Butte County
Biographies
ALBERT J. MARKS
ALBERT J. MARKS.—An aggressively enterprising
and therefore a very progressive rancher, who has for some time been a leader
in the California agricultural world, and a fine young man of high principles,
excellent habits and winning personality, is Albert J. Marks, who was
born in New Orleans, La., on New Year’s Day, 1875. His father, Peter Marks, was
a native of France, who came early to New Orleans, where he clerked for a
living. There, too, he married, his winsome bride being Josephine Snyder. In
time he had a family, and in 1876 he brought his wife and two children to
California, and located in Butte County, where he took up one hundred sixty
acres as a homestead. The land was four miles north of Oroville, and realizing
its advantageous situation, he set energetically at work to improve it and
raise it to a higher state of cultivation. He became a farmer and a
stock-rancher, and he also ran the country hotel and was the first postmaster
at Sundale. And amid the scene of his active labors,
and where he enjoyed the esteem and good-will of everybody, he died, about
1908. Ten years before, his good wife, the mother of five children, all of whom
are still living, bade good-bye to the scenes of this world.
The second eldest of these worthy
offspring, Albert J., came to California when he was a year old, and grew up at
Sundale, and attended the public school in the
Cottonwood district. From a lad he was accustomed to assist on the farm,
working especially in the raising of grain; and having acquired a valuable
experience, he was able, when his father died, to manage the place.
After a while, Mr. Marks became owner of
sixty acres here, which he devoted to general farming and stock-raising; and
having bought, from time to time, more land in the vicinity, he is at present
one of the well-situated ranchmen of the neighborhood. He owns, for example,
another farm of four hundred fifty acres which is devoted to the raising of
cattle. It is watered by springs, and has proven, therefore, excellent acreage
for grain and hay, as well as stock. His brand—a bar above a mule shoe—always
stands for the highest grade. In politics Mr. Marks is a Democrat; he has
served several terms as school trustee in the Cottonwood district. Fraternally
he is a member of the Moose of Oroville.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
04 November 2009.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Page 1293, Historic Record Co, Los
Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Marie Hassard.
Golden Nugget Library's
Butte County Biographies