Sutter-Yuba County Biographies

GEORGE McWILLIAM

Transcribed by: Kathy Sedler

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

            A well-known and successful rancher of Pleasant Grove, Cal., is 
found in George McWilliam, who since 1915 has also carried the rural mail from 
Pleasant Grove into the surrounding country, the route covering twenty-three 
miles.  He was born on the ranch where he now makes his home, November 16, 1873, 
a son of William and Lehella (Johnson-Henderson) McWilliam, natives of Prince 
Edward Island and Kentucky, respectively.  William Mc William came to California 
in an early day and engaged in mining at Tuolumne, Mokelumne Hill and at Ione, 
Cal., later he located at Pleasant Grove where he took up a quarter-section of 
government land.  The mother of our subject was Mrs. L. J. Henderson, widow of 
A. J. Henderson (killed at the Battle of Shiloh, during the Civil War), and they 
had two children, A. J. Henderson of Auburn and Mrs. F. B. Pierce, who resides 
at Trowbridge, Cal.  Mr. and Mrs. McWilliam were the parents of five children:  
George, Anna Maude, Mary Luella (deceased), William Hector, and Alexander 
(deceased).  The father passed away in 1892, and the mother in 1889.
            George McWilliam received his education at the Auburn district 
school; he was nineteen years old when his father died and being the eldest of 
the children took charge of the home ranch of 160 acres.  Mr. McWilliam received 
eighty acres as his portion of his parents� estate, where he has lived ever 
since.
            January 11, 1903, at Pleasant Grove, Mr. McWilliam was married to 
Miss Marilla Carrie Coppin, born on the Coppin ranch northwest of Pleasant 
Grove, a daughter of Samuel M. and Elizabeth Coppin.  Mr. and Mrs. McWilliam are 
the parents of seven children:  William Wallace, George Douglass, James  
Theodore, Stanford Roberts, Jack Hansen, Rodney Wilson, and Shirley Marilla.  
Mr. McWilliam is a Democrat in politics; he was postmaster of Marcuse from 1900 
to 1902, and postmaster at Pleasant Grove from 1902 to 1905; then he became mail 
carrier from Pleasant Grove station to Pleasant Grove, and since 1915, as above 
stated, has carried the rural route out of Pleasant Grove.  Fraternally he is a 
member of the Modern Woodmen of America Camp No. 9526, of Pleasant Grove.
 
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p. 1170-1171