Sutter-Yuba County Biographies


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



CHARLES E. MERRIAM
 
So much of the productiveness of California is due to the wonderful irrigating 
systems now in existence, more especially in the valleys, that it is almost 
impossible to estimate the value of this modern method of agriculture and 
horticulture when writing of the fertility of our far-famed State; and in the 
Sacramento Valley the older residents have witnessed a marvelous transformation 
in a comparatively short time, brought about by the modern methods used by the 
men engaged in this work in the county.  Among these must be mentioned Charles 
E. Merriam, now ditch superintendent of the Hallwood irrigation system, and for 
many years engaged in construction work in Yuba County.  Mr. Merriam is a native 
of the county, born at Dobbins, November 6, 1866, a son of Joseph and Marinda 
(Rugg) Merriam, pioneers of Yuba and Nevada Counties, the father as a miner and 
later as a rancher.  Joseph Merriam died in the fall of 1921, aged eighty-eight, 
at the family ranch at Dobbins.  The mother passed away in 1912.
Charles Merriam was the third in a family of six children born to these 
pioneers.  After finishing his schooling he entered the stock business at an 
early age, following this ten years at Brownsville, and during the time worked 
on the flumes constructed by the Pacific Gas & Electric Company in that 
district.
In Brownsville his marriage occurred, to Miss Margaret Elizabeth McCrank, born 
in that town and a daughter of the late J. H. McCrank.  Three children blessed 
this union: Margaret, Mildred, and Thelma.  Several years were spent at 
Marysville, until April, 1920, when Mr. Merriam took up the irrigation engineer 
work at Hallwood.  For about three years he has been engaged as superintendent 
of the irrigation system there, and during this time he has done a great deal to 
build up one of the most efficient and economical districts in the State, giving 
the work his entire attention.  In this line of activity the knowledge gained in 
construction work has been of real value to him and to the ranchers dependent 
upon his management of the system.  Fraternally, Mr. Merriam is a member of the 
Foresters at Forbestown.  With his family, he has been for the past twenty-five 
years a part of the social and economic life of his community.
 
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 644