Merced County
Biographies
HUGH L. NEWSOM
A well-known and successful dairyman and rancher, Hugh L. Newsom was born in Oakland, Cal., on January 10, 1877, the son of Alexander and Corine (Jones) Newsom, the former a native of Toronto, Canada, and the latter born in San Jose, Cal. Grandfather Hugh Jones was one of the early pioneers of California, where he became a cattleman and settled in the Santa Clara Valley. Hugh's father died when Hugh was very young and his mother married W. W. Wright, who is now residing in the hills near Los Banos. His mother died at the age of thirty-eight. Hugh had two stepbrothers, William and Walter, and two step-sisters, Nell and Bell. Mr. Wright was a stockman and moved to Merced County in 1883 and settled in the Romero District, where Hugh attended school. At the age of thirteen he started out to work for wages; he milked cows and drove a milk wagon in Los Banos. Later he went to the mountains west of Los Banos and worked for his board and attended school in the Alvarado district. Afterwards he went to the mines at Angel's Camp in Calaveras County and worked with the compressed air drill in the mines of the "Mother Lode" four years. He went to Oakland and took a business course in Aydlott's Business College after which he was employed with W. P. Fuller and Co. in San Francisco as interior decorator; he then took up the work of artistic designing and painting for the company and continued in the business
with the Fuller Company up to the time when the Tozer Company purchased the wall paper and decoration departments, Mr. Newsom continuing with the new firm, putting in altogether eleven years. He was next employed in the same work by Edgar De Wolf of San Francisco. In 1905 he formed a partnership in the dairy business with Manuel A. Marshall.
Hugh L. Newsom was married on November 23, 1904 at Ross, Cal., to Lucia A. Marshall, born in Ross Valley, and a sister of his partner, Manuel A. Marshall. Mr. Newsom is a Republican in politics; fraternally, is a member of Golden West Parlor No. 50 N. S. G. W., of Oakland. He is also a member of the Building Trades Council of San Francisco.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 630-631
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
FAY W. BATTEN
Though comparatively a young man, Fay W. Batten has achieved very satisfactory results both in business and in farming, which have won for him the respect and confidence of the community where he has attained to positions of honor and trust. The son of Luther and Helen (Hermance) Batten, he is now the only living member of the family. A sketch of his father is given on another page in this history. Fay was born at Raymond, Nebr., on July 16, 1894 and when a babe in arms was brought to Dos Palos, Cal., and he attended the Reynolds Avenue school, then had two years in high school and one year at the College of the Pacific in San Jose. He was always associated with his father in business matters and some time before his father died he was managing the ranch. The father owned 160 acres, and this property is now owned by our subject and is devoted to alfalfa, dairying and gardening. From 1919 to 1922, Mr. Batten and Frank Allen were partners in a grocery in Dos Palos.
Mr. Batten has been twice married. His first wife was Mabel E. Birkhead, born in Troy, Mo., on September 4, 1889, the daughter of Shapely and Mollie Birkhead, who brought their family to California in 1895 and settled in Tulare County. Their marriage was celebrated on June 18, 1913. They had three children born to them, only one now living, Fay Elizabeth. Mary Helen died in infancy and Luther Batten died on May 17, 1922, aged five years. The wife and mother passed away on December 21, 1918 and her loss was keenly felt by all who knew her.
The second marriage of Mr. Batten, uniting him with Eleanore Sargent, took place on September 1, 1923. She is the daughter of John Emery and Elizabeth (Pitts) Sargent, natives of Ohio and California, respectively. Grandfather Pitts was an early settler in California, coming soon after the end of the Civil War. J. E. Sargent is a lumberman and has a yard at Upland, Cal., where he and his wife make their home. One sister, Mrs. Katherine Matthews, lives in San Francisco. Mrs. Batten was educated in Pomona College and taught school in Dos Palos prior to her marriage. Besides looking after his ranch interests, Mr. Batten is acting as agent for the Ford and Lincoln automobiles and the Fordson tractor. In 1922 he was elected a member of the Dos Palos Grammar School board and served as clerk. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and is non-partisan in his politics. For several years he did considerable work with the Boys' Agricultural Club and was active in the Farm Bureau. Mrs. Batten belongs to the Dos Palos Women's Improvement Club.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 631-632
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
SERAFINO BORSINI
The path to fortune is not strewn with flowers even under the most favorable conditions. In the life of Serafino Borsini there were many obstacles to be overcome which would have discouraged many young men, hence the success to which he has attained is worthy of mention. He was born in Canton Ticino, Switzerland, on April 25, 1855, the son of Sebastian and Josephine (Berta) Borsini, farmer folk in Switzerland who spent their entire lives there, the father dying at the age of fifty and the mother at seventy years. The sixth of eight children, Serafino received his schooling at the local school and when he was nineteen he came to America, arriving in Nevada in 1874, where he found employment in the mines and in the woods near Virginia City for a year. He then came to Plumas County, Cal., worked as a milker at twenty dollars a month and found for the first four months, on a dairy in the Sierra Valley. Even with this small wage he was soon able to buy cows and go into the dairy business for himself. In 1905 he came to Merced County, purchased forty acres of alfalfa land north of Cottonwood school house and here he has carried on a prosperous dairy business ever since. Mr. Borsini became an American citizen in 1883 and votes the Republican ticket at all times.
On October 30, 1883, Mr. Borsini was united in marriage with Miss Celia Mead, daughter of Allen and Mary (Price) Mead, of Pennsylvania Dutch stock. Grandfather Price crossed the plains with oxen and a prairie schooner in the pioneer days and settled in Plumas County. Allen Mead was a teamster; both he and his wife have passed on. Mr. and Mrs. Borsini have had nine children, viz.: Carrie Edna, Mrs. F. B. Sleeper of Oakdale; Mary Josephine, widow of Al Terzich, of San Francisco; Katherine Alberta, Mrs. Robert Cassity, has six children, Frances Lucille, Fay Roberta, Robert Hulen, Aloha May, Vernon Claire and Helen Grace; Frankie Rae, Mrs. George Gilligan of San Francisco, is the mother of Ernest, Melba, Dorothy, Juanita, Frank, Mary, Jack and Jeanette Gilligan; William S., who died when seven years old; Celia Rebecca, married Herbert Graham of Vancouver, Wash., and has a son, Bruce; Albert Sebastian and Allen Carlton, twins; Brenda Avis, Mrs. Laurence Sterling, of Gustine. Mr. and Mrs. Borsini are public spirited and hospitable people and assist in doing good wherever they can.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 632-633
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler