Title: Boggs, William Montgomery Papers

Identifier/Call Number: C058775

Contributing Institution: Society of California Pioneers

Language of Material: English

Physical Description: 1.0 folder 1 MS Box containing 13 hanwritten pages and affidavit

Date: 1846 to 1850

Abstract: William Montgomery Boggs wrote this 13 page handwritten remininscence in 1889 at the age of 78. In a rambling style, it tells of events and people related to his family's move to the Town of Sonoma in 1846 and of his father, Lilburn W Boggs being named Alcalde of the Northern District of California at that time by General Bennett W. Riley. Lilburn W. Boggs was Governor of Missouri prior to coming to California.

creator: Boggs, William Montgomery, 1826-1911

William Montgomery Boggs wrote this 13 page handwritten remininscence in 1889 at the age of 78. In a rambling style, it tells of events and people related to his family's move to the Town of Sonoma in 1846 and of his father, Lilburn W Boggs being named Alcaldi of the Northern District of California at that time by General Bennett W. Riley. Lilburn W. Boggs was Governor of Missouri prior to coming to California.

Collection open for research

there are no restrictions on access

Boggs, William Montgomery Papers, The Society of California Pioneers.

Donor and Date of acquisition unknown

Lilburn Williams Boggs (December 14, 1796 – March 19, 1860)[1] was the sixth Governor of Missouri from 1836 to 1840. He is now most widely remembered for his interactions with Joseph Smith and Porter Rockwell, and Missouri Executive Order 44, known by Mormons as the "Extermination Order", issued in response to the ongoing conflict between members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and other settlers of Missouri. Boggs was also a key player in the Honey War of 1837. Early life Lilburn W. Boggs was born in Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky on December 14, 1796, to John McKinley Boggs and Martha Oliver. Boggs served in the War of 1812. He moved in 1816 from Lexington, Kentucky to Missouri, which was then part of the Louisiana Territory. At Greenup County, Kentucky, in 1817, Boggs married his first wife Julia Ann Bent (1801–1820), a sister of the Bent brothers of Bent's Fort fame, and daughter of Silas Bent, then a judge in the Missouri Supreme Court. She died on September 21, 1820 in St Louis, Missouri. They had two children, Angus and Henry. In 1823, Boggs married Panthea Grant Boone (1801–1880), a granddaughter of Daniel Boone, in Callaway County, Missouri. They spent most of the following twenty-three years in Jackson County, Missouri, where all but two of their many children were born. Boggs started out as a clerk, then entered politics. He served as a Missouri state senator in 1825 to 1832; as lieutenant governor from 1832 to 1836; governor from 1836 to 1841; and again as state senator from 1842 to 1846. He was a Democrat. Western settlement Boggs traveled overland to California in 1846 and is frequently mentioned among the notable emigrants of that year. His traveling companions widely believed that his move was rooted in his fear of the Mormons. When the train set out in early May, he campaigned to be elected its captain, but lost to William H. Russell; when Russell resigned on June 18, the group was thereafter led by Boggs. Among the Boggs Company were most of the emigrants who later separated from the group to form the Donner Party. Boggs was accompanied by his second wife Panthea and his younger children as well as his son William and William's bride Sonora Hicklin. They arrived in Sonoma, California in November and were provided refuge by Mariano Vallejo at his Petaluma ranch house. There, on January 4, 1847, Mrs. William Boggs gave birth to a son, who was named Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo Boggs after their benefactor. Lilburn Boggs became alcalde of the Sonoma district in 1847. During the California Gold Rush, Boggs owned a store and did quite well. On November 8, 1849, Boggs resigned as alcalde and became the town's postmaster. Boggs was elected to the California State Assembly from the Sonoma District in 1852.[5] In 1855 he retired to live at Rancho Napa in Napa County, California where he died on March 19, 1860.[1] His widow Panthea died in Napa County, California on September 23, 1880. They are buried in Tulocay Cemetery, Napa, California. His son, Theodore Boggs, would later found the town of Big Bug, Arizona where he fought Apaches during a small encounter at the Big Bug mine.

Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilburn_Boggs

The Society of California Pioneers, 101 Montgomery Street, Suite 150. The Presidio of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94129

A typed transcript of the Boggs papers is in the file "Boggs Family (Lilburn W, William M) in the Biography files of the SoCP Library. The file also contains other documents related to the Boggs descendants.