Sutter-Yuba County Biographies

PETER A. DARRACH

Transcribed by: Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
  
Many of Sutter County�s most thrifty and esteemed citizens are of foreign birth, 
and have brought to their new home those habits of industry and frugality that 
stand for success.  Well known among this number is Peter A. Darrach, an 
extensive grain rancher and stock raiser.  He owns a ranch of 320 acres 
twenty-two miles south of Yuba City and another ranch of 301 acres six miles 
east of the former place, across the line in Placer County.  His birth occurred 
near Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, November 18, 1865, the youngest in a 
family of nine children born to Neal and Catherine (Ferguson) Darrach, both 
natives of the same place as himself.  The ancestors of our subject were of 
Scotch origin.  Grandfather Duncan Darrach, a schoolmaster and merchant in his 
native city of Glasgow, emigrated to Prince Edward Island in 1802, with his wife 
and two children.  Neal Darrach was a farmer and lived and died in his native 
land.
Peter A. Darrach attended public school and from an early age worked on his 
father�s farm.  He soon determined to seek a different country in which to make 
his permanent home and in 1885 left the parental roof and in May of the same 
year arrived in California.  He soon found work on a ranch in Solano County, 
receiving one dollar per day, and out of this he was able to save a little; he 
next came to Sutter County and worked one year as a ranch hand.  The following 
season he rented 320 acres and, with a single plow and three horses, he put in 
160 acres of grain; when the harvest time came he was liberally rewarded for his 
hard labor; and he thus continued until 1895, when he bought his first land in 
Sutter County.  As early as 1892, Mr. Darrach invested in a Price Combined 
harvester drawn by thirty head of stock, and he operated as a contractor for 
twenty-four seasons in Sutter and Placer Counties; recently he purchased a 
Harris Giant Harvester, which he uses in his extensive ranching business.  Aside 
from his own holdings he rents land and operates 2600 acres, using a 
sixty-horsepower Best Tractor for plowing and harvesting.
Mr. Darrach�s marriage united him with Miss Sophia M. Howsley, born at Pleasant 
Grove, Cal., a daughter of George and Ruth (White) Howsley, both natives of 
England.  George Howsley was a lad in years when brought by his parents to the 
United States.  He remained in the Eastern States until 1864, when he crossed 
the plains to California and settled on the ranch now owned by his son, Thomas 
Howsley.  Here he followed ranching until his death, on January 3, 1900, at the 
age of fifty-eight years.  He married the widow of his brother, formerly Miss 
Ruth White, who was only two years old when she was brought to the United States 
by her parents.  In Wisconsin, where she grew up, in 1863 she was married to 
William Howsley, and shortly afterward they came to California via Panama.  They 
later went to Nevada, where Mr. Howsley engaged in mining until his accidental 
death, in 1868.  His widow then came to Sutter County to make her home.  On 
November 23, 1869, she married George Howsley, and they were the parents of two 
sons and three daughters.  Both the parents of Mrs. Darrach are now deceased.  
Mr. and Mrs. Darrach have four children: Neal, a rancher on the home place; 
Flora, wife of Elvin E. Davis, a rancher in Sacramento County; Catherine, a 
graduate of Heald�s Business College of Sacramento, now in the general office of 
the Southern California Railroad Company; Sophie Mabel also a graduate of 
Heald�s Business College of Sacramento, who is with the Capital Cracker and 
Candy Company there.  In politics Mr. Darrach is a Republican.  He is a member 
of the W.O.W. at Pleasant Grove and is an Ancient Odd Fellow.
 
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 1220