Colusa County
Biographies
JOHN C. AHLF
The removal of the Ahlf family from their native Germany and their settlement in California was the means of bringing to them a degree of independence and prosperity that would have been impossible in the old home. It was during 1851 that Henry Ahlf crossed the plains in the primitive manner then necessary and cast in his fortunes with the new and undeveloped state of California. Shortly afterward he settled on a tract of land two miles north of Colusa on the east side of the Sacramento river, where he and his wife, Mattie, reared their five children and labored indefatigably to get a solid position financially. Being excellent managers and economical, they were successful from the first. Eventually he erected a brick residence with modern improvements, and here they still make their home, enjoying in their old age the comforts worthily won by their united exertions in younger years.
The eldest of the five children in the family was John C., who was born on the home farm near Colusa August 21, 1861, and there early was trained to habits of industry and energy. Primarily educated in a private school, later he was sent to the Colusa public school and in 1879 entered the San Jose State Normal, where he was a student for two and one-half years. His education was completed in Heald’s Business College at San Francisco, from which he was graduated in 1883. For two years afterward he followed mercantile pursuits, but in 1885 came to the old Calmes rancho one and one-half miles southwest of Colusa, where he was employed as foreman for Mr. Calmes. In 1893 he began to operate the property independently and now has charge of thirteen hundred acres here, as well as land adjoining. At one time he rented two thousand acres of adjacent property, but more recently he has curtailed his operations. Like other farmers of this section he makes a specialty of grain and stock and has on his ranch fine grades of hogs, horses and cattle. In the harvester, with a sixteen-foot cut, and runs four eight-horse teams.
The large agricultural interests which Mr. Ahlf controls do not represent the limit of his activities. On the organization of the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Colusa he became one of its stockholders and still owns shares in this flourishing institution. Another movement whose incipient history he was identified with, the Farmers’ Storage Company, owes much to his encouragement and practical assistance as an original stockholder and director, his work being helpful in the building of the company’s large warehouse in Colusa. The first marriage of Mr. Ahlf united him with Miss Sue Calmes, who was born in California and was a daughter of Waller Calmes, a Kentuckian by birth and a pioneer of Colusa county. At the death of Mrs. Sue Ahlf, which occurred in Colusa, she left an only daughter, Mildred Gray. The present wife of Mr. Ahlf, whom he married at Yuba City, was Mrs. Fannie (Winship) Gamsby, whose birth occurred in Sutter county, her parents having been pioneers of that part of the state.
Source: "History of the State of
California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento
Valley, Cal.," J. M. Guinn, Pages
583-584.
The Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, 1906.
© 2017 Joyce Rugeroni.
Golden Nugget Library's Colusa County
Biographies