Sutter-Yuba County Biographies

EDSON SCHUYLER WADSWORTH

Transcribed by: Kathy Sedler

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

One of the prosperous and influential ranchers of Sutter City is Edson Schuyler 
Wadsworth, who was born two miles south of the present location of Sutter City, 
on September 24, 1868, the son of William Marsh and Martha Jane (Wynecoop) 
Wadsworth.  William Marsh Wadsworth was born in Morgan County, Ill., on March 
22, 1829.  He crossed the plains in 1853 and came to California, where he 
engaged in mining in the vicinity of La Porte until July, 1858.  In September of 
the same year he returned to Illinois.  He was married to his first wife, Sarah 
M. Lovett Marsh, on March 1, 1859; and with his bride he started across the 
plains again, bringing with him her mother, his father, and other members of the 
family.  In November, 1859, he settled on Section 28, Township 15 N., Range 2 
E., in Sutter County; and on this ranch he spent the balance of his days.  His 
wife passed away on April 17, 1865; and he was married a second time to Martha 
J. Wynecoop, on September 7, 1865, by whom he had nine children: William 
Ulysses, Edson Schuyler, Frank Alva Curtis, Minnie Elizabeth, Jennie Meribah, 
Harriet Alice, George M., Everett L., and Eva May, who died in infancy.  From 
time to time the father acquired land, which he devoted to grain, orchard and 
vineyard, and at the time of his death, when he was eighty years of age, he had 
about 1120 acres of land.
Edson Schuyler Wadsworth attended the Washington district school and also went 
to Pierce College at College City, Colusa County, for one term, and the Stockton 
Business College, which was then operated by Trask & Ramsey.  He remained on the 
home ranch until he was twenty-four years old and then engaged in the sheep 
business, renting private pasture land, and running 1500 head of ewes.  Later he 
purchased 1000 acres of hill land in Sutter County, on the Buttes, and increased 
his herd to 2500 ewes.  For several years he engaged in this business, and then 
he purchased 500 acres of farm land adjoining the sheep range and cut down his 
flock to 1500 head, devoting his farm land to rice-growing.  About 1912 he built 
a fine bungalow, in which he has resided ever since.
On November 19, 1890, Edson Schuyler Wadsworth was united in marriage with Miss 
Lottie Belle Pease, at his wife�s home, four and one-half miles east of Sutter 
City.  She was born in New Hampshire, the daughter of Charles H. and Rebecca B. 
Pease.  In 1877 she came to California with her parents, and they settled in 
Sutter County five miles from Yuba City, where Mr. Pease farmed.  Mrs. Pease 
passed away about 1893, and Mr. Pease died in 1913.  They were the parents of 
seven children: Walter, Charles, Rebecca, George, Mark, Wyman, and Lottie Belle. 
 Mrs. Wadsworth attended school in the Franklin district and in Yuba City.  Mr. 
and Mrs. Wadsworth were blessed with two children, Leo A. and Olive E., Mrs. 
Amele Lemenager.  Mr. Wadsworth endorses the platform of the Republican party.  
He is a member of the State Reclamation Board, and has been for twenty years a 
trustee of the Sutter Union High School, and for the last five years chairman of 
its board of trustees.  Fraternally, he is a Mason, at Yuba City, and belongs to 
the Sciots and Elks at Marysville.
Leo Ainslie Wadsworth was born October 26, 1892, at Sutter.  He attended the 
Brittan Grammar School and the Sutter Union High School, and in 1916 graduated 
from the University of California, where he majored in mathematics and science.  
For a short time he taught school at Los Banos, Merced County, and at Lompoc, 
Santa Barbara County.  In October, 1917, he entered the United States service 
and was sent to Camp Lewis at the Base Hospital, where he was placed in the 
X-Ray laboratory of the Medical Department.  He became first sergeant in the 
Hospital Department, and was discharged on March 10, 1919, from Camp Lewis.  He 
then returned to Sutter and became one of the faculty staff of the Sutter Union 
High School, where he taught mathematics and science.  On July 7, 1917, at 
Sutter, Leo Ainslie Wadsworth married Miss Virginia Lotta Beecroft, a native of 
Sutter, and a daughter of Frank Augustus and Minnie (Erke) Beecroft, both 
natives of the Golden State.  Her father was a printer.  She attended school at 
Sutter, Cal., and was one of the five children in her parents� family: Virginia, 
Minerva, Willa, Francis, and Herman.  Mr. and Mrs. Leo Wadsworth are the parents 
of two children: Leo Ainslie, Jr., and Virginia.  Leo Ainslie Wadsworth is a 
stanch Republican.  Fraternally, he is a member of the Masons at Yuba City.

History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 621