Sutter-Yuba County Biographies

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
 
E. WILLIAM QUENELL
 
            One of the model farm properties in the Dobbins district is owned 
and operated by E. William Quenell, who established his home in this section of 
Yuba County thirty-four years ago, and whose success demonstrates the fact that 
in the cultivation of the soil, as well as in business and professional lines, 
efficiency and system are sure roads to prosperity.  Mr. Quenell is a native of 
Canada, born on October 15, 1849, in Huntington County, on the St. Lawrence 
River, which marks the boundary line between the United States and Canada.  His 
parents, Joshua and Josephine (Christian) Quenell, were also natives of Canada, 
being of French descent, and his paternal great-grandfather was born in the 
province of Normandy.  Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Quenell always resided in the 
Dominion.  The father reached the advanced age of eighty-four years, while the 
mother passed away at the age of sixty-five.
            E. William Quenell is fourth in order of birth in a family of ten 
children.  As a young man he came to the West, and from 1870 until 1880 worked 
in the famous Comstock Mine near Virginia City, Nev.  In the latter year he 
arrived at Quincy, in the Sierra Valley of California.  Subsequently he embarked 
in the freighting business, which he successfully followed for ten years, 
driving a six-mule team between Marysville, La Porte, Downieville and Sierra 
City.  He came to Yuba County in 1888, and in the following year bought a ranch 
near Dobbins owned by Sam Harrison.  By subsequent purchase he added three 
forty-acre tracts to the original homestead of 160 acres, so that his holdings 
now comprise 280 acres of fertile land, which is divided into fields of 
convenient size by well-kept fences.  He himself made most of the improvements 
on the place, and his land is in excellent condition, showing the results of the 
owner�s care and labor in steadily increasing its productiveness.  He engages in 
diversified farming, and his equipment is modern and up-to-date.
            In Quincy, in 1884, Mr. Quenell was married to Miss Anna Robinson, 
who was born at Crescent City, Indian Valley, April 9, 1868.  Mr. and Mrs. 
Quenell became the parents of three children.  Ida married George Chambers, and 
passed away in 1917, leaving four sons, Milton, Charles, John and George; the 
youngest was but eighteen days old at the time of his mother�s death, and the 
children are being reared by their grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Quenell.  Leta is 
the wife of Richard Royat, who is employed by the Pacific Gas & Electric Company 
at Colgate; and they have had four children:  Lawrence, Leonard, Adelle 
(deceased), and Ellis.  William J. is employed as a cabinet maker in San 
Francisco, and is attending a school of mechanical dentistry in San Francisco.
            Mr. Quenell received his citizenship papers at Quincy, Cal., and 
exercises  his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of the 
Democratic party.  He is active in its behalf, and has served on every election 
board at Dobbins since 1896.  He has done all in his power to promote the 
educational advancement of his district, and is now serving for the second term 
as school director at Indiana Ranch, an office which he also filled for three 
terms about twenty years ago.  He is loyal to the interests of his adopted 
country, and the success which he enjoys is the natural result of untiring 
labor, supplemented by business sagacity and absolute integrity.
 
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 508