Enter a name, company, place or keywords to search across this item. Then click "Search" (or hit Enter).
Collection: Books and Periodicals
A Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California (1891) (713 pages)
Go to the Archive Home
Go to Thumbnail View of this Item
Go to Single Page View of this Item
Download the Page Image
Copy the Page Text to the Clipboard
Don't highlight the search terms on the Image
Show the Page Image
Show the Image Page Text
Reset View and Center Image
Zoom Out
Zoom In
Rotate Left
Rotate Right
Toggle Full Page View
Flip Image Horizontally
More Information About this Image
Get a Citation for Page or Image - Copy to the Clipboard
Go to the Previous Page (or Left Arrow key)
Go to the Next Page (or Right Arrow key)
Page: of 713
HI8TORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. 458
Mr. Stilson, now County Clerk of Butte County, and when Mr. Stilson sold the business to
its present owner, A. L. Nichols, Mr. Swain
says he “ was sold with it!”? He has since continued as foreman with Mr. Nichols, and has
charge of the business in his absence. r
July 7, 1880, he wedded Miss Virginia
Hickok, a native daughter of the Golden West.
When a child she had a narrow escape from
the Indians. A friendly red man picked her
ap and carried her to the house and said the bad
Indians were coming. They attacked and instantly killed the other children, two of her
brothers and two sisters! Mr. and Mrs. Swain
have one son, Homer, aged nine years. Mr.
Swain has been a member of the Fire Department since 1877, was chief engineer two years
and foreman of one of the companies two
years. He now holds the honorable position of
Captain of the National Guards of Chico, Company A, Eighth Infantry Battalion. He joined
the company November 3, 1879, and in 1889
received a medal for his ten years’ service. Mr.
Swain has invested in city property, and in
addition to his duties as clerk he finds time to
negotiate loans. He is deeply interested in the
welfare of Butte County and the prosperity of
Chico, and is justly proud of the wonderful development of resources in his State.
OSES CHANDLER SESSIONS, a
ial prominent rancher near Cana, was born
in Tolland County, Connecticut, July
80, 1844, the son of Chandler Moses and Elizabeth (Kiuney) Sessions, both natives of the
State of Connecticut. They are the parents of
nine children, of whom one son and a daughter
are deceased. They removed to Kansas in the
fall of 1857, and remained until the spring of
1863. When nineteen years of age the subject
of this sketch came to California, locating near
his present ranch at Cana. When he left Lawrence, Kansas, he had only $1.35, but worked
his way across the plaius by driving teams, and
]
when he arrived in this State he worked at what
he could get todo. After two years he purchased a squatter’s claim to a quarter section of
land, which cost him $600. He homesteaded
it, and since then has worked hard and added to
his ranch from time to time until he now owns
1,083 acres of fine farming land. He has made
wheat farming his principal business, and has
raised as high as 22,000 bushels in a single
year. This year he is sowing 1,400 acres of
wheat and barley; he also raises horses, cattle
and hogs.
Mr. Sessions was married in Kansas, in 1863,
to Miss Nancy E. Fox, a native of Missouri,
and they have had eleven children, of whom six
are now living. In 1887 their dwelling-house
was consumed by fire. They had friends with
them, and thirteen people were sleeping in the
house; he and his wife slept on the porch, and
at one o’cluck a. m. the house was discovered
to be on fire, and it was consumed with all its
contents, two of Mr. Sessions’ children and one
of his friends perishing in the flames! It
was one of the most severe calamities that
could fall to the lot of man, and it has been a
source of mutual suffering to the family ever
since. The records and valuable papers were
also destroyed in the flames. The surviving
children are named as follows: Ellen J., John
W.., Iola, Charles F., Elizabeth and Homer, all
of whom are at home. Mrs. Sessions is a member of the Christian Church, and Mr. Sessions
belongs to the K. of P. In his political views
he is a Democrat, and is one of the most enterprising, industrious and successful farmers of
his section of Butte County.
gowetog
AMES MILLAR, a farmer and dairyman of
5) Solano County, was born in Perthshire,
Scotland, in March, 1836, the son of Robert and Agnes (Forrester) Millar, also natives
of Scotland. They had a family of eight children, of whom James is the fifth. When he
was a lad of seven years the parents emigrated