Yolo
County
Biographies
ROY D. WHITLOW
Roy
D. Whitlow is numbered among the progressive and enterprising farmers of Yolo
County and in his home community, near Woodland, is held in the highest
esteem. He was born in Lincoln County,
South Dakota, on the 25th of May, 1890, and is a son of D. I. and
Clara (Hornbeck) Whitlow, of whom the former was a native of Kentucky and the
latter of Iowa. After completing his
studies in the public and high schools, Mr. Whitlow entered Dakota Wesleyan
College, at Mitchell, South Dakota, from which he was graduated. He came to California in 1913, settling in
Santa Rosa, but later returned to South Dakota to again engage in farming with
his father. In 1919 the family came to
California, locating in Long Beach, where Mr. Whitlow was engaged in building
operations for three years. In 1922 they
came to Woodland and Mr. Whitlow and his father bought one hundred acres of
land from Samuel Grigsby. This tract,
located on the Knights Landing Road and a part of the old Wooster place, is a
fine piece of land, well improved and highly cultivated. While carrying on general farming, Mr.
Whitlow specializes in breeding and raising pedigreed Duroc
Jersey hogs and in this he has been more than ordinarily successful. He won the grand champion, senior champion,
and first aged boar prizes at the 1930 California State Fair with Cloverdale
Giant, a hog of his own breeding, weighing one thousand pounds. He won first prizes on the reserve grand
champion and reserve senior champion at the state fair at Sacramento in 1929
and in 1928 won the purple on junior champion boars. He still has some of the pigs sired by the
grand champion and his herd is recognized as one of the best in Yolo
County. The ranch is called “Cloverdale
Farms,” and has been developed into a valuable and attractive property.
Mr.
Whitlow was united in marriage to Miss Ethel Mae Maynard, a native of Iowa, and
they are the parents of three children, Maynard, Gail V. and Beverly J. In 1921, at Long Beach, Mr. Whitlow enlisted
in the Four Hundred and Sixty-seventh Coast Artillery. On coming to Woodland he enlisted in Company
E (now Company B), One Hundred and Eighty-fourth Infantry Regiment California
National Guard. After serving as
sergeant for four years, on March 29, 1930, he was commissioned a lieutenant
and assigned to Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion One Hundred and
Eight-fourth Infantry, California National Guard. He is actively interested in everything
relating to the public welfare, taking a leading part in the work of the Farm
Center of Spring Lake district and is a director of
the Spring Farm Center. A man of earnest
purpose, high principles and great energy, he is regarded as a valuable member
of the community and has well deserved the success which is crowning his efforts.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 3, Pages 96-97. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Yolo County Biographies