Sierra
County
Biographies
ALBERT B. CHURCH
Albert B. Church, one of the large
landowners and a successful farmer near Sattley, is a member of one of the
oldest families in this section of the Sacramento Valley, members of which have
done their full share in the development and progress of the country. His father, Isaac S. Church, was the first
member of the Church family to locate here and establish a home. The family originated in England and the
family records in this country go back to the eighteenth century. The family resided in Vermont through a
number of generations and it was from that locality that Isaac S. Church came
to California in 1850, by way of the Isthmus of Panama. On that trip he walked across the Isthmus,
there being no continental railroads at that time, but when he made the second
trip here in 1859 he traveled by railroad.
After his arrival here in 1850 he and his associate, F. M. Rowland, who
later became his brother-in-law, ran two pack trains, of sixty mules each, from
Marysville, California, to Virginia City, Nevada, theirs being the first
regular transportation service in this part of California. The helpers were mainly Mexicans and they
transported groceries, provisions, tools, machinery and other freight.
Isaac S. Church took up the first
piece of land at Sattley after it was surveyed.
This tract, on which he settled in 1860, comprised one hundred and sixty
acres. His father, Ezra Bliss Church,
made settlement here at a later date, so that Isaac S. Church was the first
permanent settler here. The place took
the name of Church’s Corners, by which it was known for some time, but when it
was decided to establish a post office here, in 1885, the office was given the
name of Sattley, in honor of Mrs. Harriet (Sattley) Church, who was at that
time the oldest woman resident of the place.
With the advent of the railroad the packing and freighting business came
to an end and thenceforth Isaac S. Church branched out into farming and
stock-raising on an extensive scale, and in these lines he was successful.
In 1859 Mr. Church went back to
Vermont and there married Miss Sarah Geer, a native of that state, and in the
following year he brought his bride out to his California home. To them were born seven children. Francis, who died in 1929, at Riverbank,
Stanislaus County, this state, at the age of sixty-eight years, was engaged in
agricultural pursuits. He married Miss
Etta Knuthson, of Sierra Valley, and they had four children, Willard, Regina,
Oscar and Esther. Charles G., who is
engaged in ranching four miles north of Loyalton, is represented on other pages
of this work. Mary P., wife of William
McNair, lives at Morgan Hill, Santa Clara County, California, and is the mother
of two daughters, Helen and Ruby. Mrs.
Charlotte A. Fowles, who also is a resident of Morgan Hill, is the mother of
two daughters, Grace and Adelaide.
Albert Bliss is the immediate subject of this review. Eliza Roxy, the widow of Charles McElroy,
resides at Sacramento and is the mother of four children, Clarence, Vesta, Fern
and George. Harriet died at the age of
twenty-two years.
Albert Bliss Church, who was born at
Sattley on November 10, 1870, spent his early life on his father’s farm at
Church’s Corners, and received his education in the public schools of
Sattley. When eighteen years of age he
started work, driving logging teams for the Hobart mills, the Lewis mill above
Loyalton, the Roberts mill and other mills in this part of the state. Subsequently he bought his father’s home
ranch of three hundred and sixty acres, and there engaged in dairying and
stock-raising. He added considerably to
his land holdings by subsequent purchases, including the Alex Beaton place of
one hundred and sixty acres, three hundred and twenty acres in Plumas County,
and his grandfather’s farm of one hundred and sixty acres at Sattley. He kept high-grade Hereford cattle and had a
good herd of Holstein cattle on his home farm.
In April, 1930, Mr. Church suffered a severe loss in the destruction by
fire of his home and dairy barns, but he at once moved another house onto the
location and has remodeled it into an up-to-date and attractive country home.
On January 1, 1908, at Randolph,
Sierra County, California, Mr. Church was united in marriage to Miss Edna E.
Hamlin, a daughter of Roscoe and Eunice (Street) Hamlin. Her father fought as a sharpshooter under
General McClellan during the Civil War and after the close of that conflict he
came to California. His father, Calvin
Hamlin, had come around the Horn to California in 1850. He subsequently moved back to Maine, his home
state, but another of his sons, Edmond Higgins Hamlin, came to California and
established the great Hamlin ranch of seven hundred and fifty acres near
Sattley. He also owned a sawmill on Hamlin creek.
Mrs. Church’s mother was living with one of her daughters at Sierraville
at the time of her death, which occurred when she was seventy-six years
old. The father died in 1913, at the age
of seventy-two years, at the Soldiers’ Home at Yountville, this state. They are both buried at Sattley. They were the parents of six children,
namely: Charles, who died in infancy;
Ethel, who is the wife of John J. Woodward, of Susanville, California; Helen
H., the wife of Charles E. Kent, of Stillwater, Nevada; Roy A., who resides at
Stillwater, Nevada; Alfred S., who is teaching high school at Porterville,
California; and Mrs. Edna E. Church. Mr.
and Mrs. Church are the parents of two children: Gordon K., who assists his father on the home
ranch; and Frida A., who is in school.
Mr. Church gives his political
support to the Republican Party and during all the years of his residence here
he has shown a keen interest in public affairs.
Mrs. Church is a member of Sierra Star Chapter, No. 129, O. E. S., at
Sierraville, of which she is a past worthy matron. They are hospitable and friendly in their
social relations, are widely acquainted throughout this section of the valley,
and both are very popular among their associates.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 3 Pages 303-305. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Sierra County Biographies