Yolo County
Biographies
E. D. Pratt
One of the most successful and highly esteemed ranchers of Winters is E. D. Pratt, who since 1861 has been a resident of Yolo county, to the development of which he has contributed materially. A native of New York, he was born in Erie county August 4, 1835, and removed in 1842 to DuPage county, Ill., with his parents, Daniel and Lucretia (Cook) Pratt, natives of New York. In 1861 E. D. Pratt left the farm and came to California with ox-teams, crossing the Missouri river at Omaha, Neb., up the Platte to Sublett’s cutoff, then into Humboldt and Honey Lake valley, in which section he noted numerous natural springs, both hot and cold, many of which were within four feet of each other. While camping on Green river his party was besieged by Indians, who drove away some of their cattle. Pressing onward toward the desert, which they crossed in thirty-six hours, they struck northward, shortly thereafter reaching water, much to the relief of both themselves and their weary stock. After a six months’ journey full of dangers and hardships, the travelers reached Marysville, Cal., the latter part of the trip having been made in company with a train of seventy wagons.
Mr. Pratt remained with his brother-in-law, S. M. Enos, being employed in the old tule house that was washed away in the flood of 1862. This was rebuilt and Mr. Pratt continued there until he and Mr. Enos became associated in the stock business in Yolo county. About 1865 Mr. Pratt sold his interest and returned to Illinois, and after one year settled in Iowa. In Poweshiek county, that state, he engaged in farming and stock-raising until 1876, when he returned to Yolo county and ever since he has been engaged in stock-raising and horticulture. Some years ago he purchased ten acres of the Wolfskill tract near Winters, settling it out to peaches. Selling this property in 1908, he then located in Winters, where, on Putah creek, he has a small prune orchard.
The marriage of Mr. Pratt, which occurred December 18, 1872, in Grinnell, Iowa, united him with Miss Mary J. Hamilton, who was born in Syracuse, N. Y., and whose parents, Andrew J. and Elizabeth (Shaw) Hamilton, were natives of New York and England, respectively. Mr. Hamilton died in Grinnell, Iowa, in 1875, and Mrs. Hamilton in New York in 1906. Their children were as follows: Mary J. (Mrs. Pratt), Frank F., James V., William A., Harriett (Mrs. C. McIntyre) and Andrew J. The three children born to Mr. and Mrs. Pratt are Raymond E., a fruit grower in Winters, who married Miss Sophia Dunnebeck and has one child, Cecil; Edith M., a graduate of the San Jose normal school and now the wife of Dr. M. W. Haworth of Sacramento and the mother of two children, Edith Claire and Maiva Wells; and Elmer H., who makes his home in Lodi with his wife, formerly Bernice Thistle, and their daughter, Dorothy.
Mr. Pratt is a stanch Republican, prompt to lend to his party all the influence in his power, and as a citizen of broad, generous principles and sterling characteristics, fully merits the wide esteem which, throughout his career, he has enjoyed. His wife is a woman of rare qualities and as an active member of the Christian Church of Winters is untiring in her aid of the many worthy causes supported by that institution.
Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: “History of Yolo County California with Biographical Sketches of The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified With Its Growth and Development From the Early Days to the Present” page 276-277 by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, 1913.
James G. Cecil
An identification of thirty years with the history of the west enabled Mr. Cecil to acquire a large fund of information concerning the resources and possibilities of this section of the country. From the time of crossing the plains he made his home in California, with the exception of a comparatively brief sojourn in Oregon and for many years he was one of the extensive farmers of Yolo county, where since his death his widow has managed his interests and developed them into income-producers of exceptional importance. The capability in ranching which he displayed forms also an important element in her personality. Competent judges assert that comparatively few ranchers of the county surpass her in sagacious judgment and discriminating management of landed tracts. In evidence of this statement mention is made of her early identification with the fruit and nut industry and her shrewd foresight in the planting of seventeen acres in almond trees, from which now she receives an important annual income.
The isolated settlement at Sand Hill, Knox county, Mo., where James G. Cecil was born in 1836, is famous as the birthplace of the noted humorist, Mark Twain. The parents of James G. were Samuel S. and Lillian (Richardson) Cecil. The former traced his lineage to the illustrious English family of Cecils and for many years engaged in farming in Missouri, but during 1863 accompanied an expedition across the country to California, where he died in 1895 at a very advanced age. The son, James G., had come west in 1862 and settled on Putah creek in Solano county near the Yolo county line, where he took up land and engaged in raising grain. At that time Nevada offered the best market for produce and the greater part of the grain was freighted over the mountains to mining camps and villages in the other state. Going to Oregon in 1864, in that year Mr. Cecil married Miss Eliza Lindsay, a native of Kentucky, their wedding being solemnized in the city of Portland. The bride had arrived in Oregon only a short time before her marriage, having come across the plains with her parents, Hiram and Mary (Lilly) Lindsay. After a brief sojourn in Oregon the Lindsay family came to California and settled on a ranch near Madison, Yolo county, where Mr. Lindsay died in 1870 and his wife five years later. For a long period he held prominent identification with the blue lodge of Masonry and in his life he always endeavored to exemplify the philanthropic teachings of the order.
Coming to Yolo county as a permanent resident in 1867, James G. Cecil secured a quarter section north of the village of Davis and for fourteen years he gave his undivided attention to the improvement of the property. Next he purchased three hundred and twenty acres in the same locality and eventually he purchased a ranch of one hundred and twenty-three acres, where he remained until his death in 1892. Since then Mrs. Cecil has managed the property and has increased its productiveness. From the harvest of 19190 she secured thirty-five sacks of barley per acre. Other crops have been correspondingly valuable and the entire appearance of the ranch bespeaks her thrifty management. While not neglecting the least detail pertaining to the prosperity of the ranch, she finds leisure for participation in charitable enterprises, for information concerning educational advancement in the county and for active membership in the Davis Presbyterian Church, besides enjoying the social life of the community and contributing to its moral upbuilding.
Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: “History of Yolo County California with Biographical Sketches of The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified With Its Growth and Development From the Early Days to the Present” page 277-283 by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, 1913.
William Byas Gibson
Among several farmers and stockmen of note lost to the country around Woodland, Yolo county, Cal., during recent years, was William Byas Gibson, who passed away at his home February 15, 1906. A man of noble qualities and exceptional business ability, his generous assistance toward the development of the county will be long remembered by his co-workers.
May 30, 1831, Mr. Gibson was born in Louisa county, Va., forty miles from Richmond, which region his parents left six years later, settling in Howard county, Mo., where the son acquired a public school education. His father, William B. Gibson, Sr., of Irish descent, who was a soldier in the Revolutionary war and afterwards prominent in Virginia, where he owned a large cotton plantation and held numerous slaves according to the custom in that state in that period. William G. Gibson, Jr., married Miss Susan Turney, who was born near Richmond, Va., and who passed away in 1875, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Emma (Gibson) Cooper, at Napa, Cal., her husband having died in Missouri in 1846.
In 1850, William Byas Gibson, of this review, intending to join his brother Thomas, who had come to California with some other ‘49ers, left the home of his youth with a party of “over-landers,” using as his means of transportation a wagon drawn by a six-mule team. The party crossed the Missouri river March 29, in the year mentioned, and followed the westward trail for three months, until Mr. Gibson made his last camp in Yolo county, Cal., near Woodland, and built a modest home on Cache creek. October 30 he went to Scott Bar, where he mined for a time. July 5, 1851, he returned to Cache creek and homesteaded a claim of one hundred and sixty acres, four miles and a half northeast of Woodland, where he entered upon a successful career as a grain-grower and stock-raiser. Six years later he sold this property, but soon afterward bought three hundred and twenty acres adjoining the present town plat of Woodland, which was the nucleus of his later three thousand acres estate in Yolo county. In connection with general farming he made a specialty of the breeding of high-grade cattle, selling his stock throughout the state, and was the owner of seventy-five registered Shorthorn Durhams. Besides his property in California, he had a ranch of six hundred and forty acres in Pecos county, Texas.
December 23, 1857, Mr. Gibson married, in Yolo county, Miss Mary Isabelle Cook, a native of Boyle county, Ky., who had moved to Jackson county, Mo., with her parents, Joseph and Elizabeth (Chiles) Cook, of Kentucky birth, and had come with them to California in 1853, by way of the overland trail, making the journey with ox-teams and consuming five month en route. The family located in Yolo county, and here Mr. Cook became a farmer and achieved honor as a citizen. He died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Gibson, in his eighty-seventh year, April 1, 1901, his wife having passed away in her seventy-third year, August 22, 1893. To Mr. and Mrs. Gibson three sons were born: Robert J., of Woodland, who married Elnora Root, of Zomora, and has a son, William Byas; Thomas Ballard of Woodland, who married Virginia Lee Root and has a daugther Zellah, who is the wife of Dr. Elberg of San Luis Obispo, Cal; and Joseph, who married Surene Allen of Winters, Yolo county, and died November 20, 1897, leaving four children: J. Wray; Coloma L. (Mrs. Snaveley), of Woodland; Ouida B. (Mrs. Chester Sackett) of Winters; and Gazena. The evening of life found Mr. and Mrs. Gibson blessed with the world’s comforts, even with its luxuries, and surrounded by loving friends and relatives who honored them for their noble qualities of head and heart; and since he passed away she is, if possible, held doubly dear by all who know her.
Politically Mr. Gibson was a Democrat, a firm supporter of the principles of his party and keenly alert in his apprehension of timely economic questions. His success in life was universally conceded to be the result of his own inherent qualities of thrift and perseverance. Of humane and generous principles, he became widely known for his kindliness and for his material assistance of deserving people in trouble. In a public-spirited way he responded promptly to all demands in the interest of the community. Mrs. Mary Isabelle (Cook) Gibson, a woman of rare tact and sympathy, still lives at the old home which has been hers ever since her marriage and continues the charities in which her husband was interest in the days of his active life.
Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: “History of Yolo County California with Biographical Sketches of The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified With Its Growth and Development From the Early Days to the Present” page 283-284 by Tom Gregory. Published by the Historic Record Company, 1913.