Waste family history

My great-great-grandfather

John Jackson Waste

1835 - 1882

and great-great-grandmother

Mary Catherine McIntosh

1844 - 1868

Birth: March 29, 1835 in Hague, Warren Co., New York

Death: May 3, 1882 in Chico, Butte Co., California

 

"How The Waste Was Won"

Hague, New York State 
My great-great grandfather, John Jackson Waste, was born on March 29, 1835, at Hague on Lake George, New York State. Above is an old view of Lake George. Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point are located near the north end of Lake George. The map at right shows Warren County on the west side of Lake George near the Vermont border.

John Jackson Waste's origins

John was the son of Ira Charles Waste and Jane Hogle. On Nov. 9, 1835, when John was less than a year old, his mother died. His father was left with four young boys. Fortunately Ira met and married Irish-born Nancy Ann Donahue. She proved to be a wonderful mother. Years later when John filled out the 1880 census questions, he listed Nancy as his mother. She was the only mother that he had ever known, although Jane Waste was his actual biological mother.

A few years after John's birth his family moved to the town of Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio.

 

"New": The following material in the box below is new to my research project but in fact has been in our family a long time. It is very significant information that will need to be fully integrated with my previous findings. - Ed.

 From "The Waste Family"

8 Generations

1720-1960

Compiled by Robert W. Waste, 1960

John Jackson Waste

 

 

The Waste family moved west to Ohio

By 1840, John's family was living in Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio. Click on the map to see larger version of the 1834 map on the right.

 

Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio

Panoramic map of Warren

(click to hi-res version)

 

John's parents had three more sons while living in Warren, Trumbull County. See Ira Charles Waste for more about John's brothers.

Later his family moved to Millville, Grant County, Wisconsin (or nearby). He grew up in that Great Lakes area.

 

John Jackson Waste became a pioneer emigrant.

There isn't much information available so far about his early life. What we do know is that young Waste left home (from Wisconsin?) and traveled to California. At that time, the Gold Rush was reaching it's peak, drawing thousands of able-bodied young men from around the United States. So, in 1853, when he was 18 years old, he hired on as a scout and rode a Kentucky thoroughbred all the way to California over the Lassen Trail.

 

 Scenes of crossing the plains - California emigrant train (shown about 1849)

 

 

According to some accounts, the Lassen Trail was the worst possible route to California. By 1851, only a handful of wagon trains attempted it because the word was out - "do not go on the Lassen Trail or "you'll be sorry!" Others say that the trail wasn't that bad - the mountain passes weren't too high but it took way too much time for the 49'ers, who were willing to do almost anything to get to the gold, even if it meant tackling the much steeper Sierras to the south.

Lassen Trail to Northern California, 1851

This map shows northern California in 1851, two years before J. J. Waste traveled overland to California.

His party took the Lassen Trail after following the main westward route across the plains through Nebraska, etc. They followed the Applegate cutoff (which led to Oregon) across the forbidding Black Rock Desert to Fandango Pass then turned south across the rocky volcanic areas to the northern Sacramento Valley. It was very difficult but so were the others trails to the south, such as the one that crossed Carson Pass, south of Lake Tahoe.

 

First stop: Sacramento and Sutter's Fort

 

Sutter's Fort

John Jackson Waste stayed at Sutter's Fort, for a short time.

 

About the map: Colusa County is shaded dark blue on the map. At that time, it was still part of Colusi County, which included three of today's counties: Colusa, Glenn and Tehama. Other counties that figure in this story are shown in color.

 

 

Part 2: J. J. Waste settled in California and married - three times!

 

Continue to William Harrison Waste

Return to Ira Charles Waste