Merced-Santa Cruz-Yolo County CA Archives Biographies.....Souza, Antone A. 1882 - 1917
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 10, 2006, 3:55 am

Author: John Outcalt (1925)

ANTONE A. SOUZA

   The career of Antone A. Souza, who has risen to be one of the largest dairy
farmers in Merced County, is of unusual interest. Though of foreign parentage,
he was born in Watsonville, Cal., on March 13, 1882, a son of Antone L. and Mary
(Day) Souza, both natives of the Azores, the former of St. George and the latter
of Flores. The father came to California in the early seventies and worked on
ranches, was foreman on the Logan ranch, and also owned fifty acres five miles
from Watsonville. He died at the age of sixty-eight; the mother is still living.
There were five children in the family, namely: Antone, who died in infancy;
Antone A.; Mary, Mrs. Amarante of Gustine; Joseph, deceased; Joseph, at
Watsonville. The son Antone A. was educated in the grammar school and the
business college in Watsonville, and when he became of age he started out to
work for himself as a ranch hand. In 1904 he came to Los Banos, where he was
married on September 6, 1904, to Miss Helen Mellow, born in Watsonville, the
daughter of Frank and Lucy Mellow both born in the Azores, the father at St.
Miguel, where he was a dairyman. They were pioneers of Monterey County, and are
now deceased. There were nine children in their family, as follows: Mary, Frank,
Lucy, Helen, Antone, Manuel, Joseph, Anna and John. Mrs. Souza was educated in
the public schools in Pajaro Valley.

   Upon coming to the West Side, Mr. Souza rented James Sweeney's ranch near Los
Banos and had a dairy of fifty cows for one year. He then went to Watsonville
and worked one season on a hay press, returning to the Cottonwood district where
he purchased a quarter interest in a dairy of 100 cows; but four months later he
sold it and worked for wages for a year. Then he engaged in a dairy business at
Los Banos for a year and a half, when he sold out, and ran a dairy on the Noble
Marsh place four months, and one near Dos Palos for nine months. When he sold
the latter he bought forty acres of land in the Cottonwood district, but
disposed of this and went to Colusa County and with John Westfall ran a dairy on
a percentage basis for a year and half. Mr. Souza then moved to a point seven
miles below Knight's Landing in Yolo County on the Sacramento River and rented
2000 acres in the region now embraced in the Yolo County By Pass, but on account
of the opening of this pass he had to quit this ranch and went to raising hogs
and cattle, having about 400 head of each, continuing on one ranch four years.
He then came to Cottonwood again and leased 648 acres on which he moved 375 head
of cattle and thirty head of horses from Yolo County. The Cottonwood ranch is on
the canal about six miles below Gustine. He leases several other ranches among
which are the Jameson alfalfa ranch of 166 acres; the McCabe ranch of 320 acres,
200 acres of which are devoted to alfalfa; the Johnson ranch of 160 acres, 100
acres of which are in alfalfa; the Maude Wood's place of 345 acres, 150 acres of
which is in alfalfa. He pays out $21,000.00 a year for land he has leased, but
he sub-leases some of these ranches to other tenants for dairies. He now has a
herd of 450 dairy cattle and has purchased the J. D. McCarthy ranch of 160
acres. He does some dry farming and has 300 acres in grain about four miles out
from Los Banos.

   Mr. and Mrs. Souza have no children of their own but have reared the
following children taken from the Watsonville orphanage, namely: Robert Pompey,
Clifford Jones, Martin Heath, Antone Espinosa, Clifford Marshall, Louis Jensen
and Victor Lawrence. In politics Mr. Souza is a Republican. Fraternally he is a
member of the U. P. E. C, and of the Eagles of Los Banos.


Additional Comments:
From:

HISTORY OF
MERCED COUNTY
CALIFORNIA
WITH A
Biographical Review
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

HISTORY BY
JOHN OUTCALT

ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME
HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
1925


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