George Calvert Yount (May 4, 1794 – October 5, 1865), later known by his

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

name Don Jorge Concepción Yount, was a Californian ranchero, fur trapper, and entrepreneur. Born in

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, he later emigrated to

Alta California Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...

, where he became a Mexican citizen and acquired substantial property holdings in the

Napa Valley Napa Valley is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) located in Napa County in California's Wine Country. It was established by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) on January 27, 1981. Napa Valley is considered one of the premier ...

, largely due to the influence of his friendship with General

Mariano G. Vallejo Don Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (4 July 1807 – 18 January 1890) was a Californio general, statesman, and public figure. He was born a subject of Spain, performed his military duties as an officer of the Republic of Mexico, and shaped the trans ...

. The city of

Yountville, California Yountville ( or ) is a city in Napa County, in the Wine Country of California, United States. Located in the North Bay region of the Bay Area, the population was 3,436 at the 2020 census. Almost a third of the town's population lives at the Ve ...

is named for him.

Biography

George C. Yount was born in

Burke County, North Carolina Burke County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 87,570. Its county seat is Morganton. Burke County is part of the Hickory–Lenoir–Morganton, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area. ...

, but grew up in

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

. He fought in the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

and the

Indian wars The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars, were fought by European governments and colonists in North America, and later by the United States and Canadian governments and American and Canadian settle ...

. Yount was a farmer but in 1826, after business difficulties, left his wife and three children in Missouri, and went to Santa Fe and became a

fur trapper Fur is a thick growth of hair that covers the skin of mammals. It consists of a combination of oily #Guard hair, guard hair on top and thick #Down hair, underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as ...

. Yount eventually made his way to California, arriving in 1831 with the Wolfskill party. He trapped sea otters on the

Santa Barbara Channel Islands The Channel Islands () are an eight-island archipelago located within the Southern California Bight in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California. The four Northern Channel Islands are part of the Transverse Ranges geologic province, and ...

. He went to Sonoma in 1834, where he was employed as a carpenter by General

Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo Don Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (4 July 1807 – 18 January 1890) was a Californio general, statesman, and public figure. He was born a subject of Spain, performed his military duties as an officer of the Republic of Mexico, and shaped the trans ...

. Through the influence of Vallejo, Yount received the

Rancho Caymus Rancho Caymus was a Mexican land grant in present-day Napa County, California granted in 1836 by acting Governor Nicolás Gutiérrez to George C. Yount. Caymus was the name of a subgroup of Mishewal-Wappo Indians. The rancho was in the Napa Vall ...

land grant in 1836, and became the first permanent settler in the Napa Valley. He built a cabin, or block-house and a grist-mill. In 1843 he received the Rancho La Jota land grant on Howell Mountain north of Rancho Caymus, where he built a saw-mill. George C. Yount received a US patent on both of these grants with a total of . George Yount recounted that, in early Spring of 1847, around the time the first relief party for the

Donner Party The Donner Party, sometimes called the Donner–Reed Party, was a group of American pioneers who migrated to California in a wagon train from the Midwest. Delayed by a multitude of mishaps, they spent the winter of 1846–1847 snowbound in th ...

was being organized, he had a repeated dream in which he saw a struggling group of pioneers in deep snow and other striking details of their appearance and difficulties. He may have heard of the plight of the Donner Party, which had been widely-publicized by James Reed in San Francisco that winter. In

Richard Henry Dana, Jr. Richard Henry Dana Jr. (August 1, 1815 – January 6, 1882) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts, a descendant of a colonial family, who gained renown as the author of the classic American memoir ''Two Years Before the Mast''. ...

's 1869 'Twenty-Four Years Later', Dana writes that Yount's dream was responsible for at least part of the rescue of the Donner Party. Dana refers to it as " ount'scelebrated dream, thrice repeated." Rev.

Horace Bushnell Horace Bushnell (April 14, 1802February 17, 1876) was an American Congregational minister and theologian. Life Bushnell was born in the village of Bantam, township of Litchfield, Connecticut. He attended Yale College where he roomed with futu ...

's 1858 report of Yount's first-hand account places the location Yount saw in the dream in the wrong place from the Donner Party; however, Dana's 'Journal of a Voyage Round the World, 1859-1860' (published in 1968) makes it clear that Yount considered the dream as a helpful spiritual communication which led to relief to the Donner Party. Yount's dream and its connection to the Donner Party are now accepted as part of George Yount's legacy. A town known as Sebastopol was laid out on the property in 1855. However, a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in nearby

Sonoma County Sonoma County () is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, its population was 488,863. Its county seat and largest city is Santa Rosa, California, Santa Rosa. It is to the n ...

had already laid claim to this name, and the town was renamed Yountville in 1867 after George Yount’s death. His estate remained mostly intact during his lifetime, and Yount died on his property in 1865 at the age of 71.

Family

George C. Yount and Eliza Cambridge Wilds had three children: Robert Wilds Yount (1819–1850), Frances Yount (1821-1870), and Elizabeth Ann Yount (1826–1853), and nine grandchildren. His nephew,

Harry Yount Henry S. Yount (March 18, 1839May 16, 1924) was an American Civil War soldier, mountain man, professional hunter and trapper, prospector, wilderness guide and packer, seasonal employee of the United States Department of the Interior, and the ...

, was a gamekeeper in

Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowston ...

and is considered the first park ranger of the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

Children

Yount had left his family in Missouri in 1826. His two daughters, Elizabeth Ann and Frances, along with her husband William Bartlett Vines, came west with the Walker-Chiles Party of 1843. They lived in George Yount's blockhouse on Rancho Caymus.

Grandchildren

George and Eliza had nine grandchildren: Elizabeth Yount (1847 – April 7, 1916), only child of Robert, married Thomas Lewis Rutherford (d. 1892) in 1864.Thomas Lewis Rutherford and Elizabeth Yount
/ref> George Yount gave the couple in the northern part of Rancho Caymus as a wedding gift. Thomas Rutherford established himself as a grower and producer of high-quality wines during the late 1800s, and

Rutherford, California Rutherford is a census-designated place (CDP) in Napa County, California, United States. The population was 164 at the 2010 census. Rutherford is located in the Rutherford AVA (American Viticultural Area) which is located in the larger Napa Vall ...

is named for him. Children of Frances: Mary, Ellen and George Elizabeth Anne Davis (1847–1922), daughter of Elizabeth, married William Campbell Watson (1843–??) in 1864. In 1871, Watson purchased 78 acres of land at the base of Mount St. John, just west of Rutherford, and christened his property Inglenook, a Scottish phrase for "cozy corner" or "hearth." In 1879, the property was sold to

Gustave Niebaum Gustave Ferdinand Niebaum (born Gustaf Ferdinand Nybom; 31 August 1842 – 5 August 1908) was a Finnish-American sea captain and winemaker. Niebaum acquired his maritime schooling in Helsinki, Finland. By the end of 1860s, he had become one of ...

who later established the eponymous winery on the site. Georgina Frances Sullivan (1853–1936), daughter of Elizabeth, married John P. Jones in 1875.

References

* Yount, Lewis, and Clark, 1966, ''George C. Yount and his Chronicles of the West'', Old West Publishing Co, Denver * Ellen Lamont Wood,1941, ''George Yount:The Kindly Host of Caymus Rancho'', Grabhorn Press, San Francisco

External links

* Find a Grave - George Calvert Youn

* Camp, Charles L. and Yount, George C. (April 1923) "The Chronicles of George C. Yount: California Pioneer of 1826,"

California Historical Society Quarterly The California Historical Society (CHS) is the official historical society of California. It was founded in 1871, by a group of prominent Californian intellectuals at Santa Clara University. It was officially designated as the Californian state ...