Butte County
Biographies
MRS. NETTIE THOMPSON SMITH
MRS. NETTIE THOMPSON SMITH.—A native daughter of the Golden State, Mrs. Nettie
(Thompson) Smith was born at Nord, Butte County. She is a daughter of Thomas
Nelson Thompson, familiarly known as “Budd” Thompson, who was born in
Springfield, Ill., and who married there prior to traversing the plains in the
fifties with a band of pioneers in prairie schooners, in quest of a more
salubrious climate than that afforded by the severe winters of his native
state. The mother, in maidenhood Mary Bucher, of Swiss descent, was a native of
the Buckeye State.
Nettie Thompson was brought up on Pine
Creek from the age of seven, receiving her education in the public schools.
After completing her school life, she assisted her mother in the domestic
duties of the home until her marriage to Alonzo V. Smith, on
January 23, 1884. Mr. Smith was born near Dubuque, Iowa,
September 20, 1848, and crossed the plains at the age of ten years
with his father, Jacob Smith, in 1859. Brought up and educated in Pine Creek
district, he later attended the Oroville High School and the San Francisco
Business College. He was employed for a time as clerk in the store of Hibbard
and Sommers, in Chico; and afterwards learned
telegraphy, which, however, he gave up on account of the confinement connected
with that line of work. He then entered into partnership with his brothers, at
farming and stock-raising. The firm was known as Smith Brothers. They had a
stock ranch at Deer Creek Meadow, Tehama County, and also leased land. He
continued in this business until a year before he died, when the partnership
was dissolved and he sold his stock. Mr. Smith died on
September 13, 1912. He was trustee in Pine Creek District, and clerk
of the board. After his death, his wife continued the business of farming and
stock-raising, assisted by her son, Harry V. She owns one hundred twenty
acres on Pine Creek, and eighty acres five miles east, as also three hundred
twenty acres on Deer Creek. On the home place she raises grain and alfalfa,
irrigating from a pumping plant. Their cattle brand is 49.
Harry V. Smith, her only child, is a graduate of Chico High School,
and married Miss Mary Mitchell, a native of Ohio. They have two children,
Harriet Inez and Alice Lynette. Mrs. Smith raised a lad, her foster son,
from the age of two years, Clinton S. Lappeus,
who is now serving in the Coast Artillery, Company Four, in the United States
Army. She is a member of the Neighbors of Woodcraft, attends the Presbyterian
Church, and is a Republican.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
17 October 2009.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1243-1244, Historic Record Co, Los
Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Marie Hassard.
Golden Nugget Library's
Butte County Biographies