Butte County
Biographies
HARVEY HOWARD &
JASPER NEWTON, JR. ARMSTRONG
The firm of H. H. Armstrong & Brother, engaged in grain and stock-raising at Honcut, Cal., on a very extensive scale, is composed of Jasper Newton Armstrong, Jr., and Harvey Howard Armstrong, sons of Jasper Newton Armstrong, Sr., who came from a good old Southern family. The father was a native of Indiana, born in Jackson County, August 6, 1845, a son of Kentuckians who removed to Texas, and there on his father’s ranch young Armstrong was brought up, and it was in that state that he married Sarah M. Howard, a native of Missouri and a daughter of Richard Howard, a Virginian, of Scotch ancestry, but whose progenitors came from England and settled in Virginia in Colonial days.
Jasper Newton Armstrong, Jr., was born in Cook County, Texas, December 23, 1873, and has little or no recollection of his birthplace as he was brought to Butte County by his parents when a child of three years. He made himself useful, as he was growing up, around his father’s store, and, while yet a lad, took charge of one of his father’s stores in Sierra County. He married Miss Mary L. Haling, born near Honcut, and they reside on the Armstrong ranch in Yuba County. This ranch is now owned by his brother, Harvey Howard, who is also his partner, and it consists of eleven hundred acres and was formerly known as the E. H. Gould Ranch. Only a small part of it lies in Butte County; the farm buildings are all situated in Yuba County, where Mr. Armstrong lives with his wife and their five children: Mildred, Irene, Lucile, Stanley, and Margaret. Mrs. Armstrong’s father was George Haling, born in Connecticut and a pioneer of California, where he married, at Honcut, Alice Sivils, born in Honcut, a daughter of William and Lucy Sivils, early pioneers who came across the plains and settled in this state. They had some trouble with Indians but they came through in safety. Mrs. Lucy Sivils is still living at the age of ninety-five years.
Harvey Howard Armstrong was born at Wyandotte, Cal., April 3, 1878. He attended the public schools of southern Butte County, Wyandotte, Palermo and Honcut, and helped clerk in his father’s store when a youth and young man. He married Miss Margaret Josephine Gould, a native of Yuba County and a daughter of the late Elmore H. Gould, owner of the ranch now in the possession of Harvey H. Armstrong. This ranch is traversed by North and South Honcut Creeks, the latter being the south boundary line of Butte County, and Wilson Creek. Elmore H. Gould was born in West Virginia and crossed the plains to California in pioneer days in an ox-team emigrant train. He first followed mining, then stock-raising, and became owner of large tracts of land in Yuba, Butte and Plumas Counties, owning some ten thousand acres and becoming one of the most prominent ranchers in the Sacramento Valley. He died in January, 1891, aged seventy years. His wife was Annie E. Donovan, who survives him and makes her home in Alameda. Of her three children, two are living. Mrs. Armstrong and Mrs. Genevieve Roach of Alameda. Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong have five children: Eugenia, Gould, Boyd, Norman, and Donald.
H. H. Armstrong & Brother had a record yield of wheat in 1917, some of the land yielding twenty sacks to the acre, or fully fifty bushels. They had a record crop of barley, and have a fine drove of cattle and sheep. They give close attention to their business and are meeting with well-merited success. The Armstrong brothers are members of the California Cattlemen’s Protective Association, are enterprising and progressive and very optimistic for the future greatness of the Sacramento Valley as a farming and stock country, believing that it is equal to any section of California. They are always willing to give of their time and means to assist worthy projects and to aid in movements to build up the community and to better the condition of the people.
Transcribed
by Roseann Kerby.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1112-1113, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Roseann Kerby.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies