YUBA COUNTY Biographies
CALVIN ALEXANDER SMITH
A thoroughly up-to-date concern, in respect both to its organization and equipment, and also to its practical, enterprising and accommodating management, is the Valley Roofing Company, of 630 C Street, Marysville, whose proprietor is Calvin A. Smith. The company does a large part of the roofing on the best class of buildings in the leading cities of Northern California. Hailing from a county and town of the same name as that of his family, Mr. Smith was born at Smith Center, Smith County, Kans., on June 29, 1877, and is descended from a long line of pioneers who had settled on the plains in the days of the Indian and the buffalo. His grandfather, William Currier Smith, was a New Yorker, who became an early settler of Missouri and later a frontiersman in Kansas. Smith Creek, Smith County and Smith Center were named for him. The father of our subject was Myron W. Smith, who came west from New York with his parents. He married Miss Hattie Jane Woods, who was born near Raleigh, N.C. They were pioneers in the cattle business in Smith County, Kans., and later in the Pan Handle in Texas. When they retired, they moved to Los Angeles, where the father was killed by the accidental discharge of a shotgun. His widow now makes her home with our subject. Of their three children, two of whom are living, Calvin A. is the eldest.
When he was five years old, Calvin A. Smith was taken by his parents to the Pan-Handle district in Texas, where his father acquired a large cattle ranch. It thus happened that Calvin Smith followed the cowboy’s life. He rode the range until he was twenty-two years of age, becoming an expert rider and attending many of the cowboy reunions in Texas. He also rode the range in New Mexico with the L.F.D. outfit on the Staked Plains; and his activity led to his becoming weigher foreman at the New Mexico Iron and Fuel Company’s mine, at Capitan, Lincoln County.
After a while, about 1900, Mr. Smith came out to California, and at Los Angeles commenced his work in roofing. He was for a time in the employ of the Parafine Paint Company, and also the Pioneer Roofing Company, and helped to lay the roof on the first new Hamburger Building at the corner of Broadway and Eighth Street. He also did work on the Bullock Department Store Building, and on the new Post Office, the H. W. Hellman Building, and the new Security Building. Besides, he was sent out by the Parafine Paint Company to work at Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Redlands, and at the hotel at the Grand Canyon, Ariz., and was in the employ of the Santa Fe Railroad Company in Arizona, and did the roofing on the Santa Fe Round House at Williams and the Harvey Eating House at Needles. Coming to Sacramento in 1913, he was roofer for the Sacramento Lumber Company, and superintended the roofing of the Physicians Building, the Sacramento Hotel, Hotel Land, the Travelers’ Hotel, Fruit Exchange Building, and many garages of the capital city. For five years he was superintendent for the E. S. Warner Roofing Company, of Sacramento, and was a stockholder in that well-known concern.
In February, 1921, Mr. Smith came to Marysville and established a business of his own; and since then he has done roofing all over the northern part of the Sacramento Valley. He has successfully finished many fine jobs, including the roofing for representative structures of one kind or another in Williams, Corning, Gerber, Chico, Oroville, Roseville and Marysville, as well as Yuba City. In Marysville he laid the roof of the new gymnasium of the high school, the Third Street Hotel, the garage at Seventh and B Streets, the Sequoia Hotel, and various apartment houses; and in Yuba City he roofed the new F. G. Bremer Block and other modern buildings. The Diamond Match Company, also, sends him out on particular jobs such as the laying of their guaranteed paper, which can only be put on by an expert roofer; but which, when once properly laid, will last to the full limit of the company’s guarantee. Mr. Smith is a member of the board of directors of the Marysville Builders’ Exchange, in which he has always been influential.
At Sacramento, on July 15, 1915, Mr. Smith was married to Miss Nan Chase, a popular lady of San Francisco, born in Riverside County, Cal., a daughter of Henry and Grace (Green) Chase, who were born in New York and Maine, respectively. She was reared and educated in San Francisco. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have a little daughter, Hilma Bess.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p. 1281-1282
ROSE SCHLOSS
Among the successful business women of Marysville is numbered Miss Rose Schloss, manager of The Gray Shop, which caters exclusively to women and is one of the most attractive and up-to-date establishments of the kind in Northern California. Miss Schloss is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, and has been a resident of this State since 1912. She was first employed in the City of Paris dry-goods store at Oroville, and there gained a thorough knowledge of ladies’ ready-to-wear garments. About six years ago she came to Marysville, accepting the position of corsetiere in the dry-goods store of the S. G. King Company. When The Gray Shop was opened in Marysville, on March 2, 1923, Miss Schloss became its manager; and the fact that she was selected for so important and responsible an office indicates her executive ability, trustworthiness and comprehensive knowledge of the business of which she has charge.
The Gray Shop is located in the new Schneider Building, at No. 418 Fourth Street, and carries a large and carefully selected assortment of ladies’ ready-to-wear garments, including sweaters, blouses, lingerie and corsets, each article being perfectly fitted to the customer before it leaves the store. The shop is supplied with several fitting-rooms; and the corset department contains a surgical fitting-room. The corset is adjusted to the figure while the customer is in a reclining posture, and this insures a perfect fit. Gray is the color scheme of the store, which is so arranged that goods are displayed to the best advantage; and the daylight effect is secured by windows placed in the ceiling. The shop is artistically finished throughout, and would do credit to a city of metropolitan proportions. During the opening seasons, living models display the latest modes in coats and frocks. Courtesy to patrons, close attention to detail, and superior service make shopping in Marysville’s newest mercantile establishment a source of pleasure. Miss Schloss is a practical, experienced business woman, ready to meet any emergency that may arise in connection with the conduct of the business; and under her efficient management its future success is assured. Miss Schloss is a member of the Catholic Daughters of America and the Catholic Ladies’ Relief Society; and her patriotism finds expression in the work connected with her membership in the Women’s Relief Corps.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p. 1282-1283
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