Napoleon Bonapart LaBRIE

As the name indicates, the subject of this sketch is of French descent and in addition to that he is a native of Virginia, having been born near the Natural Bridge, Rockbridge county, May 12, 1849. He was the son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Downs) LaBrie, who were born, respectively, in France and Virginia. The father was educated for the priesthood, but becoming dissatisfied with his religion he gave it up and for this he was disinherited. He then immigrated to this country and settled in Virginia, where he married. After coming to this country he became a sculptor. At the time of the Civil war he enlisted in the Confederate army as a lieutenant and met his death in the battle of the Wilderness. His wife passed away in Virginia in 1906. Of the ten children born to these parents only two survive, Napoleon B. and his youngest sister, Josephine, who is now Mrs. Dudley, of Lynchburg, Va.

Until he was eighteen years of age Napoleon B. LaBrie remained in his native state, then came to California and settled in Mendocino county. Naturally in that unsettled locality he engaged in stock raising, and in protecting his herds from the wild animals from the surrounding forests he became an expert and noted hunter. Bear, panthers and wild cats were his especial prey, as these fierce canivora were thickest around his colt and calf corrals. The year 1898 found him aboard a steamer bound from Seattle to Skagway, his soul burning up with the Klondyke fever. Climbing through the snowy Chilcoot Pass and making his way down the Yukon, he struck Dawson City and joined the great army of goldseekers. Of course there were not mines enough to go around, and he did what he could. Chopping wood was a profitable business, and Mr. LaBrie could swing an axe with the best of them. From $15 to $20 a cord for turning the forests into four-foot lengths for the river steamers was fair pay, and better than thousands of gold mines on the creeks were paying. Where the timber was easy to get at he has cut three cords in a day. The intense cold was no detriment to the choppers; many days they would be working when it was sixty below. At times they would lay their axes aside and "stampede" with the band for some new-found rich creek. There he would stake out his claim and return with the crowd to civilization and his woodchopping. Another diversion was hunting and he sold many a pound of bear and moose meat to miners and other consumers at lofty prices. The flesh of a twelve hundred pound moose netted him $600. Mr. LaBrie says he knew of hunters in the Klondyke who cleared $10,000 a year each in the wild meat business. He has seen caribou in droves of one thousand on their way north, where they have their young, and afterward has seen the same herds returning south with the calves. He passed a long winter (seven months) twenty miles north of the Artic Circle alone with his dog, some of the time in semi-starvation. When he had settled down in the final sleep that comes to the hungry man in that awful cold he was awakened by a noise outside the cabin, and dragging himself to the door, saw two moose nearby. He managed to get his rifle at work though he was so weak he could hardly stand, he managed to kill both of the animals. It was providential, as he was helpless in that place, having no snowshoes for travel and no food to eat on the journey. Once he was found by Indians frozen on the trail. He had $7,000 with him, his partner having gone ahead with the dog-team for help. The Indians thawed him out and saved his life.

Mr. LaBrie made a number of trips between Seattle and Dawson before he concluded that he had enough of the north and its great white wastes. He is now a farmer of the farm instead of a tiller of the nugget bearing soil along the icy Yukon, and he finds the Capay valley more congenial than the Alaskan plains. He married in Colusa Miss Fannie Johnson, and the children born to them are: Minnie, George (deceased), Ruby and Fannie. Minnie married D. E. Jacobs, and they have one daughter named Bernice. Ruby married E. W. Armfield, who is practicing law in Woodland. Fannie, Mrs. Brunson, has two sons, Glenford and Lloyd. Mrs. LaBrie passed away thirty years ago. Mr. LaBrie has charge of acres in almonds and other fruits, carrying on this large orchard with success, and now, after his adventurous life, he takes it easy in his comfortable home in Capay.

Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: "History of Yolo County, California" by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 495 - 499.

Hon. Hugh McElroy La RUE

Although death has stilled the voice and terminated the forceful activities of Hon. Hugh McElroy LaRue, it will be long ere his influence 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 splendid 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 acres 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 California 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 Mondeuse.

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 bearing: almonds, walnuts, oranges, lemons, figs, persimmons, pomegranates, 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 ploughed one day after a heavy rain. Ever since the original owner of the property brought an importation 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 attention is also given to horses. For eighteen years Jacob Stihl has acted as the efficient overseer of the ranch, while the eldest son of the owner, Jacob Eugene LaRue, was retained as manager until his death in January of 1906, since which time another son, Calhoun Lee LaRue, has filled the position of superintendent with intelligence and sagacity.

Tracing the genealogy of the LaRue family it is ascertained 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 (McElroy) LaRue. At the age on 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 his neighborhood, 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 cut-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 finest cabins at Oleta, Amador county, and worked the first mines.

In thosd days Oleta was known as Fiddletown, the name originating 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 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 whiskey and brandy about $8 a gallon. After a second trip to Shasta in June, same year, he came to Sacramento 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.

As early as 1866 Mr. LaRue had purchased nine hundred acres in Yolo county and to this he added until the ranch contained more than two thousand acres. After the floods of 1868 he sold his interest in the rancho del Paso and gave his time to the Yolo county property, but made his home in Sacramento in order that his children might have the advantages offered by the city schools. When the wine industry was still in its infancy he became interested in vineyards and planted one hundred acres to grapes. Other improvements were made, some of which already have been mentioned, while others, equally important, are beyond the limits of this space to present in detail. When advancing years rendered active work less desirable, he turned over to his sons the care of the large property, and retired to private life, with a record of having raised crops for more than fifty consecutive years in California. His agricultural experiences centered in the counties of Colusa, Yolo, Napa and Sacramento.

During 1858 Mr. LaRue married Miss Elizabeth Marion, daughter of Thomas Lizenby, a pioneer of Lewis county, Mo., and also of Colusa county, Cal. Mrs. LaRue was a half-sister of Rev. William M. Rush, D. D. of the Missouri conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, also of Hon. John A. Rush, at one time state senator of Colusa county and later attorney-general of Arizona. Mr. and Mrs. LaRue were the parents of four sons and one daughter, Jacob Eugene (who died in January of 1906), Calhoun Lee, Hugh McElroy, Jr., John Rush and Marie Virginia (who died in 1888). During 1856 Mr. LaRue became a member of the Sacramento Society of California Pioneers, of which he served as president several times. As master of the Sacramento grange he was prominent in another organization prominent in its day. For years he was a member of Sacramento Lodge No.49, F. & A. M., and also affiliated with the chapter.

For years one of the leading Democrats of his locality, Mr. LaRue never lost his interest in public affairs and when he passed from earth, December 12, 1906, not only his party, but the state as well, lost a patriotic supporter and loyal promoter. During 1857 the Democrats elected him sheriff of Sacramento county by a majority of eight votes, but when the election was contested he lost the office. When again he became a candidate in 1873 he was elected by a large majority. During the sessions of 1883 and 1884 he was a member of the lower house of the state legislature and served as speaker. As representative from the second congressional district, in 1879 he served as a member of the state constitutional convention. While in the legislature he supported the bill providing for the erection of an exposition building for the State Agricultural Association, also supported the revision of the general railroad laws, the county government act, the bill reorganizing the senatorial and assembly districts and the laws relating to taxes. During 1888 he was the Democratic candidate for senator and ran ahead of his ticket, but was not elected.

From 1867 until his death in 1906 Mr. LaRue was identified with the State Agricultural Association. Three times (1879-1880 and 1882) he was chosen president of the organization. After 1882 he was a member of its board of directors. During the expositions he acted as superintendent of the pavilion. While president of the board, also while speaker of the assembly, he was an ex-officio member of the board of regents of the California State University at Berkeley. He was National Chief of Viticulture at the Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893. Elected railroad commissioner for Northern California in 1894, he served as president of the board for four years, besides holding other official positions. With his demise another pioneer passed from the scenes of his successful industry. Another link joining the present with the past was burst asunder and another name was added to those of the illustrious immortals recorded in the annuals of the state.

Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: "History of Yolo County, California" by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 664 - 667.

J. E. LaRUE

a farmer near Davisville, Yolo County, is a son of H. M. and Elizabeth (Lizenby) LaRue, and was born four miles from Sacramento, September 19, 1859. In 1870 he moved into Sacramento city, where he received his education, graduating in 1880 from the University of California at Berkeley with the degree Ph. B. He then went into Yolo County and took charge of his father's farm near Davisville, a beautiful place of 2,100 acres, in which he now has an interest. There are ninety acres in grapes and sixty in almonds, but his attention is chiefly devoted to the rearing of horses and mules and grain-raising.

April 20, 1887, he was united in matrimony, in San Francisco, with Miss Addie E. Rankin, who was born in that city October 29, 1860. They have one child, born May 6, 1888, named Morgan E.

Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

Peter LAUENER

Peter Lauener, a farmer near Capay, was born April 26, 1835, in Switzerland, the son of Christian and Ann Lauener, natives also of that country; the father, by occupation a farmer, died there in 1849, at the age of forty-five years. Peter was brought up on a farm in Switzerland until 1851, when he emigrated to America, with his widowed mother and five other children, and came direct to Richland County, Illinois, where he remained until 1859, on a small farm owned by his mother. In 1859 he came overland to California, by way of Pike's Peak, where he remained two weeks. The ensuing winter he spent at Placerville, and during the following spring he entered Capay Valley, and worked for wages until he purchased his present place in 1887, which he is preparing for a fruit farm. It comprises 300 acres, and is situated three miles from Capay. He has a sister in Yolo County, and a brother at Sonora. He is a member of Lodge No. 242, O.C.F., at Capay.

He was married in 1872, to Miss Nancy Lang, a native of New York, and a sister of J. A. Lang, an old, time-honored pioneer of Yolo County. Mr. Lauener is an energetic and prosperous farmer, with brilliant prospects before him.

Source: Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

Mrs. Emma C. LAUGENOUR

As compared with the volumes that have been written exploiting the accomplishments of men in bringing California up to its present state of development, little or nothing has been said concerning the part women have taken in this same work. While from an outward viewpoint the characters they have represented in the drama have been less conspicuous perhaps than those portrayed by the men, nevertheless they have been equally necessary to bring about the ends accomplished, as many men have declared in giving the synopsis of their lives. Few of California's early settlers recognized more thoroughly than did John D. Laugenour the sustaining help and comfort which he received from his wife, and he frankly gave credit to her for much that he was able to accomplish during his long residence in the west. Emma Christene Watkins was born in New Philadelphia, Ohio, May 12, 1842, and was therefore about eighteen years of age when she became the wife of John d. Laugenour in 1860. Of the eight children born to them five are now living and exemplifying in their daily lives the high principles of manhood and womanhood instilled in them by the teachings of their parents. Named in the order of their birth they are as follows: Philip T., Henry W., Jesse D., William R., and Emma Carter, the wife of Walter F. Malcomb.

To the tactful sympathy, as well as conservative judgment of his wife, Mr. Laugenour attributed much of his success, and the fact that since his death she has faithfully endeavored to carry out plans of both philanthropy and business in which she deems he would have been deeply interested, is proof of the confidence and understanding which existed between them.

As president of the W. C. T. U. of Woodland, and as the principal financial backer of the Home Alliance, a paper devoted not only to the temperance movement, but to general news as well, Mrs. Laugenour has done much to aid in the banishment of the liquor evil, and by her womanly sympathy and sunny personality, united with pecuniary assistance, has lightened many a sad heart and given more than one poor but ambitious young person a chance to prove himself. She has lived to see the cause of temperance victorious in Yolo county, but now the saloons are banished from every part of the county, with the exception of Broderick and Clarksburg. She is also happy to have lived to see the object for which she labored for twenty years the enfranchisement of women crowned with success, she having been the pioneer and the foremost worker in her county in pushing the cause of suffrage to a reality. In 1900 she bore a part of the expense incident to the erection of Mary's Chapel, near Yolo, in order that those who could not go to the city churches might have a place to worship, as well as to provide accommodations for funeral corteges from the outlying districts of Yolo county. She also organized the Mary's Cemetery Association, which she has served as president about fifteen years, and it was during this time that Mary's Chapel was built. In her home, Christene Cottage, Woodland, always open to those who seek comfort and assistance, Mrs. Laugenour dispenses true hospitality. To her, life holds nothing sweeter than doing for those less fortunate than herself, and it is meet that her name should be, as it is, a synonym for purity and beauty of character.

Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: "History of Yolo 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" page 215-216 by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, 1913.

John D. LAUGENOUR

A residence of nearly forty years in Yolo county made it possible for John D. Laugenour to witness its development, as well as to be a contributor to its progress. Over twenty years have passed since Death ceased his activities, but such was the impress that his life made upon those who were privileged to know him and labor with him that he is still remembered and revered by old pioneers as one of the strong factors in the growth and development of the country, and of Yolo county and Woodland in particular. A native of North Carolina, he was born near the city of Salem, December 23, 1823, and was reared and educated there. His parents were farmers, and it was quite natural therefore that he should assist with the farm duties when school was not in session. In 1847 he went to Indiana and there learned the wagon maker's trade. Two years later the rumors of the finding of gold in California put a different aspect upon the whole situation, and as soon as possible he made arrangements to come to the west in search of his fortune. Hopes were high in the hearts of the little party of five that started from Indiana in the latter part of the year 1849, consisting of Thomas F., Lewis, George and John D. Laugenour and Joseph Spurgeon, a friend. Their five yoke of faithful oxen brought them into Hangtown in September in the following year, the termination of a long and tedious journey by way of Fort Hall. Months of intense privation had been endured, including not only sickness and danger, but hunger as well, and only those who have experienced a similar situation can know the joy that was theirs when they were able to make a permanent camp and share in the crude comforts that for the time being are exalted to the point of luxuries. The first winter was passed in the mines of Kelseyville, and the following spring Mr. Laugenour started out for Hangtown, having only twenty-five cents in his pocket. Here, as in Kelseyville, he was not satisfied with his efforts, but he made no mistake in removing to the south fork of the American river, where he realized between $500 and $600 a day.

With the money which he made in this venture Mr. Laugenour went to Yankee Jim's, Placer county, where, in partnership with his two brothers, he established a trading post, in connection with which he also carried on a teaming business. Desiring to settle down to the life which was after all more congenial to him, Mr. Laugenour disposed of his interest in that part of the state and came to Yolo county and on January 12, 1852, he made his first purchase of land, stocking it with cattle. The venture proved profitable from the beginning, inasmuch as stock was bringing high prices in the market, and as that was in a day when fencing was not required to mark individual properties the large herds of cattle could graze unmolested over large tracts of land. He increased his herds to take advantage of the opportunities offered, but when the business began to be overdone and changed conditions reduced the price of stock, he wisely disposed of his cattle. Adjusting himself to the changes which came with the passing years, Mr. Laugenour wisely took up grain farming, being associated in this undertaking with L. M. Curtis. Among the ranches which they operated was the famous Glenn ranch, in what is now Glenn county. In 1860, Mr. Laugenour purchased a large tract of land on Cache creek, which was also devoted to grain raising. Going to Knight's Landing in 1867 he there opened a mercantile business with C. F. Thomas, the firm making a specialty of buying and selling grain. Later, owing to the increased production of wheat and barley in that section, Mr. Laugenour erected a grain warehouse which he and his partner, Mr. Thomas, conducted successfully for seven years. The extension of the railroad to Woodland was destined to make a change in Mr. Laugenour's plans, and in the same year, 1874, he removed to this city to make his home. He was guided in his decision by the belief that the town would one day be a shipping center of importance and he lived to see that his foresight had been correct. Gradually disposing of his scattered interests he devoted his attention to the development of Woodland and vicinity, aiding in many public enterprises, not only with capital, which was vastly important, but also with energy and executive ability as well.

Mr. Laugenour's marriage in 1860 united him with Emma Christene Watkins, who was born in New Philadelphia, Ohio, in 1842, the daughter of Enos Watkins. Of the eight children born to Mr. and Mrs. Laugenour five are living, as follows: Philip T., Henry W., Jesse D., William R. and Emma Carter, the latter the wife of Walter F. Malcolm. With the exception of Jesse D., a resident of Salem, N. C., all of the children are living in Yolo county. Up to the time of his death, April 18, 1891, Mr. Laugenour actively conducted his affairs, enjoying among his friends and associates a reputation that was as honorable as his character.

Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: "History of Yolo 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" page 221-222 by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, 1913.

Thomas F. LAUGENOUR

A reputation for successful agricultural activities and high principles of character, not limited to his own home county, but extending also into the adjacent regions, forms a fitting sequel to the long career of Thomas F. Laugenour, one of the few survivors of the early settlers of Yolo county and a man of intense mental and physical alertness. It is indeed this equipment of mind and body that furnished the basis of his growing prosperity. Not only as a young man, but even when the shades of evening were beginning to cast their shadows over his useful existence, he was able to work assiduously and indefatigably without disastrous results and now, at the age of eighty-five, he is still active and not easily fatigued. During a residence of over sixty years in this county he has had practically no illness and even when, during 1905, he suffered an accident through the catching of his left arm in a horse-power and was forces to submit to amputation below the elbow, he was confined to his room for only a very short time, his splendid constitution enabling him easily to withstand the shock of an operation that would have proved fatal to many men of his advance years.

The genealogical records show that the Swiss family of Laugenour became identified with American history during the colonial period. Thomas F., fourth oldest son of Philip and Phoebe (Davis) Laugenour, large land owners and planters of Salem, N. C., and lifelong residents of that state, was born on the old plantation in what is now Forsyth county, July 6, 1827. Memories of early days bring to his mind thoughts of the broad acres cultivated with the aid of slave labor, affording for the white men a life of aristocratic ease and broad hospitality. The environment and conditions, however, were not satisfactory to the youth and when he had completed his education he started for other regions. In 1847 he became a pioneer in Indiana. Later he took up a temporary residence in Pettis county, Mo. Early in 1850 he joined an expedition bound for California and with oxen and prairie schooners crossed the plains in safety, landing at Placerville September 7, 1850. For a time he there engaged in mining and met with some success.

Shortly after his arrival in Yolo county, during 1852, Mr. Laugenour made his first purchase of land, the same consisting of one hundred and sixty acres containing only meager improvements and here he still makes his home. Later through a trade he acquired the title to other lands adjoining his present homestead situated five miles north from Woodland. From time to time he has bought and sold thousands of acres and at this writing he still owns three thousand acres, more or less, improved with four sets of farm buildings and largely under cultivation to wheat, barley, beets, and alfalfa. The broad pastures support extensive droves of stock, including a flock of several thousand sheep as well as many head of cattle, horses, and mules. Through careful personal supervision the owner has made stock-raising a profitable adjunct of general farming and he is accounted one of the best judges of stock in the whole county. At a glance and apparently almost by intuition he detects the best points in an animal and discerns also disqualifications not noticeable to the majority, this keen judgment having been one of his most helpful factors in the stock industry. The ranch is naturally one of the most beautiful in Yolo county. Oak Leaf ranch is well named on account of the many large scalloping oak trees, besides a large grove of the same variety. Some have attained a diameter of four or five feet and represent hundreds of years of growth.

The marriage of Mr. Laugenour took place in Sacramento November 16, 1864, and united him with Miss Belle Burton, who was born in Monroe county, Mo., and at the age of fifteen years came to California with other members of the family. Her parents, Charles and Lucy (Nelson) Burton, were natives of Kentucky and in early maturity removed to Missouri, where they passed much of their married life upon a farm in Monroe county. During the year 1859 they came to the west accompanied by their children, crossing the plains with a large expedition bringing many head of cattle and horses for sale in California. They established a home in Sacramento county, where Miss Belle grew to womanhood and received wise training in the domestic arts. Mr. and Mrs. Laugenour became the parents of one son and three daughters, but lost one of the daughters, Phoebe, at the age of six years. The other daughters are Bettie, Mrs. D. A. McGriff, and Lucy, Mrs. D. B. Woods, both residing on farms that were once a part of the old homestead. The only son, Charles, is a progressive rancher on property that was also formerly a part of the old home ranch. Politically Mr. Laugenour votes with the Democratic party. In religion he believes in the doctrines of the Moravian Church, of which he is a member and has long been identified with its fellowship, while his wife is a member of the Christian Church at Woodland. Both have been ardent supporters of and workers in the temperance cause and Mrs. Laugenour is a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: "History of Yolo County, California" by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 710 - 712.

Sarah A. LAUGENOUR-HUSTON

The descendant of German ancestors on the paternal side, Sarah A. Laugenour was born on a southern plantation near Salem, Forsyth county, N. C., March 19, 1848, the daughter of Samuel H. and Lisetta (Fisher) Laugenour. The grandmother on the maternal side was in maidenhood a Miss Hamilton from Scotland. Early representatives of the Laugenour family were members of the Moravian Church and located in the Moravian settlement of Forsyth county, where Count Von Zindendorf had purchased a grant of land for the purpose of establishing a boarding school for girls in Salem. A large brick building was erected for this purpose next door to the church, and Salem College was founded in 1804. There its was that Sarah A. Laugenour was educated, under the influence of religious and cultured teachers. Her parents were members of the Baptist Church.

The eldest of twelve children, four of whom died in infancy, Sarah A. Laugenour was eighteen years of age when with her parents she came to California by way of Panama. The family arrived in Yolo county, Cal., November 26, 1866, and located on a farm near Knights Landing, continuing there for a few years or until removing to College City, Colusa county. Before leaving Yolo county, Miss Laugenour had taught school up to the time of her marriage to Walter S. Huston, January 20, 1869, when she became a resident of Knights Landing, where her husband was engaged in the mercantile business. It was during their ten years residence in that town that their first four children were birn, Walter Samuel, Arthur Craig, Edward P. and Mary, the latter dying in infancy. In the fall of 1878, after the disastrous flood of the preceding February, the family moved to Woodland to make their permanent home, and it was there that their two youngest children were born, Harry Lyle and Bertha Leora, the latter now the wife of James L. Hare. At this writing, 1912, Mrs. Huston is the happy grandmother of six girls and four boys. She and her husband united with the Woodland Christian Church by letter from the Knights Landing Church soon after their removal from the former city.

An organization which claims much of Mrs. Huston's thought and attention is the Woodland W. C. T. U., which was organized by Frances E. Willard in 1883. After uniting with the organization she served as president of the local union, as county president and as county superintendent of press work for twenty-seven years. She edited a column in the Woodland Daily Democrat when William Saunders was its editor, and also supplied material for a column in the Woodland Mail when it was published by W. R. Ellis. A paralytic stroke ended the business career of her husband three and one-half years previous to his death, which occurred September 8, 1894. With an invalid husband to care for and children to educate, she took up the work outside of her home at the age of forty-three years. She established the Home Alliance, a local newspaper devoted to the prohibition of the liquor traffic and equal rights for women, the first issue appearing July 7, 1891. Under her management the paper has been an important factor in banishing the open saloon from almost the entire county, and a helpful influence in securing the adoption of the state constitutional amendment giving the ballot to the women of California. Mrs. Huston attributes the success of The Home Alliance largely to the liberal support given it by her co-workers in the W. C. T. U., in the churches, the professional and business men and women of Woodland, and the farmers throughout the county. In the evening of life she is enjoying congenial work and the society of her children, who are all married and settled in their own homes, and of her ten grandchildren. While her business, like all reform work, has not brought great financial gain, she is in possession of what is far better in the satisfaction that comes only from service to God and humanity.

Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: "History of Yolo 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" page 290-292 by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, 1913.

W. LAWHEAD

W. Lawhead, liveryman, Woodland, is a son of E. G. and Nancy (Coen) Lawhead. His father, a native of Washington County, Pennsylvania, born in 1799, was a cabinet-maker by trade, and died in San Joaquin County in 1886. His mother, a native of Pennsylvania, died in Ohio. Mr. Lawhead was born in Guernsey County, Ohio, in 1828; married Miss Edith Johnson, a native of Pennsylvania in 1851, came to California in 1853, by way of Panama, and stopped first at Nevada City, where he engaged in mining for five years. He next lived at Central Ferry on the Stanislaus River, where he assisted his uncle in a store for six years; from 1863 to 1866 he followed teaming at Stockton, and the following twelve years he was a farmer of Solano County. Finally he went to Yolo County where he farmed for six years, then raised stock for three years in Solano County again, and at last came to Woodland in the fall of 1887, where he purchased a half interest in the livery business on Main street, in partnership with T. J. Hutchison. Some time afterward he purchased Mr. Hutchison's interest, but has since taken as a partner Joseph Clemens, their establishment being known as the City Stable.

His wife still lives, and they have two children, both daughters: Rachel, wife of T. P. Emigh, a Solano County grain merchant and capitalist; and Rosamond, a teacher in Solano County.

Source: Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

LAWSON Brothers

Among Yolo county's successful ranchers and dairymen none, perhaps, are better known or more highly respected than the Lawson brothers, Budd and Syl by name, who throughout their lives have resided in that section, their interests at present being centered in the development of approximately two thousand acres of land in the vicinity of Woodland. Born on Willow Slough, Yolo county, the brothers spent their youth on the farm of their parents, Samuel and Emma (Wright) Lawson, who were born, respectively, in Sweden and England. When a lad of eight years the father went to sea, shipping on English vessels, and in time he became mate. On one of his voyages, in the year 1868, he rounded Cape Horn and landed at San Francisco. Pleased with the outlook he determined to make his future home in the Golden State and made settlement in Yolo county seven miles southeast of Woodland. There he later married Emma Wright, who had come overland from Illinois with her parents, the tedious journey behind plodding oxen coming to an end in Yolo county in November, 1851, after which Mr. Wright took up farming and became a factor in the development of this section of country. After his marriage Samuel Lawson located on a quarter section of land on Willow Slough, where he carried on farming successfully until death ended his labors in 1896, when he was seventy-two years of age. His wife survived a number of years, passing away January 19, 1909, at the age of sixty-nine. All of the four children born to them are living and are named as follows: Syl, the senior member of the firm of Lawson Brothers; Lena, Mrs. Strawbridge, of Woodland; Emma, Mrs. Cunningham, also residing in the old home; and Budd, the junior member of the firm.

For the past eighteen years, or since 1894, the Lawson Brothers have been in partnership in a farming and dairying enterprise that from the start has proved a paying venture. After carrying on the home place for a time they rented adjoining land on which they made a specialty of grain raising, having at one time about five thousand acres under cultivation. Their first venture on land of their own was on the old home place, which they had purchased in the meantime, as well as one hundred and sixty acres of land adjoining, all of which they put in grain. Their holdings were further increased by the purchase of eighty acres one mile west of Woodland, this land being devoted to raising alfalfa to supply their dairy herd and not for market. Besides the land mentioned they also operate on lease four hundred and eighty acres near Knights Landing in grain and alfalfa, and fourteen hundred acres on Willow Slough, the latter in grain, and they harvest their great crop with a combined harvester, propelled by a caterpillar engine. The flourishing dairy business of which the brothers are now the proprietors began with thirty cows in 1903, on Willow Slough. Encouraged by their success, the following year they leased the old Becket ranch of one hundred and forty acres one-half mile west of Woodland and increased their herd to about two hundred cows of the Holstein and Durham breed, milking on an average of one hundred and twenty cows. A full-blooded registered Holstein bull is at the head of the herd. The dairy is equipped with a DeLaval separator run by electric power, and during the summer season all of the cream from the ranch is shipped to Sacramento and sold for sweet cream to the confectioners. The brothers are interested in the Woodland Cooperative Creamery Company, of which Syl Lawson is vice-president, as well as a director.

The Lawson Brothers are also engaged in raising horses, mules, sheep and hogs, and in this as in every venture that they have as yet undertaken they are meeting with the success which their tireless efforts deserve. The by-product of the dairy, the skimmed milk, is used for fattening the hogs for the market, a venture which has passed the experimental stage, for there are no finer Durock Jersey hogs brought to the market in Woodland than those frrm the Lawson ranch, all of which have been fattened without the aid of grain. Though they have been in the dairy business only a few years the Lawson Brothers have already risen to the front rank in their line and are today the largest dairymen in Yolo county. They are also large buyers and sellers of sheep and cattle for the market, this extensive business also having grown from a modest beginning.

Syl Lawson was married in Oakland August 28, 1895 to Miss Carrie Overacker, who was born in Portland, Mich., the daughter of Philander and Marcella (Headley) Overacker, the former born in Michigan and the latter in Vermont. The mother passed away in Michigan, and the father now makes his home with his daughter, Mrs. Lawson. She is a graduate of the state normal at San Jose, being a member of the class of 1892. After her graduation she taught school for three years. Mr. and Mrs. Syl Lawson are the parents of four children, Howard, Walter, Emma and Justus. Mrs. Lawson is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and takes an active interest in its various organizations. Mr. Lawson is identified with the Woodmen of the World and politically he is a Republican. In addition to the partnership interests already mentioned, Syl Lawson was for five years associated with the Alameda Beet Company as superintendent. On the advent of the company in Yolo county he became interested in securing beet land and in creating an interest in beet-raising among the farmers. It is interesting to note in this connection that the first beets were hauled to the railroad in sacks and dumped into the cars.

Budd Lawson is giving his attention to the management of their agricultural and grain growing interests, while Syl attends to the dairy interests of the farm. The former is clerk of the board of trustees of the Willow Slough school district, having held it for the past four years. He is a member of the Woodland Lodge No. 111, I. O. O. F., towards the charities of which he is a liberal contributor.

In retrospection the Lawson Brothers frequently survey the changes that have taken place in Yolo county since they were boys. Then the country was in its original state, thickly covered with live oak trees, and Woodland in those days had only two small stores and a few scattered homes. Loyal to the beautiful valley in which they were born, and which they have assisted materially in developing, their opinion is unanimous concerning the superiority of this section over the many localities which they have visited and which have offered most attractive inducements to the home-seeker. Progressive and public spirited, they maintain an active interest in all public movements of worth and deservedly rank among the most influential citizens of the community. They may always be depended upon to stand up for the right, and in all of their dealings they have strictly adhered to the teachings of the Golden Rule.

Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: "History of Yolo County, California" by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 383 - 385.

John D. LAWSON (#1)

John D. Lawson, a real-estate dealer of Woodland, was born in Jackson County, Tennessee, July 15, 1832, and he was eight years of age when the family moved with him to Chariton County, Missouri. In 1852 he came by the overland route to California, settling in Sierra County, where he resided one year. He then came to Yolo County, where he has continued to reside until the present time. For a number of years he was engaged in farming, a few miles southwest of Woodland; but in 1860 he moved to Woodland, and built a residence on Lincoln avenue. In 1861-'62, together with his only daughter, now Mrs. W. R. Pond, of Woodland, he attended Hesperian College. He built the first livery-stable in that city in 1862. In 1869 he entered mercantile business where now is the grocery of Eaton & Son; at the end of two years he sold out to Mr. Eaton, and was appointed Deputy Sheriff and Jailer by Sheriff J. P. Bullock for four years. Just before his term expired he was elected County Recorder, and he left his former situation and assumed the duties of the latter for a two years' tem, commencing March 4, 1874. The next two years he was engaged in the real-estate business, and then, in partnership with H. L. Marders, he kept the Fashion Stable: this was in 1878. In 1883 he was again appointed Deputy Sheriff and Jailer, by Sheriff Jason Watkins, and held the position two years. In 1871, while serving under Sheriff Bullock, he was elected the first Marshal of the town of Woodland, and served from March until May, under a temporary government until the charter for the incorporation was obtained. After that he was elected a member of the Board of City Trustees for two terms. His present business as real-estate agent was established in 1885. In 1887 he admitted a partner, the firm name becoming Lawson & Maxwell, the latter retiring a year later. Mr. Lawson continued the business alone until March, 1889, when he formed a copartnership with Louis Walker. The firm name is now Lawson & Walker. Politically, Mr. Lawson is a Democrat.

He was married to Miss Jane Browning, in Yolo County, September 13, 1855, Elder J. N. Pendegast performing the ceremony. The result of this marriage has been a large family of children, all of whom are living at Woodland. Their names are, respectively: Genoa, Wm. H., James B., Robert G. and Edward.

Source: Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

John D. LAWSON (#2)

A southern home in Tennessee, near the banks of the Cumberland river in Jackson county, forms the earliest recollections of John D. Lawson, for there he was born July 15, 1832, and there he spent the first eight years of his life. Far distant as are those days, shadowed by the intervening activities of a useful and active existence, he recalls the happiness of the childhood home, the hospitality of the southern neighbors, the contentment of the family in the midst of privations and the true devotion of their intimate friends. When, however, news came of better soil and cheaper land in Missouri, the family were quick to grasp the opportunity, and during 1840 they removed by wagon to the newer country of their hopes, settling on raw land near Keithsville, Clariton county. In 1852, when he was twenty years old, the young frontiersman crossed the plains with ox-teams to California with an expedition of emigrants and settled in Sierra county, but a year later, in 1853, he came to Yolo county, where he has since lived and labored.

At the time of his arrival in Yolo county Mr. Lawson was unmarried, but in a few years he established a home for himself and his bride and on the 13th of September, 1855, Rev. J. N. Pendegast united him in marriage with Miss Jane Browning. Prior to his marriage and for some years thereafter he cultivated land a few miles southwest of Woodland, but in 1864 he moved into town and here he has since resided. Different lines of business activity have engaged his attention at different periods of his residence in this place. During the term of William Minis as sheriff of Yolo county he acted as under sheriff and for a term of four years he served as deputy under sheriff Bullock, also under Jason Watkins. From 1874 until the expiration of the term he held the office of county recorder. In addition he served for three terms as town trustee and during a part of the time he was honored with the presidency of the board. He had the distinction of being the first city marshal of Woodland.

The family of Mr. and Mrs. Lawson consists of one daughter and four sons, namely: Genoa, who married Wallace Pond and lives in Berkeley; William H., James B., Robert G. and Edward. For a number of years Mr. Lawson ran a livery business at the corner of Second and Main streets, Woodland, the present site of the Democrat office, and later he was associated with H. L. Marders in the livery business, their stable standing on the corner of College and Main streets. When he had served his connection with the livery interests Mr. Lawson became one of the pioneer real estate agents in Woodland, where in 1900 he took into partnership his son, Robert G., under the firm title of J. D. & R. G. Lawson, dealers in real estate. However, in 1911, he sold his interest to his son and retired from business. Throughout his long identification with Yolo county Mr. Lawson has kept posted concerning property matters and few men understand soil values better than he, while none is more enthusiastic concerning the possibilities of this section of the state. Few are now living who preceded him to this county. The sunshine and shadows of almost sixty years have fallen upon his head since he first came here, a robust young fellow with life's possibilities all ahead of him, and it has been his privilege, as he passed from youth to age, to witness the development of the country and to contribute to the same his own quota of useful activities and superior mental powers.

Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: "History of Yolo County, California" by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 630 - 631.

Joshua LAWSON

Joshua Lawson, deceased, was born April 4, 1804, in Jackson County, Tennessee, and in November, 1829, he married Mary Chaffin, also a native of Tennessee. The family made two trips to Missouri, -- first in 1838, spending one year there and returning in 1839. In 1840 they made their second trip, locating in Chariton County, and remained there until 1848, removing thence to Macon County, where they resided four years, when he came to California, with ox teams. Leaving Bloomington, the county seat of Macon County, April 13, 1852, they arrived at Gold Hill, Sierra County, September 6. The whole family followed mining about a year. In September, 1853, they came into Sacramento, where they sojourned about two or three months in an old hut on K street, between Eighth and Ninth, and on December 14, came into Yolo County and located permanently on a farm four miles southwest of Woodland, now owned by Dr. Strong. The Lawson family all located land in the same neighborhood. Joshua Lawson died in Woodland, December 21, 1862, and the widow is still living, at the age of eighty-three years. In their family were seven daughters and two sons, of whom several died when young; four died in Woodland, and only two are now living, namely: Mrs. Shellhammer and J. D. Joshua Lawson was a fine mechanic, and followed mechanical pursuits for over thirty years prior to coming to California. He was a preacher of the Christian Church from 1835 to the time of his death. He was the prime mover in the organization of the Christian Church at Woodland, the first pastor of the Church worshiping there, and, unlike most pastors, he preached on Sunday without pecuniary reward, and attended to his mechanical pursuits during the week, -- wagon and carriage-making, blacksmithing, gunsmithing, etc. He was also one of the originators and founders of the Hesperian College at Woodland.

Source: Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

Perry Pinckney LAWSON

The genealogy of the Lawson family extends back in America to the colonial period of our national history and the entire record is one of high principle expressed in patriotic loyalty to country and affectionate devotion to family and friends. For many years the name was limited to the eastern coast of the new world, but the spread of civilization led them toward the central west and eventually they became identified with the Pacific coast in a permanent citizenship. John and Elizabeth (Deering) Lawson, natives respectively of North Carolina and Virginia, lived after their marriage on a plantation in North Carolina, where their son, James Madison, was born. A desire to realize the greater opportunities offered by the valleys of the Mississippi and the Missouri led them to leave the beloved scenes of their old-time home. With their scanty possessions loaded in a "prairie schooner," they started for the frontier. The wagon was drawn by oxen and the journey necessarily was tedious, but at the expiration of the uneventful trip they settled four miles north of California, the county seat of Moniteau county, Mo., where they found conditions strictly those of the wilderness. For many years they labored in the same locality, but finally during the '70s they came to California and settled near Madison, Yolo county, where they continued to reside until death.

It was never the privilege of James Madison Lawson to see the great west. While still in the prime of manhood he died on his Missouri farm in August of 1861, leaving five children, of whom only two survive. His widow, who bore the maiden name of Elizabeth Bailey and was born in Indiana January 8, 1828, still resides in California, Mo., where after the death of Mr. Lawson she married William H. Welch, having one daughter by that union. The oldest child of her first marriage, Perry Pinckney Lawson, was born at the old homestead near California, Moniteau county, Mo., on the last day of the year 1851. Reared on a farm he early learned the rudiments of agriculture, and this occupation he followed until he left Missouri. March 14, 1875, he arrived at Dixon, Solano county, Cal., and from there he went to Lake county, where he was engaged in teaming for several years.

A resident of Yolo county since 1880, Mr. Lawson has here found various occupations to engage his attention. First he confined himself to the raising of grain and stock and to kindred pursuits of agriculture. About 1894 he began to operate a butcher shop and during 1904 he opened a shop at Guinda. Besides his meat market he conducted a confectionery establishment. Meanwhile from January of 1907 until January of 1911 he filled the office of constable of Guinda and Rumsey townships. The county board of supervisors appointed him in August of 1911 to the position of warden of the Yolo county hospital and he began his duties on the 16th of the same month, since which time he has devoted himself to the economical and practical management of the institution. In connection with the hospital there is a farm of sixty-five acres, of which thirty-five acres are in alfalfa and vegetables. The balance is utilized for grain and for the buildings. A dairy herd is kept on the farm and milk and butter are provided for the table. Another feature of the farm is the raising of hogs. The previous experience of the manager in the raising of stock and his knowledge of the butcher and mercantile business helps him here, as does also his general farming experience, and he is filling the position with manifest judgment, intelligence and trustworthiness.

A friend of his early life became the companion of his mature years when Miss Malinda Ellen Jobe, a native of Moniteau county, Mo., was there united with Mr. Lawson. She was the daughter of Bartholomew and Rebecca Jobe, the former a resident of Missouri, while the latter is deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Lawson became the parents of four children. The only son, E. Gray Lawson, is employed on the Southern Pacific Railroad, and makes his headquarters at Roseville, Placer county, this state. The three daughters are as follows: Mrs. Sallie Elizabeth Curry, of Lincoln, Placer county; Mrs. Jessie Floyd Searcy, a resident of Calistoga, Napa county; and Mrs. Ella May Van Dyke, who makes her home at Lincoln.

Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: "History of Yolo County, California" by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 680 - 682.

Ed E. LEAKE

The editor and proprietor of the Woodland Democrat is a native of Hannibal, Mo., born January 31, 1850, and is the oldest son of the late William M. and Jane F. Leake. Educated in the public schools and the New London Academy, he subsequently worked on the farm until he was eighteen years of age, and, it may be remarked in passing, that he has never lost his interest in farm life, but has consistently maintained that the intellectual, college-bred man can find no wider or more useful field for his talents than the farm offers. He was a powerful advocate of agricultural education fostered by the state, and the establishment of the University Farm in Yolo county was made possible largely by his efforts and those of the men with whom he labored.

Mr. Leake taught three terms in the public schools of Ralls county, near his father's home. Coming to California at the age of twenty his first employment was on a farm, near Dixon, in Solano county, after which he taught school one year near Batavia. He was successful in this work, and although ties of friendship of lifelong duration were formed between him and his pupils, he never considered adopting pedagogy as his profession. It was but a stepping-stone. In the '70s he accepted the position of acting agent for the Wells-Fargo & Co. in Dixon and of deputy postmaster in the store of the late W. R. Ferguson. His abilities won recognition from his superiors in the service and he was appointed agent for the express company, also receiving the appointment of agent for the Southern Pacific Company.

Mr. Leake's grasp on political affairs, which has since given him state-wide reputation, cause his nomination for and election to the assembly from Solano county in 1880, and he served one regular and one special session. He was elected chief clerk of the Assembly in 1883, and again in 1889, with only one vote cast against him. He made such a good record and economy and efficiency that years afterward it was cited, and by his political opponents, to rebuke the methods of those holding the same position. The Red Bluff People's Cause and the River News, both Republican, commended Mr. Leake for saving the state something like $4,000 in the organization of the Assembly. He was a member of the State Board of Agriculture, representing district No. 36, from 1889 to 1891, and was a trustee of the State Library from 1891 to 1893. He was appointed commissioner of public works in 1895, and held the position until 1899. Extremely effective work was accomplished during his administration, but so economically were funds handled that out of the $300,000 appropriation received, $180,000 was on hand when his term of office expired. His faithful service won hearty praise from Republicans and well as Democrats, the press of the state generally commenting on his good work.

Mr. Leake has ever been a strong partisan, and has labored with unflagging zeal for the success of the Democratic party; yet, while he is recognized by Republicans throughout the state as a most formidable antagonist, and his support is earnestly sought by every Democratic candidate, many of his warmest friends and admirers are to be found among Republicans as strong in their political affiliations as he is. He has attended every Democratic state convention for nearly forty years, and was a delegate to the national convention in 1896 that nominated Mr. Bryan. He has made state-wide platform campaigns, beginning with E. B. Pond, who was a candidate for governor, Mr. Leake traveling and appearing on the stand with him.

In 1898 the California Democrats, recognizing that Mr. Leake would be a strong candidate, urged him to accept the nomination for governor. He was endorsed practically unanimously by the Democratic press, and the Republican papers likewise praised him. Mr. Leake positively declined to enter the race, but in 1902 his name was again brought forward, and again he refused. However, the commendation of his newspaper brethren, particularly those of opposite political faith, was very gratifying to him. A few extracts from the Republican press of the state will give some idea of the esteem in which Mr. Leake was held by those politically opposed to him. Lodi Herald: "No man in his party is more deserving." Solano Republican; "He would be a strong candidate and if elected would make a good officer." Sunday news: "He is a great campaigner and ranks with John P. Irish as an exponent of the principles of the party. He is a popular man and would probably be as strong a candidate as the party could nominate." The Wave: "He is sound timber and worth saving." Placer News-Messenger: "Leake in his general make-up has the necessary for success and is mighty good timber for governor." Lakeport Avalanche: "If we must have a Democratic governor we know of no man in the state that would suit us better than Ed Leake." Alameda Encinal: "If the Democrats, by any possibility, could succeed in electing him they would have a governor of whom they might well feel proud." Napa Register: "Leake would lead with as much dignity and dash as any one."

Mr. Leake is one of the original Woodrow Wilson men, and though his hearty support would have been given to any one of the candidates before the Baltimore convention, the fact that his favorite was chosen induced his friends to think that it would be an opportune time to once more ask him to accept a nomination, and be his party's candidate for Congress in the Third district. The appeal was made by leading Democrats in different sections of the state, but Mr. Leake insisted that he could serve better by remaining in the ranks.

Mr. Leake's journalistic career began in Dixon in 1880, when he became the editor and publisher of the Dixon Tribune. His literary style, command of facts and trenchant pens gained him a wide audience, and offers from the metropolitan papers were extended to him, notably from the San Francisco Examiner, when the late Philip Roach was editor-in-chief. An editorial position on the Call was also tendered him. However, he chose to remain a free lance and no accept a salaried position. In 1891 he bought the plant of the Woodland Daily and Weekly Democrat and removed his family to Woodland. He immediately equipped the office throughout with new material, and he has constantly added to the stock and has installed modern improvements till the establishment is second to none north of Sacramento.

Yolo county recognizes Mr. Leake as one of its foremost citizens. In extent of reputation, in oratorical ability, in personal acquaintanceship with people of note and in literary versatility he is without a peer in the community. He has been called on to address every sort of public and semi-public gathering that has ever met in Woodland, to extend welcome to delegations and distinguished guests and to write on almost every conceivable subject.

But, after all, Mr. Leake has most endeared himself to his fellow-citizens by his public spirit. With a zeal that no prospect of personal reward could incite he has labored for the development of the Sacramento valley and particularly of Yolo county. The cause of good roads, of public improvements and enterprises, has been ably and unfalteringly espoused by him. In 1910 the Woodland Chamber of Commerce requested him to write a booklet on the resources of Yolo county, for which public funds had been appropriated and which the intention was to make it one of the most attractive of its kind ever put in circulation. Mr. Leake was then slowly recovering from a long and very severe illness. Not from any desire to shirk a service he could render his beloved county, but through fear that he was not able to treat the subject as it should be he asked to be excused. The men who had the work in charge continued their importunities, declaring that no one else could perform the task so well as he. He finally consented to undertake it. The expectations of his friends were fulfilled and the wisdom of the selection amply justified. As many and as high encomiums have been bestowed on the booklet as on any similar publication, and have come from the press, individuals and organizations.

On August 18, 1871, Mr. Leake was married to Miss Cecelia Snyder of Dixon, Solano county. They have two sons, Ed. I. and Paul R., both of whom are associated with their father in the newspaper business.

What is now known as the Woodland Democrat is not located in the town of its birth. The newspaper from which it has evolved was started in Cacheville, Yolo county, in the spring of 1853 by Jernagan & Everts. It was called the Yolo Democrat, and Samuel Ruland was its editor. It suspended after a three-months' existence. The material was purchased by M. P. Ferguson, who, in November, 1858, began the publication of the Cacheville Spectator, a twenty-column paper. J. T. Howard became associated with Mr. Ferguson and in 1859 took over the business.

After conducting the business in Cacheville several years, Mr. Howard removed the stock to Knights Landing, and issued one number of the Knights Landing News, in conjunction with S. L. Snyder. This was printed on August 24, 1859. Two months later S. W. Raveley bought the outfit and continued publishing it in Knights Landing till 1864, when it was removed to Woodland, the new county seat, and called the Woodland News.

Grover and St. Louis became the owners in 1865 and then, for the first time, the paper was Republican in politics, A. A. De-Long was editor. In 1867 the plant was purchased by the Democrat Publishing Company, composed of Judge M. C. Woods, John M. Kelley and H. C. Grover, which issued the Yolo County Democrat from May 1, 1869, to September, 1869. Then William Saunders and H. C. Grover assumed command. Mr. Saunders took complete control in 1870. He enlarged the paper, and under his management it acquired a prestige not before attained.

Up to 1877 the Democrat had been published as a weekly, but in June of that year the Daily was issued, and since then both editions have been continuously published.

In 1886 Mr. Saunders sold the business to Ruffner & Lee, who disposed of the property in 1888 to Mrs. C. Byrns. She leased it to W. B. Parsons, who succeeded by Lee & Maxwell.

In December, 1891, Ed. E. Leake became the owner. He has edited and published the Woodland Daily and Yolo Weekly Democrat since, and has also conducted a modern job printing office.

Of all those who have been connected with the paper since its inception as editor or owner, Mr. Leake, Charles St. Louis and Mayor J. O. Maxwell are the only ones living.

Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: "History of Yolo County, California" by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 849 - 852.

John A. LECHLEITER

John A. Lechleiter, manufacturer of all kinds of farming implements, wagons, carriages, etc., at Winters, is the son of George (a native of Lorraine, France) and Geneva (Krenzberger) Lechleiter, a native of Germany. His father is now running a wholesale tobacco store in Lincoln, Illinois. He was born in 1854, in Louisiana, within fifty miles of New Orleans, and came to California in 1870, landing in Sacramento. After residing there a year he went to San Francisco and remained there until 1877, when he married and went to Honolulu. While in San Francisco he built the omnibus for the Lick House, and also for the Baldwin Hotel and the Russ House, also many other large transfer wagons and hacks, and he prosecuted the same trade also in Honolulu. Returning from the Sandwich Islands in 1879, he opened a carriage shop at Maxwell's in Colusa county, in April, 1881, where he flourished for eight years; and then, in 1889, he settled in Winters, Yolo County, where he has a fine shop and a prosperous one. The works are run by a ten-horse-power engine, the model for which he had made by Mr. Williams, of Colusa County.

Mr. Lechleiter married Susan M. Webster, a native of Tennessee, in Oakland, November 29, 1877, and their two children are Emma Elvira, born February 17, 1880; and Frank T., August 30, 1881.

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler, July 2004.
Source: Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1891. pg. 345.

Harriett Stoddard LEE

Few persons have attained a greater distinction through active and efficient participation in community affairs, covering the larger part of a life’s period, than has Miss Harriett Stoddard Lee. In Yolo County, unquestionably, no other resident has established a record paralleling hers collectively as an educator, public official, social worker, and club and fraternal enthusiast. Certainly there is no other person in the county who is more highly honored or regarded with deeper affection by the general public, old and young alike, than is this truly remarkable woman.

The history of Miss Lee is one which tells of outstanding achievement along numerous and varied lines, leavened throughout with warm human impulses and a love for her fellow beings. Moreover, in addition to the fame she has gained through her own ability and natural gifts, she basks in the reflected light of ancestry and kindred of lustrous performance, noted for a rigid adherence to ideals and loyalty to democratic principles as embodied in American tradition.

The father of Miss Lee was Milroy Griffith Lee, who was born in Washington County, Illinois, in 1832, and became a farmer. In 1848 his three brothers – Abner, Wilson and James – went to Mexico as soldiers in the Mexican War. All three brothers fought in the battle of Buena Vista and after the close of the war they came to California. They purchased land at Nicolaus in Sutter County. In 1849 James Lee returned to Illinois for his family, and upon coming back to California took his brother Griffith along with him. It was about the time that gold was struck. Marrying at 21, Griffith removed to the Cherokee mining district, where for a few years he conducted a livery stable and catered to the miners.

Upon returning to Nicolaus he bought a large farm from the Government, but later purchased a farm northwest of Woodland and made his future residence in Woodland, largely in order to provide better school facilities for his children. About 1873 he purchased and operated the first steam thresher in Yolo County. He died at Woodland in 1877. It may be noted that his father, George Washington Lee, a native of Westmoreland County, Virginia, was a descendant of pre-Revolutionary stock, who settled in the “Old Dominion” in 1651. The father, also a farmer, came to Nicolaus in 1852; he was the first county clerk of Sutter County. Griffith ’s mother was Mahala Griffith, a native of Tennessee, who died while crossing the plains with her husband, and left a family of seven boys and three girls. She was one of those heroic pioneer mothers who passed through the crucible of hardship and bequeathed to her offspring robust bodies and clean, wholesome natures.

Miss Lee’s mother was Abigail Stoddard Lee, who was born in Ogle County, Illinois, in 1838, the daughter of Thomas Adams Stoddard, a native of Old Charlestown, Mass., and a stonecutter by trade. He crossed the plains with his family in 1854 and settled in Yuba City, where for a number of years he operated the Yuba City Hotel, being one of the first hotel keepers in the district. Later he engaged for several years in farming near the mouth of Feather River, and afterwards in Shasta County. Returning to Yolo County, he retired; death came in 1879. He was a devout Methodist, who adhered closely to Christian principles, thereby earning the confidence and respect of all who knew him.

Abigail Stoddard’s mother was Jane Cochrane, born in New York state, who was in ill health following a spinal injury. She was brought West by her husband on a bed in the belief that she would be benefited by the climatic change, but died after a few years’ residence in California.

Upon the death of her husband in 1877, Abigail Stoddard Lee was left with a brood of ten children, the youngest being two and one-half years old. In rearing them, the widow manifested the wisdom and strength of character which were her heritage from pioneer forebears. During that period she found time to engage actively in community affairs. She was a prominent member of the Congregational Church, participated in Eastern Star endeavor, and at the age of seventy-five officiated as president of a club devoted to the study of Shakespeare. She died at Woodland in 1917.

Of the ten Lee children, two are now residents of Yolo county – Miss Harriett Stoddard Lee and Mrs. Helen Lee Clark. Mrs. Helen Lee Clark was Deputy Superintendent of Yolo County Schools for fourteen years. One sister, Mrs. Jennie Lee Frasier, makes her home in Eugene, Oregon ; another, Mrs. Mattie Lee Wadsworth, is the well-known author and poet of Breckenridge, Texas, while a third, Mrs. Mary Lee Pettit-Barnhart, lives in Visalia, California. A brother, the late Major John G. Lee, of Woodland, occupied a position of prominence in the community. Another brother, Robert Marshall Lee, of New York City, who died in 1938, was a notable actor.

Abner G. Lee, a brother, lost his life in a threshing machine accident in 1889, leaving a son, Milroy G. Lee, of Pacific Grove, and a daughter, Mrs. B. H. Schulte, of Carmel Valley. Two sisters, Annie and Minnie Lee, died after attaining their maturity. Mrs. Frasier has two daughters – Profession Brownell Frasier, of Eugene, Oregon, and Mrs. Clayton Slawtee, of New York. Mrs. Pettit-Barnhart has a daughter, Mrs. D. W. Grant, who also makes her home in Visalia. Robert Marshall Lee is survived by a son, Jack G. Lee, of New York. Taken as a body, the Lee children occupy a unique position in the educational history of Yolo county, five of the sisters having taught in its schools at the same time.

Miss Harriett Stoddard Lee was educated in the Woodland public schools, Hesperian College and the Teachers’ Preparatory school in Sacramento. Her first experience in teaching was gained in the Lee School District in Sutter County, from where she transferred to the old Franklin School district (now known as the South Putah School District), near Davis. Then she came to Woodland and continued as a public school teacher. She was the first woman ever appointed to the Yolo County board of education, this taking place in 1892; from 1898 to 1914 she acted as vice-president of the Woodland schools.

In 1914 Miss Lee resigned as a member of the school faculty and was elected county superintendent of schools, a position to which she was consecutively re-elected until 1927, when she refused to become a candidate again and retired. During her incumbency as an educator, virtually all the present generation now living in Yolo county were her pupils. She served the county long – and well.

Miss Lee was regarded as one of the pillars of the Congressional Church. In politics she is a Democrat. Her activities as a member of the Daughters of the Golden West have been outstanding. For half a century she has been keenly interested in the affairs of the Shakespeare Club, of which she has during that period been a member. Her achievements in furthering the work of the Red Cross under Mrs. C. W. Bush have been notable. She has earned national distinction as the person deserving the credit for the institution of the first Mother’s Day.

Marveling at the sturdiness, fortitude and resourcefulness displayed by her pioneer widowed mother in rearing ten children, and feeling that there should be some salient evidence of the sentimental regard held generally for mothers, Miss Lee introduced at the annual meeting of the Grand Parlor of the Native Daughters of the Golden West, held in 1903 in Red Bluff, a resolution providing that suitable recognition and entertainment of mothers be made by all parlors throughout California. It was provided that one day each year be devoted to this worthy purpose. The resolution was adopted by unanimous vote. At first different parlors each elected a different day, dependent upon locality and circumstances. Within six years, however, Mother’s Day observance became so general throughout the State that Governor Gillette officially proclaimed the second Sunday in May for annual observance.

Observance spread rapidly throughout the length and breadth of the United States. In 1914, acting by virtue of a joint resolution of Congress, President Wilson made the institution national. In 1935 Miss Lee was honored for her inspiration by the California State Legislature, which invited her to appear before its members at the capitol in Sacramento and give them a history of the origin of Mother’s Day and how she came to advance an idea which in its fruition appeals sentimentally to humankind. Such is the authentic history of Mother’s Day.

It may be said fittingly in conclusion that Miss Lee is naturally a psychologist: this explains why she is revered by both sexes and all ages. Her keen understanding and sympathetic heart were shown on behalf of the adult in laying the foundation for Mother’s Day. But she has gone further and advocated something fraught with meaning for the adolescent generation. She wants establishment of the old-fashioned “beau parlor” – to permit courtship under proper conditions – at home.

Transcribed by Peggy B. Perazzo from History of Yolo County California, Its Resources and Its People, William O. Russell, editor, Woodland, 1940, pp. 335-337.

W. M. LEE

W. M. Lee, proprietor of a furniture store in Woodland, was born in Massachusetts, the son of John and Mary (Buckman) Lee, a native of Maine: father was a dentist in New Hampshire, and his mother died in 1878, in Sacramento, this State. Mr. Lee received his education in Boston, and in 1853 came by way of the Isthmus to California, and, like nearly all others, tried his hand first at mining. He followed this for two years in El Dorado County; then for a time he was employed at painting buggies and carriages in Sacramento; next he went to Chico, Butte County; then until 1858 he was in San Francisco, where he ran the largest photograph gallery in the city; next until 1862 he was a boatman on the Sacramento River, making Sacramento his headquarters; next he purchased a blacksmith shop in Placer County, and while there he was appointed Postmaster under the administration of President Lincoln, and after filling this office four years he went upon a ranch on Dry Creek in Sacramento County, where he remained three years. Returning to San Francisco he worked at odd jobs for several years. He then built a large wagon for the purpose of traveling through California in the photograph business, but he quit that in Woodland, and resorted at carpentering for Goble Bros. and was employed on their house 130 days. He then opened his present place of business, on a cash capital of $7.50, and he now carries about $2,000 worth of goods. He has several lots in Woodland and a nice dwelling, all of which he has earned by the hard knocks of a life business vicissitudes. He is a member of the order of Good Templars.

November 3, 1884 he married Emma Graft, in San Francisco. She is a native of Sacramento County, this State.

Source: Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891, Page 811
Transcribed by: Bonnie Phelan

William Henry LEEMAN

The man who realizes early in life the value of prudent and economical measures in all lines is certain to reap the reward of his moderation. No one admires a niggardly character, but who does not esteem a man who can in all situations maintain a calm and unbiased judgment, which, in the end, place him far ahead of his more impulsive and indiscreet brother? A man who has ever shown consideration and generosity to his family, yet whose quiet sagacity has enabled him to build a competency which ranks among the foremost in Yolo county, in W. H. Leeman, who was born in Iowa, and who, when but a babe crossed the plains in 1856 with his parents, who settled in Sacramento county.

Following his education in the public schools of that section W. H. Leeman's first independent step was to secure employment in the Pioneer hop yards of Daniel Flint, the latter residing three miles below Sacramento. In 1882 Mr. Leeman purchased one hundred and eighty acres of swamp land near Washington, Yolo county. He built small levees around part of his land, this being before there was a reclamation district. Here he put into practice on his own account the methods and training which he had acquired on the Pioneer ranch, setting it to hops, and he and Mr. Lovdal were the first to cultivate hops in Yolo county. Still continuing hop culture, Mr. Leeman added to his holdings from time to time until he became the owner of four hundred and twenty acres, one hundred and sixty of which were in hops and the remainder in alfalfa, besides which he conducted a dairy supplied by two hundred cows. The 1911 yield of hops proved so large, producing a ton to the acre, that Mr. Leeman was obliged to erect an additional hop drying shed. Prices were good and the income from this source alone was very material. He was one of the first trustees of reclamation district No. 537 and was active in constructing the levees. Fraternally he was a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, and politically he was a Republican. He passed away at his home, No. 2507 K street, Sacramento, August 24, 1911.

The marriage of Mr. Leeman, in Sacramento, united him with Miss Kate Farley, who was born in this city, and who passed away July 28, 1910, leaving three children, Walter W., Gertrude and Maretta.

Walter W. Leeman was born in Sacramento April 12, 1885. After completing his public school education he entered the University of California at Berkeley, where he continued his studies for one year. Returning home in 1904 he became actively engaged in the duties of the ranch, demonstrating an ability much appreciated by his father. On the death of the latter he became executor of the estate and now has the management of the Leeman ranch. It is located four miles west of Sacramento on the Sacramento & Woodland electric railway, at Leeman station, where a switch is located, providing splendid shipping facilities. The buildings on the ranch comprise a hop house with six kilns, also a cooling room. After leaving this room the hops are pressed into bales of about two hundred pounds each. About two hundred acres of the ranch are in alfalfa and the product of the dairy, supplied by two hundred cows, is sold at wholesale at Sacramento, being shipped by boat direct from the landing on the ranch. Mr. Leeman also breeds draft horses of the Percheron strain. He was married in Sacramento to Miss Irma Kilgore, a native of that city. Fraternally he is identified with Sacramento Lodge No. 6, B. P. O. E.

Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: "History of Yolo County, California" by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 519 - 520.

Henry LEINBERGER

The acquisition of a trade or profession is one of the most important features of the preparation of youth for the journey through life. The man who knows how to do one thing well, and who possesses sufficient business ability to make capital of his knowledge is certain to succeed sooner or later. Mr. Leinberger, one of Washington's leading citizens, and owner of the only slaughter house in this locality, learned his trade in Germany, where he was born in 1830. In 1850 he immigrated to America, landing at Wilmington, Del. For a time he worked in Philadelphia, but returned to Wilmington, going thence to Baltimore, where he carried on his trade a number of years. Again removing to Wilmington, he opened a butcher shop of his own, which he conducted until his marriage in 1858 with Miss Minnie Gilla, a native of Delaware, whereupon the young couple took passage on the steamer St. Louis, bound for the isthmus, which they crossed, boarding on the opposite shore the ship John L. Stevens. In San Francisco, which they reached April 1, 1858, they resided for a time, Mr. Leinberger traveling north during the excitement of the discovery of gold in the Fraser river section. After prospecting several month he returned to California, where he secured employment on a ranch near Hicksville, Sacramento county. Later he established a butcher shop in Sacramento, and in the fall of 1860 located in Washington, Yolo county, where he purchased a small shop. Through his efforts and tireless energy, his trade grew rapidly and he later erected a slaughter house, which he has since enlarge and of which at the present time the daily output is about forty sheep, five to six cattle and several hogs, which he disposes of to the wholesale market in Sacramento. In 1911, from July 5 to August 11, nine hundred and twelve sheep were dressed in his abattoir, which is conceded to be one of the most up to date in the country. Not long since Mr. Leinberger took his son into partnership with him and the firm is now known as H. L. Leinberger & Son.

Mr. and Mrs. Leinberger were blessed with five children, as follows: Henry, Jr., of Washington; Charles, of Sacramento; William J., a partner in the business; Louisa, Mrs. F. P. Smith, of Sacramento; and Elizabeth, the wife of Thomas Limnell, of Washington. Since 1863 Mr. Leinberger has been an Odd Fellow, being a charter member of Schiller Lodge of Sacramento, and he enjoys the distinction of being the oldest Odd Fellow in Washington.

Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: "History of Yolo County, California" by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 537 - 538.

James T. LILLARD

JAMES T. LILLARD, deceased, formerly the proprietor of the Lillard House at Davisville, was associated with the history of Yolo County since its earliest days. He was born in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, a son of Thomas and Eliza Lillard, natives also of the same State. Left an orphan at the age of twelve years, he was with relatives until he was eighteen, when he served a year in the Mexican war, under Doniphan. He then was at his native home until 1849, when he came overland to California, in company with Hudsby, the man who established Hudsby's Cut-off on this trip, which occupied the time from May to September. Mr. Lillard followed mining two years on the Yuba River; then conducted a hotel at Washington, Yolo County, two years; the next two years he was employed by J. C. Davis, at Davisville, which place was named after Mr. Davis; and finally Mr. Lillard purchased 600 acres of land of him and engaged in agricultural pursuits, continuing until 1885, when he sold out and moved to Davisville and built the Lillard House, of which he was proprietor until his death, which occurred January 6, 1889. He was a member of the Pioneer Society and of the I. O. R. M. He was married in 1854, to Miss Mary A. Mear, now deceased. By that marriage there were two children: Henry R., deceased, and Eliza, now the wife of Berlan Seasel. Mr. Lillard was again married, October 21, 1861, to Miss Susan S. Hoy, a native of Kentucky, and they also had two children: James J. and Edna A., both of whom are now deceased. Since the death of her husband Mrs. Lillard has conducted the house, and in such a manner as to maintain its good reputation. It is situated at the foot of Main Street near the depot, and is well known to the traveling public.

Source: Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California, Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
Transcribed by: Betty Wilson August 2004

William A. LILLARD

Closely following the discovery of gold was the advent of the first representative of the Lillard family in California, for during the summer of 1850 John Lillard crossed the plains, braving the dangers of the deserts and the perils of the mountain passes in order to reach the land so suddenly made famous the world over. While he engaged in mining for two years, no special success rewarded his exertions and he returned thereupon the old Missouri home. The busy years that followed did not banish from his mind the memories of the delightful climate of the west and the many advantages offered by the country, but it was not until as late as 1885 that affairs so shaped themselves that he found it convenient to remove permanently to the shores of the western ocean. Upon his second trip to the west he was accompanied by his son, William A., who was born near Independence, Jackson county, Mo., December 20, 1857. John Lillard was born in Kentucky and was taken to Missouri when a babe by his parents. He served in the state militia and also served in the Civil war. His wife, formerly Ruth Hamilton, was native of Missouri.

William A. Lillard received a common school education in his native locality. After his arrival in California he settled near Davis, Yolo county, and since then he has leased and operated a number of ranches with fair success. The first lease gave him possession of the Robert Armstrong ranch over the creek in Solano county, where he had charge of fourteen hundred acres. In one year from four hundred and fifty acres of that ranch he harvested ten thousand five hundred and fifty sacks of barley and from the entire property he sold as high as $15,000 worth of produce as a result of a single season's effort. Other farms operated by him were the William Montgomery ranch of two hundred and forty acres, the John Winters ranch and the Mitchell place.

Removing to the vicinity of Plainfield and buying one hundred and sixty acres, Mr. Lillard began farming operations for himself. Later he bought three hundred and adjoining and now owns four hundred and eighty acres in one body. He also owns six hundred and seven acres of the old Henry Brinck place, six miles east of Winters, on Putah creek, under irrigation. On it is a one hundred and twenty acre orchard of peaches, apricots, prunes and plums, in full bearing, this being one of the best orchards in California for its size. The remainder of the land is devoted to grain and alfalfa. On his own ranch he has at different times raised from twenty-five to thirty sacks of barley to the acre. In connection to the ranch that he owns he is now leasing the Harby ranch at Davis, comprising four hundred and eighty acres. During the season of 1911 he raised on three hundred acres near Davis a large crop of barley which sold for $5,200. To aid him in his extensive agricultural operations he has bought and utilized the most modern machinery. Nothing needed in the care of crops is lacking from his equipment. For the more satisfactory care of the grain he bought a combined harvester and threshing machine nineteen years ago and since then he has been able to complete his harvesting operations promptly and effectively. While grain raising is his specialty, he does not neglect stock interests, but keeps on the land an adequate supply of stock and is interested particularly in the raising of horses and mules, especially the latter, for which his ranch is well known. In his neighborhood he is regarded as a man of progressive farming tendencies and sagacious judgment as to crops. Movements for the general welfare receive his support and he exhibits the devotion of county and commonwealth characteristic of all true citizens.

Two years before he came to California Mr. Lillard was married at Independence, Mo., June 21, 1883, to Miss Laura Martin, born near Cincinnati, Ohio, the daughter of Jacob and Charity (Hitchcock) Martin, the former born in Perry county and the latter in Fairfield county, Ohio. They removed to Missouri in 1868. The father served in the Fifth Ohio Cavalry in the Civil war and died in Missouri, as did also his wife. Mr. and Mrs. Lillard have six children, as follows: Thomas W.; Alice, the wife of James Brady, of Davis, and the mother of one child, James William; Gertrude, who married Ollie Hoag, of Davis, and has one daughter, Thelma; Walter E., Ruth C. and William R.

Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: "History of Yolo County, California" by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 611 - 612.

George W. LINDERMAN

The attainment of a gratifying degree of success through the tilling of the soil of Yolo county has caused Mr. Linderman to become a stanch believer in the advantages offered by this portion of California. It was after a mining experience covering several years in other parts of the state that he finally came to Yolo county in 1866, and so strongly impressed was he with the appearance of the country round about that he determined to purchase land and make it his future home, and during the forty-five years that have since passed he has not regretted the step that he then took, but on the other hand has given evidence of his satisfaction by the purchase of more land from time to time. His ranch is located not far from Capay, and is watered from Cottonwood creek. In 1912 he built a new substantial and commodious residence on the place.

A native of the east, George W. Linderman was born in Utica, N. Y., May 4, 1838, the son of Henry and Diana (Hammel) Linderman, they too being natives of that state. The Linderman family was of German origin and was established in the United States during an early period in its history. Six children, four sons and two daughters, comprised the family of Henry and Diana Linderman and George W. was the youngest of the number. As early as 1844, when he was about six years old, the family removed from the east to Illinois, settlement being made in Boone county, where the father took up an unimproved tract of land. The journey was made by team and wagon by way of Fort Dearborn, which boasted only a few stores and bore scant evidence of becoming in less than a half century the second city in point of population in the United States. Through untiring exertion the father acquired two hundred acres of fertile land, which he cultivated with fair success, and on the old homestead he and his wife passed away, when about seventy-five and seventy-four years old respectively. All of their children lived to attain maturity, but George W. is the only one now living. On account of the newness of the country in which the family settled school advantages were meager indeed, so much of Mr. Linderman's education had to be acquired through personal endeavor. At the age of sixteen he went to Iowa, but returned to Illinois a year later and thereafter continued on the home farm until attaining the age of twenty-one.

A new epoch in the life of the young man began when, on April 3, 1859, he set out for the far west with six companions. With three wagons drawn by oxen they left Rockford, Ill., and in due time reached Rock Island. From there they went down the Mississippi and up the Missouri river to St. Joseph, Mo. There their party was increased in size, twenty wagons starting from that place on the overland trail. Pike's Peak was their destination, but on the way they met so many returning from there disappointed and discouraged that the party became divided in their opinions as to the advisability in carrying out their original plan. Three of the six boys that started from Illinois (among them Mr. Linderman) determined to change their course and come to California instead, their route taking in Lander's cut-off and the sink of the Humboldt, as well as Honeylake valley, and they finally reached Indian valley, Plumas county. For the following six years Mr. Linderman engaged in prospecting and mining, chiefly in Butte county, where with two others associated with him he was fairly successful in hydraulic mining, improving his claim during the winter months and for a time in the summer season he worked in a sawmill. For one year, 1865-66, he engaged in freighting to Belmont, Virginia City and other mining towns, using a freight wagon drawn by ten mules. The large expense involved in this undertaking did not justify its continuance, however, and after one season it was abandoned. Following this, while in search of suitable pasturage for his mules, Mr. Linderman came to Yolo county in 1866, and the same year purchased three hundred and twenty acres of his present place, a large part of which was then under cultivation. The new owner continued the work of improvement, making a specialty of raising stock and grain, and subsequently he undertook grain-raising on a large scale, leasing one thousand acres for this purpose alone. During the first two seasons of his residence in Yolo county he operated a threshing machine which he had purchased, but on account of small profits in the threshing business the venture was then abandoned. As grain-raising gradually gave place to the raising of fruit throughout this section of country Mr. Linderman wisely followed the lead of others in setting out thirty acres of his land to orchard and through a long experience in the meantime he has gained a valuable knowledge of horticulture. Besides his orchard which is devoted largely to the raising of peaches and pears, he also has a vineyard of sixty acres, of which eight acres are in the Thompson seedless, three and one-half in Tokay, and the balance in wine grapes. In spite of his large interests as a horticulturist and vineyardist Mr. Linderman has not entirely relinquished the business that started him on the road to success, and grain and stock-raising still form a large part of the income of his ranch. The land is watered from Cottonwood creek, and in its entirety includes four hundred and fifty acres.

Mrs. Linderman, before her marriage Miss Julia Clooney, was born in St. Johns, Newfoundland, the daughter of James and Mary (Murphy) Clooney. With her parents she came to California via Panama from Prince Edward Island in 1861. Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Linderman, as follows: James E. and George E., twins, the former foreman of the Globe ranch and the latter a blacksmith and a resident of Ralston, Wash.; Henry W., a horticulturist at Esparto; John, who is interested with his father in the care and management of the home place; Minnie, now Mrs. Harry Shuey, of Red Bluff; Mabel, Mrs. Rolla Vestal, also of Red Bluff; and Cornelius, a resident of Montana. Self-made in the best sense implied by that term, Mr. Linderman enjoys to an unusual degree the esteem and confidence of his fellow-townsmen, his personal characteristics as well as business ability and judgment winning him many friends. In his political sympathies he is a Republican.

Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: "History of Yolo County, California" by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 741 - 743.

Charles Wilson LIPE

One of the most accomplished all-around mechanics in Woodland, Yolo county, is Charles Wilson Lipe, the proprietor of the Main Street Garage, engaged in the sale and repair of automobiles, motorcycles and bicycles. Mr. Lipe is a native son of California, born in San Jose December 15, 1878, a son of Milan Wilson Lipe. The latter, a native of Pennsylvania, came early to San Jose, where, though he was a machinist by trade, he was long engaged in the grain trade and in threshing. At one time he was operating as many as four steam threshers between Los Angeles and Paso Robles. This branch of his business occupied his attention six months of each year, and he was known as one of the most successful threshermen in all California. He is still living in San Jose, where he and his good wife, who was Miss Agnes McCracken, are resting after many years of activity, in which they have done well for themselves and their children and benefited the people among whom their lot has been cast.

Mr. Lipe's mother, who was born in Scotland, bore three children, all of whom are living, and of these he was the second born. After receiving his education in the public schools he served an apprenticeship to the machinist's trade, and then, after three years at the Enright foundry and machine shop, he became a student at the Garden City Business College, from which institution he was graduated. In the threshing season he assisted his father until the latter's retirement in 1900, and from that time on he has relied wholly on his trade and business connected with it. For two years he was employed at Wadsworth, Nev., for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, in its shops, which are a feature of the industrial life of that town.

The next work of Mr. Lipe was as a machinist with the Nevada Engineering Works, at Reno, where he was soon made general foreman and remained eight years. He located in Woodland in 1911 and established the Main Street Garage, at Main and Elm streets, a fully equipped modern machine shop with electric power under his personal supervision. Mr. Lipe handles all of the popular makes of automobiles, and is prepared to supply anything in his lines, from the simplest repairs to the making of a complicated machine from blue prints.

In Sacramento, Cal., Mr. Lipe married Miss Edna Myrtle Olinder, a native of San Francisco. He is a member of the California State Auto Association. In Wadsworth, Nev., he was made a Mason in Wadsworth Lodge No. 25, F. & A. M. Though he has not been long in the city he has made many friends and has shown that he possesses a public spirit which promises to make him a useful citizen, alive to the advancement of all worthy local interests.

Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: "History of Yolo County, California" by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 751 - 752.

William M. LOGWOOD

The old-fashioned prairie schooner was the popular conveyance for transportation at the time of Mr. Logwood's removal to California, and he vividly recalls the incidents of the trip that brought him, when a boy of seven years, from the sunny southland to the land by the sunset sea. The recollections which he entertains concerning his native Texas (for he was born in Sherman county, that state, in 1845) are obscured by the mists that throw childhood into the realms of dreamland, yet he remembers the rugged farmers pausing in their toil to converse concerning the outcome of the Mexican war and the vast riches of the new California mines. The family home, too, was enlivened by discussions as to removal to the west, and his father, Thomas Y. Logwood, a native of Alabama and a descendant of an old southern family, eventually decided to take his wife and children across the country to California, with the hope of bettering his financial prospects. The year 1852 found them traveling via the southern overland route, and a tedious but uneventful journey found its termination in the Salinas valley of Monterey county, where land was secured and a home established. Death brought its own sorrows into the home within a few years after settlement had been made in the valley, for one of the sons, Thomas, passed away in 1856, and the following year the mother, Susan (Wyatt) Logwood, a Texan by birth and education, was taken from the home leaving the father with the care of four small motherless children, William M., Charles P., Edward L. and Mary E. The first-named was twelve at that time and thenceforth he practically made his way, although until the death of the father in 1881, he had the benefit of his practical agricultural experience and kindly counsel.

Having been trained to a practical knowledge of general farming it was natural that William M. Logwood should select it as his occupation in life. After a time he became especially interested in one of the most important departments of agriculture, viz.: the dairy industry. For a long period he conducted a dairy of four hundred cows on the site of what is now the village of Spreckels in Monterey county and became one of the most experienced dairymen in the entire state, gaining a wide reputation for skill in the industry. Indeed, it was this reputation which led to his selection for the important position he now fills. When the Henry Cowell Lime and Cement Company of San Francisco was searching for a man of intelligence and skill to act as foreman of their cattle ranch, commonly known as the old R. S. Carey property, they invited him to fill the position and he consented, the result being that he has been retained in that capacity ever since 1896. His long retention is proof of the high character of his services. The ranch of which he has charge comprises sixty-two thousand acres, and there is usually kept in the vast pastures from one thousand to fifteen hundred head of cattle. The tract lies in the vicinity of Davis, Yolo county, and is owned by the San Francisco firm, who conduct the extensive stock business. To the management of the business Mr. Logwood devotes his entire time and has not had the leisure for participation in politics or in fraternal affairs, although when he was living in Monterey county he held active membership with the Salinas Lodge of Masonry.

During 1885 he married Miss Irene Robbins, a native of Illinois, and since coming to Yolo county he and his wife, with their two children, Leslie and Yewel, have made their home on the large ranch of which he acts as foreman.

Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: "History of Yolo County, California" by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 646 - 647.

David H. LONG

To devote the years of maturity to agricultural pursuits in the locality familiar to his earliest recollections and to achieve a gratifying degree of success through his own painstaking efforts such has been the experience of David H. Long, and such the results of his sagacious labors. The family of which he is a member has been represented in the community for little less than one-half century and its members of the earlier generation as well as the present have been helpful in the development of the land, contributing their quota toward the scientific cultivation of the soil and proving themselves to be citizens of the highest type. Mention of the family appears elsewhere in the sketch of James Thomas Long, a pioneer rancher of this district and an older brother of the gentleman above named.

The well-improved farm of eighty acres owned and occupied by David H. Long adjoins the old homestead where he was born December 5, 1868, and where he learned the rudiments of general farming, as well as the care of stock and many other details of agriculture. Assisting at home during the vacations, he attended the public schools at other times and after he had completed the studies of these institutions he spent one year at Pacific Methodist College at Santa Rosa. On his return to the old homestead he became an active assistant in the tilling of the soil. September 16, 1891, he was united in marriage with Miss Clara L. Morgan, who was born on her father's homestead near Blacks, Yolo county. Losing her mother by death in her childhood years, she was taken to Oregon by an aunt and there received her education, as well as a practical training in housewifely duties. She was the daughter of Moses W. and Mary A. (Neal) Morgan, natives of Trumbull county, Ohio. The father came to California in 1853 by way of Panama with his brother, Emory B. Morgan, who taught the first school in Cacheville. Mrs. Long's grandfather, Ezra Morgan, came to California in 1851 and took up land at Cacheville. In 1867 her father purchased the farm on which she is now living and where he and his wife died. Since their marriage the young couple have lived on the Morgan ranch, of which they now own eighty acres. In addition Mr. Long rents four hundred acres, which he has under cultivation principally to wheat, barley and alfalfa. On his home place he has erected a neat farm house, a substantial barn and other necessary buildings. Fences have been constructed for the division of the fields and the pasturage of the stock. Many shade trees have been planted, and these add much to the attractive appearance of the grounds. All in all, the property bespeaks the care and cultivation of an energetic and capable farmer, and the impression thus given is deepened by a study of the well-kept cattle, hogs, sheep and horses. The pleasant home is brightened by the presence of five children, Mary Louise, Luella, David Harold, Margaret and Charles Sidney, all of whom are being given the best advantages within the means of the parents. Especially has it been the aim of Mr. Long to give his children a good education and this interest in their intellectual advancement and in the welfare of other children in the neighborhood led him to accept the office of school director, in which capacity he served with efficiency. In addition he now fills the office of district clerk. Other offices he refuses to hold, for his tastes do not incline him toward politics and, indeed, he takes no part in local elections aside from supporting the candidates of the Democratic party. With his family he attends the Methodist Episcopal Church at Blacks and contributes to its support and to its missionary movements.

Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: "History of Yolo 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" page 321-325 by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, 1913.

James Thomas LONG

This pioneer of 1866 in Yolo county, now one of the extensive farmers and prosperous stock-raisers in the country region surrounding Blacks Station, is a native of Kentucky and was born at Frankfort, Franklin county, December 7, 1847, being a son of Thomas Wright and Louise Jane (Duke) Long, likewise born and reared in the same county and state. The father, who was a skilled carpenter by trade, moved to Missouri in an early day and settled in Linn county, where he engaged in the building business. His ceaseless labors earned a livelihood for his family, but his yearning ambition ever turned this thoughts toward the far west and eventually in 1864 he carried out a long cherished plan to migrate to the coast. Starting in the spring of the year he traveled with ox-teams and wagon, accompanied by his family, as members of a large expedition crossing the plains. At the expiration of an uneventful journey he arrived in Oregon six months after he left Missouri.

About eighteen months were spent in Oregon, but the location did not satisfy Thomas W. Long and he brought his family south into California, where he eventually arrived in Yolo county with his teams, household necessities and other appurtenances. Soon after his arrival he bought one hundred and sixty acres and put up a cabin for the family, with a barn for the stock. Later he added to his original purchase until he had about five hundred acres under his control. From time to time he enlarged and remodeled his buildings until he had ample facilities for the comfort of his family and the convenience of his work. After the death of his first wife he was married a second time, July 3, 1878, being united with Miss Jane Corton, a native of England, but reared principally in the city of Frankfort, Ky. Since the death of Mr. Long, which occurred at the old homestead in January, 1896, his widow has continued to make her home here with her step-sons, James Thomas and Owen M. Her own son, Claude C. Long, M. D., a graduate of Cooper Medical College, with his wife who was formerly Miss Claire Owens, and their only child, Claude C., Jr., is a resident of San Francisco, where he engages in the practice of medicine and surgery. The remaining sons of the first marriage are Willard A. (a physician of Lewistown, Mont.), and David H., who is represented elsewhere in this volume.

At the time of coming to California and settling with his parents at his present place of residence, James Thomas Long was a young man of nineteen, sturdy, energetic, willing to endure the privations of frontier farming and to assist his younger brothers in getting a start in life. Adjacent to the quarter-section which his father owned he purchased three hundred and twenty acres and the entire tract is now under his management, yielding fair returns for his labor and skilled cultivation. In 1908 he erected the commodious residence that now adorns the property. Previous thereto he had planted ornamental trees who beauty adds to the attractive appearance of the estate. The entire set of farm buildings is kept in excellent condition. Modern conveniences in the buildings and on the land assist the work of caring for the stock, including horses and mules, hogs and sheep. The principal products of the ranch are wheat and barley, but there is also considerable hay raised on the broad meadows.

The political views of Mr. Long bring him into co-operation with the local Democrats and cause him to support the men pledged to work for party principles and measures. Since he came to Yolo county he has witnessed many changes. Woodland was a village of only a few houses when he arrived here in 1866 and there was not even one house between that hamlet and Yolo. Nor had a railroad been built into the county. All travel there was by stage-coach or wagon. Notwithstanding its lack of improvement, there was considerable travel through the county owing to its proximity to the city of Sacramento and to various mining camps in active operation. When the work of development began it was promoted by men of energy and sagacious judgment, among whom not the least prominent were James T. Long and his father. It has been the privilege of the former to survive to see the improvements of the twentieth century and to enjoy in middle age the comforts earned by his own self-sacrifice and privations during younger years.

Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: "History of Yolo County, California" by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 633 - 634.

John Christian LUFT

Davis, Yolo county, boasts no more substantial and devoted citizen than John C. Luft, who, though not a native of the United States, ever since his immigration to the new world has taken the deepest interest in matters municipal as well as social. He was born at Husum, Sleswick-Holstein, Germany, September 11, 1863, and upon finishing his education became an apprentice to a blacksmith, serving the customary four years. At the age of nineteen, alone and unaided, he came to America, where he gradually acquired the competency which is his today. For a year after his arrival in this country he worked in the shops of the John Deere Plow Company, Moline, Ill., and at the close of that period, having saved a sufficient sum with which to continue his journey west, he came to California. Arriving in 1883 in Livermore, Alameda county, he worked at his trade for a time, after which he removed to Dixon, Solano county, where for eight years he worked at his trade. In 1893 he came to Davis and purchased his present building and established the blacksmith ship which he now operates, the excellent training which he received in his native land enabling him to perform the most exacting and difficult work in his line. Besides doing a general shoeing and repair business he builds carriages and plows with a skill which is recognized and sought throughout the county. He owns not only his well-equipped shop, but a comfortable home and five lots as well, and it is to his credit that not once has he changed his location or failed in his work since his arrival at Davis, while many of his neighbors have started in business only to abandon their enterprises later.
In 1893 Mr. Luft married Miss Etta Frittz, a native of Lake county, Cal., and into their home were born the following children: John R., Oliver F., Maud L. and Lawrence. Mr. Luft is a member of the Odd Fellows and since 1904 has occupied a place on the school board, which he also served as clerk two years, and at the last election was unanimously chosen to continue the office for the regular term of three years.
Transcribed by Bea Barton

Source: "History of Yolo 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" page 346-347 by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, 1913.