Butte County
Biographies
BERNARD CUSSICK
BERNARD CUSSICK.—"Bernard Cussick, banker, subdivider of
large ranches, lumberman and for many years prominent in the business
development of Butte County, died suddenly Sunday morning, in Chico,
January 14, 1917." Thus the Chico Record of January 16, 1917, tells of the
loss to Northern California of one of her upbuilders
and one of the most successful men of Chico.
"Barney"
Cussick, as he was called by his intimate friends and
business associates, was born in Livingston
County, N. Y., January 27, 1848, a
son of Bernard Cussick. He was reared on a farm
until he was eighteen, meantime attending the public schools of his native
county. He went to Michigan and, at Midland
City, some twenty miles north of Saginaw,
went to work at lumbering under John Haley, one of the best lumbermen
of that country. He remained there for five years, in the meantime
learning about all there was to know of the business, for he worked in every
department.
In 1876,
Barney Cussick came to California
and for one year worked at lumbering at Eureka, then came
to Butte County
as foreman with the Sierra Lumber Company. He became superintendent of
woods and later got out logs on contract for that same company, supplying all
their mills and laying the foundation of his fortune. Altogether, he spent
twenty-two years in the mountains at Butte Meadows and at West Branch, at which
place he built the railroad. He was the first man to build and use
hoisting works in these parts. A man of much force and ingenuity, he used
his original ideas in the prosecution of his business. When he began in
the lumber business, oxen were used to transport the logs,
later horses superseded the oxen, then came trams and hoists. Mr. Cussick always kept a little ahead of the times and simplified
the labor problem as much as was possible.
Becoming
tired of lumbering, Mr. Cussick came to Chico,
where he had interests, and began to devote his time to them. He laid out and sold several tracts of the Bidwell Ranch and
marketed the Crouch subdivision; he set out orchards, demonstrating how it
could be done and be made remunerative, and sold them at good
profit. While he was lumbering he mined at Croftwell,
for two years, but without success, so he dismissed that precarious method of
obtaining riches from his mind. In later years he farmed extensively in
the Nelson country. He became interested in the Butte County Bank, was
vice-president and a director, and did much to build up that institution by his
wise counsel and virile personality; he also was a director of the Butte County
Savings Bank, and engaged in the real estate business up to the time of his
death, in his sixty-ninth year. He was buried with Masonic honors in the
Masonic row in Chico Cemetery,
he having been a Knight Templar Mason. He was an Elk and an Odd Fellow and
lived up to the precepts of these orders. His politics were Democratic.
In 1879, in
Saginaw, Mich., Mr. Cussick was united in marriage with Miss Margaret Keeley, a native of Kingston, Canada,
and a daughter of William and Joanna (Murphy) Keeley,
highly respected farmers of that province, who both died in Michigan. Mrs.
Cussick’s education was obtained in the public
schools of Saginaw, from the age of
twelve. In 1879 she came to California,
where she has since resided. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Cussick, only one of whom is living, Mrs. Clara Cramer, of San
Francisco. Mrs. Cussick
is a member of St. John the Baptist Catholic
Church.
We quote from the Chico Record of January 17, 1917:
"Barney Cussick has passed on. After years
of activity, from laborer and lumber-jack to capitalist and bank president, he
closes the book and crosses the river. There will be none who knew him but
will miss him and wish him well in the long journey. Barney Cussick was ‘a man’s man’; a man of brawn and rugged form,
and rugged views of life; a man who fought his way from humble beginnings to a
place of wealth and a director of large affairs. With his brawn he had
brains, and with both, a heart, and those who knew him best loved him most. Peace
to him."
Transcribed 11-10-07 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 503-504, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
©
2007 Marilyn
R. Pankey.
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