Merced County Biographies

JAMES NEGRA

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

 
        The logical connection between conducting a life insurance business and 
running a sheep ranch is not so apparent that the conditions of success in the 
one business would insure success in the other. Nevertheless it is a fact that 
James Negra has been very successful as agent for the West Coast Life Insurance 
Company with offices in Merced and Los Banos, and it is chronicled that both he 
and his father made a success in raising sheep on their ranch. The father, 
Bernardi Negra, who is still living, was a native of Italy and came out to 
California in the early days before the railroad came to the West Side, and 
before the wagon roads were graded, and engaged in sheep-raising on a large 
scale. He was a personal friend of Henry Miller and was with him in many deals 
in livestock. In that day wool sold as low as three cents per pound and sheep 
for three dollars a head. James was born on his father's ranch three miles from 
Los Banos, on October 13, 1885, and was educated in the Monroe school in Badger 
Flat, Merced County, and he engaged in sheep growing on a mountain ranch, which 
he still owns. In 1922 he sold the sheep and took up the life insurance 
business.
        James Negra married Lela Smith, a native of Merced County, and they have 
two children, James, Jr., and Jessie. Mr. Negra is a member of Merced Parlor No. 
24, N. S. G. W.
 
History of Merced County, California � Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 821