JOHN CALVIN HESS

Butte County

Biographies

JOHN CALVIN HESS

JOHN CALVIN HESS.--Perhaps there is no resident of Butte County who is a greater lover of fine horses than John Calvin Hess, who owns a well improved stock ranch of two hundred eighty acres on the Butte Creek Road, about three miles east of Chico. He has been a resident of the county over forty years and has witnessed the wonderful transformation that has been wrought in farming and transportation during his long sojourn in Northern California. Mr. Hess is especially well qualified to judge the

merits of horse-flesh, as he as been associated with the business of raising horses from his youth. He has owned and bred some of the finest equines ever brought to Butte County. J. C. Hess was born on January 11, 1847, in Rockingham County, Va., in the famous

Shenandoah Valley.

His father was Rev. Levi Hess, a Baptist minister. His mother in maidenhood was Dorothy Trumbo, who was also a native of Virginia. The Hess family was originally of Holland Dutch ancestry and the Trumbo forbears were from France. Mr. and Mrs. Levi Hess were the parents of eleven children; eight girls and three boys. John Calvin Hess was the fifth child. Rev. Hess moved from Virginia to Illinois, but stopped on the way for one winter in Ohio. John Calvin was about nine years of age when his parents settled near Ottawa, Ill. The mother died in Kansas, aged eighty-seven years; the father died aged about seventy years. J. C. was reared in Illinois until he was nineteen, when he migrated to Missouri, where he farmed.

In Jasper County, Mo., J. C. Hess was united in marriage with Miss Jennie Rosebrough, a native of Illinois. She was the daughter of John Rosebrough, who died in 1858. After her father's death, she was reared in the family of James Cox, where she was

treated as an own child. She accompanied the Cox family when they migrated to Jasper County, Mo., and it was here that she was married to J. C. Hess, on February 28, 1872.

In the spring of 1875, Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Hess came to Chico, Cal., from Kansas, where they had been engaged in farming for two years. While living in Kansas their only child, Levi Calvin Hess, was born, March 22, 1873. He was united in marriage, July 1, 1911, with Miss Eva Harris, of Forest Ranch, Butte County. This union has been blessed with one child, Leland Calvin, who was born January 12, 1915. Levi C. now manages his father's prune orchard of twenty-five acres, on Butte Creek, where he and his family reside. He has the contract for carrying mail to Butte Meadows.

For many years J. C. Hess has been a breeder of fine horses, but owing to his advanced age, being now past seventy-two, he has felt the necessity of relinquishing his hold on the business, although his love for fine horses has not in the least diminished. He is the owner of the celebrated Hambletonian stallion, Sir Vaux, a very fine pacer. This horse has received two premiums at the State Fair held in Sacramento. Mr. Hess is at

present raising cattle and hogs.

Mrs. Hess belongs to the Christian Church and is a member of the Christian Women's Board of Missions, and she is also deeply interested in temperance work. Mr. and Mrs. Hess are highly respected in the community where they have resided for so many

years, and have a large circle of friends.

Transcribed by Sande Beach.

Source: "History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 477-478, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.

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