Sutter-Yuba County Biographies

SAMUEL KUSTER, JR.

Transcribed by: Kathy Sedler

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

            A rancher who may well be proud of his 460 choice acres is Samuel 
Kuster, who lives 6 � miles north of Wheatland.  He was born on the old Kuster 
ranch on July 20, 1883, the son of Samuel and Mary Elizabeth (Reynolds) Kuster, 
who sprang from good old Swiss stock, his father having come with his parents 
when a lad of thirteen from the little Republic to the United States and Ohio.  
The family did not remain long in the Buckeye State, but in 1854, migrated 
further West, and at length arrived in California.  They settled at Nevada City, 
and later came into Yuba County, where Mr. Kuster bought 1500 acres, to which he 
added from time to time.  He engaged in general farming and the raising of 
cattle, and lived to be seventy-eight years of age, passing away in January, 
1919, a man highly respected for his common-sense methods, and his word of 
honor, upon which was founded all those transactions so satisfactory to others 
as well as to himself.  Mrs. Kuster, or Elizabeth Reynolds, was born in 
Missouri, and came to California when a little girl; and here she and Samuel 
Kuster were married.  She died in July, 1918.  Eight children were granted them, 
five now living:  Mamie has become Mrs. Nutt of Arboga; John D. is manager of 
the Pacific Gas & Electric Co., at San Jose; Martin is at Wheatland, and the 
youngest two are Samuel, the subject of our interesting review, and Emery E. 
Kuster.
            Samuel went to the Elizabeth Grammar School, but since his youth has 
been identified with his father and the home-ranch, of which he today possesses 
460 acres, where he has had erected a fine modern country home.  He devotes his 
whole attention and acreage to sheep-raising, and has been very successful in 
this important field of California agriculture.  He has become influential in 
local Republican ranks, but is broadminded in his political outlook, and among 
the first to support any first-class candidate or tip-top proposition, 
well-endorsed by his fellow-citizens, for the benefit of the community in which 
he lives and prospers.
            At Sacramento, on April 18, 1907, Mr. Kuster was married to Miss 
Ethel Winifred Harrison, a native of Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, and the 
accomplished daughter of R. J. and Sarah Harrison.  In 1905, her father moved to 
Wheatland, and took up farming there; and he has been keenly interested in the 
development of that region since.  Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. 
Kuster: Robert, Donald, Frederick, William and Elizabeth Winifred.  Mr. Kuster 
is an Odd Fellow, and for the past eighteen years has been a member of Sutter 
Lodge No. 100, as well as the Rebekah Lodge, both of Wheatland.
 
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p. 1250-1251