Enoch Homer Pardee (1829-1896) - Oakland's 18th Mayor

The Pardee Family Plot

PLOT 1

Enoch Home Pardee was born on April 1, 1829 in Rochester, New York to a French father and a German mother. The family moved to Michigan when Enoch was seven years old. He was purported to have been a decent ventriloquist and magician in his early years.

After being cured of the rare eye disease called Egyptian opthamalia by a Dr. Bigelow in Detroit, who had himself been blind for ten years, he studied with the doctor and attended Ann Arbor College to become an "oculist."

He came to California in 1849 abouard the steamer Panama, landing in San Diego and eventually arriving in San Francisco in January 1850. He went to Marysville working as an auctioneer for an "ounce" a day before heading to the mines where he made a small fortune. He made another small fortune working as a doctor treating people afflicted with cholera, but he almost died from the disease himself.

The Pardee home in Oakland

He returned from the mines in 1851 and became a leading doctor in San Francisco where he opened a practice on on Brenham Place (now Walter U. Lum Place) and later at 737 Clay St. In 1865, he returned to the Midwest to attend Rush Medical College in Chicago. He returned to San Francisco two years later to resume his practice. A noted marksman, he first visited Oakland to hunt quail and rabbits in 1852, but returned permanently in 1867 and built an Italianate villa at 672 Eleventh Street. The house still stands today on the outskirts of downtown Oakland as a museum. His wife and distant cousin Mary Elizabeth died in 1870 at the age of forty.

A staunch Republican and strict Unionist, he attended the first organizing meeting of the Republican Party in San Francisco. He quickly jumped in Oakland politics, getting elected to four terms on the city council (1869–1872), including one as president (1871), as well as to the State Assembly (1871–72) and State Senate (1879–82).  He served two terms as Oakland's 18th mayor (1876 and 1877).

Pardee was elected mayor against the backdrop of a nationwide economic depression, with growing labor unrest and agitation against "the Chinese" here in Oakland. He was confronted with mass demonstrations demanding an end to all immigration and issuing threats to burn down Oakland's Chinatown, then consisting of seventeen buildings located between Grove and Jefferson Streets, beside the railroad on Seventh Street.

Pardee fought off a revolt within the Republican party and won re¬election in 1877, but his second term was characterized by such turmoil as the suspicious fire which destroyed City Hall on August 25, 1877; the declaration of martial law by Mayor Pardee; the creation of a deputized committee of safety, or Posse comitatus (common law), of almost 1,000 men; and the formation of two dissident political parties - the Workingmen's and the Citizens'.

Oakland's First Unitarian Church

He was a co-founder of both the First Unitarian Church of Oakland and the Athenian Club, which he served as its first president. He died on September 21, 1896, and is buried at Mountain View, beside his son, George, the twenty-ninth mayor of Oakland.

His only son, George Pardee, would become the 29th mayor of Oakland and the 21st Governor of California. 

[Sources: The San Francisco Call, Oakland Tribune, Wikipedia, State of California website]

Captain James Kellogg Remington (1844-1907) - Captain of largest boat on San Francisco Bay

PLOT 46

Captain James Kellogg Remington was born in New Salem, Massachusetts in 1844 to William and Sussana Remington.

He was the second captain of the steamer Solano, which was the largest boat sailing on San Francisco Bay. The boat was 424' long and over 116' wide with four tracks for railroad cars. It contained two independent vertical walking beam engines, each having a 5' diameter piston and an eleven foot up and down stroke developing 2,252 horsepower each. On her sides were two independent wheels each 30' in diameter with a 24" diameter shaft and 24 buckets.

The Solano carried entire trains across the Carquinez Strait between Benicia and Port Costa, California, on the Central Pacific and the Southern Pacific mainline connecting Sacramento with Oakland on the extension of the original Transcontinental Railroad. The crossing was about 1 mile and was considered the busiest train ferry in the world. In 1904, the Solano handled approximately 115,000 freight cars and 56,000 passenger cars in one year, an average of 315 freight cars and 153 passenger cars daily, 365 days a year.  In 1904, she was making between thirty six and forty six crossings every 24 hours, an average of one trip every 31 to 40 minutes, day and night, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

The Solano

The Solano made her first trip on November 24, 1879, and Remington was the second captain of the steamer under Captain Elijah Morton. Previously,  he had been a mate on the steamer Capitol, and also filled a like position on the steamers Transit and Thoroughfare, plying between San Francisco and Oakland.

A serious nose infection forced him to retire as captain of the Solano. After his health improved he captained some San Francisco ferry boats.

He was married to his wife Lucy in 1875 and had three children, Maud Thompson, Herbert Remington and Orie Remington.

[Sources include Oakland Tribune, Ancestry.com and Central Pacific Railroad Discussion Group]

John Brooks Felton (1827-1877) - 14th Oakland Mayor; UC Regent; Railroad Pioneer; California City Named in His Honor

The only marking of John Felton's grave

Lot 2, Plot 410c

John Brooks Felton was born in circa 1827 in Saugus, Massachusetts and died May 2, 1877 in Oakland, California. He was an American jurist and politician who served as the 14th Mayor of Oakland, California. 

Felton was the son of an almshouse superintendent in Cambridge, Massachusetts and brother of Cornelius Conway Felton, a classics scholar at Harvard University and Samuel Morse Felton, Sr., a railroad executive. He graduated from Harvard in 1847 and briefly served as a Greek tutor before pursuing the law. He studied the Napoleonic code in Paris for one year and became fluent in both French and Spanish.

In 1854, Felton moved to San Francisco to open a law practice with Harvard classmate, E.J. Pringle. The firm, which was later joined by A. C. Whitcomb, was successful in litigating land claims and their clients included real estate baron Kelsey Hazen, Mexico's Secretary of Finance José Yves Limantour, and millionaire businessman James Lick. 

John Brooks Felton

Felton was a legal advisor to Levi Parsons of the San Francisco Dock and Wharf Company during Parsons' attempt to have the "Bulkhead Bill" passed.  The legislation was a highly controversial bill heavily supported by San Francisco capitalists. It would have placed the city's waterfront in the hands of private companies within monopolies. Despite support for the bill among San Francisco's wealthy, local merchants and the public alike were in staunch opposition. In a move that stunned many former wealthy supporters, Governor John Downey vetoed the Bulkhead Bill.

Becoming disenchanted with the political climate of San Francisco, he moved himself across the Bay and settled in Oakland, and very soon to be affiliated with city pioneer Horace Carpentier. Here Felton played an important part in the famed "compromise of 1868," where Alameda County deeded 500 acres to the Western Pacific Railroad Company through the Oakland Waterfront Company to be used as a terminal for the transcontinental railroad, along with two strips of land as right-of-way.

In 1867 he was hired by the city of Oakland, with a promise of land in payment for his assistance in helping the city to recover the waterfront which had been conveyed to Carpentier fifteen years earlier. Having accepted this legal responsibility, he almost immediately went into clandestine association with Carpentier. By March of 1868 Felton was on the Board of Trustees for the Oakland Waterfront Company. At this time he was also the Grand Orator of the Grand Lodge of California Masonry. He served as Mayor of Oakland from 1869-1870, succeeding his friend Samuel Merritt.

He is perhaps best remembered for his business, political, and social relationship with bachelors Horace Carpentier, Michael Reese, James Lick, and Samuel Merritt, men all known for "eschewing the company of women."

He was for a time remembered by at least three streets which bore his name; one of which is now 63rd Street, and two in Berkeley, one of which was renamed Derby Street, the other was absorbed by the University campus, and no longer exists.  He is now remembered for having the Santa Cruz County town of Felton, California named in his honor.

Felton, California Railroad Station

Felton twice campaigned unsuccessfully for a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1867 and 1874 and was a Presidential Elector for California during the 1868, 1872, and 1876 Presidential Elections.  Felton was the first President of the Board of Trustees of Toland Medical College (now the University of California, San Francisco) and was responsible for obtaining the school's charter, which he failed to do. He was a regent of the University of California from its inception in 1868 until his death. Felton also served as the President of the San Francisco and Oakland Railroad.

According to the May 4, 1877 issue of the Oakland Tribune, Felton's funeral was one of the largest ever seen in Oakland. It was attended by leading members of the District Courts and California Supreme Court, Masonic leaders, Regents from the University of California and dignitaries and elected officials from throughout California. The overflow service was held at St. John's Episcopal Church and the funeral procession streamed down Broadway Street to Mountain View Cemetery led by Oakland police officers twelve abreast.

[Sources include the Oakland Tribune, Ancestry.com, Wikipedia and the History of Berkeley]

Sumner "Mack" Webber - Oakland's 17th Mayor

Lot 5, Plot 20/1

Webber was born in Bucyrus, Ohio in 1834 and came to California in 1860. In 1868, he opened a drugstore and apothecary at Eleventh and Broadway. He carried a best selling women’s fragrance call “Orange Flower Cologne,” which the Oakland Tribune called “all the rage.”

He was elected to the Oakland City Council in 1872 and served as president for two terms (1873–1874). He was named to succeed Henry Durant as Mayor on February 1, 1875, and was elected to a full term on March 1, 1875. In 1876, he became one of the first people to warn the East Bay that it would have to find its own water supply. At the time, Anthony Chabot’s San Leandro Reservoir was providing adequate water to Oakland, but Webber and others suggested that an aqueduct be built connecting the Sierra to Oakland.

He could have been easily reelected, but opted to head to Nevada to pursue mining interests. He returned to become the assistant appraiser and deputy collector at the Custom House in San Francisco. 

On January 5, 1901 he suffered a stroke while on business in San Francisco and taken to St. Luke’s Hospital. He died there on January 8, 1901 and is buried at Mountain View.

Benjamin Franklin ("B.F.") Ferris (1806-1876) - Oakland Mayor Committed Suicide

LOT 1, PLOT 258

Ferris is buried in an unmarked grave in Plot 1

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Benjamin Franklin (B.F.) Ferris was born in Seneca, New York and came to San Francisco in 1850 to strike it rich in the gold mines. However, he quickly returned from the hills and his political and professional career took off in the East Bay.  He served as a judge, Contra Costa County Justice of the Peace, Oakland Justice of the Peace and one-term mayor of Oakland in 1864-66. Before becoming mayor, he served for two terms on the city council. At the time of his election, mayor’s were elected annually. He was also the candidate who ran against the corrupt Horace Carpentier in 1854 and it was assumed that he as the "chosen candidate" in a fraudulent election.

He is best known to history as the only Oakland mayor to have committed suicide, although it occurred a decade after he left office. After accumulating debts of $15,534.04 against assets of $1,825.00, Ferris couldn’t bear life anymore, telling intimates that he was embarrassed about his debts. In May 1876, he boarded the Amador under the name of H.A. Johnson. 

According to the Oakland Tribune of May 22, 1876:

About 5 o’clock Saturday morning, when the steamer Amador was within a few miles of Sacramento, one of the passengers, who had registered his name as H.A. JOHNSON when he procured a stateroom on the previous evening, jumped overboard. It is stated by a hotel runner, who saw him sitting on the guard rail and solicited his patronage for a Sacramento hotel, that at that time he had his ankles tied with a handkerchief. He did not show any uneasiness or singularities of conduct, and the two men had a conversation of a few minutes. When the runner came back, after having been away a very short time, Johnson had disappeared, but his hat and cane were lying where he had been last seen. The alarm was immediately given, and a number of persons looked anxiously in the wake of the boat to see if the unfortunate man was visible, but nothing could be seen of him.

An examination of his room was made, and there was found on his bed three vials, each of which had contained laudanum, a purse containing $8.80 in coin, a pair of spectacles and a pencil case. The hat had pasted inside a piece of paper bearing the name “H.A. JOHNSON, Oakland.” There were also found two unsealed notes, one of which, directed “My Dear Wife and Daughter in Oakland.”

The note, which was dated May 19, 1876 and marked “Sacramento River” read:

To my Dear Wife and Daughter, in Oakland: The time is now arrived for me to take my awful plunge into the river. My brain is on fire. I am now losing my senses fast. I shall commence in a few moments to take the poison, after which I shall jump overboard and hope and trust that my body may never be found. Adieu! adieu! for you have been a good wife to me, and may God bless and protect you both.

P.S. - I wrote to you and some others just before I left San Francisco. Very fortunately for me there is not a single person on board that I have ever seen before. 

Newspaper accounts followed the missing case of Judge Ferris almost daily until a man found his body floating in the river. Friends and relatives were dispatched to Sacramento to identify the body. The family had become concerned when the day after he left for Sacramento they found his watch, diamond ring and safe key in his room, which he always kept on his person for safe keeping. 

The Ferris home

Ironically, Ferris had been a successful man in business, as well as politics. In San Francisco he co-owned the wholesale grocery firm of Ferris, Crowell and McCullom and was the keeper of the U. S. Temperance House on Kearney Street. He set up the first private bank in Oakland, the First National Gold Bank, which became the First National Bank in 1800 and served as president of the Savings & Loan Society. According to the book “The History of Berkeley,” he was a close business associate and financial backer of two other Oakland mayors who all happened to be early founders of Berkeley, George Blake and Francis Shattuck. The men were all part of the efforts to bring rail lines to Berkeley.

He is buried in Plot 1 of Mountain View Cemetery in an unmarked grave near three other Oakland mayors, Enoch Pardee, George Pardee and Andrew Williams.

Colonel W.S. Paisley (approx. 1860-1894) - "Martyr to the Cause of Humanity"

Colonel W.S. Paisley's gravestone in the unendowed area

Colonel W. S. Paisley was a member of the Industrial Army. In 1894, Ohio businessman Jacob Coxey organized an "Industrial Army" to protest the federal government's inaction in the face of the Great Depression of the 1890s. Class tensions were at an all-time high in American history and unemployed “tramps” or “hobos” traveled on freight trains begging for work or food. Many in the upper class feared anarchy or violence and labor conflicts sprung up across the country, including the Pullman Strike, Homestead Strike and Carnegie Steel Works Strike. Coxey’s plan was for these trains to converge on Washington D.C. to put pressure on President William H. McKinley. 

The "Industrial Army" en route to Washington D.C. in 1894

Colonel W.S. Paisley, who had worked as a steampipe-fitter and mechanic for the Union Iron Works and Mills Building in San Francisco, seized a train in Oakland with 400-700 other men under the command of General Denning Smith. The train headed into Rocklin in Placer County where it was met by Constable J.B. Fleckenstein* who attempted to detain General Smith. Court records tell of varying accounts of what happened next. One thing seems clear, a struggle ensued and the Industrial Army tried to wrestle away Fleckenstein’s gun. He apparently tried to shoot Smith, but missed, and instead hit Paisley, who died during his medical examination.

The (SF) Morning Call, May 12, 1894

The ensuing trial created a sensation and newspaper accounts proclaim that the court was standing room only with people shouting from the galleries, conflicting testimonies, flashy cross-examinations, salacious accusations and even some humorous moments. At the end of the trial, Judge Gwynne ruled that Fleckenstein acted in self-defense.

The judge also criticized Paisley, stating to the court: 

“W.S. Paisley, then the highest officer in command of the Industrial Army mentioned, instead of making an endeavor to restrain his men or followers from committing unlawful acts, aided and assisted in hampering, harassing and retarding the officer in the performance of his legal and obligatory duty by laying violent hands on the officer, while others, persons under his command, were endeavoring to take from the officer his pistol, the only defense he had on his person.”

Paisley’s body was transported to Oakland’s Mountain View Cemetery for burial. But before the body arrived a crowd gathered at 10^th & Broadway where angry condemnations and speeches ensued. The group passed a resolution with a resolved clause that stated:

“That the action of the said officer in slaying an unarmed citizen was hasty and unwarranted and should be condemned by all good citizens.”

The group raised the money to transport Paisley’s body from Rocklin and to have him buried. A number of prominent Populists showed up at Paisley’s funeral to demonstrate their support. His epithet reads "Martyr to the Cause of Humanity."

Jack London

Another person who joined Coxey’s Industrial Army in Oakland in 1894 was a man who had been shoveling coal for an electric railway power plant. The man quit when he discovered that he has been exploited, having performed the work of two men. He then joined the march East to protest unemployment. That man was the writer Jack London.

*Some newspaper accounts list him as Fleckenger, Flickenger or Flickenstein.

William Hayes Hilton (1829-1909) - California Artist

Hilton Gravestone, Plot 36, Lot 287; The backside reads "Pioneer of 1849"

William Hayes Hilton was born in New York City in 1829.

He enlisted in the Mexican War and served under Army General Zachary Taylor, who would later become President of the United States. Hilton participated in the Texas-Mexican broder skirmishes of 1845-46 before heading home to New York. In 1849, he headed to California in search of gold. While in the gold country he sketched the mining camps and scenes of everyday life. Apparently unsuccessfl as a gold miner, he began raising cattle.

"The Butterfield Overland Express Approaches" by William Hayes Hilton

Over the ensuing years Hilton created some enduring images of the Gold Rush era, including his 1861 painting "Pack Mules Climbing the Sierra Grade," an image of the "Washoe canaries" that carried treasure and mail. In later years, he would sketch images of Lake County, Sonoma County and San Francisco.

"Maricopa Village" by William Hayes Hilton

Many of Hilton's works appear in Edward Vischer's "A Pictorial of California," including Overland Mail Service, Stage Sleighing, Teaming up the Sierra Nevada and Treasure and Letter Express. There are also collections of his drawings of Mexico, Arizona and Texas done between 1858-1877.

Hilton lived in Virginia City in the early 1870's and was superintendent of a mine until 1873. Later in life he gave up a property in Glen Ellen and moved to Oakland.

Dr. David D.T. Nestell (1819-1900) - Sketched the Civil War

Dr. David Nestell is buried in the grassy area of Plot 15, Lot 65

Daniel D. T. Nestell was born in New York in 1819. In 1843, he graduated with honors from the City University of New York's Medical College. Following graduation, Nestell, accompanied by one of his professors, Dr. Valentine Mott, traveled abroad for two years in furtherance of his medical studies. Upon his return to the United States, Dr. Nestell reportedly worked as a physician or apothecary until 1862.

On January 25, 1862, Dr. Nestell was appointed Acting Assistant Surgeon, to serve on the side wheel steamer U.S.S. Clifton. While assigned to the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, Clifton participated in the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Phillip in April 1862, the Siege of Vicksburg in June 1862, and the First Battle of Galveston in October 1862, before being captured by Confederate forces at Sabine Pass, Texas on September 8, 1863. Nestell was subsequently held as a prisoner of war until January 1864, when he was released. 

"Prof" the Hypocrite by Dr. David Nestell

After his release from Confederate captivity, and a subsequent furlough, Nestell was assigned to the side wheel steamer U.S.S. Alabama, again serving as Acting Assistant Surgeon. Assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Alabama took part in the Union attacks on Fort Fisher from December 1864 to January 1865. During the action at Fort Fisher, Nestell suffered irreversible hearing damage. Five months later, on June 6, 1865, Dr. Nestell's appointment as Acting Assistant Surgeon was revoked, and he was honorably discharged from the Navy in August of that year. 

On September 9, 1869, Nestell received an appointment as Acting Assistant Surgeon in the U.S. Army, and served at Camp Warner, Oregon until April 1871. After serving briefly in California and the Arizona Territory, Nestell returned to civilian life in May 1872, and served in private practice in California.

Dutch Gap, April 9, 1865 by Dr. David Nestell

Nestell made numerous sketches during the Civil War and over 80 of them are preserved in a collection at the Nimitz Library. They can also be found in "The Southern Journey of a Civil War Marine: The Illustrated Note-Book Of Henry O. Gusley." Although Nestell and Gusley served on different war ships, much of their Civil War history was at the same locations.

Capture of USS Harriett Lane, Galveston by Dr. David Nestell

Nestell and Gusley's written and illustrated account of the Civil War provide us with some of the best accounts of key moments during this period. Together they document the capture of New Orleans, the Confederate victories at Galveston and Sabine Pass, as well as glimpses into the everyday life of Civil War soldiers.

Dr. Daniel D. T. Nestell died on October 24, 1900. Dr. Nestell was survived by his wife, Maria Louisa Whaites Nestell, whom he married in 1864, and his daughter, Ella. Cemetery records list the cause of death as "Senility."

[Biography primarily from the Nimitz Library]

Clarissa Chapman Armstrong (May 15, 1805- July 20, 1891) One of first missionaries in Hawaii

Clarissa Chapman Armstrong

 Clarissa Chapman Armstrong  was born in Russell Hampden County, Massachusetts to a family of Puritan descent. Her brother Reuben Chapman was the chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court.

In 1831, she married Dr. Richard Armstrong who boarded his young bride on the whaling ship the Averick and sailed to Hawaii. Clarissa’s journals show a rough trip around the Horn, with a pleasant stop in Rio de Janeiro. Clarissa was often to sick to leave her room, which was below deck in steerage. She later learned that she was pregnant for much of the voyage. The couple finally set foot in Hawaii 172 grueling days later.

During her stop in Rio de Janeiro, she enjoyed fine fruit and other delectables, but also witnessed slavery for the first time in her life. Years later she wrote the following:

“It was indeed a paradise, but the trail of the serpent was there. On an open road I saw a long train of black men, miserably clad, chained together…From that day my sympathies went out to the poor slaves everywhere, but little did I think that I should live to rear a son who lead Freedman to victory in the great contest which in future years should come in my native country.”

The couple spent a year in Molokai, Marquesas and Maui before being transferred to the central mission in Honolulu where Richard Armstrong became the spiritual advisor to King Kamehameha II. Armstrong viewed the natives as “naked, cannibalistic and warlike” and was appalled by the nakedness of the women, men and children. Eight years later he was made the minister of public instruction, a post he held until his death in 1860. The couple were among the first missionaries to permanently establish a church in Hawaii.  

When Richard encountered Chief Hape, who refused to accept the Christian God, Hape suggested that he swap Clarissa for one of his wives. Diplomatically, Armstrong refused, but as a compromise offered to name his first son Hape.

Clarissa taught the natives the English alphabet, led Bible studies, administered medical treatment, showed the women how to braid mats out of pine and even taught some of the men carpentry. She developed the trust of the native Hawaiians by learning their language. 

Clarissa Armstrong's gravestone in Plot 21, Lot 50

In 1860, her husband was thrown from a horse and died a few weeks later. Her husband had made provisions to ensure that Clarissa could stay in the stone house that they had built. She continued to lodge strangers, relieve the afflicted and minister to visitors.

Clarissa’s son Samuel Chapman Armstrong is known for establishing the Hampton Institute, which is best known for training black teachers in the South after the Civil War.

Clarissa Armstrong died on a visit to San Francisco to see her daughter. Stepping out of a carriage she slipped and hit her back on the iron step. She lived in excruciating mental and physical pain for about a year before dying at Children’s Hospital in San Francisco.

Her gravestone has her name and two simple inscriptions: “Aloha” on the backside and “She hath done what she could” on the front. Her husband is buried at the Kawaiahao Church Cemetery in Honolulu.

James Graham Cooper (1830-1902) Famed Naturalist, Conservationist and Surgeon

[From Cal Central by Frank Perry]

James G. Cooper was born June 19, 1830, in New York City and was no doubt influenced early in life by his father, William Cooper. His father was a skilled naturalist and founder of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York. The elder Cooper was one of the first Americans to publish articles on vertebrate paleontology, and the Cooper's Hawk was named in his honor. Unfortunately, James's mother, Mary Wilson Cooper, died when he was about five. In 1837 the family moved to a farm in New Jersey where young James grew up hunting, fishing, and collecting shells, birds' nests, reptiles, and other natural history specimens. He kept squirrels, a raccoon, and an opossum as pets.

The Wells Family Lot where James Cooper is buried

PLOT 31, LOT 15

There were few jobs in the natural sciences in those days so, typical of many naturalists at that time, James Cooper pursued and received medical degree. He graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City in 1851. The medical training also gave him a general background in science and would enable him to, if necessary, earn a living as a physician while pursuing his nature studies on the side.

Over the next decade, however, he worked at a series of government jobs where he used both skills. In 1852 Cooper learned of plans for a series of government surveys and explorations of the West. So he wrote to Spencer Fullerton Baird, Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian, who helped find scientists for the expeditions. Baird liked Cooper's enthusiasm. It would indeed be strange, Baird wrote back, "if the son of one so intimately connected with the progress of American science as your father should not have some of his tendencies."

The following year Cooper was assigned the job of surgeon and naturalist on a government expedition in search of a transcontinental railroad route through the Northwest. Young Cooper, thrilled at the opportunity to explore new lands, set off on April 28th, 1853, on a steamer for the Washington Territory. They traveled by way of the Isthmus of Panama and arrived at Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River in mid June. The survey was to be made by the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, under the leadership of Captain George B. McClellan (later to gain fame during the Civil War). The government wanted to know not only about topography, but also about fauna, flora, and geological resources. Wrote Baird:

"The general principles to be observed in making collections of natural history in a new country or one previously unexplored, is to collect everything which may present itself, from time to time, subject to the convenience or practicality of transportation. The number of specimens secured will, of course, depend upon the dimensions, and the variety of form or condition caused by the different features of age, sex, or season. ...In collecting specimens of any kind, it will be important to fix, with the utmost precision, the localities where found. ...It will not be possible to collect minerals, fossils, and geological specimens in very great quantity or dimensions...."

The team set out in mid July to explore the Cascade Range, with hopes of finding a pass over the mountains. Over the next ten months, Cooper took notes and collected birds, plants, and other specimens for shipment back to the Smithsonian. He was paid a salary of $70 per month. Even after the expedition disbanded, Cooper remained in Washington Territory, exploring the region between the Columbia River and Puget Sound.

Over the next few years Cooper participated in several other government explorations including the Wagon Road Expedition of 1857 and the Military Expedition to the West in 1860. He also hiked through New England and traveled to Florida (partly with his own funds) in search of specimens for museums.

Smithsonian circa 1865

When not traveling, he kept busy at the Smithsonian, writing up the results of his investigations. In Washington he worked with other important scientists, and made connections with high ranking military and political figures, including President Buchanan and Ulysses S. Grant. There were other amenities too: "Saturday, P.M. I went on an excursion to Arlington and had a pleasant time -- dined at Colonel [Robert E.] Lee's with a large party, many of them charming damsels, and walked home with two of the beautifullest girls in Washington."

But Cooper became depressed at the amount of time it took to get his reports published and soon longed for the wilds.
"I wish I could find pleasure in any of the common ways, but boating, theatre, opera, and all other such things have not charm for me, and I fear if I do not soon get away from civilized life into the wild woods of Florida or most anywhere else I shall get sick..."

In 1860, Cooper returned to the West Coast, eventually landing a job with the Geological Survey of California, led by Professor Josiah D. Whitney. The state legislature had appointed Whitney State Geologist and directed him: ³With aid of such assistants as he may appoint, to make an accurate and complete Geological Survey of the State, and to furnish, in his Report of the same, proper maps and diagrams thereof, with a full and scientific description of its rocks, fossils, soils, and minerals, and of its botanical and zoological productions, together with specimens of the same.² Cooper worked on and off for the survey, which suffered from sporadic funding, over the next ten years. He explored southern California, the Farallons and Channel Islands, the Sierra, and the Santa Cruz Mountains, among others.

Cooper visited Monterey in 1861, where he hired a boat to help in dredge for marine life in Carmel Bay. He first visited Santa Cruz as in 1864. Here, he hoped to find people with a love "...of simple pleasures and rural life..." He predicted that someday the town would become a second Newport (referring to Newport, Rhode Island). The place apparently appealed to him. In early 1866, after marrying his wife Rosa, they moved to Santa Cruz, and he set up a medical practice. In September he wrote to Baird:

"I am not making expenses yet at practice, but hope to make a living at it after a while. It however keeps me pretty close [to] my office and prevents my collecting much, as I have to be on hand in case of accident and not let them go to one of the six other doctors in town."

Another letter from Santa Cruz, to British malachologist Philip Carpenter, reveals Cooper's frustrations trying to carry out his scientific work:

"As to the pay, I care little, for it is not enough in this country to be worth the trouble of working for; in fact, I got only half paid for my report on the four classes [of] vertebrates and Mollusca. ...I have been following your example and getting married, and now have to pay closer attention to my profession, which in this country will not allow me to study the natural sciences very deeply, as the practical Americans always consider a man either deranged or neglectful of his business if he is known to be a naturalist."

Cooper, his wife, and newborn son left Santa Cruz in 1867 and eventually settled in Hayward where he finally managed to balance the practice of medicine with the study of natural history.

Cooper was a Renaissance man of natural science back at a time when it was still possible to hold such a title. He published on an incredible variety of topics: medicinal plants, forest trees, birds, mammals, reptiles, land snails, freshwater clams, coal distribution, marine mollusks, fishes, and fossils. In all, he wrote over 150 papers. With regard to paleontology, his greatest contribution was assembling a catalog of fossils collected by the California Geological Survey, published in 1888. He also wrote a "Catalogue of Californian Fossils," published in 1894. In it he described several new species of fossil mollusks. He published separate reports on the Pliocene, Miocene, and Eocene paleogeography in California. In his 1874 paper "California in the Miocene Epoch," he correctly concluded that much of the Coast Ranges south of San Francisco were under water during that time period.

James Graham Cooper died in Hayward in 1902. William Healy Dall, at that time America's preeminent authority on living and fossil mollusks, paid tribute to the pioneer naturalist:

"He was one of the original group of young naturalists which gathered around Professor Baird in the early days of the [Smithsonian] Institution...and whose names are classic in the annals of zoology in this country. ... Dr. Cooper ... for years ... was dependent upon his medical practice for support. But in spite of these handicaps his work on the Pacific coast has been of primary importance, and by his death passes away the last member of a group of men to whom American zoology is permanently indebted."

Several species of marine mollusks, as well as the Cooper Ornithological Club, were named in his honor.

He is buried in the family lot of Rev. Samuel Taggart Wells, a founder of Mountain View Cemetery. He married Rosa Wells in 1866,