Mrs. Elizabeth Jane Fiddyment Atkinson, founder and developer of a 10,000 acre farm and cattle empire near Roseville and throughout the Sacramento Valley, might be termed the ideal pioneering woman of the 1800's.
“Grandma Atkinson” as she was fondly called, came to the Gold Rush State in the early 1805's after her first husband, Walter Fl Fiddyment died in Joliet, Illinois. Having two older sisters living on the Sacramento River whose husbands were engaged in farming, she had decided, upon their urging to join them in California.
A young widow with her infant son, she made the trip down the Mississippi by boat to the Isthmus of Panama. there she joined a mule caravan directed by Negroes, and crossed the Isthmus to a port on the Pacific where she boarded a ship for California. Traveling up the Sacramento River, she embarked at the home of her sister, Marjorie Talmage.
Her brother-in-law, Charles Talmage, had acquired land in the Sacramento Valley north of Sacramento. He offered her land in payment of a debt, and she was so attracted by the lush, moist, wild grass and the great oaks, that she decided to accept and settle on this acreage.
Soon after this, she married John A Hill, and as time went on, became the mother of five children, including a set of twins. They increased the property holdings to include 2,800 acres of range land near Cisco, Placer County, where sheep and cattle were grazed during the summer months. Also acquired 1,000 acres west of Lincoln, Placer County, over 250 acres on the Sacramento River near Walnut Grove, and 900 acres near Folsom, known as the “chaparral area.” Incidentally, land during that period sold for one dollar and acre.
To neighbors and friends, Grandma was known as “Aunty Jane.” She was a stern disciplinarian and made the ranch and her children her deep concern. In the community she served as a doctor for her neighbors, a school teacher for the children of the area, a friend to many, and was considered a capable woman about the home. But above all else, she was a business woman.
Upon the death of her second husband, she again found the courage and determination to face the future and carry on for her family alone.
She continued grain farming and cattle raising. She sold her crops in Sacramento and was known to carry large sums of money. At one time she related how she started home from D. O. Mills bank in Sacramento with a lot of money to pay wages. As she drove her buggy across the American River ford, a man tried to grab the reins of her horse, but she beat him off, shipped up the horse and escaped.
Once while in the mountains with the cattle herd, Grandma broke her leg. Time came to market the herd, Grandma rolled up the window in her wheel chair and judged accurately the weight of each animal as it passed the window.
Later she married E. Jl Atkinson, but shortly after was divorced.
Owning property now called “Roseville Heights”, Grandma maintained a home on Church Street. She devoted her time to the periodical supervision of ranch activities, the borrowing of money, the raising of crops, and the repaying of her debts.
Five generations have lived on the original 2,280 acre ranch home site, while three generations are now living on the adjacent 2,800 acre place. Her great grandson, Walter F. Fiddyment, the second, and the widow of the late Russell Fiddyment, live on the properties with their families.
In 1959, a woman passing the Atkinson property, saw men cutting down an old tree and called too late to them, “Do you realize that your are chopping down the historical Hangman’s Tree?”
Old residents are familiar with the hanging of a horse thief on this property in the early 1850's, shortly after Grandma Atkinson had opened a school on the site. A horse had been stolen from Milan Johnson who lived about a half mile north of Pleasant Grove Creek and north of what was known as the Leonard place. The elder Leonard had been an editor before coming west, but now maintained a roadside stop for travelers. The culprit was caught and found to be a former employee of Mr. Johnson. He was mounted on a horse facing backward. The horse led under the tree. A length of ten gauge wire was doubled, tied about the limb of the tree and around the neck of the thief, with just enough slack so the feet cleared the ground. The horse was given a wallop on the rump with a good size club and the hanging was all over.
The wire was still hanging from the tree when it was cut down in 1949. The thief was buried a few hundred feet north in a small cemetery. Mary Jane Johnson used to tell how medical students came in the night, opened the grave, and carried away the body.
Grandma gave a portion of her land for a school building and playground so that the children in the area could get an education. It was a one-room structure with an old oblong iron wood stove in the center of the room, a tall pine flag pole in the front, a good well and a shed for stabling the horses ridden by youngsters from near and far. It was known as the Pleasant Grove School and Grandma became its fist teacher.
The school was on the brow of a hill surrounded by beautiful green oak trees. In the spring this hill was a carpet of lovely wild flowers. It was bordered by a winding creek in the background and was a natural play arena giving much pleasure to the school children.
The building was also used as z Sunday School room on Sundays and was well attended by grown-ups as well as children.
The school continued until 1911, when the one remaining family moved away, and the teacher, Grandma Atkinson’s granddaughter, Mabel Fiddyment, was soon to be married to George O. Haman.
The school is gone, the thief’s grave is overgrown with weeds, but the carpet of wild flowers yearly covers the area with it fragrance and beauty. The land has reverted to Grandma’s heirs, but old timers still tell of the accomplishments of Grandma Atkinson.