John Beatie was born December 19, 1861 in Hampshire, Illinois after his parents, Daniel and Aurora Priscilla Baldwin Beatie, had moved there from Vermont. A change of climate was suggested to improve his health so when he was sixteen, John took the train west; his first job in California was herding geese in Lincoln. He liked what he saw of the State and persuaded his parents to join him. By the time they arrived he was working for a large terra cotta firm in Lincoln. They came north and bought land on Cow Creek; soon after that John followed them to work for his father on the ranch.

Alice Ellen Hawes was born October 17, 1864 on the Hawes Ranch near Anderson to William Henry and Rebecca Elizabeth Foster Hawes. She and her six siblings all learned the hard work of ranch life, but she did have a special dress for the party at the Disney Ranch, the night she met her future husband.

John Beatie and Alice Hawes were married October 2, 1884. They, then, filed for adjoining eighty acre homesteads up on a plateau west of the family ranch. They built a house on/between the two claims and John supplemented their income working for his father. When the claims were established they moved to the Beatie ranch and shared the house with John's parents. They had twelve children:

Henry William	b. September 16, 1885	d. October 29, 1954
Daniel Webster	b. December 8, 1886	d. November 1, 1982
Helen Alice (Fraser, Gritton)	b. June 4, 1888	d. January 1, 1984
Blanche Ellen	b. December 11, 1889	d. May 26, 1974
Harry Bradford	b. May 13, 1891	d. December 1, 1965
Jennie Elizabeth (Dranga, Robinson)	b. January 3, 1893
John Silas	b. August 10, 1894	d. December 29, 1970
Charles Baldwin	b. March 14, 1896	d. December 7, 1991
Albert McKinley	b. November 20, 1897	d. June 5, 1926
Emma Mabel (Milligan)	b. November 4, 1899	d. February 5, 1987
Ralph Roosevelt	b. September 25, 1901	d. February 13, 1962
Florence Aurora (Milligan)	b. September 23, 1903	d. June 17, 1955

Alice's brother, Granville was living in Stockton, so when the children were old enough to seek jobs or higher education they gravitated toward that city. And when the doctor said that John had to take things easier, Alice auctioned off furniture and livestock and leased the ranch-- moving the remaining family to Stockton. January 31, 1913, two years after the move, John died in Stockton and was brought home to be buried at Millville Cemetery.

Alice adjusted to city life and remained in Stockton to be near most of her children; Henry returned to Anderson and Jennie was the only one to leave California. Alice died April 22, 1943 and was buried in Stockton.

Source: Shasta Historical Society
May 14, 1994