Butte County
Biographies
BEN E. CROUCH
BEN E. CROUCH.--A native of Butte County, and one of its most
promising citizens, Ben E. Crouch has shown that the stuff of which
our pioneers were made has not by any means gone to seed, and that the younger
generation is capable of taking up the plow where their weary hands have
dropped it and carrying on their beginnings to fruitions undreamed of even by
those sturdy optimists, and it goes without saying that the pioneers were
optimists, else they would never have been pioneers. Butte County has every
reason to be proud of its native sons and they, in turn, take pride in their
county, one of the representative sections of progress in the State of
California.
Born in Chico, November 8, 1888, Ben E.
Crouch is a son of Sylvester and Rosetta (Miner) Crouch, pioneers of Butte
County, the father now residing here, with his son, although having large
holdings in Glenn County, as well. Ben Crouch received his education in the public
schools of Chico, attending until he reached the age of fifteen, when he went
to work for his uncle, John Crouch, also a pioneer of the county and an
extensive landowner. He took great pride in his nephew and so arranged it that
Ben Crouch could buy his homestead of two thousand acres, on good and
reasonable terms, and at the age of nineteen, when John Crouch passed to his
reward, the young man started in with a royal good will to make good the
elder’s faith in him. His holdings consist of the original John Crouch
homestead, one of the oldest and best ranches in Butte County, situated about
four miles south of Chico on the Dayton road. This ranch is only about one
fourth of the Uncle’s ultimate holdings, which extended to Glenn and Lassen
Counties.
As one of the largest individual
landowners in the county, Ben Crouch is meeting with almost phenomenal success
in the operation of his immense acreage. He had his training in the best of all
schools, that of practice and individual effort, and has made count the years
of his life which so many youths waste in idle drifting, so his success as well
earned and well used. He has recently built an elegant and commodious residence
on his ranch, one of the finest in the county, and here he and his family,
together with his father, make their home. His marriage, in 1909, united him
with Miss Claire Black Meline, of Chico, and three
children have been born to them: Eleanor, Jannet, and
Rosetta.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
16 May 2008.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 964-965, Historic Record Co, Los
Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Marie Hassard.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies