Tulare County Biographies

GREEN BERRY CATRON

Transcribed by Beverly Green

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

 
Green Berry Catron is one of the hardy sons of Missouri, who crossed the plains 
in the days of '49, to make a home and fortune in the new El Dorado of the West.
He was born in La Fayette County, Missouri, October 10, 1829, and comes of 
German ancestry. His parents, Solomon and Elizabeth (Jennings) Catron, natives 
of Virginia, were married in 1820, and to them were born fourteen children, 
thirteen of whom they reared to maturity, and ten - five sons and five daughters 
- are still living. The mother, at this writing, has reached the advanced age of 
eighty-six years, the father having died in 1865. The subject of our sketch was 
their fifth child, and was reared in Missouri. At the age of sixteen he enlisted 
in the army of the United States and served in the Mexican war. At nineteen we 
find him a rugged young man, en route to California with ox teams, braving the 
dangers of the plains and making the overland journey in safety.

Arrived at his destination, he at once embarked in mining at Gold Run. For 
nearly three years he was successful; then Dame Fortune forsook him and he lost 
all he had made. From the mines he went to Sonoma County, spent two years there, 
and afterward went to Lake County, which was then unsurveyed. In the latter 
county he took up a claim and engaged in stock-raising, continuing that business 
ten years. He came to his present location in Tulare County in 1864 and 
purchased 400 acres of land. Settlers were then few in this section of the 
country, there being only two further on the frontier than himself. On this 
property he has resided twenty-seven years; has improved it and sold a portion 
of it. In the meantime he purchased 872 acres in the hills, which he uses as a 
stock ranch.

Mr. Catron was first married, in 1864, to Mrs. Frances A. Barnett, whose death 
occurred in 1878. In 1881 he wedded Amanda M. Maxon, daughter of E. D. Maxon, 
who history appears elsewhere in this work.

Mr. Catron was among the pioneers who set on foot the enterprise to open up the 
first ditch for irrigating purposes in his part of the county. This is now 
called the People's Consolidated Ditch. In politics he has been a life-long 
Democrat. Although he has been a resident of California since before the great 
State was born into the Union, and although he is a veteran of a war in which 
the soldiers covered themselves with glory forty-five years ago, still he 
appears young and vigorous. He is a worthy citizen, a man of generous impulses, 
and one of the solid ranchers of Tulare County.

SOURCE: Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of Fresno, Tulare and 
Kern, California; Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1892, Page 623, 624