USA > California > Glenn County > History of Colusa and Glenn counties, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the counties who have been identified with their growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 60
USA > California > Colusa County > History of Colusa and Glenn counties, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the counties who have been identified with their growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 60
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Charles A. Butler was the oldest of five children, and was brought up on the ranch, where he became used to hard work. He attended the school in Strawn district until he was sixteen; and when he was nineteen he went to work on the P. H. Green stock ranch. Having had considerable experience in stock-raising, he later became foreman and proved his value as a conscientious and capable employe, and was appreciated accordingly. For a year he was in the Forestry Service, after which he was engaged with the A. D. Pieper Company, at Willows, remaining in their employ three years. A short experience in the produce business with Wood Curtis Company, of Sacramento, preceded his return to Glenn County, when he bought the store of J. S. Sale at Winslow. The stock in the store was valued at two thousand dollars; he enlarged and improved the stock and business, and remained there until October, 1913. Then he consolidated stock with Messrs. Knight & Lucas, at Elk Creek, and built the present large store
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building. The firm is now known as Knight, Butler & Lucas, and they conduct a general merchandise business, carrying a stock worth over ten thousand dollars. They make a specialty of farm implements, and have the happy faculty of giving such genuine satisfaction that that alone is all the advertisement they need. Mr. Knight's residence being in Sacramento, Messrs. Butler and Lucas are managing the business.
On September 14, 1913, Charles Butler was married to Miss Anita Warnack, a native daughter of San Francisco, the cere- mony taking place at Elk Creek. Both wife and husband are popular throughout the section, and especially so among the Odd Fellows, in which order Mr. Butler is the present Noble Grand of Newville Lodge, No. 321.
GEORGE W. TROXEL
It does not take long for a community to recognize leadership in men and women of native ability and valuable experience; and this is true of George W. Troxel, one of the influential residents of the section about Glenn, in Glenn County. He was born on September 27, 1851, in Will County, Ill., and at the age of three came to California with his parents, Daniel Z. and Eleanor (Zumwalt) Troxel, natives of Maryland and Ohio respectively. Daniel Troxel left Illinois in the fall of 1853 and spent the winter in Iowa; and on April 9, the following year, he set out, with a party consisting of about sixty wagons drawn by ox teams, across the plains to California under the leadership of Joseph Zumwalt, captain of the train. Mrs. Troxel and her four living chil- dren, the youngest of whom was Albert, then a nine-day-old baby, were put into a wagon, and the journey that was to last almost six months was begun. She was then a frail woman weighing only about one hundred twenty pounds; but when she arrived in Cali- fornia she weighed some one hundred sixty pounds. She had ten children born in the East, and one after settling in this state, all of whom are now deceased except George W. and Albert, who lives in Washington, near Centralia. On arriving at their jour- ney's end, Mr. Troxel had one ox, one cow, and two horses hitched to his wagon. He had started out with three yoke of oxen, two cows, and two horses. The first stop made by the family was in Placer County. In 1857 they moved to Solano County, and were engaged in farming about four and one half miles from Dixon until 1870, when George W. Troxel came to Colusa County and settled six miles west of Willows, now in Glenn County, where he made his first independent venture.
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In 1875, George W. Troxel and his two brothers, Joseph R. and Albert, became partners in the purchase of twelve hundred eighty acres of land. This they improved, setting out trees and building barns, and began the raising of grain and stock. In a short time Joseph dropped out of the firm; but George W. and Albert continued together until 1889 or 1890. In 1888, Mr. Troxel moved to Elk Creek and invested in a ranch there, on which was one of the finest orchards of peaches and pears, as well as apples, in the entire county. On removing to this place he still retained his interest in the former ranch for two years. There was no market for fruit at that time; and besides, Mr. Troxel had made the change from a grain-raiser to a fruit man. Not succeeding in his venture, he left Elk Creek and spent one year in Willows. The following year, 1897, he moved to Wood- land, and thereafter was variously employed until 1902, when he came with his family to the place where they now live, near Glenn. This property originally consisted of twenty-seven acres, and was so heavily wooded that a space large enough to erect his house upon could barely be found without grubbing out trees. To his first purchase in 1900, he added other land until he owned at one time some sixty acres; but some of this was lost by the erosive action of the Sacramento River. He cleared the land of timber by hard work, and planted corn, beans and grain, which yielded good harvests year after year. In 1917, he set out a prune orchard of eight acres, which is in a thriving condition. This property was a part of the Glenn ranch, and is very fertile ground. Besides his own acreage, Mr. Troxel leased other land and farmed to grain, meeting, on the whole, with good results.
On January 14, 1886, Mr. Troxel was married at Woodland to Miss Anna Caroline Everts, a native of Niles, Mich., who came to California in 1878, arriving at the home of her uncle, Thaddeus Hoppin, in Yolo County in March of that year. She spent two years with her uncles and then returned to her home, but later came back to Woodland with her parents, who remained here until their death. She has lived here ever since. Three children were born of this union: Stanley E., Myra C. E., and Morvel E. By a former marriage, on December 24, 1879, at Willows, Mr. Troxel was united with Miss Lon Ogle, a native of Adams County, Ohio. Two children were born of that mar- riage, Clarence M., and Verda. Mrs. Lou Troxel died in April, 1882. Mr. and Mrs. Troxel and their family are members of the Baptist Church of Glenn, of which Mr. Troxel is senior deacon and a trustee. He gave the ground for the building and lot, and also helped to build the church.
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When the history of Colusa and Glenn County is written in detail, the life of George W. Troxel will not be forgotten. He was one of the pioneers in grain-growing, and farmed in 1872 where the town of Willows now stands. In 1880, he harvested eighteen sacks of wheat to the acre from nine hundred acres. An evidence of the esteem in which this pioneer is held, and of the influence he has long exercised for the upbuilding of the county, is seen in his election in 1916 to the vice-presidency of the Glenn County Farm Bureau, of which he was also previously a director at large.
JACOB WILLIAM KAERTH
A native son of Colusa County, where he has grown up and spent the better part of his life, Jacob W. Kaerth is county surveyor and civil engineer, with headquarters and a home in Co- Insa. He was born on June 22, 1866, a son of William Kaerth. The father was born in Germany, in 1825, and came to the United States in young manhood. He followed the trade of blacksmith in Philadelphia, and in the fall of 1849 traveled west to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he outfitted, the next spring, for the trip across the plains to California. On reaching his journey's end, in the fall of 1850, he went at once to the mines in the vicinity of Placerville. He mined with varied success for a number of years, and then took up land in Yolo County; but in 1857 he sold his claim and came to Colusa County, where he bought land twelve miles south of Colusa. Here he improved a farm and operated it, and also ran a blacksmith shop on the place. He died in 1899 at the age of seventy-four years.
Some time after his arrival in California, Mr. Kaerth married Mrs. Mary (Davis) Julian, born in Wales, who came to the United States with her father, David Davis, and settled in Utah. There she married her first husband; and with him she came to Califor- nia, where he died soon after. She made three separate trips across the plains, each time with ox teams. After the death of Mr. Kaerth, she located in Arbuckle to spend her last years. Of her marriage with Mr. Kaerth ten children were born: Mrs. Ed- win Swinford, of Berkeley; George W., of Williams; Frank D., of Susanville; Jacob William, of this review; Edgar C., of Maxwell; Charles D., a farmer of Colusa County; Nellie, the wife of Roscoe Rahm of Arbuckle; and three others, who are deceased. By her first marriage Mrs. Kaerth had a daughter, Amelia, Mrs. J. W. Johns, now deceased. 36
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The fourth child in the family, Jacob W. Kaerth attended the public schools of Colusa County, and Pierce Christian College at College City, graduating in the class of 1890 as a civil engineer. In the fall of 1891 he was licensed to practice his profession. He had worked his way through college, earning money by working on ranches. While he was going to college, he was a member of a corps of surveyors that laid out a part of the Central Irrigation Canal in Colusa and Glenn Counties; and after receiving his de- gree, he returned as assistant engineer with that company. Two years later, in May, 1892, he opened an office in Maxwell, where he carried on his work. In 1894 he was elected county surveyor, assuming the duties of the position January 1, 1895. In 1898 he was reelected, and continued in office until the expiration of his second term in 1903. In 1910 he again became a candidate for the office and was elected, and has held the office ever since.
The range of Mr. Kaerth's activities has been wide. For ten years he has been city engineer of Colusa, during which time much street paving has been done, and municipal sewer and water works have been built. He has constructed over one hundred bridges of concrete in Colusa County. He has been largely interested in re- clamation work in Colusa County and adjoining counties for the past twenty years, and is engineer for several districts in Colusa, Yolo, and Contra Costa Counties. He is one of the assessment commissioners of Reclamation District No. 1001 in Sutter and Placer Counties at the present time. He was engineer for the old Sacramento Drainage District. His work has even extended into Lake County and other sections of Northern California. In the early days of reclamation work in the Sacramento Valley he made a map of the valley. From 1896 to 1906 he was also a deputy United States land surveyor, mostly for the southern part of the state, in San Bernardino, San Diego, Riverside, Inyo and Kern Counties, while in Northern California his work was principally in Plumas County. He made the sectional survey in the Elk Hills district, Kern County, doing the instrument and field work under James Duee, contractor for the United States Survey. He has made two official maps of Colusa County, the first one being pub- lished by himself and Raymond Houx, in 1902, and the second by himself and Byron D. Beckwith, in 1915. When the counties of Colnsa and Glenn were divided, on May 5, 1891, Mr. Kaerth took a prominent part. In every way he has made his influence felt for the public good in his special field of constructive effort.
Mr. Kaerth holds the rank of Major, through his appoint- ment, in 1904, by Governor Pardee, as Major and Engineering Of- ficer of the Third Brigade, N. G. C. In his home county he is rec- ognized as a supporter of all movements for advancing the inter-
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ests of the county; and in the Sacramento Valley and the state at large he is considered an authority on reclamation and irrigation matters. He has a wide acquaintance professionally throughout the state.
Mr. Kaerth worked under the late Gen. Will S. Green as a rodman in 1887, and takes great pride in the fact of their close friendship during the latter's lifetime. He was a true friend of the General, and was present at the last irrigation meeting he at- tended, at Red Bluff, on June 15, 1905. He well remembers and often quotes General Green's prophetic words, uttered on that oc- casion : "Gentlemen, my only hope, as I am on the decline of life, is that some day I may stand on Pisgah and see a Promised Land for God's people in this valley. Then I will be ready to lay me down and die." On July 2, of that year, Gen. Will S. Green passed away. Mr. Kaerth is serving on the executive committee of the Sacramento Valley Development Association, organized in 1900 by the late General Green. He was one of the charter mem- bers, and is the only one of these who has held a directorship con- tinuously since its organization. In the interests of the general development of the valley, he has served without pay, even paying his own traveling expenses. Marshall Diggs is now president of the Association, an office held by Gen. Will S. Green from the day the Association was organized until his death.
In 1895, J. W. Kaerth and Miss Lucy E. Hannah, of Maxwell, were united in marriage. They have two children, Velma and Edna L. Mr. Kaerth is progressive in his views. In politics he has always been a stanch Republican. Prominent in fraternal circles, he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the Encampment branch of that order, has passed all the chairs in the subordinate lodge, and is a member of the board of trustees of the Odd Fellows Home at Saratoga, Cal. He is also a member of the Independent Order of Foresters; and of Colusa Parlor, N. S. G. W., of which he was the first president. Inter- ested in the maintenance of good schools, he served several years as trustee of the grammar and high schools of Colusa. For years, also, he has been a member of the local Board of Trade.
WILLIAM DODD
That the community of Elk Creek know how to appreciate the good services of a faithful and accomplished public servant, is proved in the election and reelection of William Dodd, the efficient, conscientious and popular Justice of the Peace. A native of historic and beautiful Lincolnshire, England, in which
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country he was born at South Kyme, on May 14, 1867, he was a son of William and Mary Ann (Knight) Dodd, farmer folks in Lincolnshire, England. William Dodd went to school there, and in 1889 first came to the United States, almost immediately pro- ceeding West to California. For three years he remained at Woodland, principally in the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and then came to the section with which he was to become permanently identified.
Upon locating at Elk Creek, Mr. Dodd engaged in the butcher business, and also ran a threshing-machine, working especially in Clark's, Millsaps, and Stony Creek Valleys, in partnership with Lockwood and Hayward, also of Elk Creek. In one line or another of activity, he continued until 1903, when he was nominated and elected Justice of the Peace, and was made a notary public. These offices he held from 1903 till 1907. After that, for several years, the Judge was in the hotel business, and a more genial host never smiled on the traveler entering Elk Creek. In 1915, Mr. Dodd was again elected Justice of the Peace. For twelve years he has been a member of the Republican Central Committee; and for years he served as clerk of the Elk Creek school board.
On December 22, 1897, in Elk Creek, Mr. Dodd married Miss Molly Longworth, a native of that part of Colusa County which is now Glenn County. Her parents, Francis Marion and Mary (Anderson) Longworth, came to this section as pioneers. Mrs. Dodd spent fifteen years of her early life in the East with her parents, returning to California in 1894. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Dodd: Mary Aileen, Wallace Long- worth, and Anita Eloise.
HARDY J. HASKELL
What California owes to her sturdy yeomen of the fields, many of whom have come from other and distant states, will be seen by a study of the life of Hardy J. Haskell, who was born in Scott County, Ill., September 19, 1880. When he was nine years of age, he came with his parents to the Golden State. His father was John J. Harden Haskell, a native of Illinois; and his mother, before her marriage, was Mary Jane McKamy, also a native of that state. On choosing Glenn County for the scene of his activities, John J. Harden Haskell located at Germantown, in the winter of 1888-1889, and worked on the Glenn grant as a farmer. Two years later he moved to Willows and took up car- pentering, following that trade for a year. In 1893, Mr. Haskell
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moved to Elk Creek, located in that vicinity, and took up farming there. For the last four years he has been in Fruto.
After finishing his school days, Hardy Haskell went to work on ranches in the vicinity of Willows, and as soon as he was able also farmed for himself, continuing in that way four years. On November 15, 1911, he bought the D. E. Zumwalt store at Fruto, and began a general merchandise business; and at the same time he was appointed postmaster, which position he has filled to the satisfaction of the public. His valuable and varied experience, and his genial personality, have combined to make for Mr. Haskell many friends, and to render him popular in social circles. He is a member of the Odd Fellows Lodge of Newville, No. 321, of which he is a Vice Grand.
Mr. Haskell was united in marriage on December 2, 1914, to Miss Cora Pearl Humphreys, a native of Oakland, Cal.
ED FLANAGAN
A pioneer agriculturist who came to California in the im- portant period of the middle nineties, and one to whom his district is indebted for some of the most efficient support of popular edu- cation, and particularly of the proposition for a high school there, is Ed Flanagan, a native of Saratoga Springs, N. Y., at which famous watering-place he was born on June 3, 1862. He attended school in New York State, and early found employment in the dye works at Saratoga, where he remained five years. Next, he went to Lawrence, Mass., and for a year was connected with a dye works there.
In 1883, Mr. Flanagan came west to North Dakota, where he took up a hundred sixty acres of government land near Bismarck, and later bought railroad land, which he planted to grain and used for the raising of stock; and there he remained for ten or eleven years. About 189-4, he moved still further westward, until he reached Princeton, Colusa County, Cal .; and there he took up one hundred seventy-eight acres of land, or rather contracted to clear the same of heavy timber. According to agreement, he was to do this in six years; and in six years or less he had fulfilled his contract. When he had finished clearing this land, he bought it, and devoted the same to general farming, the raising of stock, and a dairy of forty cows, besides eighty head of young stock. Still later, he bought thirty acres more. Now, on the home place alone, he owns two hundred eight acres; and he also has property in Princeton. One hundred ten acres of his land is planted to alfalfa.
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On March 10, 1891, at Bismarck, N. D., Mr. Flanagan was married to Miss Evelyn A. Lane, a native of Vermont; and by her he has had four children: Nellie May, who married George Farthing; Kathryn, who is a public school teacher; and Evelyn and Beatrice. An active and prominent Democrat, Mr. Flanagan has served fourteen years on the school board of Union district; and, as has been stated, he has worked hard to raise the standard of education in the vicinity. He also served five years on the high school board of Princeton, two years as president.
ROBERT HARVEY YOUNG
A patriotic and enterprising Glenn County rancher, well- known for his success as an agriculturist, and popular in local circles, is Robert Harvey Young. His father was Samuel Davis Young, who was born in Kentucky on January 13, 1828, but moved to Missouri, and in 1850 came with his brothers to Cali- fornia, stopping at Forbestown for five or six years to engage in mining, and meeting with success, especially in placer mining. Later, for a short time, he busied himself with dairying at Oro- ville, and afterwards came to Stony Creek, Indian Valley, where he took up government land. Later still, he settled on what was afterwards known as the Tiffee place; but in the fall of 1864 he sold out, and then bought cattle, which he afterwards sold. Soon after, he came to his home place of five hundred seventy-nine acres, known as the Nichols place, which he bought from Mr. Winckler. In 1868, he returned to Missouri by way of the Isthmus, and while there married Miss Sarah C. Coons, a native of Ken- tucky, who had been reared in Missouri. They returned across the plains to California, and on December 13, 1891, Mr. Young died on his home ranch. Seven children were born to this worthy couple, four of whom are living today: Robert Harvey; Mrs. B. E. Nelson, of Chico; Joseph R., of Chico; and James Franklin, of Oakland.
Robert Harvey Young first saw the light on May 20, 1871, at Colusa. He finished both a high school course and a year at Pierce Christian College, worked with his father on the ranch, until the latter's death, and then ran the place for his mother until, on August 3, 1915, she, too, passed away. He is now con- ducting the home place of six hundred acres, where he has an orchard of several acres planted to fruit and almonds, and is devoting the balance of the land to grain and general stock- raising.
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On April 12, 1903, Robert Harvey Young and Miss Alice Floretta Ludy were married; and the event was one of the happy occasions of the social season. Miss Ludy was a native daughter of Colusa (now Glenn). County. One child, David William, has blessed this union. Mr. Young is always ready to do his duty as a citizen. Politically, he supports the principles of the Demo- cratic party.
JAMES H. RYAN
One of the greatest conveniences to the traveling public in Glenn County is the ferry in charge of James H. Ryan. Mr. Ryan was born at Wausau, Wis., on August 13, 1891, and was two years old when the family settled in Glenn County. He is the son of Francis J. Ryan, whose interesting life-sketch appears elsewhere in this book. He was educated in the public schools of St. John, Glenn County, and found his first employment with the Hamilton Sugar Beet Factory, working on the preliminary survey made before the construction of the works. He also took part in the actual building of the factory, and for four years there demonstrated his native talent as a mechanic. For the two years following, Mr. Ryan was employed in construction work on the Hamilton City Bridge across the Sacramento River. His skill created for him an enviable reputation, and he was employed by the Sacramento Valley Irrigation Company to install and operate their pumping station at their head gate four miles north of Hamil- ton City. He also had charge of the reinforced concrete and steel work for the construction of the Willows Creek Syphons, Nos. 2 and 3, for the same company, and was in the employ of the Mills Orchard Company, installing and operating a pumping plant for irrigation at their ranch near Hamilton City.
On June 17, 1915, when the Glenn and Butte County ferry across the Sacramento River at Ord was put in operation, Mr. Ryan was placed in charge of the same; and he still retains the position. The ferry has proved a great convenience to the travel- ing public. During the year 1916 it enabled five thousand four hundred thirty-five vehicles to cross the river.
Some years ago, Mr. Ryan married Miss Clara Scott, of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, who came with her parents to Glenn County in 1907; and they have one daughter, Katherine. The family is deservedly popular in Ord circles. Mr. Ryan is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, Ord Camp, No. 10,300, and also belongs to Willows Camp, Woodmen of the World.
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TENNEY & SCHMIDT
One of the best-equipped modern garages in all the county is the Tenney & Schmidt Garage, established by Messrs. Tenney & Schmidt, both experienced business men and expert mechanics, who started, in February, 1914, with a small repair shop located in a shed in the rear of Mr. Tenney's home on Oak Street, Willows. The room was only about sixteen by eighteen feet in size, and suf- ficed for their needs but a little more than one month. They then next located in a small sheet-iron building, on South Tehama Street. After remaining there three months, they bought Floeck- hart's garage at 115 West Oak Street. Here they did a hustling business until they moved to the present location at 305 North Tehama Street, where they put up a building fifty by one hundred fifty feet, built especially for them and after their own plans. There is a show-room and sales-room in front, and a well-equipped repair department in the rear, with a modern oxy-acetylene weld- ing and entting plant and a motor generator set for recharging storage batteries, which has a capacity of ten six-volt batteries at one time, the largest storage-battery plant in Glenn County. The firm is a member of the California Automobile Association, which is affiliated with the Automobile Association of America; and the garage, therefore, is one of the official repair and stopping places in the state. The firm is also a member of the California State Automobile Association, of Los Angeles.
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