San Francisco County
Biographies
NOAH GEORGE STURTEVANT
NOAH GEORGE STURTEVANT, a Deputy County Clerk of Alameda
county, was born in Chicago,
Illinois, February 17, 1847, a son of Noah and Catherine (Cassidy)
Sturtevant. The Sturtevants are of the Knickerbocker stock, the first of the name in America
settling in New Amsterdam, now New
York, in 1621, the subject of this sketch being one
of the descendants in the ninth generation. Grandfather George Sturtevant, a
native of New York, lived to the
age of seventy-eight, and his wife, also a native of that State, was
fifty-eight at her death. The Cassidy ancestry is of Scotch-Irish immigration,
which settled in New York State
in 1758. Grandfather Cassidy reached the age of seventy-six, and his wife,
whose ancestry was also of the Scotch-Irish immigration referred to, lived to
the age of sixty.
Noah
Sturtevant, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Allegany
county, New York, settled in Chicago in 1835, two years before its
incorporation as a city, and there engaged in the manufacture and sale of lime,
being the heaviest dealer in the commodity in those early days. He was elected
to the office of Supervisor and Water Commissioner, and was quite prominent in
the business and official circles of the young city. He died of some acute
disease at the age of forty-two. The mother survived him many years, reaching
the age of sixty-five.
Noah
G. Sturtevant was educated in the public schools of his native city, and there
grew to manhood, with the instinct of a pioneer, a sort of inborn impulse to
penetrate into the father West. Soon after reaching
his majority he went through Texas
and New Mexico, engaged chiefly
in cattle driving and freighting, and often coming in contact with Indians and
other more objectionable denizens of the wild West. He
afterward extended his explorations and broadened his experience by travels in Nebraska,
Wyoming and Colorado,
residing several years in the latter while it was yet a Territory. In 1877 he
left El Paso county,
Colorado, for California,
and settled in San Leandro,
where he engaged in mercantile business, and was Postmaster from 1878 to 1883.
He was appointed Deputy Sheriff of Alameda
county, January
1, 1885, serving two and a half years, and in October, 1887, became
Deputy County Clerk, which position he still holds.
Mr.
Sturtevant was married in Chicago
in 1870, to Miss Caroline M. Reed, born in Massachusetts,
a daughter of Thomas G. And Elizabeth (Rowland) Reed, still
living in Chicago. Mr. Reed was born in England
about 1822, and Mrs. Reed in Vermont,
about 1825.
Mr.
And Mrs. Sturtevant are the parents of six children, of whom the first four
were born in Colorado, the others being natives of this county: Noah Thomas,
born March 10, 1871, educated in the public schools, is now engaged in the
building of harvesters, having learned the business in the San Leandro Agricultural Works; Lucy E., born May 5, 1872;
Nellie M., July 15, 1874; Hugh Francis, February 28, 1876; Catherine, September
30, 1884; Eugene Reed, January 30, 1886. Mr. N. G. Sturtevant is a member of
the A.O.U.W.
Transcribed 1-23-06 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: "The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 2, Pages 287-288, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
©
2006 Marilyn R. Pankey.
California Biography Project
San Francisco County
California Statewide
Golden Nugget Library