Butte County
Biographies
HARRY C. BICKNELL
HARRY C. BICKNELL.—Enterprising and
ambitious, and a man of sterling qualities, Harry C. Bicknell, of the firm of
Bicknell and Moore, undertakers, has a most promising future. He was born in
Santa Cruz, on July 17, 1879, a son of Thomas Bicknell, of whom
mention is made in another sketch in this history.
Harry Bicknell was raised in Colusa and
Chico, where he attended the public schools; and later he attended St.
Matthew’s Military Academy, in San Mateo County, Cal., of which institution he
is a graduate. Desiring to learn the work of embalming and undertaking, and
become proficient in that profession, he took up the practical study of these
subjects with N. Gray and Company, of San Francisco. At the end of three
years he returned to Chico, and took charge of his father’s undertaking
business. In 1907 he purchased the furniture and undertaking business from his
father, located then on Broadway, between Second and
Third; and at the same time he established the undertaking business at the
present parlors on the corner of Second and Salem. Mr. Bicknell continued
the furniture business at the old location until 1914, when he sold it, in
order that he might give all of his time to the undertaking parlors. His first
partner was F. M. Edgar, with whom the business was conducted under the
name of F. M. Edgar & Co. until 1910, when Mr. Edgar died
and Mr. Bicknell bought his interest, after which he continued alone until
February, 1912, when he sold a half interest to F. M. Moore, and the
firm name became Bicknell and Moore.
Mr. Bicknell is also interested in
horticulture. He has set out twenty acres of almonds at Durham, and also owns
ten acres of prunes in Pleasant Valley, near Chico.
Harry C. Bicknell was married in San
Francisco to Miss Nellie C. Collins, the daughter of a pioneer family of Butte
County, where she was born on the Parrott Grant. Mr. Bicknell is a member of
the Chico Lodge of Elks, the Loyal Order of Moose, the
Woodmen of the World, the Eagles, and the I. D. E. S.; and a
member of the State Association of Funeral Directors.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
05 August 2009.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Page 1226, Historic Record Co, Los
Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Marie Hassard.
Golden Nugget Library's
Butte County Biographies