USA > California > Sacramento County > History of Sacramento 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, 1913 > Part 65
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GEORGE THISBY
On the old Thisby homestead on Andrus Island, Sacramento county, and the place on which he still resides, was born George Thisby on September 24, 1873, son of George and Rebecca (Elliott) Thisby. The parents came to California in 1850 via Panama, and as early as 1852 settled on Andrus Island. The country was wild and in many parts society was unorganized. The father's experience in some respects was remarkable; he ran the first craft on the Sacra- mento river and was otherwise interested in pioneer doings. He was descended from an old English family.
After leaving school George Thisby, Jr., began to work on ranches and he was thus employed during all the years of his early
Joe, Saner
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manhood. In 1897 he went to Alaska, where he lived a strenuous and adventurous life through five memorable years. Then returning to California, he settled down to farming on his ranch near Walnut Grove. In Sacramento in 1905 he married Miss Lillian Campbell, a native of Placer county, Cal., daughter of David Campbell, who is now deceased, and his wife, Mary J. (Wiley), who still resides in Auburn. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Thisby : George C. and Mary Jane, aged in 1913 six years and four years respectively. In everything pertaining to the public welfare of his community Mr. Thisby is deeply concerned. While he is not active as a politician he has been elected trustee of Georgiana school dis- triet and is trustee of Reclamation district No. 556. His home- stead is a fine ranch of two hundred and twenty-one acres, highly improved in every respect and devoted to the enltivation of fruits and vegetables. Mr. Thisby was made a Mason in Franklin Lodge No. 143 and is a member of Isleton Lodge No. 108, I. O. O. F., of which he is past grand. In politics he is a Republican.
JOSEPH SANER
For many years, and indeed from the time of his immigration to the new world until his death, Mr. Saner was identified with the dairy and ranch interests of Sacramento county. Such was his frugality, such his tireless perseverance and such his native shrewdness that ultimately he acquired large holdings in ranch lands. Not a little of his success was due to the sterling good sense and practical co-opera- tion of his wife, who since being left a widow has carried forward the enterprises begun by her husband and has proved the possession of fine business qualifications as well as an intimate and thorough knowledge of every detail connected with ranching. The plans which he laid with the hopeful spirit of middle age she is carrying forward to completion and in these important tasks she has enjoyed the will- ing aid of her children, the eldest of whom have reached an age which renders gennine helpfulness possible, while the youngest are able to assist in the lighter tasks of the ranch.
There were not only kindred aspirations and harmonious tem- peraments to unite Mr. and Mrs. Saner in a happy wedded life, but in addition they shared an affection for the same native country and the same childhood associations. Familar to their early days were the lofty peaks of the Alps and the simple beanty of the lakes which give to Switzerland an abiding majesty of landscape. Mr. Saner was born in Canton Solothurn, Switzerland, March 23, 1860, while the 36
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birth of Mrs. Saner occurred September 24, 1865, her maiden name having been Mary Bisig. Both had few educational advantages, but began to labor for self-support while yet quite young. Both cherished Jongings for the liberty of America, and both crossed the ocean in 1883, coming direct from New York City to California and settling in Sacramento county. Mrs. Saner saw the United States for the first time on the 25th of April, 1883, and on the 9th of March, 1887, became the wife of Mr. Saner, who had been employed at dairying for the four preceding years.
The young couple took up agricultural pursuits on a rented tract, owned by Mr. Harvey, and there they worked frugally, industriously and efficiently for four years. As a result of their efforts they were able to buy a place of their own. In 1901 they purchased the Steele ranch of four hundred and fifteen acres located on Dry creek, and three years later, in 1904, they added to their holdings by the pur- chase of the Davis tract of three hundred acres. Still later one hun- dred and eighty-two acres were bought, making nearly one thousand acres, all of which Mr. Saner managed with recognized thrift and intelligence. In the management of the broad acres his wife, since his death, October 14, 1908, has been as efficient as was he, and her capable mind and willing hands insure profitable returns from the cultivation of the land. Eight children came to bless their union, namely: Frieda, born December 8, 1888; Ameli, August 4, 1890; Joseph, April 15, 1893; Robert, May 18, 1895; Lillie, April 3, 1897; Harry, May 29, 1898; William, November 28, 1899, and Evelina, De- cember 8, 1903. Many sorrows have come to Mrs. Saner, and her life has had its share of trouble, but none was more difficult to bear than the tragic death of her youngest child, Evelina, who was lost in the destruction of their home by fire, October 27, 1905. With supreme courage she has borne this terrible bereavement and with firm Chris- tian heroism she has triumphed over disaster and distress, so that she presents to all the example of a cheerful life and an industrious, optimistic temperament.
WILLIAM A. LANGLEY
The bicycle and motorcycle trade now engages talent and capital no less noteworthy than those demanded by the automobile trade, with which it is allied. Prominent in this line in Sacramento is William A. Langley, No. 1025 Tenth street. Mr. Langley was born in Abing- ton, Mass., April 9, 1873, a son of Herman A. and Rosette Langley, and while yet quite young was taken by his parents to Astoria, Ore.,
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and there he attended the public school until he was fourteen years of age. Then, young as he was, he went to Shoal Water Bay, Wash., and was for four years employed in a lumber mill. This brings his life story down to 1891, in which year he came to California and, locating at Lodi, engaged in the bicycle trade, operating a store there till 1900, when he came to Sacramento. Here he has continued in the same line, having the sole agency for the Excelsior autocycle and the Pierce motorcycle.
The machines handled by Mr. Langley are considered as good as any in the market, and so thoroughly does he understand their con- struction and operation that, having the confidence of the buying public, he is able to sell them against any and all competition. A feature of his business is the repairing of bicycles and motorcycles. In his repair department he employs only skilled workmen, and his materials are as good as can be obtained, while his charges are as reasonable as are consistent with good service and the adequate profit essential to the success and permanency of any business of whatever character.
On May 10, 1902, Mr. Langley married Miss Ellen V. Price of Sacramento. He is credited by those who know him well with the possession of an admirable public spirit which so influences him as to make him a liberal and helpful citizen, alive to the best interests of the ยท community. In his political affiliation he is a Republican.
HERBERT EDWARD YARDLEY
During the long period of his identification with his present line of business Mr. Yardley has developed an undertaking establish- ment that stands in the very front rank of institutions of the kind in Sacramento. When in 1893 he purchased the undertaking business of Clark & Booth and assumed the management of the place of which he remains the proprietor, he was brought into associations different from those of former business connections, but he proved equal to all emergencies and soon acquired a comprehensive knowledge of every detail. Personal qualifications admirably adapt him for suc- cessful business pursuits. Tactful in manner, accommodating in disposition, quick in decision and sagacious in judgment, he belongs to that class of citizens whose presence has been most beneficial to the advancement of the capital city along lines of permanent progress.
The honor of being a member of the Native Sons of the Golden West comes to Mr. Yardley through his birth in Yolo county, where his parents, James and Elizabeth Yardley, had established a home on the then frontier. The death of both of the parents in their early
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maturity left the son, who was born in January of 1868, an orphan ere he was old enough to fully comprehend the great loss incident to such a bereavement. An aunt, Mrs. W. H. Wright, residing in Sacramento, took him into her home and sent him to the grammar school and later to the high school, so that he was prepared for the responsibilities of self-support. When only fifteen years of age he secured a clerkship in the drug store owned by Frederick Kolliker, and for ten years he continued in the same establishment, meanwhile receiving merited promotion from time to time. When finally he resigned his connection with the establishment it was for the pur- pose of starting a drug store of his own, and that business he con- ducted on Eighth and J streets until 1893, when he sold out and entered the undertaking business.
With his wife, who was Miss Russia Lubeck, and whom he married in Auburn, this state, in 1896, Mr. Yardley occupies a posi- tion of accepted prominence in the social circles of Sacramento. Various organizations, fostered by the most cultured citizens of the town, have received his co-operation and intelligent aid. Notwith- standing the pressure of business duties he always has taken the leisure necessary for a study of national issues and political condi- tions. In general elections he gives his support to the Republican party. The Elks and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows receive his hearty assistance in their progressive projects for fraternal up- building, while socially he belongs to the Sutter club. An expert marksman and fond of hunting as a recreation, he enjoys the pastime in company with other members of the Glide Gun club. Perhaps no organization has enlisted his sympathetic co-operation in larger de- gree than Masonry. For years he has been a disciple of the order, a participant in its philanthropies and a believer in its uplifting principles of brotherhood. Beginning with the blue lodge, he rose through the various degrees until he became associated with the Knights Templar and Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and as such he maintains a leading part in Masonic affairs in his home city. Mr. Yardley is a man of wide enterprise, giving generously of his time and means toward every enterprise that has for its object the upbuilding of his adopted city, in which he has achieved a marked degree of success in his individual as well as public undertakings that he has fostered.
THOMAS EMORY BRICKELL
The well-known Oak Park real estate man whose name appears above is a brother of Jerome F. Brickell and has lived in Sacramento since 1906. He was born in Niles, Mich., a son of Thomas Jefferson
Aromas R Raper
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and Elizabeth Brickell, was educated in public schools and was grad- uated from the Niles high school in 1877. After leaving school he was for a time an assistant to his father. When he was only nine- teen years old he came to California and located at Truckee, where he was for three and a half years manager of a general store.
From Truckee Mr. Brickell went to Spokane, Wash., where he lived twenty-five years, variously employed, but always busy and prosperous. He operated one farm seven years and was secretary and treasurer of the Fidelity Mortgage Company of Spokane ten years. When he came to Sacramento in 1906 he helped his brother incorporate the Oak Park Realty Company. Politically he is a Democrat and at different times in Washington and California has been offered important public offices which he has refused to accept, yet while his personal ambitions have impelled him to this course he has been active and influential in political work. Since 1880 he has been identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and for a time he affiliated with the Modern Woodmen. He is a helpful mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal church. As a citizen he is public- spirited to a degree that makes him very useful to his community. It is probable that he inherits some of his rather remarkable busi- ness ability from ancestors who made their mark on civilization of their time and locality.
Miss Clara Vincent became Mr. Brickell's wife and they have had three children, two of whom survive: Harry, of San Francisco, and Lilah E., at home; the oldest child, Emory, who was chief clerk in one of the departments of the Southern Pacific railroad, having died aged twenty-four years.
ROBERT RAPER
As a rancher for many years in Colusa county and later as a horti- enlturist in Sacramento county, Mr. Raper has gained a thorough knowledge of the soil in this section of the state and also of its adaptability to varied products. Himself a pioneer of the '60s, hav- ing crossed the plains a number of years prior to the spanning of the continent by the first railroad system, he has witnessed the progress made by the west during the past one-half century, nor has his own part in the slow work of agricultural evolution been insignificant or unworthy of honorable mention. On the other hand, he was one of the large number of patient tillers of the soil without whose intelli- gent efforts and unwearied industry the present degree of prosperity could not have been reached.
While Illinois was yet a frontier state and the large steamers on
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the Mississippi formed the principal means of transportation for the people of the north and south, Robert Raper was born in Fayette county, January 3, 1839, and was reared in Hancock county. The educational advantages which he enjoyed were excellent for those days. Later he enlarged his fund of information through close read- ing and self-culture. Early in manhood he established a home of his own, being united in marriage April 18, 1861, with Miss Caroline F. Allen, a native of Henry county, Iowa. The young couple began housekeeping on a farm, but soon they began to be interested in re- ports concerning California, and it was not long before they decided to seek a home in the far west. During the summer of 1864 they traveled across the plains with a wagon and mules and notwithstand- ing the hostility of the Indians they reached their destination without delays or attacks.
Shortly after his arrival in Colusa county. Mr. Raper rented a tract of raw land on which he raised wheat and barley. Later he bought four hundred and twenty acres of unimproved land and this he cultivated for a number of years. When he disposed of that place he purchased three hundred and twenty acres, which he cultivated for several years. Meanwhile he began to realize the need of better educational advantages for his children, and desiring to live where he could send them to first-class schools, he sold his country home, moved to College City, bought a lot and built a residence. For about twelve years he engaged in farming near the town, but continued meanwhile to occupy the village home until the children had com- pleted their studies.
The World's Fair attracted Mr. and Mrs. Raper to Chicago dur- ing the summer of 1893, and they enjoyed the splendid exhibits from their own state, as well as from other parts of the country and other regions of the world. Desiring to see something of the east, they traveled on to New England and found much to interest them there. After they had visited several of the most important eastern cities they spent some time among old friends in Iowa and Illinois, thence coming back to California, which seemed more desirable than ever before as a place of residence. Their enjoyment of the east did not lessen their affection for the home of their choice. Prior to that trip they had sold out in Colusa county and bought ten acres at Orangevale, three miles from Folsom, Sacramento county, which tract he had planted to apricots, almonds and prunes. On his return from Chicago and the other cities of his visitations, Mr. Raper built a substantial house on the place and made other improvements. Shortly afterward he bought two adjacent tracts, thus giving him forty acres altogether, of which ten acres are in Tokay grapes. Another tract is utilized for hay and pasture.
The only son of Mr. Raper is O. L. Raper, a prosperous farmer of Glenn county. The eldest daughter, Nora M., is the wife of J. L. Pat-
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terson, a prominent rancher of the Orangevale district. The second daughter, Jennie G., is Mrs. G. C. Clare, of Mendocino county, and the youngest, Lou, is the wife of W. T. Eddy, who at this writing carries on the Raper ranch. The wife and mother passed away December 15, 1909, leaving to her loved ones the memory of a kindly heart ever ready to succor those in need and willing hands ever ready to minister to the wants of her family. The uplifting teachings of Christianity were exemplified in her daily acts of kindness and words of love. Mr. Raper also has been a consistent believer in the Gospel and a devoted member of the Christian church. As a member of the school board for thirteen years he worked effectively to promote educational inter- ests. Politically he has been identified with the Republican party, bit in principle he always has been an ardent Prohibitionist and has dis- played his belief in the cause of temperance both by precept and example.
ANDREW YOUNGER
In an environment far different from that to which in maturity and age he has been accustomed Andrew Younger passed the years of his early life. Born at King Horn, Fifeshire, Scotland, June 27, 1826, he grew to manhood in his native shire, against whose rugged shores beat the ever-restless waves of the North Sea. Familiar to his boyish eyes was the sight of sailing craft moored in some quiet harbor and the presence of sailors and fishermen in the small sea- ports of the shire. However he might be fascinated by tales of the sea, he did not choose the life of a sailor, but after he had attended school for a few years and had gained a knowledge of the common branches he began an apprenticeship to the trade of blacksmith. The trade mastered, he became a journeyman and worked for wages in his native land. At the age of thirty years he came to the United States, accompanied by his young wife, and together they began the difficult task of identifying themselves with a country whose customs and methods of business were radically different from those of their own Scotland. Some years after they crossed the ocean his brother, William, also emigrated from Scotland and settled in Illinois. Agri- culture remained his occupation, and in 1909, after a prosperous ex- perience as a farmer, he passed away at his home in Woodford county, Ill., where he had resided during practically all of his as- sociation with the new world.
An experience of seventeen years as a blacksmith at Peoria, Ill .. gave Andrew Younger a reputation for efficient work and honorable citizenship. The failure of his health led to the suggestion that he
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remove to California. Accordingly, he disposed of his interests in Peoria and came to Sacramento, where for one summer he worked in the blacksmith shop of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. Next he followed his trade in San Francisco with various firms. In 1880 Stephen Uren sent for him to come to Sacramento and take a position as assistant foreman in the Southern Pacific blacksmith shop. Returning hither he entered upon the duties of the position, which he continued to fill until his retirement from all occupational activities. As a workman he was efficient, painstaking and trustworthy. His long retention in the one position is indicative of his recognized ability. Since his retirement in 1900, at the age of seventy-four years, he has spent his winters at his comfortable home, No. 1427 G street, Sacra- mento, while in the summer he visits in Portland, Ore., with his eldest son, who is superintendent of the railway motive power at that point. Fraternally he holds membership with Union Lodge, F. & A. M., in Sacramento, and formerly he was actively associated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. While inclined to be independent in polities in local campaigns, he usually votes the Republican ticket in national elections, and is proud of the fact that the first ballot he ever cast in the United States was in favor of Abraham Lincoln for president. This was during his residence in Peoria and at the time of Lincoln's first election as executive. In his old Scotch home he was reared in Presbyterian doctrines and always he has been in deep sympathy with the work of that denomination.
Before leaving Scotland for the new world Mr. Younger mar- ried Marguerite Smith Hamer, a native of England. They became the parents of five children, one of whom, a daughter, died in infancy. The eldest son, Thomas W., resides in Portland. The second son, Andrew, Jr., is a teacher of pattern-making in Cogswell college, San Francisco, and the youngest son, Joseph H., is employed in the book-binding department of the state printing office at Sacramento. Mrs. Marguerite Long, the only daughter who survived to maturity, is a graduate of the Sacramento high school and is a teacher in the Sacramento public schools. In her family there are five children. namely: Andrew, of the United States navy, now stationed in China ; Hiram, of Sacramento; Russell, also serving in the navy; Marian, wife of E. W. Stebbins, a mining engineer of Oakland, and Jessie, who is the wife of Hamlinton Hawley, a banker of Oakland.
JOHN N. LARKIN
An honored pioneer whose first identification with California dated back to the '50s, John N. Larkin left the impress of his force- ful personality and keen mind upon the annals of Sacramento county.
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Through the influence of his efforts as a newspaper editor and pub lisher he accomplished much in behalf of the permanent upbuilding of the community in which he held citizenship. Indeed, it would be possible to mention very few names more intimately associated with early history than was his own, and certainly no resident was more loyal than he to the county and the commonwealth. His entire per. sonal influence and also his editorial position were used to advance the prosperity of the west. As a writer he was clear and forcible. His meaning was never obscured by complicated expressions, but was made intelligible to all. In wit he was pungent and in humor respons- ive, yet his editorials were not caustic, acrimonious or unkind; on the other land, his writings usually expressed his own hearty and com- panionable nature and gave visible evidence of a disposition so genial as to attract the admiration of all, from the aged pioneer to the lad just out of school.
John N. Larkin was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., June 11, 1840, and in 1855 came for the first time to Sacramento, where an older brother, Henry, was at the time a part owner of the Sacramento Union. When the birthday number of this paper was published March 19, 1911, commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the publication, Mr. Larkin contributed the following article in relation to the early history of the well-known periodical : "My first introduction to the Sacramento Union was during the first week in May, 1855, when I faced the 'case' to receive my first instruc- tion in type-setting. The publishers and proprietors of the Union were James Anthony, Paul Morrill and Henry Larkin (the latter a brother of the writer), under the firm name of James Anthony & Co. They were all in harness at that time, Anthony as bookkeeper, Mor- rill doing the 'make-up' and Larkin working at the case. They em- ployed the best writers on the coast, and the paper soon became a power in the state, the people having confidence in its honesty and integrity. The office was at that time on J street between Front and Second, and what was then the counting room is now used by a produce firm as a storage for potatoes, onions and other truck.
"In December, 1859, I left for my home in New York, arriving there on Christmas morning. The year 1864 again found me in Sacramento and I found the Union in its new home on Third street. The journal had by this time become known throughout the country, its fearless attacks on corporate power attracting much interest throughout the entire Union. Its influence in the state was certainly phenomenal. Through its efforts Newton Booth was nominated and elected chief executive of the state, despite the desperate efforts of the Central Pacific railroad to defeat him. The battle between the railroad company and the Union was a bitter one, and a paper called the Daily Record was placed in the field in an effort to crush the Union. The effort was a failure, and the only way to quiet the Union
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