Obituaries from Orange County
Mr. Nelson Houston
from The Whig Press
January 14, 1852
We copy the following obituary notice from a California paper. Mr. Houston was formerly a resident of this town:
Died--At Norris' Ranch, near Sacramento City, November 15th, Nelson Houston, late of New York, aged 39 years.
The deceased came to California in the summer 1849, and during a residence of two years, had won the esteem and friendship of all who knew him. Among the first who undertook horticultural pursuits in this valley, his success amply rewarded the enterprise, and opened the way to very extended operations which have since been engaged in. Mr. Houston's family were to remove to this country in the onsuing spring. Instead of receiving the tidings which should determine their departure to join a husband and parent, the sad announcement is borne to the mother and children, that she is widowed, and they fatherless. In this sudden dispensation, it may be consoling to the bereaved, to know that the last hours of the departed were passed among those who were well known and dear to him in the ties of kindred and association. Gentle hands soothed the pillow of the sufferer, and his last words met the sympathising response of one who was nearest to those whom he could never see on earth. The funeral rites of the deceased were attended by a large number, whom neither tempests nor distance deterred from rendering this last observance. He lies by the side of a fellow voyager to this land of hopeful promise and gloomy disappointment, who had scarcely reached the harbor here, when another haven opened in the world of eternity. L.