Butte County
Biographies
JAMES L. STRODE
JAMES L. STRODE.—Through his connection with
various ranch and gardening interests, Mr. Strode is well known to the people
of Butte County. He was born near Monmouth, Warren County, Ill.,
August 21, 1874, on the farm and in the same house where his father,
William Strode, was born. The grandfather, Levi Strode, was a pioneer of Warren
County. The father first brought his family to Sutter, Cal., in 1874, later
returning to Page County, Ill., and from there moving to Decatur County, Kans.
In 1888 he located again in Sutter County and purchased a farm of forty acres
near Meridian, where he began gardening. Marysville was his market, and he had
one and two teams on the road hauling his products. In 1898 he returned to
Kansas, and from there he removed to Salem, Ore., where he died in March, 1916.
The mother was Maria Wiltsey, daughter of Adolph Wiltsey; she was born in Indianapolis, Ind., and now
resides in Chico.
James L. Strode received his education in
Iowa, Kansas, and California. He came to California when fourteen years of age,
and worked at farming and gardening, raising beans, sweet potatoes, Irish
potatoes and water melons. The products were hauled to Marysville and Colusa,
and to Lake and Mendocino Counties. In 1898 the ranch was sold, and Mr. Strode
moved to Petaluma, and from there to Chico, in 1900,
purchasing twenty acres on the Bidwell tract. The ranch was unimproved, and his
residence was the first house on the third subdivision of the Bidwell ranch,
built on Bidwell Avenue.
Mr. Strode set out ten acres to Muir and
Lovell peaches and put in ten acres of alfalfa. This ten-acre field of alfalfa
he sold, and bought another ten acres at the end of Bidwell Avenue on the Bey tract, which he planted to alfalfa. This last ten acres
he traded for twenty acres of peach and prune orchard adjoining his old place
on the Bidwell tract, and sold six acres of his original tract, leaving him an
orchard of twenty-four acres in all. In addition to his own ranch he has leased
the Malloy orchard for twelve years, where he has the care of the prune
orchard. Mr. Strode is also engaged in managing the rock crusher for the
county. This is movable, and it has been used in crushing rock in the Sandy
Gulch, Wyandotte and Hazelbush districts. He has been
road overseer under Mr. Holmes.
Mr. Strode was married in Sutter County to
Miss Laura Burch, of Fredericktown, Mo., on June 15, 1898. She is the
daughter of George Burch, born in England, and Harriette
(Kidder) Burch, born in Ohio. Mr. Burch came to New York, and later removed to
Illinois. He was married in Michigan, afterwards returned to Illinois, and
finally moved to Madison County, Mo., where he died. In 1893, Mrs. Burch
brought the family to California, and she now lives in Chico. Mr. and Mrs.
Strode have one child, Howard C., now in the Chico High School.
Mr. Strode is a member of the Great Oak
Camp of the Woodmen of the World. He belongs to both the California Prune and
Apricot Association and the California Peach Association. His wife is a member
of the Women of Woodcraft. Mr. and Mrs. Strode are highly respected in their
community, and are interested in the progress and development of the county.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
09 July 2009.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Page 1209, Historic Record Co, Los
Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Marie Hassard.
Golden Nugget Library's
Butte County Biographies