Fresno County, California Biographies

Source: History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of 
the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with 
its growth and development from the early days to the present (1919)

History By Paul E. Vandor 
Illustrated, Complete In Two Volumes 
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1919
 
Notes: Missing+page1185-1186

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

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


ARNOLD HUMBOLDT STAUB.� An energetic and successful rancher 
and dairyman who, with his devoted and equally wide-awake wife, has 
amassed a comfortable competency and. what is best, with it the esteem and 
good will of a wide circle of friends, is Arnold Humboldt Staub, who was 
born near Winnemucca, and the Humboldt River. Nevada, on September 24, 
1865, the son of John Staub, a native of Zurich, Switzerland. The latter, a 
fine stone mason, cutter, sculptor and marble-worker, came to Missouri and 
while there enlisted in the Union Army, having previously married Elizabeth 
Paine, a native of that state. He worked at his trade : and when two children 
had been born to him, crossed the great plains in 1864 with ox teams to 
Nevada, where he engaged in the stock business. The Indians grew trouble- 
some, and he and the other ranchers took up their journey again and came 
through to California with their teams. 

Arriving in Sacramento in 1868, he located in Santa Cruz County, took 
up a homestead preemption and engaged in stock raising. When nicely pro- 
gressing, however, the good mother died, leaving five children � at present 
all living � among whom our subject was the fourth eldest. Fie was reared on 
a ranch in Santa Cruz County near Davenport, attended the public schools 
of his locality, and remained at home until he was twenty-one. 

Then, for a couple of years. Arnold went to work for himself ; but when 
his father became sick, he returned home and ran the place for him, and 
there remained until the old gentleman passed away. This was about 1890; 
after which he leased his father's ranch and ran it until 1906. In that year he 
moved to. Fresno County and settled near Dos Palos. where he bought a 
ranch of thirty-seven acres. 

On March 27, 1900, Mr. Staub married Mrs. Alice (Downing) Kelley, 
who was born at Camp Scott, New. in the same locality as her husband, the 
daughter of Jason Downing, a native of New York State, and a civil engineer 
who had crossed the plains to California. lie was married in Nevada to Sarah 
E. McCarty, whose father was Larkin McCarty, an early Californian pioneer. 
The father moved to Nevada where he was active as a civil engineer and then 
came to Fresno County, Cal., when Fresno was a small town, in its develop- 
ment of the middle seventies. She attended school in this county, and was 
married for the first time to James C. Kelley, a native of New York State and 
a rancher. Two children were born of this marriage � Earl L., who died when 
eleven years of age, and Maude C, now Mrs. H. A. McDowell of Coalinga, 
who has one child. Mrs. Staub's second marriage was at Santa Cruz. 

Mr. Staub conducted his ranch near Dos Palos as an alfalfa farm for 
three years, and then sold it at a good profit, whereupon he located in the 
Madison district and bought twenty acres of raw land on California Avenue, 
four and a half miles west of Fresno, which he leveled and checked for alfalfa. 
He also installed a dairy, and had a fine herd of milk cows; and he is a 
member of the San Joaquin Valley Milk Producers' Association. 

Mr. Staub was first married in Santa Cruz to Miss Sarah Bradshaw, who 
was born in Rocklin, Cal., and became the mother of one child, Harvey P., 
who resides at Soquel. and has five children. The present Mrs. Staub is a 
member of the Rebekahs in Santa Cruz, and is a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. Mr. Staub is an Odd Fellow in association with Central 
California Lodge No. 343 of Fresno, and Fresno Encampment No. 78. A 
Democrat in national politics, he is without party hindrance in supporting 
local measures, and has served as a school trustee in Santa Cruz County.