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 66
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 66
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After his service on the plains, Mr. Webb engaged in pros- pecting 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
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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, specializ- ing in Plymouth Rocks. 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 pur- chase, which is devoted to fruit and alfalfa, and forty acres near by, 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 con- ditions.
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 Coppie 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 prefer- ence to the open prairie. He attended the subscription schools held in rude log cabins, and there learned "the three R'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
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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 sur- rounding country, erecting residences, churches, schoolhouses, farm buildings, mills, etc .; and meeting with deserved success, he became firmly established in the community as the leading con- tractor. He helped organize the Monticello Post, G. A. R., 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 Ger- many 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 Or- land; 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-
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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 busi- ness 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 np 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 snch men as Mr. Wright much credit is due-men who have considered no under- taking too ardnous, 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 wronght in California during the past forty years is dne to the energy and patient perseverance of the pioneers, men who, leaving comfortable homes in the East, identi- fied themselves with the newer West, and ont of its crudity evolved the present-day civilization. Among these builders of the state is numbered George Retterath, rancher and stockman, who is oper- ating the Hagar & Tuttle estate, four miles sontheast of Colnsa. 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 Connty, 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 lim- ited, as he could only attend a few months during the winter sea- son. 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 super- intendent of schools of Mendocino County. George is the subject of this review. Peter is a farmer in Indiana. Frank is the post-
Geo Retteroth Venda. a. Retterath
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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 aeres 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 opera- tions as a rancher and stockman have been attended with success.
On December 15, 1891, the marriage uniting George Ret- terath 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 childen six grew to maturity; viz., Sarah Maretta, Mrs.
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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. 133, I. O. O. F. He is a liberal supporter of all help- ful publie movements and worthy charities, and has a wide circle of friends throughout Colusa County. In politics he supports Democratic principles. He is a stanch 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 Stan- ford 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 po- sition.
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 har- mony 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
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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 promi- nent 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, O. E. S. He is one of the trustees, and secretary of the board, of the Presby- terian 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 Pil- grims 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 com- munity, 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.
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Mr. Greenwood is owner of a large tract of grain land at Green- wood Switch, which is leased. He is interested in irrigation, and has taken an active part in the Orland Unit Water Users Asso- ciation 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. O. N. M. S., of San Fran- cisco; and he is a member and patron of the Orland Chapter, O. 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 builded 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 irri- gation, is A. Holly Culver, a native son, born at Willows, on August 13, 1888. His father was John Culver, who settled in Colnsa Connty 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 Cali-
Mary J. He usted. Henry Hustel
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fornia 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. R. 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 R. 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 re- moved 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 R's" were usually the only branches taught. The school- 40
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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 re- member. 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 month 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 Wil- liams. He brought the land under cultivation and rented other tracts near by, 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 com- bined harvesters he discontinued the enterprise. One of his steady sources of income was a dairy of twenty cows. In connec- tion 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. Six 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 Califor- nia in 1894. Her parents, Isaac W. and Sarah (Shockley) 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 chil- dren 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,
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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 pub- lic-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 mem- ber 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 busi- ness as in former years. She is a member of the Rebekahs, a past officer of Pearl Lodge, No. 181, at Williams. In her church rela- tions she is a member of the Society of Friends.
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