Kern County
Biographies
JOHN BUTLER
BATZ
JOHN BUTLER BATZ. - The president of the Bakersfield Abstract Company, who is a pioneer of 1874 in Kern County, represents the fourth generation of the Teutonic family of Batz in America. Henry, a son of the original German immigrant, was born in Pennsylvania, learned the trade of a shoemaker and followed the same in Indiana for many years and until his death. When he removed from the Keystone state he was accompanied by his son, Benjamin, who was born and reared near Philadelphia and after settling in Indiana for many years and until his death. When he removed from the Keystone State, he was accompanied by his son, Benjamin, who was born and reared near Philadelphia and after settling in Indiana followed the trade of Millwright. Near Rochester, Fulton County, he built a grist mill operated by water power. Ten miles from the nearest town he took up a tract of raw land and from him it he developed a profitable farm, where he was still engaged in agricultural pursuits at the time of his death in 1863. In 1911, in that same vicinity, occurred the death of his wife, who bore the name of Clarissa S. Rice and was born in Ohio. Of their six children only three are living, John Butler being the eldest of these. His two sisters are Mrs. Amelia Meredith of Bakersfield and Mrs. Emma Edgington of Indiana. At the old home farm in Fulton County, Ind., where he was born January 25, 1852, he passed the uneventful years of boyhood alternating attendance at the public schools with such farm work at his size and strength permitted. At the age of sixteen years he began to learn the carpenter trade with a skilled contractor in the home neighborhood and when only eighteen he was able to take up building contracts of his own, making the doors, sash, blinds, etc., by hand and finishing jobs in a manner satisfactory to customers.
Believing that opportunities would be greater further west, in 1872 Mr. Batz removed to Kansas and settled at Grenola, Howard County, but now Elk, where he engaged in carpentering. Not being entirely satisfied with the Sunflower state he came on to California in 1874 and settled in Kern County, where after a time he was employed as superintendent of the Landers Stock farm in the South Fork country. Next he secured a clerkship with Michaels & Co., at Kernville. While thus occupied he established domestic ties, being married to Miss Sophie E. Smith, a native of Oakland, this state, and an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. They are parents of two children, now living. The daughter, Daisy M., is the wife of J. H. Jordan, vice-president of the Bakersfield Abstract Company, and the son, Vernon S., is an employee of this company. Mrs Batz is a daughter of Thomas H. Smith, a native of England, who, after crossing the ocean, settled in Ohio, but at the time of the discovery of gold in California, he closed out his interests in Ohio and in 1849 sailed around the Horn to San Francisco. Later he engaged in the mercantile business in Oakland.
For some years Mr. Batz engaged in stock-raising and some time after his marriage he bought two hundred and forty acres on the South Fork, where he had a profitable acreage in alfalfa, also engaged in horticulture and in addition made a specialty of the stock industry. For two years he served as under-sheriff with W. J. Graham and he also held office as trustee of the Scodie School District for some years. From the early period of his residence in the county he ranked among the leading Democrats and his services were in frequent demand as a member of the county Central Committee of the party. Nominated by the Democrats for the office of county Treasurer in 1894, he was elected by a gratifying majority and took the oath of office in January of 1895. At the expiration of his term he was re-elected by a greatly increased majority, a fact which bears strong evidence as to the satisfactory nature of his services. When the second term expired in January, 1903, he was not a candidate for re-election , his business interests being so important as to demand his entire time and attention. Prior to that he had acquired stock in the Occidental Oil Company, operating a producing well near Mariposa, and of this company he served as treasurer and manager; besides he owned an interest in the Monarch Oil Company, proprietors of one hundred and sixty acres and managers of a well of strong productive capacity. After he had sold his oil interests he went to San Francisco and became treasurer and manager of the new Blue Jay Mining Company , owners of the Blue Jay Mine on Coffee Creek in Trinity County near Carrville. He assisted in organizing the Bakersfield Abstract Company in 1903 and was elected its first president which position he has filled up to the present time. The company acquired the plant of Bender & Hewitt and thus became owners of the oldest set of records in the county. Employment is furnished to sixteen persons and a business of great importance has been established. On the organization of the National Bank of Bakersfield , Mr. Batz was one of the incorporators and is a member of the board of directors. In the midst of extensive business interests and large political connections, he has found leisure for social and fraternal activities and with his wife has been active in the Kern County Pioneer Society, while in addition he is associated with The Fraternal Brotherhood, the Degree of Honor, and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. in the latter he is past master workman and has served as representative to the grand lodge. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows has had the benefit of long years of interested activity on his part. As past noble grand and representative to the Grand Lodge, he is a leading factor in local lodge work, while he further has been prominent in the encampment and the canton, in the former having been representative to the Grand Encampment as well as a prominent official. Movements for the benefit of Kern County have received his stanch support and not the least of these is the organization and maintenance of the Bakersfield Abstract Company, which is a concern of vital importance to the realty affairs of the county and also of more than passing importance through its representation of insurance agencies and building and loan associations.
Transcribed by
Sally Kaleta.
Source:
"History of Kern County, California, with Biographical Sketches,"
Wallace M. Morgan, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914,
Pages 231-232.
© 2014 Sally Kaleta.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S KERN COUNTY
BIOGRAPHIES