Sacramento County
Biographies
WILLIAM J. SMITH
WILLIAM J. SMITH --another orchardist who has demonstrated the superiority of the
Sacramento County husbandman, and the excellent resources of this part of the
Golden State, is William J. Smith, of Grand Island, four miles to the south of
Courtland, where he was born on October 18, 1860, the son of George A. Smith
and his good wife, who was Miss Margaret Hale before her marriage. They were both natives of Bavaria, Germany,
her father having come to California as early as 1853, when he ranched on
Steamboat Slough, in the swamp land.
Both parents reached the fine old age of eighty, and closed such careers
of usefulness that their memory is revered by all who knew them. They had four children: William J., George
S., Edward Hale, and Ida Malinda, who was the wife of
Scott Ennis, and died in Sacramento.
William J. Smith attended the Onisbo district school, and then went to the California
Military Academy in Oakland, where he was graduated in 1879. On the death of his father he received
one-sixth of the estate, valued at $200,000; and having always engaged in farm
work since he left school, he was able with this substantial start to develop
one of the finest ranches in the state of California. He has 720 acres of highly developed orchard
land on Grand Island, and in 1894 he and his father together bought 670 acres
of land from E.R. Parvin; and these tracts, together
with fifty acres of the old home place, constitute his land holdings
today. He and his father had hard work
reclaiming the land from the waters of the Sacramento River. The district constructed three different
levees, and each in turn was washed out before the present one was finally
constructed by means of dredgers. This
one has proved to give ample protection against the floods. He has 100 acres of peaches, 200 acres of
plums, and 200 acres of pears, of the variety for shipping, while the balance
of the acreage is set out to apples, nectarines, and cherries. He finds by experience that he obtains the
best results for fruit-yield and quality by irrigating freely after the fruit
has been picked and shipped, and not during the growing season, although during
this period he does cultivate to the highest degree. He packs his fruit and ships it East under
his own brands, including the “Hiawatha Brand,” the “Cathryn
Smith for Freedom Brand” and the “W.J. Smith Brand.” He has erected a large packing-house at his
own landing on the Sacramento River, and ships by boat from his ranch. He employs from 100 to 400 men at various
seasons. In 1917 he constructed his
large new residence, one of the largest in northern California, a very sightly and beautiful mansion, which commands a splendid
view up and down the Sacramento River, and also of the Coast Range and the snow-clad
Sierra Nevadas.
On February 5, 1890 Mr. Smith was married
to Miss Wilhelmina Gutenberger, the ceremony taking
place at Sacramento. Mrs. Smith was a
native of Sacramento and the daughter of William and Katherine (Schweitzer) Gutenberger. William
Gutenberger was a descendent of the inventor of
printing by movable types, and Mrs. Smith maternal grandfather was a commissonary-general of Napoleon. Mr. Gutenberger
lived to be sixty-eight and his devoted wife, seventy-eight; she died in
Sacramento. They had four children;
William, George, Julia (now Mrs. Caspar, of
Sacramento), and Wilhelmina, now Mrs. Smith.
Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Smith: Cathryn W. and
George W. The daughter is now the wife
of Morris Myers, of Grand Island. Mr.
Smith belongs to the Courtland Parlor of the Native Sons of the Golden West, in
which he is a past president, and to the Franklin Lodge No. 143, F. & A.
M., in Courtland, where he is a past master.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Smith belong to the Eastern Star, and Mrs. Smith is a
past worthy matron; and Mr. Smith is also a member of Sacramento Lodge No. 6
B.P.O.E. Mr. Smith’s sympathies and
interests are many and varied. He was
trustee of the Grand Island Reclamation District No. 3 for twenty-three years,
and at present he is a trustee of Reclamation District No. 551, on the east
bank of the Sacramento River, across from Grand Island. He is president of the board of trustees of
the Courtland union high school and the Bates joint union grammar school. He has been intensely interested in the cause
of education, and has given freely of his time towards obtaining the highest
standard for the schools of his district.
Politically, Mr. Smith is a Progressive Republican, and he was always a
stanch admirer of Roosevelt.
Transcriber: Louise E.
Shoemaker 9/25/07.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches,
Pages 324-327. Historic Record Company,
Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Louise E. Shoemaker.