Butte County
Biographies
ALBERT HENRY ERMATINGER
ALBERT HENRY ERMATINGER,--We have a splendid example of an enterprising and progressive business man in Albert Henry Ermatinger, proprietor of the Honcut meat market, born May 6, 1864, at Port Wine, Sierra County, the oldest of a family of three. The brother, O. C. Ermatinger, is a rancher on the home farm at Scales, Sierra County, and interested in several mining ventures; the sister, Mina, is the wife of Charles Edgar, living at Rackerby, Yuba County.
The mother was Rose Stahle, born in Binsdorf, Wittenberg, Germany, who came to California an orphan, at the age of seven, via the Isthmus, in care of an older sister. Her childhood was spent about Pinole, Contra Costa County, and she attended the Notre Dame College at Marysville for a while. Most of her life was passed at Scales, and to her belongs the credit and honor due to all pioneers who so truly blazed the way for later civilization. She numbered her friends by the hundreds in North Central California. In 1863 she married Caspar Ermatinger and they resided in Mount Pleasant. She died December 17, 1912, at the age of seventy and her remains are interred in La Porte by the side of her husband’s, who died on Thanksgiving Day in 1910, aged eighty-six years. The father, Caspar Ermatinger, was born in Berne, Switzerland, and came to Philadelphia, then crossed the plains with ox teams to Sierra County, Cal., in 1850. The butcher’s trade had been thoroughly mastered by him in his native country, and he was the pioneer butcher in Sierra County. Mr. Ermatinger was a master of every department of his trade, and could make two hundred forty different kinds of sausages. He was very ambitious, and drifted into mining, at which he prospered. Recrossing the plains with a brother, they drove a large band of cattle to California. In the course of his business career he became acquainted with General John A. Sutter, and his congeniality made him a wide circle of friends and acquaintances throughout Yuba, Sierra, Plumas and Butte Counties. With three companions he became interested in the celebrated mountain resort at Scales, where he owned a ranch one and one-half miles beyond Scales in Sierra County. While there he donated a large sum to the building of the first wagon road going into Scales. He and his companions built up the mountain resort, which at that time had the largest hall of any mountain resort in California. It was the scene of many Fourth of July celebrations and other gatherings which still linger in the memories of the early pioneers, who believed in doing things right, none of whom were more generous and public-spirited than the late Caspar Ermatinger.
Albert Henry Ermatinger attended the schools in Sierra County but at an early age became interested in a sixty-thousand-dollar mining proposition, in that county, with the usual miner’s luck—some gains, some losses; he still owns a half dozen good mining prospects. Following this he worked in the woods in Sierra County, doing contract cutting and hauling, and then he engaged in ranching, raising stock, and buying and selling cattle and hogs, hay, grain, etc., for eighteen years. Among other California towns which he visited as a buyer was Honcut, Butte County. This gave him an extensive acquaintance at Honcut so that when he was offered the Honcut meat market, in 1914, he knew the place and its people. He soon had the market on a paying basis, and installed ice-making machinery and artificial refrigeration. The facilities for slaughtering are the most up-to-date, enabling him to successfully cope with the competition of the large markets at Oroville. He gets his full share of the business of the gold-dredging crews and supplies both Palermo and Bangor, as well as Honcut, with the choicest of meats.
Mrs. Ermatinger was Mrs. Cora V. (Brown) Martin of Blandinsville, McDonough County, Ill., before her marriage. She came to California, in 1889, and was married to Mr. Ermatinger in Sierra County, on December 24, 1896. She had one child by her first marriage to Frank Martin, namely, Willis E. Martin, who served on the Mexican border in 1916, in the Oroville company, and who is now in the United States service. Mrs. Ermatinger’s maiden name was Cora V. Brown, of Brownsville, Cal., daughter of Benj. H. Brown, an old Civil War veteran, who served four years in Company B, One Hundred Twenty-ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. At the close of the war he married Mary E. Pangburn of Indiana, who is now deceased. They had five children, three of whom died in infancy. Mrs. Ermatinger has one brother, Charles D. Brown, in the United States Army, who resides at Stockton, and one half-sister, formerly Minnie A Free, now Mrs. Minnie A Kress, wife of a rancher in Columbia, Tuolumne County, Cal.
Mr. and Mrs. Ermatinger have four children: Albert W., who owns a garage in Honcut, and who married Edna Lytefoote of Yuba City; Rodney O., who lives at Honcut; Leon F., assisting his father; and Elmer V. The oldest son, Albert W., served on the Mexican border in 1916, in the Oroville company.
Mrs. Ermatinger is working up a large trade as landlady of the hotel at Honcut, where her kindly consideration for the comfort of her guests is making her appreciated in that capacity. Mr. and Mrs. Ermatinger are held in high esteem in their community and a prosperous future is prophesied for their enterprising family.
Transcribed
by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1076-1078, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Joyce Rugeroni.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County
Biographies