YUBA COUNTY Biographies
WILLIAM F. YUHRE
A rancher whose thoroughly up-to-date methods and enviable results command admiration from all interested in twentieth century agriculture, is William F. Yuhre, living near Catlett Station, not far from Pleasant Grove. He was born in Placer County, between Roseville and Pleasant Grove, on August 27, 1874, the son of William F. and Etta (Phillips) Yuhre, but he hardly knew his mother, as she died when he was very young. His father was one of those sturdy sons of the Fatherland who helped to make a valuable contribution towards the development and building up of the country; and when he first came to the United States, he settled for a while in Wisconsin, where he worked for wages. In 1854, he pushed on to California; and it was then that he settled on a farm between Roseville and Pleasant Grove. He had a fine quarter-section of grain land, and had a family of six children: Louisa and Gussie are now deceased; and Minnie, Herman, Maude and William F. are living. William F., Sr., died in 1922, aged eighty-eight years.
Our subject was the second oldest child in the family and he attended school in the Roseville, Antelope and Pleasant Grove districts. Starting out for himself when he was twelve years old, he herded sheep and turkeys and hogs, and worked for wages until he was twenty-seven years old. He then went into the dairy business at Pleasant Grove, beginning with forty acres. He later purchased twenty acres, and still later added forty acres more, and with the 220 acres Mrs. Yuhre inherited from her father, they have 320 acres, where they raise alfalfa and grain and have a dairy of twenty-five cows. He has a pumping plant, a five-inch centrifugal pump operated by an electric motor of fifteen horsepower. Twelve years ago, he built a home that was then regarded as very comfortable and attractive, but seven years ago, he erected a still finer residence, a real improvement to the property. Mr. Yuhre is as well posted on agricultural possibilities in this section as any man for miles around.
At the Catlett ranch, on New Year’s Day, 1900, Mr. Yuhre was married to Miss Josephine Catlett, who was born on that ranch and had been schooled in the Cottonwood district. Mrs. Yuhre is a daughter of John R. and Fannie (Coppin) Catlett, born in Indiana and Ione, Cal., respectively. They were farmers, owning a ranch of 1800 acres. The mother died in June, 1922. Mrs. Yuhre is the oldest of five children. Mr. and Mrs. Yuhre are the parents of three children, Dorothy, Clyde and Thelma. Mr. and Mrs. Yuhre enjoy the confidence, esteem and good-will of the community in which they industriously live and thrive; and they are among the enthusiastic admirers of the county, in whose future they have such confidence.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p. 1192
MRS. ANNA KITTMAN HEIER
Forty-three years of the life of Mrs. Anna Heier have been spent in Sutter County, but since 1914 she has resided in San Jose, where she owns two valuable residences. She enjoys the visits to the homes of her children and the renewing of old friendships in Sutter County. Her birth occurred at the old Five-Mile House, south of Yuba City, Sutter County, on September 1, 1860, the second in a family of eleven children born to George and Bernadine (Torbacke) Kittman. When she was seven years of age the family removed to the Evergreen District of Santa Clara County, where they engaged in farming. George Kittman was a German by birth and came to California during the days of the gold excitement, but instead of mining he engaged in the sheep business, owning 200 acres of land in Sutter County, and at the same time he conducted the Five-Mile House. His wife was also born in Germany and came to California in 1856; she passed away in San Jose in 1890, survived by her husband and eleven children. George Kittman passed away in 1911, at the age of eighty-five.
Anna Kittman received a good education in the Evergreen School and in Notre Dame Convent at San Jose. On January 1, 1878 she was married to Henry J. Heier, a native of Germany. He located in Sutter County in 1876, and worked on the dairy farm of Henry Krehe for a few years. Later he rented land and in 1883 he purchased 240 acres, five miles south of Live Oak. He engaged in grain raising and also owned a large band of sheep. Mr. and Mrs. Heier were the parents of seven children. Mary is the wife of R. J. Armstrong, an orchardist living on a portion of the Heier home place, deeded to them by our subject; Emma, a graduate of Saint Mary’s Hospital, San Francisco, is a registered nurse and at present is county health nurse in Santa Clara County; Edwin is a rancher near Marysville, who entered the U. S. Army at San Jose, August 16, 1917, in the 105th Aero Squadron, served sixteen months as a member of the 471st, A.E.F., and received his discharge at Camp Mills; Esther is a graduate of Mater-Misericorida Hospital, Sacramento, is a registered nurse, and at present is head nurse at the White Hospital, Sacramento; George W., a graduate of Santa Clara College, 1917, and a rancher on the home place, married Miss Dorothy Heffley, and they have one son, Farnum George; Alvina is deceased; Anna, a graduate of the State Teachers’ College at San Jose, is with the California Prune and Apricot Association. Mr. Heier passed away suddenly on the home place on December 19, 1910; he served for fifteen years as a school trustee in Sutter County, and with his family was a member of the Catholic Church. Since the death of her husband, Mrs. Heier has sold the greater part of the home ranch, retaining ninety-four acres, which has been developed by her sons into a highly productive orchard of prunes and peaches and a vineyard of Thompson Seedless grapes.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p. 1193-1194
JOHN A. WISE
The activities of John A. Wise are concentrated upon his business affairs, which have been wisely and intelligently directed and have brought to him a substantial measure of prosperity; he is proprietor of a general merchandise store as well as owner of Hotel Wise, in East Nicolaus, Sutter County, twenty miles southeast of Yuba City and Marysville on the Sacramento Northern Railway. Mr. Wise entered the merchandise business in 1914 and four years later erected the present modern business block; he also erected the hotel building where he conducts a first-class establishment with excellent dining room service. His birth occurred at Wilcomir, near Kovno, Lithuania, Russia, on April 1, 1878, the second of three children born to Nathan and Diana (Ritblatt) Wise, both natives of Lithuania. Nathan Wise was a tanner by trade and owned and operated an extensive business for many years. John A. Wise was reared and educated in the schools of his native place and early in life began making his own way in the world; he worked in a wholesale merchandise house for small wages until he was twenty-two years old, when he left home for South Africa, but was detained in London; there he boarded a vessel bound for Canada and upon his arrival at Port Halifax served as interpreter for the British government for several weeks. Leaving Canada he came overland to Chicago, where he joined his brother Leon Wise, a painting and decorating contractor. Mr. Wise found employment with Swift & Company, for a couple of months; next he went to the country and worked for a time as a farm laborer. He then went to St. Louis, where he was employed as a night watchman at the World’s Fair until its close. In 1905 Mr. Wise came West and was soon in the fruit harvest in Yolo County; later he became foreman for the Abbott Orchard Company at Tudor, on their extensive orchard property, where he earned well deserved success. About this time Mr. Wise purchased ten acres of land near Tudor which he set to peaches and apples; this he later sold and with the proceeds bought property in East Nicolaus, which at that time was only a small railroad station, and began building up the town. In 1915 a postoffice was located there through the energy of Mr. Wise. Nathan Wise, a nephew of our subject, and a graduate of the Marysville High School, is associated with him in the merchandise business. In 1904 Mr. Wise became a member of the Odd Fellows in Chicago. In politics he is a Democrat.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p. 1199-1200
Copyright ©2003, 2004, 2005 Kathy Sedler ALL RIGHTS RESERVED These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor. The contributor has given permission to the Yuba Roots website to store the file permanently for free access, but retain the rights to their work.