Sacramento County
Biographies
WILLIAM W. BOTTIMORE
WILLIAM W. BOTTIMORE.--A member of a pioneer family that settled in Sacramento
County more than half a century ago, William W. Bottimore is a native of the Old Dominion, born in Tazewell County,
Va., June 27, 1866,
the son of William T., and Louise (Cecil) Bottimore.
The father was born in Baltimore, Md., and the mother in Virginia and both were of old English ancestry, the Cecil family
being of Colonial stock. Seven children were born to them, as follows: William
W.; Mrs. Angeline Brown of San Diego; Charles
Carroll, died in 1918; Katherine, Mrs. Frank Marceau
of Milbrae, Cal.; Mary, died in 1894; Mrs. Nannie Corrales of Los Angeles; Frank, died at the age of
twenty-one. In 1870 the Bottimore family migrated to
California and settled at Woodbridge on the Wood's place; they remained there
but six months and then went to New Hope, but after a year they were flooded
out and came to Galt, where the father followed his trade of brick-mason until
1886; then the family, with the exception of our subject, removed to San Diego,
Cal.; where the parents passed away.
William W. Bottimore
received his education in the Galt district school, and when seventeen started
to work on the Need ranch, continuing there for five years. He then rented 500
acres east of this ranch and for nine years engaged in raising grain there. He
then purchased the his present place of 400 acres on the open plains and built
a home and farm buildings, planted trees and shrubbery and set out a
thirty-acre vineyard of Tokay grapes. Here he installed an irrigation system,
using the first centrifugal pump in Sacramento
County. Later he dynamited three acres of the hard pan and set it
out to peaches, and now some of the finest fruit in this section is produced
there, as a reward for his perseverance and labor. Mr. Bottimore
maintains a dairy on his ranch and raises grain, cattle, horses and mules,
although most of his farming is done by tractor. He has three sixty-horse-power
Best tractors and in addition to his own land leases large tracts. He has a
large repair shop on his ranch and he and his sons do all the
machine repair work, his eldest son being an expert mechanic. Mr. Bottimore expects to break up his hard-pan soil with a
sub-soil breaker, built to go to a depth of five feet, which, instead of
lifting the ground, pushes each cutting to one side, taking a strip five feet
wide to each cutting. This is the first experiment of this kind to be tried out
in this part of the county.
On December 16, 1892, Mr. Bottimore was married to
Miss Cora B. Quiggle, born on the Quiggle
ranch on the Cosumnes River in Sacramento
County, the daughter of V. S. and Isabella Quiggle,
early pioneers of California who had large land-holdings near the present site of
Herald. Mrs. Bottimore's grandmother was Mrs.
Elizabeth Louins, who was the first woman to prove up
on a piece of government land in Sacramento
County. Mr. and Mrs. Bottimore are the
parents of ten children: Ephe Ray is the eldest;
Donna is Mrs. Robert Fawcett of Galt, and has a son, Robert Donald; Zelma is
Mrs. Burton Scoon of Roseville, Cal., and has a
daughter, Joan Virginia; Cecil is a partner with his father; Thae died in infancy; Thomas Abner,
Catherine, Hailie and Robert Lee are all at home.
The oldest son, Ephe
Ray, entered the U.S. Army in November, 1917, was one week on Angel Island and
then was sent to Kelly Field, Texas, where he took the examination for
mechanics and was placed in the 23rd Recruit Squadron and sent to Waco, Texas,
for training. This outfit was absorbed by the 257th Aero Squadron and Mr. Bottimore became a truck driver, remaining on duty at Waco until June, 1918, when he went to Camp Green, N. C., and was transferred to the 332nd Aero Squadron and
sent to Morrison, Virginia, sailing from there to Liverpool, England. In England the squadron was turned back from Southampton
and sent to Edinburgh, Scotland, and there served with the Royal Flying Corps,
Mr. Bottimore attaining the rank of sergeant. Just
after the armistice this squadron was routed for home, but influenza broke out
and they were delayed a month, finally landing at New York December 24, 1918. Mr. Bottimore was discharged at Camp Mills, N. Y., January 10, 1919,
and returned home. On June 30, 1920,
he was married to Miss Catherine Spencer of Galt and they have a daughter,
Frances Jane, and a son, Ephe R., Jr.
William W. Bottimore
is a lifelong Republican. A stanch friend of education, he served as a
member of the Alabama School
District for
nineteen years.
Transcribed by Sally Kaleta.
Source: Reed, G.
Walter, History of Sacramento
County, California With
Biographical Sketches, Pages 316-317.
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2006 Sally Kaleta.