YUBA COUNTY  Biographies

RICHARD CARLETON ASHFORD

The career of Richard Carleton Ashford has been an active and useful one, and has won for him the respect and confidence of his fellow men; and at the same time he has gained substantial success as an orchardist.  He owns a fine orchard home of thirty acres two miles southeast of Tudor, twenty acres of which is in bearing cling peaches.  He was born near Lehigh, Iowa, February 25, 1885, a son of William N. and Addie (Hemstreet) Ashford, both natives of Illinois.  Later the family removed to Nebraska, where Mrs. Ashford passed away at the age of thirty-one years.  Four children were born in the family: Grace, Richard Carleton, of this review, Dean, and Spencer Winfield.  William N. Ashford subsequently married Miss Cora M. Slafter, and passed away in Nebraska, aged forty-seven.  Mrs. Cora Ashford was later married to Lawrence Hague, and they now reside at Tudor, Cal.

Richard Carleton Ashford received his education in the Nebraska public schools, and at seventeen years of age began farming on his own account.

On June 10, 1905, Mr. Ashford was married in Nebraska, to Miss Hattie J. Hague, a native of Iowa, daughter of Jacob K. and Celesta (Axford) Hague, both natives of England, who had settled in Iowa in an early day and later had removed to Nebraska, where they homesteaded land.  There were four children in the Hague family: Lawrence, Charles, Hattie J. (Mrs. Ashford), and Edward, deceased.  Jacob K. Hague passed away at the age of fifty-three, and his wife at the age of thirty-nine years.  Mr. and Mrs. Ashford are the parents of four children: William, Dean, Harold, and Raymond.  When Mr. Ashford came to Sutter County, in 1914, he worked on a ranch for one year; then he conducted a dairy of sixty cows for a year, after which he sold out and bought his present home of thirty acres southeast of Tudor.  Mr. Ashford is independent in his political views.

History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924

p 1048

GEORGE EDGAR GEE

A most efficient and deservedly popular municipal official is George Edgar Gee, the wide-awake and experienced assistant superintendent of streets, and also city general foreman, at Marysville.  A native of Missouri, he was born in Callaway County on February 18, 1869, the son of Thomas M. and Hannah E. (Potter) Gee, a pioneer family that came to Marysville in 1874.  An uncle of Mrs. Gee, William R. Potter, had migrated to Marysville in 1849; and when Thomas M. Gee came he also went into the mines.  Both parents are now dead, having rounded out useful and honorable lives, and enjoyed the confidence and the esteem of all who knew them.

George Gee went to the public schools in Sierra County, in the district in which his father was active, and for three years he did some photographic work.  Then he went to San Francisco and was in the employ of the Edison Electrical Company for a year and a half.  After that, he took charge of the first stationary engine when it was put on trial, in 1891, on Stevenson Street in San Francisco for the Edison Electric Light & Power Company.  After two years he resigned; and on returning to Yuba County he went to Woodleaf.  He had $20 to his name, and $15 he spent in getting to the place, whereupon he found that the mills were not running.  He therefore took a small ranch for a couple of years.  Returning to Marysville, he began to work as a carpenter, continuing in that line of industry there and in other places.  Since then, he has worked steadily at the carpenter’s trade and at contracting and building.  In February, 1922, he was appointed to his present position of responsibility, in which he has an opportunity to apply all of his accumulated experience and to endeavor, in every possible way, to be of real service to his fellow-citizens.  In 1907 he called together a meeting of carpenters, and this was the real beginning of the organized labor movement here.  Local No. 1570, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, was formed, and he was the first secretary.  In 1908 he was instrumental in forming the Building Trades Council, as well as the Central Labor Council, having been appointed general organizer by Samuel Gompers, which commission he still carries.  Thus he has organized most of the labor unions in Marysville and vicinity.  Since 1912 he has been, and is still, a member of the executive board of the State Building Trades Council.  He is also secretary of the Yuba and Sutter Counties Building Trades Council.  In May, 1923, when Marysville created the office of city inspector, he was appointed to the position.

In Marysville, on December 27, 1889, Mr. Gee was married to Miss Fannie A. Smith, a native of Kentucky who was born in Paducah but was reared in California.  Five children have blessed their union, three of whom are living.  Grace Irene is now Mrs. H. B. Rathbun of Niles, and has one child, Adeline.  Edgar Leonard is with the Yuba Construction Company.  He volunteered in the 319^th Engineers, served over seas in the World War, and is now a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.  He married Louise Wright, and they have one child, Edgar, Jr.  Ernest enlisted when nineteen years of age, on April 1, 1917, serving two years and sixteen days in Company E., 160^th Infantry.  He also served over seas.  He married Adrian Shirley, and is now with the Pacific States Telegraph & Telephone Company, San Francisco.

Mr. Gee belongs to the Woodmen of the World, Foresters of America, Fraternal Brotherhood, Eagles and Red Men; and in most of these he has been through all of the chairs.  He is a Republican of the independent order, always insisting on thinking and acting for himself.  During the war he was a four-minute man and a member of the Yuba County Council of Defense, as well as chairman of his district for Liberty Loan and other allied war drives.  Mrs. Gee is a member of the Fraternal Brotherhood, Women of Woodcraft, and Order of Pocahontas, in which she is a past officer; and she is also a member of the Auxiliary to the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924

p 1053

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