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, 1923, Part 53

Author: Reed, G. Walter
Publication date: 1923
Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1026

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, 1923 > Part 53

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Mr. Moroney settled in Sacramento County imme- diately, and there bought a ranch of 384 acres, north- east of Hicksville on the Cosumnes River, where our subject and his elder sister, Elizabeth G., were born. Later, Mr. Moroney purchased an additional quarter section of land, making his estate to consist of 544 acres; and this acreage is still owned by the family. He breathed his last July 27, 1922, at the remarkable age of ninety-three years, and Mrs. Mforoney is still living, at the age of eighty-eight.

Thomas J. Moroney has always resided on the Moroney ranch, where he built a home, to succeed the picturesque but more primitive one in which he was born. He attended the Davis district school,

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and at Sacramento, on April 1, 1898, he married Miss Minnie A. Hanrahan, a native of Placerville, Cal., and the daughter of highly-esteemed Irish- Americans, Michael and Ellen (Mulcahy) Hanrahan, who brought her up in Sacramento. Her parents were both natives of Ireland; her father came out to California in 1858, and mined in El Dorado County, near Placerville, for several years. He then removed to Sacramento, and for years engaged in the han- dling of wood and other fuel; and he was known, and popularly so, by almost everyone in Sacramento. He was a stone-cutter, too, and a good part of the stone for the foundation of the State Capitol was cut hy Mike Hanrahan. Eight children blessed this worthy couple: Minnie, now Mrs. Moroney, was the eldest; Thomas J. is a dealer in wood, in Sacra- mento; Dan and James are deceased; William; Nellie is Mrs. O'Neil; while the younger children are Cath- erine and Elizabeth, now Mrs. Acheson of Sacra- mento. Both parents died in Sacramento.

Mr. Moroney is in partnership with Messrs. O'Neil and Acheson, of Sacramento, in the manufacture and sale of caskets. He is also interested in the Virden Packing Company of California. He has been a di- rector of the union high school of Elk Grove for seven years, and he is also a director of the Elk Grove Bank, and for many years was a trustee of the Davis district school. And he was one of the mem- bers of the old Elk Grove Parlor No. 41, of the Native Sons of the Golden West, before it ceased to exist. He has two children. Thomas J., Jr., is a graduate of the University of Santa Clara, trained for war service in the cloister of the university, and was in the United States army for eight months. The other child is a daughter, named Helen M.

DAVID LUBIN .- A history of Sacramento Coun- ty would not be complete without mention of David Lubin, who stands today among the benefactors of the world and more directly of the farmer. Coming from his native country in Europe, he began his career in this country as an apprentice to a jewelry polisher in North Attleboro, Mass. In 1867 he drifted to California and thence to Arizona, where he worked in a lumber yard and as a cowboy. Returning to San Francisco, he worked in Gray & Company's jewelry factory and afterwards, returning East, be- came a commercial traveler for a lamp-manufactur- ing firm. In 1874 he came back to Sacramento and started in business as a member of the firm of Wein- stock, Lubin & Company, in which he remained an active partner for many years.

A number of years ago, Mr. Lubin withdrew from active work in the firm and devoted himself to an idea which he had conceived, for benefiting his fellow men. The idea is embodied in what he terms "The single numerical statement." Observing that the farmer was at the mercy of the middlemen and specu- lators, who fixed the price which he received for his wheat, regardless of the world's supply for the year. he formulated and perfected a plan for ascertaining the exact supply of wheat produced in the various wheat-producing countries of the world. He became an enthusiast in the propagation of his idea and has devoted years to carrying it out, visiting foreign countries and importuning the governments to estab- lish departments for collecting and exchanging crop data, through a central organization. As a prophet is not without honor save in his own country, Mr. Lubin

was forced to meet with discouragement after dis- couragement at Washington, but finally succeeded in overcoming the opposition and being appointed to represent this country at the International Insti- tute of Agriculture at Rome. For it was in King Victor Emanuel of Italy that Mr. Lubin first found a willing ear and a mind quick to grasp his idea and appreciate its importance to the world. The King built a palace for the use of the institute, and endowed it with £12,000 a year, or $60,000. It stands on an eminence in a lovely spot of the beautiful Villa Bor- ghese, and there Mr. Lubin resided and carried on his life work. There in 1905 the delegations from the various powers gathered and signed a convention to create the institute, but not until 1910 did Mr. Lubin see the culmination of his hopes, when the first single numerical statement of six nations was published, and in August, the following month, data from eleven nations followed. In 1912 fifty nations provided the necessary data, Russia being the last one to join, after long and repeated solicitation by Mr. Lubin. The principal wheat-growing countries are now all rep- resented, and the farmer of today can know the total crop prospects or output of ninety-five per cent of the land in the world and ninety-eight per cent of the world's population, a practical world sum- mary. He has all the information formerly possessed by the middleman and the speculator, who can no more exploit his ignorance, to his own advantage and the detriment of the producer. The nations are contributing liberally to the support of the institute. Returns are now being gathered for other crops and products as well as the cereals, and the work of the institute is expanding in many other directions also. It was the only international agency the efficiency and work of which was not disrupted by the World War. In fact the International Institute supplied the fun- damental data for the Inter-allied Food Commission during the trying days of war. Mr. Lubin, while seemingly still active and in good health and at his post, was stricken in death from influenza on January 1, 1919, at the age of seventy years. A man of inter- national fame, he had labored hard to improve the economic conditions of the various countries. It was a work of love to him, for he enjoyed doing service for others. It was a work of building up and making life easier, and the results of Mr. Lubin's persistency and enthusiasm will live long after him.

GEORGE B. KATZENSTEIN .- A pioneer whose memory posterity will always delight to honor was the late George B. Katzenstein, who breathed his last on August 29, 1909, and passed from sight of men, kindly recalled by the many who knew him for years as the general manager of the Earl Fruit Company. He was a wonderful worker-a dynamo of excep- tional energy and activity; and as an organizer in whatever he undertook, he probably had no superior and few equals. He was also well and favorably known in lodge circles, was an enthusiastic Good Templar, and was elected head of the Grand Lodge of Good Templars in California. He formerly con- ducted a fraternal paper called the "Review," in con- junction with the late William H. Mills; and this paper was published at Sacramento in the interests of the Good Templars. Ile was past grand in the order of Odd Fellows; grand past master of the A. O. U. W .; and past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias; and a prominent Red Man. He also be-

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longed to the Sacramento Driving Club, the Sutter Club, and the Sacramento Boat Club.

Mr. Katzenstein was born in New Orleans on No- vember 28, 1848, a son of Eugene and Marie (Lieb- schutz) Katzenstein, natives of Lorraine, France, who came to the United States in 1846, settling a. New Orleans, where the father engaged in mercna. dising. In 1853 the family came by way of the over- land trail to California and located at Marysville, where Eugene Katzenstein conducted a hotel called the Ohio House, the first hotel in that town. He retired in later years and made his home with his son George, and died in 1884.

George B. Katzenstein received his education in the public schools of Marysville and early began to be a wage earner and helped support his mother and younger members of the family. Having a de- sire to see something of the world he began to travel, working his way as he went and spent several years roaming over various portions of the Old and the New Worlds, and finally returned to California and located at Sacramento in 1866. Here he became associated with William H. Mills in the publishing of the "Review" and the "Rescue," fraternal papers; also for a number of years he was associated in the in- surance field with Mr. Mills. Having great faith in the future of this county he took up colonization work and was one of the organizers of the Orangevale Colonization Company, which bought some 3,000 acres of land for subdivision purposes and sold it off in ten- and twenty-acre tracts. He became prom- inent in civic affairs and was the first secretary of the Sacramento Chamber of Commerce; and it was while he was in this position that the A. R. U. trou- bles broke out in railroad circles in 1892. Mr. Katz- enstein made a name for himself as a fearless worker for law and order and did much to regulate the traffic of outgoing fruit shipments from this city which was of vital importance to the growers of the entire valley. So absolutely fair was he that he gained recognition from the striking railroad men and had access to all their gatherings. His actions at this time of trouble brought him to the attention of the Earl Fruit Company's leading men and in 1898 he was placed in charge of their interests in northern California as vice-president and manager, and for years he had full control of this important organiza- tion, and when they sold their interests in Sacra- mento Mr. Katzenstein was a member of the com- pany that bought them out.

In 1869 Mr. Katzenstein was married to Miss Ida M. Richards, born in Lowell, Mass., the only child of Leonard J. Richards, who was a pioneer gold miner in California, but who eventually went back to Lowell. They became the parents of four sons: William H., who was killed in the performance of his duty as a police officer in Arizona in 1902; George B., Jr .; Albert W., and Carleton L. Mrs. Katzenstein is still living at their old home place at 1213 O Street in the enjoyment of good health and ministered to by her three sons, to whom the hus- band and father left as a heritage a good name and spotless reputation.

During the memorable anti-Chinese convention held in California many years ago Mr. Katzenstein showed his ability as a presiding officer. He was the leader of one faction and the other was headed by Frank M. Pixley. In this double-headed affair he

showed his superior ability as an organizer. He was a Republican, active in party affairs, but would never accept any public office, though he was solicited to become a candidate many times. He was public- spirited to a degree and was always found at the head of all movements for the betterment of condi- tions in general throughout the entire state.

FRANCIS WILLIAM FRATT .- Throughout a period covering almost sixty years, the life of Francis William Fratt rendered useful and significant service to the material development of California, his helpful activities ceasing only with his final departure from the scenes familiar to his maturity. It was his high privilege to witness the remarkable advancement made by the West from the era of gold-discovery until the twentieth century had brought its matchless progress into the world. Coincident with that ad- vancement was his own rise to influence and local distinction. Many were the changes that entered into his personal history from the far-distant days when as a boy in his native city of Albany, N. Y., he met at school a lad named Leland Stanford, whose name became inseparably interwoven with the development of the Western country. Later, while crossing the plains with horses and oxen in a large expedition, he formed the acquaintance of Charles W. Coil, for many years one of the most distinguished citizens of Woodland. Shortly after his arrival in the Sac- ramento Valley, Mr. Fratt became interested in the cattle industry. For years he engaged in the busi- ness upon a very large scale, making Sacramento his headquarters. His large enterprises brought large returns, and the fruits of his labors were evidenced by increasing possessions. During the early days he owned the Tomes grant in Tehama County, but he disposed of it in 1879 and invested the returns in other property, mainly city real estate. In the latter part of his life, after he had relinquished his extensive stock interests, he devoted considerable attention to the care of his real estate in Sacramento, where he owned the Fratt Building at 200 K Street, the Union Hotel and the Orleans Hotel, besides other business properties. In 1908 he erected a mag- nificent residence at 1511 P Street, and there, amid its beautiful surroundings, with all the luxuries of life, ministered to by a devoted wife and blessed by the admiration and respect of hosts of friends, he re- sided in full enjoyment of a life well spent.

Mr. Fratt was very liberal and charitable, and lie recognized a man for his true worth. Thus, when the contractor who built the Fratt Building had com- pleted his work satisfactorily and well, Mr. Fratt appreciated his thoroughness and gave him $1,000 more than was stipulated in the contract price. He was very generous; and so, after achieving success for himself, he did not hesitate to assist others. He left a liberal bequest to the city library for the pur- chase of suitable pictures and ornaments to be placed there for public enjoyment, a gift that Mrs. Fratt carried out so generously that there is still a fund for the purpose. The political views of Mr. Fratt brought him into hearty accord with Demo- cratic principles. Fraternally he held membership in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he was greatly interested, and to which he left a sub- stantial bequest. His passing, on September 16, 1909, left a void in the community in which he had lived and labored; and his mortal remains were placed in

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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY

a beautiful vault erected to his memory in the Odd Fellows' Cemetery by his devoted widow.

In his marriage to Cornelia E. Bromley, which was solemnized at Sacramento, October 31, 1879, Mr. Fratt was especially fortunate, for his wife was a young lady not only of fine family and excellent edu- cation, but also of gentle character and attractive per- sonal endowments. Born in Plattsburg, N. Y., she was the daughter of Harvey Bromley, sheriff of Clin- ton County. After completing the studies of the Plattsburg Academy, Miss Bromley came to Califor- nia in 1868; the then recent building of the railroad enabled her to travel a considerable portion of the distance by train, the balance of the journey being made by stage. From young girlhood she has been a sincere member of the Congregational Church. Philanthropic by nature, solicitous to aid the unfor- tunate, she was particularly helpful as a member of the board of trustees of the orphanage, her services covering twenty-seven years; for twenty-three years of this time she entertained the children from the orphanage at her home each year, on Independence Day, giving them a rare treat. With others she established the Sacramento Children's Home, has served from its organization as a member of the board, and was a leader in securing funds for the erection of its building at Ninth and X Streets. In addition to her other philanthropies, she has given distinctive civic service through her judicious labors as a mem- ber of the board of park commissioners of Sacra- mento. At her own expense she built the band- stand and comfort station in the public park at Fif- teenth and P Streets. To the Congregational Church she has been very liberal in her donations; among other generous gifts, she gave them the property on the northeast corner of Fifteenth and P Streets, from which the church is now deriving a substantial reve- nue. She also gave the Tuesday Club, of which she is a member, $18,000 for a pipe organ. She is very liberal in her contributions to charities, giving many kindly and needed aids to the unfortunate; for her heart and thought go out in intense desire for the uplift and welfare of the city in which she has spent her active and useful years, doing all in her power to enhance the comfort and happiness of the people.

EDWARD F. COYLE .- Among California's na- tive sons, the name of Edward F. Coyle is well- known in Sacramento County, which is his birth- place. His birth occurred on the Coyle ranch four miles south of Sacramento on Franklin Boulevard. now known as Coyle City Acres, July 10, 1865, the fifth of six sons born to the late James T. and Julia (O'Leary) Coyle, both natives of Ireland who settled in Sacramento County in the early fifties and were well-to-do farmers. Edward F. Coyle received a good education in the Christian Brothers College in Sac- ramento and after completing his schooling he was closely associated with his father and hrothers in farming until his father died; then for twenty-five years he was in partnership with his brother, John R. Coyle, in extensive stock and grain farming on the Haggin Grant, lands now known as the Rio Linda district of the county.

On October 3, 1897, Mr. Coyle was married to Miss Mary Alice Hughes, daughter of the late Michael Hughes, a pioneer contractor of Sacramento. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs.

Coyle. Julia Margaret graduated from the Sacra- mento High school in 1916, then entered the Uni- versity of California, and substituted as teacher in the Sacramento schools for eighteen months; she passed away June 9, 1921. Mary Alice and Edna Francis died in infancy. Josephine Agnes is a stu- dent in St. Joseph's Academy. Mr. and Mrs. Coyle have their city home at 2312 N Street and also main- tain a home on his portion of the old Coyle ranch which he has subdivided and is now selling off in one-acre tracts. Since 1897 Mr. and Mrs. Coyle have been members of St. Francis Catholic Church in Sacramento.

CHARLES A. LUDLOW .- A scientifically and practically trained agriculturist who has made a pronounced success of his life-work in the careful study of one particular corner of husbandry, is Charles A. Ludlow, the founder and proprietor of the North Sacramento Nurseries out on the Marys- ville road. He was born at Geneva, N. Y., on Janu- ary 31, 1858, and learned the nursery business in a nursery at Geneva, his home-town. After an appren- ticeship of seven years, he came out to California in 1883, and pitched his tent at Sacramento, where he entered the employ of W. R. Strong & Company, owners of the Capital Nursery, a firm that also bought and shipped fruit. Later, he traveled on the road for the firm, buying fruit, and then he became a partner in the firm of Pattce & Lett, of Riverside, fruit shippers, but with offices in various cities in the state. After a while, he himself was an inde- pendent fruit-shipper, both in Sacramento and north- ern California, and he helped to load some of the earliest shipments of both citrus and deciduous fruit sent from the Golden State to the Eastern markets.

Some twelve years ago, Mr. Ludlow returned to Sacramento and founded the North Sacramento Nurseries, commencing in a small way, and being glad to do $1,900 worth of trade the first year. Since then, he has doubled the volume of his business each year, and now he is the largest retail dealer in this section, doing as much business as all the others put together, and enjoying the enviable reputation of an authority on fruit-growing and nursery stock. He raises his stock in Rocklin, Placer County, and spe- cializes in peaches, pears, plums, cherries and apri- cots, and all varieties of grape-vines. In 1923 he will have his stock planted on a twenty-acre tract south of Sacramento, for he never uses the same ground twice for the growing of his stock, which, except peaches, comes originally from France, where it is started from seed. He has long supplied the state, and superintended the planting of many orch- ards in this vicinity. For the past five years, he has supplied the Natomas Land Company with many thousands of trees, and also James Mathena, a large fruit-grower on the river. In 1923, he supplied Green & Huntoon with 10,000 trees for planting on the Holland Tract along the river, and the same year he also shipped 4,500 trees to Marysville, and he has made interesting shipments to smaller ranches.

Mr. Ludlow is the father of three children, Cecit Clay, who served in the World War in the United States Navy, and Florence and Thehmna. He is a member of the California Association of Nurserymen and of the Fraternal Brotherhood.

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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY

COLIN McKENZIE .- An industrious, far-seeing and experienced rancher, who may well be proud of his trim farm, a fine tract of some 320 acres, situated about four miles northeast of Galt, is Colin McKen- zie, a native of Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, where he was born on December 16, 1856. His father, John McKenzie, was a native of Prince Edward Island, who married Isabelle Ross, of Colchester County, Nova Scotia; and his grandparents, who came from Scotland, removed to Nova Scotia when John was only two years old, and there, in Cumber- land County, they followed farming all their lives. John McKenzie lived to be sixty-two years of age, and his good wife, the mother of our subject, died when she was eighty-two. There were ten children in the family: Anna has become Mrs. Peter Brown, of Wallis, N. S .; Daniel George is at Seattle; Colin is the subject of our review; Maria lived to be only three weeks old; the fifth child in the order of birth was also called Maria, and she is the widow of Ed- ward Halloway, of White Plains, N. Y .; Stewart died at the age of forty; Margaret Jane lives in White Plains, N. Y .; Alexander Ross is a practicing physi- cian at Mount Pleasant, in Prince George County, Maryland; John Thomas lives at the old home ranch, in Nova Scotia; and Peter died in infancy.

John McKenzie's farm consisted of over 100 acres, and as the educational advantages in that section of country were meager, Colin helped his father at home until he was twenty-three years old, when he came to California, arriving first at San Francisco. From there he went inland to Cuffy's Cove, in Mendocino County, and for a season worked in the timber coun- try. Returning to San Francisco, he entered the service of the Eureka Stone Company, during the autumn of that year, and then came on to Stockton, and from there went to Collegeville, where he worked on a ranch for M. D. McIntosh, remaining there for eight years. He then became the foreman on the L. U. Shippee and Thornton ranches at New Hope, in San Joaquin County, and was there for four years.

While at New Hope, on November 6, 1888, Mr. Mckenzie was married to Miss Isabel M. Gaffney, a native of Liberty, San Joaquin County, and the daughter of Dennis and Elizabeth (Keating) Gaffney, her father being a native of Wexford, Ireland, and her mother a native of Nova Scotia. Her father came cut to California in 1860-1861, and at Galt he followed his trade of shoemaker. He died at the age of sixty- four, and his wife breathed her last in her seventy- fifth year. There were four children in the Gaffney family. Annette married and became Mrs. D. Mon- tague, and is now deceased; Vincent has passed away; Isabel has become the helpmate of our subject; and Raymond is deceased. Isabel Gaffney attended the Liberty school in San Joaquin County, and the Ala- bama district school of Sacramento County, and fin- ished her studies at the San Jose State Normal School.

After having married, Mr. Mckenzie remained for two years at New Hope, and then, for two years, farmed for himself on Tyler Island. He next leased the Figg ranch in San Joaquin County, west of Acam- po, for four years, and after that removed with his family to Arno, where he leased 1,260 acres for four years, and raised stock and grain. During this time, he purchased the Summers ranch located southeast of Arno and consisting of 323 acres, and later he moved onto it; and there he has since resided, putting on the place every improvement seen today. He has a

dairy, stock and grain ranch; he aims to have twenty- five cows, and he has set out a small vineyard. He is a Republican; and is a member of the Catholic Church.

Four children have blessed Mr. and Mrs. McKen- zie. Annette Ray is at home; Montague Colin is with the Standard Oil Company at Hayward; George Stewart; and Isabel Caroline. Montague Colin en- tered the United States Army on January 24, 1918, and was sent to Ellington Field, Texas, to join Aero Squadron No. 286. He trained there and at various other fields in the South, and became a flyer, with the rank of sergeant.

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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, 1923, Part 53

Author: Reed, G. Walter Publication date: 1923 Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co. Number of Pages: 1026

Author: Reed, G. Walter
Publication date: 1923
Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1026