Stephen H. Soulé was the son of Ebenezer and Cornelia Soulé. Born in 1836, in Yates County, N.Y., he was only 3 weeks old when his father died.
Eight-year-old Soulé went to live with his grandfather in Illinois. He stayed there until he was 16 and began working as a farm laborer, earning about a $1.50 a week. After saving enough money, Soulé returned to New York to bring his mother west to Illinois. When he wasn’t working he attended school.
Soulé married Lucinda Boyes in July 1858, and continued working as a farm laborer until 1860 when he drove a four-horse team to California with his family and brother, Andrew.
The young couple arrived in Little Shasta, Siskiyou County, in September 1861 where he purchased 80 acres. Over time, he and Andrew became Little Shasta’s most prominent ranchers.
The Soules had nine children, George, Stella, Damia, Cornelia, Ernest, Annie, Charles, John and Ray.
The family patriarch died in 1917.
Source: History of Siskiyou County, California, D.J. Stewart & Co., 1881, archive.org/stream/historyofsiskiyo00well/historyofsiskiyo00well_djvu.txt.
