Butte County
Biographies
MRS. MARY E. POWER
MRS. MARY E. POWER.--To the pioneer
women of California, no less than to the pioneer men, are due to the honor and
respect of the generations that have followed, for, without their loving
sympathy and support there had been no civilization carved out of the
wilderness and no homes built in lonely places where wild beasts roamed by day
and night. They have borne their share in the making of this great state and
their names are held in loving remembrance in the hearts of the children of the
Golden West, and will continue so to be through all generations to come.
A
prominent place among the women who have left their impress on the development
of Butte County must be accorded Mrs. Mary E. Power, wife of D. W. Power, a
rancher living ten miles southwest of Chico. Mrs. Power is a native daughter,
and was born on the ranch where she now lives, in January, 1859. Her father,
Robert Wright, was born in Ireland and came to the United States and
settled in Bangor, Me. There he was
married to Ann Clark, also born in Ireland. They came to California in 1857,
farmed on rented land in Butte County until they got enough ahead to become
land owners. They then bought the nucleus of the ranch that now contains five
hundred thirty-one acres, and here Mr. Wright improved a home place and lived
until his death, at the age of forty-nine years. His wife lived to the age of
seventy. They had two children: Mary E., of this review; and Matilda Elizabeth,
now the wife of Edward Fell.
Mary
Wright grew up on the ranch and attended the public school on the Parrott
grant. At the age of twenty she married David W. Power, an Englishman, and an
active participant in all progressive movements for the public welfare. They
have had eight children. Robert Wright, a rancher near Woodland; Roy, a
beekeeper living at home; Roscoe, operating the home ranch; David, a volunteer
in the Second California Infantry, now in the One
Hundred Fifty-ninth United States Infantry; Everett, also a volunteer in the
same regiment; Ellen, who is Mrs. Virgil Pembroke of Summers, Mont.; Lena, a
graduate from the Chico State Normal and now teaching the Parrott School; and
Pearl, a student at the Chico High School. The Power ranch is highly improved
and good crops of grain are raised, and some good stock is marketed each year;
the twenty acres of almonds add to the annual income. Mrs. Power is proud of
her position as a pioneer and, with her husband, holds a high place in the
esteem of their many friends.
Transcribed by Sande Beach.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 459-460, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2007 Sande Beach.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies