Butte County
Biographies
FRED EVERS
FRED EVERS.—Among the many thousands of Germans who have contributed so much to the substantial and permanent development of Californian, especially in scientific husbandry and the varied fields of almost numberless industries, no one ranks higher than the sturdy, progressive Hanoverian, so conspicuous among patriotic Americans from the Fatherland, while honored among these Californians is Fred Evers, who was born in Hanover, on October 1, 1867, the son of Lawrence and Margaretha (Melitz) Evers, both of whom lived and died in that German province. They had four children: John, who came to California and resides at Oroville; Maria, married and living in Germany; Frederick, the subject of our sketch, followed his brother to the Golden West; and Henry, who died in his native land, was the father of two children.
Having grown up in the kingdom referred to, Fred attended the famous public schools there, particularly at Nuland, and was brought up in the Lutheran Church. He served for three years in the horse artillery, from 1888 to 1891, and as his brother John, who had been seven years in Butte County, Cal., was visiting in Germany at the time of the expiration of Fred’s military apprenticeship and was enthusiastic about the New World and the Pacific country, Fred decided to cast his lot here also. His father had died the winter before, and doubtless this had much to do with his decision; at any rat, after the usual affectionate farewells to mother, sister and near of kin, Fred accompanied John across the ocean.
He reached Biggs on May 24, 1892, and at once went to work on a ranch as a farm hand. On March 26, 1897, he married Mrs. Margaretha Dorothea Musholt, the widow of Barney Musholt, a native of Westphalia, Germany, and who was considerably her senior, and the father of four children by his first wife. A native of the now much talked-of Kiel, she was before her marriage the daughter of Asmus Theede, a native of Germany, and she came to San Francisco in 1882, when she was nineteen years old and has lived in Butte County since 1884. By Mr. Musholt she had one child, Grover, who was later adopted by Mr. Evers and named Grover Musholt Evers, and who is a member of the Three Hundred Nineteenth Engineers Corps, United States Army. Mr. and Mrs. Evers have one child, Wendell, sixteen years old, and in the local high school.
In 1901, Mr. Evers sold out his California interests and went back to Germany, intending to settle there; but as has proved the case in the lives of thousands of others, California had its counter and superior attractions, and on the third of May, 1903, the family came back to Biggs, never to leave again. From 1904 to 1914, Mr. Evers rented the Grover ranch of six hundred forty acres, and in 1913 he bought his present ranch of one hundred fifteen acres, fifteen acres of which he set out to prunes, now splendidly grown. The son, Grover, became his partner and valued right-hand; and together they operated vigorously not only with the property referred to, but they have rented some two hundred acres in addition. Besides these valuable assets, Grover owns three hundred twenty acres in his own right. They run a Holt caterpillar tractor, with which they can plow; and during harvesting they use a Queen combined harvester and thresher, with which they can cut and thresh from twenty-five to thirty acres per day. They also own, among their thoroughly up-to-date farming machinery and appliances, a Case rice thresher.
Thus prosperously situated, Mr. and Mrs. Evers and family dwell in a handsome bungalow, built by them in 1914, and which, well furnished with even a player-piano, affords a beautiful home. Best of all, it is a center of hospitality, where the latch-string is ever hung out.
Transcribed
by Sharon Walford Yost.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1219, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Sharon
Walford Yost.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies