Yuba County CA Biography Project

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Charles Egbert DeLong

Some of the earliest blue of Colonial American blood coursed through the veins of Charles Egbert DeLong. Descended from among the first European Dutch settlers to permanently inhabit the New World of 1601on the heels of Sir Henry Hudson, the DeLongs first came to the rich Hudson River Valley with the Dutch East India Company as employees, but soon began to permanently settle and farm that land first called The Original Beekman Patent (later Beekman, Dutchess County, New York). It wasn't until Charles Egbert DeLong left Beekman, over 200 years later, following the great California Gold Rush of 1849, that any DeLongs had ever strayed very far from that original homestead. Over the decades and generations about the only thing that had changed was the spelling of the family's surname to DeLong, which had evolved somehow from its original ancestor, Arie DeLangen's, spelling. The American ancestral male genealogy began with Frans, father of Arie, who did not immigrate from Holland, and continued on next to Jonas, then another Arie, then James, then Egbert and finally to Charles Egbert DeLong of this biography, who was born in August of 1832. He had an older brother, James Reid DeLong, born in 1829, and a younger sister Elizabeth who would marry Nathaniel Berry and remain in Dutchess County, New York.

Orphaned as young children, the DeLong boys were raised by their paternal grandparents, the James DeLongs, and sister Elizabeth was raised by their maternal grandparents, the Reid Crandalls. In 1849 James left Beekman overland for California and the Gold Rush. Charles followed several months later by ship. After the brothers survived their harrowing journeys, they met up in the gold fields near Yuba County, California. James lasted only a year, and returned to New York and later enlisted in the New York Infantry during the Civil War. Charles remained and mined claims all over Yuba and Nevada Counties. He was elected Toll Taker, and this was followed by brief stints as a store clerk, a livery stable owner, a barkeeper and a tavern owner in the area. He was finally elected Deputy Sheriff of Yuba County, and then began to study law. He was admitted to the California Bar in 1857 and later was elected to the State Assembly from Yuba County, serving two terms. He was an avid student of the Classics, particularly of Homer. He was also interested in astrology, Spiritualism, astronomy, and was an avid thespian and enthusiastic card player. He kept meticulous diaries and personal journal entries, and wrote copious poems and letters throughout his short life. Though short and small-statured, he was dubbed "The Bantam Cock of California" due to his flamboyant nature and great admiration for the ladies. He was inducted into the Gravel Range Lodge of the Masonic Order on November 11, 1857. He later transferred to the Corinthian Lodge #69 upon his permanent move to Marysville, where he became Commander of #7 Knights Templar in January of 1861.

In 1858 he attended his Inaugural Ball in San Francisco where he met the petite blonde daughter of a California State Legislator named Col. James R. Vineyard. This charming young girl was also the sister-in-law of his old political opponent, Ninian E. Whiteside who had married her older sister Caroline. Her name was Elida Field Vineyard, and she would become his wife, but not until she turned 18 at the insistence of her father. They finally married April 10, 1862 at San Francisco's elaborate Russ House in a large, formal ceremony attended by all the movers and shakers of the times. They had seven children, five of whom lived to adulthood: Lillian M. (Mrs. John Ewart Savage), Charles Egbert "Bertie" who died at age 30, Maud Asia (Mrs. Pringle), William Lunalillo "Willie", who died at age 30 after a fall from a balcony, Grace Aileen (Mrs. Harry Wilbur, who drowned in Fallen Leaf Lake along with her son and daughter in 1921) and two infants named Charles Vineyard, and Reid Crandall Delong who are also buried in Marysville City Cemetery.

In 1867 he was appointed to defend murderer Jean Marie a Vilaine (aka John Milleian) who had been accused of murdering the famous prostitute, Julia Caroline Bulette in Virginia City, Nevada. His client was unfortunately hanged in one of the largest attended and most famous hangings in U. S. history. From 1869 to 1874 he was Diplomatic Agent to Hawaii, as well as U. S. Ambassador to Japan appointed by President U. S. Grant. After his return to the states, he again took up his law practice in Virginia City, Nevada. In early 1876 he was elected President of the Society of Pacific Coast Pioneers.

In mid October of 1876 he developed typhoid fever and languished for nearly two weeks before dying on October 26, 1876 at the age of forty-four. After large funerals in both Virginia City, Nevada, and Marysville, California, he was laid to rest beside his two infant sons in the Marysville City Cemetery. Charles donated to the Marysville Masonic Lodge the first foreign flag (American) ever flown in Japan and an ancient Japanese suit of armor that he brought back with him from Japan after his term expired.

Contributed by: Cher Haile