Colusa County
Biographies
GEORGE FOX PACKER
Long association with the
agricultural interests of Colusa county and close identification with movements
for the upbuilding of the same have made Mr. Packer one of the most prominent
figures in this portion of the Sacramento valley. A half century, lacking only
a few years, has elapsed since he cast in his lot with the few settlers of this
county and began the task of developing a ranch from the wild prairie soil. A
man of large affairs, with the executive ability needed for their management,
he easily won his way to prominence and became known as one of the most
successful agriculturists of the valley. Nor has age weakened his intellectual
powers or lessened his interest in the prosperity of the county and valley; on
the other hand, while the years have taken from him a capacity for long
physical endurance, they have made a recompense in
their accumulating fund of experience and mental grasp.
The early settlement of Pennsylvania
attracted hither from England the family of Packers, who were active members of
the Society of Friends. Job Packer, a native of the Keystone state, resided
successively in Center, Venango and Clarion counties were he acquired extensive
lumbering interests. While on a visit to a son in Tennessee he died at
sixty-five years of age. By his marriage to Orpha
Wilson, who was born in Center county, Pa., and died
in Clarion county, he had nine children, but only three are now living.
Marshall, a California pioneer of 1852, and William, who came in 1854, both
died in this state. While George Fox Packer was a native of Center county (born
May 23, 1821), he was reared in Venango and Clarion counties and received his
education in subscription schools there. At that time pig iron was manufactured
in Clarion county and shipped by the Clarion and Alleghany rivers to Pittsburg,
and when he became twenty-one he embarked for himself in the building of
flatboats, loading them with pig iron, which he delivered in Pittsburg. The
first railroad iron manufactured west of the Alleghany mountains he freighted
to Pittsburg, whence it was delivered to Cincinnati, Ohio, and from there sent
to Madison, Ind., being the first iron ever landed at that point.
At the age of thirty years Mr.
Packer disposed of his interests in the east and started for California by the
Panama route. After walking across the isthmus he took a sailing vessel for San
Francisco and on landing pursed his way to the mines at Deer creek, thence to Downieville. During the three years of his work as a miner
at Downieville he engaged in building flumes and also
built the first water power derrick in the entire state. In 1854 he gave up
mining and opened a meat market at Downieville. In
order to buy stock for the market he traveled over the entire Sacramento valley
and in this way was able to investigate properties and conditions. During 1859
he sold his market and purchased fifteen hundred acres, forming a part of the
grant of the Larkins heirs. The land he developed
from the wild prairie and devoted it to stock and grain raising. Later he
purchased six thousand acres above Princeton, which he called the Clarion
ranch, in memory of his old Pennsylvania home. On the river, at Packer’s
Landing, he built a warehouse of iron, which was then considered the best of
its kind in the state and which he utilized for the storage of his grain. At
the Clarion ranch he used a traction engine and about ten eight-mule teams.
Another improvement on that ranch was the prune and peach orchard of one
hundred acres, at one time the finest orchard in the valley, and from which in
1902 he sold about six hundred tons of fruit, leaving one hundred tons in the
orchard. In the fall of 1903 he sold that ranch, since which time he has lived
retired on his home place of more than fifteen hundred acres, situated ten
miles north of Colusa and four miles south of Princeton. One of the noticeable
features of his ranch is the pumping plant, operated by a steam engine with
fifteen-inch pump, which is utilized for irrigating the alfalfa.
The marriage of Mr. Packer was
solemnized in Clarion, Pa., October 30, 1848, and united him with Miss Julia
McPherson, a native of that county, and a descendant of Scotch ancestry early
established on American soil. To this same family belonged General McPherson.
Her father, David McPherson, was born in Center county, Pa., and engaged in
farming Clarion county, that state, until his death at seventy-three years. In
religious faith he was a Presbyterian. His wife, who bore the maiden name of
Hannah Anderson, was born in Center county, Pa., and
died in Clarion; she, too, was of pioneer stock noted for devotion to country.
During the war of 1812, her father, James Anderson, and one of her brothers
went to the front as soldiers in our army, and both died during their period of
service. Among twelve children Mrs. Packer was next to the youngest and is now
the sole survivor. In 1854 she came to California, crossing the Isthmus of Panama
on muleback, (sic) and then taking the steamer Golden
Gate to San Francisco, where she landed during June of that year. Immediately
afterward she joined her husband, who had preceded her a few years.
Reared in the Presbyterian faith,
Mrs. Packer is a firm adherent of that denomination and a contributor to its
various interests. While Mr. Packer is not connected with any organization, he
is a believer in religion and aids such enterprises by his contributions.
Politically he votes with the Republican party.
Whenever a worthy movement is inaugurated for the benefit of his county he is
one of the first to extend to it his hearty support and co-operation.
Especially noticeable was this in the building of the levees. No attempt had
been made in that direction when he settled on this ranch, but as the work
began the sloughs were stopped up and as a consequence levees had to be built along
the river. Over three miles of embankment along his farms was built by himself
and made so much higher and more substantial than most others that there has
never been a break in the levee since. Buying an instrument, he ran his own
levels and assisted many of his neighbors in the same way. When the Packer
district school was organized he donated an acre of ground for school purposes.
In many other ways he has proved a helpful factor in local affairs and now, in
the twilight of his useful life, he is surrounded by esteem of associates and a
circle of warm friends.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: "History of the State of
California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento
Valley, Cal.," J. M. Guinn, Pages
612-613.
The Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, 1906.
© 2017 Cecelia M. Setty.
Golden Nugget Library's Colusa County Biographies