Transcription Monday: Death of One of California's Builders

I'm taking a break from the Mott memoir to post an obituary for my great-great-great-grandfather, Ebenezer Haley that I just found.  I've been having some luck finding family pictures online lately and Ebenezer's obituary came with a rough sketch of him so I'm including it below.

8 Dec 1897, The San Francisco Call

"LIVED NEARLY A HUNDRED YEARS

Death of Ebenezer Haley, One of the Oldest of Pioneers.
____

Kept Out of Public Life, but Was One of This State's Builders.
____

For Half a Century He Has Been a Busy Farmer in Alameda County
____

OAKLAND OFFICE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, 908 Broadway, Dec. 7.
Had Ebenezer Haley lived till the close of the present McKinley administration he would have completed just a century of life.  This satisfaction, however, was denied him, and this morning, at his old residence at Newark, he passed away at the age of 97.

Since 1855 Mr. Haley has resided on the farm which is still in possession of his family and on which he died.  He was one of those industrious, unassuming pioneers that laid the foundation of this State.  Never heard of in politics, opposed to all kinds of publicity, he laid the foundation of his moderate fortune in the mines, after which he followed the profession of his father and located in this county.

In 1801 at Yarmouth, N. S., Ebenezer Haley was born.  His parents were pioneers of that province and the boy was brought up on the farm.  When he was 20 years of age he married, but his wife only lived three years and their son was drowned at sea in 1843.  Haley married a second time in 1832, and his five sons and three daughters are all settlers on the Pacific Coast.

As soon as the news of the California gold fields reached Nova Scotia, Haley was one of the first to come West.  He, with eighteen others, sailed from Yarmouth November 22, 1849, in the little brig Mary Jane, of only eighty tons burden.  Their cargo consisted of home frames and other building material, and among the passengers and co-operative owners were B. B. Redding and several others who have helped to make the history of this State during the last half-century.  Their brig arrived here in May, 1850, having been 183 days on the passage.  Upon his arrival in California Mr. Haley started for the mining centers, locating on the Yuba River, at Downieville and Minnesota Flats, where he remained until November, 1852.  Having obtained a snug sum of money, in that year he came to Washington Township and engaged in agriculture.  Three years later he went to Nova Scotia, intending to remain there, but after a few months he became so dissatisfied that he sold all his property and brought his entire family to Alameda County.  In November, 1855, he settled on his Newark farm and has resided there for forty-two years.  His wife lived to be over 80 years of age and died on the farm many years ago."