ADDISON THEODORE BURR	MARY LOUISE BECKER
1853 -- 1935	1854 -- 1935

We know more of Addison Theodore Burr's mother than of his father. Charlotte Chatfield was born in Scotland and came to the United States before Addison's birth. The son of her second husband, born in Ashtabula, Ohio in 1853, Addison was in Northern California in the 1870s, working for the Ludwig family along the Shasta-Tehama County line.

Mary Louise Becker was born in 1854 in Marzhusen Witzenhauser, Hessen Co. Germany. When Mary was nineteen years old, her parents, Frederick Wilhelm and Louisa Becker brought her to Northern California to be near her sister, Wilhelmina Ludwig.

Mary and Addison could have met any time after her arrival in California, since both worked for the Ludwigs. On July 11, 1876 they were married in Marysville, California. The couple had five daughters:

• Addie Estelle (Douglas) was born in Cottonwood February 8, 1878 while they were working for the Ludwigs.

• Wilhelmina Louisa (Reeder) was born July, 1880 while Addison worked at the Eureka Lumber Mill, on the east side of the Sacramento River near Deer Creek.

• Mary Alice (Marie Wade) was born January 22, 1885, during their second year in Oregon where Addison was working in lumber mills and Mary usually ran a boarding house.

• Frieda Luella (Miller) was born April 23, 1889 at Day's Creek, Oregon.

• Edith May (Whipp) was born January 17, 1893 at Day's Creek, Oregon.

In 1900 the family moved back to Redding (Wilhelmina married Gus Reeder and spent her life in Oregon) and in 1905 Mary and Addison bought property in the Diestelhorst tract. The large lot was on the corner of Mary and 8th St. which joined Tellurium Ave (became West St. after the Tellurium mining claim lapsed). Mary St. was named for Mary Burr.

Addison spent his later years working on the house, raising chickens and prospecting. Though they usually went into more secure jobs, people who came to California in the 1800s hoped to strike gold. Addison's health gradually declined until his death, December 20, 1921.

Mary was appreciated in Redding as housekeeper and midwife for many years. In her later years, she lived with each of her daughters in turn. She died in Redding on June 3, 1935.

February 1999 - Source: Shasta Historical Society