Colusa County
Biographies
JAMES OLIVER BANKS
When three brothers established
the Banks family in America one settled in New England, another went to
Virginia and the third went still further south. From the Virginian immigrant
was descended John Banks, a native of the Old Dominion and for years a resident
of Kentucky, where he followed the stone-mason’s trade, eventually removing to
Missouri. During the war of 1812 he went to the front and aided in defeating
the British. Among his children was a son, Oliver Hazzard
Perry Banks, who was born in Kentucky and died in California, after a lifetime
of agricultural activity in Missouri, where he made a specialty of raising of
hemp. By his marriage to Catherine Giddings, who was born in Tennessee and died
in Shasta county, Cal., he had ten children, only two
of whom survive at this writing. Two of his sons served in the Civil war,
namely: John, who died in Texas before the close of the Rebellion; and Samuel,
who was a member of Shelby’s regiment and later came to California, where in
1901 his death occurred.
The youngest member of the family,
James Oliver Banks, was born near Dover, Lafayette county,
Mo., March 25, 1845, and received a district-school education, supplemented by
attendance at the Dover high school. In 1864, in company with his parents, a
brother Samuel and a sister, Mrs. J. C. White, he crossed the plains with
mule-teams and arrived in California, remaining near Red Bluff for four months.
Later his father purchased land on the middle fork of the Cottonwood. In 1866
he returned to a more settled district and established headquarters near
College City, Colusa county, with his sister. Desiring
to gain a more complete education than the free schools rendered possible he
took a course in the Pacific Business College of San Francisco, from which he
was graduated in 1868. After a service of one year as deputy county assessor of
San Francisco county, he returned to College City, and
in 1871 settled on a tract of wild railroad land, four and one-half miles
southeast of Williams. His purchase comprised three hundred and sixty acres on
sections 21, 15 and 2. After breaking ground he engaged in raising grain, to
which he found the land was admirably adapted. By a subsequent purchase of
eighty acres of grain land near Williams he has acquired altogether four
hundred and forty acres, and now limits his attention to the cultivation of
this tract, although formerly he had charge of more than one thousand acres
each season. With the exception of the period of his service as deputy county
assessor of Colusa county under William Hard, he has
devoted his attention to agricultural pursuits, and stock-raising, and has had
little leisure and less inclination to participate in public affairs. Nor does
he take any part in politics aside from voting the Democratic ticket.
The marriage of Mr. Banks took place
in Downey, Los Angeles county, and untied him with Miss Nellie Henderson, who
was born in Missouri and in 1862 crossed the plains to California in company
with a sister and brother-in-law, the journey being made with oxen and wagons.
The two daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Banks are Virginia and Kittie,
both graduates of the Colusa high school, and the latter now a student in the
University of California. As one of the oldest remaining settlers on the
plains, Mr. Banks occupies a distinctive position among his acquaintances and
wields influence with them as a man of liberal views and excellent judgment.
During the long years of his residence on the same farm he has interested
himself in the improvement of the place. All of the buildings and fences were
erected under his personal supervision, all the trees were planted by him, and
in fact he has done everything to redeem the property from its original wild
condition. One of the interesting features of his lawn is a eucalyptus tree,
which he planted in 1876 and which is probably the largest in the entire
county, being nearly four feet in diameter, with a girth of eleven and one-half
feet.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: "History of the State of
California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento
Valley, Cal.," J. M. Guinn, Page
582. The Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago,
1906.
© 2017 Cecelia M. Setty.
Golden Nugget Library's Colusa County Biographies