Butte County
Biographies
JOSEPH FRANKLIN ENTLER
JOSEPH FRANKLIN ENTLER.--A successful
man of Chico, long an eminent California citizen, whose confidence in the
superior qualities of his ranch land was confirmed by the action of the United
States Government in purchasing a part of his acreage and devoting it to the
purposes of the United States Plant Introduction Gardens, is Joseph Franklin Entler, who was born at Shepherdstown, Jefferson County, W.
Va., November 10, 1846. His ancestors came from Germany
and settled in the Keystone State;
and there his grandfather, Daniel Entler, was born.
Later, the family removed to Virginia
and settled near Shepherdstown. Daniel Entler, who
fought on the American side in the War of 1812, was a general business man who
had a typical country store with a butcher market, a hotel, and a small stock
yard attached.
Joseph
Entler's father was J. P. Entler,
a native of Lancaster, Pa., who was
brought up in that state and in Virginia,
in attendance at the public schools, and according to the Lutheran
faith. He succeeded his father in business, and died in Washington, D.
C. While in Virginia he had married Miss Nancy Jackson,
a native of Jefferson County,
W. Va., and the daughter of Stephen Jackson, a pioneer
of Scotch descent. Mrs. Entler died in West
Virginia, the mother of four boys, among whom Joseph
Franklin was the third oldest.
Brought
up and educated at Shepherdstown, Joseph F. Entler
joined the Confederate army when only fifteen years old, in the fall of 1862,
enlisting in Company E, Second Virginia Infantry. He saw hard, fatiguing
service in the Shenandoah Valley and at the second Battle
of the Wilderness; and once, while on a scouting expedition, he had his horse
shot from under him. He managed to make his way home, but there he was cut off
from communication with the Confederates and forced unwillingly
to keep out of the conflict for the remainder of the war.
After
the war was over Mr. Entler spent some time in West
Virginia, and then put in a year in Maryland,
on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. He went back to Jefferson
County, W. Va., and later visited Virginia,
New York and Pennsylvania.
On May 9, 1868, he left New York City on the steamer Henry Chauncey for Aspinwall, and crossing the Isthmus, proceeded north on the
steamer Colorado for San Francisco, where he landed on June 3. From there he
went on to Sacramento by boat, and on June 6, 1868, came
by stage to Chico. He worked on a
ranch until he could get a start, and in the fall of 1868 rented a farm on the
Sacramento River, where he put in a grain crop on some two hundred fifty acres,
running two teams to carry the work successfully through. He also used a header
and a thresher. In the fall of 1869, however, he started for San
Diego, but got no further than Ventura,
where he farmed for a couple of years. He had a couple of claims of a hundred
sixty acres each, and so took a partner, with whom he farmed the land in
1870-1871; but striking two successive dry years, he had a total failure in his
crop and lost every dollar that he had. Thereupon he returned to Chico,
and went to work on a farm, and the first eighty dollars that he made he sent
back to Ventura County
to straighten out his affairs.
With
John Kennedy, Mr. Entler put up a store at Princeton,
Colusa County,
and opened the same with a small stock of goods; and this they ran until it was
shown that a venture could not be a success there, when they sold out and
returned to Chico. Mr. Entler then entered the employ of General Bidwell on his famous ranch.
In
the fall of 1871, Mr. Entler was married to Miss
Susan Henshaw, a native of Missouri,
and the daughter of Washington Henshaw, a pioneer of
1851, who crossed the plains to California, and in 1853
settled as a farmer near Chico.
Mr.
Entler then bought a farm, and engaged in farming
with Marian Hoyle, later buying him out. His wife continued with the
grain-raising and the stock business, while he ran a stage line to Big Meadows
and hauled lumber and freight. He had sixteen to eighteen horses besides his
stage teams, and maintained an old-time stable that was worth inspecting. His
ranch included nine hundred eighty-five acres, all of which but twenty acres
was tillable. There Mr. Entler ran a garden, which
was rather notable in its time. Mr. Henshaw had put
in the ditch running from Middle Butte to the middle of Little Butte Creek, and
he also set out one of the first orchards and rented land for the gardens.
In
1903, Mr. Entler leased out his farm; and in
February, 1904, he moved to Chico,
where he bought the home in which he now resides. He sold eighty-five and a
half acres of the property to the United States Government for a plant
introduction garden.
Mr.
Entler was married, at Chico, in
1878, for the second time, his bride being Miss Mary E. Gilley, a native of Washington,
Ind., and the daughter of William Gilley, who was born
in North Carolina, of English descent, and died in Indiana.
Her mother had been Sarah J. Helphinstine, a native
of Virginia, of a Southern
family, and the mother of nine children, only one of whom--the second
youngest--Mrs. Entler, is now living. The latter came
to Chico in 1871. Now Mr. Entler, retired from active labors, devotes a part of his
time to a general supervision of his private interests.
By
his first marriage, Mr. Entler had four children, two
of whom grew to maturity. Frank died at thirty-one years of age, and Clarence
resides in Oakland. Through his
second marriage, five children were born, but only one grew up--Mary Entler, now Mrs. Harry Roth, of Chico,
and the mother of one child, Harry Entler. Both Mr.
and Mrs. Entler belong to the Presbyterian Church,
and are members of the Order of the Eastern Star.
Mr.
Entler is a Democrat. He is interested in education,
and was for some time school trustee in the York
school district. Fraternally, he was made a Mason in Chico Lodge, No. 111, F.
& A. M.; and he also belongs to Chico Chapter, No. 42, R. A. M.; Chico Commandery, No. 12, K. T.; and Islam
Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of San
Francisco. He is a member of the Chico Lodge, No. 113,
I. O. O. F., in which he is a Past Grand, and also of the Encampment and the Canton,
where he has become a Past Lieutenant.
Transcribed by Sande Beach.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 456-458, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2007 Sande Beach.
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