YUBA COUNTY
Biographies
AMASA GEORGE OAKLEY
Among the foremost ranchers in Yuba County is Amasa George Oakley, who was born on the old Oakley place one and one-half miles northwest of Wheatland, January 7, 1874, a son of Amasa W. and Elizabeth E. (Whiting) Oakley. Amasa W. Oakley was born at Fort Ticonderoga, N.Y., August 2, 1826, and came to California via Panama in 1850. He followed mining until 1855, when he located on his ranch northwest of Wheatland; and there he resided until the time of his death, in April, 1895.
George Oakley, as Mr. Oakley is commonly called, attended the public schools at Wheatland and the Stockton Business College, and has resided on the Oakley ranch all his life. This ranch of 2100 acres was one mile and fifty rods wide, and extended three miles north from Bear River, clear across the old Johnson rancho. After the death of her husband, who passed on when he was sixty-nine years of age, Mrs. Amasa W. Oakley sold one-half of the ranch to Will Erwin and the other half to her son, Amasa George. The land was subdivided, part of it being sold, so that at present Mr. Oakley owns fifty-one acres of the old home place and the original home, which was build in 1856. The building has its original floors, doors and windows, but Mr. Oakley has rebuilt part of it. The ranch has been devoted to peaches and prunes, and is irrigated by four-inch and five-inch electric pumps. Mr. Oakley is secretary for Reclamation District No. 817, and a director of the Farmers Bank of Wheatland.
On September 3, 1907, at Oakland, Cal., Amasa George Oakley was united in marriage with Mrs. Harriet Amy (Leet) Beilby, who was born near Nicholaus, Sutter County, the daughter of George L. and Georgia (Algeo) Leet. Mr. Leet, a native of New York, came to California about 1862 on a sailing vessel around the Horn. Mrs. Leet was born at Nicolaus, the daughter of John and Amy Algeo. The Leets moved to Nicolaus and acquired a half-section of land, and Mr. Leet engaged in general farming. He is still living at the age of seventy-nine, and Mrs. Leet is sixty-nine years old. They resided on the Nicolaus ranch until 1904, and then moved to Los Gatos, Santa Clara County, where Mr. Leet retired. Harriet Amy Leet’s sister, Lillian, was married to A. B. Martin, who was a high school professor but is now a citrus-grower at Porterville. Mrs. Leet’s father, John Algeo, was a native of Ohio. He came to California about 1849, crossing the plains, and settled on Grasshopper Slough, Yuba County, where he was a rancher; and later he moved to Nicolaus.
Harriet Amy Leet attended the Brown’s district school. Her first marriage occurred in 1892 on her father’s ranch, where she was united to Ralph W. Beilby, who was born on Bear River, Sutter County, the son of C. W. and Elizabeth Beilby. C. W. Beilby was one of the hardy pioneers who crossed the plains in the early days. Ralpy W. Beilby was reared and educated in Sutter County. Mr. and Mrs. Ralph W. Beilby were the parents of four children: George Loren, Ray M., Idella, and Eber. They resided near C. W. Beilby, in Sutter County, until four years before Ralph W. Beilby’s death, when they moved to Hale ranch on the south side of Bear River. Later, they moved to Wheatland, where Mr. Beilby was laid to rest at the age of thirty-three years. George Loren Beilby married Norma Ditzler, a native of Biggs, Butte County, and they are the parents of one daughter, Patricia Jane. He was in the World War, serving over seas in Battery C, 321st Field Artillery. Ray M. Beilby married Anna Rose Deller, of Sacramento, and they were blessed with four sons: Ralph, Verne, Loren and Lloyd, twins. They reside at Knights Landing. Idella Beilby married W. J. Lyle, of Vallejo, and has two sons, Glen and Aubrey Eugene. Eber lives at East Nicolaus.
Mr. and Mrs. Amasa George Oakley’s union was blessed with three children: Amasa George, Jr., Gladys Harriet, and Beatrice Eleanor. Mrs. Oakley is the owner of twenty-four acres north of her husband’s ranch, which is devoted to peaches and prunes. Mr. Oakley maintains a non-partisan attitude, voting for the man rather than the party. For twelve years he has been trustee of the grammar and high school districts of Wheatland, and he was recently reelected as trustee of the grammar school of Wheatland. He is a member of Nicolaus Lodge No. 129, F.&A.M., Wheatland, and has been Master for three terms; and he is also a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, of which he is Past Patron. Mrs. Oakley is a member and past Matron of Wheatland Chapter No. 48, O.E.S.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 477-478
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