Doris’ Page

David Olcott Shattuck was my great-great-great-great Grandfather. He came to Sonoma County in 1850. I discovered his story right after I moved to Sonoma County in 1980…I’m still trying to track down other cousins as he had 10 children………..

Judge David Olcott Shattuck 1800-1893

• 1st Chairman of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors in 1851.

• Superior Court Judge in San Francisco during the vigilante days.

• One of the first to grow grapes in Sonoma County.

• College President of Centenary College of Lousiana.

• Father of 10 children.

Judge David Olcott Shattuck’s Biography

• 1800-1849
• Born in Colchester, New London county, Connecticut on March 21, 1800.
• Parents were David and Dorathea (Olcott) Shattuck.
• His father was a blacksmith and small farmer.
• He had a common school education.
• Between 1819 and 1824 he worked as a stone cutter, school teacher and also preached in the Methodist Episcopal church.
• In 1824 he married Lydia Wattross, a native of Connecticut. She died in the fall of the same year.
• For three years he was a preacher with the Virginia Conference of the Methodist Church in Virginia. But due to ill health and a serious thoat complaint he had to abandon the pulpit. He then taught in Johnson County and was principal of an academy in Duplin County.
• On May 7, 1827, he married Miss Elizabeth Ann Saunders, in Wake county, North Carolina.
• In December 1829 they moved to Haywood (or Smith) County, Tennessee and David was admitted to the bar and practiced law in Brownsville. He was also active in the ministry there.
• In 1833 they moved to Carrollton, Carroll County, Mississippi and he practiced law there until 1837. In 1837 he was elected Judge of the 7th Judicial District, during the struggle between Jackson and the US Bank.
• In 1841 he resigned as a judge to accept the nomination of the Whig party for govenor. The big issue of the election was “Shall the State pay its bonds?”. The Whigs demanded full payment while the Democrats said ” no “. David Shattuck was defeated by 2,000 votes in the whole state.
• From 1841 to 1843 he practiced law and then in 1843 he accepted the position of professor of law in the Centenary College at Brandon, Rankin County, Mississippi. Soon after he became the college president. The college took over the buildings of the Louisiana State College and was then known as Centenary College of Lousiana. He stayed there until 1849.In 1849 he was honored with the degree of L.L.D. by Wesleyan University of Middletown, Connecticut.

1850-1861

• In 1849 he took a schooner for the Isthmus of Panama, and after many vexing delays on the Isthmus, he secured passage on a sailing vessel and arrived in San Francisco in April 1850, along with three of his sons, Francis William, Dickson P. and David O. Jr. He began a law practice but by the fall of 1850 he had been elected judge of the Superior Court. At that time there were three Superior Court judges.
• Judge Shattuck did not want to bring his family to live in the rough city of San Francisco, so in 1851 he purchased land in the town of Sonoma. He had a 10-room house shipped around Cape Horn in sections and it was put together on his new ranch two or three miles south of town. It was located on Watmaugh road and Fifth Street east. In 1852 his wife and seven other children joined him. According to the 1851 census, the entire population of Sonoma County was only 561. D.O. Shattuck, as he was often known, was chairman of the first board of supervisors.
• Back in San Francisco, D.O. Shattuck petitioned the Legistlature to remodel the court and only have one judge. They agreed and he resigned and practiced law in Sonoma County. He also farmed and raised stock.
• But in 1854 he went back to San Francisco when he was elected the judge of the Superior Court. He remained in that position until 1857 when he returned to private practice with the firm of Shattuck, Spencer and Riechert.

1861-1893

• In 1861 he sold his part of the firm to his partners and ran for Congress on the Democratic ticket. When he was defeated he returned to ranching in Sonoma. In 1862 and 1863 he was the presiding elder of the Santa Rosa district of the Pacific Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
• He spent a few years (1864-1867) in Mexico cultivating cotton.
• In 1867 he returned once again to his ranch and finally retired. His ranch at one time had 300 acres, with 100 acres devoted to vineyards and the rest to general farming.
• A winery was established in 1879 with a capacity of 80,000 gallons. In 1889 he had 200 acres left and he had deeded the farm to his daughter, Mrs. Mary E. Spencer. the vines were wiped out by phylloxera some years later.
• His wife, Elizabeth, died July 9, 1875. His son, Frank W. Shattuck was the first Superior Court Judge of Sonoma County. At D.O. Shattuck’s 90th birthday celebration, all 10 of his children were still living.
• Judge Shattuck died in 1893.

REFERENCES USEDIllustrated History of Sonoma County
Located at the Sonoma County Library, Pub. 979.41, page 552Valley of the Moon, Vintage Celebration, 1970
Pub. 979.418, p26. At the Sonoma County Library Annex

History of Sonoma County, California
By Munro-Fraser. Pub. 979.41, p. 682

The Sonoma Valley Story, Pages through the Ages
By Robert M.Lynch, The Sonoma Index-Tribune, Inc. 1997. Pub. 979.418

People of the Pueblo
Celeste G.MurphyPub. 979.41, pages 161, 171, 249

History of Sonoma
By Lara Adair, page 96

LINKS

1850 San Francisco City Directory
Scroll way down until you see “Shattuck”
San Francisco in 1850
See what San Francisco looked like when Judge Shattuck arrived.
Depot Park Museum, Sonoma, California You can visit this museum to find out about Judge Shattuck’s home town once he settled in California.
So where did the name “Shattuck” come from? Find out more than you ever wanted to know at this web site: Origin of the Shattuck Name
Be sure to visit Robert Kline’s Web Site, with lots of Shattuck information.
A good OLD article about the need to document all your facts and the pros and cons of doing genealogy on the Internet.