Sacramento County
Biographies
PAUL GATEJEN
PAUL GATEJEN.--A landscape gardener of note who has helped to extend the fame of the California capital far beyond the confines of Sacramento County in Paul Gatejen, a native of Hamburg, Germany, where he was born on March 4, 1875, the son of Henry and Doris (Herring) Gatejen, substantial people who enjoyed all the esteem of their fellow-mortals such as anyone might wish for. His father was a tax-collector, and they lived and died in their native land. Paul attended the excellent German schools, and while yet a youth was apprenticed to the landscape gardeners art. What he there learned so thoroughly, he added to later in other countries where the opportunity for a development of his skill was greater, and where, according to their varied conditions and problems, they had different ways of doing things.
When a young man of eighteen, with plenty of ambition, Paul Gatejen crossed the ocean already traveled by so many of his fellow-countrymen seeking their fortune in the New World, and came to the United States, locating in New York City for the next six years; but when the Spanish-American War broke out, he enlisted and served for three years, in the United States Army. He saw active service in the hospital corps, was in three engagements and was wounded three times; but when the war was over he came out to California and to Sacramento. In 1906, he again took up his profession and for years he did landscape work far and wide, in private estates, and in school and other public grounds and he is still in much demand that he finds it necessary to refuse many invitations to lay out or supervise the grounds of those who would give much to secure him, and to profit by his experience and taste. He is a Veteran of Foreign Wars, is a Republican, and is public-spirited.
On August 6, 1903, occurred the marriage of Paul Gatejen and Miss Martha Cortsen of California, a native daughter of an old family; and their fortunate union has been blessed with three children, Charles, Paul and Doris. Mr. Gatejen is a member of the Independent Order of Foresters.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Reed, G.
Walter, History of Sacramento County,
California With Biographical Sketches, Page 801. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA.
1923.
© 2007 Jeanne Taylor.