BIOGRAPHY OF RICHARD REYNOLDS FOUKE

Written at 424 Santa Clara Ave. Alameda, California

August 16, 1931.

I was born January 21, 1844 at Shepardstown, Jefferson County [now, West] Virginia on the Potomac River. My Parents were raised in the same place. My grandfather [Christian] Fouke was of

Scottish-Holland extraction, my mother's father was Scotch-Irish extraction, All of Protestant faith.

My grandfather [Christian] Fouke was in the War of 1812.

My mother [Margaret Hessey-Fouke] died in 1846. My father [Robert Phillip Fouke] was left with three small children, two boys [Richard Reynolds and Frederick Dorsey] and one girl [Francis Valencia]

My father [Robert Phillip Fouke] took [Frederick] my brother (1848) and went to Illinois where he had two brothers living in Ogle County. He had left my sister with grandfather [Thomas] Hessey, on my mother's side. I was left with my uncle, William H. Fouke, a brother of my father's in Spring of 1849.

My father left Mount Morris, Illinois (1849) for the gold rush in California, leaving my brother with uncle in Mount Morris, Illinois. My brother [? typographical error; probably should read: "father"]

crossed the plains with [an] ox cart team and landed in Downeyville, California (Sept. 1849). We heard from him for a short time. I was four years old, at that time. I well remember the day that he bade me good-bye. I lived with my uncle in [West] Virginia (1854). My uncle sold his home and migrated to Illinois with my brother.

My uncle was a good man and did take quite an interest in me. I loved him dearly. Unfortunately, he was taken by death at the age of 56 years. My aunt had three children of her own to care for so was not able to care for me. I was 12 years old and my brother was 8 years older. My sister, two years older, lived in [?West] Virginia.

In (1858) I hunted a new home for myself. A farmer, after telling him of my misfortune, said that if I would live with him until I was 21 years old, he would board, clothe me and send me to school during the winter months. During the summer months, I would work on the farm. When I would reach the age of 21 years, he would give me a good horse and one hundred dollars, also a suit of clothes. So I stayed with this very fine family until the fall of 1860.

The campaign of Abraham Lincoln was on. In October the great joint debate between Lincoln and

Douglas took place in Freeport, Illinois. I wanted very much to go, but the farmer, with whom I lived objected saying it was no place for young boys. He was a Douglas man. I decided to run away (it was twenty miles away) to hear the debate. I got to shake the hand of Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator.

In 1861, [the Civil] war was declared. When the call for volunteers [went out,] I was too young to

go, but my brother, older than myself, was one of the first to enlist. My brother served for four years

and spent 9 months in that horrid prison of Andersonville, having been captured during the Atlanta

campaign.

I worked until June 16, 1862, [when I] was eighteen years old, at that time enlisted for three months

[Company K - 69th Illinois Infantry], until October of that year. I re-enlisted January 9, 1863

[Company I - 14th Cavalry Illinois Volunteers]. I was engaged in fourteen of the major battles, [and]

was with my regiment on the famous Atlanta Campaign. I underwent severe hardship and was

captured [at the] famous Stoneman raid at Atlanta.

I made my escape through the enemy's territory, alone, one hundred miles, following the battle at

Nashville, Tenn. My discharge was July first, 1865, which was the end of the war. I returned to my

home in Illinois and remained there until December 17, 1865.

During my enlistments in the army I was in 36 engagements. A slight flesh wound was the extent of

my injuries [wounded in the calf of right leg during battle Station {?stationed in} E. Tenn. during the

siege of Knoxville]. I served under General Burnsides and General Stoneman, and General Sherman from Chatanooga to Atlanta and ended under General George H. Thomas through the battles of Franklin and Nashville, Tenn. I was discharged a Corporal in my Company, the Fourteenth Illinois Cavalry. Thus ends my life as a soldier in the Grand Army of the Republic.

After my return from the army, I stayed home from August until December 1865. I was sure that the

farm held no charms for me. Having lost [track of] my parents in the far west, my mind ran to frontier life. So I left my brother and sister, who was in Springfield, Illinois, and landed in the state of Kansas. I homesteaded on the Kansas frontier [Washington Co., KS, from an inquiry to the US General Land Office] for the next two years [possibly November 1869 to April, 1872, from the same inquiry]. I sold the homestead in 1870 and next found myself working for the government in Indian Territory. I distributed supplies to the Indians before it became the state of Oklahoma. There was a great deal of trouble with the Indians.

I still had a determined ambition to go farther west. I had not seen my father since I was four years

old and I still wanted to know just what had become of him.

In 1874, I was working in the gold mines of Leadville, Colorado. I was never a bum. I paid my way

everywhere I went. I left Colorado in 1881, still trying to trace my father's whereabouts. In 1882, I

reached San Francisco and stayed three weeks. I took a boat for Seattle, Wash. and stayed there one

year as I found a man who knew my father in California.

In May, 1882 I took a boat back for San Francisco. It was the month of June, harvesting had just

begun so I went to Stockton and took a contract to run a steam thrasher for the season and earned

$3.00 dollars a day until September.

In 1883, I had to go to Stockton for repairs. I picked up a paper and saw my father's name as a

delegate to the state convention. He was stopping at [the] Yosemite Hotel. I went there and met him.

He was living in Bodie, California. He wanted me to go there with him, but I was under contract

which would end, September, 1883, the latter part of the month. I [then] went to Bodie and found my

father very comfortably situated so I spent the winter with him. In May, 1885, I sent him home to see

my sister and brother and, also, his two brothers at Mt. Morris, Illinois. They had a wonderful reunion. He took sick in July at 86 years and passed away in Illinois.

I remained in Bodie following my gold mining career. I fell in love with Annie Bertelsen and we were married on December 7, 1887. We lived very happily together for ten years. Three little daughters were born to us. The last baby girl was three days old when my beloved wife was called by death at the age of 36 years. I was left alone at an altitude of 8,872 [ft] above sea level with my three little girls. The oldest was seven years old.

Hazel - [b.] October 8, 1889

Elsie - [b.] August 31, 1892

Genevieve - [b.] April 22, 1895 [born Annie Marie; adopted name: Genevieve Kilpatrick]

While in Bodie, I worked for the Standard Consolidated Mining Co. Herbert Hoover's brother was

made Superintendent of the Mine. Herbert Hoover came to Bodie to give his brother some help and

boarded with R.R. Fouke and wife. Belle Fredricks, my wife at this time was born in Evansville,

Indiana July 11, 1897 and died in Reno [, Nevada] of cancer January 17, 1921.

Married Mary Geach [?Coach] in Oakland [, CA] October 1924. She died of cancer July 21, 1925.

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