MRS. NELLIE CALLAWAY

Sacramento County

Biographies

MRS. NELLIE CALLAWAY

MRS. NELLIE CALLAWAY.--Prominent among the gifted women of Sacramento County who have made a real success in one or another field of agricultural pursuit, is undoubtedly Mrs. Nellie Callaway, widely known, through her management of her trim farm about one mile east of Courtland, as a scientific, practical and eminently progressive orchardist. She was born on the ranch now known as the Kettleman ranch, two miles south of Lodi, the daughter of Charles E. and Elizabeth D. (Woodman) Bunnell. Her grandfather, James Woodman, being a native of Maine. While in New York State, he married and then migrated, with his wife, to Iowa; but they had been living there only a short time, when the excitement concerning gold in California drew them hither. James Woodman started alone across the plains, leaving his wife in Missouri. When she ceased to hear from him, she followed after, and found him at Fort Madison, Iowa, where he was delayed on account of food shortage. At Fort Madison, Elizabeth Woodman was born. In 1849, James Woodman came on alone to California, by way of the Salt Lake route, and for a while he mined about sixteen miles east of Oroville. He also had a store at Stringtown, now called Enterprise, and besides, he ran a pack train to the mountains. Seven years after his arrival in California, he sent for his wife and daughter, and they came on by way of the Isthmus of Panama; and Mr. and Mrs. Woodman spent the rest of their days at Stringtown, the old gentleman attaining his eighty-sixth year, and there they were buried.

Charles E. Bunnell was a native of Connecticut, and came to California in 1853, by way of Panama route; and he spent a year or two in San Francisco, where he followed teaming, after which he went to San Joaquin County, where he purchased three quarter sections of land, two miles south of Lodi. He built his home on that place, and in 1869 he sold the ranch, now known as the Kettleman ranch. Mr. Bunnell was married to Miss Woodman in Stockton, and when Nellie Bunnel was fourteen months old, her parents moved to Sacramento and there Charles E. Bunnell, Jr., was born. He is now a resident and farmer of Courtland, and the present justice of the peace of Georgiana Township, in Sacramento County. In the city of Sacramento, Mr. Bunnell did teaming, and he also followed farm work, and in 1872 he moved to the vicinity of Courtland, where he took charge of the C.W. Clark cattle ranch of 1,750 acres. He had a family of six children. Nellie is the subject of this story; Charles E. has already been referred to; Edward E. is at Hood; Fred is deceased; Bessie lives at Courtland; and Minnie has become Mrs. Kirtlan, of Courtland. Later, Charles Bunnell purchased 200 acres of land from the San Francisco Savings Union Bank, tule land, which he reclaimed, and where he built a home; and he died on the ranch soon afterward, at the age of sixty-eight. His devoted wife is still living, at the age of seventy-six, and makes her home with her son, Charles E. Bunnell, Jr., of Courtland.

Nellie Bunnell attended Richland grammar school, and on October 8, 1889, was married to William Bird Callaway, who was born on the Callaway ranch, a mile east of Courtland, the son of Silas M. Callaway and Electa (Ford) Callaway. Silas Callaway was a native of Alabama, and had a brother who came to California in the Argonaut year, 1849; and he himself came across the Isthmus. He mined for a short time, and then took up farming on the ranch near Courtland, which is still owned by the Callaway family. Electa (Ford) Callaway was a native of Illinois, and she crossed the great plains with ox teams in the fifties, and was married to Mr. Callaway at Sacramento.

Silas M. Callaway came into the Sacramento River country, and there he bought land, at one time having a quarter-section, in partnership with his brother George. In 1856, the ranch one mile east of Courtland was surveyed for him by the government, and on this place he died at the age of seventy-two. His wife lived to be sixty-nine. They had a family of eight children; William Bird (the deceased husband of our subject), the eldest; Lilly; Minnie, deceased; Charles; May, deceased; and Frank, Daisy and David. At the time of his death, Silas M. Callaway had only thirty-six acres of land left; and these are still owned by members of the family.

William Bird Callaway attended Richland grammar school, farming on the ranch of his father and on the portion that was allotted him, some eight and three-quarters acres, where he built a home and had lived since 1889, the date of their marriage. This place is a fine fruit ranch. Three children blessed their union, but only two are living. Minnie is Mrs. Birch of Vorden; Vivian passed away when only two and one-half years old; and Chester Bird, now twenty-one years of age, resides with his mother on the ranch. MR. Callaway died in 1909, leaving behind an enviable record for usefulness. He served as constable of Georgiana Township, Sacramento County, for a number of years, and was a member of Courtland Parlor No. 106 of the Native Sons of the Golden West, in which he was a past president. He was also a member of the Knights of Pythias, of Courtland, and of the Franklin Lodge of the Modern Woodmen. He was a stanch Democrat. Mrs. Callaway is also a Democrat, and together with Mrs. Nettie Sprague, she was the organizer of the Courtland Pythian Sisters lodge, and was the lodges first most excellent chief.

Transcribed by: Jeanne Taylor.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Pages 533-534. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.