Yolo County
Biographies
John BEMMERLY
Prominent among the pioneer ranchmen and sheep growers of Yolo county was the late John Bemmerly, who settled on land lying three and a half miles of Yolo more than half a century ago, on the homestead now owned and occupied by the widow. Squatting on Knight’s grant, he helped his neighbors to fight the claims of the Knight heirs and gain the victory over them which perfected the titles to their own homes. A man of great determination and perseverance, he was at the same time progressive, patient and tactful, a farmer who in other environments would have developed into a splendid business man. He was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, February 24, 1824, and was reared and educated in his native city. In 1847 he came to the United States and worked in New York as a farm hand until 1852, when he came to California. For several months he mined, but with no marked success, and so he squatted on land in Yolo county that he had recently bought from the United States government. Industrious and far-seeing, he labored courageously and became in the course of time an extensive land owner and a citizen of influence. He raised excellent crops and as fast as he made money he invested it in contiguous land until he had a home ranch of eight hundred acres, as well as a sheep ranch near Dunnigan comprising thirty-six hundred acres. He divided his attention between farming and sheep raising, and at the time of his death had one of the largest flocks of the county. His passing, which took place August 8, 1872, was regarded as a sad loss to the community and an irreparable one to his family. He had been reared in the Lutheran faith and in his political affiliations was a stanch Republican.
On October 14, 1860, Mr. Bemmerly married Agnes Wimmer, a native of Baden, Germany, born February 2, 1833. Immigrating to the United States in 1854, she made her home in New York until 1859, coming to California that year, and she has since been a resident of Yolo county. The death of Mr. Bemmerly left her with four small children and another was born afterward, giving her five little ones to rear and educate. From the first Mrs. Bemmerly demonstrated her superior business ability. She employed men to operate the home ranch and others to attend to the sheep-raising and her management was so successful that she had in a few years paid off all of the indebtedness and increased the Dunnigan ranch to forty-two hundred acres by the purchase of six hundred acres of adjoining land. In 1897 she turned this fine property over to her children, keeping in her own name the home ranch, in the improvement of which she paid out considerable money. She has invested in land near her original ranch, and her holdings now aggregate three thousand acres of as rich and productive farming land as lies within the borders of Yolo county.
The eldest of Mrs. Bemmerly’s children, Mary, assists her in the management of the ranch. John F., who died in 1906, was a resident of Woodland. Agnes H. is also a member of her mother’s household. William J. is a successful rancher. Ernest, the youngest of the family, is mentioned elsewhere in this work.
Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: “History of Yolo County, California” by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 826 – 827.
Ephraim Q. CRITES
It has been the rare privilege of Mr. Crites to remain for more than fifty years on one farm. Meanwhile he has witnessed many changes in the environment and has watched the development of Yolo county with an interest as appreciative as it has been loyal and patriotic. The tract upon which he settled in 1859 has been improved under his capable oversight into an extensive vineyard with every facility for the raising and packing of seedless grapes. Years ago, after he made a close study of the soil and the climate, he determined to plant a vineyard and set aside ten acres for that purpose. In vain his friends attempted to dissuade him with their warnings against the folly of the undertaking. With a steadfast purpose he started about the task, and in a short time those who had ridiculed the theory came to admire the thrifty vines loaded with their rich clusters of grapes. The success of the first planting encouraged him to increase the size of the vineyard and he started new vines, continuing to increase the vineyard from time to time until now he has one hundred and forty acres in seedless raisin grapes, the largest vineyard of the kind in Yolo county, besides having on the farm a modern equipment for the curing, drying and packing of the raisins. He has the only recleaning outfit as well as patent dippers and cap stemmer in the county. The grapes on the ranch ripen two weeks earlier than in other points and in 1911 he shipped the first two cars of seedless Sultana raisins from California which were exported to Europe. In 1912 he again made the first shipment from the state, consisting of two cars, the raisins being shipped to New Zealand.
Born in Wooster, Wayne county, Ohio, in April, 1835, Ephraim Q. Crites received a common-school education, supplemented by academical advantages. When he started out to make his own way in the world he came via the Nicaragua route and an ocean steamer to California in 1856 and gained his first experiences of the west in the cities of San Francisco and Sacramento. Any honest occupation was followed that offered an opportunity for a livelihood, but he principally engaged in work as a clerk. Coming to Yolo county in 1859 he bought a squatter’s claim near what is now Blacks Station. A shanty stood on the tract, but no other attempt had been made toward improvement. Hardships and privations filled his life for years with struggle. The discouragements would have disheartened a man of less determination. It was incredibly difficult to improve the one hundred and sixty acres in such a manner that they would prove producers of a large revenue. Indeed it was not until he had entered the grape industry that he found himself the recipient of returns from the place equal to his expectations. In 1911 he purchased what is known as the Ethel vineyard at College, comprising one hundred and sixty acres, of which one hundred and twenty acres are in Muscat grapes and the remainder in almonds and peaches. The London layer raisins from this vineyard took the first prize at the St. Louis Exposition.
For a long time after his arrival in Yolo county and his location on his present farm Mr. Crites kept “bachelor’s hall” and lived in a most frugal and self-denying manner. Eventually he established home ties and became the possessor also of a neat farm residence, while he further has improved the place with a substantial barn and a packing house equipped for his special work. In this county, August 3, 1884, he married Miss Cordelia Frances Maupin, a native of Shasta county and a devoted member of the Christian Church. She is the daughter of Thomas and Elwisa (Rockhold) Maupin, native of Missouri. Mr. Maupin crossed the plains to California in the ‘50s and became a large land owner and stock raiser on the Cottonwood, in Shasta county. There he passed away February 23, 1912, his wife having died about twenty-five years ago. Mrs. Crites received her education in the public schools of Shasta county and the Red Bluff high school. The two sons born to Mr. and Mrs. Crites, Charles Carleton and Harry E., were educated in the Woodland high school and now assist their father in the management of the vineyards. In addition to his public-school advantages the older son also attended a business college and took a commercial course of study. Politically Mr. Crites has been a lifelong Republican. He prides himself upon the fact that he cast his first ballot for Abraham Lincoln in Yolo county in 1860 and four years later he enjoyed the privilege of voting for the same candidate. Indeed, he has supported every Republican nominee presented by the party as its presidential candidate and anticipates a continuance of the same policy throughout the balance of his life, but with his devotion to party principles he combines a dislike for office-holding and at no time has he consented to become a candidate for local positions of trust and honor.
Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: “History of Yolo County, California” by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 827 – 829.