Butte County
Biographies
HENRY E. LARSON
HENRY E. LARSON.--A landowner and
the expert landscape gardener and horticulturist who is managing the Rancho
Alberta at East Biggs, is Henry E. Larson, a native of Denmark, born at
Copenhagen on November 25, 1869. He came to Butte County in 1911 and assumed
charge of the ranch owned by L. H. Bill of San Francisco, and which
was a part of the old Hatch and Rock Ranch. The ranch has been set to figs and
walnuts, and there is a large acreage in alfalfa, all under the supervision of
the efficient manager, who is making the place a dividend payer by his
intelligent management.
Mr. Larson received his schooling in his
native country and there started in to learn the nursery business. In 1889, he
came to the United States and to Denver, Colo., and began to work at his
calling. He had a brother, John Larson, living in northeastern Colorado, who
was the means of his coming to this country. This brother is a large
stock-raiser. Another brother, Emmet, is living in
San Francisco, as is a sister, Mrs. M. F. Goodman. After spending four years in
Colorado Mr. Larson came to San Francisco in 1893, and for the following
eighteen years followed landscape gardening in that city, in time becoming one
of the best known men in that line of work in the Bay section. It was during
his residence there that he became acquainted with the owner of the Rancho
Alberta and was selected to manage the property.
During his busy life about San Francisco
Mr. Larson met and later married Miss Dora Woldemar,
a native of Germany. They have had six children to make their home life happy:
Grace, Ellen, Lawrence, Dorothy, Genevieve, and Herbert E. The last named met
his death when three years of age, on December 25, 1912, when their
house was burned to the ground. The people of the district came to the aid of
Mr. Larson and rendered him every assistance in their
power in his hour of trial. Grace and Ellen took a course in the California
Institute of Art in San Francisco, from which they were graduated and are now
seniors in the Biggs Union High School. The other children are at home with
their father.
Soon after locating in Butte County, Mr.
Larson decided he would become a landowner and accordingly purchased sixty-five
acres of fine land upon which he has five acres of figs, five acres of apples,
both of thirty-year old trees; three acres are in cherries of the Royal Anne
and Black Tartarian varieties; thirty acres are in
prunes and fifteen acres are in peaches. Mr. Larson devotes his entire time to
his work and has become recognized as an expert horticulturist whose advice is
often sought on matters pertaining to the culture of trees and vines.
Ever since settling in the Rio Bonita
district Mr. Larson has been an active participant in all movements for the
public welfare. For years after he came here he was appointed to the board of
trustees of the Rio Bonita school district, and after eighteen months he was
elected to the office, in 1915, and reelected in 1918, receiving every vote but
one in the district. Six months after he had become a trustee he was appointed
clerk of the board and has served in that capacity ever since. He instituted
proceedings to bond the district in order to erect a new school building, after
several attempts the election was successful, and a building that is a credit
to the county was built. He has been a leader in those movements that have had
for their aim the upbuilding of his section of the
county and to show his appreciation of the many acts of kindness that his
friends and associates of the district have bestowed upon him he presented the
Rio Bonita school with a fine piano. He is a member of
the Masonic Lodge at Biggs.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
25 October 2008.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1045-1046, Historic Record Co, Los
Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Marie Hassard.
Golden Nugget Library's
Butte County Biographies