Thomas Jefferson Mayfield (1843–1928) led a remarkable double life in the early decades of California statehood, living his boyhood as an adopted member of the Choinumni (Choinumne) branch of the

Yokuts The Yokuts (previously known as MariposasPowell, 1891:90–91.) are an ethnic group of Native Americans native to central California. Before European contact, the Yokuts consisted of up to 60 tribes speaking several related languages. Yokuts ...

tribe in the

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; Spanish language in California, Spanish: ''Valle de San Joaquín'') is the southern half of California's Central Valley (California), Central Valley. Famed as a major breadbasket, the San Joaquin Valley is an importa ...

, then rejoining the dominant

Anglo-American Anglo-American can refer to: * the Anglosphere (the Anglo-American world) * Anglo-American, something of, from, or related to Anglo-America ** the Anglo-Americans demographic group in Anglo-America * Anglo American plc Anglo American plc is a ...

community throughout his long adulthood.

Early life

Thomas Jefferson Mayfield was born in 1843, in

Brazos County, Texas Brazos County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 233,849. The county seat is Bryan. Along with Brazoria County, the county is named for the Brazos River, which forms its western border. T ...

, the youngest of the three sons of William Mayfield and his first wife, Terissa Faller, of

Hardeman County, Tennessee Hardeman County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 25,462. Its county seat is Bolivar. History Hardeman County was created by the Tennessee General Assembly in 1823 from parts of Ha ...

.Re: [MAYFIELD] Texas Land Records Sat, 27 Mar 2004, from http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com accessed April 28, 2013
/ref> By 1848, his mother had died and his father was remarried, to Maria or Mary Ann Curd. When he was six, his family came to California by voyage round

Cape Horn Cape Horn (, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which is Águila Islet), Cape Horn marks the nor ...

because violence between Texas settlers and

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

made the San Antonio-El Paso Road land route too dangerous. From

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, they made their way by horse and mule pack south through San Jose and over the

Pacheco Pass Pacheco Pass, elevation , is a low mountain pass located in the Diablo Range in southeastern Santa Clara County, California. It is the main route through the hills separating the Santa Clara Valley and the Central Valley. As with most passes ...

into the Central Valley.Robe, Mike. "Wahallich Revisited: History as Tragedy: the real Goliath." Fresno Alliance. Vol. 1, No. 3 (February 2005). 10. Maria Curd Mayfield died shortly after December 1850. William Mayfield went to herd cattle with Jeff's two older brothers and left young Jeff, as he was known, with local Choinumni, Kings River

Indians who had befriended the family. For the following decade, Jeff, lived in a village across from his families home at the mouth of Sycamore Creek, on Kings River (now under Pine Flat Lake).Fenenga, Franklin, ''Review: Tailholt Tales as Related to Frank F. Latta by Thomas Jefferson Mayfield'', The Journal of California Anthropology, UC Merced Library, UC Merced, 1978, p. 126 He had almost no contact with whites and fully assimilated to their native language and culture. Around the age of eighteen, Mayfield rejoined his family and after 1862 surrendered any sustained ties to the Choinumni.

Later life

For the remainder of his long adulthood, Mayfield lived as a

sheepherder A shepherd is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards flocks of sheep. Shepherding is one of the world's oldest occupations; it exists in many parts of the globe, and it is an important part of pastoralist animal husbandry. Because th ...

and

prospector Prospector may refer to: Space exploration * Prospector (spacecraft), a planned lunar probe, canceled in 1962 * ''Lunar Prospector'', a NASA spacecraft Trains * Prospector (train), a passenger train operated by the Denver & Rio Grande Western ra ...

.Margolin, Malcolm. Forward to Indian Summer: Traditional Life among the Choinumne Indians. Thomas Jefferson Mayfield. Berkeley: Heyday, 2006. 10-14. In old age, he settled in the mining town of Tailholt, later White River, today a California ghost town in

Tulare County Tulare County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 473,117. The county seat is Visalia. The county is named for Tulare Lake, once the largest freshwater lake west of the Great Lake ...

.California Landmark 413: Tailholt, Highways M109 and M12. Mayfield was known throughout the region as Uncle Jeff, a pioneer with a store of lore and thus brought to the attention of the visiting

oral historian The word oral may refer to: Relating to the mouth * Relating to the mouth, the first portion of the alimentary canal that primarily receives food and liquid **Oral administration of medicines ** Oral examination (also known as an oral exam or oral ...

and

ethnographer Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

Frank F. Latta (1892–1981). Shortly before Mayfield's death, Latta persuaded him to dictate his recollections. Latta published them as a series of newspaper articles, and then, after Mayfield's death in 1928, as ''San Joaquin Primeval: Uncle Jeff's Story'', a rather hastily put-together and somewhat shoddy edition that he tried for many years to improve upon. Although Latta gradually added additional details on Mayfield, as well as related material from his extensive regional research, it was not until 1976 that he was able to release ''Tailholt Tales'' as the "complete Mayfield" text. However, current editions rely upon the 1928 book as closer to Thomas Jefferson Mayfield's own understanding of his life as someone once fully native and thereafter part of a culture hostile to traditional ways of life. His oral memoir records a world that was already rapidly vanishing when he encountered it, for by his estimate the Choinumni numbered three hundred in 1850 but no more than forty after 1862.Latta, Frank. "Thomas Jefferson Mayfield" in Highway 99: a Literary Journey through California's Great Central Valley. Stan Yogi, ed. Berkeley: Heyday, 1996. 16.

Footnotes

External links

* Two short radio episodes
Remembrance
' and

' from ''Indian Summer'', 1929, by Thomas Jefferson Mayfield at California Legacy Project. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mayfield, Thomas Jefferson 1843 births 1928 deaths People from Brazos County, Texas Yokuts People from Tulare County, California