Butte County
Biographies
CHARLES WALLACE McLENNAN
CHARLES WALLACE McLENNAN.--An
independently situated and prominent citizen of Butte County, who is active as
a Native Son--and very naturally so, for he is interested, through the
associations of his father, in pioneer history--is Charles Wallace McLennan,
who was born at Volcano, Amador County, April 23, 1867, the son of Henry
Kenneth McLennan, a native of Malone, Franklin County, N. Y., where he was born
on May 15, 1833, of Scotch descent.
John McLennan, the father of Henry McLennan, came from Scotland
to the United States in 1800, when he
was three years old; and growing up here, he met and married Miss Jane Charles,
an attractive Scotch lassie, who had also come to the United
States in her childhood. Seven children were
born to Mr. and Mrs. John McLennan, and the fifth of these was Henry Kenneth,
who was reared and
educated in
New York, and for a while clerked
in a wholesale house in the metropolis.
After
coming out to California by way of the Isthmus, Henry K.
McLennan first took up work in San Francisco,
driving a city stage for Crim and Bowman, the
stage-line proprietors. After a year there, however, he moved on to Tuolumne
County, and opened a meat market
there with a partner, continuing the same until 1856. Then he went on to Calaveras
County, and for several years
busied himself at teaming and ranching. In
1869, he again changed his place of residence, this time
moving to Sacramento; and after engaging in business
for a while, he became a traveling salesman for a wholesale concern of that
city. In 1877, Mr. McLennan came to Chico,
where he purchased a site and built a business house, which was considered
unusually modern and up-to-date for that time. When he sold his business in Chico,
he engaged in hotel management at Sacramento,
where he was proprietor, first, of the Capital Hotel, and then of the Union
Hotel. In the management of the latter he was active until his death, in 1905.
All his life he enjoyed a large circle of friends, and among them were Frank M.
Pixley, of the Argonaut, and R.
McEnesby,
who came on the same boat with him to San Francisco.
In
1866, Henry Kenneth McLennan was married to Miss Jennie Briggs, a native of Missouri,
by whom he had one child, Charles Wallace McLennan, the subject of our sketch.
The bride was the daughter of the Rev. Samuel Briggs, who crossed the plains
with his family to California,
and endured all the hardships of the early pioneer. He was a Presbyterian
minister, and was known for the fidelity with which he applied himself to the
arduous task of assisting to leaven the lump of crude early society in the
West. Mrs. McLennan died in 1872. Six years later Mr. McLennan married a second
time, wedding Mrs. Sarah McKim, a native of Illinois
and the daughter of M. T. Crowell; and by her he had one daughter, Florence
Cary. She proved a good mother to the son, Charles; and she now resides with
her daughter, who has become Mrs. Florence Tynan, of Salinas.
Mr.
McLennan was Grand Assistant Dictator of the Knights of
Honor; also District Deputy Grand Chancellor of his district and Master of the
Exchequer of the Pride of Butte Lodge, No. 69, K. of P. He was also active and prominent in the
city fire department, having served two years as chief engineer. In politics he
was a Republican; as he was fond of
saying,
"since the firing on Fort Sumter."
In
the early seventies, the McLennan family moved to Sacramento;
and with his parents went Charles, who finished his public school education
there, save for a year or two spent in Chico.
When eighteen years old, he entered the employ of the Chico Gas and Water
Company, and soon became engineer, holding that position for six and a half
years. He then went into the service of the Chico Milling Company as engineer;
and when this concern was succeeded by the Sperry Flour Company, he continued
to hold the same position. At the end of sixteen and a half years of service,
he resigned, in 1907, to go with the Diamond Match Company; and for a year he
was steam fitter at their various plants. In 1908, he started his well-known establishment
at 324 Broadway, where he hung out his shingle as a first-class tobacconist.
Besides
his other interests Mr. McLennan has three hundred eighty-two acres of farm
land at Cana, fourteen milks to the north of the town;
and there he raises barley and hogs, employing ten men to take care of his
alfalfa and barley. He is a stockholder of the First National Bank and also of
the People's Commercial and Savings Bank of Chico.
Mr.
McLennan was married at Chico to
Bernice Boyd, a native of
Illinois, by whom he has had one child, Walter Marian. He belongs to
Chico Lodge, No. 423, B. P. O. Elks, of which he is a Past Exalted Ruler; and
to Chico Parlor, No. 21, N. S. G. W., of which he is a Past President; and he
is also a member of the Woodmen of the World. A broad-minded Republican, he is
a member of the County Republican Central
Committee; and as a good citizen, willing at all times to
respond to civic duty, he was twice chief of the Chico fire department, having
joined the department in 1890, and having served both as foreman and as a
trustee.
Fond
of travel, and revering the memory of the substantial accomplishments of his
father, Mr. McLennan visited Panama three years ago, and followed in the
footsteps of his worthy sire, tracing out his route when, more than half a
century ago, he crossed the Isthmus on mule back on his way to the Golden West.
Transcribed by Sande Beach.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 654-655, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Sande Beach.
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