Sutter
County
Biographies
JOSEPH WESLEY ALGEO
It
is doubtful if a more popular young man lives in Sutter County than Joseph W. Algeo, who is making a distinctive success of the sheep
business, in which he is engaged on a large scale. He was born on the old Algeo
home farm, four miles northwest of Pleasant Grove, Sutter county,
on the 25th of October, 1900, and is a son of Frank W. and Mary M. (Howsley) Algeo, of whose four
children he is the youngest. The family
is one of the oldest in this locality, being numbered among the pioneers of
Sutter County and Frank W. Algeo has long ranked as
one of the leading farmers and influential citizens of the Pleasant Grove
neighborhood. To him and his wife were
born four children, namely: Lillian is
the wife of Michael McNamara and the mother of a daughter, Evelyn, residing at
Dixon, where Mr. McNamara is engaged in farming and dairying. Ruth, a graduate of the Chico Normal School,
and the widow of the late Joseph Brennan and the mother of a son, Joe, lives at
home with her parents. George F., a
graduate of the Chico Normal School, is the principal of the Pleasant Grove
Union grammar school and is now a candidate for the office of county
superintendent of schools of Sutter County.
He is married and has three children:
Marian, George Jr., and Mervin, and lives at his home, which was built
on a part of the Frank W. Algeo ranch. Joseph Wesley completes the family.
Mrs.
Mary M. (Howsley) Algeo is
a daughter of William and Ruth (White) Howsley, the
former born in Manchester, England, and the latter in Yorkshire, England, April
27, 1842. The mother was twice married,
her husband’s being brothers. Her first
husband, whom she married in March, 1863, in Wisconsin, was William, the father
of Mary M. Algeo.
He was a miner and followed that line of work in Nevada, where his
daughter Mary M. was born. He had made
the trip from Wisconsin to California by way of the isthmus
of Panama, and thence to Nevada. There
William Howsley was accidentally killed in 1868,
after which his widow moved to Sutter County to make her home. On November 23, 1869, she became the wife of
George Howsley, by whom she had two sons and three
daughters, namely: Mrs. Mary B. Baker, a
widow, who is a rancher and resides in the Pleasant Grove district of Sutter
County; Thomas, who also is engaged in ranching in the Pleasant Grove district;
Sophia M., the wife of Peter Darrach, an extensive
grain grower near Pleasant Grove; Annie M., the wife of William Horner,
residing in the state of Washington; and George S., extensively engaged in
farming in the Pleasant Grove neighborhood, and supervisor of the fifth district
of Sutter County.
Joseph
Wesley Algeo attended the public schools, graduating
from the Sutter Union high school in 1919, after which he entered the
University of California, at Berkeley, from which he graduated, with the degree
of Bachelor of Arts, in 1923. He next
took the regular law course at his alma mater, and during his college career he
chummed with Desmond A. Winship, who is now
practicing law in Yuba City, California, and is at present a candidate for
district attorney of Sutter County.
There is still an intimate friendship between these two men. Mr. Algeo has never
practiced law. In early childhood he was
afflicted with infantile paralysis, which left his lower extremities somewhat
crippled, though not so seriously as to prevent him from driving a car or a
tractor or horses. He is devoting his
attention to the sheep business in which he is meeting with success. He keeps a drove of several hundred sheep on
his father’s ranch, having a share agreement with his father, and lives at
home. His sheep are principally Hampshire’s,
crossed on grade Merinos and are in splendid shape. Mr. Algeo sells
several hundred fattened lambs for the general market every spring and also
obtains large clips of wool.
Mr. Algeo
is a Republican and is active in local political affairs, being a member of the
Sutter County central committee. He is a
charter member of the Orinda Country Club, he enjoys a wide acquaintance and
throughout this section of the valley he has a host of warm and loyal friends,
who respect him for his courage and strength of character, as well as for his
genial and kindly manner.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 3, Pages 121-123. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Sutter County
Biographies