Butte County
Biographies
ALBERT I. THATCHER
ALBERT I. THATCHER.—One of the successful business men of Butte County, Albert I. Thatcher has been a well known character in this section of the state for many years. He is a native of the Hoosier State, where he was born in 1867, a son of George W. and Margaret A. (Graybell) Thatcher. The father first crossed the plains to California about 1852, and was one of the pioneer miners of the west. On his second trip, in 1874, he brought his wife and five children with him, and settled in Napa County for three years, then came to Butte County and engaged in the teaming business until he retired from active life. His death occurred in Chico, in 1916, at seventy-nine years. The mother passed away here thirty years ago. They were the parents of five children, all living at the present time.
The oldest child in the family, A. I. Thatcher, was brought up in Butte County, attending the public schools in Placer and Napa Counties. From sixteen to nineteen years of age he helped his father, driving a team for him. When twenty he entered the employ of O. F. Martin and engaged in hauling freight from Chico to Plumas County, driving a team of ten to twelve horses, to Prattville and Greenville, for twenty summers. The next five years were spent in driving big freight teams for Robert Costar over the same route. Then the railroad was put through and teaming was a thing of the past, the rushing trains taking the place of the more romantic teams and stages, with their several spans of horses, which had wound in and out among the mountains for so many years.
During the winter months, when the roads were impassable, Mr. Thatcher had followed carpentering, in Chico, and built many houses in the city and surrounding country. While teaming he had also learned the blacksmith and wagon-repairing business, having a shop on Park Avenue at the Martin residence, and doing his own repair work and horse-shoeing while on the road, and also doing the same for Robert Costar. Consequently when teaming was no more, he had two trades open to him. He first worked as carpenter for O. F. Martin, building his residence and barns, at Chester. In February, 1913, Mr. Thatcher built his present blacksmith and wagon shop, on Third Street and Park Avenue, Chico, and engaged in a general blacksmith business, using electrical power in his woodwork shop. Included in the business is a service station for automobiles, and automobile supplies.
Mr. Thatcher built his residence, adjoining, and has made this his home since 1900. His marriage, which occurred in Oroville, united him with Miss Rosa Skipworth, a native of Kentucky, and one child has been born to them, Hazel, a graduate of Heald’s Business College, now Mrs. F. W. Smith of Petaluma. Fraternally, Mr. Thatcher is a member of Great Oak Camp, Woodmen of the World. In politics he has always been a Republican.
Transcribed
by Sharon Walford Yost.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1156, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Sharon
Walford Yost.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies