Butte County
Biographies
ALEX C. LOCEY
ALEX C. LOCEY.--From the time he settled in Butte County, on December 14, 1872, Alex
C. Locey has been one of the most enterprising citizens of the county. Emphatically a man of work, he is seldom
idle. No enterprise has been projected
for the upbuilding of the county or the bettering of the social conditions that
has failed to receive his encouragement.
He is a man of broad and charitable views, and his keen judgment and
wise cooperation are sought on all sides.
A native of Illinois, Alex C. Locey was born at
Carlyle, Clinton County, November 18, 1850, a son
of Ira H. Locey, who was born in New York, and later became a farmer in Clinton County, Ill., where he married Mary
Tuttle. She was born in that state and
by her union with Mr. Locey she had two sons, Alex C., of this review, and
Wilbur F., who is living near Chico. Mrs.
Locey died In 1853. In 1872 Ira
H. Locey came to California, and upon settling in Chico he entered the employ
of General Bidwell as manager of the Bidwell Dairy, and continued in that
position until he retired to Chico, where he died. Grandfather Cyrus Locey was born in New York, and he took his family to Illinois, where he was a pioneer in Clinton County.
Alex C. Locey received a public school
education in Illinois. The Civil War was in progress during his
school days, and his education was interrupted quite a little because his
services were needed to help with the work about the farm and he drove a team
in the fields. In 1872 he came to Chico, Cal., with his father, and
entered the employ of General Bidwell, as a wage-earner in his flour mill. In time he worked himself up to be second
miller. On account of the dust being
injurious to his health, Mr. Locey quit after three years and entered the
employ of A. B. Thomas and Company, as a clerk in their store. He remained for five years and then was
employed by P. Peters and Brother, as a clerk in their grocery department, and
here he remained for a like period, when he turned his attention to other
business.
During the years that Mr. Locey had been
earning wages he saved his money and now had enough to embark in a ranching
enterprise for himself. He leased some
two thousand acres of land from General Bidwell and put in a crop of grain
where the town of Chico Vecino now is situated. He farmed this place six years and then Mr.
Bidwell wanted to lay out the town, so Mr. Locey rented two thousand acres of
the Drake Ranch and continued his operations.
He used fifteen six-mule teams to put in his crops and ran a combined
harvester, with thirty-two mules, to gather his grain. For twenty years he farmed this same land and
usually had good crops. Upon the death
of General Bidwell the land was subdivided and Chico Vecino was laid out. Mr. Locey bought a five-acre lot on the
corner of First and Esplanade streets, and built his residence where he now
lives, selling off the other lots. In
time he bought a hundred sixty acre ranch at Cohasset, which he cleared and
improved. On this land he set out fifty
acres of apples--Ben Davis, Baldwins, Yellow Newtowns, Delicious, and Arkansas
Blacks. From this Highland Apple
Orchard, as it is called, Mr. Locey supplies the Chico markets with a choice grade
of fruit. On account of the elevation of
the ridge, twenty-three hundred feet, apples attain a splendid growth and
flavor; he has never had an apple-crop failure.
The balance of his land is devoted to raising hogs, which in season
fatten on the acorns that grow on the numerous oak trees on the range. The hogs are then marketed with considerable
profit.
Mr. Locey was married in Chico to Miss Mary R. Harvey, a
native of Missouri but reared in Christian County, Ill., until coming to California with her parents. James Harvey, her father, served in the Civil
War, after which he brought his family to Butte County and became a prominent
rancher and citizen at Nelson. Mr. and
Mrs. Locey have had seven children:
Archie H., auditor of Butte County; Charles, a millwright, who is now in
the Philippines; Mary, Mrs. Sayer of Chico; Frank, who has charge of a
pineapple plantation the Hawaiian
Islands; Rowena, the wife of R. Crtichlow of Los Angeles, and who graduated
from the Chico Normal and was a school teacher for several years; Avis, also a
graduate of the Chico Normal, and now a teacher in Mill Valley; and Llewellyn,
a student in the Chico High School. Mrs.
Locey is a member of the Baptist Church and an active worker in the
ladies’ societies of that organization.
Mr. Locey has exhibited some apples at the apple show at Watsonville, and he took first prize on
Baldwins, Arkansas Blacks and others. He
also exhibited twice at Oroville, and took premiums there. He and his family are highly esteemed in Butte County, where they have many
friends.
Transcribed by Louise E.
Shoemaker, February 29th 2008.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 774-775,
Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Louise E. Shoemaker.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies
California Statewide
Golden Nugget Library