Amos Mecartney, 1828-1903
Amos Mecartney, 1828-1903
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Amos Mecartney, 1828-1903, was born in Pennsylvania, the son of a prominent banker and owner of an insurance company. The gold rush drew young Mecartney to California. At the age of 21 he sailed from Pennsylavania to San Francisco, arriving on August 5, 1849, and spent three years as a placer miner on the Yuba River before returning East. He came West again in the late 1850's when gold was discovered on the Fraser River in British Columbia. Mecartney finally settled in San Francisco around 1860, where he proceeded to amass a fortune in general investments and real estate speculation. Although he made Alameda his home, his business brought him often to San Francisco (where he would stay in the Palace Hotel) and for the remainder of his life he made yearly trips to manage his exrensive real estate holdings in Kansis City, Chicago and elsewhere. Mecartney and his wife Dollie moved to Bay Farm Island in 1873, where they were to raise their five girls--Pearl, Meda, Myrtle, Mignon and Leta. In a diked enclosure off the western tip of the upland, on a portion of the reclaimed marshland he owned, near the Beach House, Mecartney built one of the great mansions of Alameda, a two story octagonal house with bell tower, surrounded by gardens. In 1875 he constructed a raised road paved in shell that ran diagonally across the reclaimed marsh from the bridge to his estate.
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Re: Amos Mecartney,1867...California
Marsha 2/03/08
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Re: Amos Mecartney, 1828-1903
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