Colusa - Glenn Counties, California

Biographies

1918

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FRANK W. TROXEL - Among the successful ranchers, stock-raisers and dairymen of Glenn County, and in the front rank of those who have worked hard for what they possess and take pride in maintaining the highest standard, is Frank W. Troxel. He was born in Glenn County, December 13, 1870, a son of William T. Troxel, a native of Illinois, and Eliza (Johnson) Troxel, a daughter of William and Sarah Johnson, and a native of England. The parents met in California, and were united in marriage at Dixon, Solano County. William T. Troxel was the son of Daniel Z. and Eleanor (Zumwalt) Troxel, born in Maryland and Ohio, respectively. They left their Illinois home in 1853, wintered in Iowa, and the following year set out, on April 9, with an ox-team train of emigrants, some sixty wagons, under the leadership of Capt. James Zumwalt, for the long trip across the plains to the Golden State of California ; and after a six months’ journey they arrived in Placerville.

In 1857 they located in Solano County. For a time Mr. Troxel did teaming from Sacramento to the mines, and then began farming near Dixon, when he had saved enough money to buy an outfit. He later became an early settler of what is now Glenn County, farming the Peter Garnett ranch a few years, and then went back to Solano County. Still later he returned to Glenn County, bought land in the Kanawa school district, improved a ranch, and farmed there until 1888. He then sold out and located on Stony Creek, three miles south of Elk Creek, where he purchased two hundred four acres; but thinking to better his health and the health of his wife, he again sold out and went to Solano County. Ten years later, however, we find him back in Glenn County, on Stony Creek, where with his son Frank he bought the old West ranch; and on this place he passed his last days, dying at the age of eighty-one years. His widow still resides on the home place, and is sixty-eight years of age. They had ten children, eight of whom were sons ; and nine of the family are still living. These are : George, of Dixon; Frank W., the subject of this sketch; Albert, in Washington ; Emma, Mrs. Scull, of Patterson, Cal. ; Delbert, of Sacramento; Cora, Mrs. Itchertz, of “Winters; Joseph, of Woodland; and Lloyd and Cecil, who reside in Elk Creek.

Brought up on a ranch, and accustomed from boyhood to hard labor, Frank Troxel lived with his parents until he was twenty-one, and then started out for himself, engaging in farming and the stock business at Elk Creek. On February 4, 1891, in Colusa, he married Jessie Elizabeth Corbin, a daughter of David and Addie (West) Corbin, and a native of Glenn County. Her father came across the plains with John Williams, bringing a band of cattle, and became a successful stockman, specializing in sheep on his twenty-seven hundred acres north of Elk Creek. He met an accidental death, being thrown from a horse at what is now Winslow, in June, 1878. His wife had passed away on December 24, 1877. Two of their sons, Edward and Lloyd, died in 1878. Mrs. Troxel is the only child of the family now living. She was but five years old when her father died, and was left a fortune in land; but unfortunately, in the settlement of the estate she was left with nothing, though later she received one thousand dollars on a compromise settlement. On her mother’s side, Mrs. Troxel is a granddaughter of John and Martha (Wood) West, born in England and Indiana, respectively, who crossed the plains and became pioneers of California. They were well-to-do farmers on Elk Creek, where they died.

Through her grandmother, Mrs. Troxel inherited two hundred acres south of Elk Creek, where she and her husband located after their marriage. Mr. Troxel bought two hundred forty acres adjoining; and the property is devoted to grain, stock and a dairy. The land is well improved with a comfortable residence, and with barns and fences, and thirty acres are seeded to alfalfa, which is irrigated with water from Stony Creek. The dairy business has been remunerative, the cream being shipped to Orland. Under the supervision of Mr. Troxel a high degree of success has been attained.

Seven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Troxel: Etta, Mrs. W. E. Sale, of Winslow ; and Ray, Ralph, Lester, Roy, May, and Harold. Mr. Troxel is a wide-awake citizen. In political matters he aligns himself with the Republicans. Fraternally, he is an Odd Fellow, a member of Newville Lodge, No. 321. Among ranchmen, he is highly esteemed as a man of affairs. He has been the president of the Elk Creek Farmers’ Bureau since the time of its organization.

CHARLES M. HARELSON - The city marshal of Orland, Charles M. Harelson, is a native son, born six miles from Stockton, on July 2, 1863. His first work was on the farm of an uncle, John H. Harelson, on the Waterloo road. He worked for his board in summer, and attended school in the winter. Later, he was one of a threshing-machine crew in San Joaquin County.

In 1880, Mr. Harelson came to Orland with his father, and was soon working for David Brown, a brother-in-law, with whom he continued, in his livery-stable business, for five years. He next worked for a time as a day-laborer on different ranches, and then, in 1887, moved to Modesto, where for a year and a half he was employed on the Sperry ranch. The next year he came back to Orland, and in the fall was elected constable, which office he filled with signal ability for four full years. In 1892 he went to Arbuckle, Colusa County, and for another four years was in the draying business. After that, he entered the city of San Francisco, where he followed the same line of work until 1906, the year of the earthquake. We next find him in Contra Costa County, where for two years he had charge of a fruit ranch near Danville. Returning to Orland, he freighted from Monroeville to Orland.  

An important turning-point in Mr. Harelson ‘s career was reached when he was appointed city marshal of Orland, which position he still holds. In this official capacity he has served the community in a number of notable criminal cases in Orland or vicinity, and has succeeded in capturing and bringing to justice some of the worst criminals. For example, he was connected with the notorious Wilt murder case, assisting in the murderer’s arrest, and later taking him to San Quentin prison. He also arrested Fraley, the passer of bad checks, in Orland.

For years Mr. Harelson has bred fine poultry on his two-acre place at Orland, which is especially adapted for that enterprise. At one time he had nine varieties of fancy chickens, including the Buff Leghorns, the Brown Leghorns, the White Minorcas, the White Wyandots, the White Plymouth Rocks, the Black Langshans, the Silver-laced Wyandots and the Anconias. He has taken blue ribbons at all of the poultry shows in San Francisco, Alameda, and Oakland, and at various exhibits in Colusa and Glenn Counties. At present he carries only the Anconia strain, of which he has a hundred fifty laying hens. His breed is finer than any other in this section of the state. So superior are his fowls, that he has sold roosters as high as ten dollars each, and eggs for a setting at two dollars and fifty cents a dozen. He has also displayed intelligent enterprise in the importation of stock from the famous “Shepard’s” poultry farm in Indiana. All in all, by his enthusiasm and industry in the poultry business, and at considerable expenditure of means, Mr. Harelson has attained an enviable position in the front rank of poultry fanciers.

On July 11, 1888, in Orland, Mr. Harelson was married to Miss Mary E. Griffith, a native daughter of Lassen County; and now five children bless their happy home. These are Clio M., Charles A., Rolla A., Clarice, and Grace M. Harelson.

ADELBERT JAMES HARELSON - Prominent among the contractors of Orland, A. J. Harelson is a native of Grant County, Wis., where he was born on June 29, 1859. His father was Ezekiel Harelson, a native of the Blue Grass State ; and his mother, before her marriage, was Mariah Paterson, who came from Paterson, N. J. In 1850, by the slow and laborious process of an ox-team trip across the plains, the elder Harelson came to California and mined for a while at Placerville. Later, he returned East and brought his family with him to California, in 1861, by way of Panama. He homesteaded a piece of land near Stockton, and farmed there until 1869, when he once more returned to the East. On his coming back to California, he settled again at Stockton, but after a while removed from there to Merced. He was a carpenter by trade, and his skill and experience were soon in demand, both at Stockton and at Merced. Seven children, including three daughters, now married, were born to Mr. and Mrs. Ezekiel Harelson: Mrs. David Brown and Mrs. Thomas Brown, both of Orland; Mrs. E. C. Fitzhugh, of Pound Valley; A. J. Harelson, the subject of our sketch; C. M. Harelson, also of Orland; and two others, Mattie and William, who died in childhood. Ezekiel Harelson died at Orland at the home of his son, A. J. Harelson.

Following in his father’s footsteps, A. J. Harelson learned the trade of a carpenter in Stockton and Merced. In 1877 he came to Orland, when there were only three buildings here. For a time he was engaged in shearing sheep in the mountains near Orland, and afterwards he worked in a general merchandise store owned by Raphael & Company. With that well-known establishment he remained eleven years, until it was bought out by Scribner & Company, and for three years after. In 1889, Mr. Harelson bought out the Griffith Blacksmith Shop & Carriage building Company, which he ran for twelve years. Part of the time he was associated in partnership with George E. Wright.

Mr. Harelson has built more residences in the Orland section than all the other contractors put together, and may fairly be called the pioneer builder of this district. Among the structures erected by him here are the residences of J. J. Lachmier, George Harrger, Gatman, James Monroe, E. Minton, and many other fine homes in Orland and its vicinity. He erected all the United States Government buildings in Orland, and has worked on many business blocks in the town. Recently he tore down the first frame building constructed in Colusa County. This was on the Jefferson Walker ranch. When it was built, the lumber had to be hauled from Monroeville. Underneath this historic structure, Mr. Harelson found an old ox-yoke which had been brought across the plains in early days. Mr. Harelson was foreman in the building of the Weed Opera House, and for some years was building foreman of the Weed Lumber Company. After the fire in San Francisco, in 1906, he went to that city, and aided in the building operations there.

Mr. Harelson was the first assistant postmaster of Orland, his services beginning in 1877; and with William Morrissey he was the proprietor of the first irrigation ditch built in the district, and furnished water to the neighboring farmers for irrigation purposes. He also helped to dig the first well in Orland on the site of the Masonic Building. In company with Frank Reager and William Morrissey he planted the first orange and lemon grove, in 1898, in Orland. It was one of the show places for years, and did much towards building up Orland. The partners owned five acres in the heart of the town, and this tract was later subdivided into home lots and sold off. Besides this venture, Mr. Harelson has assisted in the development of many fruit orchards in the district. He has served for years as a school trustee.

In 1883 Mr. Harelson was joined in wedlock to Miss Ida Thruston, daughter of Dr. William Thruston, the pioneer physician of the Orland district, who settled here in 1877. He was a native of Missouri, and a graduate of the St. Louis Medical College, and had practiced medicine in his native state. Dr. Thruston served as an army surgeon in the Civil War, and helped many old soldiers in California to get their pensions. He died in 1913, at the age of ninety-three, full of honors and beloved and regretted by a wide circle of friends. His children were Mrs. A. J. Harelson; Joseph, of Orland; William, of Weed; Sally, of Sacramento; Minnie, of San Rafael; and Lucy, of Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Harelson became the parents of two sons: Ellsworth C, who holds the position of assessor of Glenn County; and William, who died at the age of two years, at Alder Springs.

CLARENCE R. WICKES - A family closely and honorably identified, for two generations, with the development and history of Willows, is that of Clarence E. Wickes, the affable assistant cashier of the Bank of Willows, who was born at Toll Gate, W. Va., May 2, 1872, the son of Cyrus E. Wickes, a native of Albany, N. Y., who, in 1876, came west to Reno, Nev., where he worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. In 1883, he moved to Maxwell, Colusa County, and became station agent for the same railway company. Two years later he was transferred to Willows, where for many years he represented the Southern Pacific in the same responsible position. He died some twenty years ago, while holding that position. During his long residence in Willows, he was an active participant in many movements making for the progress of the community. Cyrus Wickes was twice married, his second wife, before her first marriage, being Miss Jane Miller. By his first marriage he had a son, Frank E. Wickes; while his second wife had a daughter, Valonia Clinton, by a previous marriage. To Mr. and Mrs. Wickes five children were born : Clarence R., the subject of this sketch, who is the third in order of birth; Harry 0., of Castella, Shasta County; Lew; E., of Willows; Charles E., of Dunsmuir ; and Bertram A., of  Wolf Creek, Ore.

Clarence Wickes attended the grammar school at Willows. He became the wide-awake messenger boy of Wells Fargo & Co., and afterwards, on January 1, 1888, entered the employ of the Bank of Willows, where he has been ever since.

For years Mr. Wickes bought and sold real estate on speculation, and thus disposed of the first subdivision of ranch land in the Willows section—some forty acres of the Hub Marshall ranch, long well-known in the realty world. In partnership with John Graves and James W. Snowden. he bought outright sixteen hundred acres of land to the northeast of Willows, subdividing the greater part into small ranches, and selling the same at attractive prices. A part of the tract was exchanged for a ninety-two-acre apple orchard near Watsonville, in Santa Cruz County, sixty acres of which is now bearing excellent apples. This property Mr. Wickes, with his partners, still owns.

In 1894, Mr. Wickes entered a new field, as the organizer and proprietor of the Wickes Art Store on Walnut Street, Willows, which he retained until 1914, when he sold the property. As a merchant he was the first to introduce six-o’clock closing and Sunday closing. The former was adopted by the other merchants about two years later ; but it took nearly ten years for them to fall in line with. Sunday closing. In 1894, also, Mr. Wickes succeeded the A. A. Nordyke Fire Insurance Company, the pioneer firm in that line in Willows.

Mr. Wickes was united in marriage with Miss Cora Faye Potts, a native of Colusa, by whom he has had two children: Thelma J., a student at the College of the Pacific at San Jose; and Cora Elizabeth, who attends the grammar school at Willows. Mr. Wickes has been an active worker in the temperance cause for many years. As chairman of the Anti-saloon League, and one of the trustees of the State Anti-saloon League, he has been a factor in bringing about local temperance reform and making most of Glenn County go dry. He is a member of the Methodist Church of Willows, and a steward of the same; and for sixteen years he has been superintendent of the Methodist Sunday school. As a trustee, he made the address at the. laying of the corner-stone of the new church. For many years, he was a trustee of the Willows Public Library, and was president of the board when the cornerstone of the Carnegie Library was laid, and made the address of the day. For two years he was secretary of the old Willows Athletic Club. Mrs. Wickes is also active in church work. She is president of the Women’s Missionary Society, and also gives of her time and talent to the musical work of the church. Her singing is much enjoyed by music lovers, who appreciate her voice, and her earnest and soulful rendition of the sentiment of sacred selections. Altogether, the influence of this estimable couple, in Willows and its vicinity, has been a powerful factor for good; and their participation in any local endeavor is always welcome.

CLARENCE  N. BOSTROM - A self-made man who has become one of the leading contractors and builders of Glenn County is C. N. Bostrom, a native of Jemtland, Sweden, where he was born on April 27, 1877. While at home in that northern country, he learned and followed the trade of a carpenter. In 1903, attracted by the reports of greater opportunities in America, he came to the United States, moved west to St. Paul, and for a while plied his trade there. His next camping-ground was at Spokane ; and there, during nine years of progressive labor as a builder, he became prominent in contracting, making a specialty of fine houses. In that period of transition and development he invested in some city lots in Spokane in a good section of the city ; and these lots he still owns.

In 1912, Mr. Bostrom came to Orland to make his home; and here he has erected some of the best residences ornamenting the town. Among these are the homes of J. J. Flaherty, J. J. Lochenmyer, Willard Clarke, Charles A. King, George E. Nygaar, and Dr. Dale T. Martin; the two residences of Mrs. Paulson; and the Erickson Bungalows. Mr. Bostrom built the Swedish church, the Brandt block, and the Bank of Orland store building, one of the most attractive buildings in the town. He has also erected many ranch houses and small cottages in Orland, and in all has put up over seventy-five buildings in Glenn County.

Mr. Bostrom is the owner of two small ranches. One is a ranch of ten acres, lying to the south of Orland, and is planted with a variety of fruit trees. The other is a place of fourteen acres, west of Orland, seeded to alfalfa.

Some years ago Mr. Bostrom led to the altar Miss Emily Peterson, a native of Sweden, by whom he has had three children: Olstred, Edwin and Herman, the latter a native of California. All the family are members of the Swedish Church of Orland. Mr. Bostrom is highly respected in his community, where he and his family have a wide circle of friends.

CHARLES EDWIN STOVALL - The late Charles Edwin Stovall, son of one of the most honored and successful pioneers (Jesse Curl Stovall, whose sketch appears upon another page of this volume), was allotted but a brief business career, having met his untimely death on November 20, 1904, which elicited deep regret, not alone from his business associates, who honored him for his unusual ability and keen judgment in his particular line of endeavor, but from a host of friends in his social circle. He was a native son, having been born on the old Stovall homestead, in Colusa County, May 4, 1875. He received his education in the public schools of Colusa, after which he entered into business” with his father’s company, and in time became a director of the Stovall-Wilcoxson Company and assisted largely in the management of the extensive ranch, being foreman at the West Camp. He was also a director in the Bank of Willows and had early proved his ability in his chosen occupation.  

Upon June 11, 1899, at Williams, Cal., Mr. Stovall was married to Cella Edith Brown. She was a native of Crofton, Ky., and a daughter of Lycurgus J. and Orlena (Long) Brown. Her parents came to Maxwell, Cal., in 1890. Mr. Stovall was an expert equestrian, perfectly fearless with horses, and found much pleasure in handling them as a pastime. At the Mountain House, Colusa County, on November 20, 1904, occurred his tragic death. He had gone to the camp with a horseman known as “Indian Joe,” whose occupation was the breaking of young horses. As they were riding toward Williams, on the night of the 19^th, he changed horses with “Indian Joe” for the pleasure of riding the colt. Five minutes later the horse stumbled and fell, throwing his rider, who struck the hard road on the side of his head and face. He lived until eight o’clock the following morning. The interment took place in the cemetery at Williams, being conducted under the auspices of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, to which organization Mr. Stovall belonged. Mr. and Mrs. Stovall were the parents of two children. One died in infancy; the other is Miss Cordelia Stovall, a member of the senior class of the Williams High School. Mr. Stovall was an active member of the Christian Church.

DAVID B. MACOUN - A man of scientific attainments, and of historic associations, especially with important chapters in the wonderful development of Canada, is David B. Macoun, superintendent of the James Mills Orchard Company at Maxwell and Hamilton City, who was born at Campbellford, Ontario, August 22, 1857. Mr. Macoun is of Scotch-Irish descent, and a member of a long-lived family. His parents were Frederick and Jane (Archer) Macoun, both natives of Belfast, Ireland. The Macouns emigrated from Scotland to Ireland in 1635. Later, in 1765, some members of the family came to Canada; while others migrated to Virginia. David’s uncle, John Macoun, M. A., F. L. S., was a prominent man in Manitoba, Canada, and a member of the first expedition which crossed the great Canadian country from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and of another commission which first inspected Manitoba and the Northwest. He saw the possibilities of that country as a marvelous agricultural section, and reported upon it years before its real development began.  

When David B. Macoun was eighteen years old, he entered the service of the Geological Survey; and in that important branch of the Dominion’s government he spent a number of years out in the field in the northwestern part of Canada. In 1885, he took part in the northwest rebellion of the Indians and the half-breeds. Mr. Macoun witnessed many stirring scenes on the vast plains. This was when the buffalo was being exterminated; and with others he often took part in hunting both the Indian and the buffalo. From 1887 to 1896 be was farm manager of the Dominion Experimental Farm at Indian Head, in the Northwest Territory of Canada.  

In 1896 Mr. Macoun came to Riverside, Cal., as assistant superintendent of the Arlington Heights Fruit Company’s orchard, one of the largest lemon orchards in the world. As a result, he became an expert horticulturist, and has devoted nearly all of his life since that time to work in that field. In 1912, when the James

Mills Orchard Company started their large projects at Maxwell, in Colusa County, and at Hamilton City, in Glenn County, be became associated with Mr. Mills as farm superintendent of both plants, which position he now holds.

In 1885 Mr. Macoun married Miss Bessie Georgenia Skinner, of Ontario, and is the father of three daughters: Mable, Mrs. d . B. Close, of New York; and May and Frances. While at Indian Head, Mr. Macoun became a Mason.

EDDIE L. WRIGHT - An official of whom the city of Orland is justly proud is Eddie L. Wright, the genial superintendent of the Municipal Water & Sewer System. Mr. Wright is a native son, known for his local patriotism and his devotion to the state. He was born in Placer County, June 17, 1856, and came of a father well-known among the “forty-niners.” Soon after he arrived in California, he located in the state of Nevada, where he engaged in mining. . While there he served for eight years as police judge at Gold Hill. In many ways he was identified with Nevada’s growth for the remainder of his life.  

Eddie L. Wright located in Storey County, Nev., in 1861, where he attended the public schools and learned the trade of a machinist, which for a long time he followed. For a while, he was with the celebrated Comstock Mines ; and three years later he was with the Virginia & Truckee Railroad. Afterwards, for a time, he was employed by the United States Lighthouse Service.

In 1908, Mr. Wright located in Orland. He assisted in the installing of the Orland Municipal Water & Sewer Plant, which was completed on August 6, 1912 ; and at present he is superintendent of this enterprise, which was built on a bond issue of $25,000 for the water system, and $15,000 for the sewer system—two items suggestive of the community’s go-ahead spirit. Notwithstanding various problems, the undertaking has proved successful; and no little credit for its success is due to Mr. Wright and his devoted service. The water plant has two wells, a hundred feet deep, affording a large flow of water, chemically pure, and without deleterious bacterial content. The water-bearing gravel is covered by a stratum of clay sixty-five feet deep, which shuts off all contamination from the surface. More than a hundred fifty homes are supplied, and connected with the sewers.  

One of the interesting features of the water system is a pumping plant with a two-stage pump of sis hundred gallons capacity a minute against fifty-seven pounds pressure, and a three-stage pump for fire purposes, which will deliver without fail seven hundred twenty gallons per minute against a hundred twenty-five pounds pressure. The well-equipped fire department of the town has a thousand feet of hose and a thirty-five-gallon chemical engine, as well as a first-class truck. The iron storage tank has a capacity of eighty thousand gallons, and is elevated on a hundred foot steel tower. From the ground to the top of the tank is a distance of one hundred twenty-four feet; and to the top of the ball, one hundred thirty-two. 

The sewer system has a septic tank and disposal grounds large enough for a city of five thousand homes. There is a modern hydrant fire system in the business and residential district; and so far as the means placed at his disposal will permit, Superintendent Wright has made every provision for the convenience and the safety of the community.  

Mr. Wright is the father of three sons. Harry is the proprietor of a candy store in Orland; Russell is located in Santa Rosa; and John is a graduate of the Orland high school, of the class of 1917.

EDWARD KENDRICK MASTERSON - In the front rank of those who are recognized as authority on the resources and prospects of California, and particularly of those who have had much to do with the shaping of the cattle industry of the state, is Edward Kendrick Masterson. He was born in Jackson, Amador County, Cal., on May 12, 1858, and accompanied his parents, in August of the same year, to the Newville district, in Colusa County, where the family remained a couple of years. His parents were among the progressive pioneers of the state, and are more particularly mentioned in the sketch of his brother, James Masterson, which is printed elsewhere in this work. 

Following his school days and a year at St. Mary’s College, in San Francisco, Edward Masterson returned to his old home, and in partnership with his brothers, D. H., James, and John, engaged in stock-raising. After his father’s estate was divided, he was married, in 1885, to Miss Frieda Wilcken, a native of Germany, who had come to California four years previously in company with an aunt. In 1891, the couple moved from Newville to Woodland, Yolo County, and there for live years Mr. Masterson represented the San Francisco butcher firm of Brown & Draper. For the next two years he was associated with the firm of Miller & Lux, after which, for ten years, he was ill and unable to do any work. When he recovered, he opened a butcher shop at Elk Creek, and there did a fine business.  

Later, Mr. Masterson located in Orland, where he managed a fruit ranch, devoted especially to grapes and almonds. His next move was to Germantown, in 1897, where he opened a lodging house and restaurant ; and when the telephone company installed a switchboard in the town, it was located in his place of business, with Mrs. Masterson the operator in charge. He still makes his home in Germantown, and is now engaged in the sheep, cattle and stock business. For five years, he was United States Government inspector of live stock. He became an expert on all diseases to which live stock are subject, and was in wide demand for consultation. He is recognized as one of the prominent men of the state, and keeps in close touch with all the other experts in his line. For five years Mr. Masterson was school trustee of the Floyd district.  

Six children have blessed the domestic life of Mr. and Mrs. Masterson. Eliza is the wife of L. Haase, of Germantown; Maggie is the wife of John H. Peterich, Jr., of the same place; W. Emmett is employed in Hochheimer’s store in that city, and is married to Miss Adelia Beeck ; Freda is the wife of Harry Ripley, a nephew of President Ripley, of the Santa Fe Railway; James is engineer on the James Boyd ranch, at Willows, while Edgar is still a schoolboy, residing at home. 

EMIL BOREN - Mention is made elsewhere of the energy and perseverance of Emil Boren and his partner, Joseph H. Webb, in pursuit of intensive farming on their one hundred forty-two acres near Orland. Mr. Boren was born in Utah, where he attended the public schools and was reared to manhood. Since his marriage with Miss Webb, he has been associated with his father-in-law in business, having an interest in the ranch and its productions.  

Emil Boren is descended from Swedish parents, who came to this country from their native land and settled in Utah, where they were much respected farmers. His early days were spent on a farm, where he became used to hard work, so that, no matter how hard the task, he felt equal to cope with it. Indeed, much of the success of the firm of “Webb & Boren is clue to the energy and enterprise of its junior partner. Besides their ranch interests, they own stock in the Orland Cheese and Butter Company. All progressive movements for the betterment of the community receive their hearty cooperation and support.  

In 1902, at Moab, Utah, Emil Boren was united in marriage with Miss Bertie E. Webb. Of this marriage four children have been born, to help gladden the days of their parents and grandparents: Carl, Leona, Percy, and Ida May. Mr. Boren is a self-made man, who is working himself to the front by his many manly qualities. He and his wife have many friends in their community.

MRS. WILLIE BELL NICHOLS - That women have come into their own in California, has been evidenced in many ways. In this state they have been given ample opportunity to demonstrate their abilities in every line of endeavor, including that of ranching, an occupation in which Mrs. Willie Bell Nichols has proved her proficiency. A native of Glenn County, born in the Liberty district, Mrs. Nichols is a daughter of Henry B. St. Louis, the son of Colbert St. Louis, who was a native of St. Louis, Mo., and a pioneer settler of Yolo County, where he passed his last days. Henry St. Louis was born on Cache Creek, Yolo County, where he was reared on a farm, and where, in his boyhood, he saw the great expanse of plains in the Sacramento Valley overrun with cattle. He married Laura Cornelia Stantou, born in Illinois, a daughter of Corydon Stanton, who was among the very first settlers in Yolo County, whence the family have scattered to various parts of the state. Both parents are living, as are also their two children, a son, Cordy, and Mrs. Nichols.  

Willie Bell St. Louis was educated in the public schools of this county, and lived at home until her marriage to John Fred Nichols, a native of Germany, who came to California with his parents when he was a lad of sixteen. The family finally settled west of Willows ; and there the father farmed until he moved to Los Angeles, where he died. The mother is still living in that city.  

After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Nichols engaged in farming, purchasing the ranch where Mrs. Nichols now lives, on which they raised grain and stock. “When the Sacramento Valley Irrigation Company started operations, Mr. and Mrs. Nichols sold most of the ranch, retaining ninety acres, which they farmed until his death in July, 1912.  

Since her husband’s death, Mrs. Nichols has continued operating the ranch, where she raises grain and alfalfa, and conducts a dairy. She has helped to make every improvement seen on the place, and is very successfully carrying on the business as she and her husband had planned. One child blessed the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Nichols, a daughter, Arvilla.

JASPER M. HARRISON - A pioneer of Colusa and Glenn Counties since 1874, and one who has seen the town of Orland develop from a place of scattered ranches into a thriving farming community, Jasper M. Harrison attributes his success to the habits of unremitting industry and perseverance which he acquired early in life. Born in Benton County, Mo., November 18, 1844, he was raised on a farm and received his education in the schools of that district. “When he was still a lad, the Civil War broke out and he enlisted in the Confederate army, in Nicholas Regiment, Jockman Brigade, Shelby’s Division, and saw action in the Battle of Pine Ridge, and in many skirmishes. After the close of the war he farmed in Missouri for a time; but his ambition was to come to California, where the opportunities were greater for a young and energetic farmer.  

On October 29, 1874, Mr. Harrison arrived in Colusa County; and thereafter, for ten years, he worked for wages on different ranches on Stony Creek, where the town of Orland now stands. He was working with a definite object in view; and when he had, by dint of hard work and strict frugality, accumulated the necessary financial start, he purchased a four-hundred-sixty-three acre ranch. He was one of the big grain-raisers of early days in California, and raised over ten thousand sacks of grain in one year. At that time California was the leading wheat-raising state in the Union, and Colusa was the banner county in that industry, producing in one year more than two million bushels of wheat, or more than one fiftieth of the entire crop of the United States. The county’s record as a barley-producer is about as great. Mr. Harrison can rightly take pride in having been an important factor in  the development of the state, and in bringing prominence and wealth to his community. To these sturdy pioneers we owe much of appreciation ; for the tasks they undertook in those early days were no easy ones. They had none of the modern appliances that are now used in agricultural work; their hardships and deprivations were many; and to those who have succeeded in spite of all obstacles we owe the present prosperity of our commonwealth. 

Mr. Harrison is still an active farmer, and still plows and harrows with his eight-mule team. He has been a hard worker all his life. Landing in California without funds, and entirely dependent on his own resources, by persistent effort he won success, and is now a prosperous ranch-owner, enjoying the fruits of his industry. One hundred sixty acres of his ranch is under the Government Irrigation Project, and is planted to alfalfa, which yields him good returns. He has forty head of cattle, and devotes some of his time to hog-raising. In 1910 he built a tine, modern home on the premises, with everything to make for the comfort and enjoyment of life.  

The marriage of Mr. Harrison, which occurred in Morgan County, Mo., on June 25, 1867, united him with Jane Cooksy, a native of Tennessee. Mr. and Mrs. Harrison have six children, thirteen grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. The children are as follows : Mrs. Martha E. Graham, of Orland ; William A., of Hamilton City; Mrs. Mary Susan Outz, of Orland; Walter L., at home ; Henry A., of Orland ; and Charles A., at home.

THEODORE B. BIRCH - Between the years 1871 and 1903 California claimed the talents of Theodore B. Birch. These years were fraught with many changes in the progress of events in the state; and he was an interested participant in all that took place, especially in Glenn and Colusa Counties, where his influence was felt in all good works. He was born near Cambridge, Guernsey County, Ohio, in February, 1835, and was there reared and educated. His father was a prominent politician of that county, and for many years served as sheriff. In the later years of his incumbency in office, this son acted as his deputy.  

Theodore B. Birch taught school in Ohio, and later in Illinois. At one time he took a trip to Pike’s Peak, Colo., with ox teams. While he was there, the Civil War broke out, and he enlisted in Company F, Second Colorado Volunteer Regiment of infantry. He saw service on the frontier in Kansas, taking part in the battles of Big Blue and Little Blue Lakes, and was also with the party that had the skirmish with the notorious Jesse James.  

After the war, Mr. Birch went back to Flora, Clay County, III, and was there married in 1865. After his marriage, he again taught school for a time ; but in 1871 he once more answered the call of the West, and, coming to California, located a government claim of one hundred sixty acres, ten miles southeast of Orland, Colusa County, in the Emigrant district. This later became a part of Glenn County, when the county organization was perfected. For a time he was employed in St. John, besides running his ranch, which he later sold. He then spent two years in Kansas, but in 1881 returned to Orland, and lived and raised grain in this county for six years. He saw the opportunity to buy some property in the town, and for seventy-five dollars bought one and one quarter acres, then at the edge of the city. This property is now included in the heart of the residence section. From a grain field Mr. Birch developed a fine residence property, setting out ornamental and fruit trees, laying out lawns and gardens, and making of it an ideal home. Here he lived in the midst of every comfort, and surrounded by a wide circle of friends, until his death in 1903.  

During his lifetime Mr. Birch worked at the mason’s trade; and even in his later years he did plastering, laid brick, and built chimneys- and flues in many of the buildings now standing in town, and in the country about it. He also worked on the old Orland College during its construction. Mr. Birch was an active and earnest Christian. Both he and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and gave freely of their means to assist in the work of its various societies. He helped organize the Grand Army Post at Orland, and for years served as its adjutant. He was a charter member of Ivy Lodge, No. 218, I. O. 0. F., of that city, and passed all the chairs of the order, serving many years as secretary. As a Republican, he wielded a strong influence for good in politics, and his counsel was often sought in the interests of the party.  

In 1865, Mr. Birch and Harriett M. Ross, a native of Ohio, were united in marriage. She had been for years an active member in the Methodist Church, and still is a teacher in the Sunday School. To this worthy couple were born the following children, all of whom received a careful training, in preparation for the duties and responsibilities of life: Esther E., Mrs. John Mehl, who is deceased; Thomas Q., a brick and stone mason, and for some years a school-teacher before taking up his trade; Bertram, a rancher in Stanislaus County ; Luella May, also deceased; James, formerly principal of the Orland grammar school, who is now ranching near town ; Abbie, wife of U. G. Durfee, of Whittier, Cal.; Mary, deceased; John, a teacher in the grammar school at Willows; Dwight, in the United States forestry service, and a resident of Berkeley; and Grace, deceased. It is a gratification to Mrs. Birch to know that through her training, and their own intelligence and self-respect, her sons have never entered a saloon. She recalls the pioneer days in Glenn County, when the present site of Orland was a grain field ; and no one has been more interested than she in the preservation of the interesting data of the early history of the county.

JOSEPH H. WEBB - Three and one half miles northwest of Orland, on Stony Creek, is located the fine eighty-acre ranch owned by Joseph H. Webb, with his son-in-law, Emil Boren, who, by their untiring efforts, have brought the place to a high state of cultivation, so that it is now considered one of the most productive in this section. Mr. Webb was born in Jones County, Iowa, November 19, 1846. He is a son of Elijah C. Webb, of Tennessee, who died in Missouri at the age of seventy, and Nancy (Cook) Webb, a native of Indiana, who died in Rifle, Colo., at ninety-six years of age. Of their family of eight, only three are living. 

Joseph H. Webb attended the district schools, and in his free hours assisted his father with the work in his flouring mill at Anamosa, Iowa. In 1862, when in his seventeenth year, he enlisted in Company E, Thirty-first Iowa Regiment, under Captain E. B. Alderman, for service in the Civil War, and was assigned to the Fifteenth Army Corps, Army of the Tennessee. During the war he served under Generals Thomas and Logan, and took part in the battles of Vicksburg. Mission Ridge, Chicamauga. Lookout Mountain, and others of lesser importance, doing his duty with determination and valor. He was mustered out at Washington, D. C, where he participated in the Grand Review, and was honorably discharged. Not content with having done his duty during the war, Mr. Webb joined Buffalo Bill as an army scout and buffalo hunter, serving four years on the plains, during which time he had many thrilling experiences with Indians. In one encounter, one of their party was killed. Four others were rescued by Buffalo Bill. 

After his service on the plains, Mr. Webb engaged in prospecting and mining in Wyoming, Nebraska, and Colorado. In the latter state he owned valuable mining interests in Leadville, and Bonanza. In 1910 he came to Oregon, with very little money, but with a determination to make a success. The following year he came down to California and began ranching with his son-in-law. On their eighty acres they carry on a dairy business with twenty Durham and Jersey cows, having a registered Jersey bull at the head of their herd. They also raise Berkshire hogs, have forty stands of bees, and engage in the chicken business, specializing in Plymouth Books. A variety of garden truck is raised on their land, and in 1916 ten tons of tomatoes alone were sold. All this has been made possible by giving personal attention to the work, together with good management and cooperation. They began business in 1911, on a cash capital of fifteen dollars. In 1917, they bought twenty-two acres adjoining their original purchase, which is devoted to fruit and alfalfa, and forty acres nearby, in the creek bottom, on which they installed a pumping plant and put in garden truck. The example set by this veteran and his partner is worthy of emulation by all who would make a success, whether under the same or under more favorable conditions.  

Joseph H. Webb was united in marriage at Anamosa, Iowa, in 1875, with Asenath Buckner, who was born in Covington, Ky. Of this union were born five children : Lillian, wife of John Jackson, of Moab, Utah; Charles J., of Globe, Ariz.; Edna May, wife of William Murphy ; Annie, Mrs. W. G. Summerville, of Moab ; and Bertie E., Mrs. Emil Boren, of Orland.

ROBERT MILLS WRIGHT - A native of Indiana, born in Grant County, November 16, 1845, Robert Mills Wright is now a representative citizen of California, and in the Orland section of Glenn County has won an enviable position as one of the leading men of the county. His father, Nathan Wright, was born in South Carolina; and his mother, Abigail Coppic in maidenhood, was a native of Tennessee. In 1830 the father moved to Indiana, built a log cabin at the edge of the timber, and began the development of a farm. Robert was born in that log cabin and grew to young manhood on the farm, where he helped to clear away the timber ; for in those early days almost every settler selected a timbered parcel of land in preference to the open prairie. He attended the subscription schools held in rude log cabins, and there learned “the three E’s.”  

At the age of seventeen, in 1863, fired with a patriotic desire to do his share in preserving our Union of states, he enlisted for six months’ service, in Company K, Ninety-first Indiana Volunteer Infantry; and when his time was up, the reenlisted in Company I, Twenty-third Indiana Volunteers, his command being attached to the First Brigade, Fourth Division of the Seventeenth Army Corps, under General Schofield. Young Wright saw service in Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky, where his command had some skirmishes in the mountains and in North Carolina he took part in the battle of Kingston. He was continually on the skirmish line, and was present when General Johnston surrendered. He did valiant service, and was mustered out at Louisville, Ky., at the close of the war. He met with a distressing accident, in which his ankle was run over by a gun carriage and crushed; and as a result he was laid up for some time. 

The war over, Mr. Wright returned to his home in Indiana, and learned the trade of a carpenter and millwright, which he followed from that time on. He lived in a log cabin in Indiana for many years; in fact, nearly all of his children were born there. He was kept particularly busy in Jonesboro and the surrounding country, erecting residences, churches, schoolhouses, farm buildings, mills, etc. ; and meeting with deserved success, he became firmly established in the community as the leading contractor. He helped organize the Monticello Post, G. A. E., in Monticello, and was commander of it. He became prominent in politics, serving four years on the board of supervisors in his county, and was also a school trustee of his district. For forty-five years he and his wife have been members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

In 1870, in Indiana, Robert Mills Wright and Sarah Bishir were united in marriage. She was born in that state, of German and English ancestry. Her grandparents were natives of Germany and England, but early came to the United States. Her father, Jeremiah Bishir, was born in York County, Pa. He went to Kentucky, and later removed to Ohio and then to Indiana, in the early pioneer days, and assisted in building up the last named state. He farmed and raised wheat, hauling it by wagon to Cincinnati, Ohio, with six yoke of oxen. Her mother was Malinda Gillam, born in North Carolina, and brought to Indiana when a child and reared there under pioneer conditions.  

To Mr. and Mrs. Wright seven children have been born, six of whom are now living. Alcie is the wife of E. Zootman, of Indiana, and the mother of three children: Leslie, in the United States Navy, who made the trip around the world with the battle fleet in 1908, and Robert and Glenn. Minnie M. married Charles Whitsett, of Orland; and they are the parents of four bright children: Willis, Helen, Florence and Vernon. Mrs. Glenada Templeton, of Oregon, has one daughter, Hazel. George L., of Hollister, Cal., married Miss Elizabeth Rogers, by whom he has two sons, George J. and Ralph. William married Miss Althea Linebarger, and resides at Orland. Mack is in the United States Government service as ditch rider in the Orland section. He married Amy Pratt, and has a son, Lester.

In 1893, Mr. Wright and his family decided to come West. Arriving on the Pacific Coast, they located in Crook County, Oregon, where for seven years he did a general contracting business at Prineville. He later took up a homestead in Crook County, proved up on it, and developed a farm. In 1910 he decided to give up hard labor, and came to California to enjoy the balance of his days. He bought a place in Orland, where, surrounded by those he loves, he is living in the enjoyment of a well-earned rest, happy in the thought that he has contributed his share towards the upbuilding of the country. To such men as Mr. Wright much credit is due—men who have considered no undertaking too arduous, no sacrifices too great, to promote the general welfare and moral uplift of state and nation for the benefit of all posterity.

GEORGE RETTERATH - The transformation wrought in California during the past forty years is due to the energy and patient perseverance of the pioneers, men who, leaving comfortable homes in the East, identified themselves with the newer West, and out of its crudity evolved the present-day civilization. Among these builders of the state is numbered George Retterath, rancher and stockman, who is operating the Hagar & Tuttle estate, four miles southeast of Colusa. He was born near the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, on April 3, 1856. His parents were Peter and Clara (Weishaar) Retterath, natives of Germany, who came to this country and settled in Ohio for a time, after which, in 1861, they moved to near Kentland, Newton County, Ind. Ten years later they removed to Tippecanoe County, in the same state; and near Lafayette, Peter became owner of a farm in the vicinity of the old Tippecanoe battleground. It was here that George Retterath grew to manhood. Being the oldest son, he had to assist with the farm work to help support the family of seven children ; and consequently his schooling was limited, as he could only attend a few months during the winter season. His mother died at the age of sixty years, while his father reached the advanced age of eighty-three before he answered the final call. This worthy couple had seven children, of whom six grew up. Clara is Mrs. Griggs, of Goodland, Ind. Anna married W. W. Porterfield, who died in Ukiah. She is the county superintendent of schools of Mendocino County. George is the subject of this review. Peter is a farmer in Indiana. Frank is the post master at Goodland, Ind. Henry is a landowner near Williams. William was foreman of the Patrick O’Brien ranch. He died at Fruto, in January, 1901.

In 1879, at the age of twenty-three, George Retterath decided that it was time for him to strike out for himself. Coming to California, he made a trip through the northern Pacific Coast country. His travels took him through Napa, Mendocino, Lake and Humboldt Counties; and he spent six months in Eastern Oregon and Washington. In 1880 he came back to California and located in Colusa County, where he has since lived. The first six years he worked for wages, after which he leased part of the Hamilton ranch of eighteen hundred acres, north of Colusa, and operated it for fourteen years. He then moved to his present location, where for seventeen years he has farmed with success, taking the same care of the place as if it were his own property. In 1917 he had six hundred acres in barley. The remaining twelve hundred acres is devoted to pasture for his three hundred fifty head of cattle, one hundred fifty head of Shropshire sheep, and fifty mules and horses. In the main, Mr. Retterath ‘s operations as a rancher and stockman have been attended with success.

On December 15, 1891, the marriage uniting George Retterath with Miss Verda Adelaide Deter was celebrated at her parents’ home, four miles north of Colusa. Her father, John Deter, was born in Pennsylvania, April 27, 1821, but was reared in Ohio. About 1850 he started for the newly discovered gold fields of California, coming via the Isthmus of Panama; and on landing in San Francisco, he struck out for the mines in Eldorado County, where he met with good success. On account of his health, he decided to give up mining and engage in farming. In pursuance of this decision, he became a pioneer of Yolo County; and there he was married to Nancy Scoggins, a native of Roan County, Tenn., born on September 30, 1830, a daughter of David Green and Martha (Breedlove) Scoggins. Her parents were North Carolinians, born in 1798 and 1794 respectively. They were married in Alabama, in 1827, and removed to Roan County, Tenn., in 1830, where they resided until 1857. They then brought their family across the plains in an ox-team train and settled in Yolo County. Later they became farmers in Solano County, near Vacaville, where Mrs. Scoggins died, on September 29, 1873. Mr. Scoggins passed away in 1889.

In December, 1861, John Deter removed from Yolo County with his family to a farm four miles north of Colusa, where he became well and favorably known, and where he died on March 18, 1891. His wife had died on November 28, 1873. Of their seven children six grew to maturity; viz., Sarah Maretta, Mrs. McNary, of Colusa; Verda Adelaide, Mrs. Retterath; Irba Rhea, Mrs. Harp, who died in Colusa; M. C, Mrs. Hardwick, of Abilene, Texas; Boyd, living in Chico; and John, who died in that city, March 10, 1912.

Mr. and Mrs. Retterath have two children: George Marvin, who was educated in the Colusa high school and is now a partner with his father; and John Richardson, now attending the high school. Mrs. Retterath is a member of the Methodist Church of Colusa. She has given most valuable aid to her husband, encouraging and assisting him in his work, and has raised her two boys to be exemplary and honorable young men. Mr. Retterath is a member of Colusa; Lodge, No. 240, F. & A. M., and of Colusa Lodge, No. 1.33, I. 0. 0. F. He is a liberal supporter of all helpful public movements and worthy charities, and has a wide circle of friends throughout Colusa County. In politics he supports Democratic principles. He is a staunch friend of education, and for the past fourteen years has done his best, as a member of the board of trustees of the Bridgeport district, to maintain a high standard of school work, and to make the school a credit to the community.

LELAND STANFORD DREW - The principal of the Orland Grammar School, Leland Stanford Drew, is a worthy representative of his family. He was born on a ranch in the Elk Creek section of Glenn County, on June 17, 1890, a son of Willis Drew, of whom mention is made on another page of this work. His education was obtained in the public schools of Elk Creek, and at the State Normal School at Chico, from which he was graduated in January, 1911. He entered his chosen field of activity as vice-principal of the Willows Grammar School ; and after serving two years in that capacity, he received the call that placed him in his present responsible position. Mr. Drew has devoted every energy to the building up of the school system, introducing many innovations to interest the pupils and incite them to more earnest effort. He works in harmony with the teachers, parents, scholars and school board. The attendance has grown from less than three hundred to almost four hundred since he became principal. He has established a standard of work on the playgrounds, and insists that the pupils shall each take their turn at out-of-door exercise. Recently a department of agriculture has been installed in the old high school building that has been taken over for the grammar grades, and everything is being done to benefit and instruct the student.

Leland Stanford Drew married Miss Inez Sheldon, a prominent society woman of Orland. Mrs. Drew is a member of the Woman’s Improvement Club of Orland, and an officer in the Eastern Star Chapter. Mr. Drew is a member of Orland Lodge, No. 285, F. & A. M., and of Citrus Chapter, No. 86, 0. E. S. He is one of the trustees, and secretary of the board, of the Presbyterian Church, of which he and his wife are members. By those who know him best a bright future in the educational circles of the state is predicted for him.

WILLIS A. GREENWOOD - Native sons and daughters of California have reason to feel proud of their state, for it began making history before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. The first recorded event in the history of the state is the landing of Cabrillo on our shores in 1542. The star of empire ever moves westward ; and even before the discovery of gold, and the coming of the forty-niners, the first Easterners had reached our coast. Since that epochal event, many noble men and women have lived and labored here, and laid the foundation for a statehood that is yet in its infancy.

A native son, and a worthy descendant of his pioneer father, Willis A. Greenwood was born at Orland, on the Greenwood ranch, on June 16, 1874, a son of Hiram A. Greenwood. He went to the school in Emigrant district with the other children of his community, and later took a course at Orland College. He graduated from Trinity Episcopal College, in San Francisco, in 1893, at the age of nineteen. During 1894-1895, he was a student of economics at Leland Stanford University. His college days over, he came back to Orland and assisted with the work on the home ranch for the following seven years, after which he moved to his present place of four hundred acres, where he has since developed one of the best dairy and stock ranches in the county. He is breeding the Dual-Purpose Durham cows, beef and milk strain, and has fifty high-grade animals on the place, with one hundred forty acres in alfalfa, providing ample feed. In 1916 he exhibited his stock at the Orland Fair and carried away several premiums. Some of his cows head the list in the production of butter fat, yielding more than two pounds daily. He has a fine herd of Duroc-Jersey hogs, that are winners in their class. He also has twenty brood mares, and owns the imported stallion Radium, five years old, and since 1910 has been raising thoroughbred French Percherons.

Mr. Greenwood is owner of a large tract of grain land at Greenwood Switch, which is leased. He is interested in irrigation, and has taken an active part in the Orland Unit Water Users Association since its organization, serving as president, and a member of the board of directors, until he resigned in January, 1917.

On January 27, 1904, Mr. Greenwood was united in marriage with Ethel Aitken, a native of Tehama County, whose parents were pioneers there. Of this marriage, two children, Harriett and Boyd, have been born to brighten their home. Mr. Greenwood is a Mason, holding membership in Orland Lodge, No. 265, at Orland; Chico Chapter, No. 42, R. A. M. ; Chico Commandery, No. 12, K. T. ; and Islam Temple, A. A. 0. N. M. S., of San Francisco; and he is a member and patron of the Orland Chapter, 0. E. S. He is also a member of the Woodmen of the World, and of the Elks of Chico. Mr. Greenwood is one of the solid men of Glenn County. He has built wisely and well, and is held in high esteem throughout the Sacramento Valley.

A. HOLLY CULVER - An enterprising citizen who may boast of most interesting pioneer family associations, and who has become an expert in all matters pertaining to the difficult and important science of irrigation, is A. Holly Culver, a native son, born at Willows, on August 13, 1888. His father was John Culver, who settled in Colusa County in the late seventies, and had a butcher shop at Willows. He died in 1894. His mother was Miss Florence Zumwalt, before her marriage, and was born in Placer County. She was a daughter of Jacob W. Zumwalt, a California pioneer and the son of the pioneer Joseph Zumwalt, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work. Jacob W. Zumwalt was a native of New York State, who came to Illinois when he was very young, and in 1849 crossed the plains with his father. Later, he returned to Illinois and married Miss M. A. Stone, whom he brought West to California, locating temporarily near Dixon. Afterwards he went to the mines in Placer County; but having indifferent luck, he came back to Dixon, and in 1864 drove a herd of cattle to Nevada. In 1865, he again returned to Illinois; but two years later he was back in Dixon. In the fall of 1869, he settled on a ranch one and a half miles northwest of Willows, where he once more took up farming. He later sold out and removed to Nevada, where he experimented in the raising of sheep. This venture was attended with heavy losses; and he then returned to California and settled on a ranch in the Fall River Valley, in Placer County, where for fifteen years he farmed the land to wheat and raised cattle and horses. His next move was to Anderson, in Shasta County, where he bought and ran a ranch. There he served a term as supervisor. He died in 1915 at the old home place. His children are Mrs. Florence Jenks, of Willows; Mrs. E. C. Baker, of Coalinga; and Mrs. Clara Vestal, Mrs. Ada St. John, and Mrs. Elizabeth Bernard, of Fall River Valley.

A. Holly Culver was the only child in the family of John and Florence (Zumwalt) Culver. He was educated at Willows, where, in 1908, he graduated from the Willows high school. For a few years he was associated with John Graves in the abstract bureau in that town; and then he entered the service of the Central Canal Irrigation Company, when that company was taken over by the Sacramento Valley Irrigation Company, now the Superior Farm Lands Company, of the land-purchasing department of which Mr. Culver is manager. In 1912, he became the superintendent of the farming and equipment department of the Superior Farm Lands Company.

In September, 1912, Mr. Culver was united in marriage with Miss Martha Welch, a native of Colusa County, and the daughter of E. L. Welch, one of the county’s most esteemed citizens.

HENRY HUSTED - Among the pioneer settlers and prominent ranchers of Colusa County was Henry Husted, in whose death the community lost an upright and honest neighbor and a loyal, public-spirited citizen. Born in Indiana, June 18, 1840, he was a son of Peter and Phoebe (Wescott) Husted, natives of New Jersey, who in early life removed to Indiana, and in the early forties became pioneers in Des Moines County, Iowa, a few years later locating near Murray, Clarke County, in the same state, where, from a tract of prairie land, the father developed a valuable farm, and where both he and his wife died. Of their seven sons and two daughters, two sons served in an Iowa regiment during the Civil War. Only one son is now living.

When the trip to Iowa was made, Henry Husted was a baby. Amid the pioneer surroundings of an undeveloped and sparsely settled country, he passed the busy years of his youth, assisting in the task of clearing and cultivating the home farm. The schools of Clarke County at that time were widely scattered, and the “three E’s” were usually the only branches taught. The school houses were of logs, with benches of slabs and puncheon for floors —a marked contrast to our present system of education, with all its modern conveniences. Mr. Husted was a student all his life, and was a well-informed man, who kept abreast of the times by reading and research.

Mr. Husted had heard of California ever since he could remember. The returning miners had told of the wonderful climate, and of the untouched resources of the soil. In 1862, in company with his brother Robert, who died in California in 1882, Henry Husted crossed the plains, leaving home on May 15 with four yoke of oxen and one yoke of cows, and traveling by way of the Carson Sink route to Marysville, Cal., where they arrived without the loss of a single head of their stock. He obtained work on a farm near that town, and in the fall of 1863 went to Yolo County. Here he suffered the loss of all his savings, from the drought of 1864, which necessitated his going back to work by the mouth to get another start. In 1870 he came to Colusa County, where he purchased two hundred acres of land, one mile from what is now the town of Williams. He brought the land under cultivation and rented other tracts nearby, until he was farming one thousand acres. For twelve years he operated a steam threshing outfit from sixty to one hundred days each season, but upon the introduction of combined harvesters he discontinued the enterprise. One of his steady sources of income was a dairy of twenty cows. In connection with this he had a modern dairy house, and used modern methods for separating the cream.

The first marriage of Mr. Husted united him with Annie Cloony. She was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and died in California on the home ranch. Sis sons and one daughter were born of this marriage, of whom five sons are now living. William H. is in San Francisco ; Robert Lee is an attorney in San Francisco ; Phoebe and Frank are both deceased ; Crowder is operating the home farm; and Raymond P. and Harry F. are both in San Francisco. Mr. Husted was married a second time, on September 11, 1895, to Mrs. Mary J. (Ellis) Ragsdale. She was born near Fairfield, Jefferson County, Iowa, and came to California in 1894. Her parents, Isaac W. and Sarah (Shoekley) Ellis, were natives, respectively, of Fayette and Logan Counties, Ohio, and became pioneers in Jefferson County, Iowa, when that state was a territory. They removed with their family to Jackson County, Ore., where they farmed. There the mother died in 1885. The father died in Lane County, Ore., in 1891. They had four children who grew up and are living. Mrs. Husted, the second oldest, was educated in Pleasant Plain Academy. She was married to J. F. Ragsdale in 1886, who died on the home farm in Jackson County, Ore., in 1889. In 1894 she came to Colusa County, where she met Mr. Husted, to whom she was married the following year.

In the fall of 1904 Mr. and Mrs. Husted took a much needed vacation, and made a trip back to the St. Louis Exposition. At this time they visited their old homes in Iowa. They were glad, however, to get back to the scene of their activities in California, where Mr. Husted had lived and labored for so many years. Mr. Husted passed away on December 26, 1916. At his death he was mourned by a large concourse of friends and neighbors. He was recognized in his community as a sympathetic neighbor and public-spirited citizen. He served for a time as a school trustee in his district. Politically, he was a Democrat. Fraternally, he was a prominent Odd Fellow, a charter member, and for four terms a Noble Grand, of Central Lodge, No. 229, at Williams, and a member of Arbuckle Encampment.

Mrs. Husted continues to reside at the old home, looking after the interests left by her husband; and with the aid of Crowder Husted, who is operating the ranch, she is carrying on the business as in former years. She is a member of the Rebekahs, a past officer of Pearl Lodge, No. 181, at Williams. In her church relations she is a member of the Society of Friends.

STAHL BROTHERS - John and Christopher Stahl - prominent landowners and ranchers of Germantown, Glenn County, owe their success primarily to the fact that they have worked faithfully together toward that end; and each can be content in the knowledge that he has done his share to make the benefit mutual. In 1883 the brothers formed a partnership and purchased a half section of land, paying twenty-two and one half dollars an acre and going considerably into debt in the venture. They have worked off all indebtedness, and now own the large ranch free and clear. They are successfully farming the land together, as they have done since they acquired the property, planting it to grain and also raising some cattle and hogs. Being pioneers of their section, they have seen it advance with the years into a thriving farming center; and their own success has been a part of the growth of the community. John and Christopher Stahl were born near Grand Island, Colusa County, on December 24, 1857, and April 8, 1860, respectively. They are the sons of B. Stahl and Margaret Stahl, natives of Germany. The father came to California in 1856, making the perilous journey over the plains, and on his arrival settled near Grand Island and engaged in farming, continuing in this occupation until his death, which occurred in 1863. The mother passed on in 1895, at the home of her sons.

John Stahl received his education in the school districts of Webster, Sandy Gulch, Meridian, and Mud Creek, Butte County, north of Chico, and after completing his studies he worked for wages on different ranches from 1874 to 1883, when he joined his fortunes with his brother and the partnership was formed. He has remained single, making his home with his brother on their joint ranch.

Christopher Stahl received his schooling in the Meridian and Webster districts of Butte County, after which he worked for wages thirteen years on the Mackintosh ranch, and ranches on Stony and Butte Creeks. He united his interests with his brother’s in 1883, and from that date has worked for their mutual success, as his brother has done. On November 22, 1896, in the Germantown district, he was united in marriage with Miss Frances L. Papst, a native of Canada, and a sister of William H. Papst, one of the old settlers of Glenn County, in whose sketch, in another part of this history, will be found a biography of her family. Prior to the time when they located on their ranch, the brothers remember, the entire section from Tehama County to Yolo County was one great cattle and sheep range, and also a pasture for wild geese. In the tule land on Stony Creek, deer were often caught with the lasso.

HANS H. MARTENS  - A pioneer of Glenn County, and one who helped build up his section of the state, Hans H. Martens was born on February 5, 1839, in Dellstedt, Holstein, Germany, and was raised on his father’s farm there, receiving a practical training in agriculture, which he put to good use later on in his adopted country—as so many others have done who, though born and reared in a far country and among entirely different surroundings, have come to California, taken up their homes, developed the barren land into farms covered with rustling grain, and pastured the hills with teeming herds of cattle.

California was the land of Mr. Martens’ desire. In 1865, when in his twenty-seventh year, he came to the Golden State by way of Cape Horn, his first stopping-place being Dixon, Solano County. He was employed on a farm from 1866 to 1871, at  which time he came to what is now Glenn County and settled near the present site of Germantown, where he bought three hundred and twenty acres of land. He set to work to make a fruitful farm of the unbroken land, farming to grain and raising some cattle and hogs, and meeting with deserved success. In the midst of his farming activities, he found time to do his share toward helping any projects which meant the advancement of the community in which he had made his home. Mr. Martens was one of the founders of the Lutheran Church of Germantown, and always took an interest in its work. He was also a charter member of the Rochdale Store of that place. A man of broad interests, he was ready at all times to help in furthering any and all things which had for their object the common good; and as such his memory is respected.

On October 30, 1875, occurred the marriage which united Mr. Martens with Wiebcke Dethlefs. who was a native of Gaushorn, Holstein, Germany, and came to Germantown in 1875. Mr. Martens made one trip back to Germany, to visit his friends and relatives, going by way of Panama; and when he returned he brought a party with him, his wife being one of the number. Eight children were born of their union: Clans F., who married Iva Oakes, and has one child ; Mrs. Dora C. Berens, who has two children ; Mrs. Cecelia A. Silva, the mother of one daughter ; Alma E. ; Richard A. ; Anna P., deceased ; Arthur H. ; and Mrs. Freda M. E. Yoder, who has two children. There are six grandchildren in the family. Mr. Martens served as a trustee of the school in White Bank district. His death occurred on March 19, 1915.

LEO ARTHUR MITCHELL - One of our representative citizens, who has made his influence felt in his community, and who has demonstrated what it is possible to accomplish with land that for years was considered of no use except for the raising of grain and as pasturage for sheep, is Leo Arthur Mitchell, who resides in the Jacinto district, on part of the Walsh tract. A native of Canada, he was born in the Province of Quebec, on July 8, 1877, a son of Paul A. and Alexandra M. Mitchell. The father was born in County Cork, Ireland; and the mother, in Montreal, Canada. Leo A. Mitchell was educated in McGill University, at Montreal, receiving the degree of B. A. in 1893. The following year the degree of B. P. was conferred upon him; and in 1897, still further honors came to him when he received his B. S. degree from the same institution, and also from the Paris University. Still later, in 1899, lie was graduated from the Sorbonne University. With this excellent training he was equipped to take his place in the world, in whatever sphere he might choose as a life work.

His college days over, Mr. Mitchell enlisted and served four years in the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, after which he engaged in farming in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, and later in British Columbia, where he became interested in horticulture, being one of the pioneers in this branch of agriculture in that part of the country. He met with a well-deserved success, but disposed of his interests there and came to Glenn County, Cal., in 1910, and bought sixty acres of land that had been a grain field. Here he has set out an orchard of thirty acres of prunes and five acres of figs; and on the balance of the land he raises corn and alfalfa. In spite of discouraging forecasts by some who declared, even after he had an orchard about two years old, that trees would not grow on the land, he stuck to his project, and now is about the only rancher in that district who is making a real success of his venture. He has brought to bear upon his enterprise all of the valuable experience gained in Canada, using his brains as well as his brawn—though he is not afraid of hard work. Where he has set the pace, others are falling into line; and before many years the fruit industry of Glenn County will be one of its largest sources of revenue—all of which goes to show what scientific horticulture and intensive farming will accomplish. Mr. Mitchell’s orchard is now five years old, and is already yielding good returns for the time and money expended upon the property, which has been improved by himself since he settled upon it. He has faith in the county, and believes that with proper care, and an analysis of the soil in the various sections, its lands will be made to yield handsome returns.

On November 30, 1909, in Calgary, Canada, Leo Arthur Mitchell was united in marriage with Mrs. Gertrude (Kingsley) Baker, a native of Brooklyn, N. Y. By a former marriage she had six children: Alfred James; John Gilbert, a student at the University Farm, at Davis; Hannah Veriane, a student in the high school ; and Florence Annie, Ernest Owen, and Willis Friend. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell two children have been born. These are Walter Paul and Gertrude A. Mrs. Mitchell is a member of the Episcopal Church, while Mr. Mitchell belongs to the Catholic Church. Fraternally, Mr. Mitchell holds membership in the Odd Fellows Lodge at Willows, where he is always a welcome visitor. He is a quiet, unostentatious man, who makes and retains friends ; and with his good wife he is held in high esteem throughout their section of the county.

HANS HENRY REHSE - On July 3, 1869, Hans Henry Rehse landed in San Francisco, a stranger among a people whose customs and language were unfamiliar to Mm. A native of Germany, lie was born in Holstein, March 8, 1850, where he attended school until he was sixteen. One of his brothers, Ehler Rehse, had come to California and was located near Dixon, Solano County; and Hans Henry Rehse came to join him, arriving in New York, whence he came directly to California, by way of Panama. He went to the first public school in Dixon for a short time after his arrival, in order to become familiar with the language, and soon found employment as a clerk in the first store at Dixon, He and his brother came in the fall of 1870 to Germantown, Colusa (now Glenn) County. That same year he took up some land, on which he proved up and engaged in raising grain. Mr. Rehse ‘s parents, Peter and Annie Rehse, came to California in 1874, and spent their last days with their son.

In 1883 Mr. Rehse was married to Miss Margarita H. Hinrichs, a native of Holstein, Germany, who had come to California in January of that year. After their marriage they located on a tract of six hundred forty acres of railroad land, which he purchased, and to which he later added a quarter section, making eight hundred acres. Of this he still owns seven hundred acres, on which he is carrying on a very successful business as a practical farmer. In connection with his farming operations, he manages a threshing outfit during the season, in the northern part of Glenn County.

When Mr. Rehse located in this section, there were no county roads of definite direction. Since then, roads have been constructed and bridges have been built ; and an air of general prosperity now pervades the county. Mr. Rehse has passed through some trying times; but he is optimistic as to the future, and has steadily forged ahead until he now occupies an enviable position in the county. He was one of the founders of the Rochdale Store at Germantown. He served on the board of directors, of which he was chairman, and of which he has for eight years been the president. He is a stockholder in the Glenn County Bank, and other interests have claimed his support and wise counsel. He was one of the organizers of the Germantown Lutheran Church, and secretary of the board of managers. As a friend of education he has done much to further the cause in the Emigrant district by serving as one of the trustees and as clerk of the board for years. In politics he is a Democrat, in national affairs ; but in local matters lie supports the men best qualified for the office. When Mr. Rehse came to California, it was with the purpose of making a permanent home here, and from young manhood he has been in favor of, and has worked for, every measure that would make this a better place in which to live. He believes that every voter should be educated to vote intelligently before going to the polls, in order that he may be able to appreciate the advantages, and effectively support the principles, of the government under which we live.

Of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Reuse three children were born : Agnes, who married Martin Michael, and has three children, two sons and one daughter ; Minna, the wife of Fred Peterich, and the mother of two daughters; and Otto, who is farming on the home ranch with his father. Otto Rehse married Miss Emma Goetch, and they have one son. Some years after Mrs. Hans Henry Rehse had come to California, her parents followed her to this state ; and they lived here until their deaths. She has one sister, Mrs. Ehler Rehse of Germantown. One brother, John Hinrichs, lives in Germantown; and another, Henry Hinrichs, lives in Orland. Mr. Rehse is one of the oldest settlers in this section of Glenn County, and commands the respect of all with whom he is associated. He has made his own way in the world, and as nearly as possible has lived up to the Golden Rule. With all who know him, his word is as good as his bond.

BENJAMIN F. CALVERT - What can be done on five acres of good land, and done so well that others are encouraged to try to imitate the experiment, is well-demonstrated in the good work accomplished by Benjamin F. Calvert, the well-known ranchman. On September 27, 1862, he was born in Marion County, Mo.—a good place for one to start life, especially one with an agricultural taste and ambition. There he was educated and there he was reared, farming on the home ranch until 1892. In that year Mr. Calvert came to California, and settled in Glenn County. For seven years he was employed as a farm hand, working on both the Glenn and the Peter Garnett ranches ; and nowhere could he have found an environment more favorable for his development.

In 1899, Mr. Calvert bought five acres of rich land from Peter Garnett—land that was a mere barley field when he took charge of it—paying sixty-five dollars an acre. This he farmed, soon building an attractive home and outhouses, and planting an orchard. He has brought the place up to a high state of cultivation, thus assuring himself of a good income. The ranch is irrigated by a pumping plant installed by himself. He has set out apricots, prunes, plums, peaches, strawberries and blackberries, and has also laid out a vegetable garden, with all kinds of garden truck, the whole presenting to the visitor a unique and pleasing sight.

JAMES ALBERT AND EDNA WHITE - Since she succeeded her late husband, James Albert White, as superintendent of the Colusa County Hospital, Mrs. Edna White has proven her capability and efficiency in the management of this institution. She possesses in an eminent degree the qualities of kindness, discipline and executive ability needed in her position.

James Albert White, a native son of California, was born in San Jose, April 3, 1870, the fifth child in a family of ten children born to his parents, Thomas and Mary Ann (Ford) White. He grew up on the home farm near Gilroy, attending the public schools; and after his father’s death, he managed the home place for his widowed mother, who is still living in Gilroy, at the age of seventy-five years.

Mrs. Edna (Milne) White, also a native of the Golden State, was born near New Almaden, Santa Clara County, a daughter of Alexander and Isabelle (Forbes) Milne. The father was born in Scotland, and was brought as a child to Canada. The mother was born in Canada; and there she met Mr. Milne, to whom she was married in 1872. In the meantime Mr. Milne had made the long journey to California in 1868, and returned to Canada to claim his bride. Eight children were born of this union: Ellen Edna, Mrs. White; William A., Isabella, and Mary Louise, all of Gilroy; Jessie M., of Colusa; and John T., Annie G., and James Charles, also living in Gilroy.

Alexander Milne brought his bride to California and settled in Santa Clara County, where he engaged in teaming, hauling timber to the mines, and later located on his ranch near Gilroy, where he is still living, and where his daughter Edna was reared and educated. It was there that her marriage took place, in 1903. She accompanied her husband to Colusa, where he was employed as a clerk in the National Hotel. He remained in that position from 1901 until 1906. On April 9 of the latter year he was appointed to the position of superintendent of the Colusa County Hospital. The satisfactory performance of the duties devolving upon him is evidenced by the fact that he held this position uninterruptedly until his death, which occurred on February 12, 1914, when he was but forty-three years of age. Mr. White was survived by his widow, Mrs. Edna White, and two children, Francis Alexander and Evelyn Isabelle.

During her husband’s incumbency as superintendent, Mrs. White had always taken an active part in the conduct of the hospital; and she was appointed to succeed him in the office left vacant by his demise. She understood the needs of the institution, and found no difficulty in filling the position to the satisfaction of all concerned. Mrs. White is the first woman appointed to the superintendency of a county hospital in California. She is an exceptional woman, broad-minded and intelligent; and her management of the Colusa County Hospital is a credit to her administrative ability, and evidence of her devotion to a public trust.

The Colusa County -Hospital comprises thirty-nine acres of land adjoining Colusa on the southeast, with suitable buildings and appliances for its purpose, which is that of a hospital and home for indigents of the county, though a few pay patients are admitted. Any practicing physician can get a patient into this hospital by first getting the County Physician’s permission. There is an operating-room for surgical cases. The pesthouse is located some distance away, in a separate building; and all patients suffering from contagious diseases are carefully segregated. The patients receive kindly the patient care at the hands of the superintendent, besides whom are employed her sister, who acts as her assistant, a steward, a cook, a farmer and a laundryman. The grounds are utilized in maintaining the establishment. Fruit and vegetables are produced for the table; a dairy herd provides fresh milk for the inmates; a large, well-kept poultry yard furnishes a supply of fresh eggs ; and cattle and hogs are also raised on the place.

FRANK C. HURLBURT -  In Sacramento County, Cal., on December 11, 1865, Frank C. Hurlburt was born. He is a son of Thomas Baker and Fostina E. (Booth) Hurlburt, and was the fifth, in order of birth, in their family of nine children. The father, who was born in Vermont, was a steward in a hotel in New York until he came to this state, in 1850. He first located in the little town of San Jose, where he ran a hotel for two years. He then sold out, and coming to Colusa County, settled on the Jacinto grant, and engaged in the cattle business until 1864. He came at a time when Monroeville was the county seat. Mr. Hurlburt was the first road boss in the Jacinto road district, and did much to lay out and build good roads in that section. On account of high water at times, and droughts at others, he lost all he had made, and finally moved back to Sacramento County for a year.’ In 1865 he went to Yolo County, took up half a section of good land, eight miles southwest of Woodland, and once more engaged in farming and raising stock. In 1876 he was carrying on a butcher business in Dixon, Solano County; and in 1878 he became a resident of Gilroy. The next year he went to San Francisco and was there engaged in the restaurant business until he retired. After a varied and useful career, he died in April, 1905. Mrs. Hurlburt was born in Keene, N. H., and it was there that she met and married her husband. She died in Yolo County, on September 21, 1873.

Frank C. Hurlburt attended the grammar and high schools in San Francisco until he was sixteen, when he started to learn the trade of a shoemaker. At the age of eighteen, however, he came to Germantown and began working by the mouth, acquiring valuable experience in various branches of agriculture. In 1896, purchasing an equipment and leasing land, he started farming for himself, and from the beginning met with very satisfactory success. Later he was able to buy some land, which he has improved, and is now the owner of sixty-four acres, besides which he leases considerably more. He is farming to grain, and is also engaged in the raising of stock.

On February 26, 1891, Mr. Hurlburt and Christina Mudd were united in marriage at Germantown. She was born in Missouri, but was brought to California by her parents when a babe in arms ; and her life has been spent in this section, where she was raised and educated. Four children have been born to them : Clarence, Melvin, Lavella and Lola.

Mr. Hurlburt has never neglected the duties of a citizen. He has been active in the ranks of the Republican party, has done jury duty, served as trustee of the school in his district, and in 1908 was elected supervisor from the third district of Glenn County. This office he held until 1913, serving his constituents with fairness in all matters. He has also served as county horticultural commissioner. Mr. Hurlburt is a handy man with tools, and has built houses and bridges by contract. Fraternally, he is a member of Chico Lodge, No. 423, B. P. O. Elks. He is a successful farmer and stockman, and a citizen of public spirit who can always be counted upon to advance the interests of Glenn County.

ALBERT MEHRENS - To be called a Native Son of the Golden West is in itself an honor, for California has meant much to our union of states, both in the days of its early history and in this later time; but Albert Mehrens is entitled to the added sentiment of pride which attaches to the pioneers—those sturdy men and women who braved unknown dangers and endured severe hardships to reach this far western coast, and here laid the foundation for the prosperity of those who have followed the path they blazed. Hans Mehrens, father of Albert, was a native of Germany, and came to the United States and to California by way of Panama, in 1865. He located in Solano County, where he remained, working as a farm hand, for the following ten years. With his savings he came to what was then Colusa County and settled in that part now set apart as Glenn County, where he began the improvement of a ranch. To this he added from time to time, until he had two hundred eighty acres well improved, which became known as the home place. Prior to coming to this section, Hans Mehrens had married in Sacramento, in 1875. With his wife he became a resident of the section near Germantown, where he lived and prospered and became an integral part of the growing community. Mr. Mehrens is public-spirited and has always discharged the duties of a citizen with fidelity. He is a man of progressive ideas, and has advocated every movement for the upbuilding of the county and the betterment of conditions in his community. He is living in retirement, at the age of seventy-seven, on the home ranch, where his wife also passed her last days.

Albert Mehrens, the only child of his parents, was born January 10, 1880, on the ranch where his father had settled in what is now Glenn County. As he grew up, he attended the public schools and worked on the. home ranch, doing such chores as a lad of his years was able to do. As he grew older, he associated himself with his father and took a man’s part in the work about the place, and learned the art of growing grain under almost every condition. He later operated the home place with good results, besides leasing additional laud with a partner, A. Gramm, raising between six hundred and seven hundred acres of grain each year.

On December 28, 1910, Albert Mehrens was united in marriage with Miss Dora Deichmann, a native of Germany, who had come with her mother to California in 1902. Mr. and Mrs. Mehrens are members of the Lutheran Church at Germantown. In politics, Mr. Mehrens supports the policies of the Democratic party on national issues, while in local matters he supports the men he considers best qualified to hold the offices. Both he and his wife have a wide circle of friends in their section of the county, and are highly respected by all who know them. They have reached through their own efforts the position they now occupy, and Mr. Mehrens is counted one of the successful and up-to-date farmers of Glenn County.

PETER VOLQUART AND JOHANNES JACOB BERENS - That Germany has contributed many of her worthy sons to the citizenship of the United States is demonstrated by the roster of every state in the Union; and California has received a large number of sturdy and loyal German men and women to swell the numbers of her increasing population. The Berens Brothers represent the sturdy manhood of their native land. Peter Volquart and Johannes Jacob Berens were born in Tating, the former on January 11, 1869, and the latter on June 18, 1871. Their parents, Claus Peter and Annie Elizabeth (Moelk) Berens, were natives of Germany, where they were among the thrifty farmer folk, and immigrated to the United States in 1874 with their family, coming soon after to California. A brother of Mrs. Berens was living in Colusa County, and thither the family proceeded. upon their arrival there, the father found work as a ranch hand. He continued working until he had saved enough money to make a start on his own account, and then secured one hundred sixty acres, two miles northeast of Germantown, now in Glenn County, where he began farming and little by little accumulated some money. In 1881 he moved into Tehama County, where he farmed for four years, after which he came back to Glenn County, and for the next nineteen years rented land west of Germantown. Claus P. Berens died on October 10, 1913. His good wife had died in 1877. There were three children in the family: Peter V., Johannes J., and a sister who is now deceased.

In 1901, the Berens Brothers formed a partnership, and leasing the Davis ranch of a full section, besides another half section nearby, engaged together in the raising of grain. Later they leased the Lutts estate of nine hundred sixty acres, and six hundred forty acres in the hills. Here they farmed to grain and raised stock until coming to their present place in 1909. They are members of the Lutheran Church, and in polities are Republicans.

On November 22, 1905, Peter Volquart Berens married Dora Caroline Martens, who was born in Colusa County, on April 6, 1878. Two children brighten their happy home, Leona Anna Margaretha, and Lenus Martens Berens. Johannes J. Berens is unmarried, and makes his home with his brother. The brothers have a wide circle of friends in their community, who admire them for their public spirit, and their many good qualities of mind and heart.

RALPH T. JONES -  Prominent among the younger generation of ranchers of Glenn County is Ralph T. Jones, who has brought to bear in his work the progressive ideas and enterprise which have formed so important a factor in the development of this section. He is a native son of the state, his birth having occurred in Sacramento, September 30, 1871. His father, Richard Jones, was a native of Toronto, Canada, who came to the United States, and thence by way of Cape Horn to California in 1856. He worked in the mines of Feather River, and with the means thus acquired purchased property consisting of ten hundred fifteen acres, just opposite St. John, Glenn County. This extensive property he farmed until 1868, when he sold out to his favorite brother, Samuel Jones, whom he brought to this state after he had made a start here. Later, he gave his attention to the retail and wholesale grocery business in Sacramento, and carried on an extensive and successful business until his death, which occurred in September, 1884, at the age of fifty years. His wife, whom he married in Canada while on a trip there, was formerly Anna Taylor. She was born in Toronto, Canada, and died in Sacramento, Cal., leaving a family of two sons and two daughters, of whom Ralph T. Jones is the second in order of birth, and with his sister, Mrs. Etta Florence King, of Toronto, is the only survivor of the family.

Reared in California, Ralph T. Jones received his preliminary education through the medium of the common schools of the state, after which he returned to the home of his parents, and from 1880 to 1883 took a course in the Upper Canada College. Upon completing the course in this college, he returned to California and assumed charge of the old Jones ranch, comprising seventeen hundred acres. Here he has given much attention to the raising of stock, having at present one hundred fifty head of cattle and a like number of hogs. He has met with the best of results in his work, and is recognized as one of the most enterprising and substantial citizens of this section.

The home of Mr. Jones is presided over by his wife, formerly Eva Glenn Wilson, a native of Marysville, Yuba County, Cal., with whom he was united in marriage in Sacramento. They have one daughter, Florence. Mr. Jones is prominent in fraternal circles. He is a member of the Chico Lodge, No. Ill, F. & A. M. Chico Chapter, No. 42, E.A.M; Chico Commandery, No. 12, K. T. ; and Islam Temple, A. A. 0. N. M. S., of San Francisco and is also identified with the Elks of Chico. Politically, he casts his ballot with the Republican party. He is now serving as clerk of the school board of the Walsh district.

FREDERICK WILLIAM AND EDWARD HENRY WHYLER -  Natives of California, and born in Sutter County, the Whyler brothers have grown up with this part of the state and represent that pioneer element, the forerunners of civilization on the Coast, who crossed the plains with ox teams in 1852. That year their father, John Whyler, a native of England, came to California and took up his residence one mile west of Yuba City, on a quarter section of government land. After his arrival in the United States, he remained for a time in Cleveland, Ohio ; and there he was married. To John and Anna May Whyler were born four boys and two girls. Mrs. Whyler was a woman of German parentage. Mr. Whyler conducted a store in Ohio, but after coming to California he became a rancher. In 1877, he moved from his Sutter County ranch to Tehama County, and settling on Cottonwood Creek, farmed there until his death in 1878. His wife passed away in June, 1868. One of his brothers, Edward Whyler, had been a farmer in this state for years, and died in 1892, at an advanced age.

Frederick William Whyler was born on October 1, 1860; and Edward Henry Whyler, on September 10, 1862. Their educations were received in the public schools in Sutter and Tehama Counties. They lived at home on the ranch and did all they could to aid their father, until his death. In 1880, after the estate had been adjusted, the brothers came to Colusa (now Glenn) County, and in the vicinity of Orland engaged in the raising of grain and stock. Their next move was made in 1892, when they leased the Mills ranch near Willows, on which they continued in their chosen occupation. Eight years later they came to the home place. There they reaped good harvests until 1906, when they decided to give their attention to the stock business. On their present place they are raising fine cattle, mules, sheep and hogs, which bring excellent prices in the markets. Besides raising stock, they also buy and sell. At one time they were among the leading raisers of grain in the Willows section, having five sections of land devoted to its cultivation. They still have from six hundred to twelve hundred acres in grain annually, and are joint owners of eighteen hundred acres. The brothers have always worked together in harmony, widening their influence and standing year by year, until they are now counted among the foremost stockmen and farmers of Glenn County. In politics, they endorse the principles of Democracy. Both belong to the Odd Fellows, and Edward Whyler has passed all the chairs of the order. He married Anna Frances Buler, who was born in Dixon, Cal., of German ancestry. Her father was a native of Illinois; and her mother, of California. Of this marriage four children have been born : William Henry, Gladys May, Elizabeth Hazel and Ellsworth Howard. Frederick William Whyler is unmarried. Together with his brother and his brother’s family, he enjoys the confidence and goodwill of a large circle of friends in Glenn County.

History Of Colusa and Glenn Counties, California

Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1918

Transcribed by: Marianne Swan - Pages 757 - 805 

SILAS D MINTON - Among the younger business men of Orland is Mr. Minton, proprietor of the gasoline and supply station north of the town, on the state highway. He was born in Lawrence, Kans., December 17, 1884, and accompanied his parents to California. They located in Los Angeles for a time, and while there Silas attended the public schools for two years. He finished the grammar school in Willows, whither his parents had moved. He was familiar with farm work, and for a time worked with his father, afterwards leasing some land on the J. R. Talbot ranch near Willows, where for six years he farmed on a large scale, using three eight-mule teams to carry on his farm work, and meeting with uniform success. Having decided to make a change, however, he went to Orland, and with his brother Ernest opened an oil station north of the town. They bought a strip of land, one third of an acre, along the highway, erected a wooden building, and put in a supply station for autos passing on the highway. The original building was burned, but was soon replaced by a concrete one, modern in all its appointments.

August 1, 1916, the partnership of the Minton brothers was dissolved. Silas succeeding to the ownership. In this enterprise Mr. Minton has built up a good business. Besides supplying the automobile trade passing the place, he runs a supply ear to the country, taking orders and delivering gasoline in fifty-gallon and one-hundred-gallon lots, handling the products of the Associated Oil Company. Through his courteous treatment of all, he has won success in his venture; and he is continually looking ahead for improvements in his line.

Some years ago occurred the happy wedding of Mr. Minton and Miss Emma Berry, a native of Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Minton are the parents of four promising children : Silas D. and Ernest O., of Orland, and Homer D. and Esther, who are at home. Mr. and Mrs. Minton and their family are the center of a wide circle. of admiring and devoted friends.

CHARLES ADOLPHUS ARVEDSON

To those who have succeeded in life solely by their own efforts, much credit is due, and of such Charles A. Arvedson, of College City, Colusa County, is an example worthy in every way of the success which has conic to him through years of hard work, economical habits, self-confidence and excellent business acumen. He was born at Algonquin, McHenry County, Ill., on July 9, 1857. His Parents were Peter and Hannah Adelia (Cornish) Arvedson. The father was a native of Sweden, and was born on August 22, 1822; the mother was a native of Michigan, and her birth was chronicled on October 5, 1831. Both parents are now deceased. Peter Arvedson came to America when nineteen years old, and settled near Algonquin, Ill., where he eventually owned and operated a farm. To this worthy couple, twelve children were born. Owing to the size of his parents’ family, Charles Adolphus Arvedson was obliged to begin working at the early age of eight.

His education was of necessity very meager, being limited to the winter terms of the public school in his district, since his work for wages required nine months of each year. When sixteen years of age, he came to California and engaged in working for his uncle, George Cornish, who owned a ranch near Clarksburg, Yolo County. He continued to work out by the month until 1877. In 1871 he rented his uncle’s farm; and during the following year he was married to Miss Ella Eldora Strohecker, a native of Iowa. He moved to College City in 1882, and worked out by the month until 1884, when he rented the Tom Botts farm of one hundred sixty acres, a part of the four-hundred-fifty-acre ranch now being oper­ated by him, which is rented from J. H. Balsdon, of Colusa.

About five years ago Mr. Arvedson purchased a ranch of one hundred sixty acres in the Hurlton precinct, Butte County, which he rents to his nephew, George F. Beeves, a son of his sister, Mrs. Sophia Reeves, widow of the late Benjamin Franklin Beeves. At the present time he is having a fine eight-room country residence built on this fruit ranch. Through his untiring energy and capable business management, Mr. Arvedson is making a splendid success as a farmer at College City; and in all of his endeavors he is greatly assisted by his capable wife, who is a true helpmeet.

Mr. and Mrs. Arvedson have been blessed with two children: Edith C.. who is at home with her parents; and Clarence E., who is a traction engineer. Mr. Arvedson’s career is a striking illustration of what can be accomplished in Colusa County by a young man without means, providing he is endowed with a reliable character and good health, possesses untiring energy, practices strict economy. and gives close attention to the many details incident to the life of a successful rancher. He is out of debt, and is now enjoying the prosperity which he so justly. merits. Mr. and Mrs. Arvedson are highly esteemed by the community in which they live.

JOHN B HAZELTON - In reading the life-story of John B. Hazleton, proprietor of the flourishing Hazleton Lumber Company, of Orland, one is reminded of how many persons threatened with early demise, but destined to live for years and accomplish much well worth the while, have found their physical and mental salvation by removing to California, where they could enjoy its salubrious climate. Born in Michigan, December 15, 1869, he was the son of Thaddeus HazeIton, a native of New York, who married Miss Hannah McGinnis, a daughter of Erin’s Green Isle. His father had settled in Canada when four years old, and growing up, married there. When he was twenty-two years old, however, he abandoned the Dominion and moved over into Michigan, where he remained for the rest of his life.

Unfortunately, however, he was taken sick, perhaps because of the severity of the weather, in the face of which one must prosecute such work in the East. Like thousands of others whose health has broken under the exposure of the rigorous Eastern climate, he packed up everything and made for California as the most promising place for his recuperation. He settled in Orland, on January 18, 1902, and its climate proved to have a beneficial effect upon his health from the time of his arrival here. Nowhere, perhaps, could one find a better illustration of what Orland has to offer to those who would live long and hale.

On June 9, 1891, John B. Hazleton and Miss Addle M. Davis, of Michigan, were married. Two children—Earl J., who is with his father in business. and Marjorie May—have blessed this union. Mrs. Hazelton is a valued member of the Women’s Improvement Club of Orland; while Mr. Hazleton is a Past Noble Grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and a Past Worthy Counsel of the Woodmen of the World. In public affairs,

BELLE DOUVILLE - Since 1875 Mrs. Belle Douville has lived in California. She came here with her brother, Jack F. Simpson, and their parents, Isaac and Lucretia (Frong) Simpson, when she was fifteen years of age. Her father was born on December 3, 1828, and after a useful life, crowded into sixty-nine years, passed away on January 3, 1898. Belle Simpson was horn in Kentucky, but passed her girlhood in Tennessee, where she attended the public schools at Carthage, Smith County, whence she came to their new home in California. The family settled at South Butte, Sutter County, and there she finished her schooling. On November 23, 1887, she married Eugene Douville at Sutter City. Mr. Douville was born in Milwaukee, Wis., January 8, 1863, and was brought to this state when an infant, so that practically his whole life was spent in California. Here he received his education and grew to manhood. After their marriage, being anxious to get a home of their own, Mr. Douville accepted a position as foreman of the Wood ranch in Colusa County. Here his wife did the cooking for nine men, besides caring for her son. Mr. and Mrs. Douville invested their savings in town lots in Meridian, where they erected a comfortable house. He was eager to get a larger place, and continued his connection with the Wood ranch until 1909, when he was enabled to buy twenty acres, which they improved and made their home. Mr. Douville was privileged to enjoy their house for only a short time, for on June 10, 1910, he passed away, leaving his wife and one son, George Earl.

In 1914, George Earl Douville was married to Gertrude Bruce, daughter of Rev. Henry M. Bruce, pastor of the Methodist Church South, at Selma, Cal. He is now leasing the ranch from his mother, and is prospering in his work. He has a dairy of seven cows, four acres in prunes, and a fine family garden and orchard. They own twenty shares in the Roberts Irrigation Company, than enabling them to irrigate every foot of their land. At the state fair in 1914- 1915, Mrs. Douville took first prize for her Elberta free-stone peaches.

After the death of her husband Mrs. Denville sold their property in Meridian, and lifted the mortgage from her twenty acres, which is now free from incumbrance. Besides rearing her son, Mrs. Doraville raised a nephew, Clarence Virgil Simpson, whose mother died when he was a babe. For the past three years, since he was seventeen, he has been in the employ of the American Express Company in an Francisco. By those who know her, Mrs. Denville is looked upon as a good manager. She is a member of the Methodist Church South, and is a public-spirited woman, always ready to do her share in the promotion of movements for the benefit of the people and the county. Politically, she is a Democrat.

The senior member of the firm of Johnsen Richter, propietors of the Pioneer Market, of Colusa, has shown marked ability as a stock buyer. Mr. Johnsen is well known all over the Sacramento Valley, having catered to the public in Colusa for twenty- nine years as a meat dealer, and is firmly established in the commercial circles of the county. Besides the building and shop, he also owns ten acres adjoining the city on the west, upon which is located the up-to-date slaughter house, erected in 1917. This structure is twenty-eight by thirty-eight by twenty-three feet in dimensions, and has concrete floors, killing bed, modern hoisting machinery with conveying tracks into the chill room, and thence to the refrigerating room, where meats can be kept at a low temperature any number of days. On this laud also is located the hog house, which has eight pens of twenty head capacity each and the grain house, with its grinding machinery run by electric power. The establishment is equipped with two cooling plants ; and three trucks are used for making deliveries in city and country. For thirty-three year. Mr. Johnsen has bought hogs for Miller & Lux in San Francisco, supplying them front eight to ten thousand head annually. He buys the hogs and feeds them until they are in proper condition to ship, and then hauls them to the river for shipment by boat to San Francisco. He also buys sheep, keeping the ewes and sending the wethers to various packing houses in San Francisco.

Albert Henry Johnsen was born in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, December 7, 1854. His father, William Johnsen, was a carpenter and builder, living his entire life in that province. His mother, Catherine Vose, was also born there. There were ten children in the family, of whom four sisters are in Chicago, one brother is a farmer in San Joaquin County, and four are deceased. After finishing his education in the schools of his native land, Albert Henry Johnsen was apprenticed to learn the trade of the butcher, which he completed when he was eighteen. In the spring of 1873 he left house for Chicago, Ill., where he worked over a year. In the fall of 1874, he came west to San Francisco and engaged in the butcher’s business, finally becoming proprietor of two shops in that city, which be operated with a partner. He came to Colusa in 1888, bought out the old Klewe market, and made various altera­tions and improvements; and here he has carried on a very profitable retail business ever since, in connection with which he has been baying, feeding and selling stock. Mr. Johnsen now has a partner in the Pioneer Market at Colusa, so that he can spend his time buying through the country and carrying on business both in San Francisco and Colusa, which he has clone since he located here. They also own the Pioneer Market at Princeton. Mr. Johnsen has had his ups and clowns, like others; but in the main he has been prosperous. He is public-spirited, and is always ready to aid any movement that will bring settlers to the county, and that will make the city and county morally better. He has won his way by dint of hard work and perseverance, and now holds an assured place in the commercial life of the county and state.

In San Francisco, Mr. Johnsen was united in marriage with Miss Louisa Miller, a native daughter, who enjoys with her estimable husband the good fellowship of a large circle of friends and business associates.

An interesting and suggestive story of a life well spent, and already rich with some definite accomplishments, is that of Perry William Minton, who was born in Littleton. Buchanan County, Iowa, on November 8, 1855. When he was only four years old, his parents moved to the neighborhood of Fort Scott, Bourbon County, Kans.; and from there they went to Leavenworth County, where he was brought up and lived until 1880. In that year he came to California, and set to work on the Glenn ranch, in Colusa County, where he remained for two and a half years. Then he returned to Kansas, and farmed for three years ; but after that he turned his face once more toward California. This was in the year of the great 1887 boom, and for three years he remained in Los Angeles in the employ of the street railway company.

KARL E WALTER - That it pays to know, first, what the public wants and is deter­mined to have, and, secondly, how to supply their needs and so both satisfy them and preclude the possibility of a rival entering the same field, is clear from the business record of K. E. Walter, the proprietor of the Home Leaven Bakery, who now turns out about twenty-five hundred loaves of bread a day, delivering much of what he bakes by his own autos, and shipping the balance to different and even remote parts of Glenn County. Born in Würtemherg, Germany, October 23, 1890, he was the son of a farmer and building contractor, from whom he doubtless inherited much of his practical business sense. He left school at the age of fourteen, and for. two and a half years served as an apprentice to his father, while learning the carpenter’s trade.

In 1907, Mr. Walter came to the United States to seek his fortune in the New World, and almost immediately made for Cali­fornia. At San Rafael, in Marin County, he learned the baker’s trade, and then he entered the employ of Young & Swain Baking Company on Devisadero Street, San Francisco. Later, he became foreman of a bakery on Bryant Street ; and afterwards he went to Stockton as a foreman of the Engle & Company’s bakery on Center Street. For three years, also, he was proprietor of the Palace Bakery at Alameda; and after selling out his bakery there, he went to Salem, Ore., where he set up in business for himself.

Once more disposing of his business, he came to Willows, on April 12, 1916; and here he opened the Vienna Bakery and Coffee Parlor, at 141 South Tehama Street. He built new ovens and put in a complete new manufacturing plant, designed to be as sanitary as it was modern. He baked both French and Vienna bread, and French pastry, and kept a complete line of bakery goods. On January 1, 1917, Mr. Walter bought the business formerly conducted on Walnut Street, and known as the Home Leaven Bakery, but which was in the hands of the San Francisco Board of Trade on account of the failure of the former proprietor. Upon assuming charge of the plant, he at once installed the most modern equipment, including new machinery, tools and fixtures, at a great expense, and also renovated the buildings, making it one of the most up-to-date bakeries in Glenn County. He superintends the manufacture of his output, and his wife looks after the sales department; and by hard work and good management, and courteous treatment to their patrons, this worthy couple have won the hearty commendation of the public, and have begun to build up a fine business throughout the entire county. The fame of the Home Leaven Bakery extends even to San Francisco, where Mr. Walter is a member of the Bakers’ Verein. He is a self-made man, and has won a host of friends by his integrity and public spirit.

At San Francisco, March 9, 1915, surrounded by friends who gladly toasted his future luck, Mr. Walter married Mrs Emmie (Grosse) Kostka, a native of Germany, who, by her former marriage, is the mother of three interesting children, Margaret, Charlotte and Hildegard. On June 23, 1913, Mr. Walter became an American citizen; and none is more loyal to the best interests of the country than he.

JOHN BOGGS - Colusa County lost a very valuable citizen in the death of John Boggs, the former proprietor of St. John’s Park, which is pleasantly situated on the west bank of the Sacramento River, two miles south of Princeton. The loss of its former owner is somewhat compensated, however, by the sterling worth of its present proprietor, who since 1905 has given his attention to the care of its five hundred eleven acres. It was named “St. John’s Park” by its former owner, and was the home place from which Mr. Boggs directed the cultivation of the extensive Boggs ranch, one of the best-cultivated areas in Colusa County. The commodious two-story brick house, to which additions have been made by Mr. Yerxa for the convenience of his family, is in a perfect state of preservation. The same hospitality is still extended to visitors, and the place is one of the show places of the county.

WOODFORD A YERXA - Mr. Yerxa came to Princeton, much in need of recreation, in 1905, after having built up extensive mercantile interests in the Northwest. He is now the personification of good health, and his great capacity for business is devoted to one of the largest, and certainly one of the finest, prune orchards in the state. When he purchased the place, there was already on it a forty-acre prune orchard, which had been set out in 1900. Since then, and during the past five years, he has set out three hundred acres to French and Imperial prunes, in about equal numbers. He has found it practicable to raise his own nursery stock, and is reputed to have the best bred and budded prune trees in the market. He imports his young sprouts from France; and they are here replanted and carefully cultivated. One year after being transplanted, they are carefully budded under Mr. Yerxa’s personal supervision; and when the buds are one year old, they are again ready for transplanting.

The St. John’s Park Nursery is a close corporation. In this nursery there are fully one hundred thousand trees that will be ready for transplanting in the spring of 1918. So wide a reputa­tion has this nursery, that practically the entire stock has already been ordered at a good price. It is fortunate that Mr. Yerxa made large importations of these seedlings from France before that country because involved in the present war. As a consequence, he will be able to supply a large part of the demand for the 1919-1920 plantings. Mr. Yerxa applies the same business sagacity to the building up of his prune orchard that he did to building up his extensive commercial interests in the Twin Cities of the Northwest. In this enterprise he has the assistance of his two sons, Woodford A., Jr., and Max, who lives at Colusa.

Mr. Yerxa was born at Keswick, N. B., on March 23, 1850, a son of Abram Yerxa, a farmer and lumberman of that section. His mother was Elizabeth White, born in the state of Maine. They raised a family of twelve children, four of whom were sons; and Woodford A. was the sixth child in order of birth. He grew up to young manhood at St. John, N. B., where by actual experience he gained a thorough business training. He entered the London House, the large wholesale and retail establishment at St. John, and served a four years’ apprenticeship, after which he remained as an employe until, in October, 1871, after having spent several months in travel through America, he left for St. Paul, Minn. He was then a young man of twenty-one. The first winter he worked as a clerk in a dry goods store in St. Paul. In 1872, the Northern Pacific was being projected from Duluth to Bismarck, and be engaged as a clerk with a mercantile company that built temporary store buildings of boards and canvas, which were moved from place to place to keep up with the course of construction of the road. In this way Mr. Yerxa became thoroughly initiated into the business methods of the great Northwest. In the panic of 1873, when the construction had crossed the Red River of the North, Jay Cook, the financial genius and promoter of the road, failed, and the frontier stores closed down. Mr. Yerxa went to St. Paul to spend the winter; and in the spring of 1874 he went to Fargo, Dakota Territory, and became manager for the Hubbard S Tyler stores. To Mr. Yerxa belongs the distinction of having shipped the first car load of wheat from North Dakota. While manager for Hubbard & Tyler, he had been prevailed upon by a number of pioneer Norwegian farmers to exchange supplies for wheat, which they drew to Fargo on sleds. During the course of the winter, enough wheat had come to their store to fill a car. There was no wagon in Fargo with which to haul the wheat to the car on the siding; so he made arrangements with one of the denizens of that locality who owned a Red River cart to take the sacks of wheat, six sacks to a load, to the ear, and the two worked in this way until the car was loaded. When it reached the market at Minneapolis, it at once attracted the attention of milling experts, and they were quick to see the excel­lence of the No. 1 hard wheat. The hardness of this wheat led to the adoption of the roller process, and has given to the world the best grade of flour. Later, with a partner, Mr. Yerxa started the W. A. Yerxa & Co.’s general store, which dealt in groceries, dry goods, hoots and shoes. His experience in the various phases of the business on the frontier contributed to his success in this enterprise, and he became a leading merchant. Later, he was called to serve as mayor of Fargo, being elected and reelected to that office, and served the city during the days of its greatest boom. He became well acquainted with the leading men of the Northwest, and the firm of W. A. Yerxa & Co. did a large and profitable business. They invested heavily in wheat lands, however, and were caught in the general catastrophe of 1882. At this time they lost heavily, but were able, nevertheless, to pay one hundred cents oN the dollar.

Mr. Yerxa then went back to Minneapolis, and in 1887, in partnership with his brother, Fred R. Yerxa, established the Yerxa Wholesale and Retail Grocery in that city; and in 1888 they opened a similar house in St. Paul. Some time later a third brother, Thomas E. Yerxa, was taken into the firm. So closely did Mr. Yerxa apply himself to the business, that his health failed; and in 1905 he sold out, that he might take a much-needed rest. He had been coming to California since 1902 to spend the winters at his home in Sierra Madre, and in this way became interested in this section of the state, to which he has since devoted so much of his time and energy.

Woodford A. Verxa was married at Fargo, in 1885, to Mrs. Eva (Gould) Frail, born at Portland, Me., a daughter of Dr. Gould. This noble woman passed away in 1893, at the age of thirty-eight. The two sons mentioned above were born of this marriage.

Mr. Yerxa has one .of the finest prune orchards in the state. The California Prune and Apricot Association, whose headquarters are in San Jose, chose Mr. Yerxa as its vice-president in appreciation of his great achievements in the fruit industry; and to this office he gives considerable of his time and attention. He was one of the organizers of the Bank of Princeton, of which he is vice-president and a director. He is a man of energy and vision, and enjoys the confidence and respect of all who know him.

LUCINDA MEYERS - Mrs. Myers was in maidenhood Lucinda Allen. She was horn near Mount Pleasant, Henry County, Iowa, a daughter of Joshua and Eleanor (Lane) Allen. The former was horn and reared in Wheeling. W. Va.; and the latter was born near Zanes­ville, Ohio. They were married in Henry County, Iowa. Miss Lucinda and a sister came from Iowa to Grand Island, Colusa County, in 1874, where she was a seamstress until her marriage at Colusa in 1876, with Gerry Myers. After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Myers spent five years on a farm on Grand Island, after which they passed some years near the town of Williams, on a three-hundred-twenty-acre ranch belonging to Mr. Myers, and which he had purchased with his savings. This he later sold; and then they purchased the present place in Washington Town­ship, in 1898, where he farmed and carried on fruit-growing and stock-raising until the time of his death. He passed away in June, 1906, mourned by a wide circle of friends.

Mr. Myers was born in Kenosha, Wis., and came to California with his parents, who settled on Dry Slough, Colusa County, where the son grew to manhood, receiving his education in the public schools of Grand Island. Of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Myers, nine children were born: Frank A., in the employ of the Southern Pacific at Reno; Phillip G., of San Joaquin County, who has six children; Robert A., of Colusa ; Arthur, who is assisting his mother on the home ranch, and who is married and has one child; Gordon T., of Oakland; Ruby, who died aged twenty months; Alice, the wife of Curry Harrington, of Colusa County; Louis J., and Grace, at home. Since the death of Mr. Myers, Mrs. Myers has looked after all the business of the ranch, which she is conducting with marked ability. Meanwhile she has proved her worth as a mother, in the raising of her family of children. Mrs. Myers is accorded a prominent place in her social circle, and has made many friends, who appreciate her readiness to assist in all movements for the benefit of the community, the county, and the state.

PRESTON L. SIMPSON

A native of Stony Creek, west of Orland, where he was born on October 16, 1861, Preston L. Simpson was the son of Noah Simpson, a pioneer of the Hoosier State, who crossed the plains in 1850 to reach California. When once he had put the hardships of the prairies behind him, he took up new privations in the hard work of the miner, but later abandoned the search for gold awl returned East to buy a herd of cattle. With these be again crossed the desert plains to California, settling at first in Yolo County, and later coming to Stony Creek, where he took up laud and water rights covering some seven hundred acres. Here he engaged in the raising of stock and sheep, and soon was fairly prosperous as a cattle rancher. About that time Noah Simpson married Miss Louise Halley, a native of the South, who had come to Glenn County with her parents after an arduous trip, in 1857, across the plains. Besides the subject of our sketch, who was the third child in the family, four other children were born of this union : Charles L., Ziba E., Eva L., and George Ernest. The father died in 1896, some years after the decease of his faithful wife.

Educated at the country schools in Oriental, now Floyd, district, on Stony Creek, Preston Simpson worked on his father’s farm, and at the latter’s death moved to Orland, where he bought ten acres, which was set out to almonds and apricots. Soon after­wards, he married Miss Ida J. Griffith, a daughter of Jonathan Griffith, whose interesting life-sketch appears elsewhere in these pages. As a result of experiments which they conducted together, Mr. and Mrs. Simpson began in a small way in an industry which they have since developed into an enterprise of considerable pro­portions. Using a small incubator which, in 1903, they placed on their back porch, they began to hatch chickens ; and from this small beginning has grown the present Orland Hatchery, the only plant of its kind in Glenn County, and one of the best-equipped in all California. This incubator arrangement was succeeded by a small hatchery sixteen by twenty-five feet in size; and as their business grew, they were obliged to erect, in 1914, their present extensive establishment. This consists of a ,building of two stories, with hollow concrete walls, thirty by sixty feet in size, in the basement of which there are forty-eight incubators of the Pioneer brand, with a full capacity of twenty-four thousand chicks. How interestingly this enterprise has been developed is shown from the Hatchery’s report of the year 1916. Then some seventy- five thousand baby chicks were batched out and sold, ninety-five per cent. of them being sturdy enough to be raised. These were shipped to seven states in pasteboard boxes containing twenty-five, or fifty, or a hundred chicks, packed the day after they were hatched. Salt Lake City and leading towns of Nevada, Idaho, Colorado, Arizona and California received the largest and most frequent shipments, and the fame of the Orland Hatchery was soon widespread. Both Mr. and Mrs. Simpson are still active workers in the undertaking, giving the most painstaking attention to every detail ; and soon they will be assisted by their enterprising son, Jack, who is at present a student at the Orland high school.

JONATHAN GRIFFITH - One of the first three men who settled where Orland is now located, and the first to erect a house here, and one of the three pioneers who named the now well-known town, was Jonathan Griffith, for over thirty years a member of the Orland school board, and a contributor in many ways to the development of the town. Born at Rome, New Forts, October 12, 1835, he came at the age of sixteen to California, locating first in the vicinity of Los Angeles. At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted in the United States cavalry; and throughout the terrible conflict he continued in the service, for a time as an aide on the staff of Gen. Phil. Sheridan, and as one of the bodyguard of Gen. Winfield Scott.

On the close of the war Mr. Griffith returned to this state. Shortly afterwards he reenlisted, this time to assist the United States authorities in quelling the Indian outbreaks which threatened the population of the northern part of the state. Again he was first in the line of attack, his services taking bins to Modoc and other parts of the troubled area.

Seeking once more the paths of peace, he located in succession at Susanville. Cedarville, and Chico; and in 1873 be came to Orland, where he lived until the time of his death. Here he established the first blacksmith shop in the town.

Mr. Griffith was married in New York to Miss Esther Williams, a native of that state, who proved a devoted and congenial companion. She came to California by way of Panama, was with him at the Presidio, and followed his movements during the Indian troubles. She lived to enjoy life until 1902, dying in San Francisco. Nine children, four of whom still survive, were born of this marriage: Mary E., Mrs. C. M. Harelson, of Orland ; W. B. Griffith, of Colusa; Miss Grace Griffith, a teacher at Sacramento; and Ida J., Mrs, P. L. Simpson, also of Orland.

In January, 1917, this notable pioneer closed his eyes to the scenes of this world, mourned by the community generally, .and especially by his comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic, who laid him to rest with military honors. Some of the most interesting early chapters in the history of Orland arc closely interwoven with Mr. Griffith’s personal life. He assisted Chamberlain Bros. in laying out the original town, the land selected then belonging to the Chamberlain ranch; and to give practical evidence of his faith in the enterprise, he bought a large number of blocks near the site of the present grammar school. He also moved a fine house from another part of the county to the corner of Second and Colusa Streets; and for many years the house was the scene of hospitality and festivity. Most interesting of all is the story of the naming of Orland. Taylor Chamberlain, Mr. Griffith, and Frederick Brown came together to draw up a petition for a post- office, when each one suggested a name for the new settlement. Mr. Griffith thought that Leland, in recognition of Senator Stanford, would be appropriate; Mr. Chamberlain suggested Com­stock; while Mr. Brown stood for Orland, the name of the town of his birth in England. Each so earnestly desired to win the others over to his choice that an amusing deadlock occurred, which was not broken until the pioneers agreed to put the three names into a bat and stand by the one that might be selected in a drawing. When the deciding slip was withdrawn, it bore the name of Orland. Among the curious adventures Mr. Griffith was fond of relat­ing was one he experienced while hunting along Stony Creek during the winter season. He came upon an old Indian burial ground, to the northeast of the town, where many of the aborigines’ graves had been washed away. Indian trinkets, including a vast amount of beads, were uncovered; and following the spreading of the news, curio-seekers searched the burial ground for days, and carried away many of the objects so reverently placed there by superstitious Indians.

WILLARD CLARK - A self-made man who has realized his own ambitions and the expectations of his many friends—and that, too, not in one iso­lated field, but in practically every enterprise to which he has set himself—is Willard Clark. a native of Prince Edward County, Ontario, where he was born on December 12, 1872. Reared on a farm, he had the misfortune to lose his father when he was but eleven years of age; but this did not prevent his attendance at the public schools of the district, through which he obtained an excellent preparation to make his way in the world. When seventeen. he came to the United States and settled at Rochester, N. Y., securing there employment in a shoe factory, at six dollars per week. Being a clever workman, and naturally industrious, he advanced in the technic of his trade, and became an expert worker on ladies shoes.

The year 1898 was eventful in Willard Clark’s life, for then he moved westward to San Francisco, where, for a time, he worked in a shoe factory. Leaving the northern metropolis, he came to Orland; and in this locality he has since made. his home. He has become an important factor in the development of this growing community. He understands the industrial problems presented, and has done no little to solve the difficulties arising from time to time. Farming and stock-raising have come to demand his special attention, although his first year’s experience with a ranch was more or less of a failure. When he rented the Hood ranch, however, and farmed the three hundred acres to grain, lie entered on a inure successful period, and fast became one of the prosperous farmers of his section. Later he was engaged in raising cattle, hogs, sheep, and poultry, especially turkeys.

Prominent as a Mason, Mr. Clark is Past Master of the Orland Lodge, No, 265, F. and A. M.; inspector of the Seventh Masonic District of California; and a member of the Grand Lodge of Masons of the state. He is also president of the Masonic Temple Association in Orland ; and it was through his suggestion and efforts that the beautiful Masonic Temple here was erected, he himself contributing a thousand dollars towards the project. As one of the founders and a director of the First National Bank of Orland, Mr. Clark has also contributed his influence to steady­ing local finance. He has also favored healthful athletics, and is president of the Orland Athletic Association.

Willard Clark was united in marriage with Miss Ella Pearsall, a native of the Empire State. Mrs. Clark is an active participant in the affairs of the Women’s Improvement Club, of Orland. In coarse of time Mr. Clark bought a block of land in town. Here he erected a fine home and otherwise improved his property, setting out a lemon orchard and other fruit trees.

HARVEY EDWARD PROVENCE

Though not a native son of Colusa County, Harvey Edward Provence can practically be called such, as his parents came to this county in 1879, when he was a babe in arms. He was born in Wamego, Pottawatomie County, Kans., on January 19, 1878. The father, Nathan Province, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this history, was a native of Pennsylvania, but removed to Ohio. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted in Company I, Seventy- seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He served through the war and on the border, spending five ;years in the service in all. He married Miss Elvira Edwards; and they settled near Wamego, Kans., and engaged in farming. In 1879 they located in California, in the Elk Creek district. The father died on November 11, 1917, while the mother still resides on the home farm. Of their fourteen children, ten of whom are living, Harvey Edward is the fifth in order of birth.

Harvey Edward Provence received his education in the public schools of the Elk Creek district. From a lad he was familiar with farming and stock-raising, and assisted his father on the home farm. When the sinking of the Maine precipitated the Spanish-American War, the spirit of patriotism which called his father in 1861, inspired the son in 1898 to the defense of his na­tive land; and he volunteered in Company K, Eighth California Regiment, and was mustered in at Camp Barrett, and served with the regulars until 1899, when he received his honorable discharge on account of physical disability. On his enlistment he wrote his name Provence, and has continued to use the “e” instead of “i” in the spelling of his name.

Upon his return home, Mr. Provence began farming for him­self. Ile bought a few head of cattle and began on a small scale to build up a stock industry, gradually increasing his herd until his brand, H. P. connected, has become well known all over the county. He leased one thousand acres for his cattle range, and in connection with his stock-raising carried on a dairy business. He continued in this line of industry for several years, and met with good success in the undertaking. In 1905 he bought his present ranch of one hundred twenty-two acres in the Oakdale district, and later added one hundred sixty acres within a quarter of a mile dis­tant, so that he has over two hundred eighty acres of land. He built his residence and barns, and put on all the other improvements seen on the ranch today. He has taken out a ditch from the south fork of Elk Creek, and raises fine crops of alfalfa.

The marriage of Harvey E. Provence, which occurred at Willows, in December, 1902, united him with Miss Georgia True, a native of Iowa. They have three children: Austin Edgar, Lola Margaret, and Evelyn. Politically a Republican, Mr. Provence has always taken an active interest in measures affecting the welfare of his county. He has been particularly interested in educa­tional affairs, and is now serving as clerk of the board of trustees of the Oakdale school district.

EDWARD E GREEN - A public-spirited citizen who has given freely for the advance­ment of the community in which he has lived since be was a boy, is Edward E. Green, the pioneer of Colusa County, who was born in Clay County, Ill., August 15, 1871, the son of John V. Green, a native of Indiana. His mother, before her marriage, was Miss Catherine Helm, of Illinois. In 1873, the elder Green moved west­ward with his family, and located in Colusa County, Cal., near what is now Orland. Two years later, Mr. Green homesteaded a piece of land in Tehama County; but after another two years he was back in the Orland district, where he rented land on the Carpenter ranch, along Stony Creek, and planted the same to grain. After four years of farming, he returned to the site of Orland, and engaged in various occupations for some years. The last five years of his life were spent in the northern mines. He died in 1901. Besides Edward Green, three children of this worthy pio­neer are living: Joseph Sparks; a daughter who became Mrs. Joseph Sperlich, of Orland; and another daughter, Mrs. Henry Moore, of Knights Lauding, in Solo County. Three others are deceased: Victoria, died aged twenty-five; Alex S., died leaving four children; and E. Dewees, died aged thirty-four.

In 1900 Mr. Green married Jennie Wright, of Tehama County, who died on April 1, 1919, leaving one son, Victor Green, now a promising youth of sixteen years, and a student at the Orland high school. On March 2, 1916, Mr. Green was again married, Mrs. Maybelle Martin of Sacramento becoming his wife. They have a fine home at Orland. Popular among those who know and appreciate his good personal qualities, Mr. Green is a welcome member of the Blue Lodge of Masons.

ARTHUR RAYMOND HANCOCK - A striking example of what energy and resourcefulness can accomplish, when wisely directed and centralized, is furnished in the career of Arthur Raymond Hancock, the enterprising electrical contractor of Willows. “Ray” Hancock, as he is familiarly known by his intimate friends, was born near Waterloo, San Joaquin County, February 17, 1577. lie was the son of Sampson Hancock, a sturdy pioneer who started across the plains from Keokuk, Iowa, on the very day in 1861 when Fort Sumter was fired upon. Arriving in California, be settled on a farm in San Joaquin County, where he passed his declining days.

Arthur Raymond Hancock attended the public schools of his native county, and finished his schooling at Ramsey’s Business College, at Stockton. He had his first commercial experience at Fresno, when he became manager and half owner of the White Star Steam Laundry, in which enterprise he got a good start in dealing with the world. After two years he went to the Hawaiian Islands, where he engaged in electrical contracting in Honolulu and Hilo for four or five years. In 1900, he returned to Califor­nia, and for a time worked as journeyman electrician. Later, he engaged for himself in contracting in the same field, and employed a force of seven workmen. He happened to be in the vicinity of San Francisco immediately after the great fire, and handled some of the largest contracts in rebuilding the destroyed section of the city.

When he came to Willows, in 1910, he opened an electric shop in a tent, for the very good reason that there was not a vacant store or office where he could otherwise install and display his stock; and as business grew, he enlarged the tent and added more and more to the variety of his stock, giving careful attention to the quality of his goods. This enabled him, when the Glenn County Savings Bank erected its building, to take possession of some of the best quarters there; and fully equipped with a line of goods one might he glad to find in a large city, he soon had a part in furnishing all of the new buildings of importance in the town. These include the Willows high school building., the Savings Bank, the Barceloux building, the library, the Masonic Temple, and the fittings for the Superior California Farm Lands Company; and he has just completed the contract for wiring the town of Dunnigan, south of Willows. His territory extends from Gerber south to Dunnigan; and he has installed many’ of the irrigation pumping Plants in the district, making a specialty of that particular work. On May 13, 1917, Mr. Hancock moved to 127 South Tehama Street, where he has added to his already complete general electric lines, auto electrical supplies and repairing, giving the business his per­sonal attention.

Some years ago Mr. Hancock married Miss Anna Spangler, a native daughter from Butte County; and by her he has had two children of unusual promise, Marcie and Anna. Mr. Hancock finds his chief delight in the home circle. Fraternally, he belongs to the Independent Order of Foresters.

WILLIAM T. KIDD

How many steps are necessary in the upward rugged climb in life ere one attains to prosperity and success, may lie judged from the busy life and substantial accomplishments of William T. Kidd, the enterprising hay and grain dealer of Williams. Born on June 7, 1849, in Nelson County, in the good old state of Virginia, and reared in the adjoining commonwealth of West Virginia, he spent his boyhood and youth on a farm, and attended the common schools of his neighborhood and time, laying broad and deep the foundations fur his later struggles in life. In 1875, he came to California; and after passing a year in Mendocino County, he tools up his residence in the Williams section of Colusa County. He worked for a while as a ranch laborer, for wages, but later became one of the largest grain farmers in the same district in which he had first started to climb the ladder of prosperity.

In 1878, having acquired considerable practical experience, Sir. Kidd began to rent land, which he farmed to grain. He first took a lease on the Stanley ranch, securing five hundred acres, which he cultivated for five years; and then for ten years he rented and farmed the Wakefield ranch of eleven hundred acres. For three or more years he cultivated the Lee Welsh ranch of eleven hundred acres, west of Williams; and then he farmed the Crocker place across the river, bringing its four thousand acres, during the three years in which be had supervision there, to a high state of development.

Eminently successful, and commanding the respect of a wide section of the county for his character and his valuable practical experience, Mr. Kidd was elected supervisor of Colusa County on the Democratic ticket in 1896, and served a term of four years. During his incumbency in office, the bridge across the Sacramento River at Colusa was built. He was also road superintendent while acting as supervisor, and built the Leesville grade road, generally regarded as the best in Colusa County.

As a business man, Mr. Kidd was for many years engaged in buying and selling hogs and shipping them to the San Francisco market; and he became one of the largest shippers in Northern California, sending off as many as a thousand hogs at one consignment. At present he is engaged in the hay, grain, coal and wood business, and buys and ships poultry and eggs.

Some years ago Mr. Kidd was married to Miss Mary Epperson, a member of a well-known pioneer family, by whom he has had two children: Florence, the wife of E. Whiting, of San Francisco; and Leah. Fraternally, Mr. Kidd is a popular member of Central Lodge, No. 229, I. O. O. F., of Williams, in which he has passed through all the chairs.

CHARLES K SWEET - A most important factor in the upbuilding and growth of Williams, and one whose wide and helpful influence is likely to be felt far beyond the limitations of the ordinary span of life, is Charles K. Sweet, who was born in San Augustine County, Texas, September 2, 1867, first seeing the light of day in San Augustine, the oldest town in the Lone Star State. His father and grandfather were large planters. He pursued his studies in the grammar schools; and after finishing his courses in the day schools he continued his studies, on his removal to Dallas, in the night school. He graduated, in 1891, from the University of Texas, where he made a specialty of mechanical and electrical engineering. After­wards he took a postgraduate course in electrical engineering in Boston, and then returned to Dallas to work for the Southwest Telegraph & Telephone Company. So pronounced was his ability, and so satisfactory was his service, that he was retained by that concern for fourteen years, during which time he traveled through Texas, Arkansas, and Indian Territory, and for the Bell Telephone Company in Eastern states. He also made trips through North and South Dakota, to Boston, and later made a tour of Europe, finally coming, in 1907, to take up his residence in Williams.

Here he built the Colusa County Telephone System, and also a part of the same system for Glenn County. He constructed the first electric light plant in Williams, which he owned and conducted for a while himself, and then sold to the Northern California Power Company. He built the first garage in Williams, and ran the same for two years. When he arrived in Williams, he did not find here a single house that had been built within the last five years; and he immediately set to work to erect two new ones. He ran the first moving pictures seen in the town, devoting his garage to the purpose. He also built the first water works here, sinking a well and putting in a pumping system. This enterprise he is still managing ; and in addition he conducts a plumbing, electric wire and electric supply store, in which he also carries a full line of paints and oils. The first irrigation pumping plant in town was installed by Mr. Sweet. He is now experimenting with vegetable-growing, claiming that the local soil will produce as fine vegetables as are grown along the river. He is renting thirty- seven acres, and there he plants potatoes and a new variety of bean known as the Tehary.

When Mr. Sweet was married, he chose for his life associate Miss Mary Rowland, of Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Sweet are the parents of one son, Rowland F.

HANS HENRY HARDER

A pleasing picture of a wanderer from the Fatherland, who is later joined by an aged parent, and who himself retires at a com­fortable old age, a great-grandfather proud of his promising Progeny, is presented in the life-story of Hans Henry Harder, a native of Holstein, Germany, where he was born on March 23, 1843. He grew up on the farm of his father—who, by the way, had the same name—spent two and a half years in the Germany army, and served for eleven mouths, in 1871, in the Franco-Prussian War, when be was taken sick and relieved from duty. While in Ger­many, he was married to Frl. Madeline Heintz, an estimable woman possessing many of the virtues for which the women folk of Germany have long been renowned.

In 1874, Hans Harder emigrated to the United States, com­ing direct to Germantown, Cal., to which busy center his brother Theodore hail preceded him. There he enjoyed such a welcome as Californians have always accorded to the pioneer from a foreign shore; and in a short time he was bard at work threshing the crops. The next year his wife and three children joined him. Later, when somewhat independent, he bought a half section of railroad land south of Germantown, and for many years farmed the same to grain. He was prosperous from the beginning, his lowest crop of grain weighing twenty-three tons, while his highest tipped the beam at more than a hundred eighteen tons. At first he lived in a small cabin; but as his means increased he built a larger and more modern home, and erected barns and other nec­essary outbuildings. His father joined him in Germantown, and lived on the Yana until his death, at the good old age of over ninety-five.

When the time seemed most propitious, Mr. Harder sold his ranch and came to Willows, where he built a bungalow home at 215 South Plumas Street, and has lived retired from business since August, 1913. In June of the following year his beloved wife died. She was highly esteemed in the community, and particularly in the circles of the Lutheran Church of Germantown, of which they were both members. Eight children, six of whom reached maturity, were born to Mr. and -Mrs. Harder, to each of whom he gave the best of educational advantages. The children are Mrs. Madeline Holtman, of Germantown; Mrs. Margaret Barden, now deceased; Mrs. Henry Michael and Mrs. Dora Pieper, both of Willows; Emma, of Berkeley; and August, of Germantown. The family numbers twelve grandchildren and one great- grandchild.

TROY LAUNDRY

Sticking to a last—after one has made sure, of course, that the last in question is the one of all others to be desired, and therefore the one most likely to last—is not a had plan, as has been demonstrated by C. C. Scott (or “Scotty,” as he is commonly known among his friends), the popular proprietor of the very prosperous Troy Laundry at Willows. Born at Red Oak, Iowa, in 1853, he moved to Ottawa, Mans., with the family when a small, and there was reared and educated. At an early age he worked in laundries at Ottawa, Kansas City, and Alliance, Nebr.; and in the latter state he himself owned a laundry plant. Later, he was in the laundry business at Port Collins, Colo., where he continued until, in 1910, he came to California. He settled for a while in Por­terville, Tulare County, and put in five years as foreman of the Troy Laundry there, and in caring for some valuable real estate which he owned in the town.

In November, 1915, Mr. Scott came to Willows and bought the laundry, which had been established in 1911. He installed new machinery, erected an oil tank with a capacity of a car load, and soon had the only completely equipped steam laundry in Willows, and the only steam laundry on the west side of the valley between Red Bluff and Williams. In a single year, he increased the business of the concern one hundred twenty-six per cent. Twelve hands arc now employed; and besides enjoying- a large local trade the laundry has agencies at Butte City and Germantown, and maintains a large patronage among the ranchers throughout the valley, besides running a country route to Maxwell.

C. C.    Scott was united in marriage with Miss Bertha Wood, a native of Kansas. This union has been blessed by four attractive children: Ross, Ralph, Helen and Hazel. In fraternal circles “Scotty” is well known as a Woodman of the World.

SETH W STANTON That inherited reputation for character and ability is a real asset, is apparent from the interesting record of successes made by Seth W. Stanton, the genial and highly esteemed superintendent of the County Hospital at Willows, who has made himself one of the best-known men in Glenn County. His father was H. C. Stanton, a native of Ohio; and his mother, before her marriage, was Miss Rachel Evans, of Tennessee. Born in Geauga County, in the Buckeye State, on June 18^th, 1838, the elder Stanton came with his parents, in 1840, to Hancock County, Ill.; and twenty-two years later crossed the great plains to California by means of mule teams, landing in August of the same year on Grand Island, Colusa County. There he engaged in farming and teaming over the Sierra Nevada Mountains; but in the fall of 1863 he returned to Illinois. The next year, however, he recrossed the plains to California, and until 1870 lived again on Grand Island. From there he went to French Settlement, southwest of Willows, and now known as the Liberty district; and soon he was farming on a large scale, devoting three thousand acres or more to grain and cattle. He built the first house seen there, and later put himself on record as favoring a. first-class educational system, by doing all in his power to establish the first school in the district, of which he became trustee. On being elected in 1891 as the Republican candidate for sheriff and tax collector of Glenn County, he took up his residence at Willows; and having well satisfied his constituents, he was reelected to the dual office in 1898. While holding this office he died, hi 1903, and was buried with due Masonic honors. Besides the subject of our sketch, five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Stanton: Wilfred, a rancher at Orland; Mrs. Laura St. Louis, of the Liberty district; Harry, now residing in San Francisco; Mollie, one of the attractive ladies of Willows; and Mrs. Florence Cheatham, of Red Bluff.

Born at French Settlement, Colusa (now Glenn) County, July 14, 1870, Seth Stanton grew up, assisting his father on his farm,. and for a short time was in the hotel business at Princeton. Ile remained associated with his father until the latter’s death, in 1903, serving as deputy sheriff under him.

Having served in public office in this capacity, and also as school trustee of the Liberty district, Mr. Stanton, in 1904, was elected supervisor of Glenn County on the Republican ticket ; and thereafter, for ten years continuously, he filled that responsible office, serving as chairman of the board four years of the time. He served the public well, and also added to his own knowledge of civic affairs.

In April, 1914, Mr. Stanton was appointed superintendent of the County Hospital; and this position he is still filling to every­body’s satisfaction. The County Hospital grounds embrace twenty- five acres. Its buildings were constructed many years ago, but are still kept in good condition. Farming on a small scale is carried on there; hogs, stock and chickens are raised, and gardens are cultivated. The nurse, Mrs. Cliffie Tooley Clark, daughter of the late Dr. Tooley, is always in attendance. An operating room is provided for patients; there is a padded cell for the insane; and everything is conducted in the most business-like and up-to-date manner. There is also provision for consumptives in a cottage on the grounds; and both inmates and property are so well cared for that Superintendent Stanton received favorable mention, in 1916, from the county grand jury, and received his fourth appointment to the position, the last two times without opposition. One fact of special interest may here be noted: that among the hospital patients there are very few native Californians.

Mr. Stanton’s first marriage occurred at Willows, in 1890, when he was united with Miss Emma Pollard, a native daughter of Willows. She died here, leaving a son, Pollard, then a year-old baby, whom Mr. Stanton reared, and who, on reaching manhood, married Thelma Covington. Pollard Stanton died in March, 1914, leaving one child, Floretta. In Colusa, on January 18, 1900, Mr. Stanton was married to Miss Bertha Pitcher, born in Watsonville, Cal., a daughter of Robert and California (Milsap) Pitcher, natives of Illinois and Tennessee respectively. The parents became proprietors of the Princeton Hotel, of which Mrs. Pitcher is still hostess. Mrs. Stanton was raised and educated at Princeton. She mothered little Pollard from the time he was four years of age. Since Mr. Stanton’s appointment, she has been the matron of the institution; and it is to her ability and care in the management of the household affairs that no small degree of Mr. Stanton’s success is due. Mr. Stanton stands high in the esteem of his fellow- citizens, by whom he is regarded as a conscientious public servant, well qualified for the task imposed upon him, and thoroughly de­voted to the welfare of those committed to his care.

SIEGFRIED A LARSSON - The rewards of unceasing industry and application are well illustrated in the life and accomplishments of Siegfried A. Larsson, the efficient and well-liked proprietor of the New England Furniture Company, at Willows. Born in the southwestern part of Sweden in 1885, he came to the United States when only sixteen years of age, landing in New York City with about two dollars in his pocket, and not a dozen words of English by which he might make himself understood. But he had it through ticket to Ot­tumwa, Iowa, where he obtained his first work in the packing house of John Morrell & Company. Young Siegfried proved adept, willing and honest. and soon stood high in the estimation of both employers and patrons. He next worked in the furniture and carpet house of the Collins & Heaslip Carpet Company; and learning the business from the ground up, he there started on the path he has since so successfully followed. He then went to the Des Moines branch of the same firm, and afterwards was employed, in succession, by the Denver Dry Goods Company, in Denver; by Messrs. Grote & Rankin, at Spokane, where he was in the drapery department ; by Olds, Worthman & King, at Portland; and finally by the Imperial Furniture Company, at Salem, Ore. This varied experience, under the several managements mentioned, doubtless contributed much to make Mr. Larsson self- reliant and capable; but being more than ordinarily ambitions, he also took a course in salesmanship in the Sheldon Correspondence School.

On July 10, 1913, Mr. Larsson came to Willows, and with C. E. Campbell and J. M. Galusha founded the New England Furniture Company, which bought out the firm of F. W. Talcott & Company. Mr. Larsson has remained, on account of his years of practical participation in the big furniture houses of the West, the active member of this new company; and to him is especially clue the credit for having built up a fine business, which grows with each year. one exclusive line handled by the New England Furniture Company is the Edison Diamond Disc Phonograph. Other specialties for which they are the sole agents are the Globe-Wer­nicke bookcase, the Sherman-Clay pianos, and the McRoskey mattress. They carry, also, a number of superior novelties such as vases, floor lamps, table lamps and antique furniture. This firm has entirely furnished a number of fine homes hi. Williams and Orland, including the elegant residence of F. B. Weinrich, at Willows, and those of J. J. Lochemeyer and E. E. Green, at Orland. The store has the appearance of a large city establishment. There are goods here not generally found in small towns; and the com­pany ships furniture and decorative articles even to Washington and Oregon, and has filled orders for Chicago.

At Des Moines, Iowa, Siegfried A. Larsson married Miss Edith Campbell, of that state; and they are now the parents of two attractive children, Campbell E. and Jane S. Larsson. Standing for the most uplifting influences in the community, both Mr. and Mrs. Larsson find pleasure in supporting religious endeavor. Mr. Larsson is particularly interested in the work of the Y. M. C. A., as he has been, indeed, in each community in which he has resided since he came to America.

CLIFFORD BARTLETT - One of the rising young men of the Sacramento Valley is Clifford Bartlett, widely known as the manager of the Northern Cali­fornia Power Company. Born at Fairhaven, Mass., May 27, 1885, he attended the public schools of New Bedford and Brookline, in that state, and entered on his first business experience in the establishment of a Boston dry goods firm. Afterwards he went to the great metropolis of New York, and there soon attracted attention through his connection with the Sawyer Mann Electrical Company and the Warren Chemical & Manufacturing Company.

October, 1906, found him on his way to California. He came to Redding, in Shasta County, where he gave two years to advancing the interests of the Northern California Power Company; and afterwards he had charge of an office for the same concern at Kennett, not far away. In 1910 he came to Willows as that company’s manager ; and in that capacity be has continued ever since. Such is the confidence of the company in his experience and ability, that his territory extends from Orland south through Colusa County, into Yolo County.

Clifford Bartlett became acquainted with Miss Ellen Wilson, a native of Marysville. and was united with her in marriage, thus becoming connected with the family of a worthy California pioneer, Wesley T. Wilson, who crossed the plains in the days when a man took his life in his hands to go a single mile’s journey through the uninhabited wastes. One daughter, Dorothy Ellen, has blessed this union. Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett are popular socially. Fraternally, he is a member of the Masonic order.

P G JONES - The wide-awake manager of the Associated Oil Company, at Willows, P. G. Jones, has had his full measure of success. Born in Chicago, Ill., September 4, 1882, he was the son of a brick con­tractor well-known in the early days in Chicago, the builder of the Palmer House. P. G. Jones was reared in McHenry County, and embarked in the electrical business at Chicago; and for twelve years he traveled on the road for the Allen, Bradley Company, through New York, Pennsylvania and the Western states. In 1909, he came to San Francisco, and for a couple of years repre­sented an Eastern electrical manufacturing supply house. Two years later, he removed to Willows and at once displayed that characteristic energy by which he has always made his presence known in business circles. With a partner he established an oil- supply business under the firm name of Jones S Carvill, catering to both wholesale and retail trade, for which they erected an oil tank. After building up and enjoying a good business, they sold out their plant in 1913 to the Associated Oil Company and dis­solved partnership; whereupon Mr. Jones was made manager, an office he has continued to fill ever since.

So familiar has he proven himself with the wants of the district, and so acceptable has been his service to the numerous pat­rons of the company, that the local trade has grown until now three oil tanks are in operation and sixty thousand gallons are distributed monthly. The territory of the Associated Oil Company, as managed by Mr. Jones, now extends from Maxwell to Orland, in one direction, and from the Sacramento River to Lake County in the other.

P. G. Jones was united in marriage with Miss Ione B. Miller, from Colorado. To this excellent couple three children have been born: Paul, Virginia and Bill. Mr. Jones is well known in the circles of the Elks, being a member of Muskegon, Mich., Lodge, No. 274.

JOHN H. GREY

It used to he an old saying in the East that if a man could sell sewing machines he could probably make anything prosper to winch he devoted his time and talent ; and judging by the success of J. H. Grey, the popular agent for the Standard Oil Company at Willows, both in earlier and in recent years, the old saying would seem to be true. Born in Monmouth County, N. J., where he was also schooled, young Grey early entered the service of the Singer Sewing Machine Company, of New York, and for fifteen years represented that world-famous concern, while traveling for them on the road. In 1905, he came to California, and for five years was with the same company at their headquarters in San Francisco. Ile then joined the forces of another world-famous concern, the Standard Oil Company, working at their San Francisco office;  and in 1912 he was transferred to Willows as the company’s special agent. His ability having been recognized, he was given the territory in Glenn County from north of Butte City to St. John, and from Maxwell to Orland, Stonyford and Elk Creek, Newville and the Millsaps district. In this, the largest territory on the west side of the valley, he has been instrumental in increasing the business of the company in a single year by fully fifty per cent. Mr. Grey has under his direction five men and one clerk. Two auto trucks supply the outlying districts; and three horse-drawn vehicles supply the short hauls and the local trade. The majority of the increase in business has been made under the management of Mr. Grey.

PAUL DAVIS BANE - Particularly instructive, as well as interesting, is the story of Paul Davis Bane, long one of the most prominent factors in the promotion of the Orland Government Irrigation Project. He was born near Gilroy, Santa Clara County, on July 26, 1864, being the youngest son of William R. and Ann W. Bane, natives of Kentucky and Missouri respectively.

Mr. Bane attended the common schools of his native county till his eyes weakened. While resting his eyes for a time, he learned the trade of painter and furniture-finisher in San Jose, after which he attended the Garden City Business College, gradu­ating from that institution in 1883. During the same year he entered the law office of Wm. L. Gill, but after eight months of cler­ical work and study, was again forced to give up his aspirations of becoming a lawyer. He then returned to his father’s ranch near Gilroy, and took up the study and practice of agriculture.

Having a desire to own and operate an orchard, his efforts were directed to that end; but on account of circumstances over which he had no control, several years elapsed before a favorable opportunity presented itself. In 1888 lie bought an undivided in­terest in an orchard in San Joaquin County. Owing to a very wet winter in 1889 and 1890, a heavy loss was sustained through the death of trees from too much water; so Mr. Bane, realizing his remaining interest would not justify his time, sold out and moved to Orland, Glenn (then Colusa) County, in 1890, having accepted the foremanship on what was known in those days as the Bryan ranch, containing nine hundred sixty acres and located two miles east of Orland.

On coming to Orland, Mr. Bane had a proposition made him by the Bryan heirs to plant an orchard; but he preferred living here for a time pending his decision.

On February I, 1891, Paul Davis Bane was united in mar­riage with Miss Anna Newcum, of Oakland. Three children were born of this minion: Berniece, William Reynolds, and Lila Wood Bane. Of these, Berniece and Lila Wood are living. They are now both married, and reside in San Jose.

After sizing up local conditions, Mr. Bane decided to plant an almond orchard, and in 1892 planted sixty-six acres under a heavy protest and severe criticism from his neighbors, who claimed that trees would not grow here without irrigation. Being an advocate of thorough cultivation, Mr. Bane ventured what he believed would be a safe investment; and his efforts have been crowned with success. He is considered the pioneer almond- grower of his county, and the best-posted man on almonds in Northern California. It was his almond orchard that proved beyond a doubt to the government officials that they would be mak­ing no mistake should they recommend Orland favorably for federal irrigation.

Mr. Bane has taken an active interest in educational matters, and for a number of years has been president and secretary of the board of trustees of the Orland High School.

In 1901, Mr. Bane was married to Miss Annabell E. Hewitt, of Orland, but formerly of Michigan. Mrs. Bane was formerly identified with the schools in Michigan. After her arrival in Orland, she was for some time connected with the Orland Register. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bane are in harmony with public enterprises, and are still active in many ways in their promotion. Much credit is given Mr. Bane, by his home town, his county, and his state. He is a Mason: and both he and his wife are members of the Eastern Star. Both are musically inclined.

JOHN HENRY PETERICH - What steady application to hard, honest labor may accomplish, is illustrated in the career of John Henry Peterich, a native of Holstein, Germany, where he was born on November 4, 1949. His father was John Peterich, who married Katrina Wesselman. Both his parents died in Germany. Of seven children—three sons and four daughters—John Henry was the second in the order of birth. After he had finished his schooling, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker. Later, be was associated for a time with his father at Brannstadt. Then, joining a party of friends who were coming to the United States, he sailed for New York, and reached California in the early seventies, and locating at Germantown, hired him­self out by the week as a ranchman. When he had saved money enough, he bought a hundred sixty acres to the west of the town, and there engaged in farming until 1895. Selling out this property, he then bought another tract, of five hundred seventy-five acres, a mile west of Germantown; and he also rented some seventeen hundred acres.

At present, in addition to his farming operations, Mr. Peterich conducts a livery and feed stable at Germantown. He tills a thousand acres of rented land in the vicinity,. which he has planted to grain; and he farms three hunched acres, also planted to grain, in the Jacinto district. Besides these interests, he owns three hundred acres of fine grazing land on the hills to the north of Germantown.

Some years ago, Mr. Peterich married Miss Christina Hinse, a native of Germany. Of this marriage several children have been born. Herman married Belle Horan and lives in Stockton; Agnese is the wife of Edward Rehse; Frederich married Miss Minnie Rehse, and is the father of two daughters; Karl married Miss Martha Johnson, and their home is brightened by two daughters and a son; Oscar married Miss Emma Rickens, now the mother of one daughter; John married Miss Maggie Masterson. by whom he has had one daughter; and Otto married Miss Manda Rex.

EUGENE P SMITH - One of the rising young men of Glenn County is Eugene P. Smith, the efficient and up-to-date manager of the Glenn County Lumber Company, at Butte City. He was born at Reno, Okla., April 28, 1887, and when eight years old moved with his family to Scott County, Mo., where his father soon became engaged in the manufacture of wagon spokes. He was educated at the Oklahoma schools, to which state his parents returned after living for a time in Missouri; and having always been interested in the lumber bus­iness, even as a schoolboy, he decided to enter that line of business. At first he was employed for one year by the lumber firm of Davidson & Case, and afterwards was with the Conklin Lumber Company for one year, at El Reno, Okla., after which he returned to the employ of Davidson Case, with whom he remained dur­ing four years in various locations in the state. With these two companies he learned the business thoroughly; and when the opportune time came, he was able and ready to assume a much greater responsibility, with success.

In 1912 Mr. Smith arrived in California and located temporarily in Willows, after which he became agent for the Glenn County Lumber Company, at Sidd’s Landing, remaining there until October, 1916, when the plant was removed to Butte City, and he became manager there. As a side line, he writes fire insurance, working in the interests of a couple of the strongest fire insurance companies.

In 1913 Mr. Smith was married to Miss Ida Gelbach, of Penn­sylvania, by whom be has had two sons: Eugene P., Jr., and Robert G. Smith. He has recently completed a fine modern bungalow for himself and family at Butte City, one of the best residences in the town.

MERTON BELL

The career of Merton Bell, the enterprising druggist of Butte City, affords an encouraging example of a man who, overwhelmed by disaster, has nevertheless been able by heroic pluck and intelli­gent management to rise again from the depths of misfortune. He was born at Richmond, Ind., July 19, 1889, the son of Charles C. Bell, a railroad man, who married Miss Ada Bartling, the daughter of a well-known inventor. His parents were both natives of Ohio. When eight years old, Merton moved with the family to Indianapolis. As a boy of ten years he worked in a drug store, while going to school, to help pay the expenses of his education. Later be had the satisfaction of graduating in both a regular and a special course at Winona Technical Institute, the well- known branch of the University of Purdue, receiving the degrees of Ph. G. and Ph. C.

After graduating in 1906, Mr. Bell Came West to Silver City, N. M., and there worked for a time as assayer. His next move brought him to Merced, where he worked as clerk in the drug store of N. L. A. Cody. After that, he was manager of the Merced Drug Company, having under his direction no less than five clerks. This experience having demonstrated his power to organize and develop, he went into business for himself at Hawthorne, Nev. At the end of two years, however, he was burned out in a large fire which destroyed much property in the neighborhood; and he then settled at Tonopah, Nev., where he worked in a drug store for a couple of years.

In the spring of 1913, Mr. Bell came to Butte City and bought the Gatliff Drug Store, which had been closed for some years. In a short time he increased the stock from six hundred dollars’ worth to six thousand; and in like manner he has progressed ever since. Recently he purchased two business lots on Main Street in Butte City, buying these as an investment.

Some years ago Mr. Bell was married to Miss Gladys Barneburg, an attractive lady of Oregon. Mr. and Mrs. Bell are social favorites in their community, where they have a wide circle of friends.

JOHN H BROUGH - In John H. Brough, the manager of the well-appointed branch of the Sacramento Valley Bank, Butte City not only has one of its rising financiers, but an exemplary young citizen filled with that spirit of local loyalty so desirable in an expanding community. He was born in faraway New Brunswick, Canada, on December 7, 1888, the son of John M. Brough, the cashier of the Sacramento Valley Bank. After coming to California, he attended the public schools at Gridley, and then matriculated as a student at the Cali­fornia Baptist College at Oakland, from which in due course of time he graduated with honors. From there Mr. Brough went to Portland, Ore., where he became associated with the Western Lime & Plaster Company, which was owned and controlled by the Ladd & Tilton Bank, of Portland. When the branch of the Sacramento Valley Bank was opened, he was made cashier and manager.

This bank, one of the oldest in Butte County, was established in 1874 as a private bank by G. K. Smith. In 1891, it was incorporated as the Sacramento Valley Bank; and fifteen years later John M. Brough was made cashier. The institution had a paid-up capital of sixty thousand dollars; and on December 1, 1910, a branch was opened at Butte City, to which reference has been made. From the first this branch has met with remarkable success. It is housed in a modern brick building on the main business thoroughfare of the town, and is altogether an establishment of which the city may well be proud.

John D. Brough was united in marriage with Miss Diana Simpson, a native of Indiana. Mr. Brough owns forty-three acres of a fine fruit ranch, a mile south of Butte City, of which twenty- four are devoted to almond culture and fifteen to French prunes.

ANTHONY RADEMACHER - A general merchandise establishment in Butte City well worth a visit, both for its large and varied stock and for the methods by which its business is conducted in consideration of every want and preference of its many patrons, is that of Anthony Rademacher, who was born in Clinton County, Mich., November 25, 1883, the son of Anthony Rademacher, a native German, who died when his son was a baby. The mother, before her marriage, was Frl. Anna C. Thelen. Anthony was educated in his native state, attending the German Catholic School at Westphalia, Mich., where he man­aged to hold his own as a wide-awake and ambitious pupil.

Having learned the trade of a barber, he followed that line of work for a time in the great city of Chicago; and in 1905 he came west to California and opened a barber shop at Oakdale, Stanis­laus County. Four years later he removed to Butte City, and here opened another shop. In each of these towns he had the satisfaction of maintaining the best local tonsorial headquarters.

Some years ago. Anthony Rademacher was united in marriage with Miss Grace Hamilton, of Chico, the attractive daughter of well-known early settlers in Butte County. Mr. and Mrs. Rademacher are the parents of one daughter, Ardell.

HENRY K MCMATH - Besides an honored name, and the example of a well-directed and successful life, Henry K. McMath has inherited from his father, Cyrus McMath, a native of Detroit, those invaluable qualities so often transmitted by a pioneer, which have undoubtedly had much to do with the son’s acknowledged attainments. In the early fifties, his father came to California with his wife, traveling from New York by way of Panama, and while crossing the Isthmus had a thrilling experience such as might dampen anybody’s ardor, and which could not but contribute, when the journey was over, to the settler’s satisfaction at arriving safely in the promised land. The railroad across the Isthmus had just been completed ; and when the train carrying the McMaths and their fellow passengers was making its first trip, it had a head-on collision, and some of the cars went down with a poorly constructed bridge. Many of the passengers were killed, while others were crippled for life. Mr. and Mrs. McMath arrived in San Francisco at the time when the young city was the scene of violent disorders, and when the Vigilantes were just beginning to appear and take the situation in hand; and this doubtless led them to hurry on to Sacramento, where, for a while, they were located. Later, they removed to Marysville; and it was not until the late seventies that they took up their residence at Willows. On the lot where the Tenney and Schmidt Garage now stands, Mr. McMath opened a livery business, which he conducted until some twenty years ago. After that, he undertook the grinding of barley and the baling of hay; and he became noted as one of the best authorities on grain and alfalfa in the valley. He also contracted for, and built, about twenty miles of the Central Canal and laterals, with steam power and graders.

In 1867, when Henry K. McMath was two years old, he accompanied his parents and the rest of the family overland from Marysville, by way of Fonts Springs, to Gravelly Valley, in Lake County. The party was assisted over the mountains by Indians, with their park tennis. After a short time the family moved on to Cottonwood, in Tehama County, where a son, Edgar, was born, and where the subject of our sketch attended school.

The family next pitched its tent at Adin, in Modoc County, where the father for a year and a half managed a hotel; and in 1875 they came hack to Lake County and settled on a government claim in Elk Valley. The pioneer engaged in sheep- and cattle- raising, and also built some of the first wagon roads through the mountains. With characteristic enterprise and a proper conception of the wants of an undeveloped country, he also erected two sawmills—the first of the kind seen there. Wild animals and game then abounded. As many as fifty-three bears were killed in one

In 1889, he came to Willows, and for a short time conducted a butcher shop here, after which he went to Redding, in Shasta County, where he started the Modoc Corral, or feed stables. After three months he returned to Willows, and entered his father’s employ in the livery stable. He also worked on hay-balers and threshing-machines, and later started the Elk Horn Stables, on North Tehama Street; but when, after a couple of years, this was  burned out, he went to Grass Valley, in Nevada County, and for three months managed a livery stable. Afterwards he worked for a while in a gold mine at East Harmony.

When he returned to Willows, he built the new Elk Horn Stables on the site of the old ones, that had been burned; and when he had made them a financial success, he sold out to C. B. Asher. Then he bought a house and thirty-two lots on Vine Street, for which he paid nine hundred dollars. He soon disposed of this property at a profit, receiving thirteen hundred fifty dollars. Later, he bought a place on East Wood Street, for four hundred fifty dollars, and soon sold it to Jake Beilar for fourteen hun­dred dollars. Mr. McMath helped his father to build the old irrigation canal, for which he ran the steam engine used in excavating. He was employed in this way on twenty miles of the canal.

Seeing a good opening in the second-hand furniture business, Mr. McMath set up shop in a barn in the rear of the Mike Kahn residence, and ran a business there for six months, when he sold out for five hundred dollars. Still later, he undertook a larger and better furniture establishment, handling both old, and new goods. He has built up a thriving business; and customers come from all parts of the valley to trade at his establishment. He is the oldest second-hand dealer in Willows, the one, in fact, who has made the undertaking a success, having opened business on November 21, 1910, and outlived five competitors. When he bought his present place, at 201 South Tehama Street, it was a rooming-house, for which, with the lot, he paid two thousand five hundred dollars; and having improved and enlarged the place, he rented a sufficient number of rooms, for fifteen months, to pay for his property.

W W WHEELER - The manager of the supply station of the Northern California Power Company, at Hamilton City, W. W. Wheeler, was born at Benton, Mono County, Cal., on October 13, 1873. His father was J. Otis Wheeler, who sailed around the Horn from New Bedford, Mass., and reached the Golden State in 1852. Soon after landing he went to Mono County, where he mined for silver. His good wife died in 1878, and he lived in Mono County until his death in 1892.

William Walter Wheeler was educated, first at the grammar schools and then at the high school, in Mono County, and finally at the Stockton Business College. He began business life in San Francisco, where he became au apprentice in the service of the Westinghouse Electric Company. He was soon sent by that concern to install plants in various parts of California and Nevada, and became an expert in the electrical field. In 1902 he went to Redding, Shasta County, where he remained, as an employee of the Northern California Power Company, until 1908. Then he came to Hamilton City to make the necessary surveys, and to in­stall the plant of the Northern California Power Company here; and in this place he has remained ever since. He designed the concrete station for the Power Company, and also the concrete structure for the Hamilton Sugar Factory substation. He was with the company when the plant was erected at Willows, and has more than once proved the right man in the right place.

Mr. Wheeler is a member of the Elks and Masons, and is associated with the lodges at Redding.

A M GELSTON - Through his position as manager of the Hamilton City factory of the Sacramento Valley Sugar Company, A. M. Gelston has become well-known in Hamilton City, with whirls fast developing town he has been actively associated, practically from its beginning. He was born in New York State, July 29, 1859, and was graduated from the University of Michigan in 1882. Ile became interested in the manufacture of railroad and mill machinery at Bay City, Mich., where he lived and worked for fifteen years. In 1897, he was identified with the erection of the first beet-sugar factory, at Bay City in the Saginaw district, east of the Mississippi; and in the spring of 1906 be came to the Coast. Settling in Hamilton City, he at once became associated with the Sacramento Valley Sugar Company as its cashier, and in the fall of 1913 became the manager of the plant. This responsible position be holds at the present time.

The Sacramento Valley Sugar Company is a Los Angeles corporation, organized and still controlled by New York and Los Angeles capital, its president being William C. Baker, of Los Angeles, and its vice-president George S. Safford. In the fall of 1905, the company bought five thousand acres from the Chambers estate, and started at once to develop its resources. It set aside four hundred acres as a town site, and named the town after J. G. Hamilton, of New York; and soon the streets were laid out, and the necessary buildings were constructed. In 1906, the factory was erected, and continued in operation until 1913 E C Hamilton and J. McCoy Williams were in charge of the construction and operation of the factory. For five years, P. H. Prein acted for the company as its agriculturist, and he was assisted by H. C. Shay, who continued in office until, in 1916, he was drowned in the Sacramento River. Mr. Prein was succeeded by E. H. Nicholson, who was chief agriculturist until 1914. When it was necessary to close the works, the land was farmed to barley, and with abundant success, the rich bottom soil yielding twenty sacks to the acre. In the fall of 1917, after a period of inactivity, the factory was again reopened.

Some years ago Mr. Gelston had the great misfortune to lose his estimable wife. She left two sons, both graduates of the University of California. One is Clain F. Gelston, resident physician at the University of California Hospital at San Francisco; and the other is Arthur S. Gelston, a civil engineer residing in Berkeley. Fraternally, Mr. Gelston belongs to the Masonic Lodge in Bay City, Mich.

WILLIAM J APPLEGATE - Few men among the great mass of efficient citizens have bequeathed to posterity a more enviable record for duty well per­formed than the late William J. Applegate, the value of whose life-work and accomplishment has been recognized by his fellow citizens. William J. Applegate was a native of Pike County, Ill., where he was born on September 5, 1856, the son of Samuel and Mary Ann (Myers) Applegate, both of Ohio. - The father died when William was a little child; and the mother remarried, her second husband being George Westrope. In 1864, the family crossed the plains to California, and settled in Butte County, where the mother is still living on a ranch near Pentz, at the age of eighty-five years.

More or less self-educated, although he had his turn at the country schools, William Applegate worked in a store to pay for his instruction, and later attended the Oakland Business College. In 1887, he took a clerkship in the general merchandise store of Charles Papst, at St. John, in Glenn County; and after that he clerked at Clipper Gap, in Placer County.

When he returned to St. John, he became a partner with Richard Billion and bought out the Papst store, and with his usual foresight and push began to make things spell success from the start. After a while he bought out his partner, and then conducted the store alone. Alive to all the questions of the day, Mr. Applegate was active in politics, especially under the Democratic banner, and as a member of the Democratic County Committee. He was appointed postmaster at St. John; and a better administration of that office the town never enjoyed. At the time when Hamilton City was started, in 1906, he closed out his store at St. John, and established the first merchandise business at Hamilton City, which he continued until his death.

On June 3, 1914, Mr. Applegate married Miss Nettie E. Dunning, a lady of rare personal charms, who is still an honored resi­dent at Hamilton City; and with her he enjoyed the social activities of the community. He was a thirty-second-degree Scottish Rite Knight Templar Mason, and a Shriner, and was also a mem­ber of the Elks of Chico. Mr. Applegate was charitable to all. He had great capacity for friendship, and qualities of mind and heart that easily attracted the regard of others; and when he closed his career, on October 9, 1914, his passing was regarded as a public loss.

ROBERT BRUCE DUNNING - A pioneer who not only has made a success at farming, but has contributed much to the cause of primary education and the bettering of an earlier, cruder condition of society, is Robert Bruce Dunning, who was born in the parish of San De Leandia, La., on April 20, 1848. His father was William A. Dunning, who came to California by way of the Isthmus in 1652, and mined for a while at Yankee Jim, Placer County, after which he went to Sutterville, five miles south of Sacramento. There Robert assisted his father on their ranch.

Later, Robert Dunning took up ranching for himself at Wat­sonville, after which he came to Santa Clara County, and then put in a year, in 1881, in Washington Territory. He then came back to California, and settled at St. John, in Glenn County. For four­teen years Mr. Dunning was road master of the district in which he lived, and no better administration of that office has the public there enjoyed. He helped dig the old canal, and not merely laid it out on its approved lines, but also exerted himself to construct it under the most economic conditions and at the least ultimate expense.

On January 26, 1593, Mr. Dunning bought his fine ranch of two hundred sixty-eight acres at Hamilton City, the old Sharkey Place on the Colby grant, a tract of rich land along the Sacra­mento River. This he farmed until 1912, when he retired to Ham­ilton City and rented his property.

Mrs. Dunning was Miss Annie Shade before her marriage. She is the mother of seven children: Clarence C., -Albert W., Robert Harold, Ray E., and three daughters—Mrs. Nettie E. Applegate; Ada May, Mrs. W. C. Stevens ; and Mrs. Estella  Livingston.

Always a leader and a spokesman in matters of public im­provement, Mr. Dunning helped build the first schoolhouse in his section—a service the value of which may be better appreciated when it is known that it was the only school building between Princeton, in Colusa County, and Tehama County. In fraternal life, Mr. Dunning is an Odd Fellow, a member of the Chico Lodge.

ELI J. KIBBY

An engineer who is not only exceptionally proficient in every detail of his extensive and intricate field of work, but who understands the possibilities in the application of modern science to the wants and comforts of modern society, is Eli J. Kibby, chief electrician at the Hamilton Sugar Factory, in Hamilton City. He was horn at Grayson, Carter County, Ky., on January 29, 1857, where he was reared and educated. At the age of eighteen he began to teach, and for eight years presided over the class-room. During this period he taught in no less than eight schools, in four differ­ent districts of his native state.

In 1883, the young pedagogue moved westward to Kansas, where again he worked in cycles of eight. He had abandoned teaching, however, and was now busy as an electrical engineer. For eight years he was at Clay Center; and for another eight years he was at Junction City, where he was superintendent of the electrical plant. The next year he put in at Colorado Springs in Colorado, as electrician to the Philadelphia Smelting Company.

Attracted to Colton, Cal., in 1902, Mr. Kibby became chief electrician at the Portland Cement Works, in which position he continued for a year and a half. He then went to Los Angeles County, and for two years was in charge of the electrical system of the Pacific Light & Power Company, at Azusa and Covina. His next move was to Chico, where he was busy for a year installing an electrical plant for the Diamond Match Company. About the same time, he conducted an electrical fixture store in that town.

Selling out in 1906, Mr. Kibby came to Hamilton City and took charge of the construction of the electrical equipment at the sugar factory here; and soon after he wired the town of Hamilton City. He also installed the pumping plant at the sugar factory, and remained with that concern until 1913, when the works stun down. For the next three years he massaged a ranch of eighty acres, which he owned two miles southeast of Hamilton City; and there, with the assistance of his son, Orville, he developed a first- class dairy. He was in charge of the electrical department of the sugar factory until April, 1917, when he became connected with the Alameda Sugar Company at Alvarado, as chief electrician. His experienced son manages the ranch, raising a hundred fifty head or more of hogs, and growing some of the hest alfalfa seen in this part of the state.

In 1879, Miss Grace Holbrook, a native of Greenup County, Ky., and a member of a well-known and historic family of that state, became the wife of Mr. Kibby. They are the parents of three children: Frances, Mrs. Block, of Los Angeles; Bessie, wife of William Dixon, of Los Angeles; and Orville, who married Helen Ryan, and has one daughter, Grace. Mr. Kibby is a member of the Knights of Pythias. In politics he is a Democrat.

JOSEPH WILDERMAN - A proprietor of a finely equipped dairy ranch, who gets five crops of alfalfa a year and milks as many as half a hundred cows, is Joseph Wilderman, a native of Fayette County, Pa., where he was born on March 4, 1847. His father was Jacob Wilderman, a native of Germany, who married Miss Hannah Adams, a native of Pennsylvania. Joseph Wilderman was educated at one of the ex­cellent country schools for which Pennsylvania has long been famed; and when he was twenty-four years of age, he left home and started West to make his way alone and unaided in the world. Arriving in California, he directed his steps to San Diego, then a town about the size of Willows. In that vicinity, he found his first work at hauling wood from the hills into the town. When he left there he settled in Mendocino County, where be worked for a year and a half in the redwood lumber camps, near Ukiah.

In 1873, Mr. Wilderman arrived in Colusa County, and having bought a band of sheep, was for six years engaged in sheep-raising, west of the town of Williams. He also went in for grain- farming in the same locality, and for succeeding seasons rented six hundred forty acres of land, which he made into one of the most attractive ranches in that section. Mr. Wilderman next located at Hamilton City, in 1906, when the sugar factory was being erected; and seeing a good opportunity for business in hauling beets to the factory, be made that the object of his special enter­prise. Afterwards he undertook to do grading work at Beckwith, in Plasmas County, during the construction of the Western Pacific Railroad; and then he was on his ranch near Williams.

Mr. Wilderman  married Mrs. Kate Otten, a native of Ger­many. They have been blessed with five children, three daughters and two sons. The daughters are Mrs. Russell Wright, Mrs. T. W. Harlan, and Mrs. Edward Bedford. One son, William, mar­ried Miss Selma Mohr ; the other, Christopher, married Miss Ada Crawford. There are also five grandchildren in the family. Mrs. Wilderman, by her former marriage, had a son, John Otten.

FLINT W. SIDENER

A justice of the peace who has fourteen years of splendid record to his credit, is Flint W. Sidener, a native of Lexington, Ky., where he was born on August 15, 1868. His father was John A. Sidener, an evangelist, who traveled widely in the United States preaching the Gospel; while his mother, who died when be was a child, was in maidenhood Miss Elizabeth White, of Tennessee. Brought up in Kentucky and Tennessee, the lad was educated according to the excellent standards prevailing in that favored section of our country.

In the fall of 1885, Flint Sidener accompanied his father, brother and sister to California, settling at Orland, where for four years he attended the Orland College. He then took up ranch work as a farm hand, and later swung an axe and guided the saw in the great lumber Woods of the State of Washington. He has made his home, however, nearly all the time that he has been in the West, in the community of whose progress he always speaks with pride. He was elected to the office of justice of the peace in 1902, and has served continuously ever since.

For a while, Mr. Sidener was in the tailoring business, and then he conducted a confectionery store here. At present he is looking after a seven-acre ranch on West Walker Street, where he does diversified farming. He has a graded Jersey cow that tests 8.65 butter fat, close to the world’s record.

On August 6, 1901; Flint W. Sidener married Miss Lillie Lake, a native of Orland, and the daughter of Daniel Lake, the pioneer farmer and blacksmith of this district. Seven children have come to bless their home: Stanley M., Ray A., Clay W., John Tyler, Merle Wallace, Mande Virginia, and Flint Worth. Fraternally, Mr. Sidener is an Odd Fellow, being associated with the Orland Lodge, No. 218. He has passed through all the chairs, and was a delegate to the Grand Lodge at the meeting in Los Angeles in 1907. He is also a member of the Woodmen of the World. Mr. Sidener is a member of the Christian Church; while Mrs. Sidener is a Baptist; and belongs to the organizations of that church, and to the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.

LINDSEY HUDSON

The important part played by civil engineering in modern civilization is well represented by Lindsey Hudson, of Willows, who was born in Meigs County, Ohio, on June 19, 1877, and in 1884 came with his parents, Charles E. and Hannie (Lindsey) Hudson, to Western Kansas. He lived in different parts of that state until 1894, going to school and clerking in stores in Dodge City. In the latter year, he located in Salt Lake City; and for three years he attended school there. In 1898, Mr. Hudson saw service for a year in the Philippine Islands, as a member of the Utah Light Artillery, a private company known as the Mormon Battery, attached to the Eighth Army Corps. Second Division, under Richard A. Young, Commander He took part in many skirmishes on land, and he also did river patrol duty.

On his return to Salt Lake City, Mr. Hudson was for four years connected with the engineering department of the Oregon Short Line Railroad. Thereafter he was a member of the State Engineering Department of Idaho, and as such put in a year at Boise. Then he was assistant engineer for the Twin Falls Land Water Company, in its engineering department, where he was busily employed until 1906. In partnership with his father, he went into the mining brokerage business, with offices at Tonopah, Goldfield, Salt Lake, and San Francisco.

In 1908, Mr. Hudson came to Willows and entered the employ of the Sacramento Valley Irrigation Company. He started in as an instrument man, and when he left the company in 1913 he was general foreman in the construction and farming departments. From there he went to Atascadero, in San Luis Obispo County, and became the general superintendent of the Lewis Colony. For eighteen months he did construction and engineering work, organizing the forces there.

Since February, 1916, Mr. Hudson has made his residence in Willows, where he is engaged in the private practice of his pro­fession. His chief work has been along the line of irrigating systems for the growing of rice. He was the engineer for the Mallon & Blevins people, who are developing seven thousand acres five miles east of Maxwell, Colusa County. He was associated with D. W. Ross, the engineering expert of San Francisco, in water projects in Glenn County, and for the past year has been installing six small lateral systems for outside parties. He has Prepared over nine thousand acres, in 1917, for the cultivation of rice.

in 1907, Mr. Hudson was married to Miss Wanda Murray, of Oregon. In social circles he is a member of the Clampers.

ARTHUR F KRONSBEIN - One of the leading contractors and builders of Glenn County, whose expensive and successful operations have had much to do with influencing the trend of architecture in this section of the state, is Arthur F. Kronsbein, a native of Lafayette County, Mo., where he was born, of German parents, on October 4, 1883. He was brought up in his native state and given the best of popular educational advantages, and when through with his studies was apprenticed to learn the carpenter’s trade. At the age of eighteen, he left home and settled for a while at Arlington, Nebr., where he erected a number of the finest buildings, including the high school. For some years he followed his line of work in the Middle West, and later returned to Corder, Mo., and there erected some fine homes.

In 1907, he came to California and located in Orland, where he has since lived. The first year of his residence lie was in the employ of John B. Hazelton, the contractor, but more recently he has been operating for himself. He has erected a goodly number of the most attractive homes in the Orland section, and has been peculiarly successful in the building of ranch houses. Many of the most imposing dwellings in the farming districts were put up by him, his center of activity being the area within seven miles around Orland. Undoubtedly much of his success is due to his ability to draw his own plans and specifications. Besides the residences and farm buildings that he has put tip, he has contracted for a number of the best business blocks in town. Among the structures that have come into existence through his taste, skill and enterprise are the Hicks Building and the Peter Christianson Building; while the following is a partial list of those for whom he has built homes and ranch buildings: Ed. Green, E. King, Henry McBain, C. Henry Jasper, F. L. Cook —on the state highway—and Mr. Martin, the banker. Mr. Kronsbein owns two fine houses, built by himself, and is also the owner of two valuable unimproved house lots. Besides these properties he has a planing-mill on South Fifth Street.

Arthur F. Kronsbein was married to Miss Tracy Jasper, a native of California, and the daughter of the pioneer, Henry Jasper. One child, a daughter named Paulina, has blessed their union.

BEGUHL & BELIEU [MRS] Mrs. Beguhl and Mrs. Belieu are native daughters of California, and are sisters. Mrs. Beguhl was barn and reared in Colusa (now Glenn) County, and taught school successively in Glenn, Santa Clara and San Luis Obispo Counties. Her husband, J. P. Beguhl, is a native of Rio Vista, Solano County, Cal., and is engaged in the lumber business and in mining in Fresno County, having a lumber mill in the Pine Ridge section. A lady of artistic taste, who has traveled considerably in the West, Mrs. Beguhl has a fine collection of Indian baskets, possessing the second largest lot of Tulare-weave Indian baskets in the state. She is the owner of one of the snowshoes worn by the Indians who went to the rescue of the famous Donner party at Donner Lake, in 1846. Mr. and Mrs. Beguhl are the parents of two children, Charles and Hazel.

Mrs. C. F. Belieu, who was also born in Colusa County, has had many years of experience in mercantile life, at one time conducting a store in Willows, and also working for others who dealt in ladies’ wearing apparel. Her husband, C. F. Belieu, was reared in Willows, and has followed railroading and other lines of work. They are the parents of two children, Zelma and Charlotte.

The father of Mrs. Beguhl and Mrs. Belieu is Henry V. Branham, one of the early settlers and land-developers of Colusa and Glenn Counties. He was born at St. Charles, Mo., eighteen miles from St. Louis, on September 1, 1849. His father was Charles J. Branham, a native of Kentucky, and his mother was Mary Elizabeth (Richards) Branham, who was born in Missouri, When eleven years old, Henry Branham went to Rulo, Nebr., where lie was reared by an aunt; and when he reached his ma­jority, he moved farther West to Wyoming, where he worked in a general store at a frontier trading point near Fort Laramie. There lie saw many stirring events during the Indian troubles, in which his uncle and two of his cousins were killed by the redskins. After a year there, he returned to Nebraska, and then migrated to California, arriving here on April 5, 1874. At first he worked for George Hoffman on a ranch near Polo; and then, with his brother-in-law, Alfred St. Louis, he rented five hundred acres of land from Hugh Logan. near Norman, which they farmed for three years to grain. With St. Louis, he also bought a hundred sixty acres of land from the Colusa County Bank, and the two partners farmed the same together. The next year he bought a hundred sixty acres near by, which he planted to grain and continued to farm for several years. He then sold out to Mr. St. Louis and moved to Norman, where he was in business for a year.

HENRY V BRANHAM - Henry V. Branham was married to Margaret A. St. Louis, a daughter of Colbert St. Louis. Colbert St. Louis was born in Ottawa, Canada, .July 10, 1810, and died in Yolo County on Novem­ber 10, 1866. He came to the United States at an early date, locating in St. Louis County, Mo., where he carried on farming. The metropolis of that county, St. Louis, was named in honor of his family, members of which played a prominent part in public affairs. He crossed the plains to California in 1850. The party in which he was traveling was attacked by the cholera, and one death occurred. On reaching California, he located his family near Knight’s Landing, where he took up land and engaged in farming. The following year he sold out and bought a farm near Yolo ; and there, on his one hundred sixty acres, he lived until his death in 1863. Colbert St. Louis was three times married. The maiden name of his last wife was Mary Margaret Lucien, by whom he had the following children: Antonio T.; Henry B.; Mary F., wife of William Spence; Margaret A., wife of H. V. Branham; Emma L., wife of Julian David; and George E. Mary Margaret Lucien was a native of Portage, Mo., where she was born on August 6, 1833. Her death occurred in Willows, on February 21, 1916.

The children of Mr. and Mrs. Henry V. Branham are Mrs. C. F. Belieu and Mrs. J. P. Beguhl, of Willows; Mrs. Frank Garnett, of the same town, who had two children; and Charles J. and Chester IL Branham. Charles Branham is the manager of the Printery, for the Lewis Colony at Atascadero, San Luis Obispo County. Chester Branham is also in the Printery, at the same place. He has a son, Glenn.

F H ROEBUCK - An enterprising merchant, and formerly an equally successful rancher, who has the distinction of having been the second settler in the Bayliss district, is F. H. Roebuck, a native of England, where he was born in Leeds. Yorkshire, May 3, 1879. When he was a year old, his parents, John W. and Eliza (Scott) Roebuck, brought him to the United States, to a farm near Topeka, Mans.; and after another year the family moved to that city. Eight years later, the Roebucks came to Omaha; and there Francis continued his schooling, finally graduating from the high school of Omaha in 1898. The parents moved to Chicago, where they are now living.

His first employment was with the Cudahy Packing Company, in Omaha, with which concern he remained six years. Then he returned to England for a year, and for the first time got acquainted with his native country.

In 1902, Mr. Roebuck and Miss .Anna G. Johnson, of Illinois, were married ; and soon afterwards he entered the employ of the Nelson Morris Company, in the meat department of their stock yards in Chicago. At the conclusion of a year’s service, he was transferred to the poultry, butter and eggs department. He then became traveling auditor for the company, having for his territory the Middle West and the Mississippi Valley; and after that he was made assistant manager of the poultry, butter and eggs department in the stock yards. Still later he was transferred to the South Water Street Commission House,

Catching the California fever, Mr. Roebuck arrived in the Bayliss district in DM and at once bought fifty-five acres of land, which he farmed to alfalfa, grain and corn, at the same time going in for the raising of hogs. In the fall of 1915, he sold out, and bought the grocery store, which he now conducts, and which he is fast developing into one of the best-stocked headquarters for provisions in the county.

PASCHAL B LACROIX - A self-made man, a successful farmer, and a helpful and popular citizen who, by his unpretentious life and steady work, contributed to the betterment of the community in which he resided, was the late Paschal B. Lacroix, who was born in the County of Chambly, Quebec, June 9, 1841, and died at Willows on November 9. 1911. His father was also a native of the same French-Canadian province, where he farmed until his death in 1861. His mother was in maidenhood Mlle. Marie Bourdon. She was born and died in the Province of Quebec, leaving at her demise a family of four sons and three daughters.

Paschal Lacroix, the youngest in his parents’ family, continued to work with his father on the farm, meanwhile attending the local schools; but in 159 he entered the grocery business, clerking in Lougueil. Three years later, he came to California, but soon after went to British Columbia, where he followed prospecting and mining. He did not stay there long, however, but returned to California, and after a brief stay here went on to Virginia City, Nev., where he mined for seven years. In 1869, he returned to his old home in Canada, where he remained for five mouths.

Mr. Lacroix’s last venture in ranching was the purchase of four hundred eighty acres eleven miles southwest of Willows, where the family now lives. He also built, and the family still owns, the brick block at the corner of Tehama and Willow Streets, in Willows, and in addition the residence at the corner of Shasta and Willow Streets.

In Canada, on March 31, 1878, Paschal B. Lacroix was married, according to the rites of the Catholic Church, to Angelina Tremblay. Mr. and Mrs. Lacroix had nine children, of whom six are living: Cordelia, who has an art studio in San Francisco ; Nelida, wife of A. Van Hoyt, also of San Francisco; Louis; Paschal, farming the home place; Beatrice, a graduate of Glenn County High School, who is teaching in the Lincoln school district ; and Frederick. As a citizen desirous of serving his community, Mr. Lacroix found pleasure in acting for fourteen years as school trustee of Liberty district.

Mrs. Lacroix was also born in County Chambly, Province of Quebec. She was the daughter of Joseph and Trecile (Page) Tremblay, who were farmers, and who spent their entire life in their native place.Mrs. Lacroix resides CM the old home place southwest of Willows, and with the assistance of the children is looking after the affairs left by her husband.

CHARLES A VESTNER - A native German from the fine old province of Saxony, where he was born on December 18, 1856, is Charles A. Vestner, who arrived in America a poor boy, but who bravely struck out into unknown paths, and by hard work and the maintenance of a high standard of conduct has made good. He was a blacksmith by trade, but followed the sea as a fireman in the service of the North German Lloyd Steamship Company. He thus sailed to many ports, including New York, Baltimore, and the leading harbors of Cuba and Brazil, coming, on his final voyage, across the Atlantic to New Orleans, in 1881. He had neither money nor American .friends, and he could not speak the English language ; so he was compelled to take the first work offered him. This was hard labor as a section hand on the Morgan City Line Railway, where he earned his first American dollar.

In 1883, Mr. Vestner came to San Francisco, and for two years worked at the blacksmith’s trade. Then he came to Orland, and secured employment on various ranches as a blacksmith and repairer of machinery. Having saved his money, in 1887 be went back to Germany for his wife, returning the following year to Orland.

In the spring of 1906, Mr. Vestner bought one hundred forty- five acres in the Bayliss district, where he has since resided. He afterwards sold off some eighty’ All of the improvements seen on the ranch were put there by him—trees, shrubbery, fences, etc. He has a fine dairy, with twenty-five Jersey cows and a registered Jersey bull, and farms a considerable acreage to alfalfa, corn and grain. His sons own and operate a traction engine and harvester, and do contract work for other ranchers in Glenn County. He has a band of a hundred sheep, and intends to increase the number from time to time.

Charles A. Vestner was united in marriage with Anna Miller, the ceremony being performed in Germany. The children of this worthy couple are : Otto, Henry, and a daughter, Mrs. Lena Heins, who is also the mother of one daughter. All of the children well sustain the honor of the Vestner family name.

WILLIAM HENRY KEIM - A pioneer who blazed his own way, and in so doing made straight and easier the path for others, is William Henry Keim, a native of Yuba County, Cal., where he was born on October 15, 1863. His father was L. F. Keim, born in Germany; while his mother was known before her marriage as Miss Julia A. Abshire, a native of Indiana. In the late fifties, his parents came to Cali­fornia by way of Panama ; and under the direction of his mother the lad was reared in Yuba and Sonoma Counties, coming to Colusa County in 1873, where he finished his formal schooling.

William Henry Keim was united in marriage with Miss Catherine A. Bryan, a native daughter of California. Her father, who resides with her, is William II. Bryan, a native of Pike County, Mo., where he was born on January 10, 1842. Her mother, before her marriage, was Elizabeth Davis, of Georgia. Mr. Bryan’s father conducted a grist-mill in Missouri, and there the son worked with him. The family crossed the plains with ox teams in 1819, losing at Donner Lake nearly all the cattle they had, and after six mouths arrived in the fall at Grass Valley, Nevada County. In the beginning, Mr. Bryan gave himself to mining, and afterwards worked at getting out timber in the forest. In 1800, he settled in what is now Glenn County, where lie followed different occupations, but principally farming. Since 1913, he has lived with his daughter in Willows. Besides Mrs. Heim, he has another daughter, Mrs. IV. T. Merrill, at Chico ; and a son, James F. Bryan, of San Francisco. Mr. and Mrs. Heim have three married daughters. Mr. Heim is well-known in fraternal organizations. He is a member of the E. Clampus Vitus of Willows, and is also a Knight of Pythias, and attended the meeting of the Grand Lodge at San Diego in 1911. He formerly belonged to the Red Men, and has passed through the chairs and attended their Grand Lodge. He also formerly belonged to the Native Sons of the Golden West. In earlier days, Mr. Heim played the solo alto horn in the old Willows hand. Mrs. Heim is active in the Willows Parlor of the Native Daughters, being a past third vice-president and a past marshal. She is also a member a the Women of Woodcraft. and is associated with the Orland Lodge.

CHARLES A RIDER - A natural mechanic and a first-class machinist, whose skill has come to be appreciated throughout the county, is Charles A. Rider, a native of Quincy, Ill., where he was born on December 3, 1871. Mr. Rider came to California, in 1888, at the time of the great boom in land and real estate here. For two years he worked as a farm hand on the Quint ranch, for three years on the Henry Jameson ranch, and for another three years on the Dr. Glenn ranch. Afterwards he ran a steam engine, and worked at teaming, and gradually picked up the trade of a blacksmith, which he has followed more or less ever since.

Mr. Rider conducted a blacksmith shop in Butte City for seven years, and owned one of the first automobiles in that enterprising town. When he went to Williams he worked in Stockford’s machine shop for three years; and for a year he also managed a garage there. This had been erected for him, and was the first garage in that town.

Charles Rider is an expert mechanic, of a decidedly inventive turn of mind. He designed and patented, for example, a well- driller for boring and drilling wells, which has been a great success; and for some time he has followed this line of work in connection with his wagon-making and repair shop. He has sunk the most successful wells in Glenn County, to a depth of over two hundred feet. He has also invented a checking machine for preparing rice ground.

In March, 1900, Charles A. Rider was married to Miss Minnie Smith, who was born at Reno, Nev. Mr. and Mrs. Rider have three sons Alfred Elliott, Cecil Austin, and Michael Orvis. In fraternal circles Mr. Rider is a Woodman of the World.

HENRY W McGOWAN - An exponent of American jurisprudence, and a particularly conscientious student and careful practitioner of California law, in whom the courts, and his clients, and the general public have con­fidence, is Henry W. McGowan, who was born on July 8, 1S93, at Oakland. Both of his parents, Henry H. and Alice (Geimann) McGowan, were born in San Francisco, in the families of California pioneers who came to the Coast in the good old days of forty-nine. For years his father, who died in 1913, was owner and proprietor of the famous Paraiso Hot Springs, located near Soledad, Monterey County.

Henry W. McGowan was educated at the Santa Clara Uni­versity, from which he received the degree of A. B. in 1913 and LL. B. in 1914. He then took a finishing course at Stanford in 1914, and was admitted to practice in all the courts of the state that same year. In San Francisco, Mr. McGowan engaged in the practice of law as a member of the firm of Morrison, Dunn & Brobeck, who had their office in the Crocker Building; and on arriving in Orland, in January, 1917, he opened an office here and began the independent practice of his profession.

On July 30, 1916, Henry W. McGowan was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Gildea, a native of San Francisco. Mr. and Mrs. McGowan are social favorites in Orland and San Francisco. He is a member of the Union League Club of San Francisco, and of the Knights of Columbus.

DAVOD C COWAN - Not the least interesting feature in the history of the development of California is the contribution made by those Eastern settlers who, coming rather recently to the Coast, after much of the hard work had already been accomplished, have nevertheless brought with them, as men and women of prominence in business, financial and social affairs, a ripe experience that is of the greatest possible value in the solution of problems none the less difficult though they pertain to the California of the present. Such a man, long eminent in the section from which he bails, is David C. Cowan, a native of Massachusetts, who was born on New Year’s Day, 1851, and when a babe in arms was brought by his parents to Illinois. There, in Boone County, he was educated in the common schools; and there, too, he followed the profession of the school-teacher, both before and after attending the famous Bloomington State Normal School.

Growing up, Mr. Cowan conducted a general merchandise store at Poplar Grove, Boone County, and while there was appointed by President McKinley postmaster of his district. In his official capacity, he did much to improve the local service; and being always prominent in politics, especially as a Republican, and therefore influential, he secured the establishment of one of the first rural free deliveries in the county. For twenty-five years in succession Mr. Cowan was a member of the board of supervisors of Boone County, most of the time serving as chairman of the board; and for five years, beginning when he was but twenty-seven years of age, he was county superintendent of schools there, and in that field also exerted his best influence to elevate the standards. In pioneer days Mr. Cowan spent one year in Clark County, S. D.

Mr. Cowan served as foreman of the Glenn County grand jury for 1917, and in other ways has performed his full duty as a citizen. Fraternally, he is a Mason, bolding membership in Capron Lodge, No. 575, A. F. S A. M., of Capron, Ill., and Kishwaukee Chapter, No. 90, R. A. H., of Belvidere, Ill. He is also a member of Poplar Grove Lodge, A. O. U. W.

While in Boone County, Ill., David C. Cowan married Miss Julia Webster, a native of that state ; and two children came to bless their home. A son, Frank C. Cowan, is instructor in the Lane Technical High School, of Chicago ; and a daughter, Mabel A., is the wife of M. J. Briggs, paymaster of Hotel La Salle, in Chicago.

C HUGH WREN - Among those who, by their life and scientific work, have con­tributed ranch to bring California into the front rank of productive states, and to afford opportunities here for both the wage-earner and the student of agriculture, is C. Hugh Wren, the efficient and popular horticultural commissioner of Glenn County. Mr. Wren was born in Leavenworth County, Hans., on November 20, 1878, and came to California when he was nine years of age. He settled with his parents in Vacaville, Solano County, and there attended both the grammar school and the high school. He first entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad, in whose office at Sacramento he was busy for three years. At the end of that time he returned to Vacaville and engaged in fruit-raising until 1910, by which time he had become thoroughly acquainted with horticulture. When he arrived in Willows, in that year, he embarked in the real estate business ; and after an experience of three years, he removed to Orland to continue his operations there. In the latter part of 1914, however, Mr. Wren took up the development of fruit orchards in the Orland district, leveling the land and setting out the necessary trees. He thus planted the Keeny ranch of forty acres to citrus fruits and olives, and also set out the F. B. Clark orchard of forty acres, east of the town, which he planted to olives.

On March 5, 1917, Mr. Wren’s many friends were gratified to learn of his appointment as horticultural commissioner of Glenn County, that honor having been conferred upon him by the board of supervisors. As is usually the case, there were numerous applicants for the position, but it was generally conceded that he was especially fitted to fill the important place, and his subsequent service in special attention to the smaller fruit-growers has quite justified the confidence then imposed in him by the public.

Mr. Wren has been twice married, and has one child, Merle, by his first wife. His second wife was Miss Ester G. West, a daughter of John J. West, of Willows ; and one child, Lorna, has blessed their union. Mr. Wren is an active member of the Chamber of Commerce of Orland, in which organization be has done his share in advancing the interests of the community. He is a Wood­man of the World, having joined the order in Vacaville, and was Worthy Counsel of the local camp. He was also district delegate on two occasions to the general convention.

FRANKLIN PIERCE TEAL - One of the large contractors and builders of Glenn County, and a man of affairs in his community, is Franklin Pierce Teal. Born in Camden, N. J., on October 29, 1854. of old Quaker stock, be was reared and educated in the City of Brotherly Love, where he learned the carpenter’s trade. During the Centennial year, when the claims of California were being presented to the East, young Teal came to the Pacific Coast. In 1877 he left California for the Black Hills, in Wyoming, but returned that fall to California ; and from 1878 to 1879 he was in Oregon. From 1880 to 1904 he was in Arizona, on the frontier, engaged in cattle-raising and mining. He had a ranch five miles west of Wilcox, consisting of a hundred sixty acres in the Sulphur Springs Valley. In company with his father-in-law, he undertook various cattle-raising enterprises, and at the same time took an active part in the Indian wars. From his thorough knowledge of the country, be was of great assistance to General Miles and his soldiers, and found out for them the best trails and the most serviceable wells of water. MT. Teal’s experiences in Arizona would of themselves fill a volume, and could not fail to prove both interesting and profitable reading. He was a member of a jury, which, when four men were hanged in the lawless days on the border, gave scant mercy to the criminals. He examined many mines as an expert, acting in the interests of dif­ferent parties prospecting in the White Mountain district, and more than once discovered and located-some valuable vein. He erected quartz mills and smelters as far back as 1881, and employed a large number of men, becoming well-known throughout the ter­ritory, where he had many friends. In Phoenix, alone, he erected more than eighty homes.

In the early days of his activity here, he erected a number of bungalows; but of late he handles only the larger jobs. At present he is making a specialty of concrete construction. He has built six concrete bridges in Glenn County, the fine garage on Fourth Street, the Bryan block on Fourth Street, and many concrete and other bungalows on neighboring ranches. Through him, the contracting firm of Thompson & Teal has come to be widely known.

In 1885, Mr. Teal was married to Miss Eliza Bassett, a native of Texas, in whose companionship in the intervening years he has found his highest pleasure and inspiration. They had one daughter, Ethel Teal, who died in 1911, aged twenty-four years.

ERNST E BEHR - Not without a touch of the romantic is the fact that a son of the Prairie State, Ernst E. Behr, is now in charge of the huge task of developing one of the great ranches of California, and bringing order, civilization and beauty out of chaos and primeval conditions; for since 1914 he has been manager of the Spalding ranch, one of the sources of justifiable pride to citizens of Glenn County. A native of Chicago, Ill., Mr. Behr came with his parents to California, and to Pasadena, when a child, in 1896.

Having taken the usual courses in the public schools, Mr. Behr graduated, in 1910, from the University of California, where he made a specialty of certain scientific courses. So well had he done his work that, for a year and a half after graduation, he remained there and served as instructor in geology. Afterwards he went to the Hawaiian Islands for a short time, and on his return to California came to the Spalding Company, where he put in two years of service, and then, in 1914, took charge of the Spalding ranch.

Some years ago Mr. Behr was married to Miss Bess Mattison, a native of Pasadena ; and one son now brightens their home, Fitch Arno.

The Spalding ranch is located seven miles southeast of Willows, at Norman, and consists of eleven thousand acres. It is owned by the Spalding Trust Company, of Los Angeles, of which Col. Z. S. Spalding is the head ; and it has been in the possession of the present owner for about twenty years, although it is only since 1910 that a part of the ranch has been under cultivation. Some two thousand eight hundred acres was cultivated in 1917. Two thousand three hundred acres is in rice, while the balance is devoted to alfalfa and grain. Of this area, thirteen hundred acres is rented out. In the development of this wonderful ranch, a private irrigation system was constructed. This system covers three thousand five hundred acres at the present time; and it is so built that it can be enlarged to cover the whole tract. What the ranch is doing, and what one may expect it to do in time to come, may he judged from the fact that, in 1916, it produced twenty-five thousand sacks of rice, together with a large number of hogs. Moreover, the quality of the output is considerably above par.

H. P. SLOCUM & SON

In the front rank of those who have clone much to advance the already high standard of hog-breeding in California, are Messrs. H. P. Slocum & Son, proprietors of the Uneeda Glenn County Herd, in the Bayliss district, to which they came on April 5, 1912, to take possession of their one hundred twenty acres of land, on which they are developing one of the best hog ranches in the Sacramento Val­ley. Harlan P. Slocum is a native of New York State, born on May 14, 1352, and came to Nebraska in 1880, where he was soon engaged in breeding hogs and shorthorn cattle. Through his extensive enterprises he became a member of the board of managers of the Nebraska State Fair, and his was the responsibility of passing• on much of the stock exhibited there.

Harlan P. Slocum married Miss Lucy Stocking, of Michigan, by whom he had the following children : Clayton N., Alva E., Fred H, Rose F., Minnie L , and Ollie A.

Clayton N. Slocum, associated with his father as the junior member of the widely known firm, was born on March 12, 1884, in Butler County, and was reared in Washington County, Nebr., in which state he attended the grade schools, completing his educa­tional courses at the University of Nebraska, where lie specialized in agriculture. For four years thereafter lie had charge of hogs, developing them especially for exhibition at state fairs; and later he went in with his father in the raising of hogs and shorthorn cattle. In 1912, he judged all of the breeds of hogs at the Oregon State Fair ; and be was one of the organizers, and the acting chair­man, of the -Western Duroc-Jersey Hog-Breeders’ Association of California, in 1916, and in 1917 was elected one of the directors. H. P. Slocum & Son are members of the National Swine Growers’ Association. They have long been identified with the raising of fine hogs, in which field they have made a specialty of Duroc­Jerseys, exhibiting at various state fairs in Iowa, Nebraska and California. They have at their Uneeda Ranch, in addition to hogs, a fine dairy of forty cows. Among their registered stock are the following swine of more than market value:

Sow Grand Lady, No. 525,596. Sired by Grand Model Again, by Grand Model ; he heads one of the best herds in Iowa.

Sow Uneeda’s Golden Queen, No. 537,292. Sired by Golden Wonder I Am, by 1 Am Golden Model 2d.

Model Lady, a noted sow recently imported from Nebraska ; first-prize sow and grand champion at the Butte County Spring Exposition.

Sow Liberia 3d, No. 324,754. Sired by Chief Sensation, Jr.; this is the second-prize hoar of Iowa.

Since October, 1916, the Slocums have imported from Nebraska and Iowa two ear loads of stock, all blooded and of the best quality. They imported two prize boars, in the same year, from the Nebraska State Fair, and these are today the best in all California. This enterprise, on their part, has brought them .wide recognition. Clayton N. Slocum made several trips back East and bought -up stock to bring to California. Not long ago the firm received a whole car load of Duroc-Jerseys from Iowa and Nebraska, not less than twenty-nine head in all. They were from the best-known breeders in the country. Two sows imported by them were bred to the first boar Giant Colonel, for which one thousand dollars was refused, and for whose sire, King’s Colonel, three thousand dollars was refused.

WILLIAM DURBROW - Closely and honorably identified with the development of important interests, both private and public, in and around Willows, and therefore entitled to an enviable place in the history of this, one of the most attractive sections of the Golden State, is William Durbrow, who was born in San Francisco, December 10, 1876. He was the son of Alfred K. Durbrow, who came to the Coast in 1856, and the grandson of Joseph Durbrow, a pioneer banker of San Francisco. His mother was Clara (Pierson) Durbrow, who came to California in 1852, but two rears after the admission of the state to the Union. Her father was Joseph Pierson, an Argonaut who landed in San Francisco in 1849, from a sailing vessel that came around Cape Horn. On both sides Mr. Durbrow is descended from an old New York family, and on the maternal side from an old Knickerbocker family. .

Educated at the local public schools in the northern metropolis, William Durbrow graduated from the University of California in 1899 as a mining engineer, after which he was for sane time con­nected with the Mountain Copper Company, of Shasta County. He also made a trip to South America, representing Pacific Coast smelters. For five years he was engineer and manager of the water and power properties in Oroville, building at that time a number of ditches and power plants in Butte County. From 1908 to 1915, he was established as a consulting engineer, with head­quarters in San Francisco.

In the fall of 1915, Mr. Durbrow came to his present ranch, a fine tract of seven hundred fifty acres, eight miles southwest of Willows, which he is developing into an exceptionally attractive alfalfa, dairy, and hog ranch, conducted along advanced lines and by the most modern methods. A modern irrigation plant furnishes an excellent supply of water. He has one hundred ten acres in rich alfalfa, and this amount will be increased in the near future. He also has a dairy with sixty cows ; and for the herd of hogs pro­vision is made in modern houses such as are not generally seen on a California ranch. He also has some very fine turkeys, and planned to raise about six hundred of these in 1917. A large acre­age will later be planted to fruit.

Mr. Durbrow was the first man in his section to install a pump­ing plant and to check the land for irrigation. He is a director in the Water Users’ Association, and has taken a very active part in the solution of the water problems for his district. At the present writing he is secretary of the Land Owners’ Committee, who are negotiating with the proprietors of the Central Canal for its purchase.

Some years ago William Durbrow and Miss Blanche Terrill were united in marriage, the bride being a native of Yolo County and the daughter of Robert Terrill, a California pioneer of 1849 and an early settler and farmer at Davis, who later farmed the well- known Glide ranch near Willows. Five children have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Durbrow: Terrill, Katharine, William, Jr., Robert T., and Blanche Cecile. Mr. Durbrow is a well-known mem­ber of the Engineers’ Club in San Francisco; and fraternally he is a Mason.

EL RIO RANCHO

The El Rio Rancho, situated in Colusa County, is one of the show places which it is a delight to mention. The property com­prises two hundred fifty-eight acres located about two miles south of Princeton, and is owned by Dr. C. E. Congdon, of Jamestown, Tuolumne County, in whose possession it has been for the past thirteen years. It has been developed to a high degree as a fruit ranch, there being ten acres of heavily bearing prune trees, twenty acres of four-year-old trees, and seventy-five acres of year-old trees set out by the present manager, who has brought scientific methods to bear in developing the ranch. Large crops of barley are raised annually, averaging some forty sacks to the acre. Black- eyed beans are raised between the rows of trees, and these also bring in a satisfactory revenue.

JOHN GATTSCH -  Born on May 5, 1838, near Hamburg, Holstein—then in Denmark, now in Germany—and educated in the excellent Holstein public schools, John Gattsch was apprenticed to the carpenter’s trade; and at the conclusion of his apprenticeship, he served the required time in the Danish army. He then followed his trade in various parts of the old country, adding, materially to his technical knowledge through the thorough drill there given young journey­men.

In 1869, Mr. Gattsch came to the United States; and almost immediately after landing in New York he pushed on to California by way of Panama. He settled near what is now the town of Wil­lows, and built the first frame house seen there. He also erected many other buildings in the early days; and several of these are still standing in good condition, as evidences of his careful handiwork.

In farming, however, John Gattsch made his greatest success in California ; and during his career here he owned no less than four ranches. The first was a farm of one hundred sixty acres near Orland. The second was a three-hundred-twenty-acre ranch east of Willows. There was another tract of three hundred twenty - acres north of Willows, and a fourth ranch of four hundred eighty acres, three miles north of Germantown. Mr. Gattsch made it a practice to buy a piece of property, improve it with barns and out­buildings, and various other equipment, and then sell it at a good price. He was a large raiser of grain in those days, and always had bumper crops. His close application to things material did not prevent him, however, from giving a thought to things spiritual. He was the founder of the German Lutheran Church at Germantown, and has ever since been a faithful adherent.

John Henry Gattsch was united in marriage with Miss Margaret Runge, also a native of Holstein, born in November, 1837, who still enjoys life with him. Of their seven children, one died in Holstein; and five—Catherine, Fred, Albert, Carrie, and Celia— died of diphtheria in September, 1881, leaving an only child, Anna, who was a baby in arms when her parents came to California. She married August Lohse, who was born in Holstein, and had come to California in 1885, settling as a farmer in Glenn County. There he spent the greater part of his later life, although he is now in business at Willows. Mrs. Lohse is an active member of the Rebekahs, and holds the office of treasurer of the lodge.

For some years Mr. Gattsch has lived retired, having sold his ranch in 1912. With his good wife he now lives with Mrs. Lohse, enjoying the comforts of her home and the companionship of her family, all of whom manage each year to spend some time with him. Mrs. Lohse is the mother of three children. Carl is in the insurance business in San Francisco ; Norma is the wife of Herbert Snowden, and has one child, Elizabeth Ann; while Volie is still a member of her mother’s household.

AMOS J MOREY - Amos J. Morey, a successful dairyman and rancher of the Orland district, has shown by capable management and unabated industry what can be done on a twenty-acre ranch in this fertile valley. Mr. Morey is a native of Pike County, Ill., where he was born on September 28, 1862, and where he received his education and training until twenty years of age, getting practical farming experience on the home farm. At the end of this time he entered railroad life, in the train service of the Chicago and Alton Railway, between Roodhouse, Ill., and Kansas City, Mo. After spending four years in this position, he went to Spokane, Wash., where he was with the Northern Pacific Railway and the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company for sixteen years. At the end of this period of faithful service, Mr. Morey decided to take up farming as an occupation. For five years thereafter he was engaged in ranching in the Imperial Valley, near Imperial; but while the re­sults were satisfactory, the heat in that section proved detrimental, and he decided to remove to Oregon. Locating in Klamath County, he farmed there for two years, after which, finding the heavy frosts a disadvantage, he returned to California.

In 1910, Mr. Morey settled in the Orland district, Glenn County; and here he has found conditions eminently satisfactory. Like other progressive ranchers in the valley, Mr. Morey specializes in Jersey cattle. He has a herd of thoroughbred registered cows of that breed.

In Colfax, Wash., Amos James Morey was united in marriage with Mrs. Nellie (Doney) Mackey, a native of Minnesota, who has been his able assistant in all his undertakings. She is a half owner in their ranch property, and is a woman of progressive ideas and gifted with the ability to carry them out; and their joint efforts have met- with merited success. To such citizens as Mr. and Mrs. Morey much credit is due for the upbuilding of the state. The future development of the commonwealth depends in no small degree upon the practical application of the principles of intensive farming; and in this line of endeavor Mr. and Mrs. Morey have been exceptionally successful.

CHARLES C SHELDON - Prominent among Glenn County’s leading citizens, a progressive and public-spirited man, Charles C. Sheldon is a man to he counted on when any project for the development of his section is under way. Born in Norway, March 11, 1847, he was brought to the United States by his parents when two years of age. His early childhood was spent in Iowa, and his education was re­ceived at Fayette. in that state. After completing his studies, he taught school for about ten years in the same locality.

Desiring a change in both occupation and environment, Mr. Sheldon moved to Fillmore County, Minn., and located in Spring Valley. Here he engaged in the hardware business for thirty years, becoming an important factor in the upbuilding of the town. A Republican in politics, he served as deputy sheriff of Fillmore County, and also as town trustee of Spring Valley; and during his residence there he helped materially in all move­ments for the advancement of the community.