William Jefferson Rose

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William Jefferson Rose was born 19 March 1831 in Lauderdale Co., Alabama. Between 1850-54 he moved to Madison Co., Ark. On 3 Aug. 1854 he married there to Margaret Elizabeth Gibson. She was born 7 Dec. 1838 in Bradley Co., Tennessee to Joseph Gibson and Mary Elizabeth Mashburn?. The family crossed the plains by wagon train to California in the spring of 1856. William was a farmer and miner and first settled at Fiddletown, California. Their infant daughter, Nancy, died soon after. After moving to several localities they finally settled at Tulare Co., California near Porterville. Eventually the couple had ten children, Edward Earl was only 4 years old but he remembers the day in 1879 when word came that his father, William Jefferson Rose, was dying with pneumonia in the mountains. He describes how his mother rode all night to get there and how old-timers in the area searched for a gold strike that William had just discovered, but died before he had time to describe the location exactly. William died 21 June 1879 in Tulare County, California and he is buried in the Sequoia National Forest, California.