San
Joaquin County
Biographies
SATURNINO CELAYETA
A man of enterprise and energy, who
has won for himself a place among the substantial citizens of San Joaquin
County, is Saturnino Celayeta,
now living retired from the active duties of a business life. He was born in the Pyrenees Mountains of
northern Spain, February 14, 1865, his parents being farmer folk of that
region; and there he grew to young manhood and received a common-school education. In 1887 at the age of twenty-two years, he
came to California, and for four years was in the employ of Miller & Lux on the Los Banos Ranch, in charge of their cattle. During this time, Mr. Celayeta
got his first start in the sheep business, which was the nucleus of his large
and extensive bands of sheep, ranging in the San Joaquin Valley from the
mountains on the east to the western boundary of the county and the Mojave
Desert, and from Red Bluff on the north to Kern County on the south. For twenty-two years Mr. Celayeta
was engaged in the sheep business, owning as many as 10,000 head, and buying
and selling large numbers of them.
Perhaps his largest deal was the purchase of 8,880 wethers
from the Conn & Wood ranch at Red Bluff.
Mr. Celayeta had charge of large bands of
sheep owned by other parties, and for a number of years was associated with T.
C. Evans as a partner in the sheep business, as well as in the liquor business
and in ranching on Roberts Island, on the Royal ranch. About eight years ago Mr. Celayeta
disposed of his sheep, and since that time has been retired. He has been enterprising, ambitious and
industrious, from his earliest years of active life, and his successful career
has rewarded him according.
On July 6, 1903, Mr. Celayeta
was united in marriage with Miss Frances Arriola,
also a native of Spain, and they are the parents of five children: Elena, N. Augustine, Alfonso W., John (who
died aged four years), and Marie Eva, all born, reared and educated in
Stockton. In 1906 Mr. and Mrs. Celayeta visited the scenes of their boyhood and girlhood
in Spain, renewing old acquaintances there.
He has always been an advocate of public progress, and throughout the
community in which he has so long resided he enjoys the high esteem and
confidence of his neighbors and friends.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1135-1136. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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