Yolo County
Biographies
Mathew Clancy
The transformation which one-half century brings into any community has wrought its slow but resistless results in the aspect of Yolo county since first Mathew Clancy arrived in the village of Davis on the 29th day of May 1862. Far removed from the center of the sanguinary war that threatened the disruption of the Union, he found the few inhabitants of the county working peacefully at their various occupations, unable by reason of the great distance to keep well posted concerning the struggle in which they were not needed personally. Joining them in the cultivation of the land, he soon learned the details in connection in the raising of grain and of stock and for a long period he made agriculture his occupation. Even at the present time, although not so active as in the past, he still owns a ranch and from his home in Davis he maintains a general supervision of his country property.
As his name indicates, Mathew Clancy descends from Irish forefathers. He is himself a native of the Emerald Isle and was born in county Cork, August 14, 1842. His education was secured in the national schools. At the age of sixteen years he came to the United States and settled at Lynn, Mass., where he was employed for two years. Late in the year 1861 he took passage on the steamer Northern Light from New York for Aspinwall. After crossing the Isthmus of Panama he sailed up the Pacific on the St. Louis to San Francisco, landing January 4, 1862. Immediate search was made for employment and he served a position in a dairy occupying the present site of Hayes park in San Francisco, where he engaged in milking cows. During 1862 he went to Sacramento and from there proceeded to Yolo county, where ever since he has made his home. After working on the Swingle ranch he became an employe on the Wilger ranch, where he continued for five years and then worked on the Chiles ranch. During 1873 he leased five hundred and twenty acres from Fred Wilger and engaged in raising Sonora wheat, which yielded large crops in return for his care and cultivation.
Four years of industrious enterprise as the renter of three hundred acres of the W. W. Montgomery ranch, where he engaged in raising stock and grain, were followed by the lease of five hundred acres of the Rice and Roleson ranch, which Mr. Clancy cultivated for some ten years. The frugal savings of this period of hard labor put him in a position for land ownership and in 1896 he bought one hundred and sixty acres in Solano county, four and one-half miles south of Davis. For about fourteen years he owned and operated this ranch, besides renting and managing two other ranches in the same neighborhood. Meanwhile he was increasingly successful and rose to a position of influence in his community. When he sold the ranch in 1910 he invested the returns in a ranch of two hundred and twenty-one acres situated four and one-half miles northeast of Davis. When he came to Yolo county he was only twenty-one years of age and it was not until twenty-two years thereafter that he established domestic ties, his marriage, February 4, 1884, uniting him with Miss Elizabeth Rowan, a native of county Roscommon, Ireland.
Of the varied possessions of Mr. Clancy there is none that he prizes as highly as his seven bright and attractive daughters and it has been his highest ambition to give them excellent educational advantages, so that they may be prepared for life’s responsibilities. The three eldest, Catherine, Irene and Helen, are graduates of the high school and the second is also a business college graduate. The fourth, Martha, has completed the studies of the Davis grammar school, while the three youngest, Maude, Geraldine and Amelda, are pupils in the local schools. Upon her graduation of the Sacramento high school Catherine took up the study of stenography and at present holds the position as stenographer in the office of Devlin & Devlin, Sacramento. The business ability which Miss Irene possesses her to manage with success an ice cream and confectionery establishment in Davis, in which she is the sole proprietor.
Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: “History of Yolo County, California” by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 456 – 459.
Miss Agnes Breen
In no respect does the remarkable transformation of the past century exhibit its results more successfully than in the increased opportunities for women. The advancement made by the sex, educationally, socially and from a business standpoint, is little less than amazing, and it has been proved repeatedly that the qualities which enable them to preside over the homes of the country with simple grace and to train for their coming responsibilities the future statesmen and men of commerce also enable them to discharge the duties of the most complex forms of business, the highest departments of education and the most cultured circles of society. Practically every line of business is now open to their interested and successful participation. From the largest municipalities to the most humble villages they are to be found, not only self-supporting and self-reliant, but also promoters of civic growth and conservators of municipal funds, loyal to community interests and well informed concerning local needs.
Such a group of business women would include the name and recognize the commercial success of Miss Agnes Breen, who, taking up the battle of life with earnestness and enthusiasm, has worked her way forward unaided until now she stands prominent in the business affairs of Woodland and influential among the business women of her section of the state. Her success might well serve as an incentive to young girls facing the world without means, but with an abundance of tact, sagacity and sound common sense. The confectionery establishment of which she is sole proprietor has been built up through her own enterprise, maintained by her own sagacious management and gives personal proof concerning her skill in the manufacture of the choicest varieties of ice cream and the most tempting candies. It has been said, indeed, that in her store on Main street there are specimens of confectionery of her own manufacture that are unsurpassed by even the most highly advertised dainties of San Francisco.
Miss Breen is a daughter of John and Mary (Brennon) Breen, the latter of whom died in Woodland, while the former, an extensive rancher, influential stockman and well known lumber manufacturer, passed away in Siskiyou county, the scene of his large agricultural and business activities. After having completed the studies of the public schools of Woodland Miss Breen took a complete course of study in Heald’s Business College, Sacramento, from which she was graduated. In taking up business pursuits she became connected with and learned the trade of a confectioner, after which she opened a small store on Main street, the nucleus of the present attractive and popular establishment that represents the results of her intelligent application and wisely directed efforts. Her large circle of friends in Woodland testify concerning her charming traits of character and high degree of intelligence, while her confectionery establishment furnishes the most convincing evidence as to her business ability and executive management.
Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: “History of Yolo County, California” by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 460 – 463.