Yuba County
Biographies
CYRUS HARRY DAM
A native of Wheatland, Cal., and also one of its oldest residents, is Cyrus Harry Dam, who was born on his father’s old homestead, a quarter of a mile from what is now the town, April 14, 1868, a son of Cyrus K. and Frances Leoni (Scott) Dam, who are represented on another page in this work.
Harry Dam, as he is familiarly called by all who know him, was reared on the home place and educated in the public schools of Wheatland. From a youth he assisted his father on the farm, and early learned habits of industry and thrift. Thus, he followed farming and stockraising with his father until his death, after which he took up the management of the ranch interests. As they prospered, they added to the holdings until the Dam estate now comprises over 2700 acres, devoted to raising grain, cattle and sheep; and of late they have also turned their attention to horticulture, and they also own and operate the warehouses at Wheatland.
Mr. Dam was married in Wheatland, on May 24, 1891, being united with Miss Sarah Magdalene Haines, who was born in Pekin, Ill., a daughter of Murray and Mary Catherine (Glover) Haines, natives respectively of Pekin, Ill., and Bethany, Mo. The former was a graduate of the Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Business College, and served as its secretary for two years. During the Civil War he was a member of the 62nd Illinois Regiment, Volunteer Infantry, and rose to the rank of Captain. He was engaged in manufacturing in Pekin, Ill., when he died. His widow now makes her home in Oakland. Grandfather Jonathan Haines was born in England, and came to Illinois, where he was married to Sarah Hinsey, who was born in Scotland. He became a successful manufacturer of farm implements in Pekin, Ill., where he was the inventor of the Haines Header and the Buckeye Mowers. He was a close friend of Abraham Lincoln, the great Emancipator. Mrs. Dam’s grandparents, Elcana and Magdalene (Stipes) Glover, were natives of France, and on coming to the United States located in New Orleans, where Elcana Glover was an officer in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Mrs. Dam attended school in Pekin, Ill., until sixteen years of age, when she came to Wheatland to make her home with her uncle and aunt, Dr. and Mrs. Durst, and it was here she met and married Mr. Dam. Their union was blessed with four children: Leoni Katherine, the wife of R. H. Blackford, of Wheatland; Mildred Ethel, wife of A. L. Phillips, also residing in Wheatland; Dorothy Magdalene, the wife of L. D. Boone, of Roseville, and Eleanor Rosella, a graduate of the Marysville High School, now attending Heald’s Business College in San Jose. Mrs. Dam is prominent in civic and social affairs, being a Past Matron and Past District Deputy in the Order of the Eastern Star, and a former Nobel Grand and the present District Deputy in the Rebekahs., She is ex-president of the Wheatland Civic Club, and ex-president of the Bi-Counties Federated Woman’s Clubs, and is one of the vice-presidents of the Northern District Federated Woman’s Clubs. She also holds memberships in the Wheatland Wednesday Study Club and Marysville Art Club, and is active in the work of the local chapter of the American Red Cross. Mr. Dam and his family reside at the family home, established in Wheatland as early as 1875. He is a stockholder in the Sperry Flour Company. In fraternal affiliation, he is a member of Nicolaus Chapter, No. 129, F. & A.M., Wheatland; the Eastern Star; and Sutter Lodge, No. 100, I.O.O.F., Wheatland, in which he is a Past Grand; and is also a member of the Rebekah Lodge. Mr. Dam is a Republican in national politics, and has served acceptably as a delegate to county and State conventions; and he has served three times as a member of the grand jury.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 1211
WILLIAM C. POOLE
A successful rancher, who is especially experienced in the growing of fruit, and whose operations have produced much of onward movement in horticulture in this favored section of the Golden State, is William Poole, who owns a ranch of thirty-five acres along the Hammonton road, about two miles out of Marysville. A native son, thoroughly in touch with Pacific Coast spirit, he was born at Smartsville, on July 15, 1860, the son of Frank and Mary A. (Keats) Poole, of fine old English stock. Mr. Poole came out to California a mere boy, having run away from home and gone to sea, and arrived in San Francisco as early as 1848. That same year Miss Mary Keats, then a young girl, also reached the Bay City. Her father died when she was an infant, and her mother became the wife of a Mr. McKenzie, a Scotch sea-captain. He sailed into San Francisco and left his wife, our subject’s mother, and her half-brother, James, there; but the mother, dependent for the time on her own exertions, could not make a living in San Francisco, and so she moved with her family to Sacramento, and there shortly after died. Frank Poole and Mary Keats married in Sacramento, and about 1858 moved to Smartsville and there he took up gardening, making a specialty of raising strawberries, which he sold in Grass Valley, at a dollar a pound. His little one-horse buggy would carry at one time, on a trip to Grass Valley, not less than $300 worth of strawberries and other vegetables, and he would sell to miners, who would be glad to get fresh fruit and green garden truck, and pay any price in the dicker. Mr. Poole is still living at Marigold with her youngest daughter, the center of a circle of admiring friends; while Mr. Poole died in September, 1922, at the remarkable age of eighty-nine, having rounded out a very useful career of credit to himself and of benefit to many. There were five children in the Poole household. Mary Esther, who married George McDonald, is a widow, residing in San Francisco; William in the subject of our instructive story; James Fredericks is in Kings County; Frank D. lives at Smartsville, in Yuba County; and Martha is now Mrs. John Havey, of Marigold.
William Poole attended the grammar school at Smartsville, where his father lived from 1858 until he died, and when he was seventeen years of age, he started out into the world for himself, having already, as a boy, worked on ranches. He went to San Diego and took up butchering; but after two years, he threw that up and went to Arizona and worked in saw-mills, prospected and hauled lumber. He then returned to San Diego and there, on July 29, 1881, married Sarah A. Green, a Polish girl, born in Russia, and the daughter of David and Fannie Green. Her father died in San Diego, where her mother still resides. David Green came to the southern city in early days, and there he and his wife reared eleven children: Mrs. Poole, Abraham, Louis, Robert, Mollie, Leon, Isaac, Rosie, Flora, Joseph, and Minnie. The seven children of Mr. and Mrs. Poole were all born at San Diego. Soon after the birth of the youngest, our subject returned north to Marysville. Alfred E., the eldest, is dairying; Mabel Esther has become Mrs. Sneid, of Richmond; Frank William is a jeweler at Marysville; Cordelia is Mrs. Haney, of the same city; and there are James D. of Haney and Poole, jewelers, Marysville, William Floyd and Carrie, all in Marysville. William Floyd is a merchant and popular violinist; and Carrie has become Mrs. Friess, and is a saleswoman with the Messrs. Roberts. While at San Diego, William Poole had worked at blacksmithing, and on his return to Marysville, he continued a blacksmith for seventeen years. In April, 1917, however, he took up fruit culture on his thirty-five acres of Yuba River bottom land, and he has ten acres in three-year-old peaches, and ten acres just planted to peaches; and he also raises alfalfa and chickens. Because of impaired health, Mrs. Poole is living at Marysville, with her son. In national politics a stanch Republican, Mr. Poole in local affairs is a good non-partisan “booster.” He served as a constable of particular efficiency at San Diego, and also as a school trustee several years.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 1216