CHARLES FETTERS

Butte County

Biographies

CHARLES FETTERS

CHARLES FETTERS.—A good man who built up a prosperous business in this county, was Charles Fetters, the pioneer, and his worthy life is most worthily represented by his esteemed widow, who was born near Grass Valley, Nevada County, Cal., the daughter of John Shuster, who was a native of Lorraine, France, having been born near Metz. He was a decorator, and when nineteen years of age came to the United Stated and to Ohio. Fired with patriotic zeal for the Republic of his adoption, he volunteered for service with the Americans in the Mexican War, and came with General Canby and his troops to San Francisco in April, 1849. He had married in New Orleans, just before starting, Miss Joanna Donohue, a native of Ireland, who came to New Orleans when a child, with her aunt, and she sailed around Cape Horn with her husband and the troops to San Francisco.

Mr. Shuster mined on Bear River and then in Nevada County, had a Grass Valley farm, and later went to Virginia City, Nev. He next ran a hotel in Sisco, Placer County, and then removed to Marysville, where he continued in the hotel business and where he retired and died. His wife ended her days with Mrs. Fetters at Chico, in 1899, having brought her family to this place in 1876. She had three girls and two boys, and among these Catherine Shuster, now Mrs. Fetters, was the third youngest.

Educated in a convent, that of the Notre Dame Academy at Marysville, and then at the public school at Chico, Miss Shuster was married in 1884 to Charles Fetters, a native of Akron, Ohio, who was a cabinetmaker by trade, and who had come to California about 1874. He was employed by the West Coast Furniture Factory, and two years later came to Chico, where he started in business for himself at the corner of Third Street and Broadway. He commenced with a line of furniture, and soon added undertaking, and after a while he had as a partner a Mr. Williams, the firm becoming Fetters and Williams. They bought a site and built the present furniture store and undertaking parlors. Mr. Fetters had taken several courses in embalming, and was thoroughly proficient in his art. Finally, he sold out and removed to Reno, in August, 1906, reopening an undertaking business there. But on March 3, 1907, he died and Mrs. Fetters sold the business and returned to Chico.

Here she resides, in the residence she herself built, the center of an interesting circle of friends and beloved by her four children: Eva, a graduate of the Normal School, and now the wife of Dr. Homer C. Swain, of Chico; George Withers, who is with Fetters and Williams, is a graduate of St. Mary’s College, Oakland, and married to Miss Helen Liedloff, a native of Minnesota; Otto, who is serving in Company I, One Hundred Fifty-ninth California Volunteer Infantry, U. S. A.; Inez, who is a graduate of the high school in the Class of ‘17, and is now attending Heald’s Business College.

Mrs. Fetters is a member of the Women of Woodcraft, and is a Native Daughter, belonging to the Anne K. Bidwell Parlor. Mr. Fetters, who was a Republican, was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows; B. P. O. E., Knights of Pythias, Woodmen of the World, the Red Men, and the Eagles.

Transcribed 4-15-08 Marilyn R. Pankey.

Source: "History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 880-883, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.

Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies

California Statewide

Golden Nugget Library