Butte County
Biographies
GEORGE EDWARD FAIRLEE
GEORGE EDWARD FAIRLEE.--George Edward Fairlee was only twenty months old when his parents brought him to California, which is therefore the scene of his first recollections. He was born at Fredericktown, Madison County, Mo., January 14, 1877. His father, Andrew J., was born in Indiana, in 1831, and came of Scotch descent, the name being originally Fairleigh. His ancestors settled in Pennsylvania in colonial days and were farmers on the present site of Pittsburgh before that city was built. The name was changed by members of the family from Fairleigh to Fairlee.
When he heard of the gold discovery in California, Andrew J. determined to come to the new Eldorado and crossed the great plains in 1852, coming to Whisky Diggings. His father, George Fairlee, coming at the same time, was captain of the ox-team train, having previously crossed the plains in 1849; he was one of the early members of the Marysville police force, from 1853 to 1856. The father and son went on a farm in the northern part of Sutter County, where the father was accidentally killed in a runaway, forty-five years ago.
Andrew J. learned the butcher’s trade in Marysville, and also teamed into the mountains. In 1860 he started a milk ranch at the Forks of Butte Creek, but later on sold it to engage in placer-mining, having four different claims, one of which paid well. His partners in mining gold were, first, Dr. Mallen, and then the Longley brothers, notably Press Longley.
Andrew J. Fairlee then came to the plains and entered one hundred sixty acres and bought adjoining land until he had eight hundred eighty acres, now a part of the Trayner ranch. While farming here he married Eliza Spiva, born in Madison County, Mo., and soon afterward, in 1876, they returned to Missouri, and while they resided there George Edward was born. Later they moved to Texas, where Mr. Fairlee speculated in sheep, but met with misfortune. In two years he had lost all he had made in California; so he determined to return and see if he could not recover his fortune. Arriving at the Buttes in the fall of 1878, he engaged in ranching. Mining, however, claimed his interest, so he again engaged in mining at the Forks of Butte Creek, and while thus employed in 1893, the mine caved in, and he died from the injury when sixty-two years of age. His wife survived him until 1914, aged sixty-seven years. They had four children, as follows: George E., the subject of this review; Robert, a rancher near Gridley; Nellie, Mrs. Staas, of Meridian; and Winnie, the wife of Edward Gibson, who died in Butte County.
George Edward attended the public schools, and from a lad he learned mining with his father at the Forks of the Butte, and they were mining on Green Bar when his father was injured. George and his brother Robert were there, being only fifteen and thirteen years old respectively, but they dug him out from the overburden, which had caved in. After his death, George E. continued to prospect to bedrock, but the result was not favorable, and he concluded to give up mining for the more certain business of farming. He came to the vicinity west of Gridley, and worked at ranching. When he reached the age of twenty-two, with his brother Robert, he bought an outfit and leased the old Thomas Lamb place of two hundred forty acres, and engaged in raising grain and stock. Being successful, they purchased the farm four years later; but after farming for a few years they dissolved partnership and George E. leased four hundred acres of the Rutherford tract, till 1912, when he sold his half interest in the Lamb place to his brother and purchased his present place of two hundred eighty acres, known as the old Dad Pugh place, ten miles southwest of Gridley, where he resides with his family and farms to grain and stock.
Mr. Fairlee was married in Marysville, in 1905, to Miss Polly Barker, who was born in Missouri, a daughter of James Barker, a farmer near Gridley and they have three children: Leta Helen, Lyell Edward, and Charles Rodney. For a term Mr. Fairlee served as trustee of Butte school district. In politics, he is an independent, with strong progressive ideas.
Transcribed
by Roseann Kerby.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1138-1139, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2010 Roseann Kerby.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies