Sutter County
Biographies
HUGH S. QUEEN
A native of West Virginia, Hugh S. Queen has spent practically all of his adult life in California, and is now identified with the ranching interests of Sutter County. His birth took place on December 22, 1879, at Buckhannon, a son of D. I. H. ad Dora (Wolf) Queen, both parents native of Virginia, where the father was a farmer. In 1898 the family moved to Ohio, settling near Kent, and there the family still reside, with the exception of Hugh S. Queen. The eldest in a family of seven children born to his parents, he received his education in the schools of West Virginia, both district and high school, and when reaching his majority he desired to start on his own way in life.
Coming to California about 1900, Mr. Queen first settled at Ventura, and there he worked as a mechanic in a planing mill for a period of seven years. In 1913, Mr. Queen and family came to Sutter County and located in Gledhill Colony, purchasing twenty acres of an open barley field, which he has developed to a thriving fruit orchard of peaches and prunes, irrigated from an electrically-driven pumping plant, which he has installed, as well as making other necessary improvements. He has also purchased another twenty-acre ranch on the old Hutchison Tract, seven miles south of Yuba City, and is now engaged in the development of this acreage into orchards.
At Ventura, Hugh S. Queen’s marriage occurred on November 30, 1905, uniting him with Miss Gertrude Peterson, born in San Luis Obispo, a daughter of Hans and Mary Peterson, both natives of Als, Denmark; Hans Peterson came to California about 1882, and located at San Luis Obispo, where he followed his trade of stone mason and builder, but soon afterwards he located in Santa Barbara, where he took up landscape gardening, which he has followed ever since, and there he still resides. Mrs. Queen was the eldest of three children born to her parents, and was educated in the Ventura schools. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Queen: Dora, Walter Hugh, and Robert M. Mrs. Queen is a member and clerk of the board of trustees of Wilson School District, and she is a member of the Wilson Women’s Club. Mr. Queen is a believer in cooperation in the marketing of the farmers’ products, so we find him a member of the California Prune and Apricot Growers’ Association. In national politics he is a Republican.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p. 1189-1190
ELLSWORTH A. COLLEY
It is unusual in this day of change to find a family that have made their home in one locality for three generations, and when we do we can call them real Californians, with all the characteristics and traditions which go with that name. Ellsworth A. Colley was born in Nevada City, Nevada County, November 14, 1892, a son of James F. and Ida E. (Allen) Colley. Grandfather James Colley was a native of Maine and came to California in the sixties, and his son, James F., was also born in Nevada City, where he is engaged in the confectionery business and was formerly postmaster. His marriage to Ida Allen took place in California, and Ellsworth A. is the only child of their union. The mother’s birthplace was near Pittman, N. J.
Ellsworth A. Colley received his preliminary education in the Nevada City Grammar and High Schools, and later attended the University of California Agricultural School at Davis, graduating with the class of 1916. After his graduation he came to Sutter County, and purchased fifty-eight acres of land, a part of the old Humphrey ranch, and this property he has brought to the highest state of cultivation, setting it to cling peaches and prunes, and using four-inch pumps for irrigation, one of them a deep well turbine. In putting to practical use the expert knowledge gained at college, he has demonstrated that intensive agriculture brings the greatest returns for the labor expended. Mr. Colley has built his home on the ranch and devotes his entire time to the operation of his fruit interests. In politics he believes in the principles of the Republican platform; fraternally, he is a member of the Native Sons of the Golden West, Hydraulic Parlor, No. 56, of Nevada City, and of the Marysville Lodge No. 783, B.P.O.E., and is a member of the California Prune and Apricot Growers’ Association. It goes without saying that he is public-spirited to a large degree, and does all in his power to further advance the best interests of his community, county and State.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p. 1190