Isaac Milton Martin, known as Milton, was the second child of Elza L. and Sarah (Morris) Martin.  He was born 10 October 1856 in Cass County, Nebraska.  While he was still in his first year, his parents took him in a wagon train to California.  The 1860 census shows 3-year-old “Isaac” in Hot Springs Township of Napa County, California, in the household with his parents, his older brother Hannibal, and his younger siblings Emma and John.  His Morris grandparents and assorted aunts and uncles lived nearby (listed two pages later in the census).

Milton’s family remained in California only until 1864, when they returned to the Midwest, this time settling in Fremont County, Iowa, across the Missouri River from their earlier home in Nebraska.  Milton’s Martin grandparents lived there, along with a whole different collection of aunts and uncles.  Sadly, less than a year after the family traveled back to Iowa, Milton’s mother died of consumption on 3 September 1865.  Two years later, his father remarried, and 11-year-old Milton suddenly had a new stepmother, stepsister, and stepbrother.

The new blended family lived for a couple of years at Hawleyville, Iowa (on the Page County–Taylor County line), then in 1869 moved about 60 miles down to Richardson County, Nebraska.  There Milton finished his schooling and grew to adulthood.  He isn’t clearly identified in the 1870 census, inasmuch as the listing for his family (household of “Ellsay Martin”) gave wrong names for about half of the family members and wrong ages for all of them.  The 1880 census shows him back in Fremont County, Iowa, working as a farm laborer in the household of Stacy and Eliza Reeves.

Soon thereafter, apparently, he struck out on his own, as a voter registration record from 1884 shows him living at Vineland, Napa County, California.  (As near as I can tell, “Vineland” was a former community now incorporated in the southern part of St. Helena.)  Thus, Milton had returned to the same area where he had spent much of his early childhood.  His uncle John Morris had developed a large ranch north of St. Helena, and his Morris grandparents still lived there too.  His return to Napa County was probably accomplished by rail, which was undoubtedly faster and much easier than his family’s original journey there in 1857.

The next information we have about Milton is a newspaper account of his wedding with Juliet Ella Simmons in Oakland, California, on 5 February 1889.  She had been born on 4 December 1868 in Illinois.*  She was the daughter of Captain Edwin Parker Simmons and Anna Eliza (Rogers) Simmons.  (Her father had been a Captain in the 81st Illinois Infantry during the Civil War.)  Milton and Juliet were married at her family home in Oakland, and Milton’s grandfather, Rev. Milton Morris, came down from the Morris family farm near St. Helena — a distance of some 70 miles — to officiate.  Like Milton, the Simmonses had lived in Napa County before moving to Oakland, so he and Juliet may have become acquainted there.

After marriage, Milton and Juliet remained in Oakland for several years, where, according to the wedding story mentioned above, Milton worked as a clerk for a local grocer.  (It’s unclear whether that means he was an office clerk or a store clerk.)  Milton filed a warrant on 120 acres of land up in Napa County in 1890, but there’s no evidence that he ever lived there.  It was mountainous, heavily forested land with no obvious place for a homesite, but it was about a mile from his uncle’s ranch.  Milton’s patent probably allowed his uncle and cousins to do some timbering on this land.  Milton continued to live in Oakland, as shown by voter registrations from 1892 and 1896, and by the fact that his first three children were born there.

However, by the time their son Charles was born, in December 1899, Milton and Juliet had moved back to Napa County.  The 1900 census shows them living with their four oldest children on a farm in Yount Township, Napa County.  Milton’s occupation is shown as “farmer.”  Milton and Juliet had two more children, in 1902 and 1909, bringing the total to six:

• Carolyn Louise Martin, 1890–1963 (married Ralph Gibson).
• Mabel Ruth Martin, 1893–1982 (married Christopher Lawrence Petersen).
• Leora Belle Martin, 1897–1955 (married Theodore Alphus Hamby).
• Charles F. Martin, 1899–1948 (married Helene Marie Lamanet).
• Edwin Milton Martin, 1902–1948 (married Alva Dessie Cowan).
• Elza William Martin, 1909–1953 (married Marie Herhold).

Milton and his family seem to have been overlooked in the 1910 census, but city directories from Napa County show him living in the community of Sanitarium in 1914, and then in Calistoga in 1916 and 1918.  His occupation is given as “farmer” in 1914, but the 1918 directory shows it as “Furn. Rms.”  (Furniture?  Furnished rooms?) 

The 1920 census confirms that Milton and Juliet (shown as “Miltin” and “Julia”) were living in Calistoga, along with their children Mabel, Leora, Edwin, and Elza. (Mabel is identified as the head of the household).  All of them except the two youngest are employed at a hospital — Milton as caretaker, Juliet as a housekeeper, Mabel as a nurse, and Leora as an assistant.  City directories show Milton and Juliet still in Calistoga in 1923, 1925, and 1926.  Only one of these (1925) lists an occupation for him, and that is “rancher.”

Sometime between 1926 and 1930, they left Calistoga, for the 1930 census shows them in San Mateo, CA. (Could the move have been instigated by the onset of the Great Depression?)  They were living there with their sons Charles and Elza.  Milton’s occupation then was “gardener”; Elza was working as a warehouseman, and Charles apparently was unemployed.  As of 1933, a San Francisco Street Address List showed “M. Martin” living at 2238 Market Street, San Francisco, and there Milton died of coronary thrombosis on 10 June 1933.  After cremation, his remains were interred at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California.

After Milton’s death, Juliet remained in the house on Market Street for a time, as she was listed there in San Francisco city directories in 1934 and ’35.  A Napa County directory from 1937 shows her living once again in Calistoga, close to her daughter Mabel and Mabel’s husband Lawrence Petersen.  At the time of the 1940 census, though, she was once again in San Francisco, living with her daughter Leora and Leora’s husband Ted Hamby.  The official census day that year was April 1st.  Four days later, 5 April 1940, Juliet died there in San Francisco.  Her cremated remains were also interred at Cypress Lawn.

If you can suggest any corrections to the information above or provide any further details about the lives of Milton, Juliet, and their descendants, please contact me at the address shown in the image below:

Thanks,      
     —Pete Martin

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