WILLIAM G. PEACH. – There is no doubt but there should be special mention in this volume of the abiding chronicles of Union county, of the capable and venerable citizen, whose name appears at the head of this article, and it is with pleasure that we accord to him space for the epitome of an interesting and eventful career, since his abilities are worthy of such, and since his success has been achieved by meritorious effort, and since his character is upright, stanch, and worthy to be exemplified.
Mr. Peach was born in the Green Mountain State, at Newbury, Orange county, on October 15, 1833, and there were spent the first nineteen years of his life. The school facilities were limited, and so our subject had the opportunity to attend school but three months in his life, which lack, however, he has amply made up for in personal research and extensive observation. At the budding age of nineteen, in company with two cousins, he embarked at New York for San Francisco, going via the isthmus route. The cost of a steerage ticket was one hundred and sixty dollars, while they paid ten cents per pound for transportation of their baggage across the isthmus. September 7 was the date they sailed from New York, and October 5 the day when they slipped through the Golden Gate, and beheld the Mecca of the world at that time. Immediately they took boat for Stockton, and soon were in the mining district, and had a property which they worked for seven years, clearing a number of thousand dollars apiece out of the transaction. In 1858 our subject came to Marin county, California, and remained there until 1873, when the fertility of the Grande Ronde valley attracted him, and he came hither, purchasing a half section four miles from where his present place is situated. He took up general farming and dairying for three years, and then rented his land and went to the Willamette valley for seven years. At the expiration of that period, he returned to Island City, and in 1883, in company with his two sons bought a three-fourths interest in the large estate of over two thousand acres, which lies five miles east from Island City. In 1902, they bought the remaining one-fourth of the property, and they handle one of the largest dairies in the county. They milk sixty head of thoroughbred Jerseys and have eighty-four more of the same stock. Their herd is estimated to be the best in the entire state, which means much, as Oregon is essentially a stock state. They handle fine horses, having seven head of thoroughbred Percherons and about thirty other good ones. Their land produces about eight thousand bushels of grain besides the hay and pasturage necessary for their herds.
In 1860 Mr. Peach married Miss Jane, daughter of James and Eliza (Pete) Seaver, and a native of Craftsbury, Vermont. To this union there were born the following children: Sarah J., married to H.H. Brand, who now lives in China, the wife having died in 1887; Angeline E., wife of Charles H. Vantress, a farmer; James S., George W., who took as wife Minnie E. Price; Mary L., married to W.C. Young, a Seventh Day Adventist preacher in Spokane. Politically, Mr. Peach is allied with the Republicans, and for sixteen years he held the office of road supervisor. Fraternally, he is affiliated with the Masons, and in his church relations he is identified with the Seventh Day Adventist denomination. In 1897, Mrs. Peach was called from her loved ones by the hand of death. Mr. Peach is now passing the golden years of his life in the quiet enjoyment of the good things that his labor has produced, and is everywhere highly esteemed and respected, being a man of unswerving integrity and good principles.
