Butte County
Biographies
DUNCAN C. McCALLUM
DUNCAN C. McCALLUM.—A far-seeing horticulturist and business man, whose sagacity and enterprise have placed him in the helpful and enviable role of “the father of irrigation” at Gridley, Butte County, is Duncan C. McCallum, a well-known newspaper man and for the past eighteen years official court reporter of this county, during the past twelve years of which time he also occupied that position in Yuba and Sutter Counties. Aside from fulfilling the duties of official reporter for these three counties, Mr. McCallum has found time to serve as Secretary of the Oroville Chamber of Commerce and Secretary of the Butte County Citrus Association during its earlier existence. He was the originator and promoter of Butte County’s two gigantic irrigation systems, namely the Sutter-Butte Canal and the Great Western Canal.
Mr. McCallum was born in Hull, Canada, in May, 1873, and comes from the sturdy race of Scots. His grandfather, Duncan McCallum was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and migrated to Hull, Canada, where he became a farmer and business man, coming to California in 1875, where he resided until he died at the advanced age of ninety-three. Duncan C. McCallum’s father, John McCallum, was also born in Hull, and in the city of his birth engaged in the hotel business, being the proprietor of the “McCallum House,” which is still standing and is conducted as a hotel. He also operated a stage line out of Hull and was a man of affairs there. In 1875 he sold out his interests and came to the United States, locating in Dixon, Solano County, where he remained for two years, when he moved to Smartville, Yuba County, during the period when hydraulic gold mining was at its height. At this place he again engaged in the hotel business for a short time, but later took up hydraulic placer mining, at which he was very successful; but as was so often the case with those prosperous pioneer ventures, this field of activity led to John McCallum’s death. He went on a mining expedition to Truckee in the winter of 1881, and being caught in a mountain snow storm near that place, was frozen to death. His body was not recovered until the following spring. His widow now resides in Willows, Glenn County.
It was in the bustling pioneer mining camp of Smartville that Duncan C. McCallum received most of his grammar-school education, and his first impressions of life. When he was eleven years of age his mother moved with her family to Willows, where he again entered the public schools, after which he went to San Francisco and entered the Munson Shorthand School, from which he graduated in 1894. He served as law clerk for Charles L. Donohoe in Willows for three years, during which time he also worked on the Willows “Journal,” owned by his employer. From there he went to Sacramento to accept a position with Hon. E. A. Bridgford, as his law clerk. When Judge Bridgford removed his offices to San Francisco, Mr. McCallum accepted a position as stenographer to the Good Roads Department of the state. He was also for a time employed in Gov. James H. Budd’s office, as assistant to Peter J. Shields, then the governor’s private secretary. He worked in this capacity during the last three years of the governor’s term in office, when he entered the service to Mr. Shields, who was then chosen Secretary of the State Agricultural Society; and with Secretary Shields he conducted two California State Fairs. Mr. McCallum resigned that position to accept the position of official court reporter of Glenn County, where he remained two years. He then removed to Butte County, and occupied himself in court reporting, horticulture and real estate, having gained an intimate knowledge of the horticultural possibilities of California through reporting and assisting in preparing the official reports of the California State Horticultural Society for ten consecutive years, at their meetings throughout various parts of California. As a result of his activities along this line, he began the development of the Butte County Canal, carrying on the preliminary work for two years, with the assistance of Thomas Fleming, who fifteen years before had attempted the enterprise. At that time Mr. McCallum interested his former employer, Hon. E. A. Bridgford, in the project, and together they succeeded in interesting San Francisco capital; and so feasible did the project prove to be, that in accordance with the preliminary plans and surveys presented by Mr. McCallum fourteen miles of the canal were at once begun, and were completed the same year. At this juncture Mr. McCallum sold his interest. During the period of the canal’s promotion he maintained real estate offices at Oroville and Gridley, and at the same time performed the duties of court reporter in Butte County. He was also the owner and publisher of the Gridley “Advance”; and together with H. C. Veatch, he laid out and sold the Veatch and McCallum Addition to Gridley, now one of the choicest residential sections of that city.
In line with his enterprising spirit, Mr. McCallum established agencies throughout the East, in order to promote his real estate interests here, in that way reaching people in many parts of the United States; and from these preliminary efforts on his part began the rapid subdivision and occupation of the large grain farms about Gridley. About the time he sold his canal interests, a fire occurred in Gridley, which ruined a large portion of that city’s business district, including Mr. McCallum’s offices and newspaper plant. His duties as court reporter were multiplying rapidly; money stringency throughout the country discouraged the promotion of all enterprises; and real estate sales were at the lowest ebb. As a result, Mr. McCallum decided to devote the next two years exclusively to rest and to court reporting. He also undertook the additional duties of Secretary of the Oroville Chamber of Commerce, which he performed for several years, and served the Butte County Citrus Association as its secretary during its organization and the first two years of its existence. It was during this time that he conceived the idea of a greater irrigation enterprise than had been already successfully completed, and which promised to be one of the largest, in California at that time. This was the present Great Western Canal, brought to completion in 1909. The field now covered by this canal comprises 207,000 acres of land in Butte and Glenn Counties, and it is planned to extend it over 400,000 acres.
In connection with these irrigation projects, Mr. McCallum displayed a remarkable foresight in a companion project, having to do with water transportation. His idea was to effect this from Biggs to the Sacramento River; and it now seems likely that this dream will be realized far beyond his anticipation, and that there will be water transportation from Oroville to the Sacramento River. It was at this time, in appreciation of his expert services as court reporter of Butte County, that Mr. McCallum received an offer from the counties of Yuba and Sutter for his services in the same capacity. He is now the official reporter for these three counties—Butte, Yuba and Sutter. His home is at Oroville. In the foothill region, seventeen miles from the city, he is bringing to maturity a large apple and Bartlett pear orchard.
Mr. McCallum was married twice. In Willows, he was united with Miss Emma P. Frew, who died eight years later. Two children survive her—Frances Emma, and Duncan F. In 1906, he married Miss Leone Lantz, of Honcut. A daughter, Jean is the issue of this marriage. Mr. McCallum finds time for participation in the social and political affairs of the county. He is a Democrat who has always stood for the highest ideals of democracy.
Transcribed
by Sharon Walford Yost.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1329-1331, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2010 Sharon Walford Yost.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies