Sacramento County Biographies

Sacramento County Biographies
Information thanks to Nancy Pratt Melton:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~npmelton/sacbott.htm

WILLIAM T. BOTTIMORE

Post Office, Galt; was born in Maryland, in 1838, and lived there until 1848; he removed to Virginia in that year, and remained until 1871, engaged as a bricklayer; he then came to this State, and settled in Sacramento County; is engaged in butchering; owns three, acres of land. Mr. Bottimore was married, in 1865, to Miss Louisa Cecil, a native of Virginia; they have six children---two boys and four girls.

WILLIAM W. BOTTIMORE

WILLIAM W. BOTTIMORE.--A member of a pioneer family that settled in Sacramento County more than half a century ago, William W. Bottimore is a native of the Old Dominion, born in Tazewell County, Va., June 27, 1866, the son of William T., and Louise (Cecil) Bottimore. The father was born in Baltimore, Md., and the mother in Virginia and both were of old English ancestry, the Cecil family being of Colonial stock. Seven children were born to them, as follows: William W.; Mrs. Angeline Brown of San Diego; Charles Carroll, died in 1918; Katherine, Mrs. Frank Marceau of Milbrae, Cal.; Mary, died in 1894; Mrs. Nannie Corrales of Los Angeles; Frank, died at the age of twenty-one. In 1870 the Bottimore family migrated to California and settled at Woodbridge on the Wood's place; they remained there but six months and then went to New Hope, but after a year they were flooded out and came to Galt, where the father followed his trade of brick-mason until 1886; then the family, with the exception of our subject, removed to San Diego, Cal.; where the parents passed away.

William W. Bottimore received his education in the Galt district school, and when seventeen started to work on the Need ranch, continuing there for five years. He then rented 500 acres east of this ranch and for nine years engaged in raising grain there. He then purchased the his present place of 400 acres on the open plains and built a home and farm buildings, planted trees and shrubbery and set out a thirty-acre vineyard of Tokay grapes. Here he installed an irrigation system, using the first centrifugal pump in Sacramento County. Later he dynamited three acres of the hard pan and set it out to peaches, and now some of the finest fruit in this section is produced there, as a reward for his perseverance and labor. Mr. Bottimore maintains a dairy on his ranch and raises grain, cattle, horses and mules, although most of his farming is done by tractor. He has three sixty-horse-power Best tractors and in addition to his own land leases large tracts. He has a large repair shop on his ranch and he and his sons do all the machine repair work, his eldest son being an expert mechanic. Mr. Bottimore expects to break up his hard-pan soil with a sub-soil breaker, built to go to a depth of five feet, which, instead of lifting the ground, pushes each cutting to one side, taking a strip five feet wide to each cutting. This is the first experiment of this kind to be tried out in this part of the county.

On December 16, 1892, Mr. Bottimore was married to Miss Cora B. Quiggle, born on the Quiggle ranch on the Cosumnes River in Sacramento County, the daughter of V. S. and Isabella Quiggle, early pioneers of California who had large land-holdings near the present site of Herald. Mrs. Bottimore's grandmother was Mrs. Elizabeth Louins, who was the first woman to prove up on a piece of government land in Sacramento County. Mr. and Mrs. Bottimore are the parents of ten children: Ephe Ray is the eldest; Donna is Mrs. Robert Fawcett of Galt, and has a son, Robert Donald; Zelma is Mrs. Burton Scoon of Roseville, Cal., and has a daughter, Joan Virginia; Cecil is a partner with his father; Thae died in infancy; Thomas Abner, Catherine, Hailie and Robert Lee are all at home.

The oldest son, Ephe Ray, entered the U.S. Army in November, 1917, was one week on Angel Island and then was sent to Kelly Field, Texas, where he took the examination for mechanics and was placed in the 23rd Recruit Squadron and sent to Waco, Texas, for training. This outfit was absorbed by the 257th Aero Squadron and Mr. Bottimore became a truck driver, remaining on duty at Waco until June, 1918, when he went to Camp Green, N. C., and was transferred to the 332nd Aero Squadron and sent to Morrison, Virginia, sailing from there to Liverpool, England. In England the squadron was turned back from Southampton and sent to Edinburgh, Scotland, and there served with the Royal Flying Corps, Mr. Bottimore attaining the rank of sergeant. Just after the armistice this squadron was routed for home, but influenza broke out and they were delayed a month, finally landing at New York December 24, 1918. Mr. Bottimore was discharged at Camp Mills, N. Y., January 10, 1919, and returned home. On June 30, 1920, he was married to Miss Catherine Spencer of Galt and they have a daughter, Frances Jane, and a son, Ephe R., Jr.

William W. Bottimore is a lifelong Republican. A stanch friend of education, he served as a member of the Alabama School District for nineteen years.

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Pages 316-317. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.