Butte County
Biographies
ALEXANDER J. WOOKEY
ALEXANDER J. WOOKEY.--Coming to Butte County when a young man of twenty-two, Andrew J. Wookey has been identified with its agricultural development ever since, and has won a high position in the esteem of his fellow citizens. A native of Missouri, he was born near Advance, Stoddard County, April 19, 1866, a son of Thomas C. Wookey, born in Bristol, England, who came to the United States as an emigrant and settled in Kenosha, Wis., where he farmed for a time. He then located in Stoddard County, Mo., before the war; but being a sympathizer with the North, he moved to Whiteside County, Ill, until after the war was over, when he returned to Missouri and farmed until his death, in the fall of 1869. He married Mary Elizabeth Bollinger, who was born in that state, and who died there in 1876, the mother of four children.
The youngest of the family, Andrew J. Wookey was reared in Missouri until he was fourteen, and then removed to Whiteside County, Ill., where he attended the public school and worked on the farm. In 1884 he returned to Missouri, where for one year he was foreman for his uncle, David Bollinger. Mr. Wookey then spent two years in the timbered section of Stoddard County, getting out timber by contract. The year 1888 was spent in farming there, after which he decided to come to California. He arrived in Chico on January 15, 1889. His aunt, Mrs. Eliza Wookey, had a ranch twelve miles north of Chico, and with her Andrew J. made his home, meanwhile working on ranches in the vicinity for six years. On February 28, 1894, Mr. Wookey was united in marriage with Mrs. Margaret (Fox) De Moss, born in Linn County, Kans. Her father, Presley Bryant Fox, was a Kentuckian, born in August, 1818. Her grandfather, John Fox, died in Kentucky. The father came to Missouri, where he married Mary Steward, a native of Kentucky; and they later moved to Linn County, Kans., and farmed for six years, after which they came across the plains with horse teams to California, in 1863, settling in Butte County. Mr. Fox engaged in ranching. Later he bought a claim and homesteaded what is now the site of Cana. He improved the place, and later added one hundred sixty acres. He was a public-spirited man. He gave the right-of-way to the Southern Pacific, and sold off the corner for the townsite of Cana, keeping two hundred thirty-six and one half acres for himself. Fifty acres of the land he deeded to a son, Presley Fox. Just as he was getting settled on the ranch, in December, 1863, his wife died, leaving the following children: Nancy, Mrs. Sessions, now deceased; Dicy, widow of J. Nelson Bennett; Susan, Mrs. Whitten, of Idaho; Presley, of Butte County, Cal.; Minerva, deceased; James, of Butte County; Mary, Mrs. Howard, of Cana; and Margaret, Mrs. Wookey. Mr. Fox spent his last days with his daughter, Mrs.Wookey, dying on their ranch in the Live Oak district on July 28, 1905, when in his eighty-seventh year.
After the marriage of Mrs. Wookey, he farmed the Fox ranch near Cana, and was manager of the property until Mr. Fox died, at which time he was also made administrator of the estate, to serve without bond, an evidence of the confidence Mr. Fox placed in him. He settled up the Fox affairs according to the will. The old ranch was left as an estate to Mrs. Wookey, Mr. Wookey, and a son of Presley Fox, named James Monroe Fox, who makes his home with the Wookeys. Mr. Wookey still managed the property, although living in Chico, where he moved to give his children the advantages of the city schools. He erected a residence on Oleander Street, between Eighth and Ninth Streets, where he lived until in Feburary 1916, when he moved onto a ranch of two hundred forty acres, located twelve miles north of Chico, which he had bought in 1902, and where he is raising grain and hogs, specializing in the Poland-China breed. He has put out sixteen acres to almonds, and already has an acre in bearing almonds, thus showing that the land is adapted to the cultivation of that nut.
Mr. Wookey served as a school trustee, and was clerk of the board of the Cana district; and he was also a trustee of Live Oak district in Tehama County. Both Mr. and Mrs. Wookey are stanch supporters of the Democratic Party. Mr. Wookey is a member of Great Oak Camp, No 136, W.O.W.
The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Wookey; Jessie, who married D. L. Miller and lives in Coffeyville, Kans.; Pearl, Mrs. Abildgard, of Chico; and George Dewey, assisting his father on the ranch. By her first marriage, Mrs. Wookey had three children: Charles De Moss, of Idaho; Arminta, Mrs. Boswell, of Oregon; and Carrie, Mrs. Sage, of Oakland. Mr. Wookey is recognized as an upbuilder of the county. He believes in progress, and has set out the first commercial almond orchard in his section.
Transcribed
by Rhonda Ruick O'Brien.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1263-1265, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Rhonda
Ruick O'Brien.
Golden
Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies