Yuba County
Biographies
PETER J. DELAY
Peter J. Delay, author of this History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, was born in Marysville, Yuba County, September 8, 1865, and has resided continuously in the county. His first employment was delivering newspapers in the era when one train a day reached the city from the larger centers, which arrival was the big event, and everyone who was at leisure went to the railroad station to note the arrivals and departures. Peculiarly enough, after ten years of store life, starting at the age of seventeen, he drifted back into newspaper work and at this writing has been connected with the “fourth estate” for thirty years.
In 1893 he took the position of city editor of the Marysville Democrat, evening paper, holding the same for seven years. Early in 1900, he entered the employment of the Sacramento Bee, as a special correspondent to the Superior California department of that paper, covering Yuba, Sutter and adjoining counties.
Representing the State controller’s office in the inheritance-tax department, he has served under three regimes – under those of A. B. Nye and the late John S. Chambers, and at the present writing under State Controller Ray L. Riley.
In March, 1904, Peter J. Delay was elected, without opposition, a member of the Common Council of the City of Marysville, representing the third ward. At the close of a two-years term he was reelected to the same office.
In March, 1908, he was chosen Mayor of his native city in one of the warmest municipal elections in the city’s history. At the end of his term he retired from political life. A fellow journalist living at a distance, commenting upon Mr. Delay’s success at the polls, expressed wonderment, editorially, as to how a man with a name denoting anything but force, and with the burden of a newspaper man to live down, could accomplish such a feat.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties,
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 310
JAMES RILEY GARRETT
The wholesale and retail merchandising business of the J. R. Garrett Co., of Marysville, stands forth as one of the most substantial and influential of its kind in the State of California. It is by far the largest in Marysville, and has greater facilities for handling and shipping grain, provisions, groceries and general produce than any other concern in the Sacramento Valley. At its head was a man who had worked his way up without missing any rounds of the ladder, and whose splendid achievement went hand in hand with profound respect on the part of his fellow men. He came to the West with the special attributes of the merchant; and these have made his specialty pay, through persistency of purpose and minute attention to details.
J. R. Garrett was born on a farm near South Trenton, Oneida County, N. Y., July 19, 1837, his family having been established in New York by his paternal grandfather, Peter Garrett, whose youthful ambitions found an outlet in running away from his home in England, and in some way procuring passage on an American-bound ship. He lived on a New York farm for the remainder of his life. His son, Samuel Garrett, was born in Oneida County, and in early life married Jane Morton. Samuel Garrett left Oneida County in 1844, going via the Erie Canal to Buffalo, and from there taking a schooner to Milwaukee, Wis. With wagons and ox teams he moved his family to near Harvard, McHenry County, Ill., where he took up raw land in the wilderness and proceeded to establish a home for those dependent on him. His death in 1862 left much to be desired in the way of provision for the support of his family of seven children, and seeing no particular advantage to remaining in Illinois, the mother, her five daughters, and two sons crossed the plains in the spring of 1864. As James R. was the oldest, he superintended the preparations and drove one of the wagons, the train being a large one, including people from all walks of life. The season was a dry one, and hay and provisions were exceedingly high, so that the first season they spent in California they had to pay as high as $50 a ton for hay, and four and one-half cents a pound for barley.
Uninterruptedly, James Riley Garrett spent his Western life in Marysville, which gave him work as a teamster for about fifteen months, and then furnished other occupations, from all of which he succeeded in laying aside a part of his income. By August 1, 1866, he was able to buy an interest in the mercantile firm of E. W. Whitney & Co., his partners being Messrs. Freeman and Mathews. A year later he reached out still further and bought into the business of W. M. Bell & Co., operating under the firm name of Bell & Garrett, and several years later the firm name was changed to Garrett & Elder. Soon after the death of Mr. Bell, in 1885, Mr. Garrett became sole owner of the business, and in 1895 incorporated the J. R. Garrett Co., with a capital stock of $200,000 paid up, and he became president of the company. In August, 1902, the fine, large warehouses of the company burned to the ground; but with characteristic energy and progress Mr. Garrett added 60 by 160 feet to the original property of the concern, building up the largest and best-equipped warehouses in the valley and probably the best in the State. The partitions are of brick, floors cement, and all doors are absolutely fire-proof. No expense has been spared to make the buildings secure from fire and pleasant for employes, attention having been paid to sanitation, light and general furnishings. The equipment includes elevators and electric lights. The largest warehouse measures 160 by 160 feet, another one is 80 by 100 feet, and the third is 30 by 80 feet. Yet another warehouse, at the railroad tracks, for storage and forwarding, measures 100 by 50 feet. It will thus be seen that the storage capacity provided is enormous; yet it is at times barely adequate for the calls for goods which come in from all over the country, from Sacramento to Ashland, Ore.
In 1903 Mr. Garrett erected one of the substantial residences in the city, located between E and F Streets, at a cost of $12,000. His home was presided over by his wife, formerly Mary E. Bandy, a native of Wisconsin, who, like himself, underwent the experience of crossing the plains in an ox-team train. Mr. Garrett was a member of the Marysville Chamber of Commerce, and in politics was a Republican. He passed away on April 13, 1912. Friends and business associates unite in according praise to this generous and high-minded merchant, not only for his well-merited success, but for the many fine personal traits which endeared him to the community. His position as an employer of labor cannot be overestimated, nor can the innumerable acts of kindness which he is known to have performed during his long and dignified career. Personally he was a genial and approachable man, one of the most public-spirited and generous of Marysville, and he numbered among his warm friends many of the foremost men in the State.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties,
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 315-316