Butte County
Biographies
CHARLES L. VANSCHOIACK
CHARLES L. VANSCHOIACK.--An enterprising farmer near Cana, Butte County, Charles L. Vanschoiack was born near Richmond, Ind., May 18, 1855. His father, L. T. Vanschoiack, was born at Mays Lick, Ky., December 18, 1812. The grandfather, Benjamin Vanschoiack was born in the Mohawk Valley, N. Y., of old Knickerbocker stock. The original name was spelled Van Skike, but was changed to the above form. Benjamin Vanschoiack removed to Kentucky, where he was a farmer. He married Martha Allen, a cousin of Ethan Allen, the hero of Ticonderoga. L. T., the father of Charles L., was a school teacher, who removed to Indiana, where he followed his profession, and there, near Richmond, he was married, in 1838, to Esther Ann Bulla, born in Indiana, the daughter of Isaac and Esther (Wade) Bulla, of North Carolina, who were members of the Society of Friends and who settled in Wayne County, Ind. Isaac Bulla served under General Jackson in the Seminole Indian War, in Florida, taking part in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. He died in Indiana.
After his marriage, L. T. Vanschoiack was a farmer near Richmond, Ind. Ind. In 1862 he removed to Marshall County, Ind., locating on a farm on Lake Maxinkuckee, and there he died, July 7, 1907, almost ninety-five years of age. His wife had preceded him, dying October 18, 1898. Of the twelve children born to them, ten grew to maturity, but only three are living.
Charles L. was the ninth child in order of birth. He went to Northern Indiana with his parents, when he was seven years old. His education was obtained at the public schools and in the Northern Indiana State Normal at Valparaiso. He graduated from the commercial course in November 1878, having worked his way through the Normal by teaching. After graduation he followed teaching for some years. In 1881, he was married in Marshall County, Ind., to Miss Celia Medbourn, a native of Lorain, Ohio, the daughter of Samuel and Ann Medbourn, who were born in Northamptonshire, England, and who migrated to Indiana, where they became farmers.
In April 1883, Mr. Vanschoiack removed to near Watertown, S. Dakota and on April 2, 1883, filed on a one-hundred-sixty-acre homestead which he improved purchasing one hundred sixty acres adjoining. He farmed a half section till 1889, when he sold the farm and returned to Indiana, there engaging in a mercantile business in Culver until 1899. In that year he removed to Edmunds, N. Dak., where he also engaged in general merchandising. In 1908, he sold out and removed with his family to Butte County, Cal., purchasing a ranch of twenty acres in Pleasant Valley, two and one-half miles from Chico, and engaging in horticulture. He set out an orchard of peaches, almonds and cherries, and also engaged in raising poultry. In 1917, he traded ten acres of his ranch for his present place of one hundred acres, near Cana and is raising grain and stock, specializing in raising registered Poland China hogs. Having a fine herd of pure-bred hogs, he has appropriately named his ranch “Rancho de Poland.” He still owns a ten-acre orchard in Pleasant Valley.
Mr. and Mrs. Vanschoiack have three children: Dennis Edwin and Frank T. are assisting their father, and Maggie L., who is Mrs. Thompson, lives in Fargo, N. Dak. In Culver, Ind., Mr. Vanschoiack was the first to sign the petition naming the place Culver in honor of Mr. Culver, the manufacturer. He served as trustee of schools in Culver, and was also a school trustee in North Dakota. With his wife, he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Chico. Enterprising and progressive, he is a Republican and protectionist.
Transcribed
by Sharon Walford Yost.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1183-1184, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Sharon
Walford Yost.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies