Sutter County
Biographies
SUTTER UNION HIGH SCHOOL
Prominent among the institutions of learning in Sutter County is the Sutter Union High School, which was organized in 1893, erected its building in 1913, and now has an approximate enrollment of 140 pupils. Too much praise cannot be given to the board of trustees of this institution; namely E. S. Wadsworth, F. W. Graves, Louis Tarke, G. C. Galbraith, and C. E. Reische, several of whom have served on school boards for upwards of a quarter of a century. It is largely through their untiring and intelligent efforts, that the Sutter Union High School ranks among the very best in California.
Three courses of study are offered: A two- or three-year business college course, which prepares for office work; a high school course, which fits the student for work on the farm or in the trades; and an academic course, which enables one to enter the university. Either of the four-year courses may be varied, but students anticipating going to college are kept closely to the prescribed studies. A branch high school is located at East Nicolaus, which offers the regular academic course. Students living at a distance of five or more miles from the school are refunded transportation money amounting to one cent for every mile traveled in going to and from high school, or are entitled to free transportation by busses specially provided for this purpose. During the school season, community programs, including moving pictures, are given on Thursday evenings in the Sutter Union High School and on Friday evenings in the branch high school. The program also consists of community singing and lectures on general topics of interest, such as history, literature, science, geography, biography, art, music, etc. Two publications serve to keep up a live interest in the affairs of the institution, namely: The Sutter Union, a bright four-page, four-column weekly, and the annual Gold and White, now in its nineteenth volume.
Another matter of unusual interest is the fact that the Sutter Union High School excels in athletics, having won over Sacramento, Stockton, Marysville, Oroville and every other high school in Northern California, in track events. This fact speaks volumes for the moral and physical standing of this community, and for its healthful climate, factors which combine to give unusual strength and virility to its youth.
Mention must be made of the worthy principal of this institution of learning, Gardiner Whittier Spring. Born at Burbank, on August 29, 1892, he is a son of Louis and Bertha (Fisher) Spring. His father was a native of Illinois and one of the frontiersmen of Nebraska, going there with his parents when he was a child. He was also a minister of the Methodist Church; and when he came to California, in the early eighties, he had charge of a Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, Cal., in which city he still resides. Gardiner Whittier Spring attended the schools of the Golden State, and in 1915 was graduated from the University of California. While in the university, he majored in English literature, with minors in chemistry and education; and in 1916, when he came to Sutter City, he was appointed as a teacher in the Sutter Union High School, of which he later became principal.
On December 27, 1916, Gardiner Whittier Spring was united in marriage with Miss Gertrude Miller, a native of Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Spring are the parents of one daughter, Elizabeth. Mr. Spring is a strong advocate of the Republican party. Fraternally he is a Mason.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 921-922
EDWARD HENRY FORDERHASE
Prominent among the experienced and successful horticulturists of Northern California to whom may be attributed much of the present-day advancement in the science of cultivating almonds, is Edward Henry Forderhase, of Sutter City, a native of Missouri, where he was born in Warren County, on June 17, 1873. W. H. Forderhase, his father, was also born in Missouri, whereas his good wife, who was Louise Whisbrock before her marriage, was a native of Germany, and was brought to the United States and to Missouri by her parents when she was four years of age. Mr. Forderhase was a farmer, and in 1888 he came to California with his family and settled in Sutter County. Eight children were granted this worthy couple. Emma is Mrs. Grant Davis, of Sutter County; George lives at Sutter; the third-born is the subject of our review; Florence E., is at Napa; Otto lives in Pennington; William is at Sutter; Cornelia is Mrs. Charles Summy of Sutter; and Frank, the youngest, is at Redding. Mr. Forderhase settled at Sutter City in the year it was founded. He bought a couple of dwellings and about ten city lots; and there he retired, to live until 1922, when he breathed his last.
Edward Henry Forderhase attended the Brittan School, and when twenty-one years of age started out for himself and worked as a ranch hand for wages for years. He bought ten acres of open land, and set the tract out to almonds; and then, in time, he added to his holding a ten-acre orchard. In addition to the foregoing, he has a most attractive home-place of seven acres. He is a Republican, and believes in supporting movements to favor in any legitimate way American agriculture; but he never allows mere partisanship to hinder his endorsement of what he deems best for the locality in which he lives and prospers.
At Sutter City, on October 24, 1906, Mr. Forderhase was married to Miss Emaline Carrie King, a native of San Francisco and the daughter of J. F. and Bertha (Traung) King, substantial farmer folks of Sutter County. Her father came to California a mere lad; and he is still living at the comfortable age of sixty-six, and resides at Sutter. Mrs. King died at the age of fifty-six. Emaline King attended the Marysville and Pennington public schools, in Yuba and Sutter Counties, and there laid the foundation which has been of such value in the education of her two daughters, Evelyn and Melva.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 922-925