Sierra
County
Biographies
CLARENCE A. McELROY
Clarence
A. McElroy, who for many years has been connected with the lumber business in
the Sacramento Valley, is now serving as timber boss for the Clover Valley
Lumber Company of Loyalton, and as such has proven one of the corporation’s
valuable men. He is well connected among
the prominent old families of the Sierra Valley, being a grandson of the late
Owen McElroy, a pioneer miner at Hangtown and later a prominent rancher and
stockman at Sattley, and also a grandson of the late Isaac S. and Harriet (Sattley)
Church, the former the first permanent settler at Sattley, while the latter
gave her maiden name to the town.
Clarence A. McElroy was born at Sattley, Sierra county,
on the 13th of September, 1891, and is a son of Charles McElroy, who
was born at Forest Hill, California, February 29, 1864, and died in 1912, at
the age of forty-eight years. The
grandfather, Owen McElroy, was born in Scotland, and went to Hangtown (now
Placerville), California, in 1849. He
was a pioneer placer gold miner at that place, but afterward went up to
Michigan Bluff and Forest Hill, this state, where he mined in partnership with
Leland Stanford. In Scotland he married
Mary Sullivan, and the journey to California was their honeymoon trip. Charles McElroy married Miss Lydia Church, a
daughter of Isaac S. Church and a granddaughter of Ezra Bliss Church, who was
born in Vermont. Their son Isaac S.
Church was the pioneer rancher at Church’s Corners, where he took up land as
soon as the survey was completed. Later
he went back to Vermont and brought his parents out. His mother’s family name was Sattley and when
the post office was established at Church’s Corners they named it Sattley, as
she was at that time the oldest woman resident of that locality. Mrs. Lydia (Church) McElroy is now residing
in Sacramento, at the age of fifty-seven years.
Mr. and Mrs. Owen McElroy had six children, of whom two are living: Nellie, the wife of George Carson, owner of
the historic Dominguez Spanish grant lying between Los Angeles and Long Beach,
California, adjacent to the Santa Fe oil field; and Elizabeth, the wife of A.
P. Laffranchini. John O. McElroy, now
deceased, was a prominent lawyer in San Francisco, where he served as district
attorney and city attorney, and was prominently connected with the famous Abe
Reuff trial. Mary McElroy, who was the
oldest of the family, married a Mr. Freeman and is deceased; Margaret, who died
in 1928, was the wife of Dr. Rhodes, of Chicago, and was employed by the
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad as a traveling auditor; Kate is the
deceased wife of the late George Booles and resided in Honolulu, Hawaii.
To
Charles and Lydia (Church) McElroy were born four children, namely: Clarence A.; Vesta E.; the wife of Grover
Mitchell, of Sacramento, her mother also making her home with her; Mildred
Fern, who was born in 1901 and died November 17, 1930, the wife of John Roy, of
Sacramento; and George Owen, who was born in February, 1909, and drives a
caterpillar tractor in the logging camp of the Clover Valley Lumber Company.
Clarence
A. McElroy attended the Alpine public school, near Sattley, and Heald’s
Business College. In young manhood he
engaged in ranching and contracting, the latter being a side issue, consisting
of logging for the Roberts Lumber Company at Loyalton. He next engaged in the transporting of heavy
mining machinery to the Walker mine in 1914, helping to move the first
machinery installed in that mine and he also hauled the mining machinery to the
Engle mine in 1913. He did contract
logging for the old Roberts Lumber Company and Western Lumber Company in the
Antelope Valley, and was so engaged in 1917, when the United States entered the
World War. He was called in the first
draft, was in training at American Lake, Camp Lewis, Washington, and went
overseas with the Ninety-first Division.
He was assigned to dispatch duty from the division headquarters, in
which capacity he served at St. Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne, Ypres and Lys. He was wounded by shrapnel during an
engagement, and also had an attack of influenza, being confined to a hospital
for ten days, but came through the dread disease in good shape. He had the honor of opening the door for King
Albert of Belgium upon the occasion of His Majesty’s visit to the front, right
after the Armistice. Mr. McElroy was promoted
to first sergeant, and returned to the United States, May 5, 1919, after an
absence of one year in France, receiving his honorable discharge at the
Presidio, San Francisco. On arriving
home Mr. McElroy at once resumed his contract logging for the Verdi Lumber
Company, of Reno, Nevada. Later he was
for three years connected in a like capacity with the Davies-Johnson Lumber
Company, at Calpine, California, and in 1924 came to Loyalton and contracted
with the Clover Valley Lumber Company for three years. At the end of that period he went to work for
the company as its timber boss at the Clover Valley logging camp, twenty-seven
miles from the company’s mills at Loyalton, being situated in the Plumas
national forest, in Plumas county. There the corporation has a franchise which
insures a perpetual cut for the life of the company. The cut is mainly of yellow pine, which is
sawed and marketed commercially as California white pine. Mr. McElroy has one hundred men under him
during the fall months, while during the busy season he supervises the work of
two hundred and fifty men.
On
February 4, 1919, at Carson City, Nevada, Mr. McElroy was united in marriage to
Miss Annie West, a daughter of George and May (Payne) West. She was born near Vinton, California, and
attended high school at Loyalton. Mr. and Mrs. McElroy, who reside in Loyalton,
have two children, Lorraine and Fern.
Mr. McElroy is an active member of the Masonic order, holding membership
in Sierra Valley Lodge, No. 184, at Sierraville; Granite Chapter, No. 94, R. A.
M. at Loyalton; Sacramento Commandery, No. 2, K. T.; and Ben Ali Temple, A. A.
O. N. M. S., at Sacramento. Mrs. McElroy
is a member of the Order of the Eastern Star.
Mr. McElroy also belongs to Reno Post, American Legion. He is now devoting his attention closely to
the lumber business and is a member of the Northwest Lumbermen’s
Association. His supervision extends
over fifty miles of the Clover Valley Lumber Company’s logging railroad, which
his logging crews build and maintain.
Aside from a period from about November 30th to April 1st,
Mr. McElroy is busy at the logging camp.
He possesses a strong personality and good executive ability and handles
the logging operations in a manner that has proven highly satisfactory to the
company, while at the same time he commands the respect of the men under him.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Wooldridge,
J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley California,
Vol. 3 Pages 234-236. Pioneer Historical Publishing Co.
Chicago 1931.
© 2010 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Sierra County
Biographies