Sacramento County
Biographies
JOHN MARTIN WIEGAND
JOHN MARTIN WIEGAND.—A successful
rancher whose progressive methods and untiring industry, together with his
foresight and aggressive enterprise, entitle him to the prosperity rewarding
his years of labor, is John Martin Wiegand, a native
son, having been born at St. Louis, in Sierra County, on August 21, 1866. His father, John Wiegand,
was a native of Berlin, Germany,
and a stationary engineer; in Pennsylvania he was
married to Miss Maria Ritlinger, after which, in
1862, he came to California by
way of the Isthmian route, and for a while tried his
luck at mining. Then he followed his
trade, being always in demand, and passed away at the ripe old age of
seventy-eight, having rounded out a very useful life. Mrs. Wiegand, who
was always a favorite in her circle of friends and acquaintances, breathed her
last in her sixty-fourth year, the mother of six children. Elizabeth has become
Mrs. Eugene Squier of Daly City;
John M. is the subject of this review; Rosina married
Marion Bringham, and is deceased; Kate is now Mrs. Lewellyn Snook of Englemine;
George is a resident of Represa,
Cal.; and Lilly, Mrs. A. Schofeld,
was the youngest of the family and is deceased.
John
Wiegand attended the grammar school in the Sierra
district, and at the age of twenty, started to make his own way in the
world. He first mined in Sierra and Plumas
Counties; but in 1903 he went to San
Francisco and worked in the Union Iron Works,
continuing there until 1906, and from that year until 1912 he followed the
carpenter trade in the bay region. In
1912, he came to Thornton and purchased ten acres due west of Thornton, which
he farmed to alfalfa and grain for six years, and then, selling out, he removed
to a point three miles southeast of Galt, on Dry Creek, where for three years he
leased a vineyard of forty acres. He
then moved to Twin City
colony and purchased ten acres of land two miles north of Galt; and this he has
devoted to a dairy and alfalfa ranch. A
house was already on the place, but Mr. Wiegand has
made the other improvements there, and has lived on the ranch ever since.
On
August 20, 1900, and at Reno, Nev.,
John Martin Wiegand was married to Mrs. Clara A.
Black, daughter of Joseph and Martha (Goldthorp)
Hutchison, the former a native of Scotland
and a pioneer who came to California in 1849, traveling
across the plains from Illinois. Miss Goldthorp was
a native of England. Mr. Hutchison settled at Weaverville, in Trinity
County, in early days, where he had
a cattle and sheep ranch; and at Weaverville, Mrs. Wiegand
first saw the light. Her father also had
stock in Tehama County,
and later went into Sierra County,
where he built the first hotel at Sierra
City, and after that he had a
butcher shop there. He retired and
removed to San Francisco, where he
died at the age of eighty-four, his good wife passing at the age of
eighty-eight, at the home of Mrs. Wiegand. Miss Hutchison married George Black, a native
of Ayr, Canada,
who had come to California in early days and who was a
Mason and an Odd Fellow; and they had two daughters, May, who has become Mrs.
C. P. Willing, of Sacramento, and Nettie,
who is Mrs. Antone Costa, at Goodyear Bar, in Sierra
County. By her present marriage with Mr. Wiegand, she has one son, Roy Walter, who is an employe of Latourett &
Company, in Sacramento. He married Gladys Stickle and they have a
daughter Louise Genevive.
Mr.
& Mrs. Wiegand not only have the joy of their
children, but they have the companionship also of several grandchildren. Mrs. Costa has five children, George, Tony,
Norman, Ralph and Anna Bernice. Mrs.
Willing had two children. Lloyd Willing was a medical student, and served in the late World
War in France,
and he died eleven months after his return.
His sister, Mrs. Emma Eckstein, lives in Sacramento,
and has a son, Philip.
Mr.
and Mrs. Wiegand are Prohibitionists. He is a member of Golden Nugget Parlor No.
94, Native Sons of the Golden West, of Sierra City,
and has passed through all the chairs, and Mrs. Wiegand
is a member of the Golden Bar Parlor of the Native Daughters, also of Sierra
City. She is a Rebekah,
too, and is past noble grand of the Sierra City Lodge, but at present is a
member of Golden City Lodge of San Francisco.
Transcribed by Betty J. Vickroy.
Source: Reed, G.
Walter, History of Sacramento County,
California With Biographical Sketches, Page 387. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Betty J. Vickroy.