Sacramento County
Biographies
FRED STAUFFER
FRED STAUFFER.--Among the prominent pioneer families of Sacramento is that of Fred Stauffer, who was one of the early settlers in this part of the state. A native of Switzerland, he emigrated to America when a youth of seventeen, in 1850, and after stopping in St. Louis for two years, crossed the plains to California in 1852. A butcher by trade, he engaged in that business in Sacramento, in that year, and later had a contract with the Southern Pacific Railroad to furnish meat for the workmen engaged in building the railroad through the Sacramento Valley.
Mr. Stauffer later engaged in cattle raising in Oregon, Idaho and Nevada, and became one of the prominent cattlemen of the West and very successful in his undertakings. His untimely death occurred some twenty-five years ago, June 20, 1898, and cut off the activities of a man who had been prominent and useful in building up the state. Fraternally he was an Odd Fellow and a Knight of Honor. The marriage of Mr. Stauffer united him with Susana Blattner, also a native of Switzerland, who had come to California at the age of twenty, via the Isthmus of Panama. Of this union the children now living are: Mrs. Mira Henry; Ida A.; Tillie B.; Edward A., in the stock business in Nevada; and Harry C., of Fair Oaks, Cal.
Mrs. Stauffer has been a resident of Sacramento for over fifty years, and has seen the city grow from a village to its present size. When she arrived here the Southern Pacific Railway ran only as far as Folsom on the north, and during her early years in the city General Sutter was a resident of Sacramento. She has stored in her mind many of the incidents and happenings which are now known as pioneer history, and preserved in the archives of the state as the early beginnings of our now prosperous commonwealth. Among other work in regard to the welfare of her community, Mrs. Stauffer has always been active in the German Luthern Church. As a young girl in Switzerland she was reared in church surroundings, and since coming to Sacramento she has continued her interest, and has been one of the prominent members of St. John's Lutheran Church of Sacramento, and was one of the first presiding officers in the Ladies' Aid of that denomination. She attended the church when it occupied the site now occupied by Hale's department store, on K Street, and since those first days has always given freely and helped in all the good works carried on by the church. Her name is on one of the Memorial Windows of the church edifice. It is just such worthy pioneers as Mr. and Mrs. Stauffer who laid the foundations firm and true for future generations in California, and to them all honor is due.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Reed, G.
Walter, History of Sacramento County, California
With Biographical Sketches, Page 677. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA.
1923.
© 2007 Jeanne Taylor.