San
Joaquin County
Biographies
ALNEY JANESON NOURSE
A
native son of California and the only surviving member of his immediate family,
A. J. Nourse has resided continuously in San Joaquin
County and the Ripon section since 1897, where he is well and favorably known
for his cooperation in every movement for the welfare of his locality. He was born at Coulterville, California,
January 19, 1865, a son of A. J. Nourse, a native of Kentucky and a pioneer of
California. A. J. Nourse, Sr., came
across the plains to California in 1853 in search of gold and located at
Sonora. There were thirty-five people
composing the emigrant train and all survived the hardships of the six months’
journey, arriving at Hangtown in October, 1853.
In 1860 the father removed with his family to Mariposa where he
established a business as wheelwright and for five years built the wagons used
by the freighters to the mines; then he engaged in the stock business and
farming near Keystone, where he preempted Government land and was among the
very first to settle in that locality; he was also employed at the Shawmut
mines until those were closed by the failure of the San Francisco banks. He continued in the stock business until
1876. There were five children in the
family, of whom A. J. Nourse, the subject of this sketch, is one of three
survivors. The mother passed away at
Shawmut in 1887 and the father in Stockton in 1895. A. J. Nourse, our subject, attended the
public schools until the age of fourteen and from that time was associated with
his father in mill work and farming until he was twenty-five years old. In 1889 he entered the Stockton Business
College for a year’s business course and returning to Mariposa County, he
entered the employ of G. W. Hobron & Son as
superintendent of their mill during the summer months and during the winter he
went to Stockton and worked at his trade.
On August 25, 1896, Mr. Nourse was
married to Miss Edna May Cady, born on the Cady river ranch located on the
Stanislaus River, a daughter of Stoel and Nancy J.
(Pringle) Cady, natives of New York and Illinois, respectively. Stoel Cady was a
‘49er and engaged in mining on the north fork of the American River. He spent a few months in Sacramento, and from
there went to Stanislaus County, where he took up land and put in one crop,
when he found that the title was not sound; he then removed to Dent Township,
in San Joaquin County, and bought 1,100 acres which he farmed extensively to
grain and stock. In 1853 he returned to
Illinois and brought back overland about 1,000 head of cattle; later he
discontinued stock raising and devoted his entire attention to general
farming. His marriage to Miss Nancy J. Pringle
occurred in 1854; she had come to California the previous year with the Ewing
Johnson family, who settled at the Blue Tent ranch, twenty-two miles southeast
of Stockton, which is the present site of Escalon. Mrs. Cady passed away in Stockton, March 11,
1895, survived by her husband, who passed away in Susanville, California, on
November 7, 1909. Mrs. Nourse has one
brother, Frank P. Cady, proprietor of the Lassen Water Company.
For three years before he bought it
in 1900, Mr. Nourse conducted the Cady ranch, which consists of 800 acres, for
which he paid twenty-five dollars per acre, the same land now being worth $500
per acre. Mr. Nourse purchased 320 acres
four miles north of Ripon, which he subdivided and sold in small acreages,
disposing of the last three years ago.
Mr. Nourse owned and operated the A. J. Nourse & Company hardware
store in Ripon from 1914 to 1919, when he sold out the business to Davis Bros;
he has served three terms as a director of the South San Joaquin Irrigation
District, was a stockholder in the Ripon Lumber Yard until 1920, is now
vice-president of the Bank of Ripon and was one of the founders of this
institution in 1910. Since 1913 he has
been developing the Ripon Water Works, and he is a member of the Farm Bureau
and the Ripon Merchants Association. In
politics he is a Republican.
Fraternally, he is a past noble grand of Mt. Horeb Lodge, I. O. O. F.,
at Ripon and Mrs. Nourse is past secretary of Rebekah Lodge No. 229, at
Ripon. Both Mr. and Mrs. Nourse were
actively identified with the war relief work and Liberty Loan drives in south
San Joaquin County. Mr. and Mrs. Nourse
are the parents of two children, Ruth Lucille and Ralph C. Mr. Nourse has led a busy and useful life and
his readiness and willingness to serve his community have classed him among the
public-spirited and substantial citizens of his locality.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
971. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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