Sierra
County
Biographies
STEPHEN LUDLO STRANG
Stephen L. Strang is one the best
known residents of the Sierra Valley, where he is regarded as an unusually
efficient cattleman, a vocation to which he was reared from boyhood, having
been almost brought up in the saddle. He
has also had considerable experience in the oil fields and has proved
dependable in whatever line of work he is engaged. He was born on the old Strang ranch, on
Strang Creek, near Sattley, in the Sierra Valley, on the 20th of
October, 1867, and is the eldest son of Jared and Eleanor (Mickey) Strang. His father was born on Prince Edward Island,
from which he was taken to Massachusetts when five years old. In that state he was reared to the age of
twenty-one years, and then sailed for California. Here he at once became identified with the
livestock industry and was one of the most active spirits in its development in
the Sierra Valley, western Nevada, eastern California, and southern Oregon,
becoming the most extensive individual cattleman of that region. Eleanor (Mickey) Strang was born in the middle west and in 1864 came to California in an ox train
known as the Mickey Company, of which the leader was her grandfather, Captain
Robert Mickey. Mr. and Mrs. Strang were
married in Loyalton, Sierra County, and became the parents of four children,
namely: Ada Elizabeth, who died of
scarlet fever, in the Sierra Valley, at the age of six years; Stephen Ludlo, of
this review; Gerrard Wilbert, a former employee of the Southern Pacific
Railroad, who is unmarried and resides at Sattley; and Ida, the wife of L. A.
Bearden, of Oakland, California. The
mother of these children died in 1904, at the age of fifty-four years. For his second wife Mr. Strang chose Miss
Lula Currier and to them were born two children: Arthur Earl, who has a ranch at Sattley; and
Elmer Pearl, who married Miss Grace Nichols, of Sierraville, and had three
children. Elmer P. was accidentally killed
while working in a sawmill at Portola.
Stephen L. Strang was reared on the
home farm to the age of seventeen years, when he started out to make his own
way in the world. He had a fair common
school education and from boyhood was accustomed to be out on the range, caring
for the large herds of cattle belonging to his father and other cattlemen,
mainly in the Sierra Valley. Though well
along in years, he still loves to be in the saddle and handling cattle. He has done much work in the oil fields,
particularly in the Elk Hills naval reserve in Kern County, California. He has four sons who are engaged in oil well
drilling in the fields at Kettleman Hills, at Taft, and at Signal Hill, in Los
Angeles County. He has worked on stock
ranches in Modoc, Lassen, Plumas and Sierra counties, and as a boy assisted his
father in driving droves of cattle from Baker City, Oregon, and Walla Walla County, Washington, on one occasion bringing eight
hundred and thirty head into the Sierra Valley.
His father became a partner of George Humphrey and Frank Roland, and was
the head of the Sierra Valley round-up when at one time sixty thousand cattle
were brought in.
On August 15, 1892, at Towles
Station, Placer County, Mr. Strang was united in marriage to Miss Julia Hussey,
of Hussey, Nevada County, California.
Her father, John Hussey, was a pioneer mining man of Nevada County,
California, being the owner of the Hussey mine and Chalk Bluff. Mr. and Mrs. Strang became the parents of six
children. Maud Ellen is the wife of
Elmer Blaisdell, an oil well driller in the Santa Fe Springs field, near Long
Beach, and they have two children:
Elmer, who is a member of the United States Marines and is now in China;
and Ellen, who is in high school at Norwalk.
Evan Ludlo, who is an oil well driller at Taft, this state, married Miss
Edna Jamison, of Grass Valley, and they have two children: Mervin, aged twelve years; and Loren, aged
nine years. Edward Stephen, a former oil
well driller, but now a dealer in oil well supplies at Long Beach, this state,
is married and has a stepdaughter.
Cecil, who resides in Los Angeles County, is an oil well driller in the
Santa Fe field. He married Miss Lillian
Brooks and they have a daughter, Irene.
Allen Martin, who is an oil well driller at Taft, was recently
married. Louise is the wife of Flynn
Sturgis, of Redondo Beach.
Politically, Mr. Strang has always
supported the Republican Party, and he is a member of Manitou Parlor, No. 126,
N. S. G. W., at Dutch Flat, Placer County, in which he has passed through the
chairs, and has also passed through the chairs of the Improved Order of Red
Men. He has a good record of persistent
industry, of great skill as a cattleman, which line of business he understands
in all of its details, and of stalwart support for those things which relate to
the well-being of society.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 3 Pages 409-410. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Sierra County Biographies