Sacramento County
Biographies
LOUIS TERKELSON
LOUIS TERKELSON.—A
very experienced orchardist is Louis Terkelson, who has a fine orchard of sixty acres at Rio
Linda, purchased about ten years ago. He came from Whittier,
to claim the virgin soil found in this section as his heritage, and he has made
the most of his opportunity.
Mr.
Terkelson was born near Harrington, Morris County,
Kans., on April 18, 1862, the son of Jacob and Anna Marie (Bunder)
Terkelson, who immigrated to America from Denmark, in
1856, and in 1861 moved on to Kansas. Jacob Terkelson
was a farmer, and also a successful veterinary; and his services were always in
demand. It thus happened that while Louis was reared on the home farm, and
attended the grammar schools, he early took up the
veterinary studies, and owned and operated a model stock farm near Harrington,
until 1893. In that year, he sold out and moved with his family to California,
and he located on a ranch at Los Nietos, near Whittier,
and there developed a valuable alfalfa hay ranch. In 1913, he made a
successful exchange of his property for seventy acres
at Rio Linda, of which he owns today all but ten acres.
In
Kansas, Mr. Terkelson was
married to Miss Mary Vine, a native of Rockingham, Va.,
who accompanied her parents, worthy farmer-folk, to Kansas
in 1870. Four children have blessed this union. Ralph served as an aviator
in the World War, and is now a rancher at Waterford;
he has a wife and a daughter. Warren is an expert
tractor engineer; Leona is the wife of Earl Tracy, of Modesto;
and Vera is still with her school-books. Mr. and Mrs. Terkelson
are among the most highly esteemed citizens of Rio Linda; for they have made
success come their way through the practice of thrift, and the Terkelson orchard home is a show-place in blossom
time. His home was completed on the tract in 1914, and was the first house
to be erected in the fast growing Rio Linda district. He has developed his
ranch into orchard of almonds, peaches, pears and a field of alfalfa, and
irrigation water is supplied at a very nominal cost. In a sense, he may be said
to be the founder of this colony, for he brought the first twelve families,
from Whittier, who settled in the then thinly inhabited region.
Transcribed 7-02-07
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Reed, G.
Walter, History of Sacramento County,
California With Biographical Sketches, Page 932-933. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Marilyn R. Pankey.