Yolo
County
Biographies
DANIEL FRANKLIN HOUX
One
of the highly esteemed citizens of Yolo County is Daniel F. Houx,
living near Zamora, who is a worthy representative of one of the real pioneer
families of this section. He has resided
in this locality for seventy-eight years and is therefore well and accurately
informed on every phase of the valley’s history. Mr. Houx was born
in Johnson county, Missouri, December 7, 1845, and is
a son of Leonard and Sarah L. (Tebbs) Houx, who were natives of Kentucky. In 1852 the family came to California,
crossing the plains with the typical outfit of that day, ox team and covered
wagon, and first stopped at Hangtown, now
Placerville. Later they went to Sutter
Fort, from there to Sacramento and finally to Yolo county, where they
established their permanent home. The
father took up one hundred and sixty acres of land near Zamora, on which he
engaged in farming, and also operated large tracts of rented land in this
locality, raising grain crops and giving much attention to sheep and other
livestock. Both parents are deceased,
the father dying in 1874 and the mother in 1897.
Daniel
F. Houx received his elementary education in the
district schools, after which he attended Vacaville College. He entered the Pacific Business College, in
which he was graduated from the commercial course, and then entered at once
upon his life work as a rancher and farmer.
He rented a large tract of land and subsequently bought the interests of
the other heirs in the home farm. In
early days he rode the range as a cowboy all over the Sacramento Valley and
passed through the typical experiences of that period. He took a keen interest in local public
affairs and served in a number of responsible positions. He is constable of his district, is a deputy
sheriff of Yolo County, and was for eight years a member of the board of county
supervisors, having been president of the board during the last four years of
that period. He has always been deeply
interested in educational matters and for forty-five years served as a member
of the board of school trustees, from which position he but recently resigned
due to advancing years.
In August, 1878, at Arbuckle,
California, Mr. Houx was united in marriage to Miss
Lucinda F. Maupin, who is a native of Humboldt County, this state, and they are
the parents of two children, Mrs. Minnie Leiter and
Roy Reed. Mr. Houx
is a member of Yolo Lodge, No. 81, F. & A. M.; Yolo Lodge, No. 293, I. O.
O. F.; Sylvian Lodge, No. 108, D. R., and Chapter,
No. 246, O. E. S. He is widely known as
an old-time left-hand fiddler, and, though he cannot read a note of music and
plays entirely by ear, he is remarkably proficient, particularly in the
rendition of the well known melodies and dance music of former days. At an old fiddlers’ contest in Oakland,
California, where an audience of two or three thousand acted as the judges of
nine contestants, in 1924, Mr. Houx was the winner,
the prize being a fine violin, made in Germany and valued at one hundred and
fifty dollars. He is very proud of his
victory, as well as of the instrument.
He has played the violin in the National Theater in Woodland, as well as
in a theater in Sacramento. As a
pioneer, he retains vivid recollections of conditions in this section of the
country in early days, when antelope, deer, grizzly bears and geese were
common, and when his family came here there were practically no public
improvements of any nature. So he has
been an interested witness of the wonderful development which has characterized
the Sacramento Valley and made of it one of the most favored sections of the
country, productive and populous. He has
shown himself a friend and neighbor to those who followed him here and during
all the years has done his full part to promote the wellbeing of the community.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 3, Pages 176-177. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Yolo County Biographies