Yuba County
Biographies
GEORGE W. OSTROM
Prominent among the enterprising men of Yuba County to whom the public owes much for the solution of some of the trying problems of transportation, is George W. Ostrom, of Yuba County, a native son who was born at the Kempton Crossing of Bear River, in Sutter County, on Washington’s birthday in 1872. His parents were Daniel A. and Polly A. (Kirkpatrick) Ostrom, both of whom are now deceased. Daniel Ostrom was born in Ohio. In 1849 he made preparations to cross the plains and, coming overland in an ox-team train, arrived in Sacramento, Cal., in 1850. He engaged in farming and freighting, his ranch being located at Kempton Crossing of the Bear River. Disposing of it in 1873, he purchased a ranch six miles south of Marysville, now called Ostrom Station, where he engaged in grain and stock-raising until his death in 1906. Polly Kirkpatrick was born in Springfield, Ill. She crossed the plains with her parents, coming over the Oregon trail in 1852. Later the family came to Sutter County, Cal. She died in 1904. Her father, Thomas Kirkpatrick, died in Modoc County at the age of ninety-two years.
Daniel Ostrom crossed the untraveled Plains in 1849, landing in Placerville in the fall of the same year, when he was fourteen years of age. His good mother had died while undertaking the journey, and he therefore arrived at his destination with his father and two sisters. The former pushed on to Sacramento, and there ran a hotel; and at that time, the spring of 1850, his two daughters were the only white girls in Sacramento. Mr. Ostrom later moved to Sutter County and took up land in the Bear District, which he farmed as best he could; but in 1873 he removed to Yuba County, just north of Wheatland, and became the owner of some 2000 acres of grain-land, as a result of which Ostrom Station on the Southern Pacific line was named for him. He owned other land near Wheatland, and was one of the large landowners and grain farmers of his day. He was a public-spirited man, prominent in public service, and he represented Yuba and Sutter Counties in the Legislature several terms, including two terms as State Senator. He was a candidate for the nomination for governor of California at one time, being defeated by only one vote in the convention. He was one of the prominent men of his time in California, and he was also prominent in both the Odd Fellows and Masonic circles.
George Ostrom remained on the home ranch with his father until the age of twenty-one, and then he took up farming for himself. For six years, also, he conducted a general store in Wheatland, and he served as one of the town trustees. Then he took up trucking, making a specialty of mountain hauling in the logging woods; and he has been so prosperous that he is running three White trucks.
In Wheatland, in 1896, Mr. Ostrom married Miss Eliza Rogers, a native of Keithsburg, Mercer County, Ill., and they have two children, Thelma, the wife of R. M. Miano, supervising principal of the Los Banos Grammar School, and Irma, attending Wheatland High School. Mr. Ostrom is a member and Past Grand of Sutter Lodge No. 100, I.O.O.F., Wheatland, and with his wife is a member of the Rebekahs, in which she is a Past Grand.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p. 1191-1192
JOHN CHRISTIAN ANDREASON, JR.
A progressive leader in California industry, who has helped to put and keep Marysville on the map, is John C. Andreason, the inventor and manufacturer of auto accessories in Marysville. He was born at Indian Diggings, Eldorado County, on June 28, 1882, the son of John C. and Laurentine (Jensen) Andreason, who are mentioned on another page in this volume. John C. Andreason, our subject, went to school in Eldorado County, and then, for eight years, worked with his father in mining. After that, for a couple of years, he was in a sawmill, and then, for twelve years, he was in the lumber business. Next, in Amador County he built houses by contract. For nine months, during the war, he was in the Liberty Aeroplane factory in Sacramento. Leaving that line of activity he took up automobile repair work at New Castle; and in the autumn of 1918, he came to Marysville, where he worked as a foreman in an auto-repair shop for a couple of years. He has been in his present shop since 1920. On April 18, 1922, he patented the tri-bar bumper, now in such demand throughout the country; and this excellent and far-superior protective device he manufactures for the trade. He has also invented and patented the three-point suspension spring, known as the “no shock spring,” now being made in Los Angeles; and he has patented the Capital Spark Plug, upon which he has two United States patents and four foreign patents. The bumpers are also manufactured by the Willie Ritchie Company of San Francisco, and by the Oakland Machinery Company, of Oakland. At the present time is building a 40 by 130 foot reinforced concrete building to accommodate the manufacture of his inventions, particularly his bumpers and non-glaring head-lights. This building will also contain his machine shop, storeroom and workshop, where general auto-repair work will be done. The ground upon which this building is being erected contains about one acre and is located at Rupert Station, in the Magnolia Park district, one and one-half miles south of Marysville. Here he is also building his residence and a four-drive gas and oil service station and will handle the products of the Union, Associated, Shell and Standard companies.
At Marysville in 1921, Mr. Andreason was married to Mrs. Sadie Goodman, nee Sadie Duus, of Marysville, a native daughter, having been born at Live Oak. She is the third in order of birth of the four children of Mr. and Mrs. Hans Christian Duus, who have been very successful farmers at Gridley, where they now live retired. By her marriage with Mr. Goodman one son was born, named Roy Alfred Goodman, while by her present union she has a daughter, named Alice T. Andreason. Mr. Andreason is a Republican. He is fond of hunting and fishing, and is deeply interested in the historic past and the promising future of the locality in which he lives and prospers.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p. 1192-1193