Butte County
Biographies
MRS. ELLA C. SWINNEY SMUCK
MRS. ELLA C. SWINNEY SMUCK.--A
representative of a substantial early California family, who naturally displays
her patriotism by a desire to do honor to the self-sacrificing pioneer, is Mrs.
Ella C. Swinney Smuck, the
daughter of Mrs. Frank Hartman, whose life is outlined at greater length in a
biographical sketch of her husband found on another page of this work. Mrs. Smuck was born near Magalia, Butte County, the daughter of
James Fountain Swinney, a native of Missouri, of
Scotch descent; and in that state he was reared, an only child, until he was
eighteen years old. Then, in 1849, he came to California and settled in
Cherokee, Butte County, where he was first a miner and then a farmer. He was
also in the butcher business in Cherokee, and raised his own stock for market,
and he dealt in horses and cattle. He had a farm five miles this side of Chico,
on Butte Creek, and when he sold this property he located in Oroville. There he
was sick for several years, and died at the age of forty-eight, survived by a
wife and eight children.
Mrs. Smuck’s
mother was America Friend before her marriage, a native of Iowa, and the
daughter of John Friend, a pioneer who crossed the plains to California with
the usual outfit of ox-teams when America was only eleven years of age.
Arriving in California, he settled at Cherokee; and at Pentz
he died, nearly eighty years of age. Oroville was then a shingle town on the
river, and he went on to Cherokee. Her grandfather was an old-time miner, and
one of the two children was Mrs. Muncil, now of San
Francisco, enjoying life at the age of eighty-two years. A second time her
mother married, becoming the wife of Frank Hartman; she died at her home in
Oroville, July 4, 1917.
The eldest of eight children born to Mr.
and Mrs. Swinney, Ella Swinney
was brought up on a farm until she was seventeen, and attended the public
schools at Durham Station and then at Oroville. Here, also, on
July 28, 1889, she was married to Thomas Smuck,
a native of Canada, who came to California when a young man, and went back and
forth several times between the Dominion and the Pacific Coast. He entered
business and had a hay and feed yard on the site of
the Northern Electric depot. He owned nearly the whole block, and had three
large barns for storage, and there he continued in business until his death, on
May 3, 1904, sixty-six years of age.
Following his demise, Mrs. Smuck rented the yards to the Sperry Flour Company, and
when the Northern Electric came that way, it purchased half of her property,
leasing much of the rest. The new depot is built on the corner of her lot. She
bought a comfortable residence at 520 Wilcox Street, and like her husband has
become known for her activity in both Republican and Methodist circles. Her
four children are: Naomi, Mrs. W. Jackson, of Oroville; Lucinda, who
is with the Telephone Company; Thomas, in the United States Service; and
Hattie, Mrs. Lewis, of Oroville.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
02 August 2008.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages
1001-1002, Historic
Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Marie Hassard.
Golden Nugget Library's
Butte County Biographies