Sutter-Yuba County Biographies

GEORGE E. BRITTAN

Transcribed by: Kathy Sedler

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



            Prominent among the early pioneers is the name of George E. Brittan, 
who was born on March 13, 1821, in Shenandoah County, Va., where he lived until 
1834.  He then moved to Missouri with his father�s family, and remained there 
until 1849, when he and his father crossed the plains to California.  The 
father, Thomas Brittan, was born and reared in Old Virginia.  As a country 
gentleman, he was identified with the plantation life of that State.  In 1834 he 
moved his family overland to Missouri, where he cleared a pioneer farm and 
created a new home.  When he crossed the plains in 1849, the rigors of the 
overland journey proved too severe, and he died soon after reaching Marysville.  
The mother, Elizabeth Finks Brittan, was a native of Virginia, who crossed the 
plains and lived in Sutter County until the ripe age of ninety-three years.
            In 1848 George E. Brittan married his former schoolmate, Mary A. E. 
Garr of Virginia, the daughter of Mark F. Garr, a planter.  Having gained a 
start in the West, Mr. Brittan returned to Missouri in 1852 and brought his 
young wife, and his mother, brother, and sister, to California.  He built his 
home from stone hewed out of the solid rock of the Buttes, and it still stands 
to illustrate the endeavors of a hardy pioneer.  Ten children came to bless the 
union of Mr. and Mrs. Brittan:  Mary, deceased; Elizabeth, who married J. N. 
Davis, deceased; James O., now of Colusa County; Henry H., also of Colusa 
County; George Jr., deceased; A. F., deceased; Robert L., deceased; Mattie V., 
who married O. Wulwebber and now lives in Chicago; Anna C., deceased; and Mark 
Thomas, deceased.
            Mr. Brittan was a Democrat, and was prominent in the affairs of the 
county as well as in the neighborhood in which he lived.  He served as 
supervisor of his district, and the grammar school of Sutter City still bears 
the name of the Brittan District.  When his health failed, he retired from 
ranching and moved to San Francisco, where he spent his last days.  George E. 
Brittan died in the year 1910, leaving a name that is still honored in Sutter 
County.

History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p  353-354