Bio-Pen Pictures

Backus L. Bartlett, son of Martin and Abigail (Smith) Bartlett, was born in Fonda’s Bush, Fulton County, New York, January 4, 1822.  At the age of fifteen he became a clerk in a mercantile house in Albany, and at the end of seven years became a partner of his employer, the business being carried on under the firm name of B. L. Bartlett & Co.  This was a branch store.  At the end of five years (in 1849) he went to New York city, where he remained till 1852, when he came to California, and settled at Shasta, in Shasta County; there he remained till 1861, carrying on a mercantile business, and then removed to Red Bluff, Tehama County, and engaged in the forwarding business for about three years, when he was appointed Deputy Internal Revenue Collector, at San Francisco, in which service he continued till 1873.  Since that time he has been Adjuster to the Board of Trade of San Francisco.

            In politics he is a Republican.  He owns a ranch of twenty-two and one-half acres at Los Gatos, but on account of his business he is obliged to live in San Francisco.  He has 400 apricot, 500 Bartlett pear, and 400 French prune trees six years old, and 350 French prune, 350 peach, and 100 apricot trees one year old, besides 300 grape-vines.  In 1887, when his apricot trees were but five years old, they yielded him $175 per acre.  It was an off year for prunes, but his fruit yielded $50 per acre.  The indications point to a heavy yield of prunes and pears this year.

Pen Pictures From The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County, California, Illustrated. - Edited by H. S. Foote.- Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1888.
Pg. 316
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
Proofread by Betty Vickroy

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