Sutter-Yuba County Biographies

MRS. EVELYN J. BRILL

Transcribed by: Kathy Sedler

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


 
            Exceptionally gifted with all those qualifications which conduce to 
the public good and the welfare of others, and possessing a kindly heart and 
winsome personality, Mrs. Evelyn J. Brill occupies an enviable position in the 
social and educational circles at Live Oak, where she wields a potent influence. 
 She was born at the old White home in Marysville, Yuba County, on I Street, the 
only daughter of the late John Henry White, a native of Madison County, Ind., 
where he was born on Christmas Day, 1830.  He was reared and educated in Ohio 
and in Cass County, Mich., and learned the fancy leather trade, which he 
followed for five years in Michigan.  He migrated to California in 1859, 
arriving in Sacramento in August, and soon thereafter engaged in teaming; and 
later he conducted a transportation business, carrying freight to Marysville and 
into the mountains, to Virginia City and the mines, driving twelve mules to a 
wagon.  In 1864, he returned to Michigan and married Miss Sarah Eliza Hain; and 
the same year he returned to California with his bride, coming by way of Panama, 
locating in Marysville.  During the winter season, he worked at his trade in 
Marysville, making harness and fancy saddles, and in the spring he set out to 
team to the mines with supplies.  He worked hard, dealt fairly, was thrifty as 
well as industrious, and he came to own half a block of real estate at Twelfth 
and I Streets, and built a home in that locality.  In 1867, he bought land west 
of Yuba City, the ranch now owned by the Jake Onstott family, Jake Onstott 
having bought it from John H. White in 1873.  Mr. White was a careful investor; 
on finding a favorable opportunity, he purchased 465 acres half a mile to the 
west of Live Oak, in 1873, then a sparsely settled region, with much wooded 
land.  He cleared forty acres of it, and thereafter engaged in cereal farming, 
building his home, and living there happily with his family.  In 1878, Mr. and 
Mrs. White and their family returned to their old home in Cass County, Mich.  
They remained there only a year, and then came back to California and Sutter 
County; and at Four Corners, Evelyn White went to the Columbia School, and had 
her first school-day experiences.  In 1883, the Whites removed to San Jose, and 
Mr. White purchased sixteen acres of highly developed orchard, on Stevens Creek 
road, which he held and operated for twenty years, but eventually sold; and 
then, in 1893, the family returned to Live Oak.  The old White home was 
destroyed by fire some years ago, and was later replaced by a modern structure, 
located about one mile from the original site, on the Pennington road, one mile 
east of Live Oak.
            Miss Evelyn White was graduated with honors, in 1888, from the 
University of the Pacific, when she received the B.S. degree.  By her marriage 
she had one child, Evelyn B., who is now the wife of C. C. Schell and the mother 
of two daughters, Roberta E. and Marjorie B. Schell.  Besides her regular 
college work, Mrs. Brill took up extra studies, including art; and several 
canvases of artistic merit, her handiwork, grace her home.  In 1893, she 
accompanied her parents back to Live Oak, and there made their declining years 
as happy as possible.  She gave her tenderest care to her father, who passed 
away on January 23, 1917, aged eighty-six years and one month.  Nearly three 
years later, on November 20, her mother also breathed her last, after ten long 
years of constant care by her daughter, such as only a daughter can bestow.  
Mrs. White will long be remembered for her heroic efforts, together with those 
of Miss Everett, in starting here the pioneer movement against intemperance, 
which was the foundation of all Woman�s Christian Temperance Union work in 
Sutter County.  Both parents were stanch, consistent Christians; and they were 
prominent in the grange work of a generation ago.
            For seventeen years, the White ranch was leased to near-by farmers; 
but about six years ago, Mrs. Brill resumed management, and further developed 
the estate.  Her son-in-law, Mr. Schell, also has attained to some excellent 
results in the growing of fruit, having given his attention especially to 100 
acres taken from the estate in 1912, for special cultivation.  It thus happens 
that the splendid ranch deeded to the White heirs � Mrs. Brill and A. H. White 
of Marysville � stands out as among the choicest in Sutter County.  Mrs. Brill 
still owns about 200 acres of this family estate, much of which yet awaits 
development into orchard and vineyard.
            Mrs. Brill has made an enviable record as a trustee of the grammar 
school at Live Oak, and has also had a hand in organizing the Live Oak High 
School, for which a fine building was recently erected, gathering the materials 
to be placed in the corner-stone, and otherwise preparing for the dedication; 
and she has always been a patron of art and education.  She is an ex-president 
of the Live Oak Woman�s Club, and at the present time is the secretary of the 
Sutter-Yuba Federation of Women�s Clubs.

History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p.  566-569