Butte County
Biographies
JOHN P. FRITTER
JOHN P. FRITTER.--It is almost impossible to fully estimate the credit due those far-seeing pioneers of the state who cheerfully braved the dangers of cross-country travel by ox team to reach the land of opportunity, and on arrival as cheerfully put their shoulders to the wheel to do their share in building up the most wonderful state in the Union. They came from the thickly populated East to the frontier West, and have never had occasion to regret the coming, for they were usually men of the stamp that made the most of the opportunities offered in their new environment and have lived to be examples of courage and perseverance to the younger generation.
John P. Fritter, one of these early settlers of Butte County, was born near Logan, Hocking County, Ohio, October 2, 1841, a son of William and Harriet (Westenhaver) Fritter, the father a native of Virginia, and the mother of Ohio; her father John Westenhaver, having been one of the earliest settlers in Hocking County, coming from his native state, Pennsylvania. He became wealthy, and was a large landowner in Ohio. William and Harriet Fritter became the parents of three children: John P., and two sisters. The mother died, and the father married a second time.
While still a lad, John P. was compelled to go to work and make his own way, and when sixteen years of age he ran away from home, from that time on being dependent solely on his own resources. His schooling was meager, acquired mostly in the hard school of experience. He worked out on different farms in Ohio and in Clark County, Ill., then went to Coles County, that state, where he enlisted in the Sixteenth Illinois Infantry, in Captain Madison’s Division of Marshalltown, later being transferred to the Twenty-first Artillery. He served in Missouri, fighting Quantrell’s Guerillas and helping to protect the countryside from that band of outlaws.
After his term of service in the army, Mr. Fritter went back to Illinois, and in 1864 joined a company of pioneers from Coles County, who crossed the plains to California. He was first selected as captain of the train, but considering himself too young, declined the honor. They lost one wagon en route, in the quicksands of Platte River, but finally arrived safely in Butte County, in the fall of 1864, stopping at Big Meadows for four months and then coming down into the Sacramento Valley, settling near Dayton. Having loaned his capital, fifty dollars, to a settler to keep his family from starving, which, by the way, was never repaid, the young pioneer started with empty pockets but with the will to succeed and the energy to persevere. He worked at various jobs in the beginning, working steadily for three years, with but seven days of rest in that interval.
Gradually success began to come his way, and Mr. Fritter now owns and operates three ranches and besides these holdings has given one ranch of two hundred forty-six acres to his son and daughter. The home place, of eighteen acres, is in almonds; another ranch of eight acres is in prunes and oak timber, and one of ninety-one acres is situated on the Pratt road. A self-made man, as is the case with most of our pioneers, Mr. Fritter has won his present position through persistent industry and far-sightedness, and while helping himself has never been too absorbed to lend a helping hand to others on the road of life, which fact accounts for his many friends and their loyal regard for him. He is a splendid type of American manhood and, with his estimable wife, takes a prominent part in all movements for the advancement of the county, both socially and economically. Among other public duties, Mr. Fritter has served four years on the grand jury, and is noted for his fair and just attitude to all concerned.
Mr. Fritter was first married to Miss Marilda Coon, daughter of Isaac Coon, formerly of Coles County, Ill. Seven children were born of this marriage, five of whom are now living, as follows: Sarah, now Mrs. Hennigan, a school teacher near Modesto; Annie, now Mrs. Parish, who maintains a hotel near Chico; Edward, a miner in Plumas County; Vernon, in the street-car service in San Francisco; Ray, a miner, now raising silver-gray foxes in Alaska. The mother passed away in 1887.
Mr. Fritter’s second marriage, in 1890, united him with Miss Albertina Rice, a native of Butte County and a daughter of Harrison W. and Caroline (Gray) Rice. Mr. Rice was born in Massachusetts, learned the trade of stonemason there and later went to Illinois, from whence he crossed the plains to California in 1849. He was a miner in Butte County until 1870, then went to Tehama County and followed farming until his death in 1903, aged eighty-seven years. His wife died there in 1902. Of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Fritter, seven children were born, two dying in early childhood; those living are: Clay W., an orchardist residing near Healdsburg, Cal.; Mrs. Nona Taylor; Celia, wife of E. A. McCall of Chico Vecino; Harold Wayne, a student of the Chico schools, who served on board one of the United States battleships during the trouble with Mexico, and later made seven trips convoying United States soldiers to France, and who is now attending a military school in New York City; and Loretta Vivian, a student in the Chico high school and an accomplished musician.
Transcribed by Vicky
Walker, 3/12/08.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 802-804, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Vicky
Walker.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies