YUBA COUNTY Biographies
VICTOR SARTORI
An experienced ranchman, thoroughly familiar with Northern California conditions, who has also become a successful diaryman [sic], is Victor Sartori, whose trim farm lies near the highway, south of Marysville. He was born at Giumaglio, in Canton Ticino, Italian Switzerland, on April 25, 1859, the son of Joaquin and Mary Angelica (Piezzi) Sartori. The father was a stone-cutter and contractor, who lived to be seventy-one years of age; while the mother attained only her fifty-ninth year. Both were very worthy people, good parents and good citizens, and did as well as they could by their six children, or rather four, for two died in infancy. Victor, the subject of this interesting sketch, was the second-born, Maurice the fourth, and the fifth and sixth were Archangelo and Mary. Joaquin Sartori went to Australia when a young man, but returned to Switzerland, and our subject attended the Swiss schools.
When fifteen years old, Victor Sartori came to the United States, and made his first considerable stop at San Francisco. Then he went inland and worked at Duncan’s Mill, and he was a year working for wages on the large Winfield-Wright dairy-farm at the mouth of the Russian River. He then moved across the stream to the Ruhl ranch, and was there for two years, while he worked for wages. After that he bought a fourth-interest in a dairy. The next year he bought a half-interest in the same place, and two years later, he owned the dairy, which then had 125 head of cattle. After six years’ time, he sold the dairy, gave up the lease, and moved to Fort Ross, in Sonoma County. Renting the Scroyer ranch, he purchased 200 head of cows, and ran the dairy for four years, after which he returned to the Russian River place where he first worked – the Winfield-Wright place – and established a partnership with a cousin, Ignacio Sartori, now deceased, purchased 600 head of cows, and leased 4000 acres of land, in three different parcels; and together they conducted this large dairy business. As a historical fact, in this connection it should be said that Victor Sartori and his cousin, Ignacio Sartori, started the first creamery in California, on the said Winfield-Wright ranch, in 1889. They built two large buildings. The smaller was used as a cheese factory, and the first story of the larger building was used as a butter factory, while the second story was used for curing cheese. Creamerymen and dairymen from near and far came to see their creamery, and their ideas were copied very generally by builders of subsequent creameries in the State of California. They hired twenty men to do the work, and ran the place for six years. Then he and his cousin moved to Lakeville, south of Petaluma, rented from Senator Fair 4000 acres of stock ranch, and moved their cattle down there; they were thirteen years in that place, and had 625 cows altogether. They also started a creamery in San Francisco, and sold milk, cream and butter there. This dairy on Senator Fair’s place was the largest single dairy in California at that time, and Victor Sartori was known as the Cattle King of Sonoma County.
Mr. Sartori moved to San Francisco for a short time, and had also a small place at Bonita, near Pleasanton; but in 1908, he came to Sutter County and here leased the Jackson place, and had 200 head of cattle in a dairy. He then moved into Yuba County and bought 1100 acres directly south of Marysville on the State Highway; and there he now conducts a dairy of 200 milch cows, and his land is in alfalfa and pasture. In 1920, he built on his ranch one of the finest homes in Yuba County, beautifully and tastefully furnished with furniture of his wife’s choosing. He has also erected milking sheds, barns, and a fine separator house, where he separates all of his milk; and he has provided all the necessary accommodations for the raising of hogs. Mr. Sartori took out his citizenship papers under Judge Preasley at Santa Rosa, and he votes with the Republican party. When Mr. Sartori first came to California, he worked for ten dollars a month, and it took him two years to save $200. This first $200, which represented the amount given him for his passage to America, he sent to his father. Since that time he has made plenty of money, and also lost a plenty; and he has reached his present position of affluence and comfort by hard work and saving. Among other properties owned by him are 2000 acres near San Rafael, in Marin County, which is stock-grazing land.
At Sonoma, in 1902, Mr. Sartori was married to Sophi Affinger, a native of Philadelphia, who died nine months after they were married. He was married a second time in Ukiah, on September 22, 1903, when he chose for his wife Mrs. Taddeo Olivieri, who had had three children by her first marriage: Rosina, Elvira, and Taddeo, all of whom have since taken the name of Sartori. Rosina married Attilio H. Cenedella, a contractor of Boston, Mass., and has two children, Attilio, Jr., and Kenneth Victor. Elvira married Arthur Shumacher, bookkeeper for the Shell Oil Company, in their office at Yuba City, who resides at Marysville, Cal., and she has two children, Arthur, Jr., and Elvira Marie. Taddeo helps run the ranch. Mr. and Mrs. Olivieri were married at San Francisco on March 18, 1895, and Mr. Olivieri died in 1899. Mrs. Sartori’s maiden name was Clotide Valenzano, and she was born in the Province of Alexandria, Italy, at Asti, and is a daughter of Domingo and Dominica Valenzano. Her father was a merchant tailor in San Francisco and later removed to Valparaiso, Chili, where he is now living alone, aged seventy-four, his good wife having died at the age of fifty-two. The Valenzanos had three children, of whom the eldest is Mrs. Sartori; then come Attilio, who is a druggist at Conception, Chili, and Amerigo, also in South America. Taddeo Olivieri was a prominent merchant in Sonoma City, and an upright and highly respected man.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p. 995-996
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