Germany at that time was in revolutionary upheaval so, like many others, they were headed for the gold fields of Northern California in Siskiyou and Shasta County.
Francis Sperber and Frederich Mey had been close friends in Prussia and very likely Masonic Lodge Brothers.
William Frederick Sperber b. 1856 and Frederich Heinrich Carl Sperber b.1858 were born In Buffalo where Francis and Theresa Sperber worked as domestics to learn the English language.
Francis and Theresa with their two sons arrived in Shasta, California in 1862 and joined up with the Meys who proceeded them. Francis opened a tannery near Shasta. Shasta was at that time the most importent town in Northern California.
In 1862 the Homestead Act was enacted which provided any citizen or first paper alien (except Indians) to claim 160 acres for $10 on the condition he or she lived on the land for five years.
Amelia Mey Sperber was born in 1863, Frank Bernard Sperber in 1867 and Albert Gustive Sperber June 6th. 1869. all in Shasta.
Francis Sperber died at Shasta in 1869 at the age of 42 from an infection caused by his attempt to remove a splinter with a dirty skinning knife. Theresa was left a widow with 5 children, the eldest being,13 year old William Frederick Sperber, Augusta's father.
Theresa had the the good fortune in 1873 to marry Shariff, John William Robenson of Hollister, California, where she raised her children.
Aug. 13, 1873, California outlaw Tiburcio Vasquez and several of his gang swooped down on Snyder's General Store at Tres Pinos, near Hollister, killing Snyder and Davidson, the hotel keeper plus one other.They escaped with eight horses, $1,200 in cash, and other valuables.
I have been thinking and praying as I attempt to do a reconstruction of the Sperber life in Hollister. It appears that things were stable for the family as long as Frederick Heinrich Carl Sperber was alive. He was a young Succesful merchent and in 1885 married Adah Kent heiress of a portion of "Rancho Santa Ana y Quien Sabe", in the San Juan Valley, once the 4,000 acre "Ranchito" owned by Don Manuel Larios. Following Frederick Heinrich Carl Sperber's early death in 1887 tensions must have built as his widow Adah (Kent) Sperber coped with being the young widowed mother of 2 small children and running a cattle ranch.
31 year old William Frederick Sperber showed up from the Yellow Jacket region of North east California where he had been working as a lumberman. I would suspect there was thought of him marrying his youngers brothers widow but Ada wasn't interested or vise a versa. Frederick as an independent bachelor wasn't as domestic as his younger brother who had been reared by his mother Theresa. He most likely did a stint as a deputy sheriff for his step father sheriff John Robenson during that time.
3 years later in 1890 he
married Salina Salome Ramsey the daughter of Gardner Ramsey another lawman
and Mary Jane Lowe(Low).
Though he was a short man,
Gardner Ramsey from Alton, Illinois was an experianced gunfighter being
one of 5 Ramsey's from Alton who fought in the Mexician War (1846-1849)
in Texas and California.
6 years after his marrage Salina dies in 1896 and William Frederick Sperber is unable to handle the situation of being the 40 year old widowed father of 2 young daughters Augusta and Loree Sperber. and had no way to provide for them.
Sheriff Robinson and Theresa are getting old and not ready to assume the responsibility for young children. Adah has her hands full with 10 year old Carl Frederick Sperber and 8 year old Marguerite.
By that time Amelia Sperber and John Gury have married and in 1894 moved to Lompoc as half owner of the Moore Mercantile business. Frank and Albert Sperber followed and worked in Lompoc.
Frank Bernard Sperber married Addie Collar in 1891.They had no children so after Salina's death they raised the 2 motherless daughters Augusta and Loree Sperber.
After Sheriff John Robinson died in 1899 Theresa Robinson took the train south and lived with daughter Amelia Sperber Gury in Lompoc.
Albert Gustive Sperber married Nellie Hagen of Lompoc in 1899
Ranch owner Adah Kent Sperber married George M. Smith in 1902 when her son Carl Frederick Sperber was 18 years old.
In 1909 Carl Frederick Sperber married Lulu Grace Hawxhurst and lived the rest of his life working on his mothers Hollister ranch. Frederick Hawxhurst Sperber was born in 1910 and became a petroleum Engineer.
Amelia and John Gury separated in 1909 and in 1911 She moved to Long beach.
It was in 1909 that Dutch land speculator Ben Eggink was riding a Pacific Electric trolley when he first spied the woman he would soon marry, the 18 year old beauty, Augusta Alberta Sperber. Augusta's father William Frederick Sperber was working in the oil fields. Long Beach was the fastest growing city in the US between 1902 and 1910
Vincent Zuniga vmzuniga@ucdavis.edu
sheronj@coldwellbanker.com
"Fred & Elaine Sperber" cf_e.sperber@digital-star.com
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