Sacramento County
Biographies
MRS. KATHERINE B. FISK
It is natural that earnest devotion to the
welfare of California should characterize Mrs. Fisk, for she has been a
resident of the state from her earliest recollections, and here she has led a
useful, contented and prosperous existence, exhibiting in the management of her
landed interests a capability and energy equaled by few. To her life has
presented no opportunity for leisure, but has been a sphere for useful
activities, and the oversight of her well-improved homestead and her varied
business interests, as well as attending to her social duties and the rearing
of her children, has left her little time for leisure. While she is the
possessor of ample means, the supervision of the estate left by her husband at
his death and the management of her broad interests fill her days with useful
activities, although she still has time for the duties and obligations that
fall to her as a member of the Tuesday club, besides which she takes an active
part in other social functions of Sacramento.
Descended from an old and prominent Norse
ancestry, Mrs. Fisk is the daughter of Ole O. and Tobina
Lovdol, natives of Arndol,
Norway, who immediately after their marriage immigrated to Missouri and located
in St. Joseph, where Mr. Lovdol became a successful
merchant tailor. In 1869 he removed with his family on one of the first
through overland trains to California, and purchased a farm on Riverside road,
later buying additional acres in Sacramento and Yolo counties. He made a
specialty of hop growing and was one of the largest as well as a pioneer hop
grower of California. He became the owner of over five hundred acres of
land, all devoted to the growing of pears, alfalfa and hops. During 1896
he lost his wife, and in 1908 his own demise occurred at the age of eighty-four
years. To his descendants he has bequeathed the heritage of an honorable
life and tireless industry. Starting as a pioneer, he improved the grain
land so that it yielded manifoldly. By his
capable management he accumulated a competency and rose
to a position of prominence among the hop growers of the state. Of their
seven children, only four are living. Of the sons, Thomas B., O. A.,
William E. and George B. are all deceased excepting O. A. The daughters,
Besides Mrs. Fisk, are Ovedia, Mrs. F. L. White, and
Emma, Mrs. W. E. Beardslee. They both reside in
Yolo county.
Mrs. Fisk is herself a native of St.
Joseph, Mo., and was two years of age when the family moved to
Sacramento. Here she was given the opportunity of attending the grammar
and high schools of Sacramento, where she availed herself of the privileges of
acquiring a practical education. Mrs. Fisk owns two hundred and sixty
acres of very valuable land at Lovdol Station in Yolo
county. At her home place on Riverside road she
owns fifteen acres which for years was devoted to the raising of hops, but more
recently has been put under cultivation to pears. From 1885, when she
became the wife of Charles A. Fisk, a native of Toronto, Canada, she was his helpful
assistant until his death in 1909, when she succeeded him in the management of
the property, and in addition she maintains a wise oversight of the Yolo county
tract, which is now in hops and alfalfa. Besides the management of her
own interests she is one of the executors, with her two sisters, of the estate
of her brother William E. Lovdol, these vast acres in
Yolo and Sacramento counties being still intact and operated as an
estate. Mrs. Fisk is a stockholder in the Sacramento Valley Trust Company
and the Tuesday Club House Association, as well as the Ramie Fiber Company of Berkekey. Four children were born of her marriage,
but of these one, Thomas E., died in early life. The
daughter, Ethel, now Mrs. H. C. Whitman, resides with her on the ranch,
and the oldest son, Charles A., assists her in the care of the place.
Ernest is a student in the high school.
Transcribed by Sally Kaleta.
Source: Willis,
William L., History of Sacramento County,
California, Pages 745-746. Historic
Record Company,
© 2006 Sally Kaleta.