YUBA COUNTY
Biographies
JOHN WILKIE
The parents of John Wilkie were David and Mary (Purves) Wilkie, both natives of Scotland, whence they emigrated about 1842 with their two children and settled in Michigan. There they purchased 120 acres of land and followed farming until the death of Mr. Wilkie in 1849. They did not amass much of this world’s goods, but like all early settlers in Michigan, did little more than make a livelihood. Mrs. Wilkie survived her husband, and continued for some years to live on the Michigan farm with her family of five children, later joining some of her children who had come to this State, with whom she lived until 1900, when she passed away at the age of eighty-nine years.
John Wilkie was born in Leven, Fifeshire, Scotland, on February 18, 1840, the second of five children born to his parents. He was reared on a farm in the oak openings at Hamburg, Livingston County, Mich., where he attended public school. In 1858, at the age of eighteen, he came with his brother David via Panama to California, where they began to work on the Budd ranch on the Sacramento River. Later, he worked with a threshing outfit at the Sutter Buttes, during the season of 1859. The following spring he took a squatter’s right to 160 acres of land at Tudor, and with his brother cut some 300 cords of oak wood from the land. Later this land was sold and he purchased 160 acres, where he engaged in farming for the following ten years. He then returned to Michigan on a visit in 1869, and spent four months with relatives and friends, returning via Panama to California the same year. His second trip to Michigan was made in 1875, when he went there on a visit. Mr. Wilkie then purchased eighty acres, which gave him a total acreage of 240 acres. This he farmed successfully for many years. In 1876 he purchased the brick building at Yuba City known as “the old mill,” located on Sutter and Bridge Streets, where he installed a machine for barley-crushing. Later he installed burrs for milling grain, and made the first barrel of flour in July, 1876; later this establishment was known as the Yuba City Flour Mills, and put in the roller process. Mr. Wilkie conducted this business for five years with his customary success. In 1881, he left Yuba City to engage in the fruit industry in District No. 70, where he remained for five years, and then purchased a tract of land west of Yuba City. His present orchard home consists of twenty acres devoted to plums and peaches.
The marriage of Mr. Wilkie occurred at Grass Valley, on June 12, 1883, and united him with Miss Sarah Craddock, a native of Leslie, Ingham County, Mich., and a graduate of the State Teachers’ College at Ypsilanti. She had followed teaching for five years before she arrived at Yuba City in 1875; and after her arrival here, she taught school in Yuba City for six years. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Wilkie; Daisy, now the wife of George Onstott of Sutter County; and Bertha, of Sacramento. Mr. Wilkie received his United States citizenship in 1869 at Yuba City, and has since cast his vote with the Republican party.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 458
DANIEL FRANCIS SULLIVAN
A successful realty operator, who has also rendered Live Oak a good service in quite another field, is Daniel Francis Sullivan, the well-known realtor who has organized and still conducts a good business in trucking. He was born in Fond-du-Lac, Wis., on May 2, 1864, the son of Daniel and Catherine (Devlin) Sullivan, who came to California as far back as 1875. They bought land in Colusa County, and made an enviable record as successful farmers.
Daniel Sullivan went to the public schools of Butte County; and when he had profited by such courses as they offered, he turned in and helped his father on the home farm. At the age of fifteen he left home and for a couple of years worked on ranches; and then he went into Modoc County and rode the range for three years. Returning to Butte County, he followed farming until 1900, when he came into Sutter County and commenced a ten-year period of ranching at Lomo. Then he moved to Live Oak and engaged in the livery business; but because of the introduction of the automobile, he turned to trucking, and at the same time has been carrying on an agency for both real estate and insurance. His good judgment and his reliability have commended him to many in the latter department of commercial activity; and if one wishes a good “buy” or has something worth while to sell, or desires to make sure of being insured, he does well to place his affairs in the hands of our subject, who is fidelity and enterprise combined. As to trucking, whatever Dan Sullivan starts out to deliver gets there, at the other end of the line, right side up with care.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 462
MRS. MARY A. PIERCE
A highly esteemed resident of Sutter County, who has well merited the comfortable retirement she now enjoys, is Mrs. Mary A. Pierce, of Live Oak, one of the owners of some 300 acres of choice land which belonged to the late W. H. Pierce, of the same county, where she was born on February 24, 1857, the second in a family of ten children, nine of whom are still living (in 1924). Her father, John M. Algeo, a native of Ohio, accompanied his father, James L. Algeo (his mother being dead), across the plains to California with ox teams in 1849, in search for the alluring gold. They stopped at the Grass Valley Mine, and later settled in the Sacramento Valley, where they took up land, some three miles to the south of Nicolaus. At Sacramento, John M. Algeo married Miss Amy Vestal, a native of Missouri who had accompanied her parents to California in 1850-1851. Of their children, Georgia, the first-born, became the wife of George L. Leet, and resides at Los Gatos, in Santa Clara County; Mary A. is the subject of our interesting review; Frank W. lives at Pleasant Grove; Frances is deceased; Andrew J. is now at Upper Lake, in Lake County; Amy C. has been for thirty years one of the popular teachers in the public schools of California; Maggie M. is the wife of Alonzo Jopson; Thomas C., of Woodland, and Oba C., who teaches at Pacific Grove, are twins; and Agnes, now Mrs. Hunt, resides at Los Angeles.
John M. Algeo attended school in Illinois, walking three and one-half miles each way. He became a lawyer, and served for many years as justice of the peace. On arriving in Sutter County, he and his father cut the wild oat hay, baled it, and hauled it to the mines; they used a large wagon, drawn by ox teams, and hauled goods to Grass Valley. He raised a large quantity of grain upon his 320 acres, and in 1861 he took up a homestead of 160 acres. Both Mr. and Mrs. Algeo reached the age of sixty-seven, and all along the way they enjoyed the confidence and good-will of their fellows.
At Sacramento, in August, 1876, Miss Mary A. Algeo was married to William H. Pierce, a native of Wisconsin, who came with his parents, when ten years of age, across the plains with ox teams to Grass Valley. Later, he moved to the vicinity of Pleasant Grove, and afterwards to Eldorado County, at Georgetown, about twenty-two miles out on Slab Creek. Here he had a sawmill, to which the logs were hauled by ox team, there sawn, and then hauled to Auburn and thence out by railroad to San Francisco and Sacramento. A brother, Thomas J., handled the selling end for about three years. Mr. Pierce eventually sold out his interest in the mill, returned to Sutter County, and located at Live Oak, on October 25, 1895. The whole countryside was then a grain-field, and the region above Live Oak was only sparsely settled. Mr. Pierce passed on in 1900, and since then Mrs. Pierce has charge of the estate. Besides his widow, he was survived by six children: Fred C., in Hollister, in San Benito County; Henry E., at Live Oak; Mrs. Elizabeth A. Simpson; William D., also of Live Oak; George F., of San Francisco; and Annie V., the wife of William J. Follett, of Monterey. There are also fifteen grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Mr. Pierce was a member of the Odd Fellows, and with his wife belonged also to the Rebekahs.
About eight years ago, Mrs. Pierce, who had always been devoted to others in trouble, was stricken and compelled to take to her bed; but through all the long crisis she never lost her Christian faith and contagious optimism, and now is slowly regaining her health, and is able also to give some attention to business affairs. Her many friends have been very kind to her, and she feels that she has much to be thankful for, and good reason to hope for some of her best days, yet to come.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 463-464
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