Alfred Estep 1850-1922

Sarah Fuller	Lilly Williams
1865-??	1872-??

Alfred Estep, the first child of Rebecca and James Estep, was born Jan. 13, 1850, in Agency,  Iowa. At 4 years old he came to Oregon with his parents where they lived for 14 years. In 1868,  the family moved to Fall River Valley in Shasta Co., where Alfred, now 18, homesteaded and lived until 1888, when he sold his homestead and bought a ranch at Oak Run.  Over the years he increased his acreage by buying railroad land, eventually owning about 3,000 acres, upon which he raised stock cattle and hogs. His deed dated 1888, included recorded riparian water rights, Alfred planted the fields in Alfalfa, and the ranch blossomed into a showplace.

As Alfred "kept travel" at the ranch, his name is on the U. S. Geological Survey Maps, of 1894, he accepted a contract for $700.00 to build the Swede Creek Road which connected the Oak Run Road with the road at Bella Vista, now US Hwy #299.

Alfred first married Sarah Maria Fuller, the daughter of pioneer, John Fuller, who came to Sacramento from Iowa in 1865, Sarah had two sisters, Elizabeth and Martha, and one brother, Samuel. Alfred and Sarah raised seven children, now deceased:
 

James	b. 1880 Fall River, CA
Zella M.	b. 1884 Fall River, CA	d. 1900
Clyde A.	b. 1886 Fall River, CA	d. 1963
Olive	b. 1890 Oak Run, CA
Lillian	b. 1894 Oak Run, CA.
Ruby	b. 1896 Oak Run, CA
Dewey A.	b. 1898 Oak Run, CA

 
His seoond wife was Lilly Angela Williams, teacher at Bella Vista and other schools near there. Lilly was born March 3, 1872, near Tekemah, Nebraska. Lilly had one sister, Alice, and one brother, Ernest. They met when Alfred stopped at her schoolhouse for a drink of cold well water. Following their marriage in 1901, four children were born:
 

Gladys E.	b. 1901 Oak Run, CA
Russel A.	b. 1903 Oak Run, CA	d. 1994
Gerald A. (Twin)	b. 1908 Oak Run, CA
Harold A. (twin)	b. 1908 Oak Run, CA

   
Alfred lived at Oak Run until his death in 1922. He is buried in upper Oak Run Cemetery.  The ranch has since been subdivided.

Source:  Shasta Historical Society