MRS. MELISSA PATRICK SALMON.--In an early period of the history of Butte County, Mrs. Melissa V. Patrick Salmon became identified with the development of that section lying south from what is now the city of Chico. She was born in Randolph County, Mo., April 11, 1831, a daughter of Johnson Wright, a Virginian by birth and a Methodist minister. He served as an assemblyman in Missouri and, on one of his trips home from the legislature, arrived leading his horse which had three rocking-chairs strapped to its back. These were a present to his wife, as that kind of a chair was a rarity in that section. Mrs. Bee Compton of Chico has one of those chairs. Mrs. Patrick Salmon's grandfather, Evans Wright, was born in England and came to America prior to the Revolutionary War and settled in Virginia. Her father married Elizabeth McCullom, a native of Kentucky, and their union was blessed with four children, of whom Melissa Virginia was the youngest.

Miss Wright was educated in the schools of her native state and there she became the wife of William Garrison Patrick, on August 1, 1850. He was born in Howard County, Mo., March 9, 1825. They settled down to life on a farm in Randolph County, where four children were born to them, and lived there until coming to California in 1858. Upon arriving in this state they came to Butte County and settled on a quarter section of land two and one half miles southwest of what is now the city of Chico. Mr. Patrick proved up on this land, but when his wife inherited a portion of the Wright property from her brother, Thomas Shelton Wright, he sold out and settled upon the ranch that afterwards became known as the Patrick ranch.

This property was surveyed from a grant in 1853 and negotiations were entered into between Mr. Wright and General Bidwell for some eleven hundred forty acres, although the patent to the property came direct from the United States Government to Mr. Wright and his heirs. Mr. Wright died on December 9, 1863, and Mr. Patrick was appointed administrator of the estate. The legal requirements to secure clear title to the land had not been completed at the time of the death of Mr. Wright, and Mr. Patrick carried the matter along, and when he died it devolved upon his widow to finish the transaction whereby she could get title to the property. This she did, with the aid of General Bidwell (through long years a friend of Squire Wright), who gladly assisted her in securing the government patent to the land.

Mr. and Mrs. Patrick settled down in their new home and farmed very successfully, and by dint of hard work and good management they began to buy land. In 1866 Mr. Patrick made a trip back to Missouri after stock and was accompanied by his daughter, Rebecca Jane, whom he left in Missouri when he was ready to come back to California. The following year, 1867, Mr. Patrick, his wife and their six children made the overland trip to Missouri, and it was while en route that their infant daughter, Emma, died and was buried in Nebraska. After spending about a year in the East, Mrs. Patrick and her daughters returned to California via Cape Horn, while Mr. Patrick and his son brought a band of stock over the plains. In the band were two fine Jacks that he used for breeding purposes and they did much to raise the standard of mules in this section of the county. He exhibited them at the State Fair in Sacramento, in 1868, and one took first prize, a silver cup, which Mrs. Compton now has, and the other, the second prize. On the steamer Mrs. Patrick and her children occupied a stateroom adjoining that of General Bidwell and his bride, who were just returning to Butte County after an extended wedding trip. Mr. Patrick died on the ranch on March 9, 1870, leaving his widow with six children. She endured many privations and hardships to rear her children and to conclude the requirements to secure title to her property, two hundred forty acres, to which she added, by good management, one hundred eighty-three acres adjoining, two hundred eighty-four acres lying southeast from the ranch, and one hundred twenty-one acres near by. She also owned considerable property in Chico. Of the original property in the Patrick ranch, Mrs. Bee Compton and W. G. Patrick are now the owners.

Seven years after the death of Mr. Patrick his widow married Christopher Columbus Salmon, a native of Tennessee, who came to California in 1859 and thereafter farmed and raised stock until his death.

Mr. and Mrs. Patrick had eight children born to them, namely: Mary Evans, who married Sylvester G. Eastman and resides near Chico; Rebecca Jane, widow of Jerome Moore and the mother of six children, the four living being William LeRoy (Lee), Martha Cordelia (Mattie), Francis Burnham, and Eletta V.; Elizabeth F., who married S. C. Schoonover, and had three children, the two living being Dorance Mason and William (Mrs. Schoonover died in 1905; her three children were born in Missouri and were brought to California by their parents in 1858, coming via water); Thomas James, the first child born in California, died April 1, 1918, the father of three children, the two living being George Grover and Frances Folsom; Bee, who married Adam Compton and resides near the old home place; William Garrison, living on the old home ranch with his wife and their three living children, Melissa Bee, William Garrison, Jr., and Anna Marie; Ethel, a son born in Missouri, and Emma, a daughter born in California, both died in infancy.

Mrs. Patrick was a splendid representative of those fearless and courageous women who endured the trials and discomforts of frontier life, to whom the present generation is greatly indebted for their aid in establishing and promoting everything that made for improved conditions, educationally, socially and religiously. After a residence in California covering a period of forty years, Mrs. Melissa V. (Patrick) Salmon passed on to her reward on December 1, 1898, thus closing a life filled with kindly deeds. Source: "History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 491-493, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.