From The History of Placer and Nevada Counties, California, W.B. Lardner and M.J. Brock, authors. Published 1924 by the Historic Record Company, pp 464-467.

MARTIN ANDREW SCHELLHOUS, SR.

Martin Andrew Schellhous, the eldest son of Martin Green and Betsey Anderson Schellhous, was born in 1819 in Florence, Huron County, Ohio, where he received his early education. When he was eighteen years of age, he was sent to the State University at Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he remained for several years. In March, 1849, with news spreading across the country of the discovery of gold on the Pacific Coast, Martin started across the plains to California with the intent of finding his fortune in the goldfields. He traveled with a company of friends and neighbors, the journey being made across the plains with ox teams. They did not reach Salt Lake City until August, and there exchanged their outfit for pack horses, since it was too late in the season to cross the mountains with ox-teams. When they had proceeded about 200 miles their company was fired upon by a band of 400 Indians; this was about one o'clock in the afternoon. The emigrants returned the fire and the battle lasted until night. The Indians killed two of their company, stampeded their horses and carried away their provisions and blankets: with the aid of some Mormons who were on their way from California to Salt Lake cit, Mr. Schellhous and other members of the company returned to that place, where they obtained some mules and provisions, and in November, 1849, they again started for the Golden State via the southern route through the desert, reaching Los Angeles in February, 1850, after a long and tedious journey. In the southern city, they chartered a small sailing vessel and proceeded to San Francisco, where they arrived in April; then taking another vessel up the Sacramento River, they finally reached the mines. Mr. Schellhous and his brother engaged in placer mining and soon took out between five and six thousand dollars in gold. In the fall of 1851, Mr. Schellhous return to Michigan with the intention of returning to California the next season.

In March, 1852, Mr. Schellhous was united in marriage with Miss Caroline Ferris, and with his young wife and some members of his own family, he again started across the plains. This time the party suffered from the cholera and experienced many other hardships and trials. The disease caused the death of one of his sisters and a child; the former had partly recovered, but in her emfeebled condition was stricken with mountain fever which terminated her life and she was laid to rest at Diamond Springs, California. Mr. Schellhous brought with him a number of cows and turned his attention to farming, stock-raising and fruit culture. He purchased a ranch of 240 acres, two and a half miles from the present site of Roseville, improved and developed his property, making it a rich and highly cultivated tract. So successful was he in his operations that before his death he had accumulated 400 acres of land. He was also successful in stock-raising. For a number of years he held the office of Justice of the Peace in Placer County. He was a man of good education, marked ability and force of character, and his influence for good in the community was a potent element in its advancement.

Mrs Schellhous survived her husband, who passed away in September, 1873, at the age of fifty-four years, until 1906, when she, too, was called to the Great Beyond, honored and respected by all who knew her. In the death of Martin Andrew Schellhous, the community mourned the loss of one of its most valued citizens; he left to his family, not only a comfortable competence, but an honored name, for his was ever an upright career in which fidelity to duty and trustworthiness were among his characteristics.