Shasta County
Biographies
DR. JAMES OSCAR SMITH
Dr. James Oscar Smith, one of the early settlers of the county, and a time-tried and reliable citizen and physician, arrived in this county July 4, 1855. He is a native of the State of New York, born in Schoharie County, April 23, 1822, the son of James Smith, who was a native of the same State and a merchant in Buffalo, and was also a lumber merchant in Canada. He died in 1873. The Doctor’s grandfather, John Smith, was a native of New York, and a soldier in the Revolution; the ancestors of the family came from England. The Doctor’s father married Abigail Wattles, a native of Cherry Valley, Connecticut, and they had eleven children, four of whom are now living.
Dr. Smith, the eldest son, spent the first twelve years of his life in the city of Buffalo, and then attended school for six years in Canada. There he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Wallen, with whom he remained eleven years. The Doctor came to California and began practice at Middletown, where he remained nine years. He then purchased a ranch of 240 acres, and in connection with his medical practice carried on the farm for two years. He then sold and purchased another 240 acres, on which he resided until 1885. He was engaged in raising cattle, horses and sheep, and from time to time added to his ranch until he had 4,000 acres, which he afterward sold and moved into Cottonwood. While on his ranch his house was robbed and burned when the family was absent, causing him a loss of $3,000, but it was thought that the thieves did not get over $150. The Doctor has built him a good residence and office in Cottonwood, where he has in a measure retired, and is living upon the interest of his money. For some years he has been engaged in money lending. During his long life he has waited upon and administered to the suffering of both rich and poor alike, both in the day and night and in all kinds of weather, accepting pay from those who had it, and giving it to those who were too poor to pay. For a long time he was the only physician in his part of the county. The Doctor has a fine constitution, and is a strong and hearty man, who has witnessed the growth of the great commonwealth in which he lives, and is one of its active citizens. Before the war he was a Douglas Democrat, but at Lincoln’s second election he became a Republican, and has since voted that ticket. He is also a strong temperance man.
Dr. Smith was married in Canada, in 1843, to Miss Jane Stooer, a native of Nova Scotia, and they have been blessed with six children, three boys and three girls, but one of whom is deceased.
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
THOMAS JEFFERSON McCABE
Thomas Jefferson McCabe, a citizen of Cottonwood, who has done much for the growth of the county by his example in the field of horticulture, having planted a fine tract of his ranch to fruit, and thereby demonstrating the wonderful capability of the county to produce fruit without irrigation. He was born in Shelby County, Indiana, October 17, 1856, the son of Thomas E. McCabe, who was also a native of the same State; the family originated in Ireland. He married Mary Robertson, a native of his own State, and the daughter of James Robertson, a native of Kentucky. They had sixteen children, eleven of whom still survive, eight boys and three girls.
Mr. McCabe, the eighth child and one of twins, was reared in his native State, and when twenty-one years of age came to California, but afterward returned and remained three months. He then came again to this State and settled in Cloverdale, Sonoma County, where he was married to Miss Marcella Saling, a native of California, and a daughter of Peter Saling, an early settler of this State. They have four children, three born in Colusa County, and the youngest born at Cottonwood, namely: Lena, Clara M., Orrin L. and Ethel L. They removed to Cottonwood in May, 1886, and purchased eighty acres of choice fruit land near the town. He has improved the place by building a home and the necessary farm buildings, and in 1888 planted twenty acres of peaches and pears, which have made a good growth, many of them having commenced to bear.
In politics Mr. McCabe is a Republican, and in 1888 was elected a Justice of the Peace in his township. He and his wife are influential members of the Congregational Church, and Mr. McCabe is a Deacon and Superintendent of the Sunday-school. He is one of those reliable men that can be depended upon in everything in which they engage.
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
WALTER W. FELTS
Walter W. Felts, the founder of the Shasta County Index, now changed to the Cottonwood Register, was born December 7, 1848, in Mississippi, the son of Asahel Felts, a native of the same State. He was deprived of his parents by death when but a child, and knows but little of them. He received his education at the Hesperian, and at the Methodist College at Vacaville, Solano County. He purchased an interest in the Maxwell store in Colusa County, and was connected with it three years. In 1885 he came to Cottonwood, and found a small place, wanting in enterprise, and also met with a good deal of opposition in starting his paper; but, aided by a few of the enterprising business men, the opposition was overcome and the town was improved. Mr. Felts is not only a business and newspaper man but is a close thinker, and has recently published a book which shows that he takes a complete departure from old accepted scientific ideas. His work is the “Principles of Science,” and he is about to publish a revised edition. His book is a complete overthrow of some old scientific ideas, dispensing with both gravitation and centrifugal force, and several of the leading educational men of the State speak in the highest terms of his book and the new ideas it presents. Mr. Felts is a Christian man, a believer in the religion taught in the Scriptures, and in his early life he was for some years a teacher. He is a strong temperance man, and favors Prohibition, but is a liberal Democrat.
He was married in 1885, to Miss Fanny R. Rice, a native of Missouri, and they have one son, born in Ashland, Oregon. Mr. Felts has bought considerable town property and is alive to the interests of Cottonwood and the State.
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891