Bio-Sawyers
SURNAMES: GRANT, SWAIN, BORDEN, CHILDS, STEELE, BAILEY,
Among the popular and efficient officials of Mayfield, Cal., Sidney M. Cuthbertson is capably filling the position of city clerk in a creditable and satisfactory manner. Besides attending to his official duties, he is active in the real estate and insurance business, and is the owner of several houses and town lots in Mayfield. He is a native son of California and was born at Manchester, Mendocino County, June 23, 1873, on the 160-acre ranch which his father had taken from the Government as a homestead. This land is still the property of the two members of the Cuthbertson family. His parents, R. H. and Grace (Grant) Cuthbertson were both natives of Scotland. His father was a weaver by trade and worked in the silk mills of his native city of Glasgow. The name Cuthbert came from St. Cuthbert, a prelate and noted Scotch divine, and the same traits and characteristics have been handed down from generation to generation, there being many public speakers and preachers in the family; also machinists and manufacturers. The mother is a distant relative of the late General U. S. Grant, and when quite a young girl was left an orphan. She came to Canada with her parents, but her father died when she was seven years old. She was bound out for seven years as was the custom for homeless orphan children, but received such ill treatment that she ran away to Detroit when nine years of age. While in the employ of the wife of a U. S. Army officer, she came to San Francisco. At Detroit she had met Mr. Cuthbertson, her future husband, and he followed her to San Francisco where they were married. They became the parents of ten children. all of whom are living and all well educated, most of them being college-bred men and women: George W. became a lieutenant commander in the U. S. Navy during the late war and is now in the commercial marine service; Harriet is the wife of Prof. R. E. Swain, professor of chemistry in Stanford University. He was mayor of Palo Alto three different times and is a very prominent citizen of that city; Robert is a broker in Los Angeles; Sidney M. is the subject of this review; Jessie is a graduate of the San Jose Normal School and is now a teacher in the grammar schools of Palo Alto; Henry resides in Palo Alto; Grace, a graduate of the San Jose Normal School and a student of Stanford who is now the wife of Joseph H. Borden, the president of the Palo Alto Furniture Company; he is an ex-president of the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce and is now a school trustee of the Palo Alto grammar schools; Alexander M. married Miss Irene Childs, the daughter of the ex-president of the First National Bank of Palo Alto. He is a graduate of the Stanford University and is now teaching in the Redwood City high school. He is a chemist of note, having pursued post graduate courses at Heidelberg, Germany, and at Yale. He was a trustee of the Union high school in Palo Alto and clerk of that board; Ernest J. is a graduate of the San Jose Normal school' and is now the principal of the Union Grammar school at Campbell, the largest union grammar school in the county; Alice B. is the wife of Donald Steele. She is a graduate of the Stanford University and received her A. M. degree from that institution. She taught in the Mendocino high school and is an accomplished musician. R. H. Cuthbertson died in Palo Alto in 1920, at the age of eighty years; Mrs. Cuthbertson is still living and resides in Palo Alto and is hale and hearty at the age of eighty.
Sidney M.
Cuthbertson began his education in the public schools of Mendocino
County, and later entered the San Jose high school and has the honor of
editor of the first class annual, "The Blue and Silver." He also
organized the Ecclesia Literary Society. He was graduated in 1895; then
entered the University of the Pacific and spent one year there. He was
an honor student, excelling in public speaking and was selected as the
orator to deliver the address for the anniversary of the Arcania
Literary Society, an honor rarely conferred on a freshman, it being the
usual custom to select an upper classman. He entered Stanford
University in 1896.
Mr. Cuthbertson's
marriage united him with Miss Margaret Bailey, a native of Crescent
City, Del Norte County, Cal., a daughter of Mrs. Mary Bailey and is a
member of a large and prominent family, owners of a big ranch on the
Smith River in Del Norte County. Her father died when she was ten years
old but her mother is still living. Mr. and Mrs. Cuthbertson are the
parents of three children: Donald is a freshman in the Palo Alto high
school; was the valedictorian of his class in grammar school; Florence,
and Beatrice. Before his marriage, Mr. Cuthbertson was general agent
for the King, Richardson Publishing Company and was one of the prize
agents of that firm winning a prize bicycle in the summer of 1896.
Later he became an agent for the International Correspondence Schools
at Scranton, Pa.; held agencies in California and also one in Nevada.
He again distinguished himself in this capacity, collecting more money
in one month than any other agent in the employ of the I. C. S. at that
time (1904), winning the "Honor of the World," and Rank No. 1, and thus
became known to all I. C. S. agents everywhere, the prize being a free
trip to the St. Louis World's Fair, so with his bride he took in the
exposition on his wedding trip. Returning to California he and his wife
settled in Mayfield and in 1905 built their commodious and modern
residence. He was chosen secretary of the Santa Clara County Promotion
Association, and worked to organize this body into a County Chamber of
Commerce. He was made secretary of the Mayfield Chamber of Commerce and
was placed on the speaking force of the State Association of Chambers
of Commerce at the 1915 State Convention held in San Francisco and is
considered one of the best and most forceful speakers on the force and
is a good booster for improvements and advancement along all lines. In
politics he is a stanch Democrat and was chosen secretary of the
Democratic Central Committee in 1908 and served in that capacity until
1916. He was appointed to the position of City Clerk and in 1919 was
duly elected to the position for a period of four years. He is a notary
public and is the Mayfield agent for the Liverpool. London and Globe
Fire Insurance Company. Hard work and persistent effort in business
affairs has brought him prosperity and Mayfield is indeed proud to
count him among her enterprising boosters. The family belongs to the
Methodist Episcopal Church of Mayfield and Mrs. Cuthbertson is a member
of its choir.
From Eugene T. Sawyers' History of
Santa Clara County,California, published by Historic Record Co. ,
1922. page 1141