Butte County
Biographies
THEODORE C. BEDELL
THEODORE C. BEDELL.--In naming the
representative ranchers of Butte County,
any list would be incomplete that did not mention the progressive and
successful farmer and horticulturist, Theodore C. Bedell,
who owns two hundred forty-six acres on the Bangor-La Porte Road, five miles
north of Bangor and fifteen miles east of Oroville. He was born on August 1,
1846, at Mt. Carmel,
Wabash County, Ill.
His father, Harry Bedell, was a wealthy merchant of Mt.
Carmel, who in the early fifties was engaged in
the transportation business, operating both steamboats and flat-boats on
various rivers in the Middle West, including the Ohio,
Wabash and Mississippi, shipping corn and pork down to New
Orleans and loading his boats with merchandise for the
return trips. The glowing reports which he received from his father-in-law,
Valentine Miller, who was in California, together with
the lure of gold, induced Harry Bedell to migrate to
the Golden State
in 1854. Valentine Miller crossed the plains and arrived in California
in the memorable year, 1849. During his journey across the plains, he was
stricken with cholera, but succeeded in overcoming its effects and arrived in
safety. He was one of the locaters of the Eureka-Plumas Mine. In 1853 he returned
to Illinois, and induced the
Bedell family to come to California in the following year. Theodore C. Bedell, with his parents and sister, located in Plumas County.
During the year 1860, the grandfather of our subject, Valentine Miller, located
in Butte County, and settled near Pentz, where he
resided two or three years, and then sold and located on the present site of
Theodore C. Bedell's ranch, where he purchased forty-five
acres on the Robinson Ravine. Later this place was purchased by Theodore C. Bedell from his grandfather; and it is still his home. In
1911 he added to this two hundred one acres, known as the Buckley Ranch, and is
now is the possessor of the finest farm in this section of Butte
County. Grandfather Valentine
Miller lived to be ninety years old; and his wife, whose maiden name was Maribia Moon, lived to attain the same number of years.
Theodore Bedell's father, Harry Bedell,
started in 1858 on a journey to Illinois.
He was a passenger on the ill-fated steamer Central America, which was wrecked
off Cape Hatteras, when five or six hundred passengers, who were all gold
miners returning to the East, were lost, together with five million dollars'
worth of gold. The mother, who was Miss Virginia C. Miller, a native of Pennsylvania,
and daughter of Valentine Miller, is living with her son Theodore, and is
bright and well, at the advanced age of ninety years. Mr. and Mrs. Harry Bedell were the parents of two children, Theodore Clayborn, and Josephine, who is now the widow of C. H.
Holbrook, a former lumberman of San Francisco.
Theodore
Bedell attended the public schools in the early days
of California; and although his
education was somewhat limited, owing to pioneer conditions, he has
supplemented it by extensive general reading, and has thereby obtained a
practical knowledge of the affairs of life. At one time he was engaged in
working on a cattle ranch in Nevada, where there were
forty thousand head; and he was also employed in various parts of Idaho,
Montana and British Columbia.
At Alturas, Modoc County,
in 1888, Mr. Bedell was united in marriage with Miss
Sadie Margaret Taylor, a native of Placerville, then
living in Lake County,
and a daughter of James H. and Sarah M. (McCall) Taylor. She was three years
old when her father died, and sixteen when her mother passed away, and was
raised by her grandfather McCall, who lived at Middletown.
Mr. and Mrs. Bedell have two children: Valentine
Miller Bedell, who lived in Los Angeles, where he was
engaged with the Los Angeles Transfer Company, but is now a member of the United
States Expeditionary Forces in France, with the engineer reserves; and Charles
Theodore Bedell, who was running the ranch and was a
school trustee in his district when he was called to the colors. Mixed farming
is conducted on the Bedell ranch. There are five
acres in Mission olives, and
three or four acres in grapes; and there are about eighty fig trees on the
place, which are among the finest in the county. Theodore C. Bedell had a flock of one hundred sheep of the celebrated Shropshire strain; and at present he keeps a
number of Poland-China hogs. Charles has seventy-five head of cattle. Theodore Clayborn Bedell is a man of true
worth, and of splendid business judgment, and he is highly esteemed by a large
circle of friends.
Transcribed by Sande Beach.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 494-497, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2007 Sande Beach.
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