sonora, Mexico , and across to Vera Cruz on the Gulf, about 2,000 miles. He went by boat to New Orleans and up the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to his home. He had been away a year and a half. [An obvious error].
"In April, 1846 he left St. Joseph, Mo., as captain of a company bound for the California mines. They came into California by the Yuba pass. He and James A. Kleiser ran a store on the Mokelumne River, three miles above the Mexican camp of Rancha Plana. Their camp was called Winter's Bar. Late in the fall of 1850 he and Kleiser left Winter's Bar, took their gold dust to San Francisco and boarded a steamer for Panama. They crossed the Isthmus, went bv boat to New Orleans , sold their gold dust at the mint, and went up the river home. They had been away nearly two years.
"Sometime early in 1851, Capt. Winter married Sarah Armstrong, of Waveland, Ind. The first of their six sons, Isaac Henry Winter, was born during the first year of their marriage. Capt. Winter engaged in cattle-raising a year or so, then sold out, headed a company, and for the third time started west. His second son, William Nebraska Winter, was born near the Platte River, in an ox-wagon. They had some trouble with the Indians, but no fighting. In California Capt. Winter first tried western Colusa County, then Lake County, then Sonoma County, and finally settled in 1856 in Huichica Creek, half-way between Sonoma and Napa. There he bought 1280 acres of land, part of the grant made by Gov. Alvarado in 1836 to Salvador Vallejo, brother of Gen. Vallejo.
" Capt. Winter made money fast on the Huichica in stock, grapes, and grain, and built a good house, a dairy, a wine-cellar, and a distillery. In company with A. J. Cook he had a stock ranch on the Eel River. He also bought a wheat ranch of 1480 acres at Crow's Landing on the San Joaquin River. He drove large bands of stock into Nevada for pasturage on the Humboldt River. On a similar drive to Idaho in 1872, he and Cook saw Fall River in Shasta County, and bought the land around the falls at the confluence with Pit River. From this time, Capt. Winter's energies were given mainly to the Fall River project. He bought out Cook, he bought more land, built a flour mill, a saw mill, a planing mill, and practically made the town of Fall River Mills. In 1875 he moved his family from the Huichica Ranch to Fall River. He built a house on an island in the rapids where Fall and Pit River met and made it his home. His wife died there in July, 1879, and he was buried beside her less than six weeks later."
De Winter ms. in the Wabash College Archives.
- Route Across the Rocky Mountains, with a Description of
Oregon and California; Geographical Features. Their Resources, Soil,
Climate, Productions, Etc., Etc. Lafayette,
Ind., 1846.
