USA > California > Contra Costa County > History of Contra Costa County, California; with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 49
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John Love is the only survivor of eight children. He was brought up to work on the home ranch and what schooling he received was obtained in the country schools of his neighborhood. At Napa, in 1920, Mr. Love was married to Miss May McGill, born in St. Joseph, Mo., a daughter of Alexander and Margaret (Schaffel) McGill. Mr. Love is a consistent Republican in politics, and fraternally he is a member of Antioch Lodge No. 161, I. O. O. F., in Antioch.
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BYRON L. GRIGSBY .- A well-known business man of Brentwood, and also a rancher in the vicinity of that city, Byron L. Grigsby ably re- presents the pioneer California family whose name he bears. He was born at Grayson, Cal., on March 2, 1872, and was a son of the late Erasmus D. Grigsby, born in Pike County, Mo., and a farmer there, who married Miss Elmira Miller, a native of Illinois, after having settled in this State. They both came as pioneers in their young and vigorous days and became progressive members of the community where they lived and labored. After he came to California Erasmus D. Grigsby operated a 1000-acre grain ranch. In 1879 the family removed to Contra Costa County and located on leased land, where he farmed successfully and eventually became the owner of 800 acres. He operated a threshing ma- chine during the harvest season in the eastern part of this county. Later he and his good wife left the ranch and retired to Berkeley; and there they both died, the father in 1914, aged seventy-two; and Mrs. Grigsby in 1922, at the age of seventy-three years. They had four children. Laura is the wife of W. W. Collis, a rancher in the Brentwood district. Warren is a miner and lives in Calistoga. Lilly married O. B. Palmer, a wholesale grocer of Oakland. Byron L. is the subject of this review. The family are of English origin.
Byron L. Grigsby grew up on the home ranch near Brentwood and went to the public schools. He learned to drive the thirty-two head of animals on the Holt combined harvester and thresher, and also became an expert sack-sewer and worked both for his father and for others during the harvesting season. He had the usual pioneer experiences of the boys of his age and time. At the Eden Plain School he was a schoolmate of R. R. Veale, sheriff of this county, and had to go four miles to school every day. Later he attended the grammar schools and a business college in Oakland to better fit himself for the career ahead of him. After his father retired from active work, Byron and his brother ran the home place for years. He now owns fifty acres of fine land in Brentwood Precinct No. 1, where he raises fruit and alfalfa. In 1925, with Louis Planchon as a partner, Mr. Grigsby engaged in the hardware and agricultural im- plement business at Brentwood. They handle the International Har- vester Company's line of goods and in 1925 sold thirteen McCormick- Deering 10-20 tractors and two 15-30 tractors to Balfour-Guthrie Com- pany. They carry a full line of agricultural implements, windmills and belting, and are fast building up a good paying business. Mr. Planchon is in charge of the mechanical part of the business and Mr. Grigsby has charge of the sales department. They operate under the name of Planchon & Grigsby.
Mr. Grigsby was married at Red Bluff, in 1905, to Miss Alice Eaton, daughter of George Eaton, owner of a large stock farm in Tehama County. He crossed the plains in 1852 with his parents when a lad of thirteen and near Salt Lake City the Indians drove off and killed all their cattle during a skirmish. Mr. and Mrs. Grigsby have a daughter, Vir-
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ginia, now aged twelve years. Mr. Grigsby is president of the Eastern Contra Costa County Irrigation Board, of the Knightsen Irrigation Board, and of the Brentwood Grammar School Board. He serves as a deputy sheriff under R. R. Veale. Fraternally he is a Past Master of the Brentwood Masonic Lodge. In politics he is a Republican. He and his family are highly esteemed for their sterling qualities, and have a wide circle of friends in their locality. Mr. Grigsby has in his possession a diary and memorandum book kept by his grandfather when he crossed the plains to Oregon, which contains some very interesting statistics.
DANIEL DENEHY .- A booster for Crockett for many years and now a substantial citizen of that city and one of its well-known business men, Daniel Denehy was born at Smartville, Yuba County, Cal., on August 21, 1870. His father, Cornelius Denehy, was born in Ireland in 1842 and came to the United States in 1864 and is still living, making his home in San Francisco. His active career was spent in mining. The mother of Daniel Denehy was Mary Dunning Denehy, also a native of Ireland, but died when her twin sons were only eighteen months of age. The brother John lived to be fourteen, when he passed away. Cornelius Denehy married a second time, Miss Mary O'Brien becoming his wife in November, 1875. This couple celebrated their golden wedding anni- versary in November, 1925. One son Neal, now in the drygoods business in San Francisco, and a daughter, Mrs. Mary Consiglieri, also in the Bay city, were born of this second union.
Daniel, better known among his friends as "Dan" Denehy, attended the public schools in Yuba County and when he was old enough to strike out for himself his first occupation was as a glass-worker in the Pacific and Illinois Glass Works, then he spent about eleven years in the employ of the Pacific Rolling Mills, both in San Francisco, and in 1898 opened a saloon in Crockett, continuing in the liquor business until the Eighteenth Amendment prohibited the sale of liquors, when he closed the doors of his establishment and quit the business for all time. Later he fitted up his former place of business and opened an up-to-date candy store, where he is to be found during business hours, and where he has built up a fine retail trade. He enjoys the confidence and esteem of the citizens of Crockett and has been connected with the civic development of the city by his connection with the Crockett-Valona Business Men's Association. His faith in Crockett has been shown by his investing in real estate and by his service as one of the fire commissioners of the city. He endorses the candidates of the Republican party and has been more or less active in political affairs. He is satisfied to remain in Crockett where his best days have been passed and believes in the future of this Straits district.
On August 23, 1905, Mr. Denehy was united in marriage with Mrs. Alice E. Story, a native of Tennessee. He adopted a daughter of his wife by a former marriage, who is now Mrs. Katherine Van Vankenburg. residing in Honolulu.
Celebraher
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CLARK C. KRATZER .- A prominent citizen and successful business man of Richmond, Clark C. Kratzer is a self-made man who has made his way unaided by capital or influential friends and has worked his way to the top of the ladder of success and become a man of large and varied business affairs. Mr. Kratzer was born in Brown County, Ohio, on March 3, 1875, a son of Lewis and Nancy Kratzer, well-known and highly respected farmer folk of Mount Orab. The original Kratzer family in America is a pre-Revolutionary one, and its descendants are numerous. Great-grandfather Kratzer was one of the pioneer settlers of Mount Orab.
Clark C. Kratzer attended the local public school and grew up on his father's farm. Early in life he determined to make his own way in the world, and his life story to date is full of interesting events and has that fascination which attaches to the lives of all men whose careers had small beginnings and attained to large achievements. At the age of seventeen, in 1892, he left home and enlisted in the United States Army, being assigned to Battery E, 5th Heavy Artillery. He saw service in Cuba, being with the first detachment to land at San Juan, Porto Rico. and was in the Santiago campaign, serving under General Shafter, acting as his orderly sergeant and fighting side by side with the famous Roose- velt Rough Riders. Mr. Kratzer was personally acquainted with both General Shafter and Colonel Roosevelt. He was discharged at Porto Rico, after which he bought 160 ponies and began carrying mail over twenty-four different lines; later he entered the mail service and re- mained in it two years. He then went back to New York and again en- listed in the army and was sent to San Antonio, Texas, with a field artillery regiment. From here he was transferred to Fort Worden, Wash., and in 1904 he was discharged. During his military career he received five honorable discharges.
After leaving the army Mr. Kratzer came to Coalinga, Cal., and worked in the oil fields as a common laborer for a year, then became a driller, and eventually was made superintendent for the Commercial Oil Company on the Nevada Petroleum Oil Company's lease. He has the distinction of being the first man to use an automobile in the de- livery of milk at Kingsburg, Fresno County, using an old two-cylinder Buick. Selling out the milk route, he took over the Buick agency at Coalinga, remaining from 1906 until 1918, when he sold out to come to Richmond, where he is now the general agent for the Buick for Contra Costa County. In point of service Mr. Kratzer is the third oldest Buick agent in California. Besides being the general agent for the Buick in the county and having nine sub-agencies in the various cities, he is pro- prietor of the new modern Buick Garage at Tenth Street and Bissell Avenue. In 1921 Mr. Kratzer became a partner in the undertaking business with Aubrey Wilson, and they have one of the most modern and best-equipped funeral homes in the county, located at Seventh Street and Bissell Avenue and known as the Wilson and Kratzer Funeral Parlors.
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Mr. Kratzer is also a director in the First National Bank in Richmond, and he owns a very fine dairy farm in Tulare County, where he keeps a herd of registered Holstein cattle.
In 1904 C. C. Kratzer was united in marriage with Miss Belle Liver- more, born in Selma, Fresno County, a daughter of a pioneer family of that county. Mr. Kratzer is prominent in civic, social and religious circles in Richmond. He belongs to the Eagles and the Red Men, has served as president of the Rotary Club, and is a deacon and the treasurer of the Christian Church. The sterling personal characteristics of C. C. Kratzer, accompanied by unquestioned financial and executive ability, have placed him among the foremost business men of Richmond.
GEORGE SELLERS .- The son of pioneer parents, and himself a pioneer of California, George Sellers is among the most prominent citi- zens of Eastern Contra Costa County. He was born in Fruitvale, now a part of the city of Oakland, on March 1, 1854, the son of Samuel and Sarah (Abbott) Sellers. They left New York and sailed around the Horn to San Francisco, where they arrived in 1850, after a voyage of six months, during which time Mrs. Sellers was a great sufferer from seasick- ness. Arriving in the Golden State Mr. Sellers went to the mines in the Mother Lode district and tried his luck at prospecting and mining in Mariposa County. He moved to Contra Costa County in 1860, bought 160 acres of land, and began farming, at which he continued with good success until his death in 1900. Mrs. Sellers died about 1897. The grandfather of our subject was a pioneer of California and was among those who named the town of Fruitvale. Two sons of the Sellers family are living: George, of this review; and S. A. Sellers, of Berkeley.
George Sellers attended the first public school in Oakland and in 1860 was brought by his parents to Contra Costa County, where he continued his studies. He finished his education in Heald's Business College in San Francisco, after which he came back to the home ranch, and ever since then he has been among the representative men of this part of the county. He owns forty acres of the choicest land in this section and has improved a fine home place. He is widely and favorably known throughout the eastern part of the county and for a time carried on a real estate business at Brentwood. His specialty is horticulture, to which he devotes close attention with correspondingly excellent results. His orchard is devoted to walnuts, apricots, and general fruits. Mr. Sellers is a man of command- ing presence, standing six feet and three inches in height, and is an inde- fatigable worker.
Mr. Sellers was married on April 8, 1872, to Miss Adaline L. Buck- ley, of Contra Costa County, and they have had the following children : Henry Abbott, connected with the Hotchkiss Dairy for a time and now engaged in growing cotton at Fairbault, Cal .; Edwin Buckley, owner of sixty acres of the old Sellers homestead on Sellers Avenue, named in hon- or of the family; and Edith A., wife of H. L. French, a high school teach-
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er in San Francisco, where she is a court stenographer. The Buckley fam- ily came to California in 1852. Mr. Sellers is active in the ranks of the Republican party, and served as a deputy sheriff for five years. He has been a stanch friend of the public school and has served as a trustee for many years. Mr. Sellers has been interested in some important litigation in this section of the county, and has always interested himself in all the progressive movements for the county's upbuilding. He favors co-opera- tive marketing and has given much time and thought to that branch of the fruit-growing industry. He belongs to the Prune and Apricot Association of California.
ALONZO L. STONE .- A pioneer of Contra Costa County by birth and a successful rancher and walnut grower of the Alamo district, Alonzo L. Stone owns and occupies a thirty-eight-and-one-half-acre ranch called Walnut Home in Stone Valley, named in honor of his family, who at one time owned nearly all the land in this valley. The old adobe house in which he was born is still standing on the old home place on which his father settled in the pioneer days.
A. L. Stone was born on July 29, 1860, the son of Albert W. Stone, who was born in Erie County, Pa., on September 18, 1821, and died August 27, 1900. The years between these two dates were filled with many changes of environment and much hard labor, which finally brought success and a respite from arduous business responsibilities. When he was a lad Albert W. Stone went with his parents to Kalamazoo, Mich., and remained there until 1838. Then the family moved to Van Buren County, Iowa, where he learned blacksmithing and worked at the trade a short time. He had married Miss Alice Ward, who died in 1851, leaving him a son, Edward A., born in 1848, and who is now living in Washington and is the father of eight living children, seven of them girls and all teachers, while his only son is attending the University of Seattle. After the death of his wife, Albert Stone and his father outfitted with ox-teams and wagons and started on the journey of six months across the plains, arriving in California on September 1, 1852. Remaining but a short time, he returned to Iowa and married for his second wife Miss Martha Smith, born in England on February 18, 1829. Three weeks later, with his son Edward A., they were en route for California with a band of stock, and some relatives and friends who wanted to come West and who helped with the stock. They arrived safely in Colusa County, where Mr. Stone began the stock business on a portion of the old Dr. Glenn ranch. He was known as Colonel Stone by his many friends in the East, for his activities during one of the Indian wars in his section. In 1858 the family came south to Contra Costa County, whither Silas Stone, his father, and his wife Susanna Stone, two daughters and a son had emigrated in the middle fifties and had settled on a ranch and built the house where A. L. Stone is now living. Silas Stone was elected alcalde of this district. When
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he retired he went to live in Haywards with his daughter, Mrs. William Meek, and there he died. His widow died at the home of her son, Lysander Stone, in San Leandro. A. W. Stone soon moved into the old adobe house which he had bought with 100 acres of land from William Comstock. To this land he added from time to time until he owned some 900 acres, which he devoted to general farming and stock-raising. The children born of this second marriage are: Martha Jeannette, widow of Edward A. Bunce, lives on the old home place near the adobe; she has two daughters, Olivette, Mrs. A. C. McMillan of Stockton, and Mrs. Martha Johnson of Alamo. William J. Stone died in March, 1923, unmarried. Elwin L. resides in Berkeley and has five children: Robert, Harry, Alonzo, Rix and Agnes. Alonzo L., of this review. Flora M. is the wife of J. C. Jones and the mother of a son Alden; they live at Alamo. Susie G. married George Trevetts ; she died in September 1904, leaving a daughter, Susie S. Annie A. is the widow of August Humburg and the mother of two children, Friederiche (Mrs. R. F. Jackson) and Lorenz, and lives at Alamo. Mrs. A. W. Stone died on July 2, 1910.
Alonzo L. Stone attended private and public schools at Alamo and had one term in Livermore College, finishing his education with a course at Heald's Business College in San Francisco. In 1880 he took a trip to Mexico, expecting to do some mining; but the depredations of the Indians prevented his carrying out his plans and after one year there he came home. In 1900 he went on a mining expedition to Alaska, but the hardships he had to undergo precluded any profit and he decided to return to California and take up farming; and ever since then he has devoted his energies to ranch life and work. Most of his place is set to walnuts; but he has sixteen varieties of grapes on his ranch, and some of his grape arbors are things of beauty. He has made a success of the work to which he was trained from boyhood and is content to live in comfort and ease at his home one mile east of Alamo.
Alonzo L. Stone was married on October 25, 1883, to Miss Minnie Berring of San Francisco, daughter of Rudolph and Sophie ( Margroff) Berring. Her father was a bookeeper by occupation, and died many years ago. Mr. and Mrs. Stone have three children living. Lilias is at home. Bertha first married O. A. Towsley and has a son, Berring. Mr. Towsley died and she later married A. Ross, of Gonzales. Albert is married and lives at San Ardo. Mr. Stone is a member of the Woodmen of the World, Danville Camp, organized over thirty-two years ago, and has passed through the chairs, and is also a member of the Neighbors of Woodcraft. He is a director of the Farmers' Association of Walnut Creek, belongs to and for three years served as president of the Walnut Growers' Associ- ation of Contra Costa County, and is one of the board of managers of the Alamo Cemetery. He is active in all progressive projects that are brought forward to advance the best interests of his county and State, and has a large circle of friends.
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JOSEPH T. ARATA .- An Italian-American citizen who has made good in California is Joseph T. Arata, of Antioch. He is the builder of and owner of the Commercial Hotel, a three-story brick structure, modern in all its appointments and a credit to the city. He has been a resident of Contra Costa County since 1878 and for many years ran a market garden and supplied the surrounding towns and country with fresh vege- tables, and made a financial success. He was born on February 1, 1858, in the province of Genoa, Italy, in the little town of Chignia, near the village where Christopher Columbus was born. His father and mother were Nicholas and Angelina Arata, who had a family of six sons, of whom Joseph is the youngest. All of them came to America, and Louis is now in Crockett. The father died when he was eighty-four, and the mother at seventy-four.
Joseph Arata was the last of the boys to leave home for the new country across the sea, leaving after he had attended the schools of his native village and grown to manhood. He was married in Italy on Jan- uary 17, 1876, to Rosa Arata, of the same name but no relation, and she was born just three days after he first saw the light. They celebrated their golden wedding anniversary on January 17, 1926, in fitting style at Antioch. Theirs was a school-day romance, as they both attended the same school and the same church in Italy. In his native land Mr. Arata fol- lowed farming for two years after his marriage, and then came to Amer- ica before he could be drafted into the army. This marriage has resulted in the birth of eight children. Jennie, born in Italy, is the wife of John McEravy, a rancher near Chico; Nicholas, also born in Italy, works for the Antioch Lumber Company; Louis, born at Antioch, died in 1922 at the age of forty years; John is a farmer in Deer Valley, Contra Costa County ; Lena, the widow of John Zappatini, lives in San Francisco; Julia married Tony Pavolini and died at Martinez in 1917; George is a butcher in Oakland; and Annie died in 1892 aged two years and four months. There are fifteen grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Mr. Arata left Italy for the United States just three days before his second child was born, and traveled by way of Havre, France, to Liver- pool, England, and thence to New York, arriving at Castle Garden on October 25, 1878. His destination was Antioch, Cal., and he came via Chicago and San Francisco, arriving on November 19, 1878, and has lived here the past forty-eight years. He became a naturalized citizen in 1887 at Martinez in the court of Judge P. Jones. As soon as he reached Antioch he began market gardening in partnership with his brother Louis, renting land from L. S. Robinson, for twenty years. He was joined by his wife and babies on July 9, 1879. Quitting market gardening, he en- gaged in mixed farming for seventeen years, and at the same time ran a grocery store and sold vegetables in Antioch. In 1907 he erected his brick hotel building. This he still owns, and also has four residences in town. He is a stockholder in the Bank of Antioch and also in the First National Bank here. The family are members of the Catholic Church,
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and in politics are Republicans. He is a charter member of the Sons of Italy Columbus Society. Fraternally, he is a member of the Red Men and of the Odd Fellows Lodge and Encampment in Antioch. Mr. Arata is very public spirited and supports all movements that tend to help the peo- ple and benefit the city and county.
WAVERLEY STAIRLEY .- Now living retired from business cares and looking after his own private interests, Waverley Stairley is enjoying his ease at his comfortable home in West Richmond. His has been a busy life and now he enjoys his well-earned competence. He was born on August 3, 1845 at Greenville, S. C., a son of Benjamin F. and Elizabeth K. (Stone) Stairley, the latter a daughter of Col. Banister Stone, of Virginia. Great-grandfather George Stairley was born in Virginia and married Elizabeth Lester, daughter of Archibald and Elizabeth (Grymes) Lester, the latter a sister of Lucy Grymes, who was the mother of Light Horse Harry Lee, father of Gen. Robert E. Lee, of Confederate fame.
When twelve years of age Waverley Stairley accompanied his father to California, coming via Panama. He remained here but seven months, when he was returned to school in New York City, where he attended the New York City College on Forty-seventh Street. While attending school the Civil War broke out, in 1860, and our subject, then but fifteen years old, enlisted in the cavalry of Wade Hampton's Legion and rendered gallant service in the army in Virginia. During the war he had his horse shot from under him, and his regiment was reduced to seventy-two men, but young Stairley went through the rigors of war unscathed. When peace was declared he returned to New York and finished his education.
In 1866 he received the offer of a position in San Francisco and he again came West by the Panama route and ever since then has considered himself a western man. In 1868 Mr. Stairley became ticket auditor of the northern division for the Southern Pacific Railway Company and continued with this company for several years. In 1875 he became asso- ciated with the banking house of Belloc and Company, later engaged in the stock brokerage business in San Francisco under the name of Stairley and Haverstick, and during 1880 and 1881 was connected with the Ma- dera Flume and Trading Company in the San Joaquin Valley. Mr. Stair- ley was engaged in the lumber business for many years, being associated with Moore and Smith of San Francisco; later was with the Sierra Lum- ber Company, on January 1, 1884, taking charge of their plant and yards at Red Bluff. In January, 1894, he was appointed Internal Revenue Col- lector of the Fourth District of California and was located in Sacramento for four years.
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