Yolo-Nevada County CA Archives Biographies.....Stoddard, John 1830 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 23, 2006, 10:24 pm

Author: Tom Gregory (1913)

JOHN STODDARD

    Out of the dreary environment and intense isolation of a miner's existence
into the freedom and outdoor exercise incident to the occupation of agriculture,
Mr. Stoddard passed when he came from the east to California and settled among
the pioneers of Yolo county. At the time of his location here, 1867, land was
cheap and easily obtained, yet so scanty were his means that he was impoverished
through the purchase of one hundred and sixty acres of raw land lying ten miles
southwest of Woodland. However, although lacking capital to develop the land, he
did not lack energy and industry, and these two qualities carried him through
many a discouraging condition of affairs, becoming indeed the foundation upon
which later was built his very substantial degree of success.

    Perhaps the ultimate prosperity of Mr. Stoddard was due largely to the
inheritance of characteristics for which the Scotch race is famous and which its
representatives exhibit in whatever part of the world destiny may take them.
Edinburgh is the city where he was born January 6, 1830, and where he received
such advantages as it was possible for him to obtain educationally. At the age
of twenty-two years he crossed the ocean to America, settling in Pennsylvania,
where he secured work in the coal mines. Later he became a miner in Illinois,
and from there traveled west to Salt Lake City, thence removing to Virginia
City, Nev., and finding work in gold and silver mines and quartz mills. After
seven years in the same location he left for California in 1867 and exchanged
his former occupation for farming operations. Shortly after his arrival in Yolo
county he bought the ranch to which allusion has been made. From a very small
beginning he worked his way forward until he had acquired one thousand acres of
land, devoted principally to the raising of barley and wheat. The possession of
such a large landed estate rendered necessary the expenditure of large sums of
monev in machinery for its cultivation and in stock for its pastures. Proof of
the success of the owner is shown in his long and profitable operation of the
land and in his introduction of all the improvements and the equipment desirable
on a modern ranch. Since he retired in 1909 he has resided in Woodland.

    While working in Illinois and living in Perry county, that state, Mr.
Stoddard there married, September 27, 1857, Miss Agnes Christie, who was born
January 3, 1838, and died May 18, 1911. Like her husband, she was a native of
Scotland (born in Cooper, Fifeshire), and like him, too, she possessed the
splendid traits for which the people of that country are known. The four
children forming the family felt the inspiration of her beautiful character and
the encouragement of her words of helpful and cheerful counsel. By all of them
her death was mourned as a heavy bereavement, but the influence of her gentle
life has not ended with the grave, for even unto the second generation she is
held in affectionate remembrance. Her eldest son, David, married Miss Eliza
Billings, and they are the parents of seven children, namely: Irma, John, David,
Agnes, James, Eliza and Lyle. The second child and older daughter, Louisa, is
the wife of Thomas Billings and the mother of six children, named as follows:
Roy, Charles. Laura, Ivy, Dora and Agnes. The younger daughter, Irma, married
Charles D. Bentley and has an only child, Mary. The younger son and the youngest
member of the family circle, Frank, married Miss Lettie Billings, and operates
the old homestead under a lease, giving to the land the care and skilled
cultivation which it had under the long and successful management of his father.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

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

HISTORY BY
TOM GREGORY
AND OTHER WELL KNOWN WRITERS
ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME

HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA [1913]


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