Butte County

Biographies

 

 

 

 

EUGENE FORTUNE COUTOLENC

 

 

      EUGENE FORTUNE COUTOLENC.--In the town of Jaurziers, in the beautiful valley of the Ubaye, in the department of Basses-Alps, surrounded by the magnificent scenery so common in the mountain region of the south of France, lived the honorable French family of Jean Antoine and Antoinette (Bellon) Coutolenc.  To this worthy couple a son, Eugene Fortune, was born.  His grandfather, Antoine Coutolenc was a merchant and trader.  He had made contracts to the amount of eighty thousand francs with Napoleon’s troops when they were on their way to Italy, but lost it all when the French government failed to pay the obligation.  Eugene’s father was a butcher.  He was married twice; of the first union there were two children, one of  whom, Jean Coutolenc, came to California in 1851, became a butcher and died at St. Helena where he was eighty-two years of age.  The second marriage resulted in the birth of eight children; two of them are in California and are the only survivors of the family:  Auguste, of San Francisco, and Eugene F., of this review.  The father died on March 19, 1871, after having lived a long and useful life.

      The third in the family of eight children, Eugene F. Coutolenc, was born in 1854 and was reared in Jaurziers, where he attended the public school.  Even when he was a small lad he worked around his father’s butcher shop, and in time he became an adept at the trade.  When he was nineteen, in 1873, he arrived in San Francisco, where his two older brothers were located, one in that city and the other across the bay, in Oakland.  For one year he was employed in the packing-house of Barraty and Coutolenc.  He then crossed the bay and went to work for the brother who had a market in Oakland.  While he was working for his brother he spent his odd moments in the study of English, and his evenings in attending night school. Thus soon learning to speak the language of his adopted country.  Desiring to go into business for himself, he opened a wholesale and retail coffee house at 30 Clay Street San Francisco, continuing for six months.  He then went over to the bay to Sausalito and entered the employ of a Mr. Josse, who conducted a meat market there, but soon after he bought the business with Jean Barraty for a partner, the firm doing business under the name of Barraty and Coutolenc.  This establishment is still doing business and is being conducted by Edward Barraty, a son of the former proprietor and an ex-mayor of Sausalito. Mr. Coutolenc sold his interest after two years and returned to Oakland to work for his brother, Jean, in a shop known as the Willow Market, located at Third and Jefferson Streets, continuing for two years.

      Mr. Coutolenc was married in Sausalito on January 19, 1879 to Miss Gabrielle Picard, who was born in Chinon, Department of Incre-et-Loire, France, and came to San Francisco with her parents when she was a young woman.  Some time after their marriage the young couple went to Butte County to visit Mrs. Coutolenc parents, and upon their return to Oakland, Mr. Coutolenc bought out his brother and conducted the Willow market alone for two years, then on account of ill health he sold out and went to St. Helena, where in partnership with his brother Jean he ran a shop for a like period.  Meanwhile his wife died and he became so ill that a physician advised him to take a sea voyage to the Sandwich Islands for a change.  This he did, in 1884, and remained there five months.  While in the islands he became acquainted with a young lady and their acquaintance resulted in their marriage on February 7, 1885.  This lady was Miss Amelie Rochet, born near Lausanne, Canton Vaud, Lake Geneva, Switzerland, a daughter of Jean David and Hortense (Lambelet) Rochet.  They were farmers who spent their entire lives in their native canton where their five children were born, three of whom are now living:  One brother, Louis, is in Switzerland; a sister, Adele, Mrs. P. Remond, lives in Berkeley; and Mrs. Coutolenc, the youngest.  She received a good education and was traveling companion to an English woman, and had spent considerable time in London. Going to the Sandwich Islands in 1883, with this family.  There she met Mr. Coutolenc.

      After their marriage, Mr. Coutolenc’s health having become normal once more, he brought his bride back to California and they located in Butte County.  He leased a store and ranch from Victor Poumarat, at the place now known as Coutolenc, and engaged in the general mercantile business and in raising hogs and packing pork for the markets.  At the end of five years he had prospered so well that he bought the various properties from Mr. Poumarat and at once erected a new hotel, built a concrete reservoir, piped the water from a large spring to it, and from there to the hotel and cottages, which he had erected for his summer boarders and tenants.  He ran the hotel, store, and the pork-packing business, and was very successful.

      Mr. Poumarat had the post office then named Lovelock at his place and served as postmaster for several years, but after that did not want to bother with it, so got a Mr. Benner to take it, and it was moved to his place, about a mile and a half north, still retaining the name of Lovelock.  When Mr. Coutolenc first located on the place he was advised to try to regain the post office.  He waited two years, then secured enough signers to a petition and the office was moved to his place again, and he was appointed postmaster.  This move created a disturbance in the neighborhood of Mr. Benner’s place and as a result the office was moved back there.  Our subject could see the necessity of having an office in his neighborhood for the convenience of the citizens and suggested that it be named Old Lovelock, but at this the postal authorities demurred and the petition was denied.  He persisted in his efforts and at last an office was established at his place and named Coutolenc, in his honor, and he was appointed postmaster by Mr. Wanamaker, and held the position for nineteen years, his good wife being his able assistant.  In 1909, he sold out his store and other holdings to Clarence Musselman, and moved to Chico Vecino, where he bought a house at Fourth and Laburnum  Streets:  he later bought a store on Esplanade and started a meat market which he ran for several years when he sold the business.

      Mr. And Mrs. Coutolenc have had five children:  Adele, who died at the age of seven years; Leila, Mrs. P. L. Roberts, of Chico; Ida, a graduate of the Chico High School and the State Normal, is teaching in Oakland; Valentine, a graduate of the Chico High School, and now a student at the Chico State Normal; and Eugene David, at home.  Mr. Coutolenc has always favored good schools and for years was a trustee of the Coutolenc district, named in his honor, and he served as clerk of the board for some time. In politics he is a Democrat.  Mr. Coutolenc is interested in mining, owning a two-thirds interest in a mining property with Mr. Poumarat as a partner.  This is a free-milling gold-ore quartz claim and promises to develop into a good investment.  Mr. and Mrs. Coutolenc are citizens of the country.   

 

 

Transcribed by Louise E. Shoemaker, April 6h 2008.

Source: "History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 844-846, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.

© 2008 Louise E. Shoemaker.

 

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