Tulare County Biographies

Cuthbert Burrel

Submitted by Sally Kaleta, March, 2007

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	Cuthbert Burrel, a prominent rancher of Tulare County, came 
to California in 1846, arriving on the first of October. A brief sketch of his 
career is as follows: Mr. Burrel was born in Wayne County, New York, November 
28, 1824, son of George and Mary (Robinson) Burrel, natives of Northumberland 
County, England. His grandfather, Cuthbert Burrel, was an English squire, and 
his great-grandfather's name was Thomas Burrel. The subject of our sketch was 
the fourth in a family of nine children, five of whom are still living. In 1834, 
when he was ten years old, the family moved to Plainfield, Will County, 
Illinois. There he was reared and educated. At the age of twenty-two he came 
across the plains to California, driving an ox team, and being six months, 
lacking twelve days, en route. Their captain was Stephen A. Cooper, an 
experienced frontiersman. Mr. Barrel was in service under General Fremont six 
months, during which time was promoted to sergeant, and after his discharge went 
to Sutter's fort. There he found the wagon in which he crossed the plains, and 
in it traveled to Yount's in Napa County, taking with him one of the children of 
the Donner party. He then went to Sonoma, where he was employed by Salvador 
Vallejo to cover a house; remained there during the summer of 1847, and for his 
work received  $100 in cash, 100 flirkins of wheat and 200 heifers. In 1848 he 
was making hay in Suisun Valley. One day Johnny Patton brought down five or six 
hundred dollars' worth of gold in a little bed-ticking sack, remained with the 
hay-makers for dinner and told them about the find. They decided not to return 
to the field, sold their interest in the hay and started for the mine. It was 
not until five years afterward that Mr. Burrel received his pay for the hay, 
then getting it in gold dust at $8 per ounce. He mined off and on for three 
years. The most he ever mined in one day was $112; the largest piece of gold he 
found weighed five ounces, and his usual day's work amounted to $16. Upon 
leaving the mines, Mr. Burrel purchased land in Green Valley, Solano County, 
where he farmed and raised stock until 1860. He then sold out, received his pay 
in cattle, and took them - 1,311 head - to Elkhorn ranch, Fresno county, where 
he remained engaged in the stock business until the fall of 1869. His cattle, 
which were then estimated at 4,000 head, he sold for $103,000, the parties 
paying $23,000 down and agreeing to pay $20,000 every six months, they having 
the use of his ranch of 20,000 acres. It was six years, however, before he 
received all the payments, and with the interest it amounted to a large sum of 
money. In 1871 Mr. Burrel returned to the States. From 1871 until 1874 he was 
not actively engaged in any business. In the meantime he suffered a stroke of 
paralysis and came near losing his life. In 1874 he purchased 1,000 acres of his 
ranch in Tulare County, located five miles northwest of Visalia. Since then he 
bought another thousand, and now has 2,000 acres of fine farming land all in one 
body. For five years his nephew, Frank Burrel, ran the ranch. He then sold out 
his interests and died soon afterward of consumption. During these years the 
subject of our sketch resided with his family in San Jose. He was married in 
1873, to Mrs. Adalza (Haycock) Adams, widow of Frank Adams. Their union has been 
blessed with five children, the first two being twins. Three of the children are 
living, namely: Vernia Jennet, May and Lewella. They have an elegant home in San 
Jose, corner of William and Third Streets, where they make their headquarters. 
Mr. Burrel belongs to the Pioneer Society of California. Previous to the war he 
was a Democrat; since then his political views have been in harmony with 
Republican principles. He is a director of the San Jose First National Bank, and 
also of three other banks. He still has Fresno county interests, owning 1,800 
acres of land there. In Mr. Burrel we find a true type of the California 
pioneer. He is the same pleasant, kind-hearted, hospitable man that he was in 
the early history of the state.
 
Source: "The Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of Fresno, Tulare 
and Kern, California," Lewis Publ. Co., 1892, pp. 407-408.