Sutter-Yuba County Biographies

FRANK DONALDSON

Transcribed by: Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
 
Among the prosperous orchardists of the Lincoln district of Sutter County is 
Frank Donaldson, whose present home place was unimproved land when he settled 
upon it, in 1908, but is now highly developed to an orchard of peaches, prunes 
and cherries.  He is a native son of Sutter County, born near Pleasant Grove, 
July 9, 1870, the eldest of a family of six children of Alexander and Mary 
Elizabeth (Pierce) Donaldson.  Alexander Donaldson was born in Ohio and was one 
of a family of thirteen children.  In young manhood he removed to Iowa, and from 
there came West to California and engaged in placer mining on the headwaters of 
Pleasant Grove Creek.  Several years later he became a stock dealer and supplied 
meat to the mines in Placer and Nevada Counties.  In the late sixties he opened 
a merchandise store and lumber yard at Roseville, later selling out to his 
partner and removing to Pleasant Grove, which was then known by the name of 
Pleasant Grove Creek, but was later changed by the postal authorities to 
Pleasant Grove, where he conducted a store.  He was married at Pleasant Grove to 
Miss Mary Elizabeth Pierce.  Alexander Donaldson engaged in general farming on 
the old Lowe ranch, an old landmark, having been in early days a stage station 
between Sacramento and Marysville.  The old Lowe ranch was a noted place, where 
horse-racing and a dance hall were leading attractions, and was in its day 
replete with romance as well as tragedy.  A shooting scrape grew out of a 
disagreement there over a horse-race.  One contender drew his gun and shot the 
other to death.  The gathering mob thereupon took the murderer to a place near 
Nicolaus and without trial or other legal intervention, summarily hung him to a 
tree.  This ranch was later purchased by Mr. Donaldson, but there was a flaw 
discovered in the title that required fourteen years to settle, though the 
decision was finally given in favor of Mr. Donaldson.  For many years Alexander 
Donaldson was justice of the peace of Vernon Township and was consulted in many 
legal matters.  In 1883 he removed with his family to Pleasant Grove, where 
better advantages for educating his children could be had.  He was an honored 
member and a past officer of the Grange, and was an active champion against the 
hydraulic process of mining.  He passed away at his home in Pleasant Grove, 
September 17, 1898, survived by his wife and six children.  Five or six years 
before his death he became an invalid, as a result of a fall.  He was about 
seventy years of age at the time of his death, and his invalid condition made it 
doubly hard for his son, Frank Donaldson, who as a lad of but fifteen years had 
to assume the responsibilities of the farm.
Frank Donaldson had, however, received a fairly good common-school education 
before his father�s injury.  He continued on the home ranch until 1894, when he 
took a United States Government contract for carrying the mail between Nicolaus 
and Sacramento.  This occupied him for three years, after which he sold out and 
went into the restaurant business in Sacramento, for two years operating the 
Omaha Restaurant.  This he later sold and opened the Epicure Caf�, which he 
successfully conducted for two years.  Again selling out, he returned to Sutter 
County, where he conducted a warehouse and storage business at Marcuse.  Later 
he removed to Tudor and there conducted a warehouse for four years with 
gratifying success.  In 1908 he located on twenty acres, his present home place, 
which he has since developed into a fine orchard property.  Mr. Donaldson�s 
family consists of one daughter, Dorothy, and one son, Ellis.  Mr. Donaldson 
feels gratified that he has been able to educate his sister, Miss Jessie 
Donaldson, who has successfully followed the profession of teaching for a number 
of years, and is at present in San Joaquin County.  In politics, Mr. Donaldson 
is a Democrat.  Since 1900 he has been a member of the Yuba City Lodge, W.O.W.; 
and he is also a member of the Farm Bureau.
 
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 666