About Us

James Milton was born December 11, 1826 and was the son of Thomas Jefferson Roane and Mary Grant. JM married Nancy Watson from Tennessee. They lived in Patton Valley and had five kids: Katherine (Kitty), Flora Nancy, William Henry, Betty Ann and Mary Malvina. William Henry is my direct ancestor. 

JM left home at age 23 and headed west during the gold rush to be a forty-niner.  and volunteered to Company A under Captain James Boling. Indians were raiding miners in Mariposa, and his company was to stop them. They received a tip from an Indian that led them three days and crossed the Merced River. Snow was three feet deep and the party heard "thunder". A smaller group of three men, JM included, headed over a pass to investigate and were the first white men to enter the valley. They met a trip called "Ohumitee" which meant grizzly bear. A San Francisco newspaper mistakenly printed Yosemite, and the name stuck. 

JM's home was incorporated into Mariposa County, then split into Fresno. He became a county supervisor then deputy sheriff. In 1859, he was elected to the California state legislature. JM moved back to his old home in Macon County, probably to fight in the civil war. "Jim" volunteered and was in Company E, 6th NC Calvary under Captain W.E. McDowell. His company fought at Chicamauga under General Bedford Forrest, supported Longstreet in Knoxville, then fought near New Bern.  After the war, Jim was the sheriff of Macon County in 1870 and a justice of the peace in the 1890s.