Sacramento County
Biographies
JAMES J. NIX
JAMES J. NIX.--A scientific, yet
eminently practical rancher, whose up-to-date methods and almost astonishing
results, demonstrating the resources of Sacramento
County soil and climate,
have long been a source of interest to others ambitious, like himself, of
attaining a high goal, is James J. Nix, living upon his trim farm some two
miles southwest of Wilton. He was born in Knox County,
Tenn., on March 23, 1874, the son of Eben
and Martha (Hunter) Nix, the former a native of South Carolina,
while Mrs. Nix came from Tennessee. There they were married, and there Mr. Nix
cultivated a farm of 300 acres, in Knox
County. He lived to be sixty-six years old, while his
devoted wife, who breathed her last in 1918, reached the grand old age of
ninety. They had a family of ten
children, each of whom reflected the high character for which they were
universally esteemed: William, John and Nute being the eldest, James, the subject of our story, the
fourth in the order of birth, and the remainder Joann, Allen, Mary, Elizabeth, Clarcy and Margaret.
Owing
to the peculiar social and economic conditions of the community and section in
which he started life, James Nix had little opportunity for schooling, and he
helped his father faithfully upon the home farm until he was twenty-one years
of age. Then he hired out on farms,
generally for dairying, in Tennessee, and on leaving that state, in 1911, he
went to Texas, and worked there for a season, thence to Wichita, Kans., and
then moved on to Grand Junction, Colo., where he stayed for a short time, and
again proceeded on to Cedar Edge, Colo., stopping there only for a little
while.
In
1912, Mr. Nix came to Wilton, Cal.,
and first bought sixteen acres of bottom land on the Cosumnes River,
and to get a start, he lived in a tent, while he cleared some of the land for
farming. In this way, he succeeded in
paying for the farm. He raised fine
crops of beans on this bottom land, and he has since erected a suitable
dwelling and farm-buildings there. He
has also added to this acreage from time to time, until he now owns seventy-two
acres of bean and cattle land, and also vineyard. Mr. Nix has a fine lot of domestic fowls upon
his place, including about 100 Guinea hens, and he raises turkeys, ducks and
geese, the place being especially adaptable for the latter. His sons help him and by their combined hard
work, they accomplish much.
The
first time Mr. Nix married, the ceremony occurred in 1894, in the home-district
of the bride, Knox County, Tennessee,
when he made Miss Caroline Collins his bride.
Her parents were Carr and Emeline (Dorr)
Collins, and they came of old Tennessean families. The union was blessed with seven
children. Stella is Mrs. W. S. Spivia, of Don Ray Colony.
Victor is in Kansas City. Ida has become Mrs. A. Chalmers, of Elk
Grove. Mary is Mrs. Chester Colton, who
lives on an adjoining ranch. And the
younger members are Edna, James and Ralph.
Mr. And Mrs. Nix had five grandchildren through this line, Mrs. Spivia having four children. Gladys, Leonard, Bernice,
and Leland, and Mrs. Chalmers a daughter, Clara Chalmers. The first Mrs. Nix died September 25, 1908,
mourned by all who had come to esteem and love her. Mr. Nix married a second time at Wilton,
on February 3, 1922, when he and Mrs. Katherine Kelly, a native of Sunders
County, Nebraska, became man
and wife. Before her first marriage, she
was Katherine Lungershausen, a daughter of Frank and
Amelia Lungershausen, a Nebraska
family, in which state her father was well-known as both a blacksmith and
farmer by trade. Her father died a young
man of thirty-two, but her mother is still living at Sacramento. She was one of a family of four
children: Albert, Rudolph, Anna and
Katherine. She married, in time, Daniel
D. Kelly, a native of Nebraska, the wedding occurring
twenty-one years ago, and later they came out to Sacramento,
where he was an employee of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. He died about fifteen and one-half years ago,
leaving an excellent record for usefulness.
Mr. Nix is a Republican in politics.
Transcribed
by Priscilla Delventhal.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History
of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Pages 900-901.
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 P. J. Delventhal.