Yolo County
Biographies
Otto J. BAUMANN
The qualities of accuracy and skill, without which permanent success cannot be attained in any line of enterprise, are no less important to the building industry than to other avocation. As leading characteristics of Otto J. Baumann they have been indispensable factors in the commendable degree of success which he has secured as a contractor and builder. While he is of Swiss lineage and nativity (born in September of 1879), he allows none to surpass him in loyal devotion to American institutions and in his work he displays the American traits of energy and progressiveness, combined with the thrift and economical management usually seen in people who claim Switzerland as their native country. Still in early life, with a long period of usefulness lying before him, it may be predicted that he will enjoy a growing reputation for efficiency in his chosen occupation.
The trade which he has made his chief occupation Mr. Baumann learned through serving a term as apprentice to a prominent contractor in Dubuque, Iowa, and after he had acquired an excellent technical knowledge of the craft he began to earn his livelihood thereby. Upon coming to California in 1900 he settled first at Corning, Tehama county, and while he was plying his trade as opportunity offered he devoted the balance of his time to the task of assisting his father on a ranch. From 1906 until 1909 he made his home in Napa, where he was employed by a contractor. During the latter year he came to Davis, Yolo county, and formed a partnership with J. W. Campbell under the firm title of Baumann & Campbell, the junior member being a native of Solano county who has engaged in the building business for the past eight or more years.
Accompanying Mr. Baumann to Davis was his wife, whom he had married four years before their settlement in Yolo county and who was formerly Miss Minnie Fisher, being a native of New York, but a resident of California from early years. They are the parents of two children, Otto and Marie. In fraternal relations Mr. Baumann holds membership with the Modern Woodmen, but he cares little for such organizations aside from their insurance privileges, his time and attention being concentrated upon the successful outcome of his occupational tasks. While he has never made a special study of architecture, he seems to possess natural ability in that respect and draws his own plans for his buildings, thus saving to the other party the expense of outside drawings, as well as securing results that many assert could not be surpassed by a specialist in designs. The firm have kept steadily occupied ever since they began work at Davis and have erected the houses of Mrs. Hampton, Mrs. E. Granell, Mrs. Haussler, J. Harby, H. A. Plant and F. Baca, besides the building occupied by the Schmeiser restaurant, the attractive library, and as a contract for Mrs. James Reed the warehouse, 50x130, which displays substantial construction with one fifty-foot span without supports. A recent task completed by the firm, a dormitory at the University farm at a cost of $32,000, is the largest contract ever given for any building in or near Davis and may be accepted as an evidence of the high reputation of the contractors engaged for the responsible undertaking.
Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: “History of Yolo County, California” by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 829 – 830.
Eli SNIDER
Genealogical records show that the Snider family came from Germany to America during an early period of our colonial history and settled in Virginia, from which state Felty Snider went forth to do service in the war of 1812. At the close of the war he returned to his Virginian home, but in 1814 he removed to the then wilderness of Ohio and settled in a region so sparsely inhabited that his nearest neighbor lived twelve miles from his own cabin. In the clearing of a farm he had the energetic assistance of his children, one of whom, Jacob, the father of Eli, was born in Clark county, Ohio, some years after the family had become established in that portion of the country. His existence, like that of his father, was filled with hardships and discouragements, but blessed by affection and industry, and ultimately crowned with a success which place him among the well-to-do men of his community. Helpful to him in his struggles and enjoying with him his achievements was his wife, who bore the maiden name of Catherine Shoemaker and was a native of Highland county, Ohio.
There were six children reared on the old homestead in Clark county, seven miles from Springfield, Ohio, among them being Eli, whose birth occurred March 1, 1853. One of his brothers, Willis, has officiated ably as superintendent of the Agricultural park in his native state. Another brother, Solomon, is a veterinary surgeon of that county, where the youngest brother, D. C., engages in farm pursuits. A sister, Sarah, is the wife of John Fenton, a contractor of Springfield, Ohio. The mother of these sons and daughters survives her husband, who died in 1891, at the age of sixty-seven years, having passed his declining days quietly and contentedly on the farm associated with his first struggles toward independence.
After having completed the studies of the country schools and aided in the cultivation of the home farm for several years, Eli Snider started out for himself at the age of eighteen and began to learn the machinist’s trade in Lawrenceville, Ohio. On his journey toward the west he spent the summer of 1875 in Macoupin county, Ill., and during the autumn he arrived in California, where he found employment as an engineer in Yolo county. November 17, 1880, he married Minnie J. D. Montgomery, a native of Yolo county, Cal. The only child of their union, Alexander, married Clara Flaa and they have a daughter, Eunice A. Mrs. Snider is a daughter of the late Alexander and Susan (Martin) Montgomery, who came to California in 1850 and settled in Yolo county during January of the next year. Like many other settlers, Mr. Montgomery tried his luck in the mines, but later turned to farming pursuits and to such enterprises he devoted his later years. His death took place April 4, 1884, at the age of sixty-four.
The management of the farm of Alexander Montgomery occupied the careful attention of Eli Snider from 1881 until 1886 and he then removed to his present ranch near Davis. Formerly he conducted a nursery business on the land and shipped nursery stock over the entire state as well as into adjacent territories. From the first, however, he had seventy of the ninety-six acres in fruit, the balance being in nursery trees, but eventually he gave up the latter industry, reduced the almond orchard to thirty acres and planted six acres in Bartlett pears of the very choicest grades. The Earl Fruit Company has contracted for the pears for a term of years for $100 per acre. During the season of 1910 he sold his crop of almonds for $4,750 while in 1911 he sold two hundred tons of oat hay for $14 per ton, f. o. b., the crop running more than five tons to the acre. For some years he served as a member of the executive committee of the Davis Fruit Association and from the first he has been an exponent of all that is most progressive in horticulture.
The fraternities which include the name of Eli Snider on their rolls of members are Davis Lodge No. 228, F. & A. M.; Dixon Chapter No. 48, R. A. M., of Dixon; Woodland Commandery No. 21, K. T.; Yolo Lodge No. 169, I. O. O. F., of Davis, and Golden Seal Lodge No.110, K. P., of Davis, in which latter he has served as chancellor. Politically he has been stanch in his support of the Democratic party. From 1906 until 1910 he served as supervisor from the second district and the last year as chairman of the board and during his term many improvements were made in Yolo county, among these being the building of the large stone arch bridge at Winters, the Southern Pacific Railroad bridge across the Sacramento river, the bridge of the Northern Electric Company across the same river and the completion of two large reclamation systems in the Sacramento valley.
Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: “History of Yolo County, California” by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 830 – 832.