Sacramento County
Biographies
HUGH McWILLIAMS
HUGH McWILLIAMS. As a florist and nurseryman Hugh McWilliams
is adding his share to the business life of the city of Sacramento,
where he ranks among the representative citizens. In 1863 he was born in Scotland
and there received his education, being reared to manhood upon the farm
operated by his parents, Alexander and Agnes (McClumpha)
McWilliams, both natives of the same country.
At one time his father had charge of valuable estates belonging to
residents of London, England,
the properties being stocked with high-grade cattle, sheep and Clydesdale
horses. He died at the age of
eighty-three years, his wife dying five years later, when in her eighty-first
year, having become the mother of eleven children.
Hugh
McWilliams remained in Scotland until
he was twenty years of age, in 1883 coming to the United
States.
The first two years he spent in Boston, after which
he came to California and entered
into the employ of Mrs. E. B. Crocker, for five years having the care of the
grounds of the Crocker estate. For two
years following he had charge of the Crooks estate in Sonoma
county, after which he returned to Sacramento. He then purchased the Elm Nursery, located on
U between Eleventh and Twelfth streets.
This he has improved and developed to a high order. He makes a specialty of raising all kinds of
flowers and plants, which are shipped to all parts of northern California,
Utah, and Nevada, doing both a wholesale and retail business. One of the principal features of his business
is funeral work.
He has taken many premiums at the state fairs of California
and also during the St. Louis Exposition secured a silver medal for the best
collection of plants. He has developed
in his experiments many flowers of rare beauty, while in connection with his
nursery he is operating a small fruit ranch of peaches, plums, apricots and
berries. This ranch is located at Sutterville Heights,
the original starting point of Sacramento
City. His residence is in the midst of his nursery
grounds and is neat and artistic in design.
Mr.
McWilliams was married in Santa Rosa
in September, 1894, to Georgie Shaw, a daughter of a
merchant of Duncans Mills. Fraternally Mr. McWilliams is a member of
Eldorado Lodge No. 8. I.O.OF., and ex-chief of the Caledonia Association, both
of Sacramento, and is also a member of Sequoia Camp, W.O.W. In politics he supports the Republican party. Though
solicited to accept local offices at the hands of the party he has steadfastly
refused to do so. Occasionally he furnishes
articles for the local papers and for the florists’ journals on the growing of
carnations and roses. By all who know
him he is held in high esteem and is regarded as one of the enterprising
citizens of Sacramento.
Transcribed
by Kathy Porter.
Source: “History of
the State of California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento Valley,
California” by
J. M. Guinn. Pages 643-644.
Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1906.
© 2007 Kathy Porter.