Sutter County
Biographies
ALBERT J. CLARKE
The Clarke home place lies three miles west of Yuba City and consists of eighteen and a half acres, highly developed to an orchard of cling peaches. Al Clarke, as he is familiarly known by all of his friends, was born at Brockville, Ontario, Canada, April 2, 1865. He is a son of Sylvester J. and Jane (Bowen) Clarke, natives respectively of Vermont and the North of Ireland. The father was a printer, and was employed on a paper in Syracuse, N. Y., when he enlisted in a New York cavalry regiment for service in the Civil War. At the siege of Richmond, just before the close of the war, he was hit by a shell and killed. The mother, Jane (Bowen) Clarke, was reared in England and came to Canada with relatives. In 1868 she brought her little son Albert to California, coming via Panama direct to Marysville, where she had two brothers and a sister living, and where she resided for many years. She then moved to San Rafael, where she died in 1912, at the age of eighty-two years.
Al Clarke attended public school in Marysville until about fifteen years old, when he was forced to go to work. He became an apprentice to learn the plumber’s trade with White, Colley & Cutts, and for a number of years worked as a journeyman plumber in Yuba County. From 1907 to 1911, Mr. Clarke spent some time in the following cities: San Francisco, Fresno, Modesto, Porterville, and San Rafael. On his return to Marysville in 1911, he entered the employ of the Lindon Hardware Company, with whom he continued until he established a plumbing shop with Fred Day as a partner. He continued in the business until 1916, when he sold out his interest to Mr. Day. In 1913 he had purchased his present home place at Tierra Buena, which was newly set to orchard. Since then he has set it all to Phillips and Tuscan cling peaches.
Mr. Clarke’s marriage in 1900, in Marysville, united him with Miss Gertrude Raphael, a native of Stockton, Cal.; and they are the parents of one son, Albert J., Jr. For the past twenty years Mr. Clarke has been identified with the Maccabees of Marysville. In politics he has always been liberal and progressive. Mr. Clarke was at one time a member of the city board of health. He was also a member of the old Marysville Cadets.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p . 1305
CHESTER DOUGLAS WINSHIP
Prominent among young educators of Northern California who are materially advancing the science and practice of pedagogy is Chester Douglas Winship, the popular principal of the grammar school at Yuba City. He was born at West Sutter, in the western part of Sutter County, on November 9, 1895, the son of Oliver Everett and Eliza (Ross) Winship, and grandson of Isaac Winship, a sturdy pioneer who came from Boston, Mass., and settled in California in the early fifties, ranching for years along the Sacramento River. Both parents are still living, enjoying the esteem of their fellow-men.
Chester Winship attended the grammar schools of his district, and then went to the Sutter High School, after which he completed the work required preparatory to teaching, and from Septembr, 1916 to May 18, 1917, conducted the Slough School. At the call for troops to support the United States government during the World War, he enlisted in the United States Navy and was assigned to submarine service. For twenty-two months he was active in his patriotic work, and was then discharged as a radio electrician of the first class. In 1919, he returned to California, and in the fall of that year commenced to teach at the Winship School; and two years later, in September, 1921, having established a record for exceptional fitness, he was appointed to the grammar school principalship at Yuba City, where his interest in the community and its educational work has won for him a hearty welcome from the first day of his activity here. His participation in the development of youth through his work as scout-master has added to his popularity with the boys; and because the citizens feel that he is truly “one of them,” his influence has become very helpful.
The marriage of Mr. Winship and Marjorie Hartridge, an accomplished lady of Westerly, R. I., took place on September 6, 1918, at New London, Conn. Their married life has been given added joy by the adoption of a lad named Robert Douglas. In politics, Mr. Winship is a Republican. In community affairs he gives whole-hearted, non-partisan support to the best interests of the locality. He is a member of Colusa Lodge, No. 240, F.&A.M., and Meridian Lodge, No. 212, I.O.O.F., and belongs also to the Encampment. Both Mr. and Mrs. Winship are intensely interested in Sutter County, past, present and future; and they are ready at all times to “do their bit” toward advancing the interests of Northern California.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p . 1305-1306