Sierra
County
Biographies
EMIL GROLIMUND
The career of Emil Grolimund
presents a splendid example of the possibilities of success in the Sierra
Valley as the outcome of persistent industry and the exercise of good judgment
in management. Locating here in 1893,
with but limited capital, but with an abundant supply of ambition and energy,
he has gradually made headway until today he is the owner of nine hundred and
sixty acres of excellent land, comprising an up-to-date stock and dairy farm,
and is in independent circumstances. He
was born on the 3rd of September, 1863, in Canton Solothurn,
Switzerland, an only child of Karl and Rose (Munsinger) Grolimund. His mother died when he was but nine days old
and he was then taken into the family of an uncle, Athenois
Grolimund, by whom he was reared to the age of
nineteen years, when he joined his father in the United States. Both of his parents were of German stock and
spoke the German language. The father
never remarried, and soon after his wife’s death he immigrated to America,
settling in the Santa Clara Valley of California, near Gilroy and San Jose,
where he worked on various dairy farms and at butchering. He came across the continent on one of the
first trains to cross the plains and mountains to the Pacific coast.
Emil Grolimund attended school in
his native country, learning to read, write and speak German, with an elemental
knowledge of arithmetic, but he is self-taught as far as the English language
is concerned. He came to this country
with a second cousin, Frank Grolimund, who now lives in San Francisco. He joined his father in Santa Clara County,
after a comparatively quick journey, having left Switzerland on May 10, 1883;
sailed from Havre, France, on the steamship “La France,” and landed at New York
City on May 22, 1883; thence he proceeded by rail to San Jose, California,
where he met his father at the Pacific Hotel on June 4th. He lost no time after his arrival here, for
on the 6th of June he went to work for Mr. Snell, who owned a large
dairy and stock farm near Mount Hamilton, on which he was employed by the
month. Some time
later he met a man by the name of Frank Lake, who was promoting a land
settlement project in Long Valley, Lassen County, this
state. Being anxious to secure some land
of his own, he went with Mr. Lake, but the project proved a failure and Mr.
Grolimund had to abandon the land upon which he had settled because of the
alkali condition of the soil and water.
In June, 1893, with his train of horses and wagons, he came to the Sierra
Valley, following the advice of a friend, M. West, who was engaged in cutting
hay in that valley. Finding the water
good here, Mr. Grolimund took up one hundred and sixty acres of government land
on August 17, 1893, filing at the land office at Susanville. He built a house, dug a well and made other
improvements, and later added to his holdings buying one hundred and sixty
acres of land, took up an enlarged homestead of four hundred and eighty acres,
and a timber claim of one hundred and sixty acres, three miles distant, and has
subsequently bought and sold until he is now the owner of nine hundred and
sixty acres of land. Upon his land he
has drilled sixteen wells, so that he has an abundance of water for stock and
domestic purposes, as well as for the irrigation of small areas. Mr. Grolimund raises hay, rye and barley, and
has a fine herd of grade Durham cattle, among which are ten milch cows. He sells his cream in Sacramento, shipping it
by rail from Chilcoot.
On November 27, 1900, in Howard
County, Nebraska, Mr. Grolimund was united in marriage to Miss Johanna Wissing, who was born in Kansas and reared in
Nebraska. She is a daughter of John and
Mary (Barnhurst) Wissing,
both of whom were born in Switzerland and are farming people. Mrs. Grolimund has four brothers and two
sisters. Mr. and Mrs. Grolimund have had
three children, one of whom, Anton, died in infancy. Leo, who is still at home and is assisting
his father in the management of the ranch, is a machinist of local note, for,
entirely self-taught in mechanics, he operates a threshing machine in this
neighborhood and is able to make all kinds of repairs on machinery, no matter
how complicated. The third child, Mary,
is the wife of Ray Scott, mayor of Selby, Contra Costa County, California. They have a son, Fred, aged three years.
Mr. Grolimund is a Republican in
politics and is a citizen of the United States, having taken out his papers at
San Jose. His career here has been
marked by steady and well directed industry, rewarded with a very gratifying
measure of success, and has long been recognized as one of Sierra county’s
sturdy and dependable citizens.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 3 Pages 335-336. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Sierra County
Biographies