San Joaquin County
Biographies
CHARLES BLISS SUTLIFF
CHARLES BLISS SUTLIFF, a
rancher of Dent Township, was born in Pennsylvania, April 3, 1834, a son of
Ransley and Catherine (Barnhart) Sutliff. The father was a farmer and moved to the state of New York
before the close of 1834, and thence to Redding Township, Hillsdale County,
Michigan. There he farmed and conducted the Half-way House, so called because
it was midway between Willard’s and Allen’s prairies. In the forties he removed
to Clinton County, in the same State, where he bought a farm in Bingham
Township, and afterward owned 160 acres in Victor Township. Selling these he
bought seventy-three acres in Bingham, about four miles southeast of St.
John’s. Afterward moved to Greenville, Ionia County, and then to Muskegon,
about 1865. Finally he bought and farmed a smaller place of forty acres at
Mount Pleasant, Isabella County, Michigan, where both parents died, the mother
on the farm in 1884, aged eighty seven, the father, born in Connecticut, August
12, 1795, died in the village of Mount Pleasant, Michigan, July 13, 1887. He
had fought in the war of 1812, and was in the receipt of a modest pension of $8
a month for fifteen years before his death. They raised a family of four sons
and two daughters, all living at the present time (1889) except the oldest,
William Barnhart Sutliff, who died in Newaygo City, Michigan, in 1885, leaving
a widow but no children.
Chas. Bliss Sutliff, the subject of this
sketch, was brought up on a farm. Two months before attaining his majority he
was married, February 1, 1885, in Victoria, Michigan, to Miss Dorliska Beach,
born in Massachusetts, October 14, 1835, a daughter of Thomas and Mrs. Melita
(Dane--by birth Raymond) Beach. The parents removed from Massachusetts to
Michigan in 1841, and settled in Jackson County. In 1845 they were living in
Victor, in the same county. The mother, born in Vermont, October 11, 1795, died
in her daughter’s house in Bingham, Michigan, 1862; the father, born in
Connecticut, August 5, 1788, died near Stockton, November 27, 1879. The
grandfather, Elisha Raymond, was a Revolutionary soldier who lived to be quite
old, and his wife, Abigail, who survived him, was over ninety at her death.
In 1858, C. B. Sutliff bought a forty-acre
farm in Bingham Township, Clinton County, Michigan, and farmed until 1868, when
he sold out. In 1869 he came to California by railroad with his wife and six
children. He rented some land five miles east of Stockton and has resided in
this county ever since. The drought of 1871 put him back, and in 1873, on
expiration of his lease, he went to work on a farm for wages, and remained so
employed about eighteen months. He then rented 320 acres twelve miles east of
Stockton on the Sonora road, which he kept four years. In 1878 he bought the
ranch of 720 acres he now occupies near the French Camp road, twenty-five miles
east of Stockton, and moved there on October 1, of that year. It is good wheat
and barley land, yielding twenty-three bushels of wheat to the acre in 1889.
Mr. and Mrs. Sutliff are the parents of
seven living children, namely; Lovica D., born March 19, 1856, now Mrs. John F.
Rogers of this township; William Henry, born May 6, 1858, married December 4,
1880, to Miss Katie Ashburn, who have three children,--Ralph Asburn, born
September 9, 1881; Ethel Jean, August 30, 1883; Clarence Luther, May 16, 1886.
Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Sutliff, the third is Stella E., born
November 28, 1859, married December 18, 1889, to C. W. Thompson, who lives with
her parents; the fourth is Charles Luther, born September 10, 1861, was married
September 19, 1888, to Miss Carrie Weaver. The others are Sherman D., born
April 10, 1864; Byron P., April 6, 1868; and Lulu May, born March 7, 1872;
these three are also living at home.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 275-276. Lewis Pub.
Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2008 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
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