Sacramento County
Biographies
EUGENE A. JUNIOR
For more than twenty-five years a resident of the vicinity
of Antelope, Mr. Junior ranks deservedly among the most influential and
progressive citizens of this portion of Sacramento
county and the place that he owns and occupies, improved through his laborious ef-forts and
cultivated under his scientific supervision, represents the fruits of
his years of intelligent toil. Visitors
state that the farm is one of the most attractive in the region, while the
testimony of his own financial returns indicates that
the property is remunerative as well as artistically beautiful. When he first came to the locality he was
entirely without means and, in order to secure a start, was obliged to work out
as a ranch hand for a number of years.
Begin-ning as a property owner in 1893, he
acquired the title to twenty-one acres near Antelope and later purchased an
adjacent tract of twenty acres. On this
farm he since has engaged in the growing of almonds. As a specialist he has won wide recognition
and distinct success, and the products of his ranch find a ready sale at the
highest market prices.
A son of Joseph and Mary Junior and a native of Brandon,
Rut-land county, Vt.,
Eugene A. Junior was born February 20,
1855, and attended the public schools of the home neighborhood from
1861 until the spring of 1873. At the
latter time he removed to Michigan
and secured employment as a clerk in a general mercantile store at Me-nominee,
continuing in the same position until January of 1876, when he came west to California. Here his first employment detained him for
one year in Trinity county, where he worked in a
quicksilver mine. From that section he
drifted to other localities and worked at any honest occupation that promised a
livelihood. His advent into Sacra-mento county in 1886 was not
auspicious, for he was without friends or capital or influence. However, he possessed an abundance of de-termination
and energy and these qualities, backed by honorable prin-ciples
and intelligent judgment, have brought him a fair degree of success. His life has been so occupied with private
concerns that he has had no leisure for political interests nor have his tastes
led him in the direction of public activities.
In Political sentiments he is inde-pendent,
supporting the men and the measures rather than the party. In the work of the Grange he has been an
intelligent participant, having served two terms as past master, and in all
local movements for the general welfare ha has been actively interested. During December of 1889 Mr. Junior was
married in Sacramento to Miss
Minnie Gardner, an estimable young lady, born in Sutter township,
this county. She is the daughter of
Daniel Gardner, who came to California
around the Horn in the early ‘50’s. In
1910 their new residence was built and it presents an artistic appearance,
being a bungalow with cobble-stone front, the stone having been brought for
that purpose from Natoma.
Transcribed by Sally Kaleta.
Source: Willis,
William L., History of Sacramento
County, California, Pages 493-494. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1913.
© 2005 Sally Kaleta.