Founding Families
Coloma Black Family Profiles
Family
Name: Gooch/Monroe
Peter Gooch / Nancy Gooch
- à Andrew Monroe / Sarah Ellen Collins [Monroe]
(c. 1814 – 1861) (C. 1811 – 1901) (1846 – 1921) (1849 – 1937)
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Almariah Pearly
– (1868 – 1963)
Ulysses Grant - (
1869 –1943)
Andrew - (
1872 – 1892)Cordelia Ann – (1875 –1945)
William Henry - (1877 – 1928)
Garfield – (1880 – 1920)
James Leonard – (1886 – 1988)
Nancy
and Peter Gooch arrived in California in 1849 as slaves from Missouri. It is likely that their owners were the William Gooch family of Placerville who became owners of the Crescent City Hotel. Peter and Nancy Gooch were freed shortly after California’s admission into the Union as a free state in 1850. After her emancipation Nancy, with theassistance of her husband Peter, worked as a laundress and cook for local miners to make sufficient money to provide payment for the freedom of their son Andrew Monroe (the surname Monroe was likely adopted from Andrew’s last owner in Missouri) and his wife Sarah Ellen Collins Monroe who were still enslaved in Missouri. Nancy continued to work toward this end after Peter’s death in 1861. It is believed that part of the $700 that Nancy later raised was used to pay for the transportation of Andrew, Sarah Ellen and their young sons Pearly and Grant to Coloma from Missouri. Andrew and his family arrived in California by train in 1870. Andrew Monroe with his family was soon re-united with his widowed mother in Coloma as free persons. Between the years 1872 and 1892, the remaining Monroe children, Andrew Jr., William, Garfield, Cordelia, and James were born in Coloma. All of the children attended Coloma area schools and became well-known fixtures in Coloma and the surrounding area. One of Pearley and Grant Monroe’s earliest educational influences was Edwin Markham, a schoolteacher who later became one of California’s most famous poets. Nancy Gooch was to enjoy the company of her growing family in Coloma until her death in 1901. Her experience with her family would not be without a loss however as her grandson Andrew Monroe Jr. would succumb to a heart attack at the age of 20 in 1892.
Coloma Black Family Profiles
Family
Name: Gooch/Monroe
Peter Gooch / Nancy Gooch
- à Andrew Monroe / Sarah Ellen Collins [Monroe]
(c. 1814 – 1861) (C. 1811 – 1901) (1846 – 1921) (1849 – 1937)
¯
Almariah Pearly – (1868 – 1963)
Ulysses Grant - (1869 –1943)
Andrew - (1872 – 1892)
Cordelia Ann – (1875 –1945)
William Henry - (1877 – 1928)
Garfield – (1880 – 1920)
James Leonard – (1886 – 1988)
Nancyand Peter Gooch arrived in California in 1849 as slaves from Missouri. It is likely that their owners were the William Gooch family of Placerville who became owners of the Crescent City Hotel. Peter and Nancy Gooch were freed shortly after California’s admission into the Union as a free state in 1850. After her emancipation Nancy, with theassistance of her husband Peter, worked as a laundress and cook for local miners to make sufficient money to provide payment for the freedom of their son Andrew Monroe (the surname Monroe was likely adopted from Andrew’s last owner in Missouri) and his wife Sarah Ellen Collins Monroe who were still enslaved in Missouri. Nancy continued to work toward this end after Peter’s death in 1861. It is believed that part of the $700 that Nancy later raised was used to pay for the transportation of Andrew, Sarah Ellen and their young sons Pearly and Grant to Coloma from Missouri. Andrew and his family arrived in California by train in 1870. Andrew Monroe with his family was soon re-united with his widowed mother in Coloma as free persons. Between the years 1872 and 1892, the remaining Monroe children, Andrew Jr., William, Garfield, Cordelia, and James were born in Coloma. All of the children attended Coloma area schools and became well-known fixtures in Coloma and the surrounding area. One of Pearley and Grant’s Monroe’s earliest educational influences was Edwin Markham, a schoolteacher who later became one of California’s most famous poets. Nancy Gooch was to enjoy the company of her growing family in Coloma until her death in 1901. Her experience with her family would not be without a loss however as her grandson Andrew Monroe Jr. would succumb to a heart attack at the age of 20 in 1892.