JOSEPH GLENN CHATHAM	ELLA HUGHES
1879--1971	1882--1972

Joseph Glenn Chathan, (known as Glenn) born July 20, 1871, was the third generation of the Chatham family to live in Shasta County. His parents were George Richard and Margaret Rupert Chatham. The two earlier generations were farmers and Glenn followed in their footsteps.

Ella Hughes was born June 6, 1882 in Shasta County. Her mother, Amelia Houston Hughes died when she was twelve and she helped care for her younger brother and three sisters while they lived with their uncles on the Houston ranch on Stillwater Creek. (Later the site of Shasta College)

In 1899, when the couple married, Glenn's Aunt May gave them eighty head of sheep and which started them in farming/ranching. The couple had seven children; the first was born at Delamar, the second at Sallee and the rest at the ranch in Bella Vista.

Gladys Mabel	b. Jan. 23, 1903	d. July 18, 1926
Horace Glenn	b. Dec. 9, 1906	d. May 7, 1953
Margaret Bertha	b. Nov. 4, 1909		m. Joseph Wolf
Jack Trilby	b. Sept. 2, 1911	d. Oct. 26, 1970
Dallas George	b. Feb. 24, 1914	d. Dec. 6, 1954	m. Laura Statton
Gordon Dean	b. Sept. 15, 1918	d. May 18, 1995	m. Harryette Hathaway
Ella May	b. Aug. 11, 1920		m. Frank Theodore Gerlinger

Both the farming and ranching were diversified. They had sheep, cattle, dairy, and beef, hogs, turkeys and chickens. They had a large garden, an orchard and a vineyard and made their own wine. They had a saloon next door; they owned and drove the district school bus; Glenn, also worked at Terry's Mill and served as a guide for wealthy doctors and lawyers from the Bay Area for hunting and fishing trips. Once, up on the Pitt River, Glenn speared a sturgeon with his pitchfork and pulled it in with his lariat. The fish was twelve feet long.

By 1929, they had saved enough to buy the old County Hospital to build a new house. They tore down their old house and camped under the fig and locust trees in the yard while the old hospital was rearranged as a house, plumbing fixtures, doors, windows were all utilized making a new home for their seven children. Gordon Chatham's son still lives in the house.

Glenn served as County Supervisor for District #4 from 1931 through 1959. He was the founder of the Bella Vista Water District, served on the board for the Shasta County Fair and was one of the organizers of the Inter Mountain Fair at McArthur. He and Ella were active members of the
Grange and Farm Bureau, and participated in school (Elementary level for Ella; she didn't drive, but rode her little white mule to the school) and community affairs. Both were active in the Masonic Lodge and Eastern Star at Millville, holding office in their Lodge and at the State level.

The couple were both in hospitals at the time of their seventy second anniversary; Glenn was in the Cascade TB Sanatarium which was one of his many projects and Ella was in Crestwood Nursing Home after a massive stroke. Glenn passed away July 20, 1971 and Ella died January 3, 1972.

Source: Shasta Historical Society Nov. 1997