Butte County
Biographies
ISAAC EDGE
ISAAC EDGE.--One of the well known and well liked men of public affairs in Butte County, Isaac Edge is serving his second year as special deputy sheriff, and his twenty-fourth year as school trustee, and has won hosts of friends during his years of office in the county. One of the first white boys born in the Sacramento Valley, now living, he comes of pioneer stock. His father, Matthew Edge, late of Colusa County, settled there in 1857, having crossed the plains in ox teams from Wisconsin, starting from that state in 1850 and pulling up in Nevada County, California, in the spring of 1851. He mined for several years in Nevada County and then came to Colusa and engaged in farming and stock-raising, living there until his death, on April 9, 1894, aged sixty-three years. He was a native of Durham County, England, and his marriage, which occurred in Nevada County, united him with Miss Mary (Heathington) Howe, also a native of that country, coming from there to Ohio and thence to Nevada County, Cal. She was the widow of William Howe, by whom she had three children, two of whom are still living. Her marriage with Mr. Edge resulted in five children, four boys and a girl.
The third child born to his parents, Isaac Edge early began to learn the rudiments of farm work, starting to plow when so small he could barely reach the handles. He attended the public schools of Colusa County, meanwhile helping his father on the home farm, doing general farming and stock-raising. For the last nineteen years he has successfully operated the farm belonging to himself and wife, a ranch of one hundred fifty-five acres, nine miles southwest of Chico, Butte County, and has taken an active part in the business and social affairs of the county. He first served as township deputy sheriff under Sheriff J. M. Ball, and is at present serving under Sheriff William J. Riddle. During his many years in this office and as school trustee he has given unstintingly of his time to the best interests of the district and to its educational advancement, as he has, in fact, to any project which meant the upbuilding of Butte County, one of the banner counties of the state. In addition to these two offices he has served from time to time on the trial jury.
Fraternally, Mr. Edge has taken a prominent place from early manhood. He has been an Odd Fellow for thirty-three years, having first joined the order at Dayton, and when that lodge was discontinued he transferred his membership to the Durham lodge. He has been a member of the Knights of Pythias for twenty-nine years, was a charter member of the old Magalia lodge, later transferred to Chico. His genial and kindly traits have made him a popular figure throughout the community, which he has always served to the best of his ability, making its best interests his own.
Mr.
Edge’s first marriage took place in Colusa County, to Jennie Cory, of Butte
County; she died within one year of their marriage, and he later married a
second time, at Paradise, Butte County, Miss Mamie Levulett; no children were
born of either union. Mr. Edge was later united in marriage to Mrs. Emma J.
Cory, widow of W. T. Cory of Indiana; her maiden name being Emma J. Crumm, a
native of Michigan, in which state she grew to maturity. Two children were born
of her marriage to Mr. Cory: Grover C., a rancher, who married Miss Lillian
Backus, a native of Colorado; Frances C., wife of Jesse A. Gray of Butte
County, an orchardist; they have one child, Alta. Mr. and Mrs. Edge are the
parents of one child, Isaac H., a graduate of the Dayton grammar school, now a
student at Heald’s Business College in Chico. Besides his other ranch
interests, Mr. Edge has purchased a ten-acre tract which he is cultivating to
almonds, now five years old and in a thriving condition.
Transcribed by Vicky
Walker, 2/19/08.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 731-732, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Vicky
Walker.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies