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 71
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Once more in Placer county, near Lincoln, Mr. Timm was a rancher, industriously plowing and growing, when the Klondike discoveries in the north claimed his attention, and Mr. Timm figura- tively left his plowshare in the mold and stampeded for Alaska. Over the steep, icy Chilcoot he climbed and for a year he dug and froze for the dull yellow nuggets. In May, 1898, he was back in California. Volunteering for the Spanish war, he served in the regular army, being assigned to Battery A of the Third U. S. Artillery. In 1899 he was mustered out, there being no prospect of any further skirmishes with Spain, and the discharged soldier re- turned to Lincoln, Placer county. For two years he was again on the old ranch, hard at work but ambitious to enter larger interests. In 1901 he worked at the planing mill of Braunton & Robertson in Sacramento, remaining at this place for seven years; in fact, he stuck to it till he became the owner of the establishment. Then he changed its title to the California Planing Mill. His travels are over, and with the same industry and care for the details of business that marked his work as an employe of the mill, he is working as a proprietor and manager, and meeting success. An event which while he labored so steadily in the mill during his apprenticeship was his marriage, which auspicious event took place June 8, 1905, in Oakland, and the other party to the compact was Miss Caroline
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Pulcifer. They have one daughter, Ernestine, aged five years, who makes glad their capital city home.
Mr. Timm takes great interest in public affairs around him and makes his influence felt for the right. He is a Republican of the Insurgent type, believing first in the people and the politicians af- terwards, if necessary to believe in them at all. He is a member of the Humane Society, of the Home Products League, the Retail Merchants Association, and is also a Spanish-American War Veteran.
JOHN RILEY
On the old Riley homestead, on the American river, John Riley, son of Patrick Riley, was born May 30, 1855. His father crossed the plains in 1849 and arrived at the San Joaquin grant in the spring of 1850. He engaged in farming and followed that occupation and team- ing until his retirement from active life in 1870. He died in 1879. His teaming business took him to Forest Hill, Jackson and Placerville, the last-named locality then being known as Hangtown. Indians were at times somewhat troublesome in those days, but Patrick Riley had an Indian friend, Patricia, who, unknown to him, followed him to and fro as he made trips through the country, sometimes hunting near him in order to protect him if he should fall into danger. Mary Burke, who married Patrick Riley and became the mother of John Riley, came to California with her two brothers, Patrick and Thomas Burke, cross- ing the Isthmus of Panama on a mule. In the early days of Sacra- mento she worked as a servant for Dr. Ball several years, receiving a wage of $100 a month. She bore her husband five children, three of whom are living. In the prosecution of his farming operations the father usually employed about a dozen Indians and during harvest about fifty. He never had any trouble with them, but some of his neighbors had fights with some of them, and on one occasion, when defeated red men were crossing the river in retreat, several were killed.
At the early age of thirteen years, in 1868, John Riley took up the battle of life for himself. In various capacities he was associated with the Southern Pacific Railroad Company for a time, and later was a conductor on the Market and Valencia street horse car line for two years. Then for two years he was in the employ of H. S. Kirk, drug- gist, after which, in 1881, he purchased the grocery of Jacob Wagner at Tenth and E streets, and in November, 1910, he moved to Nos. 421-423 Tentli street, into a building which he still owns.
Kate Webster, Mr. Riley's first wife, bore him three children,
John Wiley
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John Francis, Herbert J. and Hazel, and she died in 1897. In 1899 Mr. Riley married Mamie McBride, and they have children named Alethea and Beatrice. The family are members of the congregation of the Cathedral. Mr. Riley, whose father immigrated to America from Ireland, has demonstrated the success of men of Irish blood in the handling of American affairs.
WILLIAM F. RICHARDS, D. D. S.
The history of the Richards family extends back through many generations of English history and indicates their long identifica- tion with the mining industry in Cornwall. A century or more has passed away since Charles Richards began to work as a miner, and throughout all of his industrious existence he followed that occupa- tion, together with the occupaney and cultivation of a small farm in his native shire. After him came his son, John, born at the old homestead August 20, 1826, and early trained to a knowledge of farming as well as to familiarity with work in the mines of lead, tin, copper and silver that to this day abound in Cornwall, bringing large profits to their owners. During 1845 he left the old home for the unknown possibilities of the new world, and while fortune came to him later in unstinted measure it was not his happy fate to again behold the land of his birth. His father, Charles, however, con- tinued there until death, as did his mother, who hore the maiden name of Honor Warner and was a member of an ancient Cornish family.
Upon landing in the new world and seeking a place of employ- ment, John Richards went to the lead mines of Southern Wisconsin, at Shullsburg, seventeen miles from Galena, Ill., and there he earned a livelihood by the most arduons of labor. When news came of the discovery of gold in California he immediately determined to come to the west. With three fellow-miners and six ox-teams he started for the Eldorado of his hopes. At St. Joseph, Mo., they were joined by three other young men, each of whom owned one team of oxen. The party left St. Joseph April 7, 1849, on their long journey, which came to a safe conclusion at Dutch Flat on the 9th of September. The young men at once began to prospect and mine. Within six weeks Mr. Richards had taken out $5000 in gold, one single nugget having brought him $252. During 1851 he returned east, and November 17 of the same year he married Miss Elizabeth Mitchell, who was born Jannary 31, 1830, being the daughter of Joseph Mitchell, a farmer of Lafayette county, Wis. During this
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trip he invested considerable money in cattle and these he drove across the plains in 1853, with the assistance of seven men.
Shortly after his second arrival in the west Mr. Richards pur- chased the squatter's right of a Mr. McHenry for $1500, but after- ward he relinquished the claim upon the advice of John P. Rhodes. The land was included in the Mexican grant to the Sheldon ranch, and Mr. Gunn, the administrator of the Sheldon estate, obtained judgments against other claimants, so that Mr. Richards preferred to relinquish rather than contest the matter in expensive litigation. In 1855 he bought abont five hundred acres of the same estate, which he held for many years. In addition he took up about one thousand acres of government land. About two hundred and fifty acres of his ranch was bottom land on the Cosumnes, peculiarly rich in its soil, but subject to the disasters of occasional overflows. Not only did he raise general farm crops and large herds of stock, but he also made a specialty of the fruit business and on his land planted trees of almost every variety of fruit. For years he retained large mining interests, including profitable quartz mines in Amador county. On two occasions he and his wife returned east for protracted visits, the first trip occurring in 1869 and the second during the World's Columbian exposition at Chicago in 1893. His death occurred in October of 1896, and two years later his wife also passed away.
There were ten children in the Richards family, but two died in infancy, and Lizzie Viola was also taken from the home when still young. The eldest child, Ellen Alfrena, married Lafayette Miller, but died in 1910. The second child, Emily Jane, is the wife of Alexander Milne, a rancher and dairyman in Sacramento county. The third daughter, Annie Sophia, became the wife of Henry Band of San Francisco, now deceased. The two sons are Charles Joseph and John Lincoln. Mary Hattie is the wife of E. A. Platt. William Freeman Richards, born December 22, 1870, on the home farm in Sacramento county near the village of Sheldon, is the youngest member of the family circle. After he had completed the studies of the common schools he entered the revenue service, but later re- signed the position in order that he might take up the study of dentistry in Northwestern university, Chicago, Ill. When he had completed the regular course and had received the degree of D. D. S., he returned to Sacramento, where he at once bought one-half interest in the business of Dr. T. B. Reid. Early in 1904 he took over the remaining interest held by Dr. Reid, and since then he has continued alone.
The political views of Dr. Richards bring him into active sym- pathy with the Republican party. Fraternally he is a Mason of the Scottish Rite degree and is also a member of the Benevolent Pro- tective Order of Elks. In the line of his profession he is a member of the Sacramento Valley Dental association and the State Dental
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association. His family comprises his wife and their only child, Leland Jerome, born September 16, 1903. Prior to her marriage November 1, 1902, Mrs. Richards was Miss Clara Kruttschnitt, a native daughter of Sacramento. Possessing excellent educational qualifications and the highest culture, she naturally occupies a prom- inent position in the most select society of Sacramento. The family of which she is a member has been prominent in many lines of busi- ness enterprise, and her first cousin, Julius Kruttschnitt, is director of maintenance and means with the Harriman (Southern Pacific) railroad system.
HERMAN BRAUER
Iowa has furnished to California many citizens of worth and prominence who have ably done their part in the work of development that has made this state famous throughout the world. It was at Muscatine that Herman Braner was born July 18, 1870, son of a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church and grandson, in the paternal line, of a preacher of more primitive times. In May, 1884, Mr. Braner's father, Rev. Herman Braner, came to Pasadena, which was the center of his labors as state district superintendent. He was prominent in church work until his death, which occurred in July, 1900. Herman was educated in the public schools and in a business college, and early entered active life as an employe in a furniture store, the well-known establishment of N. P. Cole of San Francisco, in the service of which he rose from a humble beginning to positions of responsibility. In March, 1897, he was called into the business of the John Breuner Company, with which he has since been continuously connected and of which he is the present superintendent. In the busi- ness of the two stores of this concern he has been a factor fifteen years or longer, eleven years in San Francisco and upwards of four years in Sacramento.
September 5, 1901, Mr. Brauer married Miss E. Schuler, a daughter of Fred and Amelia Schuler, of Oakland, Cal. Mr. and Mrs. Schuler have since returned to their native land and now live in Stuttgart. Mrs. Brauer died October 27, 1910, leaving three children, Dorothea, born July 3, 1896; Hermine, born July 10, 1898, and Her- man, born November 27, 1900. Mr. Brauer finds time from his busi- ness affairs to devote to social and religious affiliations and the labors of love which they entail. He is a member of the Masonic order, of the National Union and of the Woodmen, and is an active member of
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the Methodist church and assistant superintendent of his Sunday school. These and other worthy objects benefit by his generosity, and his public spirit renders him an admirable citizen, useful in every relation with his fellow men.
THOMAS JEFFERSON MEALER
This enterprising and progressive citizen of Walnut Grove, Sacramento county, who is now serving his fellow citizens in his second term as justice of the peace of Georgiana township, was born near Franklin, this county, October 12, 1868, the son of Jef- ferson Mealer, who came across the plains to Sacramento county, with an ox-team outfit, with the pioneers of 1850, and lived here until 1904, when he died.
Such education as was available to him Thomas J. Mealer ac- quired in public schools near his boyhood home. From his child- hood he was interested in horses and as a young man he handled and broke them with great success, and he still follows this busi- ness to a large extent. In 1884 he moved to Santa Clara county, but after some years returned to Sacramento county and in 1907 bought one hundred and seventeen acres of land on Andrus Island which he devotes to fruit and vegetable raising, making a specialty of asparagus and nutmeg melons, besides giving some attention to the raising of horses for the market.
Near Lodi, in 1895 Mr. Mealer was first married to Margaret M. Davies, a native of Salt Lake City, the daughter of William T. and Mentha Davies of Galt, this county. They had two children; Loyal D. is a student in the Sacramento high school, Darrell T., in the class 1913 Walnut Grove school. Mrs. Mealer died in 1908, and in Rio Vista, August 25, 1904, Mr. Mealer married Mary S. See- horn, a native of Virginia, who was brought to California in her childhood. Her father, Russell C. Seehorn, was a teacher in Virginia and a farmer in California, now eighty-one years of age.
Mr. Mealer is a member of the Elk Grove Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons and of the Onisho Chapter, Order of Eastern Star, of Courtland; Isleton Lodge No. 108, I. O. O. F .; Occidental Encampment, Sacramento; and Canton No. 1, Patriarch Militant in Sacramento, while he and his wife are members of the Rebekah Lodge of Isleton. His sons are both interested in wireless telegraphy and have a station on the ranch. In everything that pertains to the general advance-
Tommealer Mary S. Mealer
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ment and development of the community Mr. Mealer is deeply in- terested and his generous support of many measures for the benefit of his community and county has amply demonstrated his public spirit. Mrs. Mealer is a member of Rio Vista Chapter, O. E. S.
CHARLES AUGUSTUS YOERK
The first representative of the Yoerk family in the new world crossed the ocean during the year 1832 and became a pioneer of Ohio, where he and his wife improved a homestead and remained until their death. While they brought with them to America the greater number of their children, there was one son, Christopher Frederick, the father of our subject, who had entered the German army prior to their departure and it was therefore impossible for him to accompany them. After he had completed his term of service and received his honorable discharge he married a young German girl and settled in Wurtemberg, where for many years he followed the butcher's trade. A spirit of intense loyalty to his community led him to accept civic positions and for fifty years he served his city continuously in some official capacity. At the end of his long and honorable service the city presented him with a diploma. When he passed away at the age of ninety-two years there was a universal expression of gratitude for his faithful labors as a citizen and a general appreciation of his sterling attributes of character.
Born in Wurtemberg, Germany, August 24, 1833, Charles Augus- tus Yoerk received the advantages of the excellent schools of his native land. At the age of twenty years, in 1853, he crossed the ocean to the United States and settled at Philadelphia, where he secured employment at $6 per month in a meat market. For four years he followed the butcher's trade in Philadelphia. Ambitious to try his fortunes in the then unknown west, he gave up his position in the east and came by the Isthmus of Panama to San Francisco, where he landed at the end of an uneventful trip of five weeks. From San Francisco he soon came to Sacramento, April 1, 1857, and secured employment at the butcher's trade, remaining for seven months. Dur. ing the great gold rush to Fraser river in 1858 he went to Victoria, British Columbia, where it was estimated that thirty thousand men spent the following winter. Because of an uprising among the In- dians, and having lost his money and even his boots, he remained in Victoria, and seeing the possibilities along the line of his trade, put up a tent and began to make sausage. That work kept him busy until the miners began to disperse and came by boat, sleigh and horseback
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to Portland. Thence they traveled by wagon to Corvallis, Benton county, Ore., where he engaged in the butcher business, but he soon returned by horseback to Sacramento, where he and Mr. Schwartz carried on a meat business for three years.
Upon disposing of his interest to his partner, Mr. Yoerk re- turned to Philadelphia, where, June 22, 1862, he married Miss Mar. garet Lentz. About the same time he opened a market in that city, but a year later he sold out and returned to the Pacific coast by steamer, accompanied by his family. Late in 1864 he embarked in the butcher's business with Louis B. Mohr, and the connection has continued up to the present time, the firm meanwhile having greatly enlarged its business, with a corresponding increase in the returns. Subsequently they incorporated the Mohr & Yoerk Packing Company and erected the Mohr & Yoerk building on K and Eleventh streets. which covers a space of 80x160 feet and is five stories high. Two corporations were later formed from the firm, the Mohr & Yoerk Company and the real estate business of Mohr & Yoerk Realty Com- pany. Three of the sons of Mr. Yoerk are stockholders and directors in the companies, and the two eldest, Fred C. and George P., have the management of the meat market in their charge. The youngest son, August, is manager of Hall, Lewis & Co., of Sacramento. The eldest daughter, Carrie R., resides with her mother. The younger daughter, Louise, married Eugene Nenhaus, a teacher of painting in the University of California. The eldest son, Fred C., was born in Sacramento May 23, 1865, and married Miss Uzilla Hand of North San Juan. From boyhood he has been familiar with the butcher's trade, and he still gives of his energy and time to the business so suc- cessfully established many years ago. Fraternally he is identified with the Woodmen of the World and Elks and also belongs to the Native Sons of the Golden West. In religion he holds membership with the German Lutheran church, and his parents, as well as the other members of the family, likewise adhere to that faith. Ever since the father became a voting citizen of the United States he had upheld Republican principles and that party received his ballot in local and general elections. Fraternally he was identified with the Masons for many years. To his adopted country he proved a true, loyal citizen, to the state of his adoption he was especially devoted, believing California's resources to equal those of the most favored sec- tions of the entire world, while the possibilities of the commonwealth in his estimation were beyond the vision of even the most optimistic. His demise occurred August 18, 1912, at the age of seventy-nine, remov- ing from their midst one of Sacramento's most valned citizens.
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HON. HUGH MCELROY LARUE
Although death has stilled the voice and terminated the forceful activities of Hon. Hugh MeElroy LaRue, it will be long ere his in- fluence will be lost in the county of Yolo and long too ere the power of his personality shall cease to be an effective factor in the local upbuilding. Every line of advancement felt the impetus of his splen- did mind and energetic spirit, and, while he was a pioneer of 1849 and very active in the early settlement of the west, he undoubtedly will be less remembered by his accomplishments during that era than by his activities of a later date. The ranch near Davis which is now owned by his heirs and the nucleus of which he acquired as early as 1866, comprises two thousand and sixty acres, of which one thousand are under cultivation to barley, wheat and oats. All the grains produce well in this soil and at times the barley has averaged as high as thirty- five sacks to the acre. Fifty acres are in almonds and two hundred and twenty acres in wine grapes form the largest vineyard in the entire county,producing from six to seven tons per acre. Under a contract for ten years the vineyard products are shipped to the Cali- fornia Wine Association. In grapes of the white variety there are the Burger and the Green Hungarian, while of the reds there are the Alicante Bouschet, Caragnan, Serene, Beclan, Charbono and Mon- deuse.
As an illustration of what may be grown on the rich soil of the ranch, and indeed upon any ranch in Yolo county if properly cared for. it may be stated that the LaRue ranch has the following trees in full bear- ing: almonds, walnuts, oranges, lemons, figs, persimmons, pomegran- ates, olives, pears, peaches, apples, apricots, plums and prunes. Every acre of the tract is under an irrigation ditch and there is also a private pumping plant operated by an engine of sixty-horse power. Eighty head of horses and mules are required in the sowing of seed. harvesting of crops and ploughing of the ground, and such is the quality of the soil that it can be plonghed one day after a heavy rain. Ever since the original owner of the property brought an importa- tion of jacks from Kentucky there have been fine mules raised on the ranch, about forty having been the number for the past season. A specialty is made of Holstein cattle and about two hundred and fifty head of hogs are raised annually, besides which considerable atten- tion is also given to horses. For eighteen years Jacob Stihl has acted as efficient overseer of the ranch, while the eldest son of the owner, Jacob Engene LaRne, was retained as manager until his death in January, 1906, since which time another son, Calhoun Lee LaRue, has filled the position of superintendent with intelligence and sagacity. Tracing the genealogy of the LaRne family it is ascertained 40
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that they were so prominent in Kentucky that the county in which they lived was named in their honor and Hodgenville, the county-seat, was named for the maternal grandfather of H. M. LaRue. Near this same town Abraham Lincoln was born on a farm owned by Mr. LaRue's grandmother. In the neighboring county of Hardin, same state, Hugh McElroy LaRue was born August 12, 1830, being a son of Jacob Hodgen and Sarah Cummings (MeElroy) LaRue. At the age of nine years he accompanied the family to Missouri and settled in Lewis county near the Mississippi river. It was not long before he began to talk about going west. The mysterious unknown regions beyond the plains seemed to exercise a fascination over his mind. In 1849, before news of the discovery of gold had reached the neighbor- hood, he joined an expedition of emigrants under the command of V. A. Sublette and Dr. Conduitt. They crossed the Missouri river at Boonville and left Independence on the 29th of April, journeying along the Platte river and through South Pass, thence via Sublette's ent-off and the Oregon trail. In the short distance of thirty miles they crossed the Truckee river twenty-seven times. On the 12th of August they arrived at the Bear river mines near Steep Hollow. For six weeks the young prospector remained in that locality, but later he mined at Grass valley and Deer creek. With others he built one of the first cabins at Oleta, Amador county, and worked the first mines.
In those days Oleta was known as Fiddletown, the name originat- ing in the fact that some violin-players from Arkansas passed the long and wet winter season at their favorite recreation and the first sound heard by the approaching travelers was that of the fiddle. From that camp Mr. LaRue went to Willow Springs, four miles west of Drytown, where he carried on a small restaurant until early in March. During the spring of 1850 he made a trading expedition to Shasta and sold groceries from his wagon to merchants and miners. Flour brought forty cents per pound, pork, ham, sugar, coffee, potatoes and rice from $1 to $1.25 per pound and whisky and brandy about $8 a gallon. After a second trip to Shasta in June, same year, he came to Sacra- mento and began to work as a blacksmith and wagon-maker. The cholera epidemic of that year made it necessary for him to seek other employment. Renting a part of rancho del Paso on the Norris grant, he engaged in raising vegetables and later embarked in grain-farming. As early as 1857 he planted an orchard of seventy-five acres, the first large one in the valley and one of the first that was irrigated. The floods of 1861-62 damaged the orchard and the failure of Mr. Norris following shortly afterward, he bought the orchards, but the floods of 1868 entirely destroyed the work of the previous decade.
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