Butte County
Biographies
JOHN EUGENE RUTHERFORD
JOHN EUGENE RUTHERFORD.--A descendant of a pioneer who was one of the progressive and public-spirited citizens of Butte County, John Eugene Rutherford was born on his father’s ranch near Wyandotte, June 22, 1868. The Rutherfords are of Scotch descent, but for several generations they have been purely American.
John T. Rutherford, father of John Eugene, was an early pioneer in California, and was a son of Robert R. Rutherford, a native of Tennessee and a carpenter by trade, who also followed farming to some extent. Robert R. Rutherford was a California pioneer of 1850. In 1827 this intrepid pioneer set out with his family to make a new home in what was then the wild Western section of our country. Locating in Washington County, Ark., he there took up the life of an agriculturist, which he followed until the country began to become thickly settled. Then, in 1850, he came to the more remote West, crossing the plains, and after his arrival in California engaged in market gardening in Sacramento County, on the American River, for one year, after which he went back to Arkansas. The call of the Pacific Coast country was in his blood, however, and after three years spent in his home county he again decided to come to California, and with his family--consisting of his wife, who was in maidenhood Anna Tyston, a native of Tennessee, and their three daughters and four sons--came overland to California.
John T. Rutherford was born in Washington County, Ark., October 10, 1831, and there attended the common schools. In 1850, he accompanied his father across the plains; but two years later he returned to Arkansas with his brother William, and spent two years in college at Fayetteville, after which he came back to join the family in California. He brought a band of cattle back with him, and from that beginning founded the fortune he accumulated in this state. He located on a quarter section of land near Wyandotte that he took up from the government; and as he succeeded he added to his holdings until he owned some three thousand acres, on which he was extensively engaged in raising cattle for many years. He fully improved the place, and made it one of the best homes in this section of the county.
While on a visit back to his old home in 1859, Mr. Rutherford married Jane Mitchell, a native of Arkansas. Eight children were born to them: James Edward, in charge of the Wyandotte ranch property; Alfred Lee, horticultural commissioner of Stanislaus County; Minnie, Mrs. R. S. Powers, of Oroville; Frank Mitchell, late of Nevada County, who was an attorney in Truckee and ex-assemblyman from that county; John Eugene, of this review; William David, who was a school teacher and member of the county board of education, and who died at Bangor; Robert C., a farmer at Wyandotte; and George Ernest, formerly principal of the Truckee High School, who made a trip back to England to gather material for the Rutherford genealogy, and died soon after his return to California.
John Eugene Rutherford was reared and educated in the Wyandotte section of Butte County, and from a boy has been familiar with the stock business. He learned to ride the range and rope and brand the cattle, and in due time was placed in charge of the cattle on his father’s large ranch. In 1909 he gave up the management of the stock on the home place to engage in the raising of cattle on his own responsibility, and for that purpose bought his present ranch, formerly known as the old Sanborn place. He now has three thousand acres of land, and raises some fine high-grade Shorthorn and Durham stock, running about five hundred head on the home place; and he is also interested in the sheep business. There is a quarter section near Buck’s Ranch where he has his summer range. His brand is JR, on the right hip. Since 1915, Mr. Rutherford has been growing rice with success.
On the Rutherford ranch are several small lakes, which, during the hunting season, abound with wild geese and ducks and afford splendid hunting. The Rutherfords have established a game preserve on the ranch, and are equipped to entertain guests during the shooting season. They run an auto stage from Gridley to accommodate the sportsmen who visit them annually. On account of the rice and grain fields near by, the game is plentiful, and the place is a favored spot for hunters.
John
Eugene Rutherford was married in Oroville, on January 28, 1896, to Mary A.
Hoad, born on the old Hoad ranch near Merrimac, a daughter of Henry Hoad, an
Englishman and a forty-niner in California, of whom mention is made on another
page of this history. Mr. and Mrs. Rutherford have a daughter, Prudence
Elizabeth, living at home. Mrs. Rutherford has been of much assistance to her
husband in the management of their ranching interests. Soon
after her marriage, when about twenty years old, she began riding the range
with her husband. She thus became an expert horsewoman, and learned to
throw the reata and to brand cattle. She began teaching her daughter to ride
when she was four years old, and when she was six she rode the range with her
father. Mr. and Mrs. Rutherford are members of the Plumas National Reserve
Cattle Growers’ Association. The aid given Mr. Rutherford by his wife has been
instrumental in preserving the family fortune, and to her is due great credit
for being a good manager as well as an able helpmate.
Transcribed by Vicky
Walker, 1/3/08.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 605-606, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2007 Vicky
Walker.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies