California Biographies
Mendocino and Lake Counties, California
 
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 Mendocino and Lake Counties, California
With Biographical Sketches
History by Aurelius O. Carpenter And Percy H. Millberry
Illustrated, Complete In One Volume
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914


CHARLES RAUDIO. � Among the men who have made a success of 
agriculture and market gardening we find Charles Raudio, a very enter- 
prising and useful citizen. He was born in Kokola, Sweden, December 3, 
1862. Two years later his father, Anders Raudio, removed from Sweden to 
Vatso, Norway, where he engaged in cod fishing, his family joining him in 
1869, and he and his estimable wife still continue to make Vatso their home. 
Charles Raudio was the third oldest child of a family of thirteen children 
and from the age of six years was brought up in Norway, where he received 
a good education in the local schools. From a little lad he had helped his 
father fishing and by the time he had completed the public school at fourteen 
he had also mastered sailing and fishing and at that age took charge of a 
boat of his own and continued in the cod-fishing industry until 1888. Read- 
ing and hearing of the larger opportunities in the United States and particu- 
larly California, induced him to come to the far west, so in the above year 
he made his way to San Francisco and thence came immediately to Little 
River. Mendocino county. On his arrival he found employment at tie mak- 
ing, which he followed for two years. In 1890 his wife and three children 
joined him, the brave woman having made the long and tedious journey 
alone with her little ones. In 1890 Mr. Raudio entered the employ of the 
Caspar Lumber Company at felling timber and as a carpenter. Thus he 
continued for them until 1904, when he quit their employ to engage in farm- 
ing. Purchasing thirty acres on the Noyo river one and one-half miles from 
Fort Bragg, he located on it with his family. It is rich bottom land and 
splendid soil and he has met with much success raising vegetables and 
potatoes for the Fort Bragg market and he has also set out an orchard of 
fruit trees. He has installed an irrigation system by building a dam in a 
gulch fed by strong springs, and he has a reservoir with a capacity of thirty 
thousand gallons which furnishes him ample water for irrigation. The water 
for domestic use is obtained from a large spring near his commodious and 
comfortable residence. 

The marriage of Mr. Raudio occurred at Vatso, Norway, uniting him 
with Miss Maria Kuoppela, a native of that place and a woman of refinement 
and a strong character who has been an able helpmate to her husband in his 
acquirement of a competence. To them were born thirteen children, of whom 
two died in infancy. Of the others we mention the following: Sigrid H., 
the wife of Ed Hendricksen, died leaving four children; Hjalmar and Charles 
both reside in Fort Bragg; Sophia, Mrs. Albright. resides in Inglenook; the 
next in order are Ida and Hilda; Fred was accidentally drowned in the Noyo 
at the age of eleven years ; the next children are Annie and Mabel ; Charlotte 
L. died when four years old ; and Isaac completes the family. Mr. Raudio 
is a member of the Kalevala Brotherhood, of which he is president. The 
family are members of the Lutheran Church of Fort Bragg, and Mr. Raudio 
is a member of the board of trustees.