California Biographies

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

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

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


JAMES W. CATE. A pioneer of California and for many years connected with the business 
life of Fresno county, James W. Cate is remembered throughout this part of the country as a 
man of ability, energy and executive force, and one who made his influence felt throughout the 
industrial circles of the community. A native of New Hampshire, he was born in 1828, a son 
of Walter and Mary P. (Wiggins) Cate, residents of Stafford county, N. H., and also natives 
of the same state, both descendants of old New England families of worth and prominence. In 
1838 the father located in Adams county, Ill., where he engaged in general farming and stock- 
raising. James W. Cate remained at home until he was twenty-four years of age, at which time 
he bought land and entered into independent operations. In 1864 he came overland to Cali- 
fornia, traveling by the customary ox-teams, at Salt Lake deciding to enter the state by the 
southern route. In the fall of the same year he arrived in Los Angeles county, and after stop- 
ping a short time in El Monte leased land near Downey, where he engaged in farming for three 
years. Purchasing one hundred and fifty-five acres of land in the Ranchito school district, be- 
tween the old and new San Gabriel rivers, he became the first white settler of that region, 
where he devoted his time to agricultural and horticultural pursuits for many years following. 
Thirty acres of his land was devoted to a fine walnut grove, the profits for one year amounting 
to $200 per acre. He had also a vineyard of twelve acres, on eleven cultivating the Berger 
and on one the Zinfandel grape, the yield in 1888 being seventeen tons per acre. Two and a 
half acres were devoted to various fruits, while the remainder of the land was given over to 
alfalfa, corn, hay and grain. In addition to this property he became the owner of one hundred 
acres of grain land six miles west of Los Angeles, twenty acres of improved land at Monro- 
via, and eighteen hundred acres in Fresno county, ten miles northeast of Fresno. Success 
accompanied him in all his efforts ; he became a wealthy man, a prominent and influential citizen, 
and a factor in the business world of his adopted state, making his influence felt in whatever line 
of activity his energies were directed. His death occurred in March, 1900, after a long life of use- 
fulness among the scenes of his adopted state. He was a faithful member of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church South, and for twenty years a school trustee. Politically he was a stanch ad- 
herent of the principles advocated by the Democratic party. 

In 1856 Mr. Cate was united in marriage with Eliza Henderson, a native of Indiana, and a 
daughter of William and Anna (McConnell) Henderson, both of whom were born in the state 
of Pennsylvania. Of this union were born five children, of whom the following are now living: 
Daniel Webster, who married Emma Pierce ; Dallas Mason ; and James Wilbur, a sketch of 
whom also appears in this volume. The third child, Hayden, died in 1878, at the age of twenty 
years, while the fifth child, Louise Olive, died in 1888, at the age of twenty-two years. Mrs. Cate 
survives her husband and now makes her home in Los Angeles.