YUBA COUNTY
Biographies
E. WILLIAM QUENELL
One of the model farm properties in the Dobbins district is owned and operated by E. William Quenell, who established his home in this section of Yuba County thirty-four years ago, and whose success demonstrates the fact that in the cultivation of the soil, as well as in business and professional lines, efficiency and system are sure roads to prosperity. Mr. Quenell is a native of Canada, born on October 15, 1849, in Huntington County, on the St. Lawrence River, which marks the boundary line between the United States and Canada. His parents, Joshua and Josephine (Christian) Quenell, were also natives of Canada, being of French descent, and his paternal great-grandfather was born in the province of Normandy. Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Quenell always resided in the Dominion. The father reached the advanced age of eighty-four years, while the mother passed away at the age of sixty-five.
E. William Quenell is fourth in order of birth in a family of ten children. As a young man he came to the West, and from 1870 until 1880 worked in the famous Comstock Mine near Virginia City, Nev. In the latter year he arrived at Quincy, in the Sierra Valley of California. Subsequently he embarked in the freighting business, which he successfully followed for ten years, driving a six-mule team between Marysville, La Porte, Downieville and Sierra City. He came to Yuba County in 1888, and in the following year bought a ranch near Dobbins owned by Sam Harrison. By subsequent purchase he added three forty-acre tracts to the original homestead of 160 acres, so that his holdings now comprise 280 acres of fertile land, which is divided into fields of convenient size by well-kept fences. He himself made most of the improvements on the place, and his land is in excellent condition, showing the results of the owner’s care and labor in steadily increasing its productiveness. He engages in diversified farming, and his equipment is modern and up-to-date.
In Quincy, in 1884, Mr. Quenell was married to Miss Anna Robinson, who was born at Crescent City, Indian Valley, April 9, 1868. Mr. and Mrs. Quenell became the parents of three children. Ida married George Chambers, and passed away in 1917, leaving four sons, Milton, Charles, John and George; the youngest was but eighteen days old at the time of his mother’s death, and the children are being reared by their grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Quenell. Leta is the wife of Richard Royat, who is employed by the Pacific Gas & Electric Company at Colgate; and they have had four children: Lawrence, Leonard, Adelle (deceased), and Ellis. William J. is employed as a cabinet maker in San Francisco, and is attending a school of mechanical dentistry in San Francisco.
Mr. Quenell received his citizenship papers at Quincy, Cal., and exercises his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of the Democratic party. He is active in its behalf, and has served on every election board at Dobbins since 1896. He has done all in his power to promote the educational advancement of his district, and is now serving for the second term as school director at Indiana Ranch, an office which he also filled for three terms about twenty years ago. He is loyal to the interests of his adopted country, and the success which he enjoys is the natural result of untiring labor, supplemented by business sagacity and absolute integrity.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 508
ALBERT PIKE BAINBRIDGE
The fertile environment of Rackerby is industriously tilled by men who have known how to utilize to the utmost the latent qualities of the soil, and to make of the locality a garden spot; and of these none have applied themselves with more diligence to the development of the resources at hand than Albert Pike Bainbridge. He was born on the ranch in Yuba County near the present Bainbridge home, on December 26, 1862, and is the youngest of twelve children born to Levi and Eliza (Bowman) Bainbridge, both natives of Virginia.
Levi Bainbridge crossed the plains to California, coming to Marysville in 1849. Returning East, he crossed again about 1856; and then, in 1859, the family, including father and mother and eight children, crossed the plains to California with an ox-team, and in the fall of that year located on Honcut Creek, thirty miles northeast of Marysville. In 1860 Levi Bainbridge preempted 160 acres, the patent to the land being signed by President U. S. Grant, which patent his son, Albert P. Bainbridge, has recently recorded. Levi Bainbridge was a stanch Democrat, and served as judge of the justice court of New York Township, Yuba County, for over twenty years. In the early sixties he engaged in freighting from Sacramento and Marysville to Nevada City. He passed away at the family home on December 1, 1895, aged eighty-six years, while the mother survived until November, 1906, passing away at the age of eighty-five. Of the twelve children born to them, eight grew up and survived the parents: W. E. Bainbridge, a miner, now deceased; Worth, residing in Bangor, Cal.; Oliver G., a rancher on the home place; Mrs. Cassy Ruff, deceased; Levi, a rancher on the home place; Cynthia, the wife of Albert Hougland, of Chico; John C., a rancher and dairyman on the home place; and Albert Pike, of this review.
Albert Bainbridge and his three older brothers are associated in the operation of the old Bainbridge home place, where they all reside. The Bainbridge brothers are actively interested in furthering irrigation development in the Hansonville district. Albert Bainbridge has served as deputy county clerk and as school trustee of the Hansonville school district and is a member of the order of Owls at Challenge. John C. Bainbridge served as constable of New York Township for eight years, and was deputy sheriff for two terms.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 508-509
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