Tulare County Biographies

JOHN CHATTEN

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

 
A resident of California from 1868 to 1907, when he passed away, the late John 
Chatten was of English extraction and a native of Canada. Thomas Chatten, his 
grandfather, brought his family from Norfolk, Eng., and settled in Ontario, 
where his son Robert Chatten, father of John, farmed near Colborne till 1896, 
when he died aged seventy-eight. Robert's wife, Betsy Doe, a native of Ontario, 
died there aged seventy-two. She was of English ancestry, a daughter of James 
Doe, who was a Canadian settler and farmer. John Chatten was their second oldest 
child and the oldest son in a family of nine children, all of whom attained to 
maturity. He was born near Colborne, Northumberland county, Ont., December 8, 
1848, and grew up where the work was hard and the living not the best. From the 
time he was eleven, when he was taken out of school, he worked on the farm and 
one of his tiresome and painful tasks was the picking up of stones, which made 
his back ache and wore the skin off his fingers. His uncle Richard Chatten had 
come to California as a 49er, and his accounts of the climate and the ease with 
which a living might be earned or a competency secured were alluring reading to 
the folks in the bleak Canadian backwoods. This finally lured John Chatten to 
the state and for two years after his arrival he worked for his uncle. After his 
marriage he took up independent farming and stock-raising on one hundred and 
fifty acres of his uncle's land, and a year later bought an unimproved tract 
which he transformed into an attractive homestead.
More than ordinary success rewarded Mr. Chatters efforts as a farmer, and late 
in life he made a profitable specialty of dairying. His activity in local 
affairs was displayed in efficient service as a member of the county central 
committee of his party, and his interest in education impelled him to accept the 
trusteeship of the Elbow school district, the duties of which he discharged for 
thirty years, assisting to build a school house and to put the home school on a 
firm and substantial basis. Other praiseworthy measures were given his aid and 
counsel, and he was recognized as one of the leading men of the county.
Miss Celeste Reynolds, who became the wife of Mr. Chatten December 11, 1870, was 
born in Iowa and brought across the plains to California by her parents when she 
was but seven months old. They came in an ox-train and seven months were 
consumed in the journey. Her entire life in California has been lived in Tulare 
county. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Chatten were: Wesley, an engraver in 
Portland, Ore.; Arthur ; Wilmot L.; Ray, deceased; Fred, and Elsie. The family 
residence was built in 1903 and the homestead includes a hundred and seventy-two 
acres on Elbow creek, irrigated by the Wutchumna ditch, Mr. Chatten having been 
a director in the ditch company. Every acre of this homestead is tillable, and 
he also owned a quarter-section of adjoining land which he devoted to grazing.
The third in order of birth of the children of John and Celeste (Reynolds) 
Chatten, Wilmot L. Chatten was born near Visalia, November 11, 1878. He began 
his active career by ranching with his father. In 1902 he bought land, which he 
farmed until after his father's death. He now rents of his mother the home place 
and the adjoining land. He has twenty-five acres in barley and twenty acres in 
alfalfa, the remainder being pasture, and he maintains a dairy of twenty cows 
and keeps an average of about a hundred hogs. His family orchard is one of the 
best in its vicinity, and he gives some attention to chicken-raising. He is a 
man of public spirit and, as was his father, is a Republican. In 1902 he married 
Miss Iola Fudge, daughter of William Fudge, an early settler in the county. They 
have two children, Meredith and Dallas.
 
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - 
Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913, pp. 632-633