Tulare County Biographies

RICHARD CHATTEN

Transcribed by: Craig A Hahn

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

 
     The Chatten family, which for years was worthily represented in Visalia by 
the late Richard Chatten and now by his son Thomas A. Chatten, is prominent in 
Ontario, Canada, where Richard Chatten was born December 11, 1826. Of English 
origin they have lived in Canada since the Colonial times, and here Mr. Chatten 
was reared to manhood, working in the lumber woods there and in the northern 
part of the United States. His educational training was procured in the common 
schools of Canada and New York, and in 1849 he returned to Canada for a short 
time. Anxious to see other parts of the world and find a more encouraging field 
for his labors he decided to seek the western country, and accordingly made his 
way to St. Louis, Mo., working as a river raftsman, rafting logs from the 
Wisconsin pine woods, and at the age of twenty-seven years he was residing in 
that city. In the spring of 1850, in company with others, he outfitted seven 
ox-wagons and started overland for California, eager to try their fortunes with 
the rest of the gold-seekers. Taking a southern route they traveled through the 
state of Texas, and while there Mr. Chatten met his future wife, who was 
Margaret Glenn, daughter of Alexander and Eleanor Glenn, who were also on their 
way to the coast, and they accordingly joined their trains and traveled the 
remaining distance together. On the way the Indians stole several head of their 
cattle, but the animals were so tired from their long trip that they could not 
be driven fast enough and the party recovered them. They stopped at Salt Lake 
city for three weeks to rest and two weeks of this time Mr. Chatten was employed 
by Brigham Young, for which he was amply paid. The party finally arrived in Los 
Angeles in the fall of that year, and Mr. Chatten and the four Glenn boys pushed 
on to what was then Sonora county, where they engaged in placer-mining near 
Mariposa, where he met with some success and after working there for a year and 
a half returned to Los Angeles where he purchased about two hundred head of 
cattle and this was the start of his extensive stock business. 
 
     Driving his cattle about nine miles west of Visalia he settled there for a 
time, and was married there in the home of John C. Reed on January 12, 1854, to 
Margaret Glenn, above mentioned. They suffered many hardships through the 
troublesome Indians and as business often took Mr. Chatten to Stockton and Los 
Angeles he was compelled to bring his wife to Visalia for protection during his 
absence. He came to Visalia in 1886 and that city had in him a wide-awake, 
industrious citizen until his death, which occurred there August 12, 1896. He 
prospered in his stock business by his clever management and untiring 
perseverance and added to his property from time to time until he became one of 
the largest landholders in the vicinity. He owned the Mineral King fruit ranch 
of six hundred and sixty acres, which lies east of Visalia and disposed of it at 
a gratifying profit. He also owned one of the first apple orchards in the county 
and at the time of his death his property holdings covered an area of about four 
thousand acres. Mr. Chatten laid out the Chatten ditch, now called the Fleming 
ditch and a part of the Mineral King Fruit company�s holdings. 
 
     Mrs. Chatten passed away in 1890, leaving one son and three daughters, 
namely:  Thomas A., a prominent stockman and dairy man of Visalia; Frances, of 
San Francisco; Celesta; and Eliza, wife of Louis Whitendale, near Visalia. For a 
second wife Mr. Chatten married, in 1892, Mrs. Leah (Miller) Davis, widow of the 
late Thomas H. Davis, a pioneer of Antelope valley. Mrs. Chatten was born in 
Arkansas and crossed the plains to California in 1856, and since 1857 has been a 
resident of Tulare county. Mr. Chatten was a well-known Mason, and was always a 
prominent factor in movements that had for their object the benefit of his 
community, and his memory will ever be held sacred by his many friends and 
associates in Visalia and in the surrounding country, where he was best known. 
 
SOURCE:  History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical 
Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913, Pp 489, 490