Sutter County
Biographies
EARL ELWOOD McPHERRIN
An experienced and successful rancher well-known throughout Sutter County is Earl Elwood McPherrin, living seven miles north of Sutter City. He was born at Sutter, on May 23, 1896, the son of John Jacob and Anna (Gibson) McPherrin. The father was also a native son, and was born in Sutter County on January 7, 1873; while Mrs. McPherrin was a native of Kansas. Grandfather W. H. McPherrin was born in Knox County, Ill., on August 1, 1841, and came out to California in 1859, settling in Sutter County on Section 9, Township 15 north, Range 2 east, where he came to own 285 acres. On December 8, 1864, he married Miss N. Stevens, in Sutter County, and by her had four children, Mary A., born on September 2, 1865; William H., born on March 24, 1868; John Jacob, the father of our subject; Lorena, born on March 11, 1878. Grandfather McPherrin died in Sutter County at the age of fifty-three, and his wife died at the age of forty-eight.
John J. McPherrin and his wife are living at Sutter City. He has always been a rancher in Sutter County, and has followed general farming and the raising of sheep. They have a daughter, Ariel, who is also living.
An uncle of Earl McPherrin, William Henry McPherrin, who resides at Sutter City, was married there on April 27, 1892, to Miss Anthalena Fox, who was born at Yuba City, a daughter of Thomas Fox; and they have four children: Robert Verne, Alvira Anthalena, Leila Loren, and William Henry McPherrin, Jr.
Earl McPherrin attended the Brittan Grammar School; and since 1916 he and his father have been carrying on a partnership, raising and handling stock and sheep. They purchased 2100 acres of land seven miles north of Sutter City; and today they run about 4500 head of ewes and lambs. Politically, Mr. McPherrin is a broad-minded, non-partisan supporter of the best mean and measures for the locality in which he lives.
Earl E. McPherrin was married at Sacramento on September 17, 1918, to Miss Fay Summy, a native of Meridian, Sutter County, and the daughter of William and Caroline (Stohlmann) Summy, whose sketch appears in another part of this history. She attended the Sutter County grammar schools, and now has two children, Fayne and Calvert.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p . 1306
EDWARD WILCOXON BRUCE
Sutter County has the distinction of harboring within its confines many descendants of old pioneers, who are now active in business and in agriculture in their home county, and are ably carrying on the work started by their forebears, who came here in early days and braved the hardships of frontier life in order to build up a new country. Among these may be mentioned Edward Wilcoxon Bruce, born in Sutter County, near the Buttes, October 2, 1877, a son of John Jasper and Lutetia (Garr) Bruce, both natives of Missouri, who settled here and lived out their lives. John Jasper Bruce crossed the plains with the Wolcoxons of Yuba City, and the friendship cemented by that arduous and heart-breaking overland journey was a lifelong one. He located in the Butte section of the county after having mined a short time at Downieville, and died aged seventy-seven; while his good wife lived to be sixty-eight years old.
Edward Wilcoxon Bruce was the twelfth child born to his parents, the youngest in the family, and attended the Brittan school in the county, and later the high school for a short time. He started out for himself at twenty years of age, as a ranch hand at first; but in 1910 he became a partner of S. J. Poole in the general merchandise business at Tudor, and was associated with him seven years. He then sold his interest to John B. Heiken; and soon after, a Mr. Young bought out Mr. Poole. In 1917 Mr. Bruce bought his twenty-acre ranch, then set to three-year-old orchard; and he has since put in all the improvements on the property, building his home and installing a four-inch electrically operated pump; fifteen acres are in peaches, three in plums, and the balance in alfalfa.
The marriage of Mr. Bruce occurred at Yuba City in 1905, and united him iwht Maude Sanders, born at Pleasant Grove, Cal., a daughter of J. D. and Laura Sanders, who were early settlers of Sutter County, engaged in ranching, and still reside in Yuba City. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Bruce: Virginia, Verne, and Viola Irene. Mr. Bruce is a Democrat in politics, and fraternally he belongs to Marysville Lodge No. 783, B.P.O.E.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p . 1307