Butte County
Biographies
WALTER C. BAIR
WALTER C. BAIR.—A citizen of Butte County who is a strong advocate of irrigation and who believes that the future of the county lies in the development of that great resource, is Walter C. Bair, who resides at seventh and Pine Streets, Chico. He was born at Freeport, Ohio, September 17, 1873, a son of James Bair, also born in the Buckeye State, where he was a farmer.
Walter C. Bair was educated in the public schools and at a private normal school, where he completed the teacher’s course and obtained a certificate to teach. He taught in his native state for a time; then he became interested in pharmacy and entered the Scio College of Pharmacy (now the Pittsburgh College of Pharmacy), and in 1899 was graduated from that institution with the degree of Ph.G. For five years he followed that profession in Ohio and Virginia, part of the time doing the work of an analytical chemist. In 1904, he established a drug store at Uhrichsville, Ohio, and carried on a prosperous business for seven years, when he sold out and came to California, locating in Chico, in 1912.
Two years before this, Mr. Bair had purchased fifty-five acres of land located five miles northwest of Chico, near the Shasta road, and when he arrived here he located upon it and engaged in ranching. In 1913, he saw an opportunity to buy a drug store on Main Street in Chico. He had passed the examination before the State Board of Pharmacy and become a registered pharmacist of the state. When he embarked in the drug business he was well fitted to carry on the prescription work and gave to his store the name of Bair’s Pharmacy, which is well patronized and well-appointed. While giving his attention to the drug business he has improved his ranch. At the first he discovered the land was not thoroughly drained, so he purchased a small caterpillar engine and made a ditch along the road and through a neighbor’s field in order to obtain good drainage, which means good crops as a result. He leveled and checked the land for alfalfa and now has forty-five acres of as fine alfalfa as will be found in the entire county, and he has set ten acres to prunes. To irrigate the land for his alfalfa and trees he sunk wells and installed a pumping plant. For several years, with his brother-in-law as a partner, he was engaged in drilling water-wells with an engine and a well-drilling outfit. They also engaged in stock-raising and dairying on a section of leased land lying along the Sacramento River near Cana. Mr. Bair bought some full-blooded Holstein cattle to head his dairy herd and bred up the herd to a high grade. In the fall of 1917, Mr. Bair sold his interest in the stock to his brother-in-law and also leased him his fifty-five acres, and now gives his own attention to his drug business.
In Ohio, Mr. Bair was married to Georgiana Parker, born near Cambridge, that state. Mrs. Bair is a graduate from the Columbus High School and for some years was engaged in teaching. Of this union two children have been born: Bernice and James. The family are members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Bair has shown his public spirit and optimism by the purchase of property in Chico and Butte County, and by erecting a fine residence for himself, as well as other houses which he rents. He is a member of the National Association of Retail Druggists.
Transcribed
by Sharon Walford Yost.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1176-1177, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Sharon
Walford Yost.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies