YUBA COUNTY Biographies

CASSIUS F. BOARDMAN

An interesting representative of a fine old American family of note is Cassius F. Boardman, a progressive rancher who has more than made good in his activities as a pioneer upbuilder in California. He was born at Westfield, near Middletown, Conn., on June 23, 1846, the son of William and Electa (Ward) Boardman, both natives of Connecticut. The father, who was a farmer there, died just before our subject was born. An older sister, Florence, made up the rest of the family.

Cassius Boardman attended Dr. Chase’s preparatory school and the Wesleyan University of Middletown, and received a teacher’s certificate. In 1866 he and his wife came out to California, sailing around the Horn, and after a long voyage landed safely in San Francisco. Then they made their way inland to Cherokee, Nevada County, where Mr. Boardman taught school at French Corral; and in the fall of 1870, they moved to Yuba County, and settled at a point twelve miles east of Marysville. In the beginning, Mr. Boardman preempted a quarter-section on the plains; and there he built a home in the early seventies, where he resided for thirty years. Moving then to a point on the Spenceville road, eight miles east of Marysville, he purchased additional land from time to time, until he now owns 3000 acres in several parcels. Here he has been raising cattle and sheep and runs a dairy. He also raises grain quite extensively, using tractors and the combined harvester in the work. In very early days the grain and hay raised on the place were marketed in the mountain districts. Mr. Boardman transported the farm produce with his own stock, having two eight-horse teams for the purpose.

While in New York, in 1864, Mr. Boardman was married to Miss Mary Moore, a native of Catskill, N.Y., and the daughter of William and Katherine Moore. She was a gifted lady and was reared and educated in the Empire State. Mr. Boardman was bereaved of his faithful wife on May 17, 1923. She was a woman much loved for her many virtues, and her loss is deeply felt by her family and her many friends. Seven children sprang from this fortunate union. William F. Boardman was born on the Pacific Ocean, on February 20, 1866, while his parents were en route to the Golden State, and he has always been associated with his father in farming and stock-raising. On June 19, 1904, he was married to Miss Grace Lathrop, at Marysville, a popular Michigan girl who had come to California with her parents, George W. and Margaret Lathrop, when she was about eight years old. George Lathrop settled in Sutter County, at Tierra Buena, and it was at the Nuestro district school that Grace Lathrop received her education. Mr. Lathrop died at the age of eighty-five, and his good wife at the age of seventy-three. William F. Boardman has engaged in dairying for the last eighteen years. He is a member of the Odd Fellows Lodge at Wheatland. Edward A. Boardman, the second-born, first saw the light at Cherokee, in Nevada County, on May 14, 1868; and he works for his father on the home ranch, and resides with him. Herbert Clarence and Fred were next in the order of birth, and then came Alice, now deceased. She married William Scott, who is also deceased; and our subject has reared and educated their three children: Ray, Stella, now Mrs. Ross Griffith, and May. Lilly, the sixth in the family, presides competently and gracefully over her father’s household; and Katherine, the youngest, is now the wife of Charles Daugherty.

Mr. Boardman is a member of the Erle Center of the Yuba County Farm Bureau. A man well posted on local agricultural conditions, he was for about thirty years the Yuba County correspondent for the Department of Agriculture at Washington; and he has for many years been contributing articles on local agricultural conditions to the Orange Judd Farmer, published in Chicago, Ill. He is public-spirited, taking a live interest in local affairs, and has been a trustee of the Elizabeth school district.

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