Butte County
Biographies
JACOB A. ONSTOTT
JACOB A. ONSTOTT.– An extensive and prosperous
rancher who began at the bottom as a young man, without any backing or
influence, and became a self-made and influential man, and who, by hard labor
and intelligence brought his farm interests up to the highest scientific
standard, was Jacob A. Onstott, now deceased, the
well-known pioneer of Butte and Sutter Counties, and a native of Muskingum
County, Ohio, where he was born on May 30, 1835. He was the son of Henry and
Hannah (Fuerl) Onstott,
natives of Pennsylvania, his father having been a dealer in live stock, who
also conducted a country store near Zanesville, Ohio.
On January 20, 1852, while he was still a
young man, Jacob sailed from New York for California, coming across the Isthmus
of Panama and landing in San Francisco. The ship was literally full of
gold-seekers, and for the greater part of the trip they were herded like cattle
below decks. After an experience that bordered on hardship, he arrived in
Marysville, a mere lad; and with his blankets on his back he started for the
mines at Downieville, and from 1852 to 1864, he was
more or less successful in his search for the yellow metal. During these years
of mining, and also of teaming and freighting to the mines in Nevada County, he
made and lost three different fortunes. Finding mining too hazardous from a
financial viewpoint and very unsatisfactory in the long run, he decided to give
up mining for the more certain industry of ranching. It was in 1864 that he
purchased one hundred sixty acres of government land located two miles west of
Yuba City, in Sutter County, on which he located. Having acquired the original
title to the property he was desirous of handing it down to his family intact,
and was able so to keep it, and his family after him,
that there never has been a change in the ownership, never the scratch of the
pen to alter the original title. From the beginning he was a successful farmer
and stock-raiser, and added to his holdings until his Sutter County ranch
comprised two thousand four hundred acres, which, for many years, he farmed to
grain.
But Mr. Onstott
had other valuable property than that which he so wisely managed in Sutter
County. He also possessed a number of fine ranches in Butte County. One of
these was the Sligar Ranch of four hundred acres;
another was the Dr. Horton Ranch of a hundred sixty acres, while a third was
the River Ranch on Feather River, a rich area of four hundred acres. At the
time of his death, on September 9, 1912, it was generally conceded that Mr. Onstott was one of the most successful farmers in the
Sacramento Valley.
On March 18, 1875, Mr. Onstott
married Rebecca Sligar, a native of Missouri who came
across the plains with her parents in 1854, when she was a child in her second
year. She is still living, the mother of seven children: Lulu is the wife of F.
S. Walton; Glenn and Frederick A. are the next born, while Maude, Ethel
(Mrs. McDornagh), and Hobart are
the youngest. Mamie, the third oldest, died at
sixteen years of age. Glenn is in charge of the old home place in Sutter
County.
Fred A. Onstott,
who has had charge in recent years of the three Butte County farms, was born on
the old home ranch in Sutter County, September 16, 1880, and attended the
public schools of Yuba City. Then he became associated with his father and
brother in the development of the ranches, and solved successfully the problems
presented with the passing of time. Formerly grain was the chief product raised
there, but of late diversified farming has been carried on, as well as
horticulture and viticulture. After the death of Jacob A. Onstott, the members of his family incorporated all of his
holdings under the name of Onstott Estate Company,
all joining harmoniously and in mutual confidence in operating the lands, and
they are proud and happy in thus being able to keep their worthy sire’s vast
holdings together.
Fred A. Onstott
married Lita La Point, a native of Biggs, whose
father, N. La Point, of French descent, is a pioneer and well-known merchant of
Biggs. Two sons, Fred A., Jr., and Gordon, have blessed this union.
Both Glenn and F. A. Onstott
are Masons of the Knight Templar degree, as well as Shriners,
and also members of the Marysville Lodge of Elks. Hobart, the youngest, was
associated with his brothers in their farming operations until he entered
service in the United States Army.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
19 July 2008.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages
990-993, Historic Record
Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Marie Hassard.
Golden Nugget Library's
Butte County Biographies