Notes:
Photograph contributed by Joan Rothbury Beardsley Lisi
Data source is Douglas Mumma, 2123 Farmington Place, Livermore, CA 94550, email = doug@mumma.org
Data source is Joan Rothbury Beardsley Lisi, email lisijoan71@gmail.com
Death listed in the California death index.
1870 Census, CA, Monterey Co., San Antonio Twp., 2 July 1870
Mumma, B.F., 53, farmer, $2000 personal estate, b. OH
1880: San Simeon, San Luis Obispo, California
Benjamin F. Muma, 52, farmer, b: MD/MD/MD
Martha Muma, 32, keeping house, b: MN/Wales/Wales
Susan Muma, 7, b:CA/MD/MN
Irvin J. Muma, 5, b:CA/MD/MN
Ann Muma, 2, b:CA/MD/MN
Mattie Muma, 7m (Nov), b:CA/MD/MN
1900: San Simeon, San Luis Obispo, California
Benjamin Muma, head, 75, m: 29 yrs, b: MD/MD/MD. farmer
Martha Muma, wife, 57, m: 29 yrs, 4 children, 3 living, b: MN/Wales/Wales
Sara J Muma,, dau, 25, single, b: CA/MD/WN
Anna E Muma, dau, 23, b: CA/MD/WN
Robert Roberts, boarder, 6Boarder, farm laborer
Irwin J Muma, son, 29, single, b: CA/MD/WN, at school
1910: San Simeon, San Luis Obispo, California, USA
Martha Murna, head, 62, widow, b: WN/Wales/Wales
Suzy Murna, dau, 35, single, b: CA/MD/WN
Annie Murna, dau, 32, single, b: CA/MD/WN
On June 1, 1846, "Frank" as he was called, enlisted as a private at Columbus, Indiana in Company F, 3rd Indiana Infantry at age 21 and served 18 months in the Mexican War. He served un Capt. Brardman. He was discharged on 1 July 1847. His name is difficult to find in the War records because it was spelled as Mummon/ Moummon. On 27 Aug 1908 his widow, Martha Muma made a pension application under the 29 Jan 1887 pension act. It is certificate #15350 See Mexican War Index to Pension files, T-317, Roll 9.
After his discharge, he lived with and worked for his uncle, Phillip (Philip) Blessing in New Orleans. (The article below says his name was Welty, but it was likely Blessing. Anne may have been confused as to which uncle he lived with. Phillp Blessing was known to have migrated to New Orleans) The lure of California called and he journeyed across the Isthmus of Panama, eventually arriving in San Francisco in October of 1851. He worked the gold mines near Downieville in Sierra County where he tried placer mining on the Yuba and Feather Rivers. He worked the gold fields for several years and it is believed that he was also a teamster. At the age of 42, he finally married and settled along the California coast near Cambria, California about 1864. His land (270 acres) was to later be sold to the Hearst family. He and Martha also purchased 320 acres as land grants in 1890. This land was in Monterey County, just north of the San Luis Obispo county line. This was a bit further north of their ranch in San Simeon
Frank changed the spelling of his given and surnames from Solomon Franklin Mumma to Benjamin Franklin Muma when he left Ohio. No reason is known for the spelling change, but some family legends suggest he got upset with his Ohio relatives..
In the 1870 Census, California, Monterey Co., San Antonio Twp., 3 July 1870, page 8
Mumma, B.F. , 53, farmer, $2000 personal property, b. OH (note, he is still using the "MUMMA" spelling at this time)
References:
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"History of the State of California" by Prof. J.M.Guinn, 1903, Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago
"California and Califonians" by Rockwell Hunt, 1926, The Lewis Publishing Co. - His son, Irwin is the focus of this article".
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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN MUMA and MARTHA JARMON MUMA (Published in the "Chronicles of the Cambria Pioneers", 1946)
My father, Frank Muma, as he was familiarly called was born at Frederick, Maryland, March 25, 1825. He spent his early boyhood in Ohio near Dayton where the family moved in the early 1930's. What was the old Muma homestead is now a part of the beautiful city of Dayton. When volunteers were called for in the Mexican war of 1841; he joined the 3rd Indiana Infantry Co. F and served under General Taylor in Mexico. After the war was over he returned to his parents' home in Ohio, and the next year went to New Orleans to engage in trade with his uncle, Philip Welty.
The discovery of gold in California stirred the urge he had always felt to go west, and in the spring of 1851 he joined a party of men and women who planned to go to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama. The trip across the Gulf of Mexico was made by steam boat, then the hardship really began in crossing the Isthmus fighting mosquitoes and poisonous insects all the way under a tropical sun. There were not enough mules so part of the way some walked. However, the crossing was made and in a few days a ship was boarded on the Pacific side and they landed safely in San Francisco in October 1851.
Mrs. U. S. Grant and her young daughter Nellie were in the party, Mrs. Grant coming to California to join her husband, then Lt. Grant of the U. S. Army.
My father, after assembling his miner's outfit, went by boat up the Sacramento River as far as possible, then into the Mother Lode country, mining in Sierra, Yuba and Placer counties. After 8 years of mining, and one trip home to Ohio in that time to visit his parents, he decided he had enough mining and would go into stock raising which was beginning to absorb many of the early comers.
Hearing of good grazing land in San Benito and Monterey counties he journeyed south and after looking over the country located in Monterey county on land which is now the Milpitas Ranch near Jolon and the San Antonio Mission. I remember the stories of the happy years he spent in that locality, and it was here he perfected his Spanish under the kindly instruction of Padre Andreas, priest of the mission.
Then the drought came and took great toll of his cattle and horses. It was at this time he decided to go to the coast of Monterey county with his small herd that was left. He bought a "squatters right" in what is now Pacific Valley then known as "Cot's Hole." In a few years he again moved on, turning over his land right to Messrs. Plaskett and Mansfield, and homesteaded about 10 miles south on government land he named "Buckeye." In 1870 he bought a portion of the Pacheco Grant (now Hearst ranch) north of San Simeon, and this land became his anchorage, though "Buckeye" was always his favorite spot.
He married my mother, Miss Martha Jarmon of Waukesha, Wisconsin, on May 28, 1872. She had journeyed from her eastern home to visit her sister, Mrs. Thomas Evans, at the present Evans homestead north of Piedras Blancas. My father and mother began their married life on the ranch known as the "Muma Ranch," and spent their 35 years of wedded life there.
Four children were born to make up our family: 3 daughters and 1 son. The youngest daughter died in infancy, and my brother Irwin in 1925. My sister Susan, now Mrs. Griffith Williams, and I (Mrs. Murray Lee) survive.
My Father passed in October 1907 and my mother, though 20 years younger than he, joined him in August 1910. Their graves are in the Masonic section of the Cambria cemetery under the whispering pines, and I know their sleep is sweet in the bosom of the land of California they loved so well.
I wish I could do justice to their memory in telling the story of their pioneer life at San Simeon, but may this express it better than many words my heritage is the blood of glorious West my father and mother gave me.
Anne Muma Lee
(Mrs. D. M. Lee)
