Sutter-Yuba County Biographies

JOHN W. FLESHMAN

Transcribed by: Kathy Sedler

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

 
            A very successful rancher, whose energetic and highly intelligent 
enterprise speaks well for the progressive spirit of his town and county, is 
John W. Fleshman, of Live Oak, proprietor of twenty choice acres of the Sutter 
estate, which he acquired by purchase in 1919, the year when he came from 
Marysville, where he had settled five years before.  He was born in Putnam 
County, Mo., on August 4, 1888, the youngest of eight children in the family of 
Richard and Elizabeth (Priest) Fleshman.  His father first saw the light in 
Pennsylvania, and started with his parents in 1850, with ox-teams, to 
California; but they turned back to Missouri, and never reached the Golden 
State.  They resumed farming on their old home place in Putnam County; and when 
the Civil War involved the country in anarchy, Richard Fleshman became a member 
of Company B, 6th Missouri Volunteer Infantry, and served for more than three 
years under Grant.  He was badly wounded, and had to endure a long, slow period 
of convalescence.  He still lives in Putnam County, enjoying the confidence and 
esteem of all who know him.
            John attended the public schools, and remained at home to help his 
parents until he was twenty-one.  Then he left to attend Moeller College of 
Barbering, in Kansas City, from which he was graduated.  He then located at 
Tipton, Kans., and there followed his line of activity.  In 1914 he came to 
California, and almost immediately to Marysville; but after five years, in which 
he tried various occupations, he moved to Live Oak.  He was factory foreman and 
blacksmith at Yuba City, and had charge of seven men in the forge shop; but 
perceiving the greater future in Live Oak, he there embarked in agricultural 
pursuits.  He conducts a small dairy, and sells his produce at retail in the 
town of Live Oak.
            At Tipton, Kans., Mr. Fleshman was married to Miss Mary Arnoldy, a 
native of Tipton and a daughter of the well-known pioneer, M. J. Arnoldy, who, 
with his devoted wife, is now dead, the pioneer couple having made an enviable 
record for usefulness in the world, and having enjoyed the goodwill of all who 
knew them.  Mrs. Fleshman has two brothers, Walter and Guss Arnoldy, residents 
of Butte and Yuba Counties, respectively; and she has a sister at Notre Dame, in 
Santa Clara, who has been for some years a nun, while another sister, Mrs. W. H. 
Streit, lives on a ranch near Gridley, where her husband is engaged in operating 
a peach and poultry ranch.  Mr. and Mrs. Fleshman have one daughter, Adelaide, 
who is attending the grammar school at Live Oak.  Mr. Fleshman is a member of 
the Knights of Columbus at Marysville.
 
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p . 1300-1301