Butte County
Biographies
JOSEPH L. GIANELLA
JOSEPH L. GIANELLA.--Of the many worthy natives of Switzerland who have emigrated to America and have left their imprint upon the civic life of the community, California has received a fair share. Noteworthy among these is the Gianella family—grandfather, father, and son, Joseph L. Gianella, who was born at Honcut, Cal., December 3, 1879.
Joseph’s father, Vincenzo, was born in Switzerland and was the eldest of four children. He came with his parents to California when but a small boy, attending the public school, also St. Mary’s College, helping his father with his ranch work until he grew to manhood, when he purchased a ranch on the Butte and Yuba County line near Honcutt and began ranching for himself, raising stock, grain, etc. He remained there for some time, gradually adding to his acreage until the ranch comprised three thousand acres. About 1903, he bought the old Colby ranch, ten miles from Chico and three miles east of Nord, having a frontage of four miles on the Sacramento River. There were thirty-five hundred acres in this ranch. His total holdings were now sixty-five hundred acres. The father divided his time between the two ranches. In 1912, he incorporated the Sacramento River Ranch under the title, the Gianella Land Company, and was president of the company until his death, which occurred on June 11, 1916, at over sixty years of age. He was a prominent member of the Elks and a director of the Butte County National Bank of Chico.
Vincenzo Gianella’s father, Lorenzo, the grandfather of Joseph L., was born in Switzerland, where he was a farmer. In the sixties he came to Yuba County with his wife and four children and located land near Marysville, afterward buying additional land on Feather River, now Levee District Number 10. He raised both grain and stock. Joseph Gianella’s mother was Mary Hagen. She was born near Santa Rosa and was the daughter of Henry Hagen, a pioneer of 1849. She is the mother of nine children, and resides with her son Thomas, who has charge of the Honcut Ranch. The other children are: Mary, in the Sisters’ Convent at Marysville; Joseph L., secretary and manager of the Gianella Land Company; Monica and Catherine, at home; Leo, a rancher at Santa Rosa; Vincent, Henry, and William at home.
Joseph L. Gianella uses modern, up-to-date implements on the Gianella Land Company’s Ranch, and other ranches which he leases. He was married, at Nord, to Miss Hazel Bennett, a native of that place and daughter of James Nelson Bennett. They have one child, Daphne Helen. Mr. Gianella is a member of Chico Lodge, No. 423, B. P. O. Elks, and a director of the Butte County National Bank of Chico.
Transcribed
by Sharon Walford Yost.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1152-1153, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Sharon
Walford Yost.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies