Butte County
Biographies
W. BIRNEY LINN
W. BIRNEY LINN.—A progressive rancher who has demonstrated what can be done with the heavy adobe lands, to make them as productive as other lighter soils, is W. Birney Linn, of Butte County, who has brought to bear the modern methods of scientific farming in his operations. He was born at Dardanelle, Yell County, Ark., on May 30, 1854, a son of a Virginian, John Linn, who located in Kentucky, thence moved to Yell County, Ark., where he became a successful farmer and saw-and-flour-mill operator. He had amassed a fortune of about ninety thousand dollars when the Civil War broke; he was an Abolitionist and opposed to slavery, and was the first man in Yell County to hoist an American flag. He offered his services to the Union and served as a sergeant in the Third Arkansas Cavalry for three years. After being mustered out and honorably discharged, Mr. Linn returned to his home broken in health, and to find that his property had been devastated. He rebuilt the mill with the aid of his son and they operated it, together with the farm, for some time. The son found out that his father never would recover his health if he remained in that country and he suggested that they come to California. They started with an ox team and wagon for the long over-land journey. On their way through New Mexico they were told that a tea made from chimees brush would cure the dysentery, that being the ailment that afflicted the father; this was tried and a cure resulted. Upon arriving in this state the elder Linn decided he would thereafter make it his home. He died in Chico, Butte County. He married Maria Underwood, who was born in Missouri and died in Chico. Of their seven children there are three still living.
That W. Birney Linn comes from the “stuff of which heroes are made” is demonstrated not only by the valor shown by his father in the Civil War, but by his grandfather, Major John Linn, who served in the War of 1812, and by his great-grandfather, who was a colonel in the War of the Revolution. The oldest child in his father’s family, Birney grew to manhood in Yell County and attended the public schools, which at that time were rather crude affairs both in structure and in the course of study. During the absence of his father in the service of his country, Birney and his mother were inside the Federal lines for eighteen months, during which time, then a lad of sixteen, he traveled up and down the river on steamers, as a mascot. These boats ran from Fort Smith to New Orleans, and while on the boats he became quite familiar with their machinery and learned how to run the engines. This knowledge, together with the assistance he gave his father in his mill, has been of inestimable value to him in after-live in California, for he has worked as blacksmith, machinist and engineer on ranches at various times.
The family left Arkansas in 1873 and settled in Anaheim, Cal., where the oxen were sold and Birney began working at farming. Here he was married to Ellen Carter, who was born in Missouri and had crossed the plains with her parents in an early day. They stopped for a time in Napa County, but eventually moved down to Los Angeles County, and located at Anaheim. In 1880, Mr. Linn and his family settled in Butte County. Here he found his knowledge of engines and machinery stood him in good stead, for he secured a position with the Sierra Lumber Company as a stationary engineer at their plant at Big Meadows. He later worked for Bernard Cussick when he obtained his first big logging contract; then he ran a threshing outfit for E. T. Reynolds, and others, for a number of years. In the fall of 1885 he was selected by the board of supervisors of Butte County to superintend the grading of the Chico-Oroville road. After this he superintended the construction of the Wicks grade. In the spring of 1886, Mr. Linn decided he would engage in ranching, so he leased some land of the Walsh Grant in Glenn County, then Colusa County, and began clearing it of timber, employing from fifty to one hundred fifty Chinamen. He found ready market for the wood and as fast as the land was cleared he sowed it to barley, in time clearing three thousand acres of river-bottom land. This land is now some of the best sugar-beet land in Northern California. He farmed this until 1896, then leased one thousand acres of the Charles Wilson Ranch at Nord, Butte County, and farmed this for fourteen years; he also leased some of the Pratt Grant, and had as many as five sections of land under cultivation. In 1909 he cut twenty-one hundred tons of hay, himself baling nineteen hundred tons. This was from adobe lands that others had left in discouragement, as they could not handle the heavy soil to advantage. Mr. Linn stayed with it, summer-fallowed each year and won out, thereby revolutionizing ranching in this section on adobe land. He was the first man to summer-fallow and thus brought the value of the land back to its original figure. He was very
Successful and had made considerable money. About this time he was caught on a note for twenty-seven thousand dollars, which he had to pay and which nearly put him out of business. This misfortune did not discourage him, for he kept right at work and paid off all of his indebtedness and once more was on a firm financial footing. He now is leasing some of the Richvale Company’s lands, having four hundred acres in wheat; he summer-fallows and alternates with corn and wheat. He uses the modern machinery, tractors and combined harvester, to put in and gather his crops. There is no man better qualified to pass judgment on the adobe lands of the county than he.
The Linn residence is on Chestnut Street, Chico, and he conducts his ranch work from town, going to and from his home. He does all of his own machine repairing and is still gaining practical experience. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Linn are: Robert, who served in the Spanish-American War and is now assisting his father; Kittie, who is Mrs. Conrad; Howard, who was a member of the signal corps of the aviation department, United States Army, and who died in New York, March 24, 1918; Paul, who is in the employ of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company; Eva, who is at home; Birney, who is a member of Company A, Twelfth United States Infantry; and Nelson and Roy, who are at home.
Mr. Linn is a Mason; he was made a Mason in Pioneer Lodge, in Arkansas, and now belongs to Chico Lodge, No. 111, F. & A. M.; Chico Chapter, No. 42, R. A. M. Although not a member of any church, he is a supporter of all church and charitable enterprises, and helped to build the First Christian Church of Chico, to which his wife and his mother belong. He has always been loyal to the policies of the Republican party. Mr. Linn is a “hale fellow well met” and has a large circle of friends throughout this section.
Transcribed
by Sharon Walford Yost.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1119-1121, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Sharon
Walford Yost.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies