Butte County
Biographies
KENNETH MCKENZIE
KENNETH McKENZIE.—The sturdy Scot, with his fine perception for details and
ability to succeed, is exemplified in Kenneth McKenzie, farmer and stockman
near Chico. Mr. McKenzie was born in Pictou County,
Nova Scotia, September 9, 1844. The father was Donald McKenzie, a native of
Nova Scotia, where he taught vocal and instrumental music as a young man, later
taking up agriculture. He was a man of sterling qualities, a stanch
Presbyterian, and lived a useful and exemplary life, dying at the age of
seventy-one at his home in Nova Scotia. The mother was Mary McClain, born in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, leaving there at the age of seven,
for Nova Scotia, where she grew up. Mr. McKenzie’s grandfather, Alexander
McKenzie, was born in Scotland, and later settled in Nova Scotia, where he
became an extensive land-owner. There were nine children in the family of
Donald and Mary McKenzie, Kenneth being the eighth child. An older brother,
William McKenzie, a well-to-do farmer residing on the old McKenzie homestead at
Green Hill, Pictou County, N.S., and Kenneth are the
only two now living. Another brother, J.J. McKenzie, M.A., Ph.D., died at the
age of thirty-two, as the result of an accident while zealously pursuing
scientific work, as a professor of physics at Dalhousie College at Halifax.
James A. Russell, of Ottawa, Canada, financial expert of the Dominion and a
personal friend of Balfour, ex-premier of England, is a cousin of our subject.
Kenneth McKenzie attended the public schools, growing up on
his father’s farm, where he worked until he was twenty-six years old, when he
came to California, in 1871, making the journey by steamer from Pictou to Boston, and by rail from there to San Francisco.
The end of his trip found him with but forty dollars, and alert for a place to work,
soon procured in Contra Costa County. He worked for John Tormey,
doing haying and gaining experience at farming, and proving himself a valuable
asset to Mr. Tormey. Mr. McKenzie then went to San
Francisco, intending to secure work as teamster, but instead he went into the
redwoods of Santa Cruz County, and with two partners made shakes for one
winter; the following year he went to work on the Bloomfield Ranch, for Miller
and Lux, about two miles below Gilroy.
Owing to the illness of a sister, he then took a trip back
to his home in Nova Scotia, remaining for nine months. On his return to
California, he visited the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Upon his
return he worked for Col. C.L. Wilson on his thirty-five-hundred-acre ranch at Nord, Butte County, and remained in his employ for four
years. In 1880 he started to farm for himself, renting a portion of the J.W.
Bowers Ranch on the Sacramento River, eight miles southwest of Chico, the next
year renting the Anton Litch Ranch, adjoining, giving
him an acreage of fifteen hundred acres. High water and low prices made it
difficult, but by perseverance he succeeded. He continued renting for some
time, adding the West Ranch to his area.
Mr. McKenzie left for his home in Nova Scotia for a second
visit of three months and upon returning to California purchased his first
land, two hundred fifty acres, in the spring of 1888, located one and one-half
miles west of Dayton, continuing his rental of large tracts besides. His
present commodious place represents a great expenditure in its improvement. He
has installed the Kewanee system of water works, which is the automatic
circulation of water by air pressure, regulated to start pumping at a pressure
of twenty-eight pounds and shut off at fifty pounds pressure, thus producing a
constant supply for domestic uses and the watering of lawns, stock, etc. The
ranch is one of the finest on the Dayton road; the residence and buildings have
a background of majestic walnut, chestnut, maple and locust trees, with a broad
expanse of symmetrical and orderly grounds. The ranch has seventeen acres of
prunes and five acres of almonds.
Mr. McKenzie was married to Miss Minerva Elizabeth Thompson,
of Missouri, on October 1, 1884. Her father was a strong supporter of the Union
and during the turbulent days of guerilla warfare he was killed by Confederate
outlaws. Six children have been born to them, two of whom died in infancy. The
four living are: Mary Elaine, the wife of T.W. Rogers, an extensive farmer and
land-owner, and with whom Mr. McKenzie is a partner now, in the operation of a
large rented ranch (Mr. Rogers cleared one hundred thousand dollars from his
farming in 1917); Charlotte Geneva, who is the wife of Leon Brink, a druggist
at Biggs, and who was a graduate of the Chico State Normal and who taught in
the schools of Dayton and Richmond, and who has a daughter, Bettie Helen;
Katherine V., a graduate of the Chico State Normal and a teacher at Dunsmuir;
Alice Tennyson, graduate of the Art School of the Chico State Normal, who is at
home.
Mr. McKenzie is now seventy-four, virile and active in his
pursuits, with a keen business judgment. He and his wife are members of the
Presbyterian Church in Chico, where their work in the missionary society is
widely felt. Mr. McKenzie takes an active interest in political affairs and in
the early convention days he attended numerous Republican county conventions as
a delegate from the Dayton voting precinct.
Transcribed by Vicky
Walker, 3/14/08.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 816-819, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Vicky
Walker.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies