Butte County

Biographies

 

 

 

 

 

JAMES WATSLEY GRIFFITH

 

 

     JAMES WATSLEY GRIFFITH.--James Watsley Griffith is one of the largest as well as one of the most enterprising and successful cattlemen in the Sacramento Valley.  By is energy, thrifty and close attention to the minutest details of his business he has gradually added to his original homestead of one hundred sixty acres, taken up in 1895, until now he owns about thirty-five hundred acres.  A native son of California, he was born three miles north of Chico on November 20, 1869.

     His father, John L. Griffith, was born in Clermont County, Ohio, September 17, 1829, and was reared in Illinois.  On April 20, 1850, with ox teams and wagons he started across the plains with California as his goal and he arrived in Hangtown, now Placerville, on August 20, that same year.   For several years he followed mining in Placer and Nevada Counties, and in 1855 came to Dogtown now Magalia, Butte County, were he engaged in logging for about three years.  In 1860 he bought a ranch near what is now the city of Chico, improved it and farmed for many years, until he sold it to purchase the old Crowder place of three hundred twenty acres on Mud Creek.  He is now about eighty-nine years old, and makes his home with his children, a fine specimen of the early settlers of California.

     John L. Griffith married Euphemia Detro, born in Illinois, and who crossed the plains with her parents in the later fifties.  Their marriage took place at Magalia, and Mrs. Griffith became the mother of nine children:  Hezekiah, who makes his home with his brother, J. W.; George L., who has a ranch on Rock Creek; James W., of this review; Alta, Mrs. Millard, , of Sacramento; Lulu, Mrs. C. W. Wright, who died in Chico; Alenie Ione, who became the wife of Frank Barnes of Rock Creek; Augustus, who is making his home with his brother, J. W.; Belva, who married C. L. Haynes of Cohasset; and Ava, Mrs. W. J. Peterson of Harney County, Ore.  Grand-father Hezekiah Griffith was a farmer in Ohio, then in Illinois, until his death in 1839.  Grandmother Rachael (Madox) Griffith, was a Kentuckian.  The great-grandfather served with distinction in the War of 1812.

     James W. Griffith was educated in the public schools in Clayton and Webster districts and reared to the life of a farmer and stockman.  At the age of twenty-one he engaged in ranching for himself, turning his attention principally to raising cattle, which business he still carries on with an ever-increasing degree of financial success.  In 1895 he took up a homestead of one hundred sixty acres, extending from Rock Creek to and beyond Pine Creek, about thirteen miles.  It is well watered by springs and the above steams flow the year around.  Mr. Griffith also has another well improved ranch of eleven hundred sixty acres on the Plumas-Lassen County line, near Westwood, and this is watered by Robbers Creek and numerous springs, and in addition he owns other lands that he uses for summer range.  In order to enlarge his scope of operations he leases the Burch Ranch on Cohasset road.  He has about five hundred head of cattle, mostly Herefords of high grade.  For years he has been bringing in pure-bred Hereford bulls from eastern states, principally from Kansas and Nevada.  In this way he has built up his cattle until they are all high grade and near-full-bloods.  In his experience he finds the Herefords the most satisfactory for range cattle in California, making quicker growth and better beef.  He turns them off at two years old as well developed as the usual three-year-old of other strains.  He has done more to bring in fine pure-bred cattle than any other man in his section of state.  He uses the brand used by Thomas Hobbins and bought by J. L. Griffith when Hobbins went back East in 1864.  J. W. Griffith secured it in 1890 and added a bar underneath the TH, the three being connected together.  In 1918 the new law requiring registration found two other applicants for the same letters, so our subject added the bar beneath.  “Robbers Creek” was named for the captain of a band of stage robbers, and the ranch takes it name from it, namely Robbers Creek Ranch.  It is located twelve miles from Westwood, the shipping point on the Southern Pacific Railroad, only eight hours from Reno, Nevada.  Mr. Griffith markets his cattle in the fall, shipping from the range.

 

 

 

Transcribed by Louise E. Shoemaker, March 27th 2008.  

Source: "History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 831-832, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.

© 2008 Louise E. Shoemaker.

 

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