Sacramento County
Biographies
ARTHUR WOOD BUTLER
ARTHUR WOOD BUTLER.—A delta rancher who
has made a real success in orcharding and in the
raising of superior vegetables because of his mastery of all the natural
conditions entering into the local problems with which he has had to deal, is
Arthur Wood Butler, who owns 178 exceedingly attractive acres in the Delta
region, his home place being on Grand island,
near Walnut Grove. He was born in Solano County,
not far from Suisun, on November 2, 1859, the son of Newton C. and Pauline
(Barker) Butler, his father, a
native if Iowa, having come to California
in 1850, traveling across the great plains with ox-teams and a prairie
schooner. He mined for a short time in the Feather River country, and then
he settled in the Suisun Valley,
and farmed there the balance of his life, dying at the age of
seventy-two. Mrs. Butler, who lived to see her sixty-third year, was a
native of Tennessee, and had many
of the virtues and accomplishments for which the
ladies of that state are justly famous.
One of six children, Arthur Wood Butler went to the
public schools in Suisun Valley, and then helping his father, remained faithful to his
parents on the home ranch, until he was twenty-four years old, when he took up
farming for himself in Montezuma Hills. In 1891 he went to Los Angeles County and was farming on a ranch in Antelope
Valley, where he raised stock and grain. Then he returned
to Rio Vista. In 1907 he bought fifty acres on Grand Island, part of which was already in orchard; and the balance
he set out as orchard, or planted to asparagus. Later, he bought a second
ranch of fifty acres on Grand
Island, below Ryde, all in asparagus. He irrigates the first, but
not the second ranch, as he does not find it necessary. In October, 1921,
with his son-in-law, he bought a ranch of seventy-five acres on Merritt Island, previously known as the Quinn ranch, and part of this
acreage is devoted to orchard, part to open land. On this Merritt Island
farm, he also engaged in the growing of carrots, pumpkins, onions, and spinach,
to provide seed for the C. C. Morse Seed Company, of San Francisco. He is a member of the California Pear Growers’
Association and California Fruit Exchange and has been a member of the
Asparagus Growers’ Association from its organization.
At Rio Vista, November 11, 1884, Mr.
Butler was married to Miss Jessie McIntyre, a native of Brannan
Island, Sacramento County, and the daughter of George and Emma Bodenhammer
McIntyre, early settlers in Sacramento County, born in Virginia and Illinois
respectively. The father came here in 1852 and was a pioneer on Brannan
Island; he died at eighty-two years, his wife having preceded
him many years, passing away when thirty-seven. Mrs. Butler is the oldest
of their five children. Two children have blessed this fortunate
union. Elsie is Mrs. Rugaard, and she resides on
the home place; and Ruth is Mrs. Ernest Mayhood, and
she resides near Rio Vista. Elsie has two children, Ruth Elaine and Helen
Jean; and Ruth has one son, Ernest Mayhood,
Jr. Mrs. Butler is a member of the Congregational Church at Rio
Vista. Mr. Butler, years ago, built a residence on his Grand Island ranch, making that his home-place, situated one and
one-half miles north of Walnut Grove bridge. In
national politics, he is a Democrat, but that does not prevent him from being a
good, non-partisan booster for the home locality.
Transcribed 8-24-07
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Reed, G.
Walter, History of Sacramento County,
California With Biographical Sketches, Pgs
1000-1001. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Marilyn R. Pankey.