Butte County
Biographies
HARRY C.
SHUFFLETON
H. C. SHUFFLETON.--A native son of Butte County, H. C. Shuffleton was born at Chico, March 5, 1878. His father, John Henry Shuffleton, was born in New York State of English parents. The father removed to Fairfield, Iowa, with his parents, where he was left an orphan. He managed to make his own way, working for his livelihood. When news came of the gold discovery in 1849, his brother Hugh had gone to California, and a brother, Dudley, had followed him; so about 1852, when John Henry was about eighteen years of age, he arranged with a party to work his way by driving an ox team across the plains. After his arrival he mined in Shasta County for several years. During the Civil War he enlisted in a California regiment from Shasta County. Some time after the war he came to Butte County, and followed logging and lumbering on Chico Ridge. In 1879 he homesteaded eighty acres on Chico Ridge, the place now owned by our subject. He added to it until he had two hundred twenty acres, and followed farming, lumbering, and horticulture. He set out the first commercial apple orchard on the ridge. His death occurred in 1904. He was survived by his wife, who was in maidenhood Margaret Ann Deaver, a native of Fairfield, Iowa. She died on the home place, March 30, 1915. They were the parents of two girls and one boy, H. C. being the youngest.
H. C. Shuffleton was reared on the home farm and attended school in Forest school district. As a young man he entered the employ of the Sierra Lumber Company, continuing for some years, and then he worked at Sisson and later at Sanger in the same line. After his father’s death he returned home and took charge of the ranch, in 1905, engaging in horticulture and stock-raising. He purchased a five-hundred-sixty-acre ranch in Chico Canyon, well watered by springs and Chico Creek, and being well adapted to stock-raising. On the home place he is raising apples of different varieties. This orchard he helped his father set out and care for when he was a boy.
In Martinez, Cal., on June 26, 1915, occurred the marriage of H. C. Shuffleton and Lucy Margaret Nopel. Mrs. Shuffleton was born in Dongola, Ill., her father being Frederick Auguste Nopel, of French descent, who moved his family to Oakland, Cal., where he followed painting. His daughter, Lucy Margaret, was educated in the Oakland high school and the San Francisco Normal. Since July 1, 1916 she has been postmaster at Forest Ranch, a place she is well qualified to fill. To Mr. and Mrs. Shuffleton has been born one child, Margaret Christene. In the Forest district, where he received his education, Mr. Shuffleton is now serving as school trustee. Politically he has always espoused the cause of the Democratic party.
Transcribed
by Roseann Kerby.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1139-1140, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2010 Roseann Kerby.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies