Butte County
Biographies
WARREN B. TODD
WARREN B. TODD.—It is a far cry from delivering groceries in a wheelbarrow to spinning them along in an automobile, but that is what time, which surely, as an example of growth, speaks well, both for the community and for the merchant. Born in Kingston on Hudson, Ulster County, N.Y., May 28, 1860, he is the son of farmer folk. The father, John L. Todd, a native of Connecticut, followed that occupation in Kingston. He was descended from stock dating back to the landing of the Pilgrims. He was a volunteer in the Civil War, enlisting in the One Hundred Twenty-second New York Regiment, and saw service from ’61 to ’65, rising from a private in the ranks to the title of Major. He married Emily Utter, born in Kingston, of the old Knickerbocker stock, and they became parents of seven children, five girls and two boys, six of whom are now living. Both parents are dead.
The fourth child born to his parents, Warren B. Todd was brought up on the farm, and attended the public schools. In 1880 he began railroading, working as a fireman for the first six months, and then became an engineer. He followed this occupation for fifteen years, on the Ulster and Delaware Railway, then went to New York City and took a position as engineer on the New York Elevated Railway. While working on the Ulster and Delaware, in Kingston, as engineer, John F. Hylan, the present mayor of New York, then a farmer’s boy of Kingston, came to work for the company, and began at the bottom, wiping the locomotive Mr. Todd was driving. When Mr. Todd was later engaged as foreman in charge of the Elevated Railway yards in East New York, John Hylan came down to the city and Mr. Todd put his name on the bulletin board as fireman, and Hylan railroaded for a time, then studied law, opened an office, and was soon on the road to success. Mr. Todd resigned from the elevated and returned to Kingston as superintendent of motive power for the Kaaterskill Railway, continuing in this position four years, when the offices were consolidated. The then became a locomotive engineer of the railway, until he was sent to Oneonta, N. Y., as foreman of the roundhouse for the Ulster and Delaware Railway. After three years in the latter position, Mr. Todd resigned, and went to Milford, Del., where he bought some land and engaged in farming there for ten years. At the end of that time he sold his holding and removed to Seattle, Wash., and for nine months was proprietor of a hotel at Richmond Beach.
In the fall of 1906, Mr. Todd came to California, and in the spring of 1907, located in Chico. Here he bought the corner on Nord Avenue and Chico Creek, his present location, and started his grocery store in a small cabin. He had three hundred and eighty-five dollars left after paying for his land, and went to Sacramento and bought his grocery stock for three hundred dollars. When it came, he hauled it to his little store in a wheelbarrow. For a time he delivered by this same means of locomotion, and later, as the business grew, he bought a horse and buggy. The business grew rapidly, and Mr. Todd soon found it would be necessary to have larger quarters. He made the concrete blocks for his new store building during his spare time, wheeled the gravel up from Big Chico Creek, which adjoins his property, mixed the concrete and molded the blocks. He wheeled the blocks and plaster and put them in place, and did the carpenter work, and finally finished the building, a fine two-story structure, sixty by seventy feet, of fine architecture and exceptional inside finish, Mr. Todd having designed and built the entire building, which is one of the largest and finest grocery stores in Chico Vecino. He also built a large garage adjoining, likewise of concrete, and covering a floor space of eighty-five by sixty feet; and has erected two residences on his property, which consists of two acres. Mr. Todd was the first groceryman to deliver goods by automobile in Chico, and is an example of what a man can accomplish by close application and determination to succeed.
The marriage of Mr. Todd, near Kingston, N. Y., united him with Miss Markie Beach, born in Hunter, Greene County, in that state. Mrs. Todd was a daughter of Frederick and Amanda (Greene) Beach, natives of Connecticut and New York State respectively. Two of her uncles, George and Marcus Beach, were prominently identified with New York politics; the former was a candidate for governor at one time, and the latter was a judge of the Circuit Court, later became a cattle-buyer of Jersey City and a wealthy man. Frederick Beach gave the land for the terminal and yards of the Stony Clove and Catskill Mountain Railway and supplied water for them without charge. He died at Hunter, N. Y. On the maternal side Mrs. Todd had two uncles, Seth and William Greene, who were widely known as the originators of trout hatching. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Todd has been blessed with three children; Mildred A., who is at home; Edith A., Mrs. Mark Wood; and Cora E., Mrs. T.W. Bernardi, a graduate of Chico State Normal and a teacher before her marriage. She has one son, Theodore Warren.
Mr. Todd was made a Mason in Ridgewood Lodge, No. 710, A. F. & A. M., of New York City, and belongs to Ridgewood Chapter, No. 263, R. A. M. He was one of the organizers of Mt. Taber Lodge, No. 807, at Hunter, N.Y., and was the first Junior Warden of that order. He is now a member of the Temple Lodge, A. F. & A. M., of Milford, Del. He was also a member of Unity Division, No. 263, B. of L. E., of New Jersey.
Transcribed
by Joyce & David Rugeroni.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 877-878, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Joyce & David Rugeroni.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies