Sierra
County
Biographies
ATTILIO LOMBARDI
Attilio Lombardi, a leading business man and enterprising
citizen of Loyalton, is the capable and efficient
manager and secretary of the Sierra Valley Creamery, Inc., which, next to the Clover
Valley Lumber Company, is the chief industry of this place. He was born on the old Pompeo
J. Lombardi ranch, three miles from Loyalton, on the
22nd of February, 1893, and is a son of Pompeo
J. and Angelina (Ramelli) Lombardi, to whom were born
four children, namely: Marie, the wife
of Charles Laffranchini, a stockman at Vinton, this
sate; Caesar P., a stockman near Loyalton; Attilio; and Louis, who is engaged in the stock business in
partnership with his brother Caesar. A
separate sketch of Pompeo J. Lombardi appears on
other pages of this work.
Attilio Lombardi attended the public schools of his home
neighborhood and the Oakland high school, and completed his educational
training by a course in the Polytechnic Business College at Oakland, from which
he was graduated in 1915. During 1916
and the early part of 1917 he was employed as a bookkeeper by W. H. Duncan in
the Sierra Valley Bank at Loyalton, and was filling
that position when the United States entered the World War. He at once stepped from behind the teller’s
desk in the bank and enlisted with the Sixth Regiment United States Marines. Soon afterward he was taken ill and was removed
to the government hospital at the Mare Island Navy Yard. He was in the service for almost two years,
being honorably discharged in May, 1919.
Returning home, he assisted his father on the home ranch for about a
year and in 1920, became the manager and secretary of the Sierra Valley
Creamery. He aided in its reorganization and has served in his present capacity
continuously from that time. On coming
home after the war he and his brothers Caesar and Louis engaged in farming on
an extensive scale, and continued together until 1921, when, finding that the
business of the creamery demanded his entire time and attention, Attilio Lombardi disposed of his agricultural interests and
has since devoted his entire time and attention to the creamery.
The
Sierra Valley Creamery was organized in 1903 as a cooperative partnership,
composed of George Knox, of San Francisco, now deceased; W. H. Saylor and
William Rausell.
The original creamery building was a frame structure. The co-partnership continued until 1914, when
the business was taken over by Mr. McNamee, but financial difficulties caused
him to shut down the plant. At that time
the dairy farmers of the Sierra Valley and vicinity came to the rescue and,
under the genius of W. H. Duncan, then president of the Sierra Valley Bank,
organized the Sierra Valley Creamery. It
was incorporated in 1915, with Charles Jones as its first president. In 1921 the company was reorganized and now
has thirty-six stockholders, who are numbered among the most successful and best
known dairy farmers in California and Nevada, though most of them are residents
of the Sierra Valley of California. In
1920 Mr. Lombardi became the manager and secretary of the Sierra Valley
Creamery, assisted in its reorganization and has been an active and influential
factor in its subsequent success. The
creamery manufactures three hundred thousand pounds of choice butter
annually. Its products have been
exhibited at various fairs, including the Pacific Slope Dairy Show, where it
was in completion with the Golden State and other leading creameries, and won first
prize. Sixteen hundred pounds of sweet
cream are brought to the creamery every day by truck and the butter making is
in charge of Holger Christiansen, a very competent buttermaker from Denmark.
Strict attention is paid to sanitary conditions in and about the
creamery and the output of this concern finds ready sale in Reno, the adjacent
lumber mill and mining camps and the Bay cities.
On
September 10, 1921, in Reno, Nevada, Mr. Lombardi was united in marriage to
Miss Panola Edwards, who was born at Olean, New York, and is a daughter of John
D. Edwards, a prominent railroad man at that place, and a granddaughter of E.
C. Atkinson, a distinguished lawyer at Arkansas City, Kansas, who, though now
eighty years of age, is still practicing his profession. Mr. and Mrs. Lombardi are the parents of two
daughters, Marilyn and Ethyle (“Bebe”),
both of whom are popular among their little friends and are favorites with the
older ones who know them. They were
given a joint birthday party at their home on August 25, 1930, which was very
largely attended and a very enjoyable affair.
In his political views Mr. Lombardi
is a Republican and has taken a keen interest in the public affairs of his
community. He has been a member of the
board of trustees of Loyalton for the past twelve
years and on April 1, 1930, was reelected for another term of four years. The present trustees are Louis W. Conklin,
mayor; William A. Schroeder, Louis Genasci, Fred
Squires and Attilio Lombardi. Mr. Lombardi is a member of Loyalton Lodge, No. 359, F. & A. M., of which he is a
past master; Reno Consistory, A. A. S. R., at Reno, Nevada; Kerak
Temple, A. A. O. M. M. S., at Reno, and Darrel Dunkle
Post of the American Legion. He and his
wife attend and contribute to the support of the Community Church and stand for
those things which are of essential value to the community.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 3 Pages 183-185. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Sierra County
Biographies