Sacramento County
Biographies
NIRON LUCE
A
radical change from the environment of his early life came to Mr. Luce with his
removal from Maine to California.
As a boy at Farmington, Me.,
where he was born in 1836, he had become familiar with conditions existent in
the far northeast regions of our country. The impressions made upon his plastic
mind in youth were never forgotten, although they were dimmed by later and more
pleasurable experiences in the agricultural activities of the west. The
rigorous climate of Maine and the unpromising soil, with the forests of pine
trees and the multitude of streams, imparted to the inhabitants in their
isolation something of like attributes, for they exhibited a dauntlessness of
courage in trial, a fixedness of purpose in adversity and a resolution of
character in business associations that brought them
success notwithstanding the discouraging conditions under which they often
labored.
Seeking
an environment more favorable for permanent residence and profitable labor, Mr.
Luce left Maine at the age of nineteen and made the long
voyage to California by way of the Isthmus of
Panama. Immediately after his arrival in the west he settled in
Placer county and became identified with the ranching
interests of that region. In order to secure a start he homesteaded one
hundred and sixty acres of raw land. This he brought under cultivation and
improved with buildings. It was his far-seeing judgment that an investment in
land would prove profitable eventually. Acting upon that theory he began to buy
out squatters' claims. For this purpose he incurred a heavy debt, but he
planned his enterprises in such a manner that he always was ready to meet the
interest when due. With the increase in valuation of the land his financial
standing became assured and he entered into the gratifying reward of his early
foresight. At his death, December 16, 1901, he left to his family a splendid
estate of fifteen hundred and twenty acres in Placer county,
on which he had raised profitably both stock and grain. The widow, finding the
care of so large a tract of great burden, finally disposed of the ranch and in
1910 established a residence in Sacramento,
where at No. 1613 Eighteenth street
she is now surrounded by all the comforts of life.
It
was not until a considerable period had elapsed subsequent to his location in
California that Mr. Luce formed home ties, his marriage in 1867 uniting him
with Miss Lottie Wheeler, a native of Maine, and the
daughter of a minister who served in the Baptist denomination throughout the entire
period of his useful and consecrated maturity. Eventually Mrs. Wheeler came to California
and settled in Placer county, where she died at an
advanced age. Three children blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Luce, but they
had the heaviest bereavement of their wedded life to endure when their only son
was taken from the home by death. The older daughter, Effie was educated in
Placer county and is now the wife of G. A. Wessing, of Sutter county. The other daughter, Miss Ida,
who resides with her mother, is a woman of culture, qualified by nature and by
education to enjoy the advantages connected with a residence in the capital
city. The welfare of his family was always close to the heart of Mr. Luce. For
them he labored with patient industry and for them he accumulated his large
acreage of land, in order that he might leave them beyond the reach of material
want or financial struggle, and in his last days it afforded him gratification
to realize that his efforts in their behalf had been crowned with such abundant
success. As a citizen he was loyal to the interests of his county, a believer
in Republican principles and a stanch supporter of the party, but not a
politician in the usual sense of that word, his desire being to promote the
common good of the people and to avoid all partisan activities.
Transcribed by Sally Kaleta.
Source: Willis,
William L., History of Sacramento County,
California, Pages 922-924. Historic
Record Company, Los
Angeles,
CA. 1913.
© 2006 Sally Kaleta.