The man who was to have the longest connection with the lands in the Flowers Ranch area was Nathan Monroe Flower (a.k.a. Flowers), a native of New York and early resident of Stanislaus County who came to California in 1852 1. By 1860, however, the census enumerator listed Flower, age 39, as residing somewhere near the Flowers Ranch area. His occupation was listed as “merchant” with $1,000 in personal estate, and he was residing with two miners: John Mosher, 50, from Massachusetts; and relative J. D. Flowers, 20, from New York. This was undoubtedly at Two-Mile Bar, where that same year he was assessed for a house and lot, occupied as a store and garden, on the Knights Ferry Road near the bridge.
In 1863, Flower married Mary Ann Spicer, the daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth Spicer, who had taken up a ranch east of the Flowers Ranch lands. In 1865, Flower purchased a 15-acre parcel of land on the right bank of the Stanislaus River at Two-Mile Bar from James Eldredge, one of the owners of the Rancho del Rio Estanislao, for $400 2. By 1870, however, the Flower family was residing in Knights Ferry, where Nathan Flower listed his occupation as stock raiser. With Nathan and Mary were their children Edwin, age 6; John, 4; Elizabeth, 3; and Franklin, 1.
In 1877, Nathan Flower patented a 40-acre parcel of land on Littlejohns Creek, just north of the Grant, where he built a cabin. He had purchased the property that year from James L. Gooch, of Stanislaus County, for $340 (northwestern half of the northeastern quarter, southwestern quarter of the northeastern quarter, and lots 2 and 3 of Section 28, T1N, R12E)3. His assessment that year noted a cabin and brush corral, but the Flower family continued to reside in Knights Ferry, using the cabin only sporadically. In 1880, Flower listed his occupation as “miner,” so perhaps he was residing in the cabin while mining on the creek. Lifelong Copperopolis resident Charlie Stone recalled that the cabin site was marked by a pile of rocks from a stone chimney and a slanting rock in the creek with the names of Flower’s children chiseled on it. Although Flower owned the property from 1877 on, it may have been occupied by earlier settlers without the benefit of recorded deeds.