Butte County
Biographies
GEORGE
R. MERADITH
GEORGE
R. MERADITH.--A resident of Butte County since 1911, George R. Meradith has
demonstrated his worth as a citizen of this progressive county. A native of Illinois, he was born near
Monmouth, Warren County, July 9, 1854.
He is a grandson of a Scotch immigrant who settled in Virginia. His father was James Meradith, a Virginian,
who moved to Kentucky, where he married Miss Elizabeth Thompson, a native of
the Blue Grass State. They later settled
in Coles County, Ill., and two years later moved to Warren County, where they
farmed until 1873. With the migratory
habits of the developers of a new country they located in Newton, Jasper
County, Iowa, where they lived for eight years, then joined their children who
were living in Nebraska. Both parents
died in York County, that state, the father at the age of seventy-six.
Of the nine children in the Meradith
family, George R. is the oldest of the four now living. He attended the public schools in Illinois
and from boyhood worked on a farm. When
the family removed to Iowa, he went with them and remained at home until he was
twenty-one, when he struck out for himself.
He leased some land in Jasper County and farmed it till 1880, when he
settled in York County, Nebr., still continuing his chosen occupation of
raising grain and stock. He prospered
financially and invested first in eighty acres, to which he added another
eighty as he could pay for it. In the
spring of 1890 he sold out and removed to Cheyenne County, that state, and
devoted four years to raising cattle, which he sent to the market. Upon returning to York County, Nebr., in
1894, he bought a half section of land in the western part of the county and
raised corn, cattle and hogs, which he shipped to the market at Omaha. In 1907, Mr. Meradith leased his farm, moved
to Henderson and engaged in the agricultural implement business for three
years, and then sold out.
Having purchased a ranch of two hundred
twenty acres in the Richvale district, Butte County, Cal., Mr. Meradith came to
this state in 1911 and located on the property and began its improvement. The next year he put in a crop of rice, which
he followed with a second crop, but since then has raised hay on his
property. He leased land under the
canal, and with his sons is engaged in growing rice there. They have had as many as four hundred acres
in that crop, which has yielded splendid returns. Since 1912 he purchased ten acres north of
Chico and improved it and sold it three years later to purchase his present
place in Chico.
On November 10, 1875, in Jasper County,
Iowa, Mr. Meradith was united in marriage with Miss Ida Lape. She was born in Warren County, Ill., a
daughter of Freeman and Monetta (Waldron) Lape, natives of New York State but
early settlers in Warren County, Ill., from whence they removed to Iowa. They died in Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. Meradith became parents of three
children: Ethel Beatrice, wife of C.M.
Hiebert, who is mentioned on another page of this work; Clifford Vern, farming
in partnership with his father; and Sidney Rex, a soldier in the United States
Army. Mr. Meradith was made a Mason in
Hampton, Neb., Lodge, A. F. & A. M.
He is a member of the Pacific Rice Growers' Association. Mrs. Meradith is a member of Josephine
Chapter, No. 104, O. E. S. Both are
members of the Christian Church, Mr. Meradith serving as one of the
trustees. In politics he is a
Republican.
Transcribed by
Rhonda Ruick O'Brien.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1179-1180, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Rhonda Ruick O'Brien.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County
Biographies