Weast Page
Ernest Weast
"Grandpa Weast"
This photo was discovered 10/30/2001
in an album that once belonged to my great grand mother.
Only after removing it from the album, was his identity discovered.
Ernest died in Humbolt County California at the age of 41 of Sarcoma.
Ernest was the son of Arthur Weast and Mamie Maud (Bishop) Weast.
Arthur Weast *
As a young boy
Arthur Weast *
as a young man
Rachel's Great Grandpa
John Kyle Weast and Margaret Day *
Rachel's G-G-G- Grand parents
* Photos courtesy ofKenneth Miller
a new cousin discovered 2/20/2002
The following was taken from a book on the history
and the pioneers of of Colusa Co. Caifornia
and provided by cousin Helen Hutsell of Chico Ca.
COLUSA AND GLENN COUNTIES
John KYLE WEAST
To have lived in one community for more than half a century is a
record equaled by few
men inColusaCounty; and to have attained the age of ninety years,
and still be in touch
with all the up-to-date movements of one's community, is the lot
of butfew of the sons of men.
This is the record of John Kyle Weast,whowas born in
Lycoming
County, Pa., April 15, 1827.
He hasbeen an eyewitness to all of the wonderful development
ofthecounty since 1866, seeing
it develop from a vast cattlerange to ,waving grain fields, to be
still later brought under more
intensivecultivation. 'The large ranches of the early days have
beensplitup into smaller tracts;
and fruit and dairy interests nowpervadethe country, bringing in
large revenues to the ranchmen.
Latestof all is the development of rice lands from the
sheeppasturesthat for years were thought
to be worthless. All of this,andmore, has been witnessed by
Mr. Weast, now one of theretired
citizens of Colusa County.Mr. Weast is a descendant of an old
pioneer family inAmerica.
His grandfather, Abraham Weast, was born in Tioga County,N. Y.,
and married a Miss Mudge,
a lady of Germanextraction, .whose family were represented among
the very earliest German
settlers of New 'York ,State. She was a daughter of asoldierwho
served in the French and Indian Wars, and in theRevolutionarystruggle,
from the Battle
of Bunker lIill to the closeof the war.
Abraham Weast died in a block house inPennsylvania.He had a son
Joshua, a native of Tioga County, and by trade a cabinet-maker, who
migrated to Indiana as early as1834and settled in Laporte County when
that region was in itsprimeval condition. He cleared land and improved
a farm, on which he lived for many years; but eventually he came
toCalifornia,where be spent his last days.
He died at the home of his son, John K. Weast, in Colusa County,
when in hiseighty-first y ear.
His wife, Isabella Kyle, was born in Pennsylvania, adaughter of
John Kyle, afarmer. She died in Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Weast became
theparents
of four children, of whom John K was the oldest,
and the only one to settle on the Pacific Coast.
When John K. Weast was a lad of seven years of age, hisparents
went to Indiana, and his earliest
recollections areassociated with the development there of a raw
tract of land. When he was eighteen, he began working for the
farmersin his section of the county, receiving ten dollars a month
for his services. In 1846 he left Indiana, and went to Illinois to
assist in moving some of his relatives
to McHenry County, passing through the present site of Chicago
when
that city was an
insignificant town, without visible indications' of its future
greatness. Subsequently he
resumed work in Indiana as a farm hand.
On February 4, 1850, Mr. Weast went to New York, intending to
take ship for California.
It was not until March 16 that he was able to get passage on the
boat Georgia for Chagres.
From there he went up the Chagres River a short distance, and then
walked the remaining distance, twenty-two miles, across the Isthmus of
Panama.
It was six weeks and two days before he could
get passage on a steamer there, and meanwhile expenses were very
high. Finally he became a
passenger on the Columbus, which cast anchor in San Francisco on
June 4. Soon after
landing he went to the mines in Eldorado County, and while working
there a season he was
a member of the election board during the exciting time of voting
for statehood. His next
location was Kelsey's Diggings, after which he was at Weaver's
Creek, and later on
the Feather River; and still later he went to Downieville.
In December 1851, he went to the Suisun Valley. Abandoning the
precarious occupation of
mining, he here took up agricultural pursuits, making a specialty
of raising grain.
Two years later he went to the Sacramento River and took up what
he supposed
was government land. He made v valuable improvements on the
property and tilled
the soil assiduously for the following nine years, only to
discover
that the property
was part of a land grant, and that he must lose it. The experience
was discouraging;
but soon afterwards, in 1866, he settled on a ranch lying seven
miles north of Colusa,
where for many years he tilled the soil, meeting with a fair
degree
of success.
He became the owner of some three hundred twenty-three acres in
his home place,
and of a tract of one hundred fifty-two acres located not far
distant. This entire property
he devoted to the raising of cattle, hogs, grain and alfalfa. He
cleared the land from
the thick growth of timber that grew along the river, and during
the winter of 1867-1868
superintended the cutting of two thousand cords of wood, which he
sold to the steamboats
that were running on the river at that time. When the stumps were
removed and burned,
he found himself the possessor of as fine a tract of land as could
be found anywhere in the
state. Besides this land he bought a ranch of one hundred sixty
acres in Modoc County,
located in the Little Hot Springs Valley.
In September, 1913, Mr. Weast sold his ranch on the Sacramento
River and spent a few
months in Modoc County; but he returned to a place near Colusa to
spend the winter.
In the spring of 1914 he bought the ranch upon which he now
resides, which consists of seven
hundred twenty acres in the Antelope Valley. He moved onto it; and
with the aid of his son,
Byron, who is managing the place, he here is raising cattle,
sheep,
hogs and grain.
The marriage of Mr. Weast was celebrated in Colusa County on
August 22, 1866, when he
was united with )Margaret Day, a native of Illinois, a daughter of
Nathaniel and Rhoby
(Green) Day, natives of Maine and New York, respectively. In 1855
the Day family crossed
the plains from Illinois to California and settled, first, in
Colusa County, but later moved
to Modoc County, where both Mr. and Mrs. Day died, the former at
the age of ninety-three years.
In the family of Mr. and Mrs. Weast there were eight children: ,
Walter H., now in Shasta County; Henry, who died at the age of two and
a half years; Rhoby, who married Charles Coleman, and died,
leaving four children; Rachel, Mrs. Lampier of Colusa. the mother
of seven children; Arthur,
a farmer near Glenn, who has nine children; Mary J., who died,
aged
six years; Flora,
Mrs. Yates, who has four children and who, with her husband, is on
the home ranch; and Byron, manager of the home place. Mr. and Mrs.
Weast
have twenty-seven grandchildren and three
great-grandchildren. Mrs. Weast is a good manager, and has been a
most able assistant to her husband. They are liberal supporters of all
progressive movements, are hospitable and
open-hearted, and are enjoying life to the full among the many
friends they have made during
their long years of residence in Colusa County.
Photo courtesy of cousin HelenHutsell of Chico Ca.
Betty Irene Weast
( Fletcher - Norris)
This photo was her Senior class photo.
This photo taken in 1940 at the
San Francisco Exposition.
