Contra Costa County
Biographies
BRYCE B. McLELLAN
The dairy at Durham farm, operated by McLellan & Guthrie, is one of the largest enterprises in the vicinity of Stege, supplying milk and cream to San Francisco and Oakland. The dairy has been in operation since 1884, when Bryce B. McLellan, the senior partner, came to this section and leased three hundred acres of land, calling it Durham farm, and installing thereon a small dairying concern. Increased demand for his products has resulted in gradual additions of cattle, until now three hundred cows are required to supply the trade in both towns. Mr. McLellan lives on the ranch and attends to the milking and shipping, while Mr. Guthrie makes his home in San Francisco and manages the reception and delivery at that end of the line. Years of experience in supplying the public has established an enviable reputation for the Durham farm and its promoters, and its resident manager is one of the most popular and successful men in the business in Contra Costa county.
Born on a farm in Orleans county, Vt., October 25, 1852, Mr. McLellan is of good old Scotch ancestry, established in the country in 1849 by his father, John, who came with his wife, Martha (Young) McLellan, to Vermont, settling on a none too fertile mountain farm. Long since a widower, John McLellan still lives in Vermont, and visited at intervals by his four daughters and three sons, nearly all of whom have scattered to different parts of the country, and are established in homes of their own. Bryce, the second, received both a common school and academic education, and when grown to manhod (sic) married Lizzie J. Guthrie, who also was born in Vermont, and who died in California. The present Mrs. McLellan was formerly Mrs. Charlotte E. (Miller) Benedict, a native of New York. In 1876 Mr. McLellan decided to cast his fortunes with the far west, and after landing in San Francisco put his extensive dairying knowledge to practical use, having at the time about twenty-five cows. Receiving the encouragement of a large trade, he decided to locate where land was cheaper and better adapted to his purpose, and in 1884 located on his present land, since used for one of the model dairies of the state. He has ample facilities for carrying on dairying according to the most approved methods, and the aspiring young dairyman, anxious to succeed in his business, would find innumerable practical suggestions from a visit to this clean and well managed farm. Mr. McLellan is a stanch but not active Republican, and he is a generous and useful member of the Presbyterian Church.
Transcribed
9-17-16 Marilyn
R. Pankey.
ญญญญSource: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 1326-1327. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
ฉ 2016 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Contra Costa County Biographies