Merced County
Biographies
DAVID CASARETTO
It was a piece of very good fortune that M. Caton, of Atwater, was able to get such a capable and efficient manager as David Casaretto for his meat market in the Martha Washington Stores, Inc. at Atwater. Having a most thorough knowledge of the butchering, meat-packing and curing industry gained by long years of experience, he is able to handle the customers in such a way as to make the best of friends of every one with whom he has dealings and has proved a most valuable help to his employer. He was born in Indian Gulch, Mariposa County on June 24, 1856, the second of four children. His father, Giuseppe Casaretto, is mentioned in another place in this book. He attended the Merced Falls school and was reared at Indian Gulch. He began the wool-growing business in company with his brothers and continued in it until 1884 when he took up the butcher trade, which he followed in Arizona and Colorado as a journeyman for forty years. Six years ago he came to Atwater and became manager of the Sanitary Meat Market, where he remained until 1924. About January 1, 1925, he assumed his present position. He owns his residence in Atwater. He does not tie to any political party but votes for the best men and measures at all elections.
Mr. Casaretto was married in Colorado Springs, Colo. in 1888, to Miss Ella McElroy, a native of Missouri, who came to California with her parents. There are four children of the union, viz.: Verne W., of Atwater; Ruth, wife of Charles Wirow, in San Diego County; Hazel, wife of Arthur Davis of Los Angeles; and Herbert, who died at one year of age. There are also six grandchildren.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 625-626
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
MATTHEW JENSEN
The son of a baker by trade, Matthew Jensen was born in Schleswig, Denmark, on March 4, 1867, and there he attended the common school. To the same school went Margaret Lindberg, who came from a neighboring farm; they met daily and played together. Matthew Jensen was the fourth in a family of seven children: Doretta, Mary, Harvey, Matthew, John, James and Anna, deceased.
Matthew, at the early age of fifteen, started out to make his own living and came to America and California. A stranger in a strange land, ignorant of the customs and the language, and with no means or influential friends, it was a tough proposition which faced the lad. But he got a job on a ranch near Watsonville and for eight years worked around on different ranches. Then he went to San Louis Obispo and worked two years. By saving his money he had accumulated funds enough to go into the dairy business on his own account, and with a partner carried on dairying seven years on rented land. The profits were not so good but that an engagement with the Southern Pacific Railroad Company seemed to be a little better and for many years he was in their employ, first as a section hand, three years as inspector of tracks, and seven years as section foreman of the Tracy Division. But before this he bought a ranch two miles south of Los Banos and built a home and farm buildings.
The girl he used to go to school with in his native land had come to America five years before, and they were married in Watsonville on November 12, 1892. In 1910 he resigned from the railroad business to devote his time to the little home ranch where he resides in comfort today. There were eight children born to this union, viz.: Anna, Mrs. C. C. Anderson of La Center, Wash.; Antone E.; Eva, Mrs. Joseph Ellis of Los Banos; Mark L.; James, deceased; Margaret E. (Rita Beth), Mrs. M. J. Lane of Livermore; James H.; and John Norman. Mrs. Jensen passed away on December 30, 1924, aged fifty-four years, six months and one day, mourned by a wide circle of friends. Mr. Jensen is a Democrat in politics and fraternally is a member of the Woodmen of the World.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 626-629
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
MRS. NELLIE A. TAGLIO
PETER L. TAGLIO
The name which heads this review is representative of one of the oldest families of Monterey County, Cal., where Mrs. Taglio was born, a daughter of John B. and Juanita (Artellen) Leoni, the former a native of Switzerland and the latter of Monterey, Cal. The mother of our subject is one of the oldest native daughters in the State born of white parents, her father having been Peter Artellen, a native of France and among the first white settlers in Monterey. His wife was born in Monterey, of Spanish parents, who had immigrated from Spain. The parents of our subject were married in Monterey and engaged in farming in that section until the father's death in 1914, at the age of seventy-one. The mother has reached the age of seventy-four years, and makes her home in Watsonville.
Nellie A. Leoni attended public school and the Catholic convent in Salinas. On April 14, 1892, Miss Leoni was married to Peter L. Taglio, a native of Switzerland, son of Louis Peter and Dominica Taglio, who never left their native country. Peter L. Taglio was educated in the schools of Switzerland. In 1886 he came to California and first settled in Sonoma County, where he worked as a dairy hand. He attended night school while working and became proficient in the English language. He removed from Sonoma County to San Benito County, and there established a dairy of his own, continuing until he sold this business and removed to Salinas, where he engaged in the dairy business with 100 cows for the following eight years. He sold this business at a good profit and engaged in the stock business, buying and shipping cattle and hogs to the San Francisco markets. Following this, Mr. Taglio engaged in farming at Gonzales, Monterey County, for four years. Fourteen years ago he located at Gustine. Here he purchased the old Sturgeon ranch, consisting of 163 acres in the Cottonwood district, and conducted a dairy until 1919, when he turned the management of it over to his three sons.
Mr. and Mrs. Taglio removed to Gustine, where he bought four acres within the city limits. He lived retired in his new home until his death at the age of fifty-eight years, and here Mrs. Taglio still makes her home. They were the parents of seven children: Louis Peter, Romeo, Peter, Phillip, Nellie, Theodore, and Raymond. The son Romeo served as a corporal in Company M, 364th Infantry, 91st Division, and saw service in France. Mr. Taglio was active in all Red Cross and Liberty Loan drives during the World War; he was a member of the Gustine Chamber of Commerce and was exceedingly public-spirited, taking an active interest in everything pertaining to the progress and development of his locality. Fraternally he was a member of the Druids and had passed through all the chairs of that order. He was a Democrat in politics, and was a faithful member of the Catholic Church, of which Mrs. Taglio is a liberal and consistent communicant.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 629-630
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler