JAMES GEORGE LE BALLISTER

Butte County

Biographies

JAMES GEORGE LE BALLISTER

JAMES GEORGE LE BALLISTER--Two worthy careers of successful California ranchmen, each of whom has contributed something worthwhile to advance the science of agriculture here, are suggested by the name of James George Le Ballister, who was born in Toronto, Canada, on March 16, 1866, and was educated at the thorough Toronto public schools. Having learned the painter’s trade, he followed it for some years in that city, first coming to California in 1885. He stopped for a while at Gridley, and so well did he like Butte County that he set up here and in Yuba and Sutter Counties as a contracting painter, and thus busied himself until 1913.

As early as 1889 Mr. Le Ballister bought the ranch on which he now resides, securing one hundred sixty acres at the start, and later reducing his holding until his home place consisted of but seventy-two choice acres. He also owns a ranch of one hundred sixty acres in Tehama County, and another ranch of forty acres near his Gridley home.

In the beginning, Mr. Le Ballister raised grain, but in 1913 he turned his attention to alfalfa, and in the raising of this valuable commodity he has been quite as successful as he was in turning his place from grain fields to a ranch with a fruitful orchard. Recently he has erected a new hay-barn and his characteristic enterprise has manifested itself at times in his renting as many as eight hundred acres, which he has farmed to grain. He gets five cuttings a year of alfalfa, and a ton and a half to the acre.

Mr. Le Ballister married Marian Weir, a native of Belfast, Ireland, who is very active in the Pythian Sisters, the Rebekahs and the Companion Court of the Foresters, in all three of which she has held office. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias of Gridley, in which he has been Past Captain of the Uniform Rank for two years. He is also an Odd Fellow, and belongs to Gridley Lodge, No. 268, and to the Woodmen of the World, and to the Moose.

Additional evidence of Mr. Le Ballister’s prosperity is found in his ownership of seventeen lots in Gridley, and in the fine system of irrigation--installed in cement pipes-- throughout his acreage; the pipes having been made on his ranch. To solve one problem, he erected a steel flume across the slough at a cost of five hundred ten dollars.

Mr. and Mrs. Le Ballister reared their nephew, William H. Robinson, Jr., bringing him up from a baby. He was born on the same ranch, in 1885, formerly owned by his father, and this farm was known as the old Quimby Place. William H. Robinson, Sr., came to California in 1849, by way of the Isthmus, and was an early settler in Butte County owning an eighty-acre ranch in the Manzanita district, and later a ranch of one hundred sixty acres, which was bought by Mrs. Le Ballister and is now the home place. Young Mr. Robinson was educated at the Gridley public schools and finished with the Stockton Business College. He is now the owner of a ranch of one hundred sixty acres north of Gridley, known as the Sligar Place, and thereon has a fine hay barn one hundred ten feet long. He has planted sixty acres to alfalfa and the balance to grain, corn and beans. William H. Robinson, Sr., was married in 1883 to Miss Amelia Weir in Ireland. She died in 1888, and he died about 1901. The son, William H., inheriting his father’s love of social life, joined the Knights of Pythias and the Moose.

Transcribed by Roseann Kerby.

Source: "History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1034-1035, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.

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