Sutter-Yuba County Biographies

GEORGE M. BAUMGARDNER

Transcribed by: Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


 
An experienced and very successful general contractor, who has contributed 
something definite toward advancing the status of Sutter County in the 
industrial world, is George M. Baumgardner, of Yuba City.  He was born in 
Chicago, on June 13, 1889, and was brought out to the Golden State when a baby 
boy.  He is a son of Harvey and Ida (Lathrop) Baumgardner, natives respectively 
of Illinois and Michigan, the father coming to California when twenty-three 
years of age, while Ida Lathrop was brought hither when a child by her parents, 
who were pioneer farmers in Sutter County.  Grandfather Baumgardner was a 
veteran of the Civil War, and afterwards came to California and here spent his 
last days.  After Harvey Baumgardner�s marriage, he returned to Illinois, being 
employed with the Armour Meat Company.  However, he had a longing for the Golden 
West; so in 1890 he brought his family to California and located in Yuba City.  
His death occurred in Redding, May 7, 1918, and the mother passed away in Sutter 
County, May 20, 1920.
George M. Baumgardner is the oldest son and the third in order of birth in a 
family of eight children; and he began to help support the family by his own 
work at the age of ten.  He commenced in the pottery at Lincoln, in Placer 
County, some twenty-three years ago, and after that he found employment in 
various places in Marysville, Ukiah, Willits, Mendocino, Healdsburg, Chico, and 
other localities in Northern California.  Twelve years ago, he learned the trade 
of the cement worker, starting at Chico, and then came to Marysville and worked 
for William Bowen and later for Henry Clymer.  For several years past, he has 
been in business for himself as a general contractor; and he has become known 
for his dependable and up-to-date workmanship.  He has done the cement work, for 
example, in all the best buildings erected in Marysville and Yuba City, and also 
in Gridley and Colusa.  So prosperous has he been that he has come to own 
thirty-six and one-half choice acres of peach orchard and vineyard in Sutter 
County, situated about two and one-half miles from Yuba City, on which he has 
made all of the improvements.  He is a member of the Yuba-Sutter Builders� 
Exchange.
Mr. Baumgardner was married in 1910, at Yuba City, to Miss Mata Neilson, of 
Petaluma.  She was the daughter of Paul and Pauline (Hansen) Neilson, natives of 
Denmark, and early settlers of Petaluma.  Mr. and Mrs. Baumgardner�s union has 
been blessed with the birth of four children: Bernice; Paul; Alvin, who died at 
three months; and Elwyn, who died at two and one-half years.
 
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 1015