Sacramento County Biographies Information thanks to Nancy Pratt Melton

[Image obtained from 'History of Sacramento County California' in 1880, published by Thompson & West, Oakland, Cal. 1880]

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

GEORGE NEED

George Need, a general farmer in Dry Creek Township, was born September 27, 1836, in Germany, and emigrated to America in 1840 with his parents, Francis and Dorothy Need, landing at Baltimore and settling near Lawrenceburg, Dearborn County, Indiana. There they were on a farm until the father’s death in 1874, at the age of seventy-two years; the mother died in 1849. In their family were four sons and one daughter, viz.: Michel, George, Valentine, Christopher, and Laney, wife of Louis Lehr, of Indianapolis. Michel came to California in 1852, and died in 1868; Christopher was killed in the Civil War; Valentine also served in the war and now lives in Indiana, George remained with his father on the farm until he was twenty years of age, and then, in 1857, embarked at New York and came by way of the Isthmus to the Golden State, and at once located where he has ever since resided, except a short time in Fresno County, when he was in the stock business. In 1867 he purchased his present fine property of 775 acres, five miles from Galt, and where he has made all the improvements now on the place. In 1867 he married Miss Sarah J. Ehler, a native of Indiana, and they have had six children, two of whom are deceased, namely: Effie R., born October 18, 1868, died November 25 following; Louisa J., born March 15, 1871; George C., July 2, 1873; Isabel E., June 24, 1874; Francis, born December 6, 1876, died April 19, 1877; and Henry J., born September 27, 1878. Mr. Need is a gentleman of kindly disposition, industrious habits and sincere in his morals. Politically he is a Republican; his first Republican vote was cast for Ben Harrison.

Transcribed by Debbie Gramlick.

An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. By Hon. Win. J. Davis. Lewis Publishing Company 1890. Page 381.

GEORGE C. NEED--A large landowner and prosperous dairyman of the Galt district is George C. Need, who has spent all his life in his native county. He was born on July 2, 1873, on the Need ranch northwest of Galt, his parents being George and Sarah (Eiler) Need. The father came with his parents from his birthplace in Bavaria, Germany, to the United States when only four years old. They settled in Indiana; and there Mr. Need engaged in grain and stock-raising before coming to California, where he became one of Sacramento County's influential ranchers.

George C. Need attended the Grant district school in his boyhood and remained on the old home place until his marriage in December, 1912, to Miss Agnes Wegat, the daughter of August and Mary Wegat, who are represented on another page of this history. In 1914, 474 acres of the home place was set aside for Mr. Need and here he erected a comfortable home and farm buildings and made other improvements and it has since been the family home. Here he is extensively engaged in raising stock, having an average of 100 head of feeding stock, and he also has a fine dairy herd of eighty cows. Mr. Need also has an interest in the Need estate, which comprises some 2,000 acres of land north and west of Galt. Mr. and Mrs. Need are the parents of two sons, George Henry and Lloyd James.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Page 632. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.