Sutter
County
Biographies
LEO A. WADSWORTH
Leo
A. Wadsworth, one of the successful young educators of the Sacramento Valley,
has served as principal of the Sutter Union high school since 1924 and is also
the efficient district superintendent of the Sutter Union high school
district. He was born on the old
Wadsworth home place at Sutter City, California, October 26, 1892, a son of Edson Schuyler and Lottie (Pease) Wadsworth. A separate biography of his father may be
found on another page of this publication.
Mr. Wadsworth has a younger sister, Olive E., who is the wife of A. Lemenager, a dairy farmer of Sutter, California.
Leo
A. Wadsworth was reared on his father’s sheep ranch and has a thorough
knowledge of sheep and sheep raising. Following his graduation from the Sutter
Union high school he entered the University of California, in which institution
he completed a pedagogical course, being graduated therefrom
with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1916.
During the succeeding year he did post-graduate work at the University
of California. In his college days he
was a noted sprinter and in the contest for all leagues of Northern California
in 1911 he made a record of 220 yard dash which has never been beaten.
Mr.
Wadsworth was a teacher of science and mathematics in the high school at
Lompoc, Santa Barbara County, at the time of the outbreak of the World
War. In November, 1917, he responded to
the general draft and owing to his scientific attainments was transferred to
the X-ray laboratory at Camp Lewis, of which he was finally placed in charge
with the rank of first sergeant, thus serving until honorably discharged on the
10th of May, 1918. Following
the close of the war he returned to Sutter, California, and was here associated
with his father in the sheep business until 1921, when he became teacher of
science and mathematics in the Sutter Union high school, of which he was made
principal in 1924.
The
Sutter Union high school is comprised of fifteen school districts extending
from Sacramento County to Butte County.
It contains two high schools, one at Sutter and the other at East Nicolaus, Sutter County.
As stated above, Mr. Wadsworth is the superintendent of the district and
principal of the Sutter Union high school, which has twelve teachers and one
hundred and forty-two pupils. The high
school at East Nicolaus has an attendance of
eight-four pupils and a teaching staff of seven. Graduates of the Sutter Union high school are
accredited (Division A) to the University of California, while graduates of the
East Nicolaus high school are accredited (Division B)
to that institution. The commodious and
beautiful high school building at Sutter City, a stucco frame structure, was
erected in 1912. The Sutter Union high
school has special departments for the teaching of domestic science, manual
training for boys in both woodworking and mechanics,
home economics, vocal and instrumental music and commercial work, with
competent instructors in each department.
The pupils are also thoroughly trained in athletics. The activities of the school are most
interestingly reviewed in its annual publication, “The Gold and White,”
illustrated with pictures of students and faculty. The concluding words of an inspiring
editorial which appeared in the San Francisco Examiner under date of June 22,
1930, are not amiss here: “This picture
and this page are published as a tribute to the great American public school,
which eclipses, overshadows and surpasses every school, and every school system
in the world. In the public school, the
Edison, the Ford, the Fulton and the Lincoln of another generation are being
educated now. The great ideas that will
make the future happy and prosperous are taking shape in those youthful
minds. In the public school sports,
character is being formed for future contests and victories. There are many magnificent monuments in the
United States. The public school overshadows
them all. The Statue of Liberty in New
York’s harbor would be a mockery if there were no public schools. The great colleges, all fields of mature
effort, would be starved for lack of thinking material if there were no public
schools. The solidly democratic, sincerely American citizenship spreading from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, devoted to this nation and to its ideals, would
not exist, as it does today, if there were no public schools. Honor the public schools, and the public
school teachers, and rejoice in the fact that, in this land of liberty,
education, at least, is free, and knowledge, without which liberty is
impossible.”
On the 7th of July, 1917,
at Sutter, California, Mr. Wadsworth was united in marriage to Miss Virginia Beecroft, of this place.
They are the parents of four children, namely: Leo A., Jr., a lad of eleven years; Virginia,
who is nine years of age; Harold, aged seven; and Ralph, who is five years
old. Mr. Wadsworth finds his greatest
happiness at his own fireside in the companionship of his wife and children. His home is at Sutter, where he built a
substantial and attractive residence in 1920.
In Masonry he has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, belonging to Enterprise Lodge, No. 70, F. & A. M.,
of Yuba City and the Consistory at Sacramento.
He is the president of the Northern California High School Athletic
League and also the Northern Section of the California Interscholastic
Federation, being a member of the state council of the above organization; and
also a member of the Native Sons of the Golden West.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 3, Pages 140-142. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Sutter County
Biographies