Butte County
Biographies
MRS. PEARLE RUTHERFORD
Among the
ablest educators of Butte County, whose services in behalf of a higher standard
of popular education will long be remembered by the communities with which she
has had official relations, and by the thousands with whom she has come into
more or less personal contact, is Mrs. Pearle Rutherford, the daughter of
George Aaronson, a pioneer who came across the plains to California in 1852,
setting out from St. Louis, in which city he was born. His father had come from New Jersey to
Missouri, and his mother died when he was only two years of age. When four years old, he accompanied an aunt
to California, and in this state he attended a country public school. He was reared on a farm, and then for a while
followed mining. Later he farmed near
Honcut. He died near Thermalito. George Aaronson’s wife had been Mary
Truesdale, a native of Chicago Heights, in Illinois. She is still living, an honored member of
Mrs. Rutherford’s household, while she has a son, George, a dredger foreman,
who is living at Thermalito.
The
youngest of the two children, Pearle Aaronson was brought up at Honcut, where
she attended the public school, after which she studied at and graduated from
the Wilkins Normal School at Marysville.
Thus finely equipped for work in the educational field, she began
teaching at Bangor, and continued school management in this county until 1899.
On October
25, of that year, and at the capital city of Sacramento, Miss Aaronson was
married to William D. Rutherford, who was born at Wyandotte, also a member of
an old pioneer family. His father, John
T. Rutherford, had come to California in the early fifties, and had shared with
others both the privations and the dangers in making his contribution toward
the establishment of the commonwealth.
William Rutherford attended the public school, and graduated from the
Stockton Business College, and finally entered upon the work of teaching in
Butte County. He became principal of the
Bangor School, and was later elected supervisor from the third supervisorial district,
in which office he served a term, making his residence at Bangor. In 1909, Mr. Rutherford resumed his
principalship at the Bangor School, and at that post he died, on May 22, 1910. He was a Mason, in active membership with the
Oroville Lodge, and belonged to Argonaut Parlor, No. 8, Native Sons of the
Golden West. When he died he left three
children: Thelma, who is a high school
graduate and is now a student at the San Jose Normal; Helen, a high school
student; and Robert.
After the
untimely death of her husband, Mrs. Rutherford assumed the principalship of the
Bangor School; and on the death of Mrs. Minnie Abrams, the superintendent of
school, she was appointed by the county board of supervisors to fill out the
term of the deceased. By virtue of her
office, Mrs. Rutherford became secretary of the County Board of Education. She is also a member of the executive board
of the Northern California Teachers’ Association. Mrs. Rutherford is a member of Amapola
Chapter, No. 119, O.E.S., and of the Orange Grove Lodge of Rebekahs.
Transcribed by Priscilla Delventhal.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 699-700, Historic Record Co, Los
Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Priscilla Delventhal.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies