| Notes |
- Family legend says he was burned in a fire while crossing the plains.
1902 "A County Political Directory of Nevada": unsuccessful candidate for County Clerk, Churchill Co.
According to Claudia Jenkins:
1906 Rode a horse from Monterey, CA to San Francisco, after the earthquake, to find Parvin (his stepson) and Grace (Parvin's wife), who were living there at the time. They were not injured badly, but the story is that Grace's hair turned white overnight.
At differing times the Siffords and the Rakers owned the same ranch in Milford. David Drew Raker, Benton Sifford, Marja Marilyn Raker and Edna Raker were born in the same ranch house. (Demolished in 1995).
..(a Decious descendant) made reference to the fact that her antecedent had fussed about the fact that W.H. Sifford dragged the family all over the country. He did get around.
"He was a moving character; no time for grass to grow underfoot. We surely knew the Valley and the people." Reminiscences of Pearl Martha Bronson Wemple.
Churchill County Standard, 8 Dec 1906:
W.H. Sifford, one of the Stillwater section's most prosperous ranchers, passed through Fallon Thursday on his way to Monterey, California, where he will spend the holidays with his wife. Mr. Sifford still retains business interests in Monterey, which demand more or less of his attention.
Churchill County Eagle, 24 Jan 1907:
Wm. Sifford and daughter Edna of Stillwater came in to attend the joint installation of the Masonic and Eastern Star lodges Saturday night.
... Mr. George Sifford, of California, who is visiting at the home of his brother, Wm. Sifford, of Stillwater, was an interested spectator at the joint installation Saturday night.
Churchill County Eagle, 21 Mar 1907:
Wm. Sifford and wife, F. A. Dalton and Charles Cirac came in from Stillwater Sunday to attend the funeral of J. A. Danielson.
Churchill County Eagle, 4 Apr 1907:
Wm. Sifford, of Stillwater, was in town Saturday. He called at the Eagle office for garden seed. Mr. Sifford stated that the damage done by the flood around Stillwater would equal the good done by the deposit of silt distributed over the fields by the waters.
Churchill County Standard, 13 Sep 1908:
W. H. Sifford, of Stillwater, passed through Fallon Wednesday on his way to Monterey, California, where Mrs. Sifford has been sojourning during the hot weather, and together they will visit in California cities for a month, after which they will return to their farm near Stillwater.
Fallon Standard, 3 June 1931:
W. H. Sifford arrived in Fallon Friday evening from Lodi, California, to spend Memorial Day with his daughter, Mrs. Lottie Winder. He returned Sunday evening.
Fallon Eagle, 18 Jul 1936: A True Pioneer Was Mr. Sifford
Although he thought little of it at the time, W. H. Sifford, whose photo was reproduced in this column last week, was a true pioneer of the great west, having crossed the plains from Missouri with his parents, by ox team, in the spring of 1859, at the age of three months.
Thus the experience of this man in Churchill county, where he later had a prominent part in community development, dates back 77 years, for the wagon train in which his father's party emigrated to California, crossed Nevada here. Driving 40 head of loose Durham cattle and traveling about 10 miles a day, the party came down the Humbolt River and across the desert. About ten miles east of Ragtown, now Leeteville, eight miles west of Fallon, the Sifford oxen gave out and were unable to pull the wagon.
The Siffords had previously abandoned one wagon, and now, with another yoke of oxen weakened by the difficult trail, W. H.'s father did the only thing left to do--he left his wife and small children out on the desert north of where Fallon is now located, where they spent the day without water while he pushed on, driving the stock, to Ragtown. There he paid Ace Kenyon, keeper of the station, $10 to go back the ten miles and bring in his wagon and family.
The long trek over the desert safely accomplished, the Siffords went on to California where, in September, 1859, five months after leaving home, they settled in Grass Valley, Nevada County. There they lived until 1873 when they moved to Lassen County, and it was from there Mr. Sifford came to Churchill County in the fall of 1900.
Meanwhile, on October 31, 1880, he had been united in marriage, in Lassen County, to Mary Decious Bronson. To this union six children were born, of whom four survive. The eldest died in infancy and one son was drowned in the Carson River here at the age of 16. The others are Mrs. Tom Byer of Fallon, Mrs. R. F. Conrad of Susanville, Mrs. Grace Raker of Chico and Benton Sifford of Oakland, vice president and general manager of the Security Fire Insurance Co.
On September 2, 1897, Mr. Sifford's wife died in California, and, three years later, broken in fortune after spending all he had and all he could borrow trying to restore Mrs. Sifford's health, but still possessed of the determination which had characterized his parents in their hazardous journey across the continent, he set out with his children for Nevada.
Here he bought a ranch at Stillwater from John Snyder and then, in 1901, added to his holdings by purchase of the old Harriman ranch, now known as the Sifford Ranch, 2 1/2 miles west of Stillwater. This ranch, now operated by Dodge Cros. & Shoffner, was purchased by Mr. Sifford from G. Budd Williams.
Deeply interested in Masonry, Mr. Sifford organized Churchill Lodge No. 26, F. & A. M., here in 1901, and for four years was its worshipful master, driving the twelve miles regularly to attend meetings in New River Hall, Fallon's first real building, which was just being completed when he arrived here. He had long been a Mason in Lassen County, where he was also a member of the Eastern Star.
Stillwater was still the county seat at the time of Mr. Sifford's arrival in this county, but about that time Jim Richards, under whom Mr. Sifford served for a time as deputy county clerk, moved his store here from Stillwater. With the removal of the county seat to Fallon, a number of buildings sprang up, among them a bank building, the W. W. Williams store building and the I. H. Kent Co. store building. A short time later the first schoolhouse was built.
Mr. Sifford was the father of the sugar beet industry which for a time promised great things for this valley. It was he who grew the first beets and sent them all over the country for tests, learning that sugar beets grown here tested the highest for sugar content, of any in the country.
What he did not realize at the time, Mr. Sifford says in reminiscing, was that the sugar beet area here was not large enough to support a factory.
Encouraged by the reports of tests of his beet samples, however, he resolved to try to promote the industry here by interesting someone in erecting a factory.
This was finally accomplished with the cooperation of the late Dr. Hascall, who, like Mr. Sifford, had faith in the future of sugar beets, and had contacts with interests which he thought might finance a plant.
Times were not yet so prosperous for the physician, who later became a heavy property owner and taxpayer here, and one day Mr. Sifford, wondering at Dr. Hascall's delay in getting in touch with capital, asked him if he had made any headway.
The doctor replied that he had and that Heinze Bros., his prospects, were then in Santa Anna, but that he had no suitable clothing in which to visit them. This lack was soon remedied by Mr. Sifford, who used his credit at the I. H. Kent Co. store for "the best suit of clothes in the house", and sent Dr. Hascall to Santa Anna clad in a $40 outfit, which, apparently, was adequate for the purpose, since he came back with Heinze Bros. promise to look over the field, and, ultimately, the plant which still stands east of Fallon, was the result.
Eventually the project failed and later was taken over by local men who still own the building and equipment, or such of the latter as has not been sold.
In 1909 Mr. Sifford sold his ranch to the late Scott Harmon, who died only a few months ago in California, and returned to the sunshine state, settling first at Berkeley, where he lived for a number of years, later moving to Lodi where for the past ten years he has had ranching interests.
With one or more of his children always here, he has never missed coming back to Fallon at some time every year, and is now here at the home of his grandson, W. L. Winder, where he is enjoying a visit with Mr. Winder and with Mr. Winder's mother, Mrs. Tom Byer.
On his frequent trips here he has had an opportunity to note the splendid growth and development of both project and town, and will never, he says, lose interest in the county nor forget the many years he spent here as a resident.
From Claudia Jenkins: After the War by W.H. Sifford
Amid tears strife and wars desolation
Hope rises triumphant to bring consolation
When the tyrants are vanquished their cohorts undone
The rebirth of liberty will then have begun
We look afar to the horizon of time
And see freedom reigning in glory sublime
Now red stains of war on hillside and glade
Then the dove of peach perched on the old rusty blade
The red hand of war from shore to shore
Will be banished by justice when we learn war no more
The nations divided by lust for world power
Will meet in equity to dispel the dark hour
The tears of the mother for her darling lost son
Will be dried by the honor and medals he won
And the grief of the maiden for the soldier she loved
Will be tempered by grace from the father above
Our gallant soldiers who have crossed the bar
Will live in fond memory after the war
Their names will be written in halls of fame
Their praise will be sung in sweet refrain
When the Gospel of Christ will have outlawed war
Freemasonry and fellowship will heal the red scar
Peace and prosperity will then pave our way
And time will be measured by the cloudless day
When oblivion is complete and peace has grown old
And we have only to ponder on the city of gold
We can calmly await the time of sweet rest
If prepared to inherit that realm of the blest
Fallon Eagle, 4 Aug 1910:
W. H. Sifford sold his ranch near Stillwater to Scott Harmon all of the stock and implements on the Sifford Ranch go with the place and Mr. Harmon takes possession immediately...
Fallon Standard, 16 Sep 1936:
W. H. Sifford's Talk Declared Inspiration
Declaired by Rotarians an inspiration was the talk given last week by W. H. Sifford, early resident of Churchill county, who was founder of Churchill lodge No. 26, F. & A.M., who continues to be a property owner here and who is residing in California where he has other interests.
"The Price of Progress" was the subject of his talk in which he traced living conditions from rough cabins with few conveniences to modern homes, and transportation from the ox cart to the stream-lined trains, speeding automobiles and airplanes. Sifford had as a boy traveled across the plains in a covered wagon to Nevada county, California.
"We have made great progress along certain lines, and we have paid a great price for that progress," Sifford continued. Referring to casualties of the last war he said that for the price paid "We have gained the hope that the flood of tears and bloodshed has gained a hatred in our youth against war."
For the convenience and speed of automobiles used today, it was said that the price paid for such progress is the killing and maiming every year in America as many as this country lost during the entire period of the World war.
"Progress must reach the acme of safety before we can ever eliminate the blood and tears which we have paid for it."
Fallon Eagle, 12 May 1951, 1:4: W. H. Sifford, Former Resident Dies in California:
Funeral services were conducted in Lodi, Ca., Monday for W. H. Sifford, former Stillwater rancher and prominent fraternal leader who passed away at his home there Friday following months of suffering. He was past ninety years of age and had been in ill health for some time.
His daughter, Mrs. Tom Byers of Oakland, sent a message to Mrs. W. F. Kaiser telling of his death.
Mr. Sifford, who formerly owned and operated the ranch which is now the Martin Dodge Ranch [in 1990, Karl Weisaupt, 10600 Stillwater Rd.] sold out more than twenty-five years ago and moved to California. He was the organizer of the Masonic Lodge here and served as the first worshipful master of Churchill Lodge, F&AM.
Survivors include his wife, two daughters, Mrs. Byers and Mrs. Grace Baker of Chico and one son, Benton Sifford of Berkeley. A daughter, Mrs. Ralph Conrad died in Susanville a few years ago and a son, Deryl Sifford was drowned in the Stillwater Slough in 1908. There are also several grandchildren and great grandchildren. Claude and Bill Winder of Ann Arbor, Mich. are grandsons and Pete Winder of Salt Lake City is a great grandson. [Friday, May 4, 1951, death; Monday, May 7, 1951, funeral]
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1859 - 1951 (92 years)
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