Contributed by Lisa Hoffman
Jonas’ sister, Rebecca Specht, married Charles G. Roth, also of
Pennsylvania and Pickaway County, Ohio and left for California with Jonas and
his wife. Jonas married Elizabeth Morris, May 21, 1850 in Pickaway County, Ohio
and Rebecca married Charles G. Roth February 3, 1849 in Pickaway County.
Jonas’ children were Emma Specht, Nebraska Kansas Specht and Minnie Specht, by
Elizabeth. Elizabeth died in 1874, California, and he remarried Liu Unknown and
had another child, Calvin, born in 1876. Liu (or possibly Lou, short for Louise,
maybe?) was also previously married. I don't know her maiden name, but her first
married name was Tompkins.
Jonas’ sister, Sarah Specht, is my direct ancestor. Sarah married Samuel
Roadarmer.
The following biography was taken from the book:
Colusa County Biographical
Sketches of Pioneers and Prominent Residents
Justice H Rogers, 1891: Orland California
The subject of this brief
biography is a native of Berks County, Pennsylvania, born March 21, 1817. His
grandfather on the fathers side was a soldier of the Revolution and participated
in the battles of Trenton, Brandywine, Princeton, and in the siege of Yorktown.
When young Jonas was but ten years old, his family removed to Pickaway County,
Ohio, then a wilderness. After maturity, he carried on farming till 1846, when
he concluded to visit Missouri, which was then the extreme frontier of
settlement. On arriving in the State, he heard much of the advantages of distant
Oregon and some meager accounts of California, and, resolving to see these new
countries for himself, he left the Missouri line in a company of forty persons,
men, women, and children, driving an ox-team for Isaac Bailey.
Travel was necessarily slow, too slow for the impetuous Jonas, and on arriving
at the foot of the Cascade Mountains, a halt being called for a long delay,
owing to the depth of the snow, Spect left the train, alone and on foot, after
the first crossing of Snake River, and traveled safely to the Willamette, a
distance of over six hundred miles, a feat never before performed by a white
man. He only remained in Oregon a couple of months, when he found his way to San
Francisco. During his stay here, gold was discovered at Sutters Mills, but it
then created no excitement. Spect was so delighted with the country that he had
actually set out to return to the States and bring back his family, but, on
account of the mining excitement, he could find no companions for the journey,
and was thus forced to fall in with the others and go prospecting.
On June 2, 1848, he discovered gold in paying quantities on the Yuba, it being
the first discovery of gold north of the American River. Shortly afterwards he
established a trading-post on this river and dealt largely with the Indians, who
paid for their purchases in gold-dust.
He left the mines in November, 1848, and opened a store in Sacramento City. Five
months later he settled opposite the mouth of Feather River. Here he opened a
general-store business, laid out the town of Fremont, and established the first
public ferry in California. At the same time he was conducting a store business
on Rose Bar. In visiting this place in April, 1849, he found the miners
disputing about claims. A meeting was called and a committee selected to draft
rules for this government. Spect was one of the committee, and drafted the first
mining laws, as far as then known, in California. These laws were afterwards
legalized by statute.
In the summer of 1849 Spect was elected a delegate to the first Constitutional
Convention, but did not attend, owing to a pressure of business. He was elected
to the State Senate of the first Legislature from Sonoma County and took his
seat in 1850. Shortly after the session opened, returns came from the Trinity
mines which gave the seat to General Vallejo. It was afterward discovered that
no election had been held on the Trinity River, the returns having been
manufactured at Benicia.
In the summer of 1850 Spect traveled in what is now Colusa County, and was so
well pleased with the county that he determined some day in the future to make
his home there. It was not, however, till 1868 that circumstances so shaped his
movements as to permit him to locate there. He located in Colusa and began
erecting tenement houses. Previously he had been harassed by conflicting titles
and lost much by the confirmation of Spanish grants. He determined to steer
clear of trouble. He accordingly bought three lots from Colonel Hagan. Everybody
was buying them and his title seemed perfect. But he was destined to
disappointment, and the result was that Spect was embroiled for many years in
the meshes of lawsuits over the title to property as well as of other
investments.
He died July 3, 1883, leaving a wife and four children. Mr. Spect was a man of
firm intrepidity of character. He was of the earnest, rugged type of our best
pioneers. He took a lively interest in public affairs, in which his pen
displayed a facility and grace of expression which must have been a natural gift
to one who had had little or no opportunities for education in his youth