Yolo County
Biographies
Dean C. BEEMAN
The desire to find a location entirely satisfactory cause Mr. Beeman to travel extensively throughout the United States. Reared in the Mississippi valley, he had been familiar with that region from his earliest memories and his travels therefore took him into other directions. Twice he went to the northwest, but what he desired was not there. Then he began to investigate California and he did not cease his journeys until he had traversed the entire length of the Pacific coast at a point of contact with our own country. A careful estimate of the extent of his journeyings in search of a location gives the mileage in one year as seventeen thousand, but he does not regret the time and money spent in these expeditions, for they gave him a broad acquaintance with the United States and also convinced him that Yolo county is without a superior in its possibilities for the earning of a livelihood out of the soil.
The first ten years in the life of Dean C. Beeman were passed at Hicksville, Defiance county, Ohio, where he was born in 1880, and where he attended the primary schools. During 1890 he accompanied the family to Chicago, and there he was a pupil in the grammar schools. In 1895 he secured employment as clerk on the board of trade and remained there during the next two years, a period famous in history on account of the memorable corner in wheat by Joseph Leiter. Upon leaving his clerkship there he became yard clerk for the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railroad in Chicago. Two years later he resigned that position and became a fireman, out from Chicago on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. Four years afterward he gave up that work. Next he ran an engine for the Illinois traction system electric railroad from Peoria to Springfield, Ill., a line then, as now, the largest electric system in the United States.
Upon leaving the employ of the traction company in 1909, Mr. Beeman began his investigations in search for land where he might engage in ranching. During March of 1910 he came to Yolo county and bought forty acres near Woodland. When he came here he was accompanied by his wife, whom he had married in 1905, and who was Miss Daisy L. Roberts, a native of Morton, Ill. Their comfortable home is brightened by the presence of two sons, Donald and Howard. The land is largely in alfalfa, and the product is utilized in the dairy of twelve cows. The care exercised by the proprietor in their care and feed enables him to secure the very greatest possible results from his dairy, and he has no reason to regret his decision to combine the raising of alfalfa with the management of a dairy. In addition to the cattle he keeps a small number of hogs on the ranch. Horticulture forms a profitable adjunct to other farm duties. There are on the farm ninety-five prune trees and two hundred and twenty-five almond trees, and the owner is decidedly proud of the record made by the almond trees in 1911, for his crop that year brought him the neat sum of $500, an excellent record for two hundred and twenty-five young trees. Although not an early settler of Yolo county, Mr. Beeman vies with older men in his devotion to the county, in his belief in its possibilities and in his determination to secure the greatest practicable results from the cultivation of its soil.
Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: “History of Yolo County, California” by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 816 – 817.
Chris F. BLICKLE
A citizen of the most dependable qualities was Mr. Blickle, who passed away at his ranch home, four miles from Woodland, July 11, 1906. Thoroughly trusted by his associates, who sorely missed his companionship and advise, as well as his hearty support in all worthy public measures, he was a man whose influence was always most helpful upon the community in which he maintained an active interest during his residence therein.
Mr. Blickle’s birth occurred in Wurtemberg, Germany, in 1857, he being the son of Johan Martin and Christene (Latch) Blickle. After he had completed his studies in the schools of his native land he became an apprentice to a baker, continuing in this field of labor until 1882, when, acting upon a decision he had reached regarding the advisability of starting life in a new country, he left the scenes of his youth, his mind filled with dreams of the golden years that stretched before him, and immigrated to America. He came on to Yolo county, Cal., and located in Hungry Hollow, where he rented a ranch of one hundred and sixty acres. Afterwards he leased nine hundred acres in the same locality and profitably managed this tract until August, 1905, when he purchased the place of forty acres, in Willow Oak Park, Woodland, now the home of his widow. Until his death he was active in the duties connected with this property, which he sought in every way to render both attractive and valuable.
Mr. Blickle’s marriage in Hungry Hollow, November 25, 1883, united him with Miss Lena Holsman, a native of Hohenzollern, Germany, who came to California in 1882. Six children were born to them, as follows: Charles, who manages the home place; Freda, Mrs. Johnson, residing near Woodland; Sophia, Mrs. Charles Staas, of Hungry Hollow; Henry, Elsie, and Alfred, at home.
Persevering and self-reliant by nature, Mr. Blickle was not a man to be discouraged easily, and through both disappointment and success, retained his optimism and determination, at all times placing the care and comfort of his family above all other considerations. For many years he held membership in the Herman Sons, to which he lent active assistance. Since the death of her husband Mrs. Blickle, a woman of broad sympathies and excellent management, has continued the operation of the ranch, ably assisted by her son Charles. In addition to a good acreage of alfalfa they have a beautiful vineyard of five acres and also conduct a dairy of fifteen cows, this source of profit being not inconsiderable. Industrious and congenial, the family enjoy the highest regard of their many friends and are considered among the most substantial citizens of their community.
Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: “History of Yolo County, California” by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 817 – 818.