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 55

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 55

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

On October 26, 1873, Mr. Nathan was married to Miss Anna Joseph, the daughter of the pioneer, Michael Joseph, of Sacramento. Four children blessed this union: Birdie, the wife of Dr. Arthur Lachman and the mother of two daughters; Lillian, who married Morris Ballin and has three sons; Mitchel W., the father of a daughter, and who is the general manager of the Chas. P. Nathan & Sons store, and is also prominent in civic affairs in Sacra- mento; and Emile, also interested in the Chas. P. Nathan & Sons establishments, and the father of one daughter. The wife and mother, after a long and useful life, which was a joy to her friends and her family, passed away in 1912. The second marriage of Mr. Nathan took place in November, 1920, and united him with Miss Mizpah Jackson, who was engaged in kindergarten work in Sacramento for ten years, and who also has been a soprano singer of note. This marriage has resulted in the birth of two sons, Charles P., Jr., and Robert Jackson. Mr. Nathan is a member of the Del Paso Country Club, and of the Chamber of Commerce. He belongs to the Odd Fellows, and is the proud possessor of a diamond medal commemorative of a fifty-year mem- bership in that order.

Besides his mercantile interests, Mr. Nathan has become the owner of valuable ranch properties in Sacramento and Yolo Counties, which he has devel- oped since 1893, and these are now paying him hand- some returns for the time and money expended upon

them during the intervening years. He has always favored such projects as he thought would benefit Sacramento and its citizenry; and he is also a liberal supporter of worthy charities in Sacramento and in San Francisco, where he lived for seventeen years, maintaining an office and acting as buyer for his stores. After the great fire of 1906, he removed to New York City and later to Paris, where he main- tained offices and bought and imported goods for his Sacramento stores. In 1911 he returned to Sacra- mento, and here his first wife passed away in 1912. Since his return he has taken an active part in build- ing up the large business that has made the firm of Chas. P. Nathan & Sons known throughout the Sac- ramento Valley. He is now the oldest, and indeed the only living active business man of the old regime in Sacramento business circles, and his untiring energy is given to developing his business at Eighth and L Streets, while his sons give the better part of their attention to the Bon Marche. He gives especial atten- tion to the comfort and working conditions of his employees, and does everything in his power to main- tain a high morale among them; in this way he is reaping results through their loyalty to his interests. He believes in progress, and has traveled extensively. He took his wife and two children for a trip to Europe in 1886; and again in 1893, with four children, he and Mrs. Nathan made an extended trip of eight months through European countries, as an educa- tional opportunity for his sons. In 1904, also, and again in 1909, he and his wife made trips to Europe on pleasure and business. In 1921 he purchased a home at 1081 Thirty-eighth Street. This home is one of the show places in East Sacramento. It is located on a lot 120 by 160 feet, between J and K Streets, and here in peace and contentment he is living with his family and enjoying the fruits of his life work.

HUGH BEATTIE, M. D .- Prominent among the physicians and surgeons of eminent ability in Sacra- mento County, who have done so much to make life worth the living here, and have thus helped to attract and to hold the would-be settler and resident, is un- doubtedly Dr. Hugh Beattie, who hails from the great Dominion of Canada, noted for its large per- centage of finely-equipped professional men in almost all fields of scientific activity. He was born in On- tario, on February 7, 1866, the son of William and Isabella (Walker) Beattie, and obtained his early training in the public schools and the Collegiate Institute.

Having decided to take up medicine as a mature study, he attended the University Medical School of Toronto, where he enjoyed the finest of modern courses; and then he came into the United States and, in 1893, entered the Cooper Medical School of San Francisco, and in 1896 received from that emi- nent institution the coveted M. D. degree. After that, he was with Dr. G. A. White, in Sacramento, at the County Hospital, where he materially enlarged his experience, and got better acquainted with other Cali- fornia medical men, and with Californian ways.

In 1897, Dr. Beattie came to Elk Grove, which then had only about eighty voters and by growing up with the progressive town, he has been fairly suc- cessful. From the beginning, he has believed in Elk Grove, and Elk Grove has always pinned its faith to Dr. Beattie; and he was one of the organizers of the Elk Grove Bank, and has been a director since

Chas Rtathan

293

HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY

it was established. He belongs to the American Medical Association, and to the Sacramento County Medical Society, in both of which he seeks to be something more than a mere member.

1n 1902, Dr. Beattie married Miss Ada Gage, a native daughter of Sacramento County, and they have had twin daughters, Marion and Margaret, the latter of whom died at the age of thirteen, mourned by many. Dr. Beattie belongs to the Foresters, the Odd Fellows, the Rebekahs, and the Royal Arch Masons, and he is fond of both hunting and fishing. He has developed an eighty-acre fruit ranch about a mile northwest of Elk Grove.

HON. PHILIP CHARLES COHN .- A pioneer whose private life has been most influential for good in the community in which he has lived and labored, and whose public record for usefulness to his day and generation has been most exceptional, is the Hon. Philip Charles Cohn, a native of the metrop- olis, New York, where he was born on July 6, 1854, the son of a worthy, industrious couple, Charles and Dora (Cosminski) Cohn. When a mere infant, he was taken to Mobile, Ala., by his parents, who already had relatives there, the change to the south- ward being deemed expedient on account of the declining health of Mrs. Cohn; but despite all that Nature and science could do, the good woman, who had become the center of a circle of admiring and devoted friends, not only did not get better, but she contracted the yellow fever, the scourge of that region, before the days of municipal sanitation, and passed to the life beyond in 1858. The blow was severe to the father; and leaving the little child with his folks, he took his daughter Fannie and returned to New York City, intending to return South for our subject when it might be possible.

The call of California, however, soon appealed to him, and leaving his daughter in Springfield, Mass., with other relations, he set out in 1860 for the Western land of promise, and having crossed the Isthmus of Panama, at length arrived at San Fran- cisco. Soon after setting foot on terra firma again, he made off for Shasta County, and when the excite- ment about Fraser River hegan to stir the world anew, he tried his luck in the Caribou mines. Hav- ing prospered somewhat there, he turned to mer- chandising in Victoria, B. C., for a short time, but not finding conditions entirely to his liking, or pre- senting enough assurance for the future, he returned to California and at Sacramento, in 1863, opened another store. His daughter Fannie, whom he had left behind in the Bay State, also came out to Cali- fornia, joining him in 1872, and in time she married Max Marcuse of Sacramento, with whom she lived happily until her untimely lamented demise in 1883, while at San Francisco. Charles Cohn, the revered father, lived to see the year 1898, tenderly cared for by his son, and in the same city in which his daugh- ter had breathed her last, he died, aged nearly sev- enty-five years.

Philip Charles Cohn had to struggle from boyhood, for owing to the disturbed conditions of the Civil War, he enjoyed only meager educational advan- tages. In 1869, he commenced an apprenticeship to the mercantile business at West Point, Miss .; and being an eye-witness of the evils of the carpet-bag government of that period in the South, he lost a deal of faith in mankind and more than ever espoused

the principles of Democracy. With only two years of schooling, he nevertheless mastered the common school branches, and made himself fitted for almost any ordinary business, and being quick to compre- hend, and sure in holding fast in memory what he once acquired, he lined up with the best, in the most exacting competition. This progress was the more difficult, in the beginning, because of the Civil War, which led to his father's disappearing from view for years; but 1873 became a red-letter year in his life when he learned, through an old friend, a Mrs. Kai- ser, once a resident of Mobile, but who had removed to California, that his father and sister were alive and well at Sacramento, and would be delighted to hear from him. He was encouraged to come on to the Coast; and in May, 1874, he arrived in Sacra- mento, with just $1.15 as his capital. His energy and optimism, however, enabled him to secure em- ployment with the Sacramento branch of Ackerman, Block & Company, of San Francisco, with whom he remained for six years. He worked hard, and ex- tended his acquaintance in both business and social circles, laying the foundation for lasting friendships and favorable connections, serviceable in after years. Going to San Francisco, he was for a while a travel- ing salesman for a wholesale crockery concern. In 1884 he came to Folsom, and bought an interest in the business of Simon Cohn, his father-in-law, who was the means, the preceding year, of his meeting his future wife. At Simon Cohn's death, in 1895, our subject bought out the interest of the widow, and immediately entered upon a mercantile career whose success has been marked.

On October 29, 1885, he took for his wife Miss Alice Martha Cohn, who was born at Folsom, and educated at Perry's Seminary, in Sacramento. Seven children were born to them. Dora F. married Julius Jacobs, who passed away in 1918, since which time the business in which he and Mr. Cohn were inter- ested has been sold; and they had two children, Alice and Dorothy. The second-born was William M. of San Francisco; then came Mabel J., Selma, Charles P., Simon A., and Henrietta.

Having prospered greatly through his mercantile and other interests, Mr. Cohn increased his invest- ments in property, until he came to have varied and important holdings. At one time, he purchased sixty acres of land in the Orangevale district, where he proceeded to cultivate oranges, olives, grapes and prunes. He also owned a farm of 240 acres in El- dorado County, and seven acres on the shore of Lake Tahoe, which were destined to be improved with a modern hotel. He had besides important San Fran- cisco real estate, a whole business block in Sacra- mento, and residence and business property at Fol- som, and still other holdings in various localities. He was a leading director in the Consumers' Ice and Cold Storage Company, and was one of the organ- izers of the Capital Fire Insurance Company of Sac- ramento, of which he was also treasurer. He was a member of the board of directors of the old Farmers and Mechanics Bank of Sacramento, and was also one of the directors of the Orangevale Water Com- pany. Today Mr. Cohn is interested particularly in citrus development in the county.

Public-spirited to an exemplary degree, Mr. Cohn was a life member of the Good Roads AAssociation, and a member of the commission that built the road from Folsom to Sacramento. He was appointed by

294

HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY

the board of supervisors as one of the five commis- sioners to attend the Panama-Pacific Exposition of 1915 and there represent Sacramento County, and he was treasurer of the commission. As has been in- plied, he early gave his hearty support to the Demo- cratic party. He was a member of the Democratic state central committee for about ten years, and of the Democratic county central committee for a still longer period. In 1904 he was present at the na- tional Democratic convention in St. Louis, as a del- egate from the third congressional district in Cali- fornia, and assisted in the nomination of Alton B. Parker. Coming home again to California, he was nominated by acclamation as state senator. He was defeated by the large Republican majority of that year, although he himself ran 1,600 votes ahead of the ticket. In 1912 he was nominated at the primary election for state senator on the Democratic ticket, and received a vote of five times as many as that given to others, and he was again successful in his campaign for state senator in April, 1914. He served the term following, and was reelected by a handsome majority in 1916. His record was clear-cut, and since his retirement from public life he has made his home at Folsom, away from the prosy humdrum of every-day life.

Mr. Cohn has been a very welcome member of various fraternities, including the B. P. O. Elks, the B'nai B'rith, the Natoma Lodge, No. 64, of Ma- sonry, in which he is past master, and the Scottish Rite, and he attained to the thirty-second degree of Masonry. He is also a member of Islam Temple, N. M. S. of San Francisco; and he was charter patron of the Natoma chapter, No. 233, O. E. S., in which Mrs. Cohn was also a member. Mrs. Cohn was the first president of Fern Parlor, Native Daughters of the Golden West.

FRANK J. RUHSTALLER .- A widely-experi- enced, progressive and influential man of affairs in the Sacramento business world, is Frank J. Ruhstal- ler, the president of the Buffalo Brewing Company. He was born at Sacramento on November 5, 1872, the son of Frank and Charlotte (Oeste) Ruhstaller, the former a native of Switzerland, born in 1847, while the latter was a daughter of Germany. Both came to California in 1864, by way of the Isthmus, and six years later, on December 25, 1870, they were married in the Golden State. Mr. Ruhstaller died Oc- tober 28, 1907, mourned by all who knew and es- teemed him as an efficient, honest man; and Mrs. Ruhstaller passed away on September 13, in the fol- lowing year, leaving behind her the memory of a good woman who cared for the happiness of others. Both had come to America and adopted this land as their own, and both had striven, in their modest way, to improve it as they could; and in doing so, in ac- cordance with the highest patriotism, they brought with them the best traits for which the people in their respective countries had always been celebrated.

Frank J. Ruhstaller attended the public schools and also went to a business college; but he profited as much by the lessons he learned in the hard school of actual experience. His father had been in the brewery trade since 1881, and when old enough to be of service to him, he joined his father, and be- came manager of the Sacramento Brewing Company. When both Colonel Seymour and Mr. Heilbron died, Frank J. Ruhstaller became president in the fall of 1913; and he has been associated with the brewery

ever since. He now devotes his attention to the making of a "near-beer," and also ice, and to the manufacturing of certain malt extracts. He belongs to the Chamber of Commerce, and always lends a helping hand in favor of trade extension.

At Sacramento, on November 22, 1899, Mr. Ruh- staller was married to Miss Alice Marie Root, of Sacramento, and both husband and wife enjoy the fraternal circles of the York Rite Masons and the Knights Templar and Shriners, the Elks, the Eagles, the Sacramento Turnverein, the Helvetia Verein and Del Paso Country Club. Mr. Ruhstaller also belongs to the Native Sons of the Golden West, Sacra- mento Parlor No. 3, and as a public-spirited man was active in all liberty loan drives and other World War work. He is fond of hunting and field sports, and has owned fine harness-horses and dogs.

WILLIAM TURTON .- A prominent Forty-niner and California pioneer, William Turton was born in Manchester, England, in 1827. When a young man he came to the United States and for a time located in Milwaukee, Wis .; but tales of the gold strike in California reached him, and in 1849 he made the long, hazardous journey across the plains to seek his for- tune in the West. In October of that year he arrived at Bidwell's Bar, on the Feather River, and immedi- ately sought the mines; like so many other Argo- nauts of early days, he did not meet with success in this direct hunt for gold, but found the true metal in following other pursuits. In the early fifties Mr. Turton located in Sacramento; and his wife joined him in 1853, coming via the Isthmus of Panama.

In partnership with William F. Knox, under the firm name of Turton & Knox, Mr. Turton engaged in business as a general contractor; and for many years this partnership continued, with never a dissen- sion to mar their friendship or complicate their busi- ness dealings. They engaged in railroad-building, and were kept busy in northern California for many years in this one line. They built the road from Sac- ramento to Niles Station for the Southern Pacific Railroad; the road from Watsonville to Soledad, also for the Southern Pacific; the road from Galt to lone, and from Colfax to Nevada City; and also the road to Clipper Gap, besides other lines in the state, thus taking a very real part in the upbuilding and progress of California, and becoming identified with the growth and development of transportation facilities in the state.

The marriage of Mr. Turton took place in Wiscon- sin, in 1846, and united him with Ellen Kaye, of Milwaukee, Wis. She was a beautiful woman, of fine character and principle, and their life together was an ideally happy one. Ten children blessed their union, five of whom grew to maturity: H. S. Turton, now deceased; Mary, Mrs. A. G. Johnson. deceased; and Mrs. Florence Clunie, Nellie, and Kate Turton, all of Sacramento. Mr. Turton was a Mason, and a member and president of the Sacramento Pioneer Society. He stood for the best principles of life -- truth, honesty, good-will and right-and was revered by all who knew him as a man of high ideals. His death occurred on May 29, 1909, at the ripe age of eighty-two. His wife preceded him into the Great Beyond, passing away in July, 1906, at the age of seventy-seven years. She was a devout Methodist, the daughter of Rev. Kaye, a native of England who settled in Wisconsin, where he was a pioneer preacher and missionary.

His. dr .c Record Co b gaby Campbell Bro

ON Turlow

297

HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY

HON. CHARLES B. BILLS .- A representative citizen of the Golden State who has made his own way in the world and has won to a high position in business and financial circles is Charles B. Bills, vice- president of the United Bank and Trust Company. Sacramento Branch. He was born on a New York State farm on May 5, 1863, into the home circle of D. F. and Marietta Bills, long residents of the Empire State in the vicinity of Ithaca. He was sent to the public schools in the vicinity of his home but was not permitted to enjoy other than a grammar school edu- cation, which he completed when about fourteen; then he began working on the farms in the vicinity of his home, continuing until he had reached his major- ity. His practical experience gave him confidence to carry on an independent farming business and he rented his father's farm and prospered during the following years. Upon the death of his father, in 1891, and the settlement of the estate, Mr. Bills closed out his interests there and located in Chicago, where he found employment in a fruit commission house conducted by Porter Brothers Company, and he there learned the fruit business from the ground up, becom- ing a traveling salesman for the company.

In the fall of 1894 he was sent to California to rep- resent Porter Brothers Company as manager of their San Jose branch house, continuing there until 1901. when he was transferred to San Francisco and given charge of their Coast branches. He continued with that concern until they failed in 1905, which ended his connection with their interests. He came to Sac- ramento that same year and entered enthusiastically into the work of helping to organize the Pioneer Fruit Company and he became its president, continuing in that responsible position and gradually broadening his sphere of operations for many years. The business grew from a very small beginning, when only 700 cars of fruit were shipped, until that concern bought, packed and shipped a great majority of the fruit marketed out of Sacramento and northern California, shipments being made to the general markets of the world. The successful conduct of this fast growing enterprise received the entire time and attention of Mr. Bills, who possesses the attributes to make such a responsible post bring results to the stockholders.

At Chicago, Mr. Bills made the acquaintance of Miss Ella C. Carman, and this resulted in their mar- riage on March 19, 1895, after which they established their home in San Jose, later in San Francisco, and still later in Sacramento, where they now reside at 1320 Thirty-ninth Street. Their marriage has been blessed by the birth of two children, Florence and Robert S., both of whom received the best of educa- tional advantages offered by the schools of this state. The family are members of the Episcopal Church, in which Mr. Bills has held the office of trustee of the Northern Diocese. He belongs to the Elks and to the Rotary Club, in which he has been honored by the highest office given the Pacific Coast district, that of district governor.

Afr. Bills has always manifested a keen interest in politics and gives his allegiance to the Republican party, under whose banners he served the state as senator from the 11th senatorial district in the legis- lative sessions of 1909-10, and the special session of 1911. He served as chairman of the committee on agriculture, horticulture and trees and vines; and was a member of the finance, public buildings, good roads, hospitals and asylums committees., His services were 19

so much appreciated that he was called upon to seek re-nomination from nearly every class of men from all parties, but he refused to become a candidate on account of his personal business demands upon his time. In the realms of finance he is well known by the banking fraternity and upon the organization of the United Bank and Trust Company he became a stockholder and was made vice-president of the Sacra- mento branch of that formidable institution, which ranks among the largest in California. From the humble lot of a farm-reared youth to a position at the head of important institutions, Charles B. Bills has risen as a result of his indomitable energy, sagacious management and business integrity. In the intervening years he has ever been ready to lend his aid to all projects that have had for their aim the betterment of conditions for the city, county, state and people, and his name is to be found enrolled among those who have builded for all time.

MRS. ALICE M. VALENSIN .- Among the prom- inent California women who have made a name for themselves and have added to the honors and laurels already won by their distinguished families, may well be included Mrs. Alice M. Valensin, a native of Independence, Mo., and the daughter of John F. MEcCauley and his good wife, who in maidenhood was Miss Caroline Wilson. Mrs. Valensin's maternal grandmother was a Davis, of the famous Davis fam- ily to which Jefferson Davis belonged, while her grandfather, also on her mother's side, was Thomas Wilson, a member of one of the first families to settle in Virginia.' He was a native of Tennessee, and was sent to England for his higher education. Later he settled at Independence, Mo., and was killed in the Mormon War. His daughter, Caroline Wilson. also a native of Tennessee, grew up on her father's planta- tion, where he was a slave-owner, and she enjoyed the best of educational advantages of her day. Mfrs. Valensin's father and paternal grandfather were both born in Abingdon, Va. They were also planters and were of good old Dominion stock.

John F. McCauley was a veteran of the Mexican War. Before that conflict his father had given him $10,000 and a body-servant, and he traveled through- out the Middle West, and at length came to Independ- ence, Mfo., where he married Miss Wilson. He came from an old Scotch family whose genealogy reaches back into the highlands of Scotland, some members of which migrated to the United States and settled in Virginia; and he had three brothers who lost their lives in the Civil War, fighting on the Confederate side for "The Lost Cause." As a result of his activity in organizing a company for the Mexican War, John F. McCauley was often called "Colonel," and although this was a purely honorary title, it befitted him splen- didly, as he was a Southern gentleman of the old school. At the same time he was a man of rare executive ability and no small amount of initiative. This was well brought out in 1852, when with several of his Mexican War comrades, he started across the great plains for California, accompanied by his wife and infant daughter, the subject of this review, traveling by way of the Salt Lake route, and stopping in San Joaquin County, Cal. William Hicks, Mrs. Valensin's step-grandfather, met this train, which included several hundred head of stock, and a number of slaves, at Salt Lake City. Mr. Hicks had come to California in 1847, and had acquired a large

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

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 55

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