YUBA COUNTY Biographies

JOHN T. JENSEN

Prominent among the new-comers in Sutter County whose natural abilities have been of value to the community, is John T. Jensen. He was born in Schleswig, Germany, December 22, 1869, a son of James and Anna Jensen. James Jensen was a baker by trade.

John T. Jensen was educated in the schools of Schleswig, Germany. He emigrated to the United States, and in 1885 came to California and settled at Watsonville, where he worked for wages on grain ranches. After spending two years about Hollister he went back to Watsonville. From there he went to San Luis Obispo, and in 1890 he went to Los Banos and worked at harvesting grain for one season. He next went to Grass Valley, and in partnership with his brother bought 200 acres of land, which he farmed.

On June 28, 1899, at Grass Valley, John T. Jensen married Miss Josephine Mills, a native of that city and the daughter of John and Nancy (Perry) Mills, natives of England. Her father came to California when he was a young man. He mined, and later engaged in the cattle business in Nevada County, Cal. After his marriage, Mr. Jensen moved to Nipomo, San Luis Obispo County, and was employed by the Union Sugar Company. He then removed to Los Banos and finally, in 1910, he settled in Sutter County and purchased thirty acres of land six miles northwest of Yuba City. Later he sold ten acres, and the remaining twenty acres has been devoted to vineyard and orchard, which were developed from a stubble field. Mr. and Mrs. Jensen were blessed with three children: Josephine, Mrs. Wisner of Sutter, Theodore, and James. Politically a Republican, he heartily approves of all measures for the benefit and upbuilding of his community.

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

p 806

THOMAS J. HENDERSON

An experienced carpenter and builder who has become a very enterprising and successful contractor, and has done much to forward the development of Sutter County, is Thomas J. Henderson, of 109 Forbes Street, Yuba City. He was born at Rich Gulch, Calaveras County, on March 27, 1854, the son of Benjamin Riley and Caroline Henderson, the former a pioneer of 1853, who came to California in that year from Arkansas, crossing the great plains with oxen, and was six months on the road. He landed at Jackson, Amador County, where he mined and made a fortune; and then he returned to New York, by way of the ocean routes. Going westward again as far as Kansas, he spent two years in that State, and then, with nine yoke of oxen and two wagons, driving 100 head of cows, he recrossed the plains in a train of 100 wagons and after another six months of travel once more reached Jackson. On the plains, just before he reached Salt Lake Valley, he lost all of his oxen but one, from alkali water; he broke a cow to drive with the remaining ox and, leaving his two wagons, secured a spring wagon and made the rest of the journey with an ox and a cow yoked together. Coming through the Salt Lake Valley the train went into camp just before sundown. Very soon afterwards five men rode up and camped about 100 yards away; at sundown, one of the five men fired a gun and it was answered by similar reports from a distance to the north, south and east. The old plainsman in charge of the train, Captain Smith, ordered more precautions than were usually observed in making camp. They made a corral by placing the wagons one after another in a large circle, with the cattle as well as the families inside, and the able-bodied men formed a line around the outside of the wagons as a guard for the whole night; and then Captain Smith, with some of his men, went to the five men and took them prisoners, taking their guns away and placing over them a guard of four men, of whom Benjamin R. Henderson was one, with the admonition that if anything happened to the train they would be the first to be shot. Naturally, there was not much sleep in the train that night; but nothing unusual happened, and in the morning the men were given their arms and told to move on, and the train of immigrants came on their way. Arriving in Jackson, Mr. Henderson spent the first winter at that place. Then he took up land near Lodi, and carried on farming there until 1876, when he sold out and moved to Chico; and there his death occurred, at the age of eighty-nine. Mrs. Henderson reached the age of seventy-six before she was called to close her earthly career. Both parents were highly esteemed in their day, and justly so, for they helped to make easier the paths for those who came after them.

Tom Henderson attended the Alpine School, near Lodi, and when seventeen left home and for several years rode the range in Nebraska. Returning to California and Butte County, he went onto a ranch for three years; and then he rented land near Biggs, which he farmed. After that, he bought a ranch on Honcut Creek, Butte County, and went “broke.” Then he followed mining for twenty years, in Magalia, Butte County, and in Tuolumne County, and during this time did a lot of prospecting. He next became chief foreman of the Electrical Power house at De Sabla, Butte County, for the Bay Counties Power Company, and continued to hold that position for five years; and having paid all his debts, he came to Yuba City, in 1903, with a surplus of $500, which he put into three lots. He has since erected many houses, which he has sold on the investment plan; and in this he has been more than successful, no doubt because of his known principle of giving the purchaser the squarest kind of a deal in his work as a contractor and builder. He has also made a success of raising chickens and producing eggs, having built a large poultry yard where he keeps about 250 hens, maintaining the largest and finest poultry establishment in town. Mr. Henderson passed through this section, driving cattle to San Joaquin County, when there was little but brush and property could be bought for $1.25 an acre. Since then he has built the Herzog Flats, Ogden Apartments, and over a hundred residences in Yuba City, as well as many farm houses and buildings in the environs.

On September 28, 1884, Mr. Henderson was married, at Gridley, to Miss Anna Fox, a native of North Carolina; and their fortunate union has been blessed with four children: Ruth, now Mrs. O. Samson, and Lilla, Mrs. Herr, both residing in Yuba City; Evelina, Mrs. Jewel, of Riverdale, Nebr.; and Victor, who died at the age of eleven. There are eleven grandchildren. Mr. Henderson belongs to the Order of Odd Fellows, and his wife is a Rebekah. In politics he is a Democrat. When he takes a real holiday, it is to go off hunting in the mountains, for he has never lost his liking for outdoor life.

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