Sierra
County
Biographies
RAFFAELE DOTTA
One
of Sierra valley’s most successful ranchers and influential citizens is Raffaele Dotta, whose well
improved ranch lies two miles northwest of Loyalton. He was born in Fontana, Canton Ticino,
Switzerland, on the 8th of August, 1863, and is a son of Frank and
Deborah Dotta, who died at the age of sixty-nine and
seventy-four years, respectively. His
father was a carpenter by trade, a landowner and had a small farm. Of the eight children, three sons and five
daughters, born to his parents, he is the third child in the order of birth and
the second son.
Raffaele Dotta assisted his
father during his boyhood and attended school until fourteen years of age in
his home neighborhood. From eleven to
seventeen years of age he herded sheep and goats during the summers and
attended school to some extent during the winters. In 1882, at the age of nineteen years, in
company with Caesar Dotta, he came to the United
States, embarking at Havre, France, and arriving at the port of New York. He reached Reno, Nevada, March 16, 1882, and
was there met by his uncle, John Dotta, who was the
owner of a ranch in the Sierra valley. Raffaele Dotta went to work on
his uncle’s ranch, being at first employed as a milker. He worked for ten years for four different
employers, eight years as a milker and two years in
the city of Sacramento, as a waiter and bartender in the old Western
Hotel. After two years there he returned
to the Sierra valley, where he has since resided. He had carefully saved his earnings and with
the assistance of his uncle John, he bought six hundred acres of land, his
initial purchase. This he stocked with
thirty head of milch cows, and when that land was
paid for he bought adjoining property from time to time until he had
accumulated eleven hundred and sixty acres of land. On this he made valuable improvements,
building a house, dairy barns and other necessary buildings, and here he has
paid close attention to the dairy business to the present time. He milks about
sixty head of cows, besides which he has two hundred and fifty head of
cattle. Mr. Dotta
helped to establish the Loyalton Cooperative
Creamery, which is now known as the Sierra Valley Creamery, Inc. He also helped to organize the Bank of Loyalton, of which he was president from 1921 to 1928 and
is still one of the principal stockholders.
On his farm he employs three men regularly, two milkers
and one farm hand, and during the haying season employs fourteen other
men. He puts up from four hundred and
fifty to five hundred tons of hay every year, mostly the native bunch
grass. In addition to this ranch, Mr. Dotta also has a half interest, with his brother-in-law
John Genasci, in five hundred and fifty acres of land
seven miles west of Loyalton.
Mr.
Dotta became a naturalized citizen more than thirty
years ago and has since given his political support to the Republican
Party. He was reared in the faith of the
Roman Catholic Church and is a consistent and liberal giver to the church at Loyalton. He is an
honorary member of the Sierra Valley Swiss Club and throughout the community
where he lives he commands the highest respect, due to his worthy and honorable
life.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Wooldridge,
J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley California,
Vol. 3 Pages 164-165. Pioneer Historical Publishing Co.
Chicago 1931.
© 2010 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Sierra County
Biographies