Humboldt County, California

Biographies

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GEORGE F. WOODCOCK.—It is a noteworthy fact that the average pioneer is a stronger man at an advanced age than is the product of a modern and more complicated civilization, and one of the splendid evidences of this is George F. Woodcock, of Rohnerville, who, although almost eighty years of age, conducts a thrifty little ranch of some twenty odd acres between Rohnerville and Fortuna, where he may be found hard at work every day in the year. He is capable of doing as hard a day's work as a man half his years, and is not in the least distressed thereby, rather enjoying the exhilaration of the strenuous exercise. For more than half a century he has resided in California, being variously engaged during that long and eventful period, although for twenty-seven years he was in the employ of one company, being one of their most trusted and trustworthy men.

Mr. Woodcock is a native of Charlotte county, New Brunswick, having been born March 20, 1837. His father, David Woodcock, was a native of Maine, as was his paternal grandfather, also David Woodcock. Both lived and died in New Brunswick, although they were essentially American in their sympathies and ideas. The father was married in New Brunswick to Miss Sarah Thomas, a native of that province. He was a shoemaker by trade, the grandfather being a carpenter, and both were industrious and prosperous, although neither ever accumulated riches. There were nine children in the family of David Woodcock, six boys and three girls, George F., the subject of this sketch, being the eighth child. The eldest member of the family was a daughter, Ann Woodcock, who later married Elias Smith and is living in New Brunswick at the age of almost ninety years. One of the brothers, James Woodcock, was a teamster and bridge builder in Humboldt county, for many years, where he died. George F. Woodcock received very few educational advantages, there being opportunity for attending school only a few brief months in the winter. He began work as a lumberman when a boy in his native province and became at an early age inured to hardship and severe manual labor. He came to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama, going at once into the gold mines on the American river in Placer county, arriving there the latter part of September, 1859. Times were then very hard and he secured the necessary outfit for the wood chopper, laid in a simple supply of food and "batched" while he chopped wood, receiving in wages $4 per day. Later he engaged in gold mining, but did not find that the returns were satisfactory, and so gave that up. He tried to enlist in the Civil war, but was unable to get into the company that he desired, and so went north into Humboldt county, going to Eureka, where he went to work in the lumber woods. He was employed by the D. R. Jones Company and for twenty-seven years remained with them, during the last fifteen years of that time being in charge of their outside work, and much of the time running three teams and one hundred twenty men. He was married in Eureka, in 1880, to Miss Mary Wilson, the daughter of Eli G. Wilson, a stone mason by trade, a minister in the United Brethren Church, and well known in Eureka. Three years after his marriage Mr. Woodcock determined to engage in farming and so came to Rohnerville and purchased his present home property three-quarters of a mile from town. Here he has established a pleasant home and keeps the property under a high state of cultivation through his own industrious application and splendid judgment.

Mr. and Mrs. Woodcock have become the parents of eleven children, all except one of whom have grown to maturity. They are all well, known in _Humboldt county, where they were born and educated, and where they now make their homes. They are all industrious and prosperous, having inherited the splendid traits of character that distinguish both their parents. They are : Lillie, the wife of the late L. M. Nason, a school teacher, who died in Eureka in 1914; George, a woodsman for the Eel River Valley Lumber Company ; Fred, residing at home ; Frank, a teacher ; Gladys, the wife of Ed Baxter, a woodsman, and residing in Rohnerville; James, attending school in Eureka ; Percy, a teacher on the Klamath river ; Clara, Blanche and Grace, residing at home.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Woodcock are exceptionally interesting people and both are interested in many things outside their immediate home. They are particularly active in church work and are members of the Methodist Episcopal church of Rohnerville, of which Mr. Woodcock is a trustee, while Mrs. Woodcock is the superintendent of the Sunday school. Mr. Woodcock is a Progressive in his political preferences and personally he is all that the term implies, especially on questions of local import, and is always to be found in support of any movement that tends for the religious, educational or social betterment of the community. In his home life Mr. Woodcock has been especially happy.
 

J. L. JOHNSON.—The responsible position of foreman of the machine shops for the Pacific Lumber Company at Scotia is at present held by J. L. Johnson, a young man of much ability and high integrity of character, who has occupied this position since June, 1911, and is giving the greatest of satisfaction. He came to Scotia and entered the employ of the Pacific Lumber Company fifteen years ago, when he was a youth of but nineteen years, and has steadily made his way upward through sheer ability and pluck. He is a natural born machinist, no doubt having inherited this tendency from his father. He always delighted in machinery and was apprenticed to learn the blacksmith's trade when he was sixteen, giving three years of time to the mastering of this trade. He was not able to secure schooling beyond the grammar schools owing to pressure of financial necessity, he being the eldest of a large family, and so obliged at an early age to shoulder his share of the responsibility. When he first went to Scotia he was put to work in the blacksmith shops, but after a comparatively short time there he was transferred to the machine shops, where he has been since that time.

Mr. Johnson is a native of. New Jersey, having been born at Jersey City, September 28, 1881. His father was J. B. Johnson, and is now a pattern-maker and car-builder for the Caspar Lumber Company, at Caspar, Mendocino county, Cal. He is a native of Copenhagen, Denmark, and served as a corporal in the Danish army and became a pattern-maker and car-builder in his native land. He came to America when he was twenty-two years of age, locating in New Jersey, where he was married to Miss Lena Price, a native of Schleswig Holstein, Germany. After some five or six years in New Jersey, the family removed to California, locating at Navarro, Mendocino county, and going from there to Caspar, where he has since resided, being for this entire time in the employ of the Caspar Lumber Company. The mother is still living. There were seven children in the family, one of whom died in childhood, the others, three sons and three daughters, living to grow to manhood and womanhood, the sons all following mechanical lines.

As foreman of the machine shops of the Pacific Lumber Company, J. L. Johnson holds a very responsible position, for the repairing of the engines, rolling stock and stationary machinery of this great company is a large undertaking. He is possessed of a mind of rare judgment and poise, and his estimates on work are phenomenally accurate. He is pleasant, congenial and well liked by those who come in contact with him, either as workmen under his direction, or as superior officers of the company.

The marriage of Mr. Johnson was solemnized in Eureka, May 18, 1905, uniting him with Miss Zella Maude Rickart, of Scotia, the daughter of Edmund L. Rickart, who is now employed as foreman of the yards for the Holmes-Eureka Company (lumber) at Eureka, but who was with the Pacific Lumber Company, at Scotia, for nineteen years. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have become the parents of three children, two daughters and a son : Mildred D., Melvin and Dorothy. Both Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have many friends in Scotia, where they are favorites in their social circle. Mr. Johnson is a member of the Odd Fellows, Hydesville Lodge No. 250. In his political preference he is a Republican and takes an interest in all that pertains to the welfare of Scotia and community. He is progressive and broadminded and is known as a citizen of sterling qualities.
 

J. A. TRAVIS.—Blessed with a buoyant spirit, a splendid intellect and a superb manhood, J. A. Travis is well fitted for the position which he occupies as manager of the Fortuna yards of the Eel River Valley Lumber Company, which is the distributing point for this place and Ferndale, and the rich country surrounding these places. He has won this position by the force of his own ability and application, his promotions following one after another until in 1909 he assumed the duties of manager of the yards, which he has since filled. He has done much for the business during that time, the volume being constantly on the increase and a splendid patronage having been built up throughout the community.

Mr. Travis was born in Fonistell, St. Charles county, Mo., but removed from that place to Benton City, Audrain county, Mo., when he was a small child, his father thereafter conducting a general merchandise store at Benton City. They remained at this place until the son was twelve years of age and then migrated to California, in 1889 locating at Oakland. Here he attended school and later took a commercial course, continuing his studies by attending night school, after he had secured a position as clerk. In the spring of 1902 he came to Fortuna and entered the employ of the Eel River Valley Lumber Company in the yards at Newburg, working up from that to his present position of trust and responsibility. Mr. Travis is the son of C. W. and Nannie (Kinney) Travis, his father being a well known farmer of the Rohnerville district at this time.

The marriage of Mr. Travis and Miss Ada Lafferty, of Coquille, Ore., was celebrated in 1904, and of this union has been born a daughter, Arletta, aged three years Both Mr. and Mrs. Travis have a host of friends in Fortuna. Mr. Travis is a member of the Eel River Lodge No. 147, F. & A. M., of Fortuna, and is deservedly prominent in Masonic circles. He takes an active part in the general affairs of the town and is regarded as an influential and progressive citizen.
 

AMOS MADISON CUMMINGS.—A young man who is rapidly coming to the front as an orchardist and rancher in the justly celebrated Bull creek district is A. M. Cummings. He it was who took the gold medal on King apples at the San Francisco apple show in 1914, and his orchards are a delight to the eye as well as being particularly profitable to their owner. He is the son of a Humboldt county pioneer, and was born and reared in the Mattole valley. He is industrious and energetic and is making a decided success of his farming enterprise. He maintains a hotel, or resort, on his ranch on Bull creek, and is well known and highly esteemed throughout this part of the county.

Mr. Cummings was born in the Mattole valley, February 5, 1876. His father, Louis J. Cummings, was a pioneer in the valley, locating there in 1867, and making his home continuously in the county until the time of his death in 1892. He was married in the east to Miss Elizabeth Miner, a native of Ohio, who is still residing in this county, making her home at Eureka with her daughter, Mrs. J. S. Burnell. The parents came to California in the early part of 1862, settling first at Marysville, where they lived for five years, coming to Humboldt county in 1867. There were four children in the family, of whom Amos Madison was the youngest born. Of the others, the eldest, George A., is a justice of .the peace and a rancher, living on the old Cummings homestead in the Mattole valley ; F. J. is ex-principal of the Ferndale High school, and is now secretary of the Dairy Association of Humboldt county, and a very well-to-do rancher living near Ferndale ; Phina is the wife of J. S. Burnell, attorney-at-law, and extensive land owner, residing in Eureka.

The youngest member of this splendid family, Amos M., was reared in the Mattole valley, attending the public schools at Petrolia, and completing his education at the business college in Eureka. Following this he returned to the Mattole valley and assisted with the care of the home place until his marriage to Miss Eunice Hazleton, of Pepperwood, which occurred February 8, 1902. He then rented a ranch in the Mattole valley and engaged in the stock business for a number of years, and in 1907 came to Bull creek, where he purchased his present home place of three hundred acres. He has cleared some of the land and enlarged the orchard, there being but four acres of orchard at the time of purchase. He now has ten acres. He is a booster for his home community, which is one of the finest apple producing sections of the state, and took an active part in the planning and arrangement of the Humboldt county exhibit at the San Francisco apple show in 1914, carrying away a gold medal therefrom, the entire exhibit taking the first prize. Mr. Cummings exhibited Kings and Jonathans, the former being his prize exhibit. He will also exhibit at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915.

Mr. and Mrs. Cummings have four children, three sons and one daughter, namely : Laurence, Laurel, Curtis and Lisle. Mr. Cummings takes an active part in local affairs and is recognized as an influential citizen. His property lies about seven miles from Dyerville, on Bull creek, and is very valuable. It was formerly the property of N. P. Endicott, who sold it to the present owner in 1907. Mr. Cummings is a Progressive in his political preferences and is all that the word implies in the best sense, being wide-awake, and always ready to give his support to movements which stand for the up-building and development of the general welfare. He has rendered valuable service on the local school board, and has taken prominent official positions on election boards and other similar positions.
 

AMOS HANSELL.—As one of the enterprising and prosperous orchardists of the Eel river valley, Amos Hansell is today well known throughout his part of Humboldt county, and his orchard is one of the finest in the vicinity. He is a true pioneer, having come to this county when he was but little more than a babe in arms, and having spent his • lifetime here. His specialty in the horticultural line is apples, and he handles an extensive variety, including such kinds as Spitzenberg, Jonathan, King, Rhode Island Greenings, Bellflowers and Pippins. He has been engaged in the nursery business since he was a boy and is an expert in this line. In addition to his apples he also raises cherries and tomatoes, both of which do well in this vicinity. His ranch is 'located on the left bank of the Eel river, opposite Camp Grant,—about two miles above Dyerville, and is of a rich, sandy loam, sub-irrigated, and is very productive. The residence is especially attractive, its architecture being in harmony with the setting in which it is placed. It was erected by Mr. Hansell's father, who was a carpenter and joiner, and most of the finishings were prepared by hand, and are exquisitely done. The doors are two inches thick, and are made from selected redwood, as also are the door and window casings.

Mr. Hansell is a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, born April 21, 1852. His father was also Amos Hansell, a pioneer of Humboldt county, who died in Rohnerville, January 25, 1911. He came to Eureka in 1851 under an engagement to build the old Picayune mill, which was the first saw-mill built in Humboldt county. He was a native of Pennsylvania, born at Philadelphia, in 1824, and enlisted from there in the Mexican war, serving throughout the war on board the sloop Dakota, as the captain's cockswain. After the close of the war he returned to Philadelphia, and was there married to Miss Abigail Fox, and soon thereafter started for California, making the trip by way of the Isthmus of Panama. He had learned his trade of carpenter and joiner in his home city before going to the Mexican war, serving an apprenticeship of five years, and becoming a master of his trade. Arriving at Panama in the fall of 1851, he found thousands of miners stranded there awaiting the coming of the steamer to take them on to California. Mr. Hansell took employment as master carpenter on the erection of a large store building for a wealthy old Mexican, receiving $16 per day for his work. Upon arriving at San Francisco, he was soon engaged at his trade until the spring of 1852, when he was engaged by his cousins, Captain and Charles May, to come up to Eureka and build the old Picayune mill, before mentioned. Finishing this work, he went down to San Francisco to meet his wife and son, the subject of this article, and then returned to Eureka, where he continued to work as contractor and builder. At this time several prominent men in this section organized and employed Mr. Hansell as their builder. He employed a large force of men, and had erected a number of residences and mills when the company failed, owing him about $7,000. The matter was ready for court, when they compromised with promises to pay, and he received enough to pay his men off at 100 cents on the dollar, but he himself received but a few dollars for many weeks of hard work. He continued, however, to follow his trade as contractor and builder, meeting with much success. He was a friend of Colonel Pratt of old Fort Humboldt, and erected several of the buildings at the fort. He served as deputy sheriff for two terms, and was justice of the peace for many years. He was well informed on all points of law and jurisprudence and could easily have gained admittance to the bar.

In 1855 a second son, Harry, was born, and in 1859 his wife died, leaving him with these- two small boys, aged respectively four and eight years. They were put to board in the home of Charles Wiggins on Humboldt Hill for two years, and then Amos was put with Jacob Showers, at Rohnerville, where he remained until 1872, working on the farm, and attending school for a few brief months each year, the average school term being three months. In 1872 both the brothers came down to Camp Grant, to join their father, who had just taken a homestead near that point, and two miles south of Dyerville, on the Eel river. Here the father and sons cleared up thirty acres and planted it to apples, pears, prunes and peaches, and also established a nursery. There is now on this place, where Mr. Hansell makes his home, a black walnut tree with a spread of ninety feet, and a diameter of three feet and three inches. Here the father and two sons continued to do a flourishing nursery business, until the father retired, in the early '90s, and removed to Rohnerville, where he continued to reside until the time of his death. In 1905 he was married to Mrs. Gutherie, of Rohnerville, who died there in 1913.

In 1904 Amos Hansell bought the interest of his brother in the business and in 1906 he bought out his father's interest, and since that time has conducted the ranch and orchard as an independent enterprise. His marriage occurred in 1906, uniting him with Mrs. Frances Randle, the widow of George Randle, and the daughter of Willis and Menah (Hurlston) Whitaker, both natives of Kentucky. Mrs. Hansell was born in Hazleton, Ill., and was but three years of age when her mother died, and but seven when she lost her father. She was then taken by an aunt up to Wisconsin, and was reared in Grant county, that state. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hansell have many friends in their community, and take an active part in all that pertains to the welfare and inprovement of the valley. They are both keenly interested in the progress and development of Humboldt county and are recognized as citizens of ability and worth. Mr. Hansell is a member of Eel River Lodge No. 147, F. & A. M., at Rohnerville, and in his political preferences he is a Progressive Republican, and is all that the name implies in progressiveness.
 

TOSALDO JOHNSON.—Undoubtedly the foremost citizen of the Bull creek country is Tosaldo Johnson, pioneer of that locality, and the one who has done more than any other to demonstrate the adaptability of the Bull creek country to the production of apples and other fruits, for which it is now justly famous. He has been prominent in Humboldt county politics for many years and is still looked upon as a leader. He is looked up to as an authority and is highly respected, as is also his estimable wife. They are very hospitable and have many warm friends in their part of the county.

Mr. Johnson is a native of Missouri, born in Newton county, 1843. His father, James Johnson, was a Kentuckian, and died when Tosaldo was a babe of eighteen months. His mother was Martha Hamilton, a relative of Alexander Hamilton, and died in California, having lived in Butte county, Colusa and Sierra counties. Tosaldo was the youngest of a family of three children, there being one sister, Eliza, who became Mrs. French and returned to Missouri to reside ; and a brother, James. In 1850, when Mr. Johnson was a lad of some seven years, his mother crossed the plains with her family, and after a journey of six months, located in Butte county in the fall of that year. There were one hundred eighteen wagons in the train as far as Fort Bridges, where they separated, some going on to Oregon, while others continued to California. The brother, James, was then a man grown, and Tosaldo went with him to El Dorado county, where they remained for two years, after which he was with various other families until he was thirteen years of age, when he began to work out for himself. Previous to that time he had acted as chore boy with the families where he had lived and had never been allowed to go to school. Later he entered school, although many years behind his fellows, and within four months he was at the head of his classes. He showed a great desire for learning and was a splendid student. When he was seventeen he enlisted in the Kibby Rangers under Gen. Kibby, and served five months and was honorably discharged. He then went to Nevada and Idaho, where he engaged in prospecting, and later went to Texas after cattle. While in Texas he met and married Miss Addie Stewart, remaining in that state for several months. He then went to Idaho, Montana and Eastern Oregon, where he followed the cattle business, and also prospected for gold and silver, his wife accompanying him from place to place.

It was in 1872 or 1873 that Mr. Johnson came from Idaho to California and located in Humboldt county, renting property at Eagle prairie for a year. Following this he homesteaded a claim of one hundred sixty acres on Bull creek, known to this day as the Johnson homestead. Two children were born to them there : Birdie, now the wife of William A. Smith, a farmer and dairyman at Vancouver, B. C., Canada ; and Georgine, the wife of F. C. Lane, contractor and railroad builder, also residing at Vancouver, B. C. Mrs. Johnson lived here for six or seven years before her death, which occurred on the homestead. At the time that Mr. Johnson located in this district there was an abundance of wild game, and he holds a record for the number of bears, panthers, deer, and other such game that he killed. There were also a few Mad river Indians, but they were not troublesome. Mr. Johnson was one of the first men to engage in the sheep business on Bull creek. He had about two thousand head, and the bears, panthers, and other such beasts of prey killed off a thousand head in one season. This led him to engage in hunting, and many and interesting are the tales that he can tell of his experiences while in pursuit of big game.

The second marriage of Mr. Johnson occurred some three years after the death of his first wife, uniting him with Miss Roxanna Jane Hanlon, a native of Iowa. She bore her husband two children : Martha M., who became the wife of Herman Matlock, both being now deceased, leaving two children, Harold and Cora, whom Mr. and Mrs. Johnson reared from childhood and have recently adopted; and Grace, the wife of Arle Baxter, a rancher on Bull creek.

Mr. Johnson was one of the first men to demonstrate the adaptability of the Bull creek country to the raising of apples, and has prospered exceedingly in his ranching enterprises, and especially in his interests as an orchardist. He now owns three fine ranches, comprising in all some three hundred twenty acres, one hundred eighty-four being in the homestead, one hundred thirteen in the property known as the Look place, where he makes his home, and twenty-three up on the creek bottom, where he has a fine orchard of apples, peaches, pears and prunes, with a splendid variety of small fruits, such as berries, etc. He is enthusiastic over the possibilities offered to the orchardist in this vicinity, and is certain that there is no other locality that can compare with it. Besides his orchard interests

Mr. Johnson is engaged in diversified farming, and has about forty head of cattle, a hundred hogs, and several horses.
The political affairs of the district have always interested Mr. Johnson and he has taken a prominent part in all the concerns of his party. He is a Jeffersonian Democrat, of the old school, but is well informed and an independent thinker, and in all local matters gives his support and cooperation to the best man for the place. He served as deputy sheriff and constable for fourteen years and has a splendid record for efficient service. He was very conscientious in the discharge of his duty, and never allowed a law-breaker to escape him. He made many arrests and was especially keen on all measures that acted as a prevention of crime. He has also served as a member of the Democratic Committee for the county. He is a member of the Odd Fellows, at Hydesville, and of the Encampment and Veteran Odd Fellows, and is also an influential member of the Farm Center at Dyerville.
 

JOSEPH 0. BRANSTETTER.—Well known in Rohnerville and vicinity as a carpenter and builder, farmer, and business man, Joseph 0. Branstetter is descended from one of the old pioneer families of the county, his parents having crossed the plains in 1849, and in 1854 located in Humboldt county, where they resided until the time of their death. They were among the most highly respected of the early settlers, and their children are well known and honored citizens of the county. The home estate was located near Capetown, and is still in the possession of the family. Mr. Branstetter is also connected with another pioneer family through his marriage, his wife having been Miss Elizabeth Williams, the daughter of Mrs. Thomas Williams and the granddaughter of J. H. Decker, of Rohnerville, one of the oldest pioneers of the valley, and a man of splendid character and reputation.

Mr. Branstetter was born at Ferndale, Humboldt county, Cal., July 28, 1874, the son of Martin and Rachael (Kerry) Branstetter, the father being a native of Missouri, and the mother, of Switzerland. His parents were married in Missouri and came to California at the time of the gold excitement in 1849, crossing the plains with a party in charge of Oswald Kerry,. a brother of Mrs. Branstetter. He was a soldier in the Mexican war and an experienced Indian fighter, and it was largely due to his care and ability that the party escaped serious difficulties with the Indians, coming off victorious in their numerous skirmishes with the redskins. He settled in California and lived to be eighty-three years of age. Locating in Bear River valley in 1854, Mr. and Mrs. Branstetter, Sr., improved a large ranch of government land, which they located, and engaged in general farming and stock-raising. They experienced the customary exciting and dangerous times of the early settlers in this vicinity, but prospered and both lived to a good old age, the father dying at the age of sixty-five years, while the mother lived to be seventy-six, passing on in 1906.

Joseph 0. Branstetter is the youngest of a family of twelve children, all of whom are living save Walter, who died in 1913, and all well known in Humboldt county, Daniel A. Branstetter, of Ferndale, and Louis P. Branstetter, of Capetown, being especially prominent in their localities. Joseph 0. grew to manhood on his father's ranch at Capetown and afterward on a farm near Ferndale, receiving his education in the public and high schools of Ferndale. He has been especially successful in business and is prosperous, energetic, and progressive. He is one of the best known carpenters and builders of the vicinity of Rohnerville, where he makes his home, being especially engaged in the building of barns. He also owns a splendid twenty-eight acre farm near Rohnerville, which he operates as a grain and dairy ranch, where he is meeting with success. He also owns the garage in Rohnerville, which is equipped with machinery for the repair of cars, and also deals in gasoline, oils and automobile supplies.

The marriage of Mr. Branstetter took place in Rohnerville, in December, 1904, and his wife has borne him three children : Maxine, Clifton, and Van, the two oldest of whom are attending the public schools, where they are proving to be exceptionally bright and studious. Both Mr. and Mrs. Branstetter are popular with a wide circle of friends, and take an active part in social and fraternal affairs. Mr. Branstetter is an influential member of the Odd Fellows, and is noble grand of Eel River Lodge No. 210, I. 0. 0. F., at Rohnerville, there being an active membership of ninety-six members. Both he and Mrs. Branstetter are members of the Rebekahs. In politics Mr. Branstetter is a Progressive, and the broadest meaning of the term is exemplified in his life and activities. He takes a keen interest in whatever is for the welfare of his home town, the community or the state, and is broad-minded and fair in his judgments and opinions. He owns a comfortable home in Rohnerville, which he maintains in a manner that is a credit to the community and to himself.
 

EDWIN JOSEPH INMAN.—For more than forty years a resident of Humboldt county, and during all that time actively engaged in pursuits that have been developmental in their character, Edwin Joseph Inman has been an active factor in the affairs of his community and is closely associated with the history of the county since the time of his coming to California, in 1874. He built the first house in Blue Lake and moved his family there when there was no thought of a town. He has been associated with several of the big lumber companies and has built many of the sawmills and shingle mills throughout the county. At the present time he is managing his different interests and is living in Blue Lake, where he has a host of friends of long standing.

Mr. Inman is a native of Vermont, having been born in the town of Peacham, Caledonia county, June 22, 1852. His father was Joseph Inman, born in Bangor, Me., in 1823 and died in 1873. He followed the occupation of working in the woods and the sawmills for the greater part of his life, at first in the forests of Maine and Vermont. A son, Jerry Inman, had come to Humboldt county about 1860, and had been engaged in contract logging, so in 1870 the elder Inman Came to California and took charge of his son's logging business in Humboldt county for two years and then returned to Vermont, where he died the next year. He was a veteran of the Civil War, having volunteered in a Vermont regiment in response to one of the first calls of the president for troops. His son Charles was also in the Civil war, and was wounded on three different battlefields. Mr. Inman's mother was Sylvia Martin, a native of Vermont; she died in Peacham.

The early life of Edwin J. Inman was passed in his native state, where at that time his parents resided on a ranch. He attended the district schools until he completed the grammar grades and then went into the village several miles distant and attended the high school. During vacation times he worked in the sawmills to pay a part of the expense of his education. At the end of a year and a half in Peacham Academy, he returned home and worked with his father on the ranch until the time of the latter's death.

It was in 1874 that Mr. Inman determined to come to California in an endeavor to better his condition. Learning through his father and brother Jerry that there were greater opportunities on the coast for a young man than in New England, he accordingly made his way west and located in Humboldt county. For two years he worked for Joseph Russ in the butcher business in Eureka, at which time he went to Klamath river district to work in the mines, he having bought considerable stock in these same mines. Here he remained for two years, but the mining venture was not a success and the investors, Mr. Inman included, lost everything that they had invested, which with Mr. Inman was all that he had. The next year he went to work for John Vance in the lumber mills and remained with him for four years. Later he helped build the shingle mill for Fay Brothers. In 1883 this company moved to Blue Lake and Mr. Inman was sent for to help install the machinery in the new saw mill. He arrived, expecting to remain but a short time, but was employed by the company as their millwright and later built himself a home there, this being the first house erected on the present site of Blue Lake. Later this company removed their interests to Riverside and Mr. Inman again took charge of their mill there.

At this time the company changed hands and was thereafter known as the Jackson-Graham Company. They retained the services of Mr. Inman, and ten of the seventeen years of his employment there he was foreman of their mill. Later he removed his family from Blue Lake to Riverside and for many years they made their home there. In 1900 he purchased property in Blue Lake and again built a home there for his family. That year he left the mill at Riverside and went to work for Isaac Minor, contracting for the building of houses and mills throughout the county. For four years he continued thus and during that time erected four shingle mills on Warren creek and on Little river. He was also employed on the construction of the Knights of Pythias hall and also of the Catholic church in Arcata. Soon after that time he sold his home place in Blue Lake, this being the fourth house that he had built and sold there.

Mr. Inman has been twice married, the first time to Ella Mallory, a native of Iowa, born February 21, 1863. She bore him three children : Ida May, Jessie Louise and Ralph Eugene. Their mother passed away in January, 1885. The second •marriage took place in Oakland, Cal., October 27, 1907, to Evelyn N. Bunker, a native of California, born in Ukiah, Mendocino county. She is the daughter of Charles Albert Bunker, born in Maine in 1847, and who came to California via Cape Horn in 1860. He followed contracting and building. The mother, Amelia Fields, was born in Illinois. They are both deceased.

Since coming to Humboldt county Mr. Inman has been very successful in his various business enterprises. He has always taken an active part in public affairs in Blue Lake and is known as a progressive and public spirited man. He is a member of Humboldt Lodge No. 77, I. 0. 0. F., in Eureka, and has also affiliated with other local organizations of a public nature.
 

DAVID WILSON TEEL.—There is no profession which brings a man more closely into touch with the actual conditions of the country, its topography and its possibilities, than does that of the surveyor, and as David Wilson Teel has been a surveyor for practically all the years of his manhood, and as he has been engaged in the pursuit of his profession very extensively throughout California, Oregon and Washington, there is scarcely a man to be found who is more thoroughly versed in accurate information concerning the resources of these states, and especially of the localities where he has been engaged in running property and government lines. He came to California in 1875,- and has lived in this state since that time, with the exception of seven years spent in Washington ; and for the greater portion of that time he has resided in Humboldt county, which he unreservedly declares is the garden spot of the west, and one of the richest counties in the state in natural resources, many of which have not yet been touched. He has also been engaged in farming and stockraising, both in this state and in Washington, and at present owns valuable farming lands in Humboldt county. He now makes his home in Garberville, having leased his farms some time ago, and being engaged only in surveying and in timber cruising, in which he is also an expert.

Mr. Teel is a native of Indiana, having been born in St. Joseph county, August 31, 1846, near South Bend. His father was also David Wilson Teel, a native of Pittsburg, Pa., and his mother was Mariah Louisa Mallett, a native of Medina county, Ohio. They were married in Medina county, Ohio, the elder Teel being engaged in farming at that time. Later they moved to Indiana, into St. Joseph county. In the pioneer days the father was employed as an Indian interpreter at Fort Dearborn, Chicago. In the late '30s from Fort Dearborn they removed to Fort Madison, Iowa, while Iowa was yet a territory, they crossing Illinois by teams and wagons, following the furrow plowed by government dragoons as a mark for the road. Crossing the Mississippi river there, they located on Skunk river, Washington county, and farmed for a time. Later Mr. Teel laid out the town of Brighton, and after living here for four or five years, returned to Mishawaka, Ind., and bought an interest in the Studebaker foundry, in the early '40s. Later still (in 1852) the family migrated back to Lee county, Iowa, and there the present citizen of Garberville grew to manhood. He was but six years of age when this move was made, and so all his early recollections are of the Iowa farm. There were eight children in the family, all of whom are deceased save David Wilson and an elder brother, William H. Teel. who resides at Spokane, Wash.

David Wilson Teel received his early education in the public schools of Iowa, later attending the best select schools which the state afforded at that time. From 20 to 22 years of age he studied surveying and civil engineering under Orrin Baldwin at Keokuk, Iowa, and (lid some practical work there.

The marriage of Mr. Teel took place in St. Francisville, Mo., April 2, 1871, 'uniting him with Miss Sarah Alma McCormick, a native of Lee county, Iowa, and the daughter of Joseph and Lucinda (Stephens) McCormick, natives of Ireland and Indiana, respectively, and who were pioneers of Iowa. To Mr. and Mrs. Teel were born six children, namely : John Ernest, a rancher of Kern county, married Gertrude Logan, of Humboldt county, and they have one child ; Ida, wife of John A. Weeks, a rancher at Bear Butte, Humboldt county, is the mother of three children ; Amy and Maimie are twins, the former now Mrs. Charles Combs, of Garberville, and the mother of three children, while the latter is Mrs. Frederick Duckett, of Coos county, Ore., where her husband is engaged in farming, they have two children; Jesse, a rancher of Kern county, married Katie Smith, of Garberville ; and Otto Edwin, teamster, residing in Garberville, married Verna Herman, they have one child.

Shortly after his marriage Mr. Teel came to California, making the change in 1875, and locating in Butte county, where he remained for a short time, and then went north, locating in Whitman county, Wash. He worked as a surveyor in Butte county, and later in Whitman county, Wash., at the same time being engaged in farming and stock raising. He came down from Washington in 1886 to Humboldt county, locating at that time on the south fork of the Eel river, in the Bear Butte section, near Phillipsville. In the spring of 1886 he homesteaded one hundred sixty acres of land, which he still owns. He resided on this place for" many years, raising cattle, and farming and raising fruit. He also rented a tract of one hundred twenty acres adjoining, which he also farmed. In the fall of 1912 Mr. Teel gave up the care of his farm, leasing the property, and moved into Garberville, where he has since resided. He now gives his entire time to surveying and to timber cruising, in both of which professions he is an expert.

Mr. 'Teel is a splendid man, and a fine type of California pioneer. He has lived an exceedingly active and useful life and is still full of strength and vigor. His children are all grown and in homes of their own, and there are only himself and his wife left in the home-nest. Mr. Teel has seen more of the coast country than the majority of men, and is unusually well informed on conditions and resources of the country. He has surveyed and cruised for timber and land owners of Chicago and other eastern centers, throughout many of the counties of California, and has been in every county in Oregon hut one, and has been professionally employed in most of them. He has been in all the coast counties of California, and has been as far south as Tehachapi. In all his travels, he stanchly avers, he has found nothing which compares with Humboldt county, and it is needless to say that he is a stanch booster for Humboldt. In his opinion there is nothing that compares with the Humboldt county redwoods. Humboldt county stands first in the dairying industry, and the mineral resources of the county have not been touched.

In this latter phase of county development Mr. Teel is peculiarly well fitted to speak. On his farm on Eel river there is natural gas escaping in such quantities and of such a quality that it can be easily ignited by means of a lighted match. He is satisfied that the southern end of the county will yet form a gas and oil field of great importance and wealth. He has surveyed and cruised over almost every portion of the county, and is satisfied that the county is rich in minerals as well, especially in copper. In the Horse Mountain district, he avers, the outcroppings and showings of minerals are extensive and the ore is very rich in copper, platinum and gold.
Mr. Teel is regarded with the greatest respect and admiration wherever he is known, and his word is accepted as thoroughly trustworthy. He is an Abraham Lincoln Republican, but has never been actively associated with the affairs of his party. He is progressive and in favor of advance legislation, and stands for civic betterment and social progress in all lines.
 

OSCAR L. KNUDSEN.—In 1908 Oscar L. Knudsen, member of the firm of Knudsen & Lundblade, Eureka, started the business to which he has since devoted practically all his attention, and a year and a half later joined fortunes with Mr. Lundblade. Mr. Knudsen has charge of the automobile agency at No. 317 Fifth street, in the Eagles' building, while his partner looks after the bicycle and motorcycle end of the business, established at No. 332 Fifth street. Their operations cover a wide range, and their energetic management has resulted in building up a large trade in the various branches which they combine so satisfactorily. Mr. Knudsen passed most of his boyhood at Eureka, and returned to the town in 1905, since which time he has resided there. He is a native of Norway, born February 10, 1884, at Haugesund, from which port his father, Capt. L. J. Knudsen, sailed for many years.

Captain Knudsen was also born at Haugesund. He married in his native land, and came to Eureka when his son Oscar was four years old, the family residing there until 1896. Captain Knudsen commanded vessels sailing out of Stavanger and Haugesund, Norway, for years, and having visited Eureka on several of his voyages decided to make his home there, its many attractions and advantageous location appealing to him strongly. After settling there he commanded several vessels sailing out of Eureka, but when he was transferred to a boat which did not call at Eureka any more he concluded to move to Oakland, where he has been living since 1896. He is now captain of the schooner "Virginia," which is in the lumber trade, making trips to the west coast of South America. Three children were born to him and his wife, Oscar L., Helen and Kenneth, the daughter and younger son being natives of California. Helen resides with her parents at Oakland. Kenneth is proprietor of the Sequoia Tire & Oil Company, of Eureka, doing business at No. 319 Fifth street.

Oscar L. Knudsen lived at Eureka from the age of four years until the family removed to Oakland in 1896, and received his early education here, completing his course in the Oakland high school, from which he was graduated in 1899. For four years afterward he followed his father's calling, and he rose to the position of second mate, in which capacity he sailed on the "Manila," a schooner in the lumber trade, to Chile, South America. Mr. Knudsen had received some training in the Polytechnic high school at San Francisco, supplemented with study at Macy, in evening schools. In 1903 he entered the machine shop of Murray Brothers, San Francisco, to learn the machinist's trade, working there until he came to Eureka in 1905 to take a position with the Eureka Foundry Company.

He became thoroughly familiar with casting and general machine work, and remained with that concern until he began business on his own account, in April, 1908, at first handling bicycles and motorcycles and doing general repairing. On December 9, 1909, the firm of Knudsen & Lundblade was formed, Mr. Knudsen selling a half interest to Mr. Lundblade, as the business was increasing at such a rate that there were opportunities too good to be neglected. They deal in Hudson and Overland automobiles, while the shop at No. 332 Fifth street is conducted almost exclusively in the interest of the motorcycle and bicycle trade and repair work. They deal in most of the popular makes of wheels, including the celebrated "Indian" motorcycles. They make a specialty of motorcycle and general bicycle repairing, for which their establishment has attained considerable local prominence. The business has shown steady expansion, due entirely to the close attention the young men have given their work, their reliability both as salesmen and machinists, and their integrity in all business transactions.

Mr. Knudsen is a music lover and a talented performer, having at one time been a leading member of the Eureka Military Band, but since his business has required so much attention he has given up active participation in such matters. He is an honorary member of the Norden Singing Society of Eureka. Socially he holds membership in the Elks and the Eagles.

In 1905 Mr. Knudsen was married at Eureka to Miss Selma Johansen, daughter of Samuel Johansen, a rancher at McKinleyville, this county, and they have four children : Lucile, Ione, Beatrice and Claude. Mr. Knudsen, being optimistic for the future of Eureka, has invested in real estate and is a booster for the city.
 

NIELS P. A. GRUNDT.—Since coming to Eureka in 1892, Mr. Grundt has made good, thereby proving his own force of character and sagacity of judgment, as well as the possibilities afforded by this section of the country to a foreign youth endeavoring to secure a financial foothold in a land whose people and resources were unknown to him. His own birth in Denmark and a long line of ancestry identified with the same country mark him as a Dane with the fine, sturdy traits for which the people of that land are noted the world over. Born April 16, 1867, he was twenty years of age at the time of first coming to America and during that first association with the new world he worked on a farm near Oshkosh, Wis., later at Duluth, Minn., and finally in the state of Washington, arriving on the Pacific coast in 1888. Going back to Denmark, he remained for a time, but the newer country had cast its magic spell upon him and he again sought its shores in the hope of establishing a permanent home. This time Wisconsin was his objective point, but soon he proceeded west to Oregon and found employment at Portland. When he landed at Eureka in 1892 he was without means, but he had a splendid capital in his rugged physique, stalwart frame and tireless energy. With these assets he has forged his way to the front ranks of business men.

After being employed three years on the Buhne ranch, Mr. Grundt bought a small farm outside Eureka, close to what is now Sunnyside, and engaged in raising garden truck, later driving a milk wagon for the Buhne dairy. Next he bought a small grocery at 2100 California street. In a more than ordinary degree he seemed well adapted to business affairs.

From the first he had the confidence of customers, and after a couple of years he sold his first store, and in 1900 he built a two-story, modern and substantial block at the corner of Myrtle avenue and R street, and here he has since utilized the lower floor for the display and storage of his large grocery stock. It has been his custom to take advantage of every opportunity to increase his sales and enlarge the business. During 1911 he purchased the Lohide store, at Fifth and B streets, one of the oldest stores in the county, selling a part of the stock at the original place of business, removing the balance to his establishment at No. 535 Myrtle avenue and selling to private customers at a fair profit. In fact, he took advantage of bargains in any line and always seemed equal to an emergency, disposing of them quickly, giving the people an opportunity to buy at a low figure, yet making a reasonable profit for himself. After coming to California he married Anna Halvorson, a native of Port Kenyon, Humboldt county, and a daughter of the well-known pioneer, H. J. Halvorson. Fraternally he is a member of the Danish Brotherhood.

Mr. Grundt, since the second day after his arrival in Humboldt county, has had but one employer, namely, the Buhne dairy, since which time he has been in business for himself. However, prosperous identification with commercial affairs does not represent the limit of the association of Mr. Grundt with Humboldt county, for in addition he has been a sagacious real estate dealer and investor. He has purchased several tracts of acreage in and around Eureka, which he has subdivided and sold in lots. He owns valuable property in the heart of Ferndale. More recently he purchased the old Whitmore ranch of fourteen acres, south of Eureka. It lies on a beautiful elevation, overlooking the bay and having a splendid view of the mountains. He now makes his residence on the place and has plans for laying out the rest in city lots. Adjoining his residence is a grove of spruce which he has left in its natural state for a park. All of his purchases have been made with discretion and careful thought and their profitable management indicates his own keen discrimination as a real estate buyer, as well as the possibilities offered by this county to all sagacious purchasers.
 

PETER ELWOOD FERRARA.—Prominent among the young business men of Humboldt county, who are making fame and fortune for themselves by their industry and application, may be mentioned Peter Elwood Ferrara. On his father's side he descended from an old Italian family, and is the son of Giuseppe Ferrara, well known as the "Salmon King of Humboldt County," and the pioneer in the fish industry of this section of the state. On his maternal side he descended from an old eastern family; his grandfather, Elwood Hammitt, crossed the plains to California in the '50s and became a prominent pioneer of Humboldt county. Young Mr. Ferrara is also in the fish business, having succeeded to his father's interests several years ago, and is making a splendid success of his enterprise, doing from $75,000 to $200,000 worth of business each year, the variation depending upon the run of the fish. He is also one of the stockholders in the Diamond Fruit Company of Eureka, and is the manager of the wholesale department and the traveling salesman for the company, giving his time to this enterprise during the off seasons for fishing.

Mr. Ferrara is a native of California, having been born in Eureka, Humboldt county, March 14, 1881. His father, Giuseppe, is a native of Sicily, Italy, where he was reared and educated. His grandfather was a fisherman and fish dealer, with an extensive shipping and commission business in Rome, where Giuseppe Ferrara received his first business training. There were also extensive vineyards, where much wine was manufactured and sold directly in the larger Italian cities. The father left his native land to escape the compulsory military service, coming to America in 1870, and landing at Boston. For several years he was employed at different places in the east, being for a time in Philadelphia and in Chicago, and in 1873 he came to California, by way of the Isthmus of Panama, landing at San Francisco in the spring of the year. For two years he was engaged in fishing in the Sacramento river, and in 1876 he came to Humboldt county, where he immediately engaged in fishing, being especially interested in the salmon fishing on the Eel river, although he also had boats on Humboldt bay and on the Pacific ocean. He had retail shops in Eureka, and also did an extensive wholesale business in San Francisco, Sacramento, and other large California cities. He married Henrietta Hammitt, a native of Oregon, at Eureka, in 1876, and of this union were born four children, of which Peter Elwood is the second in order of birth.

Peter E. Ferrara began his career in the fishing business when he was but four or five years of age, commencing at that time to go out in the boats with his father on Eel river. He received his education in the public schools of Eureka, and also graduated from the Eureka business college. Later he went to Alaska, and was in the employ of the Alaska Packers' Association, at Loring, Alaska, for four years, from 1898 to 1902, having signed a contract for that time and remaining during the designated period against great odds. Shortly after his return to Eureka he was married to Miss Sadie Carmichael, a native of the San Joaquin valley (California), and located at Loleta for seven years, being variously employed during that time. For a time he was with the Wheat, Pond & Herald company, milk condensers, then with the Colebrook Creamery, also milk condensers, then with the Farmers Creamery, in the butter-making business, and lastly as foreman for the Libby, McNeil & Libby Company, milk condensers, all being situated at Loleta. While thus engaged he purchased his first business in 1905 and has continued the business ever since.

Since returning to Eureka Mr. Ferrara has been exceedingly prosperous. His fish business is very extensive, and his wholesale trade in San Francisco, Sacramento, Oakland, and other large cities is very large. He makes a specialty of the famous Eel river salmon, doing an exclusively wholesale and commission business. During this time he has enlarged the business fourfold. As part owner of the Diamond Fruit Company, and traveling salesman for the company, he has another growing interest which yields a handsome profit yearly, and is constantly increasing in value. Fraternally he is a member of the K. of P. and the W. 0. W. and politically he is a Republican. He owns a fine residence on F street, handsomely improved, where he makes his home. He is more than ordinarily popular in Eureka, where he is acknowledged to be a man of superior worth and integrity.


EDWIN AUGUSTUS LIGHT.—A Native Son of the Golden West, and also of Humboldt county, and after spending almost twenty years in Eastern Oregon, where he met with great financial success, Edwin Augustus Light, feeling the lure of the home-call, which eventually is certain to reach all true Californians when they wander away from the land of their birth, returned a few years ago, and has since been engaged in the hotel business amid the scenes of his early boyhood. Born in Union Town (now Arcata), October 30, 1851, the young Edwin received his education in the public and high schools of his native village, graduating when he was nineteen. He immediately secured employment with John Bull, who was the leading butcher near Arcata, working with him in the stock business of supplying his market, and remaining with him for ten years without the loss of a • single clay. From here he went northward, when he was about thirty years of age, finally locating in Eastern Oregon and engaging in the cattle business. For eleven years he bought and sold for a San Francisco wholesale house, supplying beef for the H. Morfett Company. For eighteen years Mr. Light remained in Oregon, extending his interests in the stock business and accumulating an appreciable fortune by his industry and application. But home was calling, and he returned to San Francisco, from there finding his way into Humboldt county, where he possesses a multitude of lifelong friends. Once here he determined to engage in the hotel business and secured the lease on a resort hotel on Bear river ridge, which he conducted with much success until 1904, when he disposed of it to an advantage to John Dowd.

Mr. Light, having become interested in the resort business, sold one piece of property to purchase another, and from Bear river ridge he came to Carlotta and leased the Carlotta Hotel, a popular resort hotel, located at Van Dorn and Carlotta streets. Since December, 1911, Mr. Light has conducted the business, meeting with great success. He is well fitted for the management of a summer resort of this type, being a man of genial disposition, kindly and cordial in his manner, while at the same time being fully alive to all business interests, and keeping himself thoroughly conversant with all the details of its management. His hotel interests, however, do not absorb his entire attention, and he owns and operates a line of teams which handle all the hauling and freighting between Carlotta and Harris, on the south. He is also an active member of the Republican party, and is 'vitally interested in all political questions of the day, especially in their influence on local and state issues. He is a member of the Central Republican committee, and has served his party in various capacities of importance in days gone by.

Another of the varied activities of Mr. Light is his interest in fraternal organizations of which he is a member. He is prominent in the Eureka Lodge, B. P. 0. E., and has been a delegate on eight different occasions to the Grand Parlor of the Native Sons of the Golden West, of which he has been an influential member for many years.

Mr. Light was first married in Arcata to Susan Yocom, born in Shasta county, Cal.; she died at Carlotta, leaving him three daughters : Carrie, Mrs. Bolt of Gridley ; Mary, Mrs. Harrow of Alturas ; Ida, Mrs. Norman, a resi- • dent of Napa. He was married again at Ferndale, being united with Miss Daisy Kemp, a native of Ferndale, who is of a pioneer family and has been engaged in educational work for many years. She is a very prominent member of Ferndale Parlor, Native Daughters of the Golden West, as well as of the Ferndale Woman's Club.
 

JOHN CONRAD MONROE.—Descended from old eastern families, John C. Monroe was born in Carroll county, Iowa, October 19, 1870, and is the son of Joseph Warren and Julia (Gyzlehart) Monroe. Joseph Monroe was a native of Logan county, Ohio, and here he attended the subscription schools for a short time, leaving to engage in farming with his father. Later his parents moved to Carroll county, Iowa, in 1850. They were among the first settlers in this section and here he engaged in farming. In 1861, at the opening of the Civil war, he enlisted in an Iowa regiment, serving in the army of Tennessee for four years and eight months, taking active part in over thirty battles, notably the battle of Lookout Mountain and the battles on the march through Georgia. After the close of the war, he returned to Iowa in 1865 and again engaged in farming, following this for ten years. In 1875, leaving his family in Iowa, he decided to come to California, and, coming direct to Humboldt county, he remained here one year, returning home at the news of his wife's death. Then, taking his seven-year-old son, John C., he again started for the west, coming by rail to San Francisco, and located the second time in Humboldt county, and here he was employed by the Falk & Hawley Lumber Co. in the woods for a number of years. Later he purchased two claims and engaged in ranching and stock-raising and for twelve years he was very successful. While living in Iowa he served as Justice of the Peace, and here he became a member of the Masonic order. He has now retired from active life and is living on his son's ranch in Eureka, with his daughter, Mrs. Jennie Sellers. John C. Monroe attended the public schools of Arcata until the age of fifteen, when he left school to earn his own living. He was first employed in a shingle mill and later contracted for himself in the making of shingles. in 1899 he rented his father-in-law's ranch of ninety-six acres of highly cultivated bottom land located at Bayside and engaged in farming and dairying, and he now possesses a fine herd of Guernsey cows. He is a member of Blue Lake Lodge No. 347, I. 0. 0. F., and is an ardent Republican, and although he has never sought office he has always been interested in all movements for the good of the community. He entered into marriage with Marguerite I. Smith, a native of Eureka, Humboldt county, and of their union there are four children : Wilber, Ernest, Curtis and Bertha. Mrs. Monroe's father was John Smith, a native of New Brunswick, and while in the east he was actively engaged in farming. In 1856 he came to California via the Isthmus of Panama, locating in Humboldt county, and here he engaged in logging for a number of years and later purchased the home place of ninety-six acres at Bayside. He returned to New Brunswick and there married Marguerite Isabel McKinsey, in 1869, and together they returned to Bayside, California, and located on his ranch, where he resided until the time of his death, December 10, 1913 ; his wife had passed away six years previously. Mr. Monroe has been very successful in his dairying and. farming interests since taking charge of the Smith ranch, and is a progressive, enterprising man, respected by all in the community. He was one of the original stock holders and builders of the United Creameries, Inc. This company began business about eight years ago and has built up a large business. The main plant is near Arcata, where all the manufacturing of butter and casein is done, and from here it is shipped out. There is a skimming station at Bay-side and one on Mad river on Arcata bottoms, the cream being then brought to the Arcata creamery. Mr. Monroe has been a director of the company for the last five years and has served as president of the board. Mrs. Monroe is a member of the Presbyterian church at Bayside, Mr. Monroe being a member of the board of trustees.
 

JOHN HENDERSON BROWN.—California has always .pointed with pride to her native-born children, and one of these is John Henderson Brown, who was born at Grizzly Bluff, Humboldt county, January 13, 1856. Mr. Brown's father, Thomas Brown, was born in Tennessee, thence removing to Missouri, and in 1849 he crossed the plains with ox-teams to the gold fields of California. He spent some years in the mines and then came to Humboldt county, about the year 1852, and engaged in farming at Grizzly Bluff, being one of the first to locate in the wilds. He had to go to Eureka for provisions and during the early years many a trip was made on foot. He went through the Indian troubles, his family being in continual danger of being massacred, a fate which befell others on the Eel and Van Dusen rivers. The father took part in rounding up some of the Indians and in taking them to the Hoopa reservation. He died at Centerville. The mother was Sarah Dean, born in Missouri. She also crossed the plains with her parents in the pioneer days. She died at Grizzly Bluff. She was the mother of seven children, six living, of whom John Henderson is the second oldest.

John Henderson Brown attended the public schools until sixteen years of age, remaining at home for a few years after finishing his education, working on the home place at general farming. Going to Rohnerville when nineteen years old, he apprenticed himself to learn the blacksmith's trade, serving three years in the shop of Fred Leach, but in 1878 he gave this up and, going to Centerville, he there engaged in farming for two years. Then he went to Fortuna and again opened a blacksmith shop for himself and ran it for four years. Selling out the business and all his interests in Fortuna in 1885, he moved. to Rio Dell, where again he engaged in his trade and continued in the same until 1908, his shop being the only one in Rio Dell. For twenty-eight years he successfully conducted the business in Rio Dell, the farmers coming for miles around to have their work done by him. He sold this business to H. Hansen. During 1894 and 1895 he was engaged in the hotel business. In 1896, his health beginning to fail him, he went to the Mark West springs, in Sonoma county, and remained there one year and was greatly improved in health. He then returned to Humboldt county, but practically retired from active business, leasing his shop for short terms to others. In April, 1901, he purchased a ranch of forty acres in Rio Dell and engaged in dairying, but for the last three years he has leased his ranch and has retired to his home place to rest from the many cares of his active life. In national politics he is a stanch Republican and is a member of the Alton chapter, N. S. G. W. He was married in Rohnerville to Christina Ellen Smith, a native of Jefferson county, Iowa, having been born there September 6, 1860. Her father, James Smith, came to California and engaged in the mines in Nevada county for a few years, later coming to Humboldt county and locating on the Van Dusen, where he engaged in farming. His ranch was located on the South Fork at Bear Buttes and was a fine place of seventeen hundred acres, well adapted to stock-raising. He was a very successful farmer and stock-raiser and was one of the pioneers of the county. To Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Brown have been born three children: Sarah Ellen, deceased ; Thomas H., engaged in dairying on the home place ; and Lloyd, engaged in the livery business at Rio Dell. J. H. Brown's success is entirely due to his own unceasing efforts and labors and he is a man whom every one is proud to call a friend.

THOMAS WILLIAM POWER.—There is no other profession which gives to a man or a woman so great an opportunity for influencing the life of a community as does the profession of school-teaching. This is particularly true of the teacher in the country school, or in the village or small city, where the contact between pupil and teacher is constant and direct both in the school room and in the social life of the community. Judging by this acknowledged standard, it is safe to say that there is not a man in Humboldt county who has had more to do with the shaping of its destinies than has Thomas William Power, pioneer educator, who for nearly forty years has been actively associated with the educational life of the county, and for the past ten years a member of the county board of education, and having just been reappointed for the sixth term.

Mr. Power was born in Guilford Township, near Galena, Jo Daviess County, Ill., March 1, 1849. He was a country lad and received his early education in the schools in the neighborhood of his home. The story of his entrance into his chosen profession well illustrates the keen, wide-awake quality of mind that has made him a factor in the educational life of his chosen county. While he was in the last year of the grammar school, the teacher was taken sick and was obliged to give up the school. Young William immediately conceived the idea that he might pass the teacher's examination and take the place of the former teacher. Thought was at once followed by action. The examination was successfully passed and the youth found himself installed as teacher where he had so lately been a pupil. His ambitions were high, however, and he later completed his studies and fitted himself for his life work by a course at the State Normal School at Plattville, Grant County, Wis. This he accomplished by attending school during the summer and teaching during the winter months.

The first school that Mr. Power taught was in Guilford school district, Jo Daviess County, Illinois. For the next few years he taught in his native county, also teaching one winter in southeastern Dakota and another in Wisconsin. In 1875 he came to California and located in Humboldt County, and March, 1876, began teaching on Dows Prairie. In the fall of 1876 he returned to his native state and that winter taught again in the same school which he had attended as a boy. During that winter he wooed and won Mary A. Collins, also a native of Jo Daviess County, having also been born in Guilford Township. They were married May 8, 1877, and that same year Mr. Power returned to California with his bride, locating at Blue Lake, Humboldt County. Here he purchased a ranch on Mad river, on the opposite side from Blue Lake, and engaged in farming. Though he did not give up his profession, for he taught school at the same time, he carried on farming for ten years on two different farms. In 1879 he taught for a few months in Redwood district and later went to Orleans for a short time, returning the following year to resume his duties in Redwood district. Since 1880 he has been constantly engaged in teaching in Humboldt county and today there is scarcely a section of the county which has not felt his direct influence, while the boys and girls whom he has helped to guide in paths of usefulness are scattered far and wide. A brief resume of his work will give some idea of the extent of his influence in local affairs : In 1881-82 he taught in Bald Hill district; in 1883-84, in Mad River school district; from 1885 to 1888 in the West End district; from 1889 to 1893 in the Maple school district ; in 1894 one term in Blue Lake ; from 1894 to 1896 in Iaqua; from 1897 to 1899 in Trinity ; from 1899 to 1904 in the Eel river district ; in 1904-05 in Grant school district; from 1905 to 1912 he taught in Weitchpec on Klamath river, and in 1912 he began teaching in the Little River school district, continuing until May, 1914, when he retired from teaching, making his home at his residence in Blue Lake, where he is serving as president of the Board of Trustees of the city of Blue Lake, where he is guiding the destinies of the city of his adoption, having resided on his ranch across the river before Blue Lake had sprung into existence.

Mr. Power has preferred teaching to all other occupations, and is a man well fitted for the work he has chosen. He has always taken a keen interest in all public affairs and has ever been active in all movements for the uplift and general welfare of the county. During his almost forty years of teach­ing in California he has witnessed many changes, not only in his own im­mediate locality, but throughout the entire state as well, and he has the satisfaction of knowing that he has done his full share in the accomplish­ment of all worthy progressive movements in Humboldt County.

In addition to his educational work, Mr. Power was supervisor of the third district from 1885 to 1893. He is a Democrat in political affiliation, and has always been interested in local politics from a broad standpoint. He is a member of the Independent Order of Foresters.

Four children have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Power, namely: William, Mary Helen, Florence and Emily. Of these, two have followed in their father's footsteps. Mary Helen, now the wife of F. M. Broderick, was before her marriage a teacher in the public schools for six years, first at Cedar Springs, and the remaining five years at Blue Lake. Emily is at present a teacher in the grammar school at Blue Lake, where her parents make their home.

 

JENS E. CLAUSEN.—For more than forty years a resident of the United States, and for almost that length of time located in Humboldt county and engaged in general farming and the dairy business, Jens E. Clausen is today one of the best known and most honored citizens of Humboldt county. He is one of the genuine old pioneers, and his steady application to business and his splendid judgment and natural business ability have placed him in a position of wealth and influence in the valley. He now makes his home on the island in Pacific township, this county, where he owns about one hundred seventy-four acres of well. improved dairy land.

He is the eldest son of a German banker, Paul Henry Clausen, his mother being Margareta, the first wife of Paul Henry Clausen. She died when the present honored citizen of Humboldt county was five or six years of age, and left four small children, the youngest an infant. Of these, Jens Edward, the subject of this article, and Frederick, now retired, and residing at Husum, Schleswig, Germany, which is the family home, are the only ones living, the third and fourth born having died when very young. The father married a second wife, Louisa Backsen, also of Husum, Schleswig, and by her had eight children, two of whom are now dairymen in Humboldt county, they being Henry and Martin Clausen. The father died at the family home at Pellworm six years ago.

Mr. Clausen was born November 29, 1845, on the island of Pellworm, Schleswig, Denmark, but since 1871 a part of Germany, although his parents were true Germans. He was educated in the German schools and confirmed in the German Lutheran Church. His boyhood was spent on a farm in Germany and he early mastered the rudiments of farm life and labor. It was in 1871, when he was just past twenty-five, that Mr. Clausen resolved to come to the United States. With him, then as now, to resolve was to execute, so at an early date he set sail from Hamburg for the new land, arriving in New York, and after a brief stay there going on to Davenport, Iowa, where he found employment on the farm as a general farm hand, but later he rented a dairy farm for two years, but met with ill success at the time, which was followed by illness brought about by unsatisfactory climatic conditions, and so determined to seek the brighter land of Cali­fornia. Accordingly he came to Dixon, Solano County, in August, 1875, and was soon employed in a meat packing house in San Francisco. It was in 1876 that Mr. Clausen finally came to Humboldt County, and on his arrival there his world wealth consisted of but $10. He soon secured employment on a farm, however, and saved his money. Then he entered into partner­ship with three other young men and they rented and operated an eighty-acre farm together. This was the rather inauspicious entrance of the pros­perous farmer into the business of which he has since made so great a success. It was in 1882 that he made his first purchase of land, buying at that time a tract of forty acres, which formed the nucleus of his present large farm. Later he purchased an additional tract of one hundred forty-eight acres on Eel River, known as the Herrick ranch. For some years he was interested in running the ferry across the Eel river, known as Singley's Ferry, and it was a financial success which was due to his foresight and management, and an account of the operation of the ferry during the storms and floods would make a volume in itself.

The marriage of Mr. Clausen occurred at Eureka in 1884, uniting him with Miss Marie Rumpf, a native of Kemnitz, Brandenburg, Prussia, about twenty-five miles from Berlin. Her father was August Rumpf and her mother Carolina Wolf in her girlhood, both of them being natives of Prussia, where they lived and died. Mrs. Clausen is the youngest of seven children, six girls and one boy. She came to California in 1881 with an older sister, Fredrika (Rumpf) Schoenemann, and located in Humboldt county, the sister now residing on a farm at Table Bluff. Mr. and Mrs. Clausen are the parents of four children, three daughters and one son. Of these the son, Henry August, is the eldest born, being now eighteen years of age. He is engaged in dairying his father's ranch on Paradise Island in partnership with Anton 'Tedsen. Of the daughters, the eldest, Gertrude Louisa, keeps house for her brother; Anna Blanche is a Junior in the Ferndale high school, and Lena Marie resides at home, attending the grammar school in their district.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Clausen are well known and generally liked in their community. They are both members of the German Lutheran church at Ferndale and take an active part in the affairs of that denomination. They are also members of the Fraternal Brotherhood, and Mr. Clausen is a member of the Knights of Pythias, while his wife is a prominent member of the Pythian Sisters. Mr. Clausen has served the interests of the farmers in the county in many ways during his long years of residence here. He was for eight years the president of the Excelsior creamery, and was one of the first men to take an active part in the organization and establishment of this creamery. In the course of events the enterprise reached a point where five hundred dollars more were necessary for the completion of the plans, and, although he had then invested as heavily as he felt he cared to do, Mr. Clausen had the interests of the undertaking so closely at heart that he added the necessary amount to his previous investment. For many years this creamery was one of the most successful in the county, and was eventually sold to Mr. Jensen, of the California Central Creamery Company. He is a Republican in his political views, and has been closely associated with the affairs of his party for many years. He has also been influential in school matters of Ferndale, having served as a trustee of the grammar school, and also as a director of the Ferndale high school. Within recent years Mr. Clausen has been afflicted with a degree of deafness which has necessitated his resignation from both these educational bodies, and also, to a very large extent, his withdrawal from political life and from many lines of commercial enterprise. This is greatly regretted, not only by him­self, but also by his friends and associates in his various lines of activities, for he is a man of splendid abilities and with a great natural aptitude for the successful handling of large business undertakings, and his cooperation and support are greatly missed.

In his home life Mr. Clausen is especially happy. He is hospitable and cheerful, and his wife is a pleasant hostess, while his daughters are musicians, both charming and well bred.       

 

NATHANIEL BULLOCK—The material upbuilding of the city of Eureka, Cal., during the early era of its growth was in large measure pro­moted by Nathaniel Bullock, one of the most prominent citizens of the place, and a man who has always been ready to give of his time and means to the betterment of the city and the advancement of the interests of its residents. Skilled in the substantial carpentering of the old school, a master of his craft, Mr. Bullock was the builder of some of the pioneer houses and business blocks that still stand, visible monuments to his painstaking care and mas­tery of his craft. A few years later, but still in the pioneer period of local development, he embarked in the lumber business and continued in that work for many years. Nor did such lines form the limit of his energy and helpful spirit. On the other hand, he was public spirited in an exceptional degree, filling a number of offices faithfully and well, and even now, though retired from the strenuous struggle of earlier days, he keeps posted concerning every matter of importance and favors with unabated zeal every progressive plan for the further development of city and county.

The Bullock family is of English descent, and the grandfather, Hezekiah Bullock, served in the War of 1812, afterward removing to Michigan, where he spent his last days. The father of Nathaniel Bullock, Benjamin R., was born near New York City, and became a farmer at Yates Center, Orleans County, in the same state, later removing with his family to Michigan, where he cleared and improved a farm and was successfully engaged in business until settling in Detroit, where he died at the age of eighty-four years. His wife was formerly Cynthia Barry, of Scotch descent, and also born near New York City, her death occurring in Orleans County before the family moved west. She was the mother of nine children, of whom Na­thaniel is the third oldest, he having been born at Yates Center, Orleans county, N. Y., September 26, 1831. He was a lad of but six or seven years when the father removed to Lansing, Mich., and in that place he received a public school education and was afterwards apprenticed to the carpenter's trade. From Lansing, he came to California via the Nicaragua route, almost a decade before the transcontinental railroad was in operation, and on the 17th of July, 1860, arrived in Uniontown, now Arcata, in Humboldt county, where for a year he rented land, the following year coming to Eureka, in the same county, where he has made his home ever since, and is now the owner of residence property at No. 314 H street, where he lives in retirement after years of activity spent in carpentering and the manufacture of lumber. In this latter occupation he was associated with Joseph Russ, well known as one of the prominent pioneers of the county, and with others, under the firm name of Russ, Pickard & Co., on Humboldt Bay, of which firm Mr. Bullock was the manager for over twenty years. During that time he was also manager of the Russ Market for Joseph Russ for more than twenty years, after which he held the office of postmaster, having been appointed thereto by President McKinley, and was for many years director in the Humboldt County Bank and the Home Savings Bank. As county coroner and public administrator he was also actively helpful to certain departments of the county work, and through his capable services as road overseer he promoted the building of highways in Humboldt county, none having been laid out before the time of his arrival in the district, Mr. Bullock recognizing from the first the vital importance of well-built roads through this section of the country.

Always stanch in his allegiance to the Republican party, Mr. Bullock has been one of its local leaders and has accomplished much in its interests. His fraternal associations are with the Masons, he having been made a member of the Humboldt Lodge No. 79. Since his retirement from active business life, Mr. Bullock has devoted his time to the administration of his own interests in the California city where he has made his home. By his mar­riage to Sarah M. Huestis, who was born at Buckingham, Va., the daughter of Hon. A. J. Huestis, a pioneer judge of Humboldt county, Mr. Bullock has a family of seven children, namely : Mrs. Minnie Sevier, Mrs. Nellie Libby, Mrs. Blanche A. Snow. of Santa Ana, Cal.; Mrs. Gertrude McMurray of San Francisco, Bertram N., Russ R., a physician in San Francisco, and Miss Edna Bullock, all of whom are residents of Eureka except Mrs. Snow, Mrs. McMurray and Dr. Russ Bullock.

 

GIACOMO FLOCCHINI.—One of the enterprising and successful dairymen of Humboldt county, Cal., who has won his success by close application to the industry he has chosen for his life work, is Giacomo Flocchini, a native of Italy, who has become well and favorably known in the California county where he has made his home.

Born in Ono Degno, in the province of Brescia in northern Italy, Sep­tember 22, 1875, Mr. Flocchini is the son of a farming and teaming con­tractor, Francisco Flocchini, who died in his native land, and Dominica (Dusi) Flocchini, who still lives in Italy. Of their family of nine children, Giacomo is the second in age, the names being as follows ; Andrea, who remains at the old home ; Giacomo, of this review; Anna, now Mrs. J. B. Zanotti of Waddington; Francisco, who lives at Fortuna; Giovanni, who is in the employ of his brother Giacomo ; Nicola, a resident of Crescent City ; Marie, now Mrs. Bacchetti of the last-named city; Celeste B., who is a partner of his brother Giacomo ; and Amato, who also lives at Crescent City. It will thus be seen that all the children except the oldest have made their home in California. Growing up on his father's farm in Italy, Giacomo Flocchini received his education in the local public schools until the age of nine years, after which he spent his time assisting with the work upon the farm, until March, 1904, at which time he removed to California, locating at Eureka. In the same month he went to work on the Dinsmore ranch,, where he continued for a period of three years and nine months, at which time, in the autumn of the year 1907, he started in business for himself, leas­ing the place where he had formerly been employed, which consisted of one hundred twenty-five acres of rich land, where he carries on a successful dairy business, milking a herd of seventy cows, and raising a sufficiency of hay and green feed for his stock. In April, 1915, Mr. Flocchini's brother Celeste became his partner, and in the same year they also leased the old Lynch place at Grizzly Bluff, in. Humboldt County, which comprises one hundred ninety acres, and here it is their intention to operate a dairy with a herd of about eighty cows. The interest taken by Mr. Flocchini in his chosen occupation is in part shown by his active membership in such local organizations as the Ferndale Dairymen's Association and the Ferndale Cow Testing Association, and in his political preferences he is a member of the Republican party.

At Ono Degno, Italy, Mr. Flocchini was married on January 10, 1903, to Miss Lucia Dusi, also a native of that place, and they became the parents of four children, by name, Francisco, Dominica Beatrice, Anna A., and Marie.

 

EUGENE SULLIVAN.—A well known and highly respected citizen of the Eel River valley, Eugene Sullivan has made for himself a reputation there as a successful farmer and dairyman, standing high among men in that industry in Humboldt county, Cal.

Born in County Cork, Ireland, January 15, 1867, Mr. Sullivan was the son of Patrick, a farmer of that county, who died in 1912, and Ellen (Dempsey) Sullivan, who still resides at the old home in Ireland. Of the family of eight children, seven are still living, Eugene being the eldest and brought up on the home farm and educated in the national schools of his country. He remained at home until the year 1889, when he removed to San Francisco, Cal., where he was employed for a short time in teaming, in March of the next year coming to Humboldt County, there finding employment in a dairy near Ferndale. Deciding to go into this business independently, he in 1895 purchased his present place on Cock Robin Island, where he commenced dairying on property comprising twenty-two acres, also renting twenty-two adjacent acres, and milking a herd of twenty-seven cows, for which he raises on his own property an abundance of hay, grain, clover, carrots and beets. One of the original stockholders of the Valley Flower Creamery, he was also for some years a member of the Ferndale Cow Testing Association, and at present holds membership in the Ferndale Dairymen's Association. Politically he is a strong and ardent Democrat, while his fraternal associa­tions are with the Knights of Columbus in Eureka and the Y. M. I. in Fern­dale. He is a member of the Catholic Church in the same city.

The wife of Mr. Sullivan was formerly Miss Mary Conway, who was born at Sacramento, Cal., but grew up near the city of Ferndale. Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan are the parents of four children: Mary P., Eugene P., John D. and Leo S.

 

CORNELIUS THOMPSON.—The life of Cornelius Thompson, a pros­perous stock raiser and dairyman of California, has been spent in this state since infancy, when he made the journey across the plains from Missouri with his mother and relatives. Born in Howard County, Mo., December 17, 1850, he was the son of Joseph Thompson, a farmer in Howard County, who was born in Alabama, and Malinda (Banta) Yates-Thompson, the descendant of one of the prominent old families of Virginia, where she was left a widow with a little family before her marriage with Joseph Thompson. She was the mother of six children in all, the youngest of whom was Cornelius Thompson, whose father was killed by the Indians during a trip across the plains to California in 1849. Undaunted by this tragedy, however, his widow, with her children and a party of relatives, set out upon the same journey in the spring of 1851, traveling by means of ox teams, as was the usual custom in those days. In California she was again married, this time to Stillman Fales, a pioneer and farmer of this state, and after his death continued to make her home with her children, dying in Berkeley at the advanced age of one hundred and three years, having been well and strong up to the last. Her brother, Henry Banta, also attained a great age, living to be one hun­dred and four, exceeding by one year the age of Mrs. Thompson at her death.

Brought up on the farm near Nicholson, Sacramento county, Cal., Cor­nelius Thompson received a good education in the public schools of that vicinity, and at the early age of twelve years began farming for himself. in partnership with his brother, M. J. Thompson, who was sixteen years old. Taking up a ranch near Nicholson, the two boys engaged thereon in farming and stockraising, doing well in their venture. Removing later to Colusa county, they rented land which they devoted to the raising of grain, there­after purchasing three hundred twenty acres, where Mr. Thompson continued to reside until his removal to Humboldt county in 1885, where he located on the Klamath river, where his brother had preceded him. On April 23, 1887, Mr. Thompson was married in Eureka, Cal., to Miss Martha Shelton, and they became the parents of one daughter, Pearl F. Thompson, now the wife of William Peugh, who assists Mr. Thompson in the stock business. They have two children, Wilma Monroe and Neil Thompson. Like her husband, Mrs. Thompson is of a pioneer family, having been born on the Klamath river, the daughter of Abraham and Mary (Hopkins) Shelton, natives of Lynchburg, Va., and Humboldt county, Cal., respectively. Her father was a veteran of the Mexican war, who came to California in 1849 and engaged in gold mining, later becoming a merchant on the Klamath river. The mother died in Humboldt County, and in 1887 the father moved to British Columbia, where he died. For three years after his marriage with Miss Shelton, Mr. Thompson lived near Loleta, after which he located a homestead on Bald Hill, twelve miles east of the town of Orick, where he improved the farm and took up stock raising, also purchasing the adjoining land, thereby acquiring a fine ranch of six hundred forty acres, besides one hundred sixty acres of timber land which he owned, his wife also being the possessor of the same amount of timber land. In 1907 he sold his Bald Hill ranch, and later also the three hundred twenty acres of timber land, and purchased two hundred forty acres, two miles north of Orick, on Prairie creek, which he has trans­formed into a stock and dairy ranch, and together with adjoining land which he has leased, is now operating six hundred acres of property. In 1914 he rented for dairy purposes the lower portion of his lands which he had recently purchased, but still retained the stock ranch. The interest which he takes in educational affairs where he lives is proved by the fact that he was for four terms school trustee in the Bald Hill school district and three terms in the Orick district. Fraternally he is a member of the Humboldt Lodge, No. 77, I. 0. 0. F., and of the Hoopa Tribe, No. 145, I. 0. R. M., while in his political associations he is a supporter of the Republican party.

 

JAMES M. LEAVER.—For the past six years the assistant manager of the Pacific Lumber Company at Scotia, one of the largest lumber com­panies on the Pacific coast, J. M. Leaver, Sr., is prominent in public affairs at Scotia, and is recognized as a man of ability and personal power. He is probably the greatest "system" man when it comes to handling lumber that there is now living on the Pacific coast. He has a peculiar ability for the discharge of large affairs, and keeps every detail in his mind at all times, and without apparent effort. He has charge of the construction of buildings and the installing of power engines and machinery connected with this enormous plant. He is an authority and expert in the operation of saw mills, and dry kiln plants. At this time the Pacific Lumber Company has large planing-mills at Oakland and Wilmington, but is now constructing a gigantic planing-mill at Scotia, and will close the mills at Oakland and Wilmington, and all this work will be done at the home plant, under the direction of Mr. Leaver, thus concentrating the work at one place. Since the completion of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad into Eureka, the lumber is all kiln dried before it is shipped in order to save freight charges, and in this particular Mr. Leaver is an expert, having invented the Leaver system of drying redwood, which is patented by him, and which is a decided advantage over other methods. The plans of this great company include the building of ten additional dry kilns, which will give them a total of thirty-eight, there being twenty-eight now in successful operation. This will give them a splendid equipment, and all lumber to be shipped by rail will be kiln dried, thus working an enormous saving in freight rates.

Mr. Leaver is a native of Scotland, born at Glasgow. He came to America when he was about thirty years of age, and made his first start in the lumber business at Buffalo, N. Y., commencing in office work, and working his way up to his present position of responsibility. He has been engaged in this business now for thirty years, and is thoroughly familiar with its details. From Buffalo he went to Saginaw and Bay City, Mich., where he managed a large box factory, and sash and door plants, and from there came to the Pacific coast ten years ago. At first he was with a large lumber company at Sonora, Tuolumne county, and then in the service of the Pacific Lumber Company, starting the plant at Wilmington.

The dry kilns and various other valuable devices for the manufacture of lumber are manufactured by the Leaver Manufacturing Company of Oakland, Cal., of which Mr. Leaver is president and his son James is manager. This company is engaged in introducing the Leaver patented dry­ing system, and is a partnership between father and son. Mr. Leaver, Sr., has invented many useful and valuable devices for various uses and in his work at the Pacific Lumber Company plant at Scotia he has accomplished remarkable savings with electrical and steam devices for the handling of lumber. He is well liked in Scotia, both by his employers and by the men under his management, and has many warm personal friends.

 

HON. B. H. McNEIL.—Capitalist, ex-member of the state legislature, and still active in business, the Hon. B. H. McNeil, of Rohnerville, is a well preserved man of keen intellect, splendid judgment and broad and generous outlook on life in general. His friendship is highly valued by all who know him, and his council and advice are often sought. He has served his home city, his county, and his state with honor and distinction in the law-making body of the commonwealth. He is interested in real estate in Humboldt County, especially near Rohnerville and Fortuna, where he also has varied commercial interests. It is interesting to know that originally Mr. McNeil was ordered to California by his physician for two years, and came reluc­tantly, determined to stay the necessary time and return at the earliest pos­sible moment to his home in Iowa. At the end of the two years, however, he was so thoroughly imbued with the California spirit that he has not cared to return to his former home state.

Mr. McNeil is a native of Ohio, born in Adams county, near Ripley, March 6, 1848. His father, Nelson B. McNeil, was a land-owner and farmer in Ohio, and moved with his family to Iowa in 1855, settling at New London, that state, where he engaged in farming and in the grain business until within a few years of the time of his death at the age of seventy-five years. He was a native of Virginia, but of Scotch descent. His mother's maiden name was Miss Nancy Foster, who came of English and German ancestry. Her brother, Jeremiah Foster, of Kentucky, was a slaveholder and a Whig, a most contradictory combination. But he became convinced of the error of slavery and freed his slaves before the war. There were six children in the McNeil family, of which the present honored citizen of Rohnerville was the fifth born. One of the brothers, Samuel, enlisted in the Union army during the Civil War and was killed during the siege of Vicksburg. The oldest brother, Jeremiah, is still living at New London, Iowa, at about the age of seventy-five years, he being the only other living son.

B. H. McNeil was seven years old when his parents moved to Iowa, and there he grew to maturity, attending the public schools and later taking a business course at Burlington, Iowa, where he learned telegraphy. He then became a telegraph operator on the line of the C. R. I. & P. Railroad, being in the train-dispatcher's office at Burlington. He worked very hard and, being ambitious to rise in his chosen line, overtaxed his strength and his health was broken. The attending physician ordered him to go to California and live in the open air for two years, and accordingly he came west, accom­panied by his wife, by way of the Northern Pacific and Central Pacific to Marysville, near Sacramento. There he went to work on his father-in-law's farm near Marysville, remaining for a year, and then going to Butte creek, where he preempted one hundred sixty acres, and after improving it, pur­chased an additional tract of the same size from the railroad company. He was located here at the expiration of the prescribed two years, but was by that time an enthusiastic booster for California, with no desire to return to Iowa and a telegrapher's desk. Mr. McNeil's ranch was near Gridley and he farmed there until 1882, when he disposed of his property and went to Los Angeles, where for a number of years he engaged in the building and contracting business, making a great success of his undertaking. In 1887 he came north again, locating this time in Humboldt county where he bought the furniture and undertaking business then owned by Seth Crabtree, one of the pioneer settlers of the county. He also became postmaster at Rohnerville in 1887, serving in that capacity for ten years. In 1903 he became deputy internal revenue collector of the fourth district, serving until 1912, when that district was merged with the first district. Mr. McNeil owns extensive property in Rohnerville and vicinity, and also holds stock in var­ious banks in Eureka. He is also half owner of the cigar factory at Fortuna, the firm being known as Smith & McNeil. They manufacture a line of well known and popular cigars, probably the favorite being the justly popular "Fortuna", a 5-cent cigar. Other brands are the "Large Americana", the "Small Americana", "Porto Rico", and "La Diesta." Mr. McNeil is himself on the road for the firm, selling to the Humboldt county trade, among whom he is a prime favorite.

Mr. McNeil was elected to the state legislature in 1900, and served in the Assembly of 1901, and was re-elected in 1902, serving in the Assembly of 1903. He made an enviable record for himself and won the praise and appreciation of his constituency. He was particularly interested in the law which allowed the state to lease the China Basin, in San Francisco, to the Santa Fe Railroad Company, and it was through his strenuous support of this bill that it eventually was passed, although he was not its author. He introduced a bill for an appropriation for the Steel Head Hatchery at Wey­mouth, in Humboldt county, which became a law ; and together with State Senator Selvage introduced jointly a bill for the riprapping of the banks of Eel river, which also was passed. It is a noteworthy fact that this ener­getic legislator succeeded in having passed every bill that he introduced, and as the' interests of Humboldt county were very near to his heart it goes without saying that his home county profited by his service. He was rec­ognized at Sacramento as a man of ability and was placed on many important committees. Among these were the committee on Agriculture, of which he was chairman; the committee on Commerce and Navigation; and also the committee on Fish and Game, this being in 1901, while even more important posts were assigned him in 1903. Mr. McNeil was and is a loyal Republican, having unwavering faith in the Grand Old Party and its ability to steer the affairs of the state and nation in ways of prosperity and peace. He has always been interested in the cause of education and has served almost continuously as school trustee of Rohnerville district since 1887.

The marriage of Mr. McNeil was solemnized in Iowa in 1868, uniting him with Miss Hattie Miller, born near New London, Iowa. A son was born to them in Iowa, William A., who is now postmaster at Rohnerville. He is married to Miss Mamie Reinhart, and they have one child, a son, Brice, aged twenty-one years, and an employee of the Pacific Lumber Company, at Scotia, where he has a clerkship in the office. This grandson is a favorite of Mr. McNeil, Sr., and they are great friends and companions. After coming to California a daughter was born to Mr. and Mrs. McNeil, she being Clara, now the wife of Fred Smith, a partner with her father in the cigar manu­facturing business, and also a partner in the hardware firm of Leach & Smith, at Fortuna. They have one child, a daughter, Reva.

Mr. McNeil is a favorite throughout Humboldt county, and is one of the best known traveling men of that part of the state. He is prominent in Masonic circles, being a member of the Eel River Lodge, No. 147, F. & A. M., at Fortuna, of which he has twice been master. Both he and Mrs. McNeil are members of the Eastern Star and take an active part in the affairs of that order. Mr. McNeil is also keenly interested in all that pertains to the welfare of Rohnerville and is always to be found in the van of any movement for the up-building and improvement of the city and community. He is an ardent advocate of education and has done much for the cause of the schools of the county. Mrs. McNeil is highly esteemed throughout the com­munity and is loved by all who know her.

 

CHARLES D. BUCHANAN.—As master mechanic for the Pacific Lum­ber Company at Scotia, Charles D. Buchanan occupies one of the important positions with that great corporation, the wonderful smoothness with which the machinery in their various plants runs being largely due to the skill and efficiency of this man. This company has some $14,000,000 invested in its plant at Scotia and the care of all this vast machinery and the installation of the new machinery which is constantly being added is no mean task. To the lay observer it seems an almost impossible thing that one mind should grasp the multitude of intricate details that must be involved in so stupen­dous an undertaking, but to the clever master mechanic it is all in the day's business. He is a man of superior intellect, well trained and perfectly poised, with a knowledge of machinery that places him in perfect accord with every detail of his work. It is especially worthy of note that the larger of the company's mills, Mill "B," is known to be the most smoothly running mill on the coast, and that here as nowhere else the maximum of efficiency is realized from the minimum of outlay and labor.

Mr. Buchanan is a native of California, born at Cuffey's Cove, Men­docino County, December. 31, 1879. His father, Colin James Buchanan, was a native of Canada, born in Nova Scotia. He was a lumberman there and later in Maine, where he was known as the best axman in the state. He came to Point Arena, Mendocino County, in the early days and went to work in the lumber woods on, the Garcia river. He was married to Miss Mary McMasters in Mendocino County, the bride being a native of Maine, where she had been the sweetheart of Mr. Buchanan before he came to California. After his marriage Mr. Buchanan, Sr., engaged in the livery business at Cuf­fey's Cove, and later at Greenwood. He retired from business at Green­wood, where he and his wife now make their home, two of their sons con­ducting the business. Mr. Buchanan also owns a large ranch near Green­wood which he now rents. There were seven children born of this union, five of whom grew to maturity and are now well known in Mendocino and Humboldt counties. They are : May, engaged in teaching school in Mendocino county ; Charles D., the subject of this sketch; Colin J. Jr., engaged in the livery business at Greenwood ; Edward, who died in July, 1913, at the age of twenty-nine years ; Hugh, who was drowned seven years ago in the Navarro river ; Flora E., a teacher at Albion, Mendocino county ; and Frank, who is in the livery business in Greenwood, in partnership with his brother, Colin J.

The boyhood days of Charles D. Buchanan were spent in Greenwood, where he assisted his father in the livery business, and attended school until he was sixteen years of age. He then spent a year at the Sacramento Insti­tute, which is a branch of St. Mary's College, of Oakland. Following this he was apprenticed to learn the machinist's trade under James Britt, then foreman for the L. E. White Lumber Company at Greenwood, where he served an apprenticeship and then became a journeyman machinist. He worked in different shops for various companies at San Francisco and in the lumber mills of Mendocino county, always with the greatest success. In 1902 he was married in San Francisco to Miss Louise Elizabeth Meade, a native of Albion, Mendocino county, who was orphaned at the age of six years, and was reared by an aunt, Mrs. J. Conway, at Greenwood. For two years before and five years after his marriage Mr. Buchanan was a machinist for the Union Lumber Company, during which time he purchased a resi­dence property there which he still owns. In 1907 he went over to Albion and became machinist for the Albion Lumber Company mills, and in 1908 was promoted to the position of master mechanic, which position he held until 1910, when he was offered the position of master mechanic for the Pacific Lumber Company at Scotia, which he accepted, assuming his new duties in December of that year, since which time he has held this position of responsibility and trust.

Mr. Buchanan is very popular in Scotia, both with his employers and with his co-workers in the mills and shops, and among his many personal friends. His work in the mills brings him in contact with the employees of practically every department, and his own workmen are loyal to him, almost to a fault. He is possessed of wonderful executive ability and is a true leader of men. Both he and his wife are well known socially, and have many warm friends. They have three children: Delphine Ruth; Charles D., Jr., and Colin E. Mr. Buchanan is a member of the Catholic church and an influ­ential member of the Knights of Columbus. In his political connections he is a stanch Republican, although in local questions he follows his own judg­ment as to the men and measures in question. He is progressive and broad minded and keenly alive to all that will benefit the community.

 

JOSEPH C. BARKDULL.—Although a native of Oregon, Joseph C. Barkdull is a California pioneer of the truest type, having come to California from his native state with his parents in 1860, when he was but two years of age. They located in Humboldt County, in the Mattole valley, where his father became the owner of Barkdull ridge stock range, and since that time Mr. Barkdull has been a resident of this county, and is one of her most loyal and enthusiastic supporters. He owns much valuable property at this time, and is residing at Rio Dell, where he has a valuable farm of thirty acres. Other property includes two well improved ranches of forty acres each at Pepperwood, a stock range of one hundred sixty acres back of Pepperwood, and three hundred twenty acres in the upper Mattole valley.

Mr. Barkdull was born at Butte Disappointment, near the city of Eugene, Lane County, Ore., April 29, 1858. His father, John L. Barkdull, was a native of Ohio, and crossed the plains to California in 1850, locating at Hangtown, of early day fame, and was one of the gold miners of that period. In 1853 he went to Oregon and settled at Butte Disappointment where he engaged in stock-raising. While there he met and married Miss Nancy Bagley, the daughter of Eli and Nancy (Belt) Bagley. The parents of Mrs. Barkdull were both natives of Indiana, who came first to Iowa, and later to Missouri, eventually crossing the plains and locating in Oregon. There were ten children in the family of Mr. Barkdull's parents of whom he was the second born. They were all well known in Humboldt County, where most of the living members have been, or are now, associated in bus­iness activities of various sorts. They are : (1) Enoch J., who died at the age of forty years, at Table Bluff, where he was engaged in ranching, he was married to Miss Delia Smith of Lake county, and they had five children; (2) Joseph C., the subject of this sketch ; (3) Mendocino, who was the first white girl born south of Cape Mendocino, in Humboldt county, and is now the wife of Mr. Breitweiser, a contractor, at Alameda, Cal.; (4) Nancy, who died in San Francisco ; (5) Mary, who died at the age of sixteen years ; (6) Sarah, residing in Oakland, and the wife of Charles Hamilton, a car­penter; (7) E. R., residing at Eureka, where he is secretary and bookkeeper for the Humboldt Brewing Company ; (8) Calvin, who is in Alaska, located near Petersburg, where he owns the hotel and valuable gold mines and is also engaged in raising silver, black and blue foxes, having five hundred in all, and having rented for the purpose two islands near Petersburg, and who is the first to have made a success of fox farming, and he is preparing a book on the subject for the government ; (9) George, who was accidentally killed by a horse at the age of twelve years, and (10) Daniel, who died at the age of six. The father was engaged in farming until the time of his death at the age of seventy ; the mother having passed away in 1885, at the age of forty-four years.

It was in 1860 that the parents of Mr. Barkdull came to Humboldt County and located in the Mattole valley. During the years from 1862 to 1866 they ran a dairy farm, making butter and cheese which they sent over the mountains to the mines at Weaverville. They remained in the valley continuously up to 1874, save for a brief time when the Indians were on the warpath and Mr. Barkdull, Sr., was obliged to seek refuge for himself and family in Eureka. At this time the Indians killed Mr. McNutt and corralled all of the Barkdull cattle, killing all the calves and yearlings. Later the father bought a ranch at Table Bluff, where Loleta now stands.

Young Joseph Barkdull attended the public schools at Table Bluff and later Forrester's Business College in Chico. When he was twenty-one years of age he went to Sacramento where he entered machine shops, but not caring for the machinist's trade, he commenced buying and selling cattle, horses and mules in the Sacramento valley, sometimes bringing them over into Humboldt County. He rented his father's farm on "Niggerhead", and fol­lowed this business until in 1892, when illness necessitated his leaving the low country around Loleta and he removed to Pepperwood, where he pur­chased forty acres which he cleared and improved. Next he bought the old J. H. Montgomery farm at Pepperwood, which he cleared and improved, and afterward bought the range land. While on the Pepperwood ranch he kept a stopping place for travellers and stock, known as the Travellers' Inn ; he ran this for ten years in connection with the farms and it became well known. In 1907 he located on his present place at Rio Dell, where he follows stock-raising.

The marriage of Mr. Barkdull occurred in 1888, uniting him with Miss Minnie Brown, a native of Humboldt County, and the daughter of Thomas Brown, of Grizzly Bluff, one of the pioneers of the county, going through the Indian wars, having come to California across the plains in 1854. Mr. and Mrs. Barkdull live very quietly at their home at Rio Dell, where they dispense a charming, old-fashioned hospitality, and have many warm friends and ac­quaintances in their section of the county. In his political affiliations Mr. Barkdull is a republican and is one of the influential men of the vicinity. He is well informed on all questions of the day and is an independent and force­ful thinker, being especially well posted on all local issues of importance. He was made a Mason in Eel River Lodge No. 147, F. & A. M., and with his wife is a member of Rohnerville Chapter, No. 76, 0. E. S.

 

JAMES THOMAS CLEARY.—The popular young manager of the Metropolitan Redwood Lumber Company's store at Metropolitan, James Thomas Cleary, is a man of brain and brawn, clever, capable, and energetic, with a pleasant and genial manner which draws and holds friends and so adds greatly to his value to the company in his present capacity. His bus­iness ability is well above the average and his management of the company store is capable and efficient, it having been especially profitable under his supervision. He is also postmaster at Metropolitan, this office occupying space in the store building. Mr. Cleary received his appointment as post­master April 1, 1911, and since that time has discharged the duties of this office with ability and dispatch. Both he and his wife are deservedly popu­lar with a wide circle of friends and are among the most prominent people in this thriving little town.

Mr. Cleary is a native of Tennessee, having been born at Aetna, March 17, 1888. He remained in Tennessee until he was six years of age, and then went with his parents to Marquette, Michigan, where they remained until he was sixteen. In 1904 they came to California, locating first at Sacramento, living later for a time in Los Angeles, and eventually coming to Humboldt County and settling at Eureka. Young James Cleary attended school first in Michigan, and later in Sacramento and Los Angeles, completing his edu­cation by a course in the Eureka Business College. His ability as a stenog­rapher and bookkeeper secured him his first position with the. Metropolitan Redwood Lumber Company, and his capabilities and careful application to business resulted in his promotion to his present position of responsibility and trust ; Mr. Cleary has enjoyed some very unique experiences for a young man, being something of an adventurer and having traveled extensively. In 1906 he joined a whaling expedition bound for the Arctic, shipping from San Francisco for the Herschild Islands. They went a thousand miles into the Arctic and during their cruise of nine months secured six large bow-head whales. That the trip was one of thrilling experiences and narrow escapes goes without saying.

The marriage of Mr. Cleary occurred. in July, 1911, uniting him with Miss Alice L. Thompson, a native of Humboldt county, and the daughter of Robert Thompson, of Metropolitan, one of the well known farmers of this part of the county, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work. Mr. and Mrs. Cleary have two children, Leota Jane and James David. Mr. Cleary is a Democrat in his political associations, and takes an active and influential part in all local affairs. He is a man of sound judgment and advanced views and follows the dictates of independent thought rather than strict party lines, and is always to be found advocating local progress, social betterment and improvements of a permanent character, building for the future rather than for the present. He has always been active in fraternal affairs, and is a member of the Eureka Lodge of Elks, and also of the Knights of Columbus, at Eureka.

 

ROBERT THOMPSON.—Although for many years prominently associated with the lumber interests of Humboldt and Butte counties, Robert Thompson turned farmer more than a quarter of a century ago, and since that time has been a tiller of the soil, meeting with splendid success. He purchased his first •farm in this county in 1888 at Pepperwood, which he sold in 1892, and soon thereafter bought his present place near Metropolitan, on what was then known as McDiarmidt prairie. He is engaged in general farming and dairying, keeping a string of high grade Jersey cows, and a registered Jersey bull. He is a patron of the Grizzly Bluff creamery, and separates his cream at home. His home place is one of the most attractive in the vicinity, and all the improvements have been made by Mr. Thompson. At the time of purchase the land was entirely unimproved and largely covered with a heavy growth of pepperwood trees. It is now under a high state of cultivation, with comfortable dwelling, barns, and other improvements.

Mr. Thompson is a native of Canada, born in Huron County, Ontario, where he was reared and educated. His father was Robert Thompson, a native of County Antrim, Ireland, where he met and married Miss Sarah Morrow, also of Irish birth and parentage. They became the parents of seven children, three born in Ireland and four in Canada, Robert, the subject of this sketch being the fifth born. They were : Rachael, who was married to Andrew Elliott, and died in Canada in 1913, leaving six children; W. J., a carriage-maker and horseman, who owned several of the finest trotting horses in Canada, where he died in 1913; Margaret, who was the wife of John Thompson, and died, leaving a family of five children ; Dora, now the widow of Frank Sannigan, residing in New London, Canada ; Robert ; Samuel, a farmer of Huron County, Canada; and Thomas, deceased. Robert was educated in the public schools of Ontario, where the parents continued to live during their lifetime, the father passing away at the age of seventy-two, the mother outliving him by ten years, and dying at the age of seventy-five.

It was in the fall of 1875 that Mr. Thompson finally left Ontario and came to the United States, coming at once to California and locating in Butte County, where for nine years he was identified with the lumber interests of that section. While there he was married to Miss Augusta Lemm, the daughter of Charles and Mary (Stealman) Lemm, both natives of Ger­many. Her parents were married in New York state and came to California about 1858, locating in Butte county, where her father engaged in teaming and freighting over the mountains, going from Butte county to Nevada. Her father died in Butte County at the age of fifty-eight years, her mother living to be sixty-five. There were ten children in their family, only three of whom are now living, Mrs. Thompson being the fifth born. She has borne her husband three children, all now residing in Humboldt county, where they are well and favorably known: Albert, married to Miss Bertha John­ston, is engaged in dairying on the home place; Charles is a partner with J. C. Brunner in the Elite Garage at Ferndale; and Alice is the wife of James T. Cleary, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this edition, he being the manager of the Metropolitan Redwood Lumber Company's store, and also postmaster at Metropolitan.

After his marriage Mr. Thompson came to Humboldt county, where he was in the employ of John Vance in the lumber business on Mad River, until 1887, when he came to Scotia, his being the first family to settle there. He was with the Pacific Lumber Company in various positions of responsibility for many years and was well acquainted with the early men of the company, including Messrs. Curtiss, Rigby, Paxton, and others. In the spring of 1888 he bought the Barkdull place at Pepperwood, this being his first ranch in Humboldt county. He improved this property and continued to make it his home until 1892, when he sold it and bought twenty acres on the McDiarmidt prairie, which, together with an additional five acres bought later, form his present home place. He usually votes the Republican ticket, but is essentially independent in his inclinations, and forms his own opinions as to what will be most beneficial to the community.

 

ROLLA BRYANT, SR.—The Bryant family is one of great refinement and Rolla Bryant was of the same blood as the famous poet, William Cullen Bryant. He was born in Richmond, Vt., July 15, 1828, and was the son of Seth Thomas and Lodoski (Pierce) Bryant. Until the age of twenty, he lived on his father's farm and then followed the carpenter's trade until 1852. With his eldest brother, Calvin, he then started west, sailing from New York on May 2, 1852, and landing at Aspinwall on May 14. Traveling by train, flat-boat and on foot, they reached Panama, where they remained three days, leaving there on a steamship which brought them to San Fran­cisco on June 16.

Mr. Bryant engaged in mining at the North Yuba River, twelve miles below Downieville. It was here that he met Chris Luther who became his lifelong friend. Together they went to Camptonville, Yuba County, where they operated a hydraulic mine, in those days a dangerous business, and Mr. Bryant and a companion once almost lost their lives by the caving in of the banks while engaged in this work. Mr. Bryant could claim the dis­tinction of being the builder of the first tunnel for hydraulic mining in the state of California. This tunnel was five hundred feet in length and sup­ported by heavy timbers to prevent accidents which were of common occurrence.

In 1856 Mr. Bryant married Elizabeth Josephine Mallory who was born in Pennsylvania and had spent some of the earliest years of her life in Tazewell County, Ill. Here her father, William Mallory, had practiced law and engaged in farming, dying when his little daughter was only five years old. Her mother, Malissa Stephens Mallory, left her in a school in Jefferson, Grant County, Wis., and crossed the plains to California in 1852, settling at Camptonville, in Yuba county. Here her daughter joined her in 1854, having traveled across the plains at the age of fourteen with a brother and a number of friends. In 1856 the mother moved to Humboldt County, where she was married to Seth Chisholm, an old-time supervisor of the county.

Mr. and Mrs. Rolla Bryant were the parents of eleven children: Cyrus Edwin, a farmer, owns a part of the old Bryant place; William Mallory, blacksmith and dairyman, lives at the Bryant homestead, and has three children and three grandchildren, his children being Mrs. Eva Garner of Ferndale, Rolla Theodore of Alton, and Maimie Bryant Frost of Fortuna; George Ralph, the third child of Rolla Bryant, died at the age of six years; Albert B., farming part of the old homestead, married in Kansas City, Mrs. Louise Wilson ; Adelinda Isabel, died at the age of nineteen ; Orlena Malissa married E. E. Cornell of Ferndale, foreman on the state highway, and mechanic and filer, they have two children, Edwin Bryant and Lathor ; Della Josephine, wife of Charles Luther, manager of Russ Market, Eureka; Stella M. died at five years of age; Seth died in infancy; Rolla, Jr., and Edna Leona live at home.

After his marriage Mr. Bryant continued to live in Yuba county for two years. Then in 1858, with his wife and one child, he sailed from San Francisco for Humboldt County. Owing to rough weather, they were landed at Trinidad, whence they went at once to the Eel River Valley, and Mr. Bryant bought the farm which continued to be his home until his death. He died at his home at Alton, on the ninth of April, 1911, and is survived by his widow and seven children. Mr. Bryant also left a sister, Mrs. Eliza Drew, of Boston, Mass., and three brothers, George E. Bryant of Lowell, Mass.; James H. Bryant of Williston, Vt., and William K. Bryant of Richmond, Vt.

Mr. Bryant was charitable and just to his fellow men, and in business he was the soul of honor. His is a name that will be remembered and respected by his friends and by the dwellers in this western country which he helped to build.

 

SHERMAN A. MILLER.—Although a resident of Scotia but a com­paratively few years, Sherman Miller, now justice of the peace, is one of the best known men in the township and exceptionally popular. He is a Republican and takes an active interest in the affairs of his party, whether local, state or national, and is an acknowledged power in the political sit­uation at Scotia. He is also well known in a business way and stands very high in commercial circles.

Mr. Miller is a native of Tennessee, born at Blue Springs, Hamilton County, May 5, 1865. When he was three years of age his parents removed to Kansas, locating in Wyandotte County, where the father engaged in farm­ing. There Sherman grew to young manhood, attending the public schools of the district and assisting his father on the farm. In 1887, when he was twenty-two years of age, he came to Oregon, in company with his father, and there found employment as a farm hand for a time, and later went into business for himself in Portland, where he owned and conducted a barber shop, which he opened in 1889. Later, in 1891, he went to Hillsboro, where he also owned and conducted a barber shop, meeting with great success, and remaining until 1895. He has been at various places on the coast for periods of varying length, generally working at his trade of barber, having spent some time at Seattle and Ellensburg, Wash., Portland and Hillsboro, Ore., San Francisco, Oakland and Scotia. Mr. Miller came to California in 1900, and has spent most of the intervening time in this state. He owns a fine residence property in Oakland, where he made his home for some time, and where he was married to Miss Zua Guider, of San Francisco, in 1907. Mr. and Mrs. Miller have five children as follows: Pearly, Edith A., Arvilla, Ila and Sherma.

When Mr. Miller first came to Scotia he engaged in the barber business, opening a small jewelry department as a side line. In this latter line he prospered, and in 1906 he went to San Francisco and learned the watch repairing business, and on returning he enlarged his stock of jewelry and has since that time made this his specialty. He now carries a complete line of jewelry, silverware and watches and also handles the Eastman kodaks. His stock is all high grade and every article that he sells is guaranteed to be up to standard and quality. This stock is valued at more than $4,000.

Mr. Miller is very popular with his many friends and political constit­uents, and is especially well liked in his official capacity. He is a member of the Woodmen of the World, being affiliated with the lodge at Seattle.

 

J. O. PERMENTER.—Descended from old Southern families on both his paternal and maternal side, and a native of Texas himself, J. 0. Permenter has won his way up in the lumber industry in California through sheer force of character, industry and application. He now occupies the responsible position of mill foreman for mill "B", of the Pacific Lumber Company, at Scotia, where he has been employed for a number of years, his present posi­tion being the result of the splendid service rendered by him in minor capac­ities for this company, his promotions following each other with unfailing regularity. Mill "B" is one of the largest lumber mills on the coast, having a capacity of 200,000 feet per ten-hour day. It is also one of the most thor­oughly modern and best equipped of the coast mills, and acknowledged to be the best managed and smoothest running as well.

Mr. Permenter was born in Moody, Bell County, Texas, September 20, 1883. His father, M. F. Permenter, was a native of Mississippi and descended from an old South Carolina family, while his mother, Sarah E. Barefoot, was a native of Arkansas, her family being originally from Mississippi. They were the parents of a family of seven children, six sons and one daughter, the subject of this sketch being the eldest born. The father was killed in an accident at Bakersfield, February 20, 1914, at that time being a resident of Lerdo, Kern County, this state, where the mother still makes her home. He was fifty-seven at the time of his death. The boyhood days of J. 0. Permenter were spent in Texas, and when eighteen years of age he removed with his family to New Mexico where they engaged in farming. When he was twenty years of age he left the family environs and came to California, locating in Humboldt County, where he engaged in the lumbering industry. He was first with the Northern Redwood Company at Korbel, and later went to Glendale where he was with the Minor Mill and Lumber Company until November, 1904, when illness in his family necessitated his return to New Mexico. He remained there until August, 1905, when he returned to California, locating at Bakersfield, where he found employment in the machine shops at Kern, working for the Southern Pacific Railroad. In April of the following year, however, he returned to Humboldt County and again was engaged by 'the Northern Redwood Company at Korbel where he went to work in the lumber mill. From that time until he came to Scotia and entered the employ of the Pacific Lumber Company in April, 1910, Mr. Permenter was variously occupied in different capacities with different lum­ber companies of Humboldt county, always being promoted for the quality and quantity of his service and leaving one position only to accept a better one with another company. He was with the Hammond Lumber Company in 1908, at Sonoma, with the Minor Mill and Lumber Company at Glendale, then with the Little River Valley Lumber Company, at Little River, from which position of manager of the wharves, he came to Scotia and entered the employ of the Pacific Lumber Company, first as night foreman of the old mill yards, and when mill "B" was completed in the fall of 1910 he was transferred to that place, where he has since remained. For a time he was at the sorting table, and after two and one-half years he was made foreman, which position he has since filled with more than ordinary satisfaction to the management, and also to the men employed under him. Mr. Permenter knew no one when he came to Humboldt county, and his success has been in no way due to influence or preference, but has been based alone on ability and application to business.

The marriage of Mr. Permenter took place in Eureka, January 1, 1911, uniting him with Miss Bea Bolsen, of that city. They have become the parents of one child, a daughter, Muriel. Mr. Permenter is very popular in Scotia where he has many warm friends. He is an influential figure in the fraternal life of the community, being a member of several of the most im­portant lodges, including the Knights of Pythias, Scotia Lodge, No. 310, of which he is chancellor-commander, and also Odd Fellows, in Blue Lake Lodge, No. 347, of which he is past noble grand. In his political views he is a Democrat and a strong party man. He is broad minded and progressive, is deeply appreciative of any movement that will work for the betterment of the community, and in all local questions of public interest he gives his aid to the right men and measures rather than the strict party endorsement.

 

ROBERT McINTOSH.—A native of Restigouche county, New Bruns­wick, where he was born July 24, 1859, Robert McIntosh is of Scotch de­scent, the son of John McIntosh, a native of Perthshire, Scotland, and his wife Catherine (Dutch) McIntosh, who was born in New Brunswick, of Scotch parents. The grandfather, Robert McIntosh, was a ship builder of Scotland, who brought his family to New Brunswick when the father of Robert McIntosh was but eighteen years of age. Having learned his father's trade, the young man continued in that occupation with his father in the new country, continuing alone in the business for many years after his father's decease, during the latter part of his life being engaged in farming. His wife, coming to California in later years, died in Eureka, this state.

Of the family of seven children, Robert McIntosh was the third oldest, and was brought up on the home farm and educated in the public schools of the neighborhood. In the autumn of the year 1879 he came to Wisconsin, where he secured employment in the woods, and also across the line in the Michigan woods. In 1880 he removed to Atchison County, Mo., and in the spring of 1881 to Placer county, Cal., later going to Sacramento in this state, in the fall of the same year moving to Eureka, Cal., where he was employed in logging in the woods, for many years holding the place of head log fixer. Meantime he had located a homestead of one hundred sixty acres on Prairie creek, above Orick, in the same county, where he has since made his home, and began at that time to make improvements thereon; finally proving up on the property about ten years ago, he resigned his work in the woods and has since spent his time on his ranch, which consists of one hundred fifty-two acres, he having sold eight acres of the estate. Mr. McIntosh is a busy man, for besides having improved his homestead, he has erected a blacksmith's shop on his land, where he does much work in that line, as well as engaging in the raising of stock upon his ranch. Political interests also occupy a part of his time and attention, he being well known as a loyal supporter of the principles of the Republican party, and he enjoys the esteem and good will of all with whom he comes in contact.

 

GIOCONDO CELLI.—A native of Italy, where he was born in the city of Pescia, province of Lucca, in Toscano, January 18, 1876, Giocondo Celli, now the proprietor of the New Colombo Hotel, at Eureka, Cal., an enterpris­ing man, liberal and well liked in the California town where he has chosen to make his home, was the son of Riccardo Celli, an Italian farmer, and was brought up as a farmer's boy in that country, receiving his education in the public schools and working on his father's farm until mustered into the Italian army. There he served the required time and was honorably dis­charged, and, having heard good reports of better opportunities in America from countrymen returning from the United States, Mr. Celli was seized with a desire to try his fortune in the new world.

In 1902, therefore, Mr. Celli came to Chicago, Ill., where he was em­ployed on railroad construction work, three years later removing to San Francisco, Cal., thence going to Eureka, where he immediately found work with the Santa Fe, now the Northwestern Pacific Railroad company, and for the three years following was engaged in construction work on the Scotia bluff, which has a record of being a very dangerous piece of work for the men employed thereon. Mr. Celli himself had several narrow escapes from being buried by the sliding of the overburden during the construction work, when slides thereabouts rendered the safety of the men most precarious. For a while Mr. Celli ran a hotel at Shively, Cal., and then made a trial of ranching, but deciding on hotel management as the most profitable occupa­tion for himself, in 1913 he purchased the New Colombo Hotel, on First Street, Eureka, of which he has since remained the proprietor, and in his chosen line of business has met with the success due his endeavors and enjoys the esteem of his townspeople.

The marriage of Mr. Celli took place in his native land, uniting him with Miss Ida Fantozi, who was also born in that country, and they became the parents of seven children, namely, Renato, Inez, Annie, Argia, Riccardo, Giocondo and Ida.

 

BATTISTE TOMASINI.—Having been born and brought up on his father's farm in Italy, where he became thoroughly conversant with dairying as it is carried on in that country, it is small wonder that Battiste Tomasini, now a resident of Trinidad, Cal., has brought to the new country with him a proficiency in that art which has easily placed him at the head in that line of occupation in his district. The father of Mr. Tomasini is Pietro Tomasini, a farmer and dairyman in the Alps, where he is still actively engaged in the making of butter and cheese on a large scale, also serving as one of the town trustees, his wife being Santa Bachetti Tomasini. Of their nine children, Battiste is the third in age, and until he had passed his seventeenth birthday he remained in his native country, where he attended the local schools and learned the dairying trade from his father.

In 1903 Mr. Tomasini removed to San Francisco and came on imme­diately to Humboldt county, upon his arrival finding employment in a dairy at Arcata, after which he came to Eureka. For two years he worked in the woods, but determining to carry on the dairy business independently, this being the occupation in which he felt the greatest interest, he rented a ranch at Loleta, Cal., where for a year he conducted a dairy consisting of fifty cows. Selling the lease on this property, he returned to Italy for a visit to his old home, remaining there nine months, during which time he was mar­ried, on July 27, 1910, to Miss Regina Bonomi, also a native of Brescia and a daughter of Bartolo Bonomi, a farmer in that district, Mr. Tomasini him­self having been born in Liverno, Brescia, on February 27, 1885. In Sep­tember, 1910, taking with him his bride, he left his native land for California once more, coming direct to Humboldt county, which had been his home during his former stay in California. Here, in December, 1910, in partner­ship with Paul Grazioli, he leased the John Plitsch place at Stone Lagoon, where the two partners are now operating a large dairy, milking eighty cows, and also carry on stockraising to a large extent. Here, on the ranch of twenty acres, which is nearly all bottom land, they are meeting with much success in their business, being enterprising men provided with the best modern means for carrying on the same. The milk from their ranch is separated by gas engine power, the cream being shipped to the California Central Creamery Company at Eureka.

In his political interests Mr. Tomasini is a supporter of the Republican party. He is the father of two sons, namely James and Peter, and in his adopted home in California is well liked and respected as a progressive man in his chosen line of business.

 

EDWIN HORACE CAMERON.—Although a resident of California since the year 1868, having made his name well known in the lumber indus­try in this state, Edwin Horace Cameron is of Canadian birth and, as his name implies, of Scotch ancestry, the name of Cameron being one that is prominent in the history of Scotland. In that country his father, George W. Cameron, was born in the town of Thurso in 1818, his grandfather, John Cameron, also of Thurso, having been an adjutant in the English army, stationed in Canada, where he resided with his family until the time of his death. His son, George W., was only a lad at the time of his coming to Canada. where he received his education in the public schools and followed lumbering, first as superintendent of one of the Gilmour Company's mills at the town of Hull, and later, with his brother, John 0., building a saw mill and engaging in the manufacture of lumber at Thurso, Que., a place which they named from the town of their birth in Scotland, and where they made their home, also erecting and operating a mill at North Nation, Que. A large lumber manufacturer for his time, George W. Cameron continued in that business until his death, amassing what was considered a fortune in those days. He was known as a kind, liberal and enterprising man, philan­thropic, in that, besides educating his own children well, he also provided many other young men with the means of securing a college education. In his religious associations, he was a member of the Baptist Church. The wife of George W. Cameron was Frances Baldwin, a native of the state of Connecticut, and they were the parents of six sons and one daughter, of whom only three are now living, Edwin Horace being the only one of the family making his home in California.

The third in order of birth, Edwin Horace Cameron was born in Hull, a suburb of Ottawa, Can., on July 30, 1848, and grew up in Thurso, receiving his primary education in the local public schools. He then spent two years in the Department of Arts at Woodstock College, Woodstock, Ont., prepara­tory to entering McGill University in 1865, where he continued his studies until the close of his sophomore year. During that time he also attended the Military college at Montreal, where he was graduated September 21, 1867, being commissioned ensign in the Thurso Infantry Company, later be­ing promoted to the position of lieutenant, and still later to that of captain. At odd times during these years Mr. Cameron acquired a working knowledge of the Morse code of telegraphy, he being a person who never let slip an opportunity for increasing his fund of practical knowledge. In 1867 he entered the employ of the Ottawa River Navigation Company as purser, and it was about this time that he became interested in California, through his acquaintance with D. W. McCallum, superintendent of the Caspar Lumber Company at Caspar, Mendocino county, Cal. Determining to come to the Pacific coast, Mr. Cameron made the trip by way of the Union Pacific Rail­road, the extreme connections being made by means of a hand car, whereby he arrived in San Francisco in July of the year 1868. The first employment of Mr. Cameron after coming to California was with the Caspar Lumber Company, at the town of Caspar, where he spent a year in their store, -after­ward accepting a position in the store of William H. Kelly, in Mendocino City, where he remained for some time. During the building of the Pacific Telegraph Company's lines from Petaluma to Eureka, Cal., Mr. Cameron was in the employ of that firm, at first on the survey, coming to the city of Eureka with the survey corps in 1870, after which he became electrician on the line, later being made operator at Mendocino, then at Navarro, and then at Cuffey's Cove, during which time he was also engaged in teaching begin­ners in that branch and installing offices. In the summer of 1874 Mr. Cam­eron was stationed at Eureka, and later spent two years as line repairer, with his headquarters at Usal, Cal. About the year 1880 he severed his connection with the company, and secured employment as a clerk for George S. McPhee at Westport, in 1881 forming a partnership with T. H. Smith in that town, under the firm name of Smith & Cameron engaging in general merchandise, also as contractors of ties and bark, which were shipped in schooners to San Francisco and southern points. Six years later the part­nership was dissolved, Mr. Cameron retaining the store while Mr. Smith assumed charge of the outside business, and in 1890 Mr. Cameron sold the store to assume the duties of deputy county assessor for northern Mendocino county under W. P. McFaul, his district comprising the territory from Fort Bragg to the Humboldt county line. This position he held for a period ot eight years, during this time, in 1892 and 1893, also being bookkeeper for the De Haven Lumber Company, afterwards holding the same position with the Cottaneva Lumber Company at Rockport, and for a time being in charge ot the wharf and store of Ray Brothers at Shelter Cove. Removing to Eureka in 1899, Mr. Cameron there became salesman in the yard for McKay & Com­pany, at the Occidental Mill, later accepting a position with the Hammond Lumber Company, where for some years he had charge of the telephone lines, resigning there in order to become bookkeeper for J. A. Cottrell's moulding mill, a position which he filled acceptably for five years, since which time he has been engaged as salesman for the Oregon Nursery Com­pany.

While engaged in mercantile pursuits at Westport, Mr. Cameron was married, on December 25, 1884, to Miss Nettie Hickman, a native of Montecello, Ind., the daughter of Benjamin Franklin Hickman, who was born in Jasper county, Ind., December 6, 1840, the son of Hiram and Eleanor (White) Hickman. Previous to the Civil war, Benjamin F. Hickman had removed to Grant County, Wis., and there he was among the first to respond to the call for troops, enlisting in Company K of the Twentieth Wisconsin Regi­ment of Volunteer Infantry, serving three years and being wounded at the battle of Prairie Grove, Mo. He was married in Rosedale, Ind., on Novem­ber 22, 1864, to Jennie B. Fisk, the daughter of John J. and Elizabeth A. (Page) Fisk. Mr. and Mrs. B. F. Hickman came to California with their two little daughters, Nettie and Nona, in 1872, the father thereafter following the trade of harnessmaker at Bloomfield, Sonoma county, till 1882, when he located at Westport, where he engaged in contracting and building until the time of his death, which occurred on December 1, 1896. A violinist of much ability, his services were continually sought for parties and dances, where he enjoyed much popularity. Since his death, his wife resides in Eureka. Their daughter, now Mrs. Cameron, a cultivated and refined woman, was brought up and educated in Westport. Mr. and Mrs. Cameron are the parents of four children, namely, Edwin Franklin, who took a four years' course in civil engineering at the University of California, and is now in the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad, making his home in Berkeley ; Mrs. Agnes B. Carlson; Mrs. Vreda E. Hess; and Guy 0. Cameron, who is with the Northwestern Pacific Railroad Company, and, like his two sisters, makes his home in Eureka.

 

GEORGE MURDOCK SCOTT.—One of the upbuilders of the city of Trinidad, in Humboldt county, Cal., is George Murdock Scott, who, since the year 1880, has been a resident of this part of California, whence he came from his home in far-away Nova Scotia.

It was in May of the year 1880 that Mr. Scott arrived in California, making his home for some time thereafter with John Vance, in Essex, Humboldt county, in 1894 removing to Trinidad, where he bought out the Tom Fitz blacksmith shop and continued in business there for eight years. After selling out his business in that line, Mr. Scott gave up blacksmithing, and since April 7, 1907, when his wife was appointed postmaster at Trinidad, he has acted as assistant, and takes an active part in the affairs of the office, being also a member of the board of city trustees of Trinidad and president of the board, or mayor of the town. When he came to Trinidad, there was no public water supply in the place, the water being brought from springs and pumps by the residents, and he realized the great need of a water sys­tem. He and his wife are now the principal owners of the Trinidad Water and Supply Company, a company which was incorporated on June 29, 1908, of which Mr. Callstrom is president, Mr. Scott vice-president and superin­tendent, and his wife secretary, and by the efforts of this company the waters of old Mill creek have been brought to the city, providing a sufficient water supply with a pressure of sixty pounds. In order to do this, it was neces­sary to buy a right of way across the Hammond Lumber Company's land, and a galvanized iron pipe line was laid, one and three-quarters miles in length to reach the city. It will thus be seen that Mr. Scott is a public-spirited man who takes an intense interest in the welfare of the district where he has chosen to make his home. He is also the owner of property at Trinidad, and he and his wife are known for their enterprise and liberality.

The grandfather of Mr. Scott was a Scotchman, who brought his family with a colony from his native land to Nova Scotia, where he became a land­owner and farmer, his son James, the father of Mr. Scott, having been born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and come with his family to the new country, where he was a farmer and also blacksmith. Mr. Scott's mother, formerly Margaret Nicholson, was born in Gallowayshire, Scotland, and removed with her par­ents to Nova Scotia at the same time with the Scott family; her parents died there, and there also took place her marriage to James Scott. Of their eight children, George Murdock Scott was the youngest, and was brought up on the farm, educated in the public schools and learned the blackmith's trade under his father, working with him until seventeen years of age. At that time he left home, going to Spring Hill Junction, where his sister, Mrs. Har­rison, lived, and where he became a brakeman on the Inter-Colonial Railroad, but eighteen months later met with an accident which resulted in the loss of his left foot. It was a few years after his recovery from this operation that

Mr. Scott removed to California, where he has continued to make his home ever since. From Nova Scotia, where his birth occurred in the town of Pugwash, in Cumberland county, January 19, 1859, to Humboldt county, Califor­nia, where he has spent the latter part of his life, is indeed a long journey, and one which has taken him through varied scenes on the American conti­nent, but that Mr. Scott has never regretted the change is proved by the active interest taken by both himself and his wife in the affairs of the Cali­fornia city where they make their home.

 

PAUL GRAZIOLI.—From Italy to California is a long journey and a complete change in modes of living for a boy of eighteen years, but this has been the experience of Paul Grazioli, an ambitious Italian youth who left his native home to see what life held for him in a new country, whither many of his countrymen had preceded him to seek their fortunes. Mr. Grazioli was born in Liverno, Brescia, Italy, on April 28, 1888, the son of Stephen Grazioli, a farmer of that district, and received a good education in the pub­lic schools of that country. Leaving home in 1906, he set out for San Francisco, Cal., where he arrived, as numerous of his compatriots had done before, to seek employment in a new land. After two months spent at Petaluma, Cal., he went to Monterey, in the same state, where he was employed as a gardener upon the beautiful grounds of the Hotel Del Monte, an establish­ment which is famous the country over as a favorite resort for tourists. Re­turning to San Francisco, Mr. Grazioli worked there for eight months in a paint factory, in June, 1908, removing to Humboldt County, where he was employed in dairying at McKinleyville, and later at Bayside, after which he was employed for a period of eighteen months by two different dairies at Loleta. Having acquired the necessary experience for independent work and also saved his money during the years of his employment by others, Mr. Grazioli, in the autumn of the year 1910, formed a partnership with Battiste Tomasini, a native of the same country as himself, and also making a success of his business endeavors in California, and the two men, under the firm name of Tomasini & Grazioli, rented the John Plitsch ranch at Stone Lagoon in the same county, where they have since that time been engaged in conducting a large and prosperous dairy of eighty cows. Aside from being an industrious and energetic dairyman and making a success of this line of business, Mr. Grazioli also has engaged in stockraising upon the ranch with his partner, the two being the possessors of a fine herd of cattle.

Although actively engaged in his business, with a faithfulness of endea­vor which is bringing him a large measure of success, Mr. Grazioli yet finds time to interest himself in the political affairs of his adopted home, and in this connection is an upholder of the principles of the Republican party.

 

JAMES EMANUEL MATHEWS.—To an exceptional degree the youth of James Emanuel Mathews represented a contest against obstacles, a strug­gle with hardships and a constant familiarity with privation. When only four years of age he was orphaned by the death of his father, and thus was added to New York City, where he was born on the 22d of February, 1845, another poor boy, orphaned and friendless, illy prepared to cope with the difficulties of existence and deprived of any satisfactory educational advantages. As a newsboy selling the Brooklyn Eagle he earned his first money and he con­tinued with that paper for a number of years. It was the custom of the boys, while waiting for the Eagle to be issued each day at three o'clock, to go to the Columbia street hill and play "shinney." It was also the custom of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, then at the height of his fame, to pass along the street about that hour of day. One afternoon in 1858 Mr. Mathews accidentally struck the famous minister with a shinney block. At once Mr. Beecher seized the boy by the coat collar and hurried him to the top of the hill, where he put him into the hands of a policeman, under arrest for the offense. However, the officer released him and dropped the charges, upon hearing from witnesses an account of the affair and learning that it was entirely the result of accident.

During the Civil war Mr. Mathews was employed on steamers running from New York to Havana, Vera Cruz, Aspinwall, New Orleans, Galveston and Charleston, S. C. While in Havana in 1864 a lady offered him the situa­tion of overseer of her plantation in Matanzas, Cuba, but he declined, feeling that the position entailed too much responsibility for one of his youth and lack of experience. As his ship cruised on the coast of Florida early in 1865 a gunboat, painted lead color, was sighted and passed. On returning from Havana the same boat was seen, but this time it was painted black and carried its flag at half-mast. Investigation as to the reason gave the first news of the assassination of President Lincoln to the crew of the vessel homeward bound. On casting anchor in the harbor of New York they found an immense throng of people forming a line that extended from the City Hall to the Battery, all eager for a last glimpse of the face of their martyred president, then lying in state in the. City Hall of the metropolis of the east.

An uneventful period of employment as a glassblower in a factory did not quench the love of adventure innate in the young New Yorker, so that he was ready, at an hour's notice, to set sail from his city December 10, 1867, on a steamer bound for Panama. Thence he sailed up the Pacific on the steamer Constitution, which landed in San Francisco January 23, 1868. For some time he was employed on steamers out of San Francisco to other ports of the Pacific Ocean. Later he engaged briefly in selling charts of Grant and Colfax and Seymour and Blair. From San Francisco he came to Eureka in March of 1871. Early experiences around newspaper offices and later adventures in the world peculiarly adapted him for the book business, in which he has since engaged. Recently he celebrated his fortieth anni­versary of business association with Eureka. Although his stock is mainly books and stationery it is not limited to these lines, but is so varied that one in search of some unusual novelty, not to be found elsewhere, is frequently advised to inquire at his store, with the result that the article desired is often found there. The first name of the shop was The Little Store Around the Corner, which came to Mr. Mathews through early familiarity with the historic church around the corner in New York City. Later the business was referred to as The Old Curiosity Shop, but with the frequent accessions to the stock and a change of location to the Gross block, one of the substantial and modern buildings of Eureka, the name of the business has been changed to The Home of Music, Song and Story. The shop ranks as the pioneer piano house of Humboldt County, and the sale of pianos has been an impor­tant accessory of the business for many years. Recently Mr. Mathews came into prominence through the fact that, after having represented the San Francisco Examiner in Eureka for twenty-seven years or more, as a reward for continued and faithful service he was presented with a handsome en­graved gold watch by William Randolph Hearst. Politically he is a life­long Democrat, devoted to the party. Interest in his adopted locality ap­pears in the fact that he is a charter member of the Chamber of Commerce. His fraternities are the Eagles and Foresters. Besides his business property and home in Eureka, the family own four thousand acres of timber land, mostly located north of Eureka. His marriage was solemnized in San Fran­cisco, his bride being Delia Lineger, who was born in Australia but has lived in California from the age of six months. They are the parents of three children, Ellenor Rose, Mary Gertrude and Florence Catherine, all of Eureka.

 

ISAAC MOXON.—Although not a native of the United States, Isaac Moxon has for the greater part of his life been a resident here, and for almost thirty-five years has lived in Humboldt county, Cal. He is as stanch and loyal a son of the Stars and Stripes as may be found in any place, and during his years spent on the coast has been an active factor in the building up and development of his community, where he is today one of the foremost citi­zens. His undertakings have prospered greatly, and although he arrived in Humboldt county with only $700, he now possesses hundreds of acres of rich lands, many head of stock and wide fields of grain, and his wealth cannot be estimated in dollars and cents, so rapidly are his holdings increasing in value.

Mr. Moxon is the son of Henry and Abigail (White) Moxon. His father, a native of Nova Scotia, born in 1826 at Shipanacady, of English descent. He followed farming and lumbering in Carleton County, New Brunswick, the greater part of his life, and in both enterprises was very successful. His mother was a native of Hudson, Me., but removed to New Brunswick with her parents, where she married, the officiating clergyman being Parson Harton. She became the mother of fourteen children, four of whom died very young, and ten living to grow to manhood and womanhood. Of these six are living at the present time (1914). Isaac, the fourth oldest in order of birth, was born in Shipanacady, Nova Scotia, June 15, 1857, but in the fall of 1858 removed to New Brunswick with his parents. He resided on his father's farm near Woodstock, New Brunswick, where as a child he at­tended the public schools. Later he attended the best private school in the neighborhood, until he was sixteen years of age, when he stopped school and worked with his father on the farm. When he was twenty-one, he de­termined to come to the United States, where reports led him to believe con­ditions were better and wages higher. Accordingly he went first to Minne­apolis, and from there went to work in the sugar pine woods logging, on the Moose river, remaining for three or four years. The demand for men on the Pacific coast was very great at that time, and the wages paid were even better than those received along the Northern Mississippi, and so in April, 1881, Mr. Moxon determined to again move westward, this time choosing California as his stopping place. He arrived in Humboldt County, May 31, 1881, and went immediately to work in the woods, logging in the lumber camps, where he remained for a few years. The first year he was in the employ of Kirk, Minor & Culberg on Warm creek, and also worked for Frank Graham, all pioneer lumbermen of Humboldt County.

In 1884, Mr. Moxon met with a serious accident, which changed the trend of his life, determining him, as it did, to give up the life of the woods and take to agricultural and farming pursuits. A heavy log slid and crushed his leg, making active work in the lumber camps out of the question for a long time. It was then that he purchased thirty acres of bottom land near Arcata, which is at the present time his home place. This tract is beautifully situated on the higher bottom, and so is absolutely free from danger of floods, being well above the high water line. At the time of the great flood in 1860 this property was the only one in that region that was not touched by the high waters, most of the surrounding places being completely submerged.

After purchasing this place, Mr. Moxon improved it and engaged in farming. In 1895 he began dairying with a herd of twenty-five milch cows, which he has since materially increased. When he first began farming he made a specialty of raising potatoes and grain ; has raised as high as one hundred sacks of potatoes to the acre, and as high as one hundred forty-seven bushels of barley to the acre.

Later, his business enterprises prospering, he was enabled to make addi­tional investments, and he has always chosen to put his surplus capital back into the soil. In partnership with Ralph Bull, in August, 1911, he purchased six hundred eighty acres of land on Big creek, in Trinity county, known as the Big creek ranch, upon which the partners are engaged in raising live­stock, grain and alfalfa. In 1913 they cut three crops of alfalfa from their fields, averaging over five hundred tons. Since purchasing this property they have improved the land and brought it under a high state of cultivation, while at the same time they have added to their equipment all manner of modern implements and buildings, until at the present time they have the most thoroughly modern ranch in Trinity County.

On the home place of Arcata bottom land great improvements have also been made. Also to the original thirty acres additions have been made from time to time until now it comprises one hundred twenty acres, all highly im­proved, lying two miles west of Arcata. This place is devoted to dairying (stocked with Holstein cattle), and like the larger place, has proven to be a great financial success. The place is well improved with three residences and two sets of barns, and a family orchard, and it is the consensus of opinion that these buildings are among the best and most modern in this section, and the ranch is the cleanest from weeds, in fact the only one that is free from mustard. The original $700 which Mr. Moxon brought with him to Humboldt county has grown and doubled and redoubled itself so many times, and so often, that there is no semblance of the original nest-egg left in the vast holdings of the former lumberman. Mr. Moxon is interested vitally in the dairy and creamery interests of Arcata, having been an active factor in their upbuilding, and is a stockholder in the United Creamery.

The marriage of Mr. Moxon and Miss Emma Amelia Nelson took place at the home of the bride in Arcata, December 14, 1884. Mrs. Moxon was born at Little River Beach, Humboldt County, Cal., May 22, 1859, the daugh­ter of Christian and Augusta (Bayreuther) Nelson, among the oldest settlers of Humboldt county. They came to Arcata from Little River Bridge, where they were driven and burned out by the Indians. Mrs. Moxon became the mother of five children, four sons and one daughter, all living at present save the eldest, Chris Christian, who passed away in 1887. The other mem­bers of the family are Isaac Leland, now operating the home ranch ; Leslie Augustus, and Clarence Hector, managing the Big creek ranch ; and Gertrude Elaine, who is now Mrs. Axel Anderson of Arcata. All are well and favor­ably known in Arcata, where they were born and reared, and where they now have many warm friends. The sons are all members of several prominent lodges and are well known in business and social circles. All three are members of the Masons, and I. Leland and Leslie also belong to the Odd Fellows. Isaac Moxon, Sr., is himself a prominent lodge man, and is well known as a member of the Odd Fellows and also of the Woodmen of the World. He is a veteran Odd Fellow and a member of Anniversary Lodge No. 85, I. 0. 0. F.

In politics Mr. Moxon is a Republican, as are his sons, but he has never taken an active part in political affairs. He is interested in all matters which pertain to the welfare of the community. In all his business dealings Mr. Moxon has an established reputation for honesty and square dealing that places him high in the scale of business standards and gives him a place in the affairs of his city and county that is without a superior. He is one whom young men would do well to emulate.

 

ARTHUR EARL CARTWRIGHT.—The popular fire chief and fire warden of Scotia is one of the important men in the city, and on his shoulders rests the grave responsibility of preventing the devastation of the town by fire, this being a constant danger in the lumber town, where the means of conflagration are unusually plentiful. Mr. Cartwright was elected as fire chief by the members of the various volunteer fire companies of Scotia, and was appointed fire warden by the Pacific Lumber Company, in whose employ he had been for a number of years, holding positions of trust and responsi­bility, and in every instance proving himself well worthy of their confidence.

Mr. Cartwright is a native of California, born in Yuba county, January 25, 1882. His father, Harry B. Cartwright, was a native of Pennsylvania, and came to California at the time of the gold rush in 1849, making the trip by way of the Horn. For a time he followed placer and quartz mining in Sierra county, and then went into Yuba county and took up a claim of government land and engaged in farming and stock-raising. Mining appealed to him far more strongly than farming, however, and he continued to engage in the more hazardous occupation from time to time, whenever he could be spared from his farm, for many years. He was married to Miss Maria Frances Seth, a native of Pennsylvania, who came to California via Isthmus of Panama, in 1851. They became the parents of six children, as follows : Phoebe, now the wife of Emmett Gleason, a rancher, residing on the old Cartwright place in Yuba county ; Wallace, who died at the age of eight years ; Elizabeth, who died at the age of two years ; George W., a contractor and mill builder, at present engaged with the Buhne Hardware Company of Eureka ; Edna, Mrs. Davis, residing in Seattle, Wash. ; and Arthur Earl, the subject of this sketch. The parents came to Eureka when Arthur Earl was seven years of age, and there he passed his boyhood days, attending the public schools and high school. Later he went to Everett, Wash, where he was engaged with a real estate and insurance firm, and while in their service he also studied typewriting and stenography. After a year spent at Everett he returned to Eureka in 1903, and went to work as a millwright under his brother George. At the same time he joined fire company No. 5, in Eureka, and commenced to take a great interest in the subject of fire protection. While with his brother he assisted in the building of the Holmes-Eureka mill, at Eureka, and of the Little River Redwood Company's mill at Little River, in Humboldt county. It was in November, 1910, that Mr. Cartwright eventually came to Scotia, and entered the employ of the Pacific Lumber Company as millwright superintendent, being in this position until May 1, 1914, when he assumed his duties as fire chief and fire warden, which he has since discharged with efficiency.

Mr. Cartwright was interested in the work of the fire department from the time that he came to Scotia, and is thoroughly familiar with the plans and requirements of its work. He was a charter member of the fire depart­ment known as the Scotia Volunteer Fire Department, organized in 1910, with Charles Wescott as fire chief. He became foreman of Company No. 1 in 1912. He is now carrying out the plans originally laid out by the com­pany and hopes to prevent another such disastrous fire as that which occurred in 1912 destroying the dry kilns at mill "B". New fire proof kilns have since been built, and other modern means of fire protection have been adopted by the Pacific Lumber Company recently. The fire department consists of five hose companies of twenty men each, one engine company of eight men and eight fire policemen. Each company has a foreman and an assistant foreman, and each has its own hose cart and hose house. The arrangements for the water supply are very complete and modern, and with the capable supervision of Mr. Cartwright there should be no great difficulty in handling any situation which might arise.

The marriage of Mr. Cartwright occurred in Eureka, February 23d, 1911, uniting him with Miss May Cameron, born in Eureka. Mr. Cart­wright takes an especially keen interest in all that pertains to the general welfare of Scotia, and any movement for its betterment, educationally, socially, or commercially is given his instant and hearty endorsement. He is a man of great ability, ingenuity, popularity and force of character, and is a power in the local affairs of his party, he being a stanch Republican. He is also prominent in fraternal affairs and is a member of several beneficial orders, among which may be mentioned the Odd Fellows, his membership being claimed by the Fortuna Lodge. Mr. Cartwright is also well known in Eureka, where his mother still makes her home, and where he is a frequent visitor. His father died in Yuba county a number of years ago, at the age of seventy years.

 

GUST RICKTER.—As road overseer for one of the largest road districts of this County, and one in which the road conditions are of the very best, Gust Rickter has made for himself a warm place in the hearts of the people of his district. He resides at Rio Dell, where he owns two fine farms, and his road district includes, among other places, Scotia, the principal lumber town of Humboldt county, which is admittedly the best ordered and ar­ranged, the most orderly and beautiful of all the lumber towns in this part of the state. To be road overseer in such a district gives evidence of a scientific knowledge of road-making, and above all, of not being afraid of hard work. Mr. Rickter comes from a highly respected family of Sweden, where his father, Lars Anderson, was a well-to-do farmer, owning three valuable ranches. He is a man of great ability, a capable financier and man­ager and is very prosperous. He is liberal and public spirited and contributes freely, both in time and money, to what is for the best interests of his com­munity. His sons now manage his two farms. Gust Rickter has recently erected a handsome residence at Rio Dell where he resides with his wife, who is a woman of ability and charm, and a delightful friend and hostess.

Gust Rickter was born in Skaane, Sweden, March 20, 1869, the son of Lars and Louise Anderson. Like many others of his nationality he took an old family name, Rickter, on taking naturalization papers, instead of the name Larsen. He received a common school education in his native place and when he was sixteen was apprenticed to learn farming, dairying and cheese-making, receiving a diploma as a cheese and butter-maker. His father was engaged in the nursery business, and lived to be seventy-two years of age. Gust was the youngest of a family of eight children, and when he was eighteen years of age he determined to come to America, making the journey directly from his native land to California, and going at once to Eureka, where an elder brother, Lewis Larsen, was already established. He was for a time employed at Fay's Shingle Mill at Eureka, but soon re­turned to his former occupation on the dairy farm, and was employed on various places in the county for a number of years.

The marriage of Mr. Rickter and Miss Matilda Youngberg was sol­emnized in San Francisco, October 5, 1889. Mrs. Rickter is a native of Sweden, like her husband, born in Skaane, and is the youngest of a family of twelve children. Her father was a farmer and owner of valuable property in his native land. She has borne her husband three children, two sons and a daughter: Lillie Aurora, now a graduate nurse in the county hospital in Eureka ; Gustav E. and Oscar, the two sons being farmers and now engaged in the conduct of their father's two ranches at Rio Dell. This property con­tains about two hundred forty acres, and they are following diversified farm­ing, and are raising large numbers of cattle, sheep and hogs for the market.

Mr. Rickter has been road overseer in the Rio Dell and Scotia districts for a number of years, and has made for himself an •enviable record for efficiency and thoroughness. He has brought the condition of the roads up to a high standard, under very adverse circumstances, by much labor, time and careful thought. He is a Republican in his political views, and takes a deep interest in all that concerns his home district; he is a member of the Humboldt County Farm Bureau, and of the Farm Center at Eureka. In fraternal circles he is a member of the Knights of Pythias, Scotia Lodge, No. 310, of which he is a charter member. Mr. and Mrs. Rickter have been married over twenty-five years, and on October 5, 1914, they celebrated their silver-wedding anniversary, attended by a large number of invited guests, among friends and relatives, being entertained by a big dinner, and the silver couple were recipients of many valuable presents and remembrances. He has by his industry and ability accumulated a snug fortune and his place shows evidence of refinement and wealth.

 

FRANCIS MARION BRUNER, M. D.—The descendant of genera­tions of keen and talented ancestors, including men and women of unswerv­ing integrity, strong individuality, high culture and not a little literary ability, types of the best class of the pioneers of the east and the middle west, Francis Marion Bruner, M. D., of Ferndale, Humboldt county, was born in the city of Monmouth, county of Warren, in Illinois, September 21, 1865. Possessing the keen desire for intellectual development that came as a her­itage from past generations, he was not satisfied with such advantages as common schools and academies made possible, but aspired to university training and classical studies. Partly through his own efforts it was pos­sible for him to spend two years in the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the completion of the literary course marked the beginning of profes­sional studies. Of these he enjoyed the very best, for he is a graduate of Bellevue Medical College in New York City, one of the most famous schools of the kind in the world.

The year subsequent to graduation from Bellevue was passed by the young doctor in professional work at El Paso, Texas, whence in 1891 he removed to St. Louis, there to engage in private practice, as well as in special professional labors in the interests of the health department and the Associated Charities. Between 1894 and 1899 he was located in Des Moines, Iowa, going there to be near his father during the last years of his life, after whose death he fulfilled a long-felt desire to come to California and removed to Santa Ana, Cal., where for eleven years he enjoyed a growing patronage. Meantime he assisted in the organization of the Santa Ana hospital and became a physician on its staff. During a service of two years as health officer he drafted a new health ordinance for the city for the care and preven­tion of contagious and infectious diseases; this law is now being enforced and is proving a great benefit to the city.

Arriving in Ferndale, Humboldt County, on the 2nd of January, 1911, Dr. Bruner has since built up an important practice in the community and in addition, since July of 1913, he has owned one-half interest in the Ferndale general hospital, a well-known institution of great value to this section of the county.

Dr. Bruner was first married in St. Louis to Miss Sadie E. Murray, a native of Rochester, N. Y. She died on their return to St. Louis two years later, leaving an only daughter, Frances, a graduate of Drake University, Des Moines, and now engaged in kindergarten work in the Ferndale grammar school, making her home with her father. After coming to Ferndale Dr. Bruner married Mrs. Lela Worthington, a native daughter born in Blue Lake, Humboldt County. She is a graduate nurse and is ably assisting the Doctor in the conduct of the Ferndale Hospital. In the different places of his residence he has been prominently identified with county, state and the American Medical Associations. Shortly after his removal to the west he became attached to the National State Guard of California as a surgeon with the rank of major and he continued in that office for five years. During the latter part of the time he filled an appointment as major-surgeon of the Sev­enth Infantry, N. G. C. to which he was appointed by Governor Gillett. He was made a Mason in Santa Ana Lodge F. & A. M., but is now a member of Ferndale Lodge No. 193, F. & A. M. He is also a member of Ferndale Chapter No. 78, R. A. M., and Eureka Commandery No. 35, K. T., transferring to all of these bodies from Santa Ana. He is a member of Active Lodge, I. 0. 0. F., in Ferndale, and is past grand of the order. Although he has not been long established in Ferndale, his reputation for skill in diagnosis and accuracy in the use of remedial agencies had preceded him here, so that he has been fortunate in quickly winning the confidence of the people. Years of painstaking preparation, followed by practice in various centers of popula­tion, have qualified him to fill a high position in the medical profession and to maintain a deserved reputation for skill and proficiency.

 

DANIEL JAMES TURNER.—One of the prosperous and respected citizens of Humboldt county is Daniel James Turner, thrifty and energetic farmer of Arcata, whose handsome home place four miles northwest of town is one of the attractive as well as one of the most profitable farms in the valley. Mr. Turner is a native of the county, having been born in Eureka. His father was one of the pioneers of early days, coming to Eureka when it was only a straggling street with a few rough shacks, and settling in the midst of the towering forests. The enterprises of both the father and the son have been successful, and today Mr. Turner is one of the prosperous men of the community, with property of appreciable value, well improved and well stocked, and constantly increasing in its value.

Born September 4, 1862, the boyhood days of Mr. Turner were passed in Eureka on the home farm, and he attended the public schools in Eureka. After finishing his schooling, at the age of sixteen, he began to assist his father on the farm. This comprised several hundred acres, and most of it was unimproved, being thickly covered with trees and brush. Father and son cleared this land and brought it under cultivation. It was exceedingly rich and farming thereon was profitable. Mr. Turner remained at home and assisted his father in managing the ranch until he reached the age of thirty-three years, when he married and purchased one hundred and forty acres of the home place from his parents. This land he cleared and improved and started the first farm crops. In 1895 he engaged in dairying and stock raising and has followed this special line since that time. He is also interested in the creamery business and is associated with the affairs of the United Creamery of Arcata.

Although one of the successful farmers of the region and a man who is liked and trusted by all who know him, Mr. Turner has never taken an active part in the public affairs of the community, but has devoted himself ex­clusively to the care of his business interests. He has, however, a wide circle of warm friends who fully appreciate his splendid qualities and with whom he is justly popular. He is also a prominent member of the Knights of Pythias.

The marriage of Mr. Turner with Sarah Jane Robinson occurred at Eureka, October 23, 1895. Mrs. Turner is a native of Sierra County, Cal., born April 26, 1866. She is the daughter of John and Eliza (Rudd) Robinson, natives of England. The father came to the United States, where he fol­lowed the blacksmith trade in the east until he came to California in the early '50s. He followed his trade in Sierra County, where he became well known for his method of sharpening and hardening picks. In Sierra County he married Eliza Rudd, who had come to California in 1849. She died in Sierra County in 1892 and the father died in Humboldt County. Mr. and Mrs. Turner have four children, Mary Eliza, Ephraim Stimpson, Edna Hazel and Sophia Hannah, all of whom are well known in Arcata.

The father of Mr. Turner was a native of St. John, New Brunswick, Canada, where he was born May 17, 1819. He was Ephraim Turner, as was his father before him, and was descended from a long line of English ancestry, of which he was justly proud. The father attended school but six weeks in all his young life, as in that period the teachers went from house to house, there being no regularly established schools. At an early age he went to work on his father's farm near St. Stephens, and later worked on the farms of the neighborhood in the summer and in the winter hauled logs. He varied this by other work in the woods, but either that or the farms claimed his attention until he came to California. He was twice married, the first time to Julia Laskey, of New Brunswick, in 1839. She bore him three children, but she died while they were very small. In 1845 he married again, this time to Mary Brown, born in New Brunswick, September 3, 1820.

It was in 1853 that Ephraim Turner determined to leave the east and come to California, as the wages were better and the opportunities for the establishment of a home greater on the Pacific coast. He left his wife and family (six children) and came to California alone, making the trip by way of the Isthmus, and landing in San Francisco March 4, 1854. From there he sailed north to Trinidad (Humboldt County) and from Trinidad he walked down the coast toward Eureka. At that time the land was in a wild state and in crossing the Mad river Mr. Turner stopped under a large spruce tree to rest, one of the largest trees that he had ever seen, it measuring over forty-five feet in circumference. Remembering the location of this great tree, several years later he returned and bought the land where it stood. In 1854 he proceeded down the coast, through Eureka, then the merest village, to Elk River, where he went to work in the woods logging. Later he spent some time at work in the mines, but he was principally engaged in the lumbering industry, and was the first man to haul logs on wheels in the county, about 1857.

Up to 1873 Ephraim Turner followed logging in the Arcata bottom lands, and after accumulating a sufficient fund began purchasing land for farming purposes. His first venture was a purchase of two hundred eighty acres of land where the big spruce grew, after which he engaged exclusively in farming, always with fair success. In 1859 he went back to New Bruns­wick for his family, and returning with them settled on the home place. From time to time he purchased property and at one time owned seven hundred forty acres of bottom land and much range land. This he sold off at various times, and at the time of his death owned three hundred acres of land. An­other venture was in running a butcher shop, which he conducted for a few years, but soon gave up the idea to engage more extensively in farming. He was a very successful farmer and business man and was highly esteemed in Humboldt county as one of the splendid old pioneers. He was active up to the time of his death, which occurred in New Brunswick, August 23, 1900. After his retirement from business he desired to return to the home of his boyhood and made the trip east. There he met with an accident, and never returned to his California home again, passing away at last where he had played as a happy boy. His wife survived him by three years, she passing away February 3, 1903. Mrs. Mary Turner was a very remarkable woman, industrious, brilliant and capable. Her son has inherited some of her splendid traits of character.

 

CHARLES PRYDE CUTTEN.—One of the native-born sons of Hum­boldt county in whom she has reason to take pride is Charles Pryde Cutten, now of San Francisco, a descendant of one of the little group of men who laid out the town of Eureka. He is wearing a respected name worthily, for his achievements in his profession and in public life have strengthened its connection with the early history of this region, the usefulness to society of the present members of the family reflecting credit on their honored ancestors. Mr. Cutten's parents were David Page and Katherine (McGrath) Cutten, and it is a matter of family interest that his maternal grandparents, Hugh and Jane (Gibson) McGrath, first met at the Admission Day ball in San Francisco September 9, 1850. They were married soon afterward, and removed to Humboldt County, Mr. McGrath having been one of the men who "discovered" this region. In company with James T. Ryan and Samuel Brennan, of San Francisco, he laid out the town of Eureka, and he and his descendants in turn have from that time to the present been prominent in the most substantial enterprises advanced for its upbuilding.

Charles Pryde Cutten was born May 8, 1875, and received his preparatory education in the schools of his native county. Then he took a course at Leland Stanford University, graduating in law in 1899 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court of California in June, 1901. Returning to Eureka he began the practice of law, maintaining an office there until he removed to San Francisco in June, 1911, to enter a wider field. During those ten years he .reached a position which few may hope to gain in so short a time. From 1904 until 1909 he was associated in practice at Eureka with Senator T. H. Selvage, and afterward until June 1, 1911, with Governor Gillett and Judge F. A. Cutler. The mere fact that he was admitted to these partnerships shows how highly his ability was valued by those most competent to judge. His work justified their confidence. Meantime, in addition to attending conscientiously to the de­mands of a growing practice, he had taken some part in public affairs, and was welcomed as a candidate whose possibilities the community could not afford to overlook. In 1907 he represented the northern Humboldt district in the lower house of the state legislature, and soon after the completion of his term was returned to the state legislature as a member of the senate, in which he served during the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth sessions, from 1909 to 1911. Mr. Cutten has the distinction of having been a member of the legislative holdover committee which in 1908 drew up the present Cali­fornia bank act, which has been praised by bank examiners and financial experts generally as "the best bank act in existence." In 1911 Mr. Cutten was chairman of the finance committee of the state senate, an honor which he well merited. As a member of the assembly he was instrumental in secur­ing the first appropriation for the Trinity state highway and during his last session in the senate secured an appropriation of $50,000 to complete this road. This magnificent highway is the only connecting link between the northern coast counties and the Sacramento valley. It is of great benefit to Humboldt county and its importance will increase as coast and valley con­tinue to grow in population and wealth. On June 1, 1911, he located in San Francisco, having been appointed attorney for the state commission in lunacy, resigning in August, 1913, in order to devote more of his time to the duties connected with his position as attorney for the Pacific Gas & Electric Com­pany of San Francisco, with which he became connected on March 1, 1912. Mr. Cutten's record needs no comment. The heavy responsibilities which have been confided to him at what may be practically regarded as the outset of his career have not dismayed him, rather they have brought out qualities which might have lain dormant for years under less strenuous conditions. The vigor of his intellect, his clearness of perception, and instant grasp of the important features of all matters which come into his care, are apparent even to those whose acquaintance with him is only casual.

Mr. Cutten belongs to the Union League Club and the Commercial Club of San Francisco, and to Humboldt Lodge No. 79, F. & A. M., and Eureka Lodge No. 652, B. P. 0. E., both of Eureka. He was married at Eureka September 18, 1906, to Miss Marjorie V. Barnes, by whom he has three children, Elizabeth, Ruth and Kathleen.

 

FRED WILLIAM SMYTHE.—As the pioneer automobile agent and owner of the second motor car brought into Humboldt county, besides being for some time the proprietor of the garage on J street opposite the court house in Eureka, Mr. Smythe had considerable prominence and prestige in the business prior to embarking in auto-stage line enterprises, which he has developed into large and profitable proportions. Having exceptional ability as a machinist and being fond of mechanical work of every kind, he is well qualified to manage the system. The maintenance of a close supervision over his large and powerful cars reduces tire troubles and engine defects to a minimum, while at the same time it prevents the accidents that so greatly annoy passengers and delay the speed of the stage over the customary route.

A native of Eureka, Greenwood county, Kan., born March 20, 1871, Mr. Smythe learned the trade of a machinist in Kansas City, Mo., where also he acquired skill in mechanical drawing. For a year after coming to California in 1888 he worked on mining machinery at Sutter creek in Amador county, after which he went to Benicia, Solano County, and engaged in drawing plans for ships in the drafting department of Captain Turner's shipyards at that place. More than once after he came to Eureka in the fall of 1892 he saw in the harbor of Humboldt bay vessels for which he had drawn the plans during the period of his employment at Benicia. For a time after his arrival in Humboldt County he engaged as a machinist with the Eureka Foundry Company. Later he started the California Iron Works, and after the concern had been incorporated he was chosen secretary and manager, but eventually disposed of his stock in the company for the purpose of attention to other lines of business. The first condensed milk factory in Humboldt County was built by him at Port Kenyon and later sold to Fred Smith, who removed the plant to Loleta. Meanwhile Mr. Smythe had become interested in a garage at Eureka, but this he sold in the spring of 1908 and then established an auto stage line, operating between San Francisco and Eureka, in time connecting with Northwestern Pacific trains at Fort Seward and Longvale, and there is probably no single enterprise that has been of more convenience and service to the people of Humboldt county and the bay section. The first year the line was developed from Eleanor to Harris in Humboldt County, where it connected with the horse stage. The next year the system was extended as far as Cummings, Mendocino County, on the south. During the third year the stage was run through from Holmes to Sherwood, Mendocino county, where connection was made with the railroad. In the following year a line was opened from Longvale to Holmes on the South Fork, during the spring and summer of 1913 the stage was run from McCann's to Longvale, and finally the stage was run from Fort Seward to Longvale. Meanwhile the business had increased from twelve hundred passengers during the first year to five thousand in 1913. At Fort Seward, the northern terminal, Mr. Smythe built a substantial garage and cottage and there he makes his head­quarters in the summer months, while in the winter he conducts the business from No. 1634 I street, Eureka. Both at McCann's and Fort Seward he has developed an electric lighting plant. For the convenience of his auto-stage line he maintains eight touring cars, mostly of the Pierce-Arrow high-powered type. These are equipped with telephones, so that in case of trouble it is possible to tap the wire at any place and secure the needed help from town. Although the road extends wholly through a mountainous •country there has never been an accident and delays are very rare, this being due to the fact that only the most experienced and careful chauffeurs are employed, while at each end of the route the machines are carefully overhauled by expert machinists. Besides his large business interests Mr. Smythe owns a ranch of four hundred eighty acres on the Eel river near Fort Seward and is now developing the tract into a large apple orchard, certified dairy and sanitary hog farm. Fraternally he is identified with Fortuna Lodge, I. 0. 0. F. Through his marriage to Grace Morrison, formerly of the Ferndale district, and a daughter of Thomas Morrison, an early settler of that section, he is the father of two daughters, Helen and Edith.

 

DAVID D. PEEBLES.—Although a native of Salt Lake City, Utah, where he was born October 13, 1884, David D. Peebles came to Eureka when he was a lad of but sixteen years, and has since that time been well known here, although he has not always made this city his home. Since 1911 he has been established in business in Eureka, being a stockholder and taking an active part in the Pacific Oil and Fuel Company, in which concern he is heavily interested. Even in this brief time he has done much for the interests of the company and their business is rapidly expanding.

Mr. Peebles is the son of Rev. David Peebles, whose death occurred in Los Angeles in 1913, aged eighty-six years. He was born in Madison county, N. Y., and graduated from Oberlin College, Ohio. He served as a member of Company A, First Michigan Cavalry, in the Civil war. He became a minister in the Congregational church, and at the time of the birth of the present respected citizen of Eureka he was pastor of the Congregational church in Salt Lake City. He removed with his family to Eureka in 1900, being retired from the clergy, but is remembered with much love and affec­tion by the people with whom he came in contact. Mr. Peebles' mother was Alice M. Conley, a native of Virginia, and she now resides in Los Angeles. David Peebles attended the Eureka high school, after which he went to San Francisco and became apprenticed as a machinist at the Union Iron Works, where he remained for four years. During this time he took a course at night school at the Humboldt School of Mechanics in San Francisco, where he completed a thorough course in mechanics. He then became a partner in the firm of Wilson & Peebles in an automobile repair machine shop at San Jose, continuing there until 1909, and meeting with much deserved success. At that time he became the traveling salesman for the California Compound­ing Company, carrying a general line of lubricating oils, and remaining with this firm for some two years.

It was in 1911 that Mr. Peebles bought an interest in the Pacific Oil and Fuel Company, a corporation capitalized at $10,000. Since the association of Mr. Peebles with the company they have added an extensive line of lubri­cating oils, under his special direction, and are now supplying many of the boats at Eureka and also many of the sawmills in the vicinity. The company has acquired a large business in the sale of refined oils, carrying all grades of Pennsylvania lubricating oils, including Peerless automobile oils and Peer­less valve oils, as well as gasoline and kerosene. They also deal extensively in wood and blacksmith coal. They have extensive wharfage and railway switching facilities, which adds greatly to their ability to handle their trade and to give prompt and efficient service in the matters of delivery, thus adding materially to their business. The offices and warehouses are on the water front as well as on the line of the Northwestern Pacific Railway Com­pany, and are located at the foot of K street.

Mr. Peebles is one of the most energetic and progressive young men in Eureka today. He is a loyal and devoted son of his adopted state and has an abiding faith in the future development of the commonwealth, and of Eureka and Humboldt county in particular. He is a thorough optimist, and with his bright and cheerful disposition makes friends readily and holds them always. While in business at San Jose he was married to Miss Lelia Turner, a daughter of the late J. W. Turner, a prominent attorney of Eureka. Mrs. Peebles has borne her husband one child, a daughter, Lelia Lois. Fraternally he is a member of the Sons of Veterans and the Modern Wood­men of the World. 

Both Mr. and Mrs. Peebles are prominent in their social circle, in Eureka, as they also were in San Jose, while residing there. Mr. Peebles is closely allied with the progressive interests of Eureka and is taking a prominent part in all matters which tend to the general welfare of the city, its develop­ment and upbuilding. He is a member of several of the best known of the local fraternal organizations, and is well liked wherever he is known.

 

GEORGE EDMONSTONE.—The Edmonstone brothers, Donald and George, are now ranked among the well-to-do landowners in the vicinity of Petrolia, Humboldt county, to which locality they came in the summer of 1869, to take advantage of the opportunities offered to settlers in the stock-raising industry in this section. They are Scotchmen by birth and endowed with the sturdy characteristics of the Highland race from which they spring. For generations the family was established on the river Dee, about thirty miles north of Aberdeen, Scotland, and Donald Edmonstone, father of Donald and George, was there engaged in the live stock business, dealing in cattle, sheep and wool. He was a thrifty and intelligent business man and in very fair circumstances. Born in Aberdeenshire, he passed all his life in his native heath, dying there at the great age of ninety-five years ; his wife, Jane (Mc­Pherson), a native of the same county, lived to be seventy-five years old. We have the following record of their seven children: John, a farmer, who died in Scotland, was married and reared a family of five children. James, a farmer, also deceased in Scotland, had but one child, a daughter. Peter, a miller at Broxburn, died in Scotland in 1913, leaving eight children, two sons and six daughters. Jane married James Emslie, a turnpike road contractor, of Aberdeenshire, and died in Scotland leaving two sons and one daughter. Donald, born May 15, 1841, settled in Humboldt County in 1869 and became well known here, but is now living at Palo Alto, Cal.; he was married in this county to Miss Maggie McCombie, and has two sons and one daughter. Alexander, the first of the family to come to America, died of yellow fever in 1867, at Galveston, Texas. George completes the family. 

George Edmonstone was born November 27, 1845, on the river Dee, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and obtained his education in the local public schools. Brought up on a stock farm, he naturally learned the business thoroughly, his experience proving very valuable to him in his later ventures in Humboldt County. In company with his brother Donald he came to America, the young men first locating in Canada, at Chatham, county of Kent, Ontario, where they were employed at teaming and farming for two years. Then they came out to the Pacific coast by way of the Isthmus, and on the trip north from Panama, made in a steamship, narrowly escaped ship­wreck by an immense waterspout which overtook the vessel. It was sighted in the morning off to the west, as they were approaching Manzanillo, Mexico, and several others made their appearance also, but the one which struck the vessel about noontime was exceedingly large and violent. The boat shot into it when right opposite Manzanillo, and it broke just before reaching the ship, which was drenched and injured but not disabled, being able to continue on to San Francisco and land its passengers safely, in May of 1868. From that port the Edmonstone brothers proceeded north to Napa, where they found work on ranches and at teaming, hauling cordwood for Sam Brennan in Napa county during the fall and winter. In the spring they went up to Puget sound, where they found employment in sawmills and lumber camps until the summer of 1869, when reports that a new railroad was about to be built and plenty of land in Humboldt county made available for settlement attracted them southward again. They came down to Eureka, this county, and from there made their way to Petrolia, where each filed on a one hundred sixty-acre preemption claim on the north fork of the Mattole river, working out to make a living while proving up on the same and undertaking the expense of necessary improvements.

From the time of their arrival in the county the brothers labored together to their mutual advantage, and as they became more extensively interested in ranching and cattle raising acquired possession of considerable land, now owning two tracts, one of fifteen hundred acres on Taylor's Peak, on the north fork of the Mattole river, and called the Taylor Peak ranch, and the other a ninety-acre tract on the Eel river bottoms between Fernbridge and Ferndale. Both are now rented, the tenants operating them as the owners did, the larger tract as a stock ranch for the production of beef, the other as a dairy farm. The Union oil well was sunk on their Taylor Peak ranch and oil was obtained and shipped in the '60s. It was necessary at that time to pack the oil out on muleback, but this being too expensive the enterprise was given up. The difficulty of transportation is the principal reason for the non-development of the Petrolia oil fields. This was one of the few wells sunk in the vicinity which produced sufficient oil to justify further attempts at operating in the Petrolia field.

George Edmonstone, with John McCombie, owns a thirty-five-acre ranch on the Mattole about half a mile west of Petrolia, which he operated until December, 1914. Though he still owns his interest in the ranch he now makes his home in Eureka, where he has just completed a modern bungalow at Ninth and N streets, where he resides with his wife. In maidenhood she was Georgia Fulmore, born in Nova Scotia, the daughter of Samuel Fulmore, who migrated to Humboldt county with his family in 1869. Mr. Fulmore is extensively engaged in dairying on Eel River Island, owning one hundred sixty acres of bottom land. Mrs. Edmonstone was educated in Humboldt county, having spent her life here from childhood. Mr. Edmonstone has always taken a public-spirited interest in the general welfare of his locality, and has rendered excellent service to his fellow citizens, being in a position to give time and attention to matters of importance to the community, and sincere in his intentions towards bettering conditions in the county. He is a Democrat in his political associations and an ardent party worker, and he is usually a member of the local election boards, on which he has served for thirty years. His influence is always given to worthy movements, and per­sonally he is well liked for his kindliness and trustworthy character, while his successful business career has helped very materially in the improvement of his section of Humboldt County.

 

REV. LAWRENCE KENNEDY.—The work of brave and worthy priests formed the foundation upon which the Catholic church stands today in Eureka and Humboldt county. In this pioneer work the name of Father Croke is worthy of mention. Father O'Reilly was the first resident priest and was followed by Father Maurice Hickey, he being succeeded by Father Crinnion, both of whom succumbed to the arduous and fatiguing work consequent upon their duties. Following these pioneer priests came Father Grace, the present bishop of Sacramento; Fathers Henneberry, Kelly, Nulty, Lynch and Sheridan, the last as well as the first one named taking a vital part in building up the church which embraces the parish of St. Bernard. The present church edifice is large, 125x64 feet, with a seating capacity of seven hundred and fifty, being a great contrast to the first church, which was only 48x24. There is another church building in a growing part of the city seating about three hundred, adjoining which is .a convent and school. In the early days the parish of Eureka consisted of Arcata, Fortuna and Fern­dale, each of which is now a separate parish.

The present rector of St. Bernard's parish is Very Rev. Lawrence Ken­nedy, V. G., a man of intellect and breadth of character who is well fitted to bear the title of "First Citizen of. Eureka," a title which all (regardless of race or creed) agree to be a fitting one. As vicar of the diocese he holds the rank of Monsignor and is given recognition as a leader among the fore­most intellectual men of the church in the west. Forty years have brought their changes to Humboldt County since Father Kennedy came here, in the flush of young manhood, educated thoroughly in the Roman Catholic institu­tions of learning, and consecrated to the work of the church. His has been a busy life, loyally given to the advancement of Catholicism, and now, in the afternoon of a helpful existence, with strength undimmed and energies unflagging, he is still in the forefront of every worthy movement and still leads his denomination in this section of the state. Father Kennedy made his preparatory studies for the priesthood in All Hallows College in the city of Dublin, Ireland, but the greater part of his ministerial work has been connected with Humboldt County. However, he had a previous experience as assistant pastor at Marysville, where he was ordained in 1867 by Bishop O'Connell, and also at Grass Valley, coming from the latter parish to Hum­boldt County in 1874 and engaging as pastor at Eureka. From 1878 until 1892 he was pastor of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Ferndale and since 1892 he has held the pastorate of St. Bernard's Church in Eureka, at the present time receiving the helpful and capable assistance of two subordinate priests assigned to his parish in order that the heaviest burdens of the work may be somewhat lightened for his willing shoulders.

It may be of interest to the general public as well as to the Catholics themselves to know that the first services of the church were held in Humboldt County as early as 1854. At that time the population of the county was very small and so few Catholics as yet had sought this section of the country that when Father Croke came up from San Francisco services were held in a private home in Bucksport, and the house, although small, was amply large to accommodate the few communicants present. It became the custom for a city pastor to come by boat to Eureka and hold services at least once a year. Thus the few members were kept united and interested. As their numbers increased they formed a congregation and erected a small house of worship on the site of the present church home, facing Sixth Street.

It was about 1870 that the first convent was established in Humboldt county. It was presided over by the Sisters of Mercy, who purchased the old seminary building on a block of ground between G and F and Seventh and Eighth streets, where they carried on an academy until about 1904, when it was discontinued. Some six years ago, with a view to establishing and building a convent and academy, Father Kennedy purchased the present site of a block of ground between Henderson and Dollison and Williams and C streets. On June 22, 1912, a school was opened in the Y. M. I. Hall on Sixth and I streets by the Sisters of St. Joseph. In 1913 the present new convent and school buildings were erected at an expenditure of about $50,000, and for the convenience of the members of the congregation living in that vicinity he also built a church edifice where services are held regularly every Sunday. The convent and school buildings are modern, being equipped with up-to-date facilities, and opportunity is afforded for the most modern educational advan­tages to the two hundred boarding and day pupils. The curriculum also includes a regular graded high school course. The control of the institution is under Sister Bernard, formerly of Chicago, as Sister Superior, assisted by fifteen sisters trained in different departments of work and admirably quali­fied to cooperate in the progress of the convent from the standpoint of physical training and mental culture as well as spiritual uplift.

 

SAMUEL WARTH.—One of the successful business men of Eureka, Cal., was Samuel Warth, whose death occurred in January, 1913, and whose business interests since that time have been successfully carried on by his wife, under whose guidance and practical management they are attaining large proportions, and holding a high place among the industries of the town.

Though the son of a native of Germany, John Warth, who came to Cali­fornia when but fourteen years old, in the early pioneer days, Samuel Warth was truly a native son of the state, having been born at Salinas, Cal., in 1871, and brought up at Salinas and San Miguel, receiving his education in the public schools of these towns. His entry into the business world was made in New York city, where for a time he followed the shoe business, on his return to the west spending some time in Los Angeles, Cal., and also in Arizona. He was married in San Jose, Cal., in 1899, to Ora Holloway, who was born in Gilroy, a daughter of Steadman and Salona (Miller) Holloway, who were also pioneers of California. About the year 1900 Mr. and Mrs. Warth settled at Fresno, Cal., where Mr. Warth started the Fresno City Towel Supply, a business which under his splendid management became an enterprise of importance and worth. In the year 1907 he removed to Eureka, where he organized the Warth Towel Supply, the first of its kind in the city, and built up for himself a large business in this line. Four years later, pur­chasing property at the corner of Tenth and I streets in Eureka, he built for himself a comfortable and pleasant bungalow home and also a large bunga­low building, in which he installed a modern laundry fully equipped for handling linen supplies. The business grew rapidly, and became a very suc­cessful enterprise, but the death of Mr. Warth occurred while he was en­gaged in the active management of the establishment. Since then his wife has very successfully carried on the business, in this way proving herself a woman of fine business acumen and practical sense, well fitted to continue the work of her husband. A Republican in her political interests, her fra­ternal associations are with the Ladies of the Maccabees, her husband having been a member of the Knights of the Maccabees, and both Mr. and Mrs. Warth have earned for themselves the esteem of all in the community where they made their home.

 

JAMES HERNDON STILL.—As engineer at the Bayside mill, Eureka, where he has been engaged for the last six years, James H. Still has a responsible position for which he has proved well qualified. His experience in that line of work began about thirty years ago, and has been sufficiently varied to make him self-reliant and competent. Personally he is a man of high character, commanding the respect of his fellow citizens at Eureka, where he has lived for some years. The larger part of his life has been spent in Humboldt county, for he was but nine years old when he accompanied his parents from Missouri to the coast, the family making the trip overland.

J. E. Still, father of James Herndon Still and a native of Kentucky, moved from that state to Missouri in the early days and thence to California in 1865. He followed farming in Humboldt County the rest of his life, owning a dairy farm at Willowbrook which still belongs to his widow. His death occurred twenty-two years ago. He married Mrs. Susan (King) Marr, who was born in Tennessee and who still survives, well and hearty though now eighty-four years of age (1914), and makes her home at Eureka. James Herndon was the eldest of the three children born to this couple. His birthplace was Missouri, where he first saw the light July 22, 1855. Reared on his father's farm in this county, he followed agricultural work in his early life, about thirty years ago beginning to follow his present calling. For a period of about eleven years he ran a "donkey" engine in the woods, and he has been employed as a stationary engineer for the last twelve years, six years ago taking his present place as assistant engineer at the Bayside mill, at Eureka, where he has gained the reputation of being a thoroughly dependable worker. He performs his duties with painstaking attention to every detail, and devotes himself untiringly to his work, rising at four every morning to be at his post in good season. He has charge of the steam engines at the mill, two of two hundred and fifty horsepower each, which drive the mighty machinery at the plant. Some years ago Mr. Still held the position of agent for the North­western Pacific Railway Company at Singley (Fern Bridge), Humboldt county, being thus engaged for five years.

Mr. Still was married to Miss Emma Knight, of Detroit, Mich., and three children have been born of this union: George, who is now employed as filer at the Occidental mill at Eureka; Mrs. Louisa McDirmid, who lives in Portland, Ore.; and Vincent, who works in the filing room at Samoa. The family have a very pleasant home, Mr. Still owning the residence they occupy at No. 1533 Dean street, Eureka.

 

HARRY A. GRIES.—The celebrated Ocean House ranch, near Cape-town, Humboldt county, a valuable property belonging to Mr. Joseph Russ, of Ferndale, has been under the capable direction of Harry A. Gries since July, 1913, and in his excellent services on that place he is adding to a reputation for reliability and trustworthiness which secured him the position.

Mr. Gries is a native of Butte County, Cal., where his parents were residing at the time of his birth, September 23, 1870. They were old-time pioneers in this state, sharing the freedom and the hardships of the early days before the country was opened up to civilization. Eventually they settled in Humboldt County, where the father became the owner of a dairy ranch which he conducted for several years before his death. The mother is also deceased. Industrious, honorable people, they led worthy lives and by all who knew them were thoroughly respected for their thrift and estimable character. Of their three children, George now operates a farm in the state of Washington; John resides in Ferndale; and Harry A. is foreman of the Ocean House ranch.

Harry A. Gries was a boy when his parents removed. to Humboldt county. He had a common school education, and when old enough to begin work took employment in a humble capacity, being promoted as he acquired famili­arity with ranch work and showed himself responsible and willing to take hold of the more important duties. His intelligence, foresight and confidence, combined with a faculty for hard work which makes his executive qualities particularly valuable, have gained him a strong place in the esteem of his employer, who made him foreman of the Ocean House ranch in July, 1913. The ranch is very appropriately named, being romantically situated just south of Cape Mendocino, the westernmost point on the mainland of the United States, in full view of the majestic Pacific. The property comprises more than eighteen hundred acres, and all its operations are looked after in the most business-like manner by- Mr. Gries, who attends to his work with the utmost fidelity. Yet he is never too busy to lend a helping hand to a neighbor or do a good turn to any of his fellow men, and in public matters, as in his personal relations, is ready to show the right spirit whenever called upon, supporting the best interests of his county and state with his ballot or influence as necessary.

JUDSON WILLIAM CRAIN.—Eureka's superintendent of streets came to California from Illinois but claims Michigan as his native commonwealth, having been born in the city of Detroit, January 5, 1860, receiving fair advan­tages in the public schools and through the development of native ability becoming skilled as a mechanic and able to install and repair machinery of every kind. While yet a very young man he became a locomotive engineer and ran a locomotive on a railroad out from Saginaw. In the course of a few years he left the railroad and went to Illinois, where he alternated work on a farm with the running of an engine in a paper mill, continuing at such employment for a brief period. When twenty-two years of age, in the fall of 1882 he came to California and found employment with the great house of J. I. Case & Co., manufacturers of threshing machines. During the four years of his connection with the corporation he was engaged in installing machinery and setting up threshing machines in different parts of the state. When he first came to Humboldt County he ran a locomotive on the jetty. After two years at that work he went to Tuolumne County and engaged in work on the dam across the Tuolumne River, also aiding in building the irrigation system connected with the dam. Following that period of employ­ment he went to Trinity County and engaged in mining for about three years.

The year 1898 found Mr. Crain a permanent resident of Humboldt County, where for some years he conducted a growing business in teaming and Braying. From the time of his arrival in the county he has been interested in its growth, and particularly has he been devoted to the progress of his home city. Recognition of his loyal citizenship and energy in work came with his election in 1907 as superintendent of streets. During his term crushed rock was first used for street work in Eureka and the new Vrooman state law became operative. After an interval of a few years he was again elected to the office in 1913, and has since devoted his entire attention to the duties of the position, which is one of great responsibility, demanding high qualities of character as well as the most unwearied industry. His fraternities are the Eagles and the Woodmen of the World, and to each he has contributed when called upon to aid in their charities. Through his marriage to Annie Shafer, a native of Trinity county, he has four children, August, Louis, Ethel and Allan.

 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN FLINT.—The present supervisor of the first supervisorial district of Humboldt county, Benjamin Franklin Flint is one of the most popular and capable men in the county, with a business record of which he may well be proud. He is discharging his new duties as super­visor with much ability and bids fair to make the same class of record here that he has always made in other undertakings. He has tried many occupa­tions during his lifetime and his varied experiences have given him a broad grasp of the affairs of men and an outlook on life that is at once sympathetic and comprehensive. Having been selected by Governor Johnson to fill the vacancy left by the death of his predecessor, George Hindley, his commission bears the date of March 18, 1914, when he assumed the duties of his office. In the fall of 1914 at the primaries he received the majority vote for supervisor to succeed himself, and at the November election was elected without opposition.

Mr. Flint is a native of Milan, Coos County, N. H., born January 19, 1862. His father, Benjamin Flint, was a native of Maine, and for practically his entire life was engaged in farming and lumbering. He came to Coos county, N. H., when a boy, and there he later met and married Miss Electa Lary, a native of New Hampshire, and now residing at Ferndale, at the age of eighty-five years, making her home with her daughter. The father came to California in 1865, locating in Humboldt County the following year, making the long trip by way of the Isthmus of Panama. The family remained behind and joined him four years later, in 1869, at Capetown, Humboldt county, where he was engaged in farming. The father died near Ferndale in April, 1893. There were four children in the family, all of whom grew to manhood and womanhood, and all are well known in Ferndale and Humboldt county. They are : Carrie, the wife of H. D. Smith, capitalist and rancher, residing near Ferndale ; Benjamin Franklin, the only son, and the subject of this article; Phila, the wife of William Timmons, foreman of the slaughter house of Russ & Sons, of Eureka ; and Alice, the widow of Robert McGlauchlin, residing in Ferndale.

The large stock ranch was the scene of the boyhood days of Mr. Flint, and there at an early age he assumed his share of the family responsibilities, caring for the stock, milking cows and doing all manner of labor while he was still a mere lad. He attended the public schools of his district, com­pleting his education in a private school in Ferndale, at this place learning bookkeeping, which he has since found a most valuable accomplishment. In 1890 he became foreman for the Russ and Robarts property, known as the Occidental Ranch, remaining in this capacity for five years. He then accepted a position as engineer and tester for the old Eel River Creamery, remaining with this concern for twenty-seven months. Subsequently he became fore­man for the Buhne ranch of one thousand eighty acres, just south of Eureka, occupying this position for four years. Later he became interested in the steamship business as agent for the steamer Argo, and conducted the Port Kenyon end of this enterprise for four years. His services were again sought by the Buhne ranch at this time, and for two and a half years he was again foreman of this property. At a later date he acted as bookkeeper for the J. C. Bull, Jr., interests, at Arcata, remaining there for eighteen months, since which time he has been variously employed at different undertakings, such as store keeping and carpentering.

Mr. Flint has been twice married. His first bride was Miss Clara Crank, and three children were born of their union, all of whom are now grown to womanhood and happily married, their names being as follows : Madeline, now the wife of Alva Barkdull, a rancher near Zenia, Trinity county ; Edna, the wife of Harland Stead, a wireless operator in the employ of the United States government and located at Oakland ; and Carrie, married to Wallace Criley, a civil engineer at San Bernardino. The first wife died in 1893, and in 1895 Mr. Flint was married to Miss Mary Catherine Goble, the daughter of W. W. Goble, of Fortuna. The second Mrs. Flint is a woman of much charm and has a host of friends in Ferndale, where she is deservedly popular. The daughters of Mr. Flint were reared by her as her own and have for her all the affection of daughters of her own blood. Mr. Flint is very popular in fraternal circles, and is a prominent member of the Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the World. Mr. and Mrs. Flint now make their resi­dence in a bungalow he has just completed in Ferndale.

 

MRS. JOSEPH E. HARMON SMITH.—As proprietor of the Overland Hotel at Blocksburg, Mrs. Joseph E. Smith is especially well known to the traveling public. Her hotel enjoys well-merited patronage and is one of the pleasant hostelries of the county. Mrs. Smith herself is a splendid type of the broadminded, clever, capable California women who have succeeded largely in business, she being a native daughter, and one of the oldest living white women born in the state. She was in girlhood Frances Milsap, the daughter of Hiram and Ann (Montgomery) Milsap, who settled near New­ville, in what was then Colusa county, but now Glenn county, in 1857. Mr. Milsap came to California across the plains with ox teams in 1854, and en­gaged in farming. There were nine children born to himself and wife, Mrs. Smith being the fourth oldest. Her father died in Glenn County at the age of eighty years, and her mother is still living in the old locality in Glenn county at the age of eighty-four, and is very capable and efficient for her age.

Mrs. Smith was born near Sacramento, but was reared and educated in Glenn county. In 1877 she came to Hydesville, Humboldt County, and in Eureka was married to Mr. Smith in 1881.

Joseph Elisha Harmon Smith was a native of New York State and was reared in Will County, Ill., where he enlisted and served during the Civil war, fighting for the preservation of the Union. He was honorably discharged and came to California in 1869. After his marriage with Miss Frances Milsap in 1881 the young couple located near Bridgeville, where they ranched. on Chalk mountain. Later they moved to Garberville, where they also engaged in ranching and stock raising, and in 1891 they came to Blocksburg, locating on a ranch and engaging in stock raising. In 1907 Mr. Smith purchased the property known as the Overland Hotel, which he rebuilt into a modern hostelry. It is now conducted as a first-class house and receives the patron­age of the best class of travel. Mr. Smith died in September, 1912, at the age of sixty-nine years, and since that time Mrs. Smith has continued to conduct the hotel and has been exceedingly successful in her management. She is a woman of great capability and her judgment and business acumen are well above that of the average person. She is the mother of six children, all of whom are living and are well known in Blocksburg and vicinity. They are : Maude, the wife of George G. Burgess, of Blocksburg, and the mother of three children ; Mabel, the wife of J. E. Godfrey, of Eureka, and the mother of two children ; Josephine, the wife of E. I. Burgess, of Blocksburg, and the mother of five children ; Gertrude, the wife of Charles H. Johnson, of Alder-point, and the mother of three children ; Frank J., a railroad man, residing at Bandon, Ore. ; and George E., residing at home.

 

ELMER LESLIE DEVLIN.—Of Canadian descent, Elmer L. Devlin is nevertheless "a native son of California," having been born in Eureka, this state, August 1, 1877, his father having been Charles Leslie Devlin, a native of Perth, Ont., a shoemaker by trade, who came to Eureka in the early '60s, where he engaged in the shoe business on Second street, continuing there for many years until elected city assessor, a position to which he was reelected for over eight years, until his death in 1899, having also been one of the councilmen of the city and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. His wife was formerly Carrie F. Spaulding, born in Hartford, Conn., who joined her father in Humboldt county, Cal., about the year 1875, whither her grandfather, Lucius Spaulding, had come in the early days, as well as his wife, formerly a Miss Fay, and her two brothers, George and Nahum Fay, who engaged in the manufacture of shingles and shakes at Fay's Mill on the Peninsula in the early '50s. The death of Elmer L. Devlin's mother occurred in Eureka, where he, the eldest of her four children, was educated in the public schools and the Eureka Business College.

The first employment of Mr. Devlin was as a clerk for D. Barry on Fourth street, Eureka, where he remained for two years, thereafter entering the employ of the Humboldt Manufacturing Company as clerk in their store at Arcata, Cal., where he later became manager of the store, resigning from their employ after ten years, to engage in business independently. In August, 1913, removing to Orick, Cal., Mr. Devlin bought the small store of Robert Swan, where he continued the mercantile business which he enlarged until he has now an extensive, well selected line of general merchandise. During this time he built a hotel, known as The Orick Inn, which is commodious, well furnished and modern in every detail, being the largest and finest of its kind between Arcata and Crescent City, so that Mr. Devlin is well and favorably known as a hotel man as well as a merchant and postmaster, to which last office he was appointed at the time he took over the store from Mr. Swan. He is likewise a notary public and a trustee of the Orick school district, and in fraternal circles, also, is well known, being a Mason in the Arcata Lodge, F. & A. M.; a member of the Anniversary Lodge No. 85, I. 0. 0. F., and with his wife holds membership in the Arcata Chapter, 0. E. S., and the Rebekahs at Arcata. Politically Mr. Devlin is a supporter of the principles of the Republican Party, while his religious associations are with the Episcopal Church. 

The marriage of Mr. Devlin occurred in Arcata, uniting him with Miss Ethel Cates, a native of that city and daughter of Sewell Cates, who was born in the state of Maine. Mrs. Devlin is a woman of charming personality and enters heartily into her husband's enterprises, rendering him material aid in the success which he is achieving. They are the parents of two children, namely, Beatrice and Earl Devlin. Liberal and open-hearted, and progressive in the best sense of the word, Mr. Devlin has built up a good business in his chosen line, and with his family has won a high place in the esteem of all who know them. 

CELESTE FLOCCHINI.—The younger brother and partner of Giacomo Flocchini, of the firm of Flocchini Brothers doing a large dairy business at Alton, Humboldt county, Cal., Celeste Flocchini is an educated and well informed young man, who since 1907 has made his home in California. 

Born at Ono Degno, in the province of Brescia, Italy, Celeste Flocchini is the son of Francisco and Dominica (Dusi) Flocchini, his birth having taken place on May 26, 1891. The parents were farmers in Brescia, where the mother still lives, the father's death having occurred in July, 1914. Of the nine children, Celeste is the second youngest, and all but the eldest now make their home in California. Having completed the course of instruction obtainable in the local public schools, Celeste Flocchini after the age of eleven years was occupied with work upon the home farm until October of the year 1906, .at which time he removed to the United States, his first stopping place being Pittsburg, Pa., where he was for a short time employed in the coat mines. This not proving to his liking, however, in March, 1907, Mr. Flocchini came to Alton, Cal., where for nine months he was in the employ of a Mr. Dinsmore, after that working on dairies in the vicinity of the City 'of Ferndale, and then for three years was employed by Mrs. R. Hill at Alton. After two more years spent in the dairy business, Mr. Flocchini decided to start out independently, and accordingly leased one hundred sixty acres at Waddington, in the same county, there for eighteen months operating a dairy consisting of twenty cows. In January, 1915, he purchased a half interest with his brother Giacomo in their present dairy, a short time later the old Lynch ranch being leased by them also, a place which covers an area of one hundred ninety acres, near Grizzly Bluff, Cal. Here it is the intention of the brothers to run a dairy of about eighty cows, Celeste to be in charge of this place, while Giacomo manages the property at Alton of one hundred twenty-five acres with a dairy of seventy cows. The two brothers are thus together operating one of the large dairies in Humboldt county, and the success with which they are meeting is notable and well earned. They have already made for themselves a worthy and enviable reputation in their chosen line of business, and are respected and well liked in the home of their adoption.

Mr. Flocchini was married in Fortuna, Cal., on March 12, 1912, to Adelia Laffranchi, also a native of Italy, she having been born in the town of Avenone, in Mr. Flocchini's native province of Brescia.

JOHN JAMES CAIRNS.—As city attorney for Eureka and one of the leading citizens of Humboldt county, Cal., John James Cairns is widely known throughout this portion of northern California. To those who know his personal history and his long struggle to secure an education, his success is especially interesting and noteworthy, for it is recalled by his old friends that he Avas forced to make his own way in the world from the age of eleven years and his studies were carried on largely of evenings at the close of a day of manual toil.

The father of Mr. Cairns, James A. Cairns, was born in Scotland, and with his brother Hugh migrated to Indianapolis, Ind., where he followed the occupation of farming, in 1869 removing thence to California, where he settled in Santa Clara county and engaged in the business of farming and horticul­ture until the time of his death, which occurred in the year 1879. The wife of James A. Cairns was Annie Stanfield, a native of Belfast, Ireland, who came to Boston, after a few years spent in that city removing to California, via the Isthmus of Panama, until her marriage residing in Santa Clara county, where her brothers and sisters had made their home. She became the mother of three children, of whom John James Cairns is the eldest, and living until the age of seventy-nine years she was known to all the school children of the vicinity as Granny Cairns, for, although paralyzed for twenty-six years, in spite of her helplessness she was possessed of a sweet disposi­tion, which was shown by her kind words and greetings to all with whom she was associated, and she was loved and esteemed by all who knew her.

Born near San Jose, Cal., February 17, 1873, John James Cairns, the son of James A. and Annie Cairns, is one of those native Californians whose success has come through their own determined efforts, his force of will having led him out of the unpromising life of a cowboy into the arena of professional usefulness, and his profound knowledge of the law, coupled with an unusually powerful mind, enables him to grasp with exactness the most intricate prob­lems brought into relation with any case. After he had gained a rudimentary knowledge of the law through evenings of study and during leisure days, Mr. Cairns left the cattle ranch where he had been employed, to complete his readings under more favorable surroundings in San Jose. Admitted to the bar of. California during September of the year 1900, and for seven years a practitioner in his native city of San Jose, he came to Eureka in 1907 and here has built up a valuable practice, besides which he was for about three years referee in bankruptcy for Humboldt and Del Norte counties, resigning on May 1, 1915; he also served as city attorney for Blue Lake for a period of about four years, his resignation from the latter office being accepted on July 6, 1915. On June 21 of the same year he was elected city attorney of Eureka, receiving a handsome majority. Although not prominent in fraternal matters, Mr. Cairns is actively identified with the Woodmen, Red Men and Odd Fellows. By his first marriage he has two children, Cyril, who is now a law student, and Chispa. His present wife, who bore the maiden name of Amelia Bianchi and is a native of France, is a woman of broad culture and such linguistic ability that she has mastered all the Latin languages.

JOHN ALEXANDER AGGELER.—Born on the old Aggeler home­stead near Ferndale, Cal., July 1, 1887, John Alexander Aggeler may truly be called a native son of California. His grandfather was well known among the pioneer settlers of the county, where he was a successful farmer until the time of his death, and his father resided here since the age of fifteen. The grandfather, Joseph, and his wife Mary came originally from St. Gallan, Switzerland, and settled at Pleasant Point, on the Eel River in Humboldt County, opposite the city of Fortuna, the grandmother still living in Fortuna, a wonderful woman for her age, and having sold the farm in 1915 after the death of her husband. Their son, John Bernard Aggeler, the father of John Alexander, was born in Nevada county, Cal., on March 26, 1857, at the age of fifteen years removing with his parental family to Humboldt county, where he continued to reside until the time of his death, having lived in the Grizzly Bluff section as well as at the Island, which was his home for the last twenty-seven years of his life. At Rohnerville he was united in marriage with Miss Margaret McDonald on January 1, 1880, the daughter of Martin McDonald, who operated ferries across the Eel River at Dungan's, Singley, Alton and Fortuna, and died in December, 1905.

John Alexander Aggeler is one of a family of five: Mary, John Alexander and Constance, who live at the Island ; David,. of Eureka ; and Ann Aggeler, of San Francisco. John Alexander was brought up as a farmer's boy, assist­ing his parents at home and receiving his education in the public schools. He was the only member of the family who witnessed the death of his father, which occurred August 27, 1912, and was caused by runaway horses while Mr. Aggeler and his son were driving a load of wood to their ranch on the Island, and for the year following the accident John Alexander Aggeler assisted his mother in the management of the farm and dairy, in 1913 leasing the place himself, which he is now operating successfully as a dairy farm. The estate comprises forty acres of fertile land, which provides ample pasture for his herd of about twenty-five cows, and also admits of the raising of an abundance of feed for them of various kinds. In his political preferences Mr. Aggeler is a Republican, while his fraternal associations are with the Knights of Columbus of Eureka and the Ferndale Parlor No. 94, Native Sons of the Golden West. His mother died here July 18, 1915, just after returning from a trip of two months on San Francisco bay.

It is such families as the Aggelers which our country is glad to welcome from foreign shores and to watch grow up in the spirit of loyalty to their new home, and perhaps none others in Humboldt county have held a higher place in the esteem of all who knew them, or have done more by steady purpose and patient industry for the betterment of the land where they have chosen to locate, than have the father and grandfather of Mr. Aggeler, who are spoken of with admiration in the community where they made their home. His mother was endowed with wonderful business ability and an exceptionally fine personality, and the son, in his enterprise and liberal disposition, has proved himself a worthy descendant of his respected family.

VICTOR AMBROSINI.—The firm of F. and V. Ambrosini, dairymen in Humboldt county, Cal., is one well known in this part of the state, where they hold a high place among the men engaged in that industry, the two brothers working together in perfect harmony since they began dairying.

The birthplace of Victor Ambrosini was Lodrino, in the Canton of Ticino, Switzerland, where he was born August 28, 1875, the second oldest of a family of five children, his parents being Gervaso, the descendant of an old family of the place, and Maria (Sacchi) Ambrosini, both of whom are now deceased. Victor received his education in the public schools and on the home farm learned dairying and the manufacture of butter and cheese. His brother Ferdinand having gone to Humboldt county in 1892, his satisfac­tion with the new country and belief in the opportunities there offered en­couraged the brother Victor also to try his fortunes on the Pacific coast. Accordingly, on March 2, 1894, he arrived in Eureka, Cal., soon finding em­ployment at a dairy on the Bear River Ridge, following that line of work until he became foreman of the West Point ranch, a position which he held for two years. In 1903 he became associated with his brother Ferdinand, they forming the partnership of Ambrosini Brothers, which has lasted ever since. Leasing two ranches, the Woodland Echo and the Mayflower, they thus secured a combined acreage of twenty-six hundred acres, located on Bear River Ridge, where they conducted a large dairy, also engaging in stock raising. Here they milked a herd of one hundred seventy cows, and manu­factured butter, which they shipped in squares or kegs to Eureka and San Francisco, meeting with success and being rewarded for their hard work and close application to business by the gaining of good profits. Meantime they looked about for an investment for their surplus, and in 1910 pur­chased the old Gries place of seventy-two acres, adjoining Ferndale on the northeast, at which place Mr. Ambrosini now resides. Until 1913 they rented the place, at which time they moved there and commenced dairying, giving up the ranches on Bear River Ridge. Since then they have been continuously engaged in operating the Gries ranch, in addition leasing an adjoining thirty-eight acres, making a total of one hundred ten acres, where they raise an abundance of hay and green feed for their herd, which consists of seventy-five high grade Jersey cows and Shorthorn Durhams. They also rent a stock ranch of six hundred six acres in the Guthrie district, on the coast, about ten miles from Ferndale, where they carry on the raising of cattle. Ex­perienced and well-informed men in the dairy and cattle business, the Am­brosini brothers are among the leaders in these lines of business in Ferndale and vicinity, where they also take an active part in all movements for the best interests of the community. A Republican in politics, Mr. Ambrosini is a member of the Ferndale Dairymen's Association and the Ferndale Cow-Testing Association, through his membership in which he is active in for­warding the good of the dairy industry.

His marriage took place in Ferndale in October, 1900, his wife having formerly been Miss Emma Tonini, a native of Petrolia, Cal., her parents having been Antonio and Sabina (Mattej) Tonini, born in Cavergno and Cevio, Ticino, Switzerland, respectively, and they were early settlers in Humboldt county, her father having come to California over forty years ago and become a prominent dairyman. Mr. and Mrs. Ambrosini are the parents of seven children: Mary, Walter, Florinda, Henry, Archie, Sadie and Clarence Weston.

HAGBARTH NIELSEN.—A native of the distant country of Norway, Mr. Nielsen has chosen to make his home in northern California, where he has cleared and improved land, and in the cultivation of the soil and the occupation of dairying is meeting with success.

 

 

Born in Drammen, Norway, in 1867, he received a good education in the public schools of that country, where for ten years he was employed as a grocery clerk. Then, led by the wish to come to the new world and seek his fortune in California, he made the trip in 1893, settling at Eureka, in Humboldt county, Cal., where for five years he was engaged in driving a milk wagon for the Buhne dairy. Upon the discovery of gold in the Klondyke region, Mr. Nielsen determined to take the trip to Alaska, as so many others were then doing, and accordingly in the year 1898 set out on the journey in search of gold, going by trail over Chilcoot Pass, being there at the time of the big slide. There were said to be about ten thousand on the trail, but only about fifty-two met their death in the slides. After this he and his com­panions made their way to the Yukon River, where they built two boats by which they made the trip down the river, passing through Miles Canyon and over White Horse Rapids to Dawson. Mr. Nielsen took up a claim, but as it did not prove valuable, he found employment in the mines, thus making sufficient money to cover the expenses of the trip. After five years spent in the frozen north, he returned to the United States, as he had become a sufferer from rheumatism, and settled once more in Humboldt County, where he leased the hotel at the Stone Lagoon, conducting it with success for five years. After disposing of his interests in the hotel, Mr. Nielsen purchased his present ranch in 1910, consisting of forty acres of bottom land on Redwood creek, at the town of Orick. Here he has cleared most of the property and improved it so that he has good pasture and fields for the raising of hay and other feed for his cows, of which he has twelve at the present time, a number which he is steadily increasing both as to milch cows and young stock. Aside from improving the land from an agricultural point of view, Mr. Nielsen is interested in constantly beautifying his home surroundings in every way possible, setting out trees, both fruit and ornamental, and many varieties of flowers upon his property. In his political interests Mr. Nielsen is a member of the Republican Party, and while in Eureka held membership in the Nor­mana Literary Society.

 

DENVER SEVIER.—With one of the many expeditions that crossed the plains during the summer of 1850 there came to the then unknown and undeveloped regions of the Pacific coast a stalwart young man, a native of Indiana, Abner D. Sevier, by name, who in the year following his arrival in California joined the few isolated frontiersmen then established in Hum­boldt county. Already logging camps had been established in this section of the state. The vast forests were beginning to be devastated for the up-building of the west. For a time he had work as the driver of an ox-team in one of these camps, but later he went to the Eel river section and took up a government claim. In the early period he endured many hardships. To earn a livelihood from the undeveloped land was most difficult, nor was it easy to find a market for such crops as could be secured. Determination, perseverance and unceasing hard work brought their merited results and eventually he became a prosperous farmer and a man of wide public in­fluence, serving for two terms as county sheriff and also filling the office of county supervisor with recognized efficiency. For almost thirty years he was a resident of Humboldt county, and his death, March 24, 1888, was recognized as a distinct loss to his community. Fraternally he held mem­bership with the Masons. By his marriage to Sarah A. Stringfield he be­came the father of four children, of whom only one is living, Denver, born at Eureka, Cal., February 19, 1860, educated in local schools, admitted to the bar in 1889, and since then a member of the brilliant company of attor­neys practicing in .Eureka. In this city he married Miss Minnie Bullock, daughter of Nathaniel Bullock, and of the union there are two sons, Donald B. and Kenneth D.

 

CHARLES CROSS.—The ranch owned and occupied by Charles Cross is situated on Van Dusen river, two miles from Carlotta, and is one of the most attractive in the county. It comprises two hundred ten acres of fertile land, which he has acquired by hard work and frugality, so that the term self-made applies to him in its truest sense. Like so many of those of eastern birth who have turned their attention to dairying and farming in this land of sunshine, he has been very successful and today his dairy of twenty fine milch cows is one of the best equipped in the county. In every transaction of life he has been honest and upright, kind and generous to a fault, a respected citizen and good neighbor. He was born at Hampden, Penobscot county, Me., August 30, 1860, the son of William and Sarah (Morse) Cross. The parents, who were farmers, were natives of Maine, the father of Welsh and the mother of English ancestry. In 1869 they moved to Grinnell, Iowa, three months later removing to Smith County, Kans., where the father homesteaded and resided ten years. In 1882 the family removed to Oregon and one year later to Humboldt County, Cal.

 

On account of poor health the father removed to Nevada, thence to Oregon, where he died. The mother died in Rohnerville, Humboldt County, in 1898. They had two children, namely, A. N. and Charles, the former residing with his brother.

 

Circumstances were such that Charles Cross had very limited educational advantages, for when he was quite young it was necessary for him to become self-supporting. For several years he was in the employ of the Pacific Lumber Company at Scotia and afterward worked for the Holmes Lumber Company of Eureka.

 

Imbued with the qualities which usually bring success, young Cross saved his earnings and in due time was enabled to purchase a ranch of twenty-five acres at Rio Dell, which he improved while with the Pacific Lumber Company, making it his home for seventeen years. After selling it he bought his present ranch on Van Dusen River, most of the place being bottom land, on which he raises grain, hay, carrots, beets and alfalfa. Many of the progressive movements of the county have enlisted his influence and his career throughout is worthy of emulation. Frater­nally he is a member of the Hydesville Lodge of Odd Fellows, and in poli­tics votes with the Republican Party.

 

While living in this county Mr. Cross was married at Rio Dell July 10, 1889, being united with Miss Hattie Corning, born in St. James,. Watonwan county, Minn., December 22, 1870, the daughter of Smith P. and Orpha M. (Smith) Corning, born in New York and Ohio, respectively.. They were married in Minnesota. Mr. Corning served in Company B, Second Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, through the Civil war. Until 1873 he resided in Minnesota, then removing to Ottawa County, Kan., where the family resided for a year. In that year Mr. Corning came to Humboldt county, the family joining him in 1875. A millwright by trade, he helped build various mills in the county. He spent his last days at Rio Dell, passing away in 1910, the mother having died at Shively in 1882. Of their seven children, Mrs. Cross, the fourth oldest, received her education in Humboldt county. Mr. and Mrs. Cross are the parents of seven children: Ruby (Mrs. Guy Stapp of Carlotta, the mother of one child, Albert Ever­ett) ; Earl Everett; Irene Elizabeth; Florence Marie; Agnes Zella and Anna Ella (twins); and Cecil Wilbur. Mrs. Cross is a member of the Hydesville Lodge of Rebekahs, No. 98, and is interested in the cause of education. Mr. Cross was formerly a member of the board of trustees of Rio Dell district.

 

JAMES E. NEIGHBOR.—Though a comparatively new resident of Eureka, Mr. Neighbor has become so intimately associated with the affairs of the city and of Humboldt county as well that he has been welcomed as an acquisition in the best circles. The promptness with which he entered into local movements for the general welfare has been a source. of gratification to his fellow citizens, for he is a worker of trained ability, with several years of successful service to his credit, principally in the activities of the Young Men's Christian Association. As a business man also he has a high record, and has added to his reputation in that line by his able management of the Bayside lumber mill at Eureka. He "arrived" in the milling business by a rather roundabout route, having for. a number of years been engaged with a saw manufacturing firm in the east, through which he made acquaintances which led to his present con­nection when he decided to settle in California.

 

Mr. Neighbor is of English ancestry, his father, grandfather and great-grandfather having been born in England. Edward Neighbor, his grand­father, brought his family to America when the Rev. R. E. Neighbor, father of James E., was a boy of twelve years; Robert Neighbor, the great-grandfather, also accompanied them. They settled in Racine County, Wis., where Edward Neighbor, formerly a school-teacher, took up a farm and followed agricultural pursuits. R. E. Neighbor was born in 1842 at Wisbeach, England, and began his education in his native land. He passed his youth on his father's farm in Racine County, Wis., attended Racine College, and later took a course at the University of Chicago, from which institution he was graduated. Having prepared for service in the Baptist ministry, he was ordained, and his first pastorate was in Kane County, Ill. Having been appointed to do missionary work for his denomination in India, in the province of Assam, he gave up his charge and for the next eight years served in the India mission field of the Baptist Church, during that time residing principally at Nowgong, Assam. His son James was an infant, when he went out, and three children were born in India, so he and his wife concluded it best to return to America in order to give their children proper educational advantages. For a time the family lived at Chicago, Ill., later at Elkhart, Ind., and then at Indianapolis, and Rev. Mr. Neighbor is still actively engaged in the service of the Baptist Church, doing special work. He resides at Indianapolis, but is called to various points. For twenty-five years he was connected with the Baptist State Convention of Indiana, and he is well known through his contributions to the several church periodicals, having written considerably on religious topics for the Baptist Observer of Indianapolis, the Baptist Review of New York City, the Bibliotheca Sacra of Oberlin, Ohio, and The Review and Expositor of Louisville, Ky. At two different periods he has been editor of the Observer. His able services in every capacity have received flatter­ing recognition in the church.

 

Rev. Mr. Neighbor was married at Chicago, Ill., in 1868, to Miss Anna Maria Bell, who was a native of Ireland, of Scotch-Irish descent. She lived to be over seventy years old. Five children were born of, this mar­riage, viz.: James E.; Arthur, of Rosenberg, Texas, a physician and surgeon; Robert W., manager of the branch house of E. C. Atkins & Co. at San Francisco, and living at Oakland; Agnes D., wife of George T. Purves, of Indianapolis, bookkeeper for the Marion County Construction Company; and Ethel M., who was born at Elkhart, Ind., and who is unmarried.

 

James E. Neighbor was born February 2, 1870, at St. Charles, Kane County, where his father was stationed until he took up missionary work in India. He was but seven months old when he landed with his parents at Calcutta, and a boy of nine when they returned to America. He attended school in Chicago for one year, was in the high school at Elkhart, Ind., six months, and completed the four years' high school course at Indianapolis, graduating when seventeen years old. Two months before graduation he had been offered a position with E. C. Atkins & Co., saw manufacturers of Indianapolis, and he entered their service as mailing clerk. After one year he became billing clerk, making out all the invoices, besides which he waited on all outside customers who came to the house and filled the position of office salesman. At the time the Spanish-Ameri­can war broke out he was a member of the Indianapolis Light Artillery, and enlisted for service with that organization, which went into the army as the Twenty-seventh Indiana Light Artillery, but he was rejected at the federal examination. At this time the president of the Indianapolis Mercantile & Trust Company offered him a position as manager of the Indianapolis office. This concern later developed into the Merchants' Association. For four years Mr. Neighbor devoted his time to Y. M. C. A. work. Having taken the position of assistant secretary, he held it for two years, and during the next two years was acting general secretary. At the end of this period he became superintendent of the Badger Furniture Company at Indianapolis, holding that position for four years, when his health broke down and he found it necessary to have rest and a change, to recover from an attack of nervous prostration. With that end in view he made a visit to his brother Robert, at Oakland, Cal., in 1908, and was delighted with the climatic and other attractions of the coast. In the course of his stay he formed the acquaintance of R. 0. Wilson, manager at the San Francisco offices of the Bayside Lumber Company, which has a mill at Eureka. During the ten years of his connection with E. C. Atkins & Co. he had become quite familiar with sawmill supplies and other details of the lumber business, and his work in the association brought him a wide acquaintance, so that he did not come to the west by any means as a stranger.

 

In December, 1908, Mr. Wilson sent Mr. Neighbor up to Eureka, and the following February he became assistant manager of the Bayside Lumber Company, in which capacity he has charge of the Eureka mills. The San Francisco offices of this concern are in Rooms 613-621 Santa Maria building, at No. 112 Market street, and the sales offices are also in that city. The officers of the company are: Levi Smith, president, of Warren, Pa.; Charles A. Shurtliff, vice president, of San Francisco; R. 0. Wilson, secretary and treasurer, as well as manager. The latter lives at Oakland. The company is engaged in the manufacture of redwood lumber and shingles, and the industry is of such proportions as to be highly important to the prosperity of Eureka, where it is considered one of the stable assets of the city and county. Mr. Neighbor's able administration of its affairs at this point is sufficient comment on his talents and executive ability.

 

From the time he settled at Eureka Mr. Neighbor has demonstrated his sincere interest in the work of raising social and living standards in the community and his efficiency in accomplishing such objects. Un­doubtedly his early home training and influence predisposed him for such service to his fellows, and he has lived faithfully up to the high ideals of generosity and helpfulness to others instilled by his parents. He is chair­man at present of the Humboldt County Progressive Temperance League, which office he has filled for the last three years; is a member of the Eureka Development Association, working for what he considers the best interests of a cleaner, larger and better Eureka; and is a prominent member of the Baptist Church, serving that organization as deacon and member of the board of trustees, and the Sunday school as superintendent. Mr. Neighbor has attempted to labor along broad lines, attacking wrong and vicious principles and breaking down evil institutions, rather than directing his immediate attention to the victims of these conditions entirely. He be­lieves in going to the root of an evil, rather than nipping its buds, and his success in the various undertakings which have been entrusted to him would seem to indicate that he has a grasp of the more effective methods.

 

In 1902 Mr. Neighbor was married to Miss Anna M. Wright, of Mount Pleasant, Ohio, and they have two children, Margaret Annabel and James Edward. They reside at No. 130 West Cedar street, Eureka. Mrs. Neigh­bor is, like her husband, a zealous worker in the Baptist Church, and also a prominent member of the Ladies' Aid Society and vice president of the Women's Missionary Society of the Eureka congregation.

 

MATTHEW CARROLL.—A prominent farmer and stockman in the vicinity of Arcata, Cal., Matthew Carroll has carved out for himself a farm from the forest land, where he now produces big crops on land which, when he first settled there, was mostly timber. He cleared the ground for farming, and still owns valuable timber land there, and has become known in that community as a liberal and public-spirited man, ready to help any project which has for its aim the upbuilding of the county where he has made his home.

 

On January 23, 1854, Mr. Carroll was born in Kingston, Ontario, Can­ada, the son of James, born in County Wicklow, Ireland, who came with his parents to Ontario at the age of five years, where he was educated in the local public schools, being engaged during the winters in logging in the woods, and purchasing property consisting of four hundred acres of raw land, which he cleared of beech and maple and improved for farming purposes. His wife was formerly Mary Rowley, a native of County Kil­dare, Ireland, who as a child removed with her parents to Ontario and is still living upon the old home farm in that province. Of her twelve chil­dren, only two are living, and Matthew Carroll was the second eldest in the family. He grew up on his father's farm, and attended the public schools of the vicinity, and at the age of sixteen years began logging in the woods with his father, driving ox-teams, etc., until over twenty years of age. In May, 1874, he came west to California, settling first at Eureka, in Hum­boldt County, where his knowledge of logging stood him in good stead, he being employed for about three years by Evans & McKay on Salmon Creek, being foreman of their road-builders. When this company failed, Mr. Car­roll entered the employ of James Gannon at Arcata, as foreman and head road-builder, in which capacity he remained for a period of five years. In December, 1881, he made a return trip to his old home, the following January being married to Miss Bridget Whalen, a native of his home town, and daughter of Daniel Patrick Whalen, a pioneer farmer of the place. With his bride Mr. Carroll returned to Arcata in April, 1882, purchasing a small farm near that city, which he operated for three years, then selling it to homestead the present place. He began at once to improve his new property, cutting shingle and stave bolts, shipping the latter to San Fran­cisco and selling the former to the shingle mill run by Harpst, Spring & Co. Having cleared this land, he purchased adjacent property, having now about three hundred seventy acres in all, of which one hundred fifty acres are cleared and under the plow, there still being about two hundred acres which are heavily timbered. Here Mr. Carroll engages in general farming, stock-raising and dairy business, milking a herd of seventeen cows, and besides raising cattle of Durham and Holstein strain, also engaging in the raising of fine horses. He is the owner of the English shire stallion Captain Tom, weighing fifteen hundred pounds, well known as a fine draft horse.

 

For about twelve years Mr. Carroll was a trustee of the Cedar Springs school district, and was one of the builders of the first school house in this vicinity, and continued as clerk and trustee of the school until turning over these offices to his son. In his political preferences he is a member of the Democratic Party. He is the father of eleven children, of whom the five youngest are at home with their parents: Mary, now Mrs. Thomas Dillon, of Eureka; James, who resides in San Francisco; Joseph; who lives in Arcata ; John, who died at the age of sixteen years ; Anna, a bookkeeper for the Humboldt Cooperage Co., Arcata ; ,Daniel, who lives in Montana ; Matthew, Peter, William, Oswald and Catherine.

 

 

JOHN MACINATA was born in Bagolino, Province of Brescia, Italy, May 11, 1881, the fourth in a family of six children born to Charles and Margareta (Bazzani) Macinata. The parents were farmer folk in Brescia, and resided on the home place until they passed away, on the same day in 1912, only four hours apart.

 

John Macinata, who is the only member of the family in the United States, was brought up on the old home farm, and in his native district he received a good education. When his schooling was over he learned the carpenter's trade, which he followed in connection with farming. Having a desire to see California and try the opportunities offered here to indus­trious young men, he came to Eureka, Cal., in April, 1907, and for the first eight months was in the employ of C. E. Sacchi at Bayside, then at the Bucksport dairy and the McKay dairy, Ryan slough, for like periods. After another year spent on a dairy farm at the head of F Street, Eureka, he resolved to engage in the business for himself and in December, 1910, he rented the William Harmon place, where he ran a dairy of eighteen cows until March 22, 1914, when he leased his present place at West End, near Blue Lake. It is splendid bottom land, which gives him ample pas­ture, and upon it he raises an abundance of hay and green feed. His herd of Holsteins is well bred and numbers forty head of milch cows, which he feeds with great care in order to achieve the best results.

 

Mr. Macinata was married in Eureka June 7, 1914, being united with Miss Brachi Ambrosini, born at Bormio, Province of Sondrio, Italy. After finishing her studies in Italy, before coming to California, she spent several years in Graubunden and St. Gallen, Switzerland, where she learned the German language and is a woman of ability, being very much of a helpmate to her husband. Politically he is a Democrat.

 

 

B. JAMES BIASCA was born at Lodrino, Canton Ticino, Switzerland, January 29, 1881, the son of Charles and Ellen (Bernardi) Biasca, both natives of that place. The father was well educated and became a successful dairyman in Humboldt county, whither he came in about 1882, the family joining him later, while he was located on Bear river. In 1905 his health failed and he returned to Ticino, Switzerland. They were the parents of eight children, six of whom are living, James being the oldest. His educa­tional advantages consisted of about eighteen months in Lodrino. schools, at the end of which time, at the age of eight, he came with others of the family to join the father in Humboldt county, Cal. He immediately went to work for others on a dairy ranch to help his father make a livelihood for the family, and when eleven years of age he went to work for the Russ Company on the present place, while his father was foreman, and he has continued on this ranch ever since. He worked for his father after he leased it and since 1905 he has had a lease of the place himself and is operating a dairy of eighty-three cows, and is also engaged in raising cattle and hogs, poultry and turkeys. Central Park ranch, as it is called, is located on Bear River and is well adapted for the purpose to which it is devoted. It is' equipped with a creamery with steam power for the making of butter, which is shipped to the San Francisco market.

 

Since he came to this ranch at the age of eleven years, Mr. Biasca has never lost a day, and by his industry and close application to business has won for himself a competence. Politically he is a Republican.

 

 

JOHN D. AMBROSINI was born at Lodrino, Canton Ticino, Switzer­land, March 25, 1883, the fifth oldest of six children born to Nicola and Elena (Sachi) Ambrosini, who reside on their farm in that country. John D. was brought up as a farmer's son and received his education in the public schools. Having heard reports of better wages and opportunities in Cali­fornia than could be found in his native Ticino, he determined to try his luck in the Golden West. January 21, 1903, he left his native land and arrived in Humboldt county February 10, 1903. He found employment in a dairy at Loleta for two years and then spent three seasons in a dairy on Bear River ridge. Next he worked for Ambrosini Brothers for a year, when, having saved some money, he determined to start in business for himself. In 1908 he leased his present place (known as the Centennial ranch) of two thousand acres, and has since engaged in dairying with suc­cess. He milks eighty-five cows and is manufacturing butter, which he sells to the Elk River Mercantile Company at Scotia. His success is in no small degree due to the assistance of his wife, who was in maidenhood Ida Bernardi, born on Bear River ridge, Humboldt County, the daughter of Moses and Louisa (Sachi) Bernardi, both natives of Lodrino, Switzerland. On coming to the United States they settled in Humboldt County, where they followed dairying, but later they returned with the family to Lodrino. There the father died soon after his arrival. The mother still makes her home in Ticino. Mrs. Ambrosini is now the only immediate member of her family in Humboldt County. She was educated both in Humboldt County and in Lodrino. In 1909 she returned to Humboldt County, where she afterwards married Mr. Ambrosini, the ceremony taking place in Ferndale. To them have been born four children, Dania, Hazel, Susie and Ethel. Politically he espouses the cause of the Republican party.

 

 

ANGELO BONOMI.—Many representative sons of Italy have come to California, among them Angelo Bonomi, who was born in Livemmo, Province of Brescia, Italy, in 1890, and there he received a good education in the public schools. He was reared to the life of a farmer and dairyman and followed that line of work in his native land until he concluded to try his fortune in California. In 1912 he came to Humboldt County and for eighteen months was employed on a dairy at Stone lagoon. After spending two months at the Buhne ranch he leased his present place of two hundred acres near Fields Landing, on South Bay, where he is conducting a dairy of thirty cows.

 

Mr, Bonomi was married in Livemmo, Italy, May 24, 1912, being united with Miss Theressa Toreni, who was also a native of that place, and they have two children, Marie and Eva. Both himself and wife are members of the Catholic church in Eureka.

 

 

PIETRO CANCLINI was born in the town of Piatti, near Vale de Sotto, Province Sondrio, Italy, May 20, 1883, and is the fourth oldest of twelve children born to Christopher and Candida (Canclini) Canclini, also natives of that place, who still make their home there. After completing the public schools, Pietro was apprenticed to the shoemaker's trade under his father, continuing the same until he came to California with the excep­tion of the time he served in the Italian army. It was at the age of twenty that he entered the Sixteenth regiment of artillery, serving three years, when he was honorably discharged as trumpeter. In 1906 he came to Humboldt County. For six months he was employed in the woods at Philbrook and then started in the shoe business in Arcata, running a shoe repair shop on the plaza. He makes a specialty of shoe repairing and has a complete line of machinery for sewing and repairing shoes, the motive power being electricity. From the first his success has been steady and is still increasing.

 

Mr. Canclini was married in Arcata, being united with Miss Isolina Boni, a native of the Province Firenze, Italy, and they have two children, Nelo and Lino. Fraternally he is a member of Iriquois Tribe No. 156, I. 0. R. M., at Arcata. Politically he believes firmly in the principles of the Republican Party.

 

 

AMATO BANDUCCI.—Among the men who have come from far-off sunny Italy, and are making a success in the mercantile line, is Amato Banducci, who was born near Lucca, Italy, July 4, 1878, the son of Paolo and Crelia (Antongiovanni) Banducci, who are still living on their farm near Lucca. Of their four children, Amato is the oldest and the only one residing in California. He received his education in the public schools and remained home assisting his parents until he came to California in 1896. After a six months' stay in Los Angeles he found employment at farming in Santa Barbara. Altogether he continued farming for five years, and of this period thirteen months were spent on the Island of Santa Cruz riding after stock. During his stay on the island he had several interesting hunts for wild hogs that were very numerous on the island and which the owners of the island wished to get rid of.

 

In 1902 Mr. Banducci came to Humboldt County and for three years was employed successively in the following shingle mills, Charles Harpst, Charles Kelston, and the Union shingle mill. In 1905 he started a vege­table and fruit route, traveling by wagon through Arcata and vicinity for a period of two years. At the end of this time, in 1907, he started a grocery store on the plaza, and has continued in business ever since. His trade has grown from the first and he has built up a good, substantial business. His success is due in a large measure to his affable, courteous and genial manner and his close application to business.

 

Mr. Banducci was married in Eureka, being united with Elenor Gilar­ducci, who was also born near Lucca, Italy. To them have been born two children, Fred and Susie. Fraternally he is a member of the Woodmen of the World and of Arcata Aerie No. 1846, F. 0. E. He is a member and hearty supporter of the Arcata Board of Trade and the Arcata Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Banducci is a liberal and enterprising citizen who is always willing to give of his means and best efforts toward the building up of the community commercially, socially and morally.

 

 

J. M. TRISTAO.—Among men who have Ieft their trade to engage in dairying in the Eel River valley is J. M. Tristao, who was born on the Isle of Treseira, one of the Azores, October 18, 1880, the son of J. B. Tristao, who is a bricklayer in his native place. The son, J. M., was educated in the public schools and on the completion of his studies therein, when six­teen years old, was apprenticed under his father as a bricklayer. After­ward he worked at the trade in that country until the spring of 1902, when he came to Pleasanton, Cal. There he was employed on a farm until the fall of that year, when he found his way to San Mateo County, where he was employed on a dairy. In the spring of 1903 he was similarly employed with Charles Denio at Vallejo, continuing with him for one year. Next we find him working on a sheep ranch in Nevada, but a year later he re­turned to Vallejo and rented the creamery on George Street, which he operated for one year. He then traded the creamery business for a dairy ranch at Crockett and ran it for two years.

 

In November, 1910, Mr. Tristao came to Humboldt County and leased a ranch at Arcata. One year later he leased one at West End, Blue Lake, and ran a dairy of thirty cows for two years. In the fall of 1914 he traded it for the present lease, comprising one hundred seventy acres of the Herrick ranch. Here he runs a dairy of fifty cows and is meeting with success, having plenty of bottom land for pasture, besides which he raises hay and green feed. He is a stockholder in the Del Monte Creamery.

 

Fraternally Mr. Tristao was a member of the Eagles and the I. D. E. S. in Vallejo until he moved away. Politically he believes in the principles of the Republican Party.

 

 

EMILLIO BETTIGIEO.—Among the firms operating large dairies successfully in the Eel river valley is Peracca & Bettigieo, of whom Emillio Bettigieo is the junior member. He was born in Calico, Province of Como, Italy, October 18, 1893, the third oldest of a family of eight children born to Angelo and Chisemia (Spini) Bettigieo. The father was a farmer and dairyman at Calico, Italy, until his death, and the mother still makes her home on the old place.

 

Emillio Bettigieo received a good education in the public schools, remaining at home and aiding his parents until he was seventeen years of age. Having heard of the advantages of California to the wage earner and farmer, he concluded to profit by opportunities offered the energetic young man on the Pacific coast. In 1910 he came to Humboldt County and found employment on a dairy at Petrolia, where he continued for three years, then followed ten months of the same kind of work at Loleta. Having saved his money with the hope of engaging in dairying for himself, in October, 1914, he formed a partnership with Emelio Peracca and leased the present place of two hundred sixty acres, and purchased the necessary implements and horses as well as cows to operate a large dairy. Besides milking eighty cows, they are also engaged' in stock-raising. The place is very suitable for dairying, its rich bottom lands enabling the partners to raise plenty of hay and green feed for their dairy herd. Both Mr. Peracca and Mr. Bettigieo are members of the Ferndale Dairymen's Association.

 

 

GAMBONI BROTHERS.—Among the dairymen on the island near Ferndale who are meeting with merited success we find Alfred and Bartol Gamboni, who came hither from Switzerland and fully appreciate the oppor­tunities offered men who are willing to work and apply themselves closely. Their chosen occupation is the dairy industry, in which they are meeting with deserved success. The brothers are natives of Vogorno, Canton Ticino, Switzerland, the eldest brother, Alfred, having been born in 1883. He remained on the home farm until 1903, when he came to California, being employed on a dairy in Marin County until 1908, and then came to Hum­boldt County. He continued in the dairy business until December, 1910, when he formed the present partnership with his brother Bartol. The latter was born in 1887 and received his education and training in the public school of Vogorno. It was on October 23, 1907, that he came to California. Besides being employed on a dairy he was also engaged in driving a milk wagon in San Francisco until July, 1909, when he came to Humboldt County. As has been stated, Alfred and Bartol Gamboni formed a partnership in December, 1910, for the purpose of carrying on a dairy business of their own, and rented their present place of seventy acres on the island, stocking it with a dairy herd. They have been prospered in their undertaking, milk­ing forty cows, to which number they are continually adding, and their business generally is growing steadily.

 

The brothers are enterprising and progressive business men, being well and favorably known, and are liberal, open-hearted and honest in all their dealings.

 

 

EDWARD CHRISTEN was born in Andermatt, Canton Uri, Switzer­land, January 6, 1860, the son of Sebastian and Josepha (Danjot) Christen, also natives of that place. The father was a shoemaker and farmer and also served for many years as the local judge. Both parents died at the old home. To them were born thirteen children, eight of whom grew up and four are still living, Edward being the youngest of all. He was edu­cated in the public schools and remained home assisting his father on the farm until he was twenty-four years of age, with the exception of the time he spent in the army and at the military school, in which he rose to the non-commissioned rank of corporal.

 

In 1884 Mr. Christen came to San Francisco, Cal., and from there came soon afterward to Petrolia, Humboldt county, where he was employed in a dairy for four years. In the meantime he had saved enough money to start in the dairy business, and in partnership with his brother he leased a ranch of one thousand acres in the same vicinity. They ran a dairy of seventy cows and made a specialty of manufacturing and shipping butter. The partnership continued for three years, when Edward Christen bought his brother's interest and continued alone until 1896, when he sold out and came to Pleasant Point, near Waddington, and bought a ranch of sixty-eight acres of bottom land and established a dairy. Since then the river has cut through around him, taking away several ranches and leaving him an island of forty acres, where he has a dairy of about twenty milch cows. Mr. Christen was married in San Francisco to Miss Mary Regli, also a native of Andermatt, Switzerland. She died here in 1913, leaving twelve children, as follows: George, Josephine, Marian, Edward, Rosa, Alvetius, Agnes, John, Joseph, Anton, Clara and Bernard.

 

Mr. Christen is a Republican in politics. He has always been interested in the cause of education and for many years served as clerk of the board of trustees of the Pleasant Point school district.

 

 

BASILIO DUSI was born at Ono Degna, Province of Brescia, Italy, May 26, 1883, the son of Battiste and Lucia (Buttenini) Dusi, who were also natives of Ono Degna and still make their home there. The father was engaged in making charcoal. The parents had six children, all of whom are living, Basilic) being the youngest and the only one in California. He was educated in the public schools of his native place, after which he assisted his father in the burning of charcoal until 1908. Having heard that better wages and greater opportunities generally were offered in California than were possible in his native land he resolved to come to the western coast of America. On March 6, 1908, he arrived in Ferndale, Cal., and until 1911 was employed in different dairies in the vicinity. In November, 1911, having saved enough money to start in dairying for himself, he leased the S. Smith place located on the coast two miles below Centerville. The ranch comprises three hundred acres, one hundred acres being plow land, where he raises hogs and green feed. Here he is successfully engaged in dairying, milking forty-five cows, the products being sold to the Cali­fornia Creameries Company.

 

Mr. Dusi is a well-informed man and is public spirited and enterprising, always ready to do his share towards enhancing the welfare of the community. He is a member of the Catholic Church at Ferndale and politically is a Republican.

 

 

BERNARDINO GENZOLI was born at Lodrino, Canton Ticino, Swit­zerland, in October, 1850, the son of John M. and Badelina (Bernardi) Genzoli, both natives of that place. They were farming people and passed their entire lives there. Of their nine children, seven are living, as follows: Cypriano resides in Ticino ; Bernardino is the subject of this sketch ; Morello is a dairyman and stockman at Capetown; Frederick resides in Algeria, Africa ; Chelestino lives in Eureka; Antone at Capetown; Savina (Mrs. Biasca) lives in Ticino.

 

Bernardino Genzoli was educated in the public schools, and remained on the home farm until 1869, when he made his way to Paris, France, there being apprenticed as a painter and decorator. On the breaking out of the Franco-Prussian war business was at a standstill and he therefore returned to Ticino and resumed his duties on the home farm, assisting his father until 1875. In that year he came to Humboldt county, Cal., where he immediately found work in a dairy on Bear river ridge. With the means and experience gained there during a period of nine years he engaged in the dairy business on his own account. Forming a partnership with his brother Morello, he leased the Harken ranch of eighteen hundred acres near Cape-town and engaged in dairying, milking one hundred twenty-five cows and making butter, which was shipped to San Francisco. After a period of seven years Bernardino Genzoli sold his interest to his brother and leased the Capwell ranch of three hundred acres on Bear River, where he ran a dairy for five years, after which he leased the Greenlaw ranch on Elk river, where he had a herd of sixty milch cows.

 

In 1900 Mr. Genzoli sold his lease and stock and came to Arcata Bot­toms, where he leased the present ranch of sixty-three acres from Redmond Brothers. It is all bottom land and furnishes abundant pasturage and green feed for his dairy of twenty-five milch cows, besides which he is also raising young stock.

 

In Ferndale occurred the marriage of Mr. Genzoli, his wife before her marriage being Lillian Sacchi, also a native of Lodrino, Switzerland, the daughter of Antone Sacchi, a farmer of that place. To Mr. and Mrs. Gen­zoli have been born seven children: Fred, Antone, Amerigo, Frank, Florinda, Bernardino and Esther. For twenty-five years Mr. Genzoli was a member of the Ferndale Lodge of Odd Fellows, but since his removal from that section he has discontinued it. Politically he is a Republican.

 

 

ALESSIO GALLACCI.—Among the worthy citizens of Humboldt county who have come from Italy and are making a success of dairying is Alessio Gallacci, who was born in Bacceno, Novara, Italy, October 2, 1884. His father, Vincenzo Gallacci, was a dairyman, and from him the son, Alessio, learned dairying as it was done in that country. He was educated in the public schools and assisted his parents until he was twenty-one years of age. He had heard much of better wages and greater opportunities in California than could be found in his mother country, so he resolved to cast his lot on the Pacific coast. In April, 1906, he landed in San Francisco and from there came immediately to Humboldt county. Here he found employment in a dairy on Arcata bottoms and followed that line of work until he had saved enough money to start for himself.

 

In 1911 Mr. Gallacci leased his present place of forty acres and has since been engaged in dairying, his herd of milch cows numbering twenty-five. The place is all rich bottom land, which furnishes plenty of hay and green feed, and the owner is recognized as a successful dairyman.

 

Mr. Gallacci was married in Arcata, being united with Miss Jennie Spalletta, a native of Cimalmotto, Canton Ticino, Switzerland, and to them have been born two children, Mary and Evelyn. Politically Mr. Gallacci believes thoroughly in the principles of the Republican Party.

 

 

THOMAS ALBONICO was born at Gravedona, Province of Como, Italy, June 13, 1871. His father was Bartholameo Albonico, a farmer who passed his entire life in Como, Italy. Thomas was reared on, the farm and educated in the public schools. He remained at home assisting his parents until 1898, when he determined to try his luck in California, of which he had heard such good reports. In 1898 we find him working on a dairy in Marin County. In 1902 he came to Humboldt County and after working on a dairy at Blue Lake for four months he found the same kind of em­ployment on Arcata bottoms, where he continued for three years. Next he spent ten months at Freshwater and then returned to Arcata bottoms, where he continued as a dairy hand.

 

In January, 1908, Mr. Albonico had saved enough money to start in the business, leasing a farm of forty-one acres on the bottoms, where he ran a dairy of twenty cows. Two years later he gave the lease up and rented the Lafe Sidel ranch of forty-five acres, where he milked twenty-five cows for three years, and then sold his lease and brought his dairy herd to the John Bulwinkle place, where he is running a successful dairy of twenty cows. He understands dairying and is a man that is well liked and favorably known. He is a stockholder in the United Creameries Company.

 

In Arcata June 6, 1908, occurred the marriage of Mr. Albonico, being united with Freda Schultz, a native daughter of San Francisco. Her father died when she was a year old and her mother married a second time, becoming the wife of John Bulwinkle, and the daughter always went by the name of Freda Bulwinkle. Mr. and Mrs. Albonico have three children: Anna C., Bartholameo and Mary M. Fraternally he is a member of the Woodmen of the World. In national politics he believes in the principles of the Republican Party. With his family he is a member of the Catholic Church in Arcata.

 

JOHN SCURI.—The province of Brescia, Italy, has sent many of her sons to aid in the upbuilding of our new West, and the counties of central California, though less beautiful in climate and scenery than their native home, have offered hospitality and prosperity to many energetic and pro­gressive sons of Italy.

 

Among the young men from that country who have come to seek their fortunes in California, led hither by the reports from those who have preceded them, is John Scuri, who was born in Livemmo, Brescia, Italy, on December 31, 1887, where he grew up on his father's farm, receiving a good education in the public schools of that locality. When he had completed his studies at school, John Scuri was apprenticed to the stone mason's trade, having learned farming to a considerable extent during his boyhood at home. In 1912 he left his native land to come to California, where he was employed in McKay's shingle mill near Eureka as foreman for nearly two years, when he left there and secured employment on a dairy farm near Loleta, in the same county, until November, 1914. At that time, determining to enter the dairy business independently, as so many of his countrymen were doing in the county, he formed a partnership with D. Bareggi, and the two young men rented part of the old Swan ranch at Orick, and here established themselves in the dairy business, where they are meeting with merited success. Their ranch is composed of rich bottom lands, which give fine opportunity for pasturing, and the partners are able to raise thereon abundance of hay and grain and green feed for their herd of fifty milch cows.

 

The partner of Mr. Scuri, Dominica Bareggi, is a native of the same town as himself, where he was born November 17, 1887, and where he learned the dairying trade as a lad and after completing the education furnished by the local public schools, continued working on the home farm until 1912, the same year in which Mr. Scuri came to California, Mr. Bareggi also at that date removing to Humboldt county, Cal., where he was employed at a dairy near Loleta until he formed the partnership with Mr. Scuri in the dairy busi­ness.

 

 

FRANK AMBROSINI.—Born in Lodrino, Canton Ticino, Switzerland, October 2, 1855, Frank Ambrosini was the oldest of a family of seven children, of whom five are at present living. The father, Cipriano, had a farm in Lodrino, which he operated during the summer months, his winters being mostly spent in Paris, where he was employed at the trade of glazier. The mother, Agatha (Martinoli) Ambrosini, was a native of their home town in Switzerland, where she and her husband both died. They brought up their children on the farm, educating them in the public schools, and having com­pleted his education the son Frank assisted his father upon the farm, at the age of twenty years enlisting in the Swiss army for the usual term of service, after which he was honorably discharged. Removing to Paris, he was there apprenticed to the glazier's trade, and after gaining experience in that line of work he continued in that occupation in France for a period of ten years. Having heard and read much of the opportunities offered for success in Cali­fornia, Mr. Ambrosini then decided to cast his fortunes on the Pacific coast, and accordingly in 1885 came to San Francisco, and thence to Eureka, in Humboldt county, Cal., and not finding employment at once in his chosen occupation, he was for five years engaged in working on the dairy ranch of Joseph Russ on Bear River ridge. Desiring to go into that line of business independently, Mr. Ambrosini rented the Bolivia ranch of about eight hun­dred acres, also on Bear River ridge, which for the following fifteen years he operated as a dairy, milking about eighty cows thereon; his next venture being the leasing of the Donnolly ranch of sixty-five acres of bottom land at Port Kenyon, where he conducted a dairy of thirty-five cows for three years. This lease he finally sold out, and in 1908 leased the Forbes place, where he is at present located, which consists of eighty acres of fertile land about a mile north of Port Kenyon, where he grows an abundance of feed for his herd of forty cows, which are full-blooded, and high-grade Jerseys.

 

One of the original stockholders of the Valley Flower Creamery on the Island, Mr. Ambrosini was also for some years a trustee of the Island school district, education being a cause in which he takes a deep interest. A very intelligent and well read man, he speaks French fluently, which he learned while engaged in business in Paris; and since coming to California has made a special study of the English language. Having a retentive memory, his wide reading has made of him a well informed and interesting conversationalist, and as school trustee he exerted his influence to further the cause of education among the school children of his district. To the country of his adoption he is always loyal, being keenly alive to the advantages offered here, and became a citizen of the United States as soon as he had lived in the country the required length of time. Politically, he is a stanch supporter of the principles of the Republican party, and in his business life his energy is no less apparent, for the early days of his dairying experience, when he panned and skimmed the milk, and churned the butter upon his ranch by hand, have been succeeded by the use of gas-engine power and the present prosperous condition of his affairs. Mr. Ambrosini's wife, an active and able helpmeet to her husband, is Victoria, the daughter of Paul Biasca, a farmer of Canton Ticino, Switzerland, where she was born. Her marriage with Mr. Ambrosini took place in Ferndale, Cal., March 16, 1901, and they are the parents of seven children, namely, Delmo, Sidney, Rina, Frank, Jr., Dora, Ivy and Vinni.

 

 

CIPRIANO PIINI.—From Switzerland, which is his native home, Cip­riano Piini, at the age of nineteen years, came to California, where he has since that time continued to make his home and is now well known as a successful dairyman of Humboldt county.

 

The parents of Mr. Piini were Joseph, a farmer on the Ticino River, in Switzerland, eight miles above where it empties into Largo Locarno, and Catherine (Giulieri) Piini, who died on March 8, 1915, the father still resid­ing at the old home. Of their six children, Cipriano, who was born at Cog­nasco, Canton Ticino, Switzerland, on February 17, 1883, is the fourth •oldest, the others being: Mary, who is now Mrs. Genzoli, resides at Loleta ; Albina, now Mrs. Charles C. Giulieri, of Salmon Creek ; Frank, a farmer at Castroville; Charles, who resides in Monterey county ; and Celeste, still residing at the old home in Switzerland. Like the others, Cipriano was brought up on his father's farm and educated in the public schools of the place, remaining at home and assisting his parents until nineteen years of age, when he con­cluded to try his fortune in California. In December, 1902, he came to San Francisco and found employment on a dairy at Nicasia, Marin County; in July of the next year he removed to Humboldt county, where he continued the same line of work for three months at Loleta, and later for eight months at Petrolia, thence going to Salmon Creek, where he followed the same occupation for eighteen months. Mr. Piini was next in the employ of the Pacific Lumber Company at Scotia, where he remained for about two years, being employed next by the California Central Creamery Company at the Loleta creamery, and after ten months in this work he was engaged for a couple of years at a dairy in the same vicinity. By this time having saved sufficient money to enable his starting in business independently, in the autumn of the year 1911 Mr. Piini leased the Riley place, consisting of forty acres on Paradise Island in Humboldt county, where he at present is engaged in the dairy business, milking a herd of twenty-three cows and selling the milk to Libby, McNeill and Libby at Loleta. Mr. Piini is meeting with much success in his independent venture, and making for himself a name in his chosen line of work. The estate which he has leased is fertile bottom land, whereon he is enabled to raise all the hay and green feed which his herd requires, and like many others from his native land of Switzerland who have chosen to make their home in this country, he is well satisfied with the change.

 

At Salinas, Cal., Mr. Piini was married to Miss Irene Omicini, also a native of Switzerland, she having been born in Locarno, in the canton of Ticino. In his political views Mr. Piini is a firm believer in the principles of the Republican Party.

 

 

FERDINAND AMBROSINI.—Together with his brother Victor, Ferdinand Ambrosini has been engaged in dairying most of the time since coming to California, and the firm of F. and V. Ambrosini is well and favorably known among the dairymen of Humboldt county, this state, both men being members of the Ferndale Dairymen's Association and the Ferndale Cow Testing Association.

 

A native of Lodrino, Canton Ticino, Switzerland, Ferdinand Ambrosini was born in that distant country November 14, 1873, the son of Gervaso, and grandson of Gregori Ambrosini, the latter having been a farmer and land-owner in Switzerland, as well as a member of the town council and the descendant of an old family in that district. Ferdinand Ambrosini's father was also a farmer and dairyman and member of the town council, of which he was for many years president, or mayor, and both himself and his wife, Maria (Sacchi) Ambrosini died in their home canton. They were the .parents of five children, four of whom are living: Ferdinand and -Victor, now in partnership in California ;Theodorlinda, now the wife of Cipriano Ambrosini of Glenn county, and Severina, the wife of Sylvio Sacchi of Sonoma county. The sons were reared on the home farm, received their education in the local public schools and learned farming and dairying as they were carried on in that country. On February 3, 1892, attracted by the good reports he had heard of the opportunities for young men in Cali­fornia, the son Ferdinand set out for San Francisco, via New York, arriving in Humboldt County, Cal., on the twenty-fifth of the same month. Here he soon went to work on a dairy ranch of the Russ estate on Bear River Ridge, and in 1900 became foreman of the Woodland Echo ranch. In 1903 he and his brother Victor rented this ranch and also the Mayflower ranch of twenty-six hundred acres, where they engaged independently in dairying, milking one hundred seventy cows. All these years Mr. Ambrosini had been engaged in the making of butter, putting it up in squares, cubes and kegs, shipping it from Ferndale to Eureka and San Francisco at the rate of about three thousand pounds a month, and obtaining as high prices as any of the creameries. In the fall of 1913 he and his brother gave up the two ranches, having in 1910 purchased seventy-two acres of the Greis ranch adjoining Ferndale on the northeast, which they rented for dairy purposes until giving up their other ranches in 1913, at which time they engaged in dairying upon the seventy-two acres, adding thereto rented land of thirty-seven acres, so that at present they operate one hundred ten acres of rich bottom land, raising thereon large crops of hay and green feed for their herd of about seventy-five high grade Jersey and Durham milch cows, one of the latter having made the best record for milk in 1914 of thirty-five hundred cows whose record was kept by the association, having produced fifteen thousand, two hundred thirty-two pounds of milk in nine months. The Ambrosini brothers are also engaged in cattle raising, for which purpose they rent the Guthrie ranch of six hundred six acres, located ten miles below Ferndale, on the coast.

 

Politically, Mr. Ambrosini is an upholder of Democratic principles, he was a member of the board of trustees of Bunker Hill school district for two terms, and served one year as clerk of the board; and he is at present a stockholder in the Russ-Williams Banking Company. His marriage took place in Ferndale, Mrs. Ambrosini having been formerly Louisa Biasca, of Lodrino, Switzerland, and they are the parents of seven children: Edna, Severina, Louis, Elsie, Wesley, William and Donald, all of whom are at home with their parents.

 

 

JAMES JOHN CRONIN.—It is wide-awake men like James J. Cronin, men of optimism, ability and pluck, as well as high ideals and the courage of their convictions, that are bringing Humboldt county to the front in the sisterhood of the California counties, making it second to none in the state.

 

Mr. Cronin is a native of Nebraska, born at Bancroft, Cuming County, July 7, 1883. His father was Timothy Cronin, for many years a passenger conductor on the Grand Trunk Railway, while his mother was Margaret Cronin, a native of Canada. Later the father moved to Nebraska, where he took up land near Bancroft. The old Cronin homestead at Bancroft is still in the possession of the family, and is one of the local landmarks. The father died when James John was but two years of age and the mother continued to conduct the place, and there he grew to manhood, attending school and working on the farm. There were four children in the family, this one son and three daughters. They are: Mamie, who was Mrs. Kelly, of Bancroft, Neb., and who died in 1908; Nellie, now Mrs. James Gatzemeyer, of Ban­croft, Neb.; and Alice, now Mrs. James Atkinson, of Scotia, Humboldt county, Cal. The mother is still living, and resides in Canada.

 

Graduating from the public schools, Mr. Cronin entered Business College in Lincoln, Neb., and completing his course he entered the employ of his brother-in-law, M. Kelly, in the general merchandise business at Bancroft, continuing in this position until 1900. He then came to California, locating at Eureka, where he engaged with the H. H. Buhne Hardware Company for five years, this being one of the finest hardware stores on the coast. Follow­ing this he went to Metropolitan, Humboldt County, and conducted the Metropolitan Lumber Company store for a year, and from there went to Scotia and took charge of the mill supplies and hardware stock for the Pacific Lumber Company, as store-keeper and purchasing agent. He re­mained with this company for a period of five years, and then returned to Eureka, and became traveling salesman for the Leutzinger & Lane Com­pany, handling grocery specialties, fruit, etc., traveling out of Eureka for a year, and covering all of Humboldt County. He then traveled for a year for the Eureka Foundry, and in December, 1913, he came to Fort Seward and became associated with the Helmke Mercantile Company, as manager, a position he was by experience well qualified to fill. In 1914 he was appointed post­master at Fort Seward. He took an active part in the commercial life of Fort Seward during the opening of the through line of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad to San Francisco. Resigning his position with the Helmke Mercantile Company as well as his commission as postmaster, in April, 1915, he accepted his present position as manager of the mercantile department of the Eel River Valley Lumber Company at Newburg, and removed to the latter place to take charge of the stores of this company. He is a man of experience in this line and is capable and wide awake to the needs of the business and the demands of the trade. His chief object is to meet the demand with an adequate supply and it is seldom indeed that he fails to do so. He is popular in the county, and is especially well known, having spent several years as a traveling salesman throughout the county, and elsewhere in northern California. He is very enthusiastic over the prospects of this section of the state and is certain that its business and commercial supremacy is an assured fact.

 

However, he never fails to aid any movement toward this desired end, and is untiring in his efforts to enhance the present prosperity of the county.

 

While in the employ of the Buhne Company Mr. Cronin was married, in Eureka, on July 24, 1903, to Miss Tillie Barry, of that city. Mr. and Mrs. Cronin have become the parents of four children, three daughters and one son: Catherine, Dorothy, James John, Jr., and Elizabeth. Both Mr. and Mrs. Cronin have a host of friends throughout the county, who esteem them for their personal worth and their kind and charitable dispositions.

 

 

JOSEPH MOSSI was born in the village of Carena, Canton Ticino, Switzerland, February 10, 1882, the son of James and Anna (Buletti) Mossi, who are engaged in farming and dairying at Carena. They were the parents of twelve children, nine of whom are living, Joseph being the youngest of the family. From a lad he made himself useful on the farm, excepting when he was attending the public schools. After completing his studies in the local school he assisted his parents until 1902, when he came to the United States, a desire he had cherished for some time. His first location was at Cheshire, Mass., where he was employed in factories for four and one-half years, after which he went to New York City, where he was employed in hotels for two an one-half years. In May, 1909, he came to California, and at Santa Cruz spent nine months on a dairy. In April, 1910, he went to Petaluma, there also working on dairies until the spring of 1913. It was in this year that he came to Humboldt County, and immediately found employment with a dairyman. He remained with this employer until November, 1914, when he determined to start in business for himself and leased the present ranch of eighty acres, two miles north of Ferndale, which he devotes to a dairy, having at present twenty-two milch cows, the product being sold to Libby, McNeill & Libby. The ranch lies in the Eel river bottom, the rich land raising ample hay and green feed for his herd.

 

In South Adams, Mass., occurred the marriage of Joseph Mossi and Delfina Sarina, also a native of Ticino, and to them have been born four children, as follows: Albert, Harry, Mabel and Alvina. Mr. Mossi is 'an energetic and ambitious young man and the success he is accomplishing is well merited.

 

 

ANDREW GALLIA.—The proprietor of the Sequoia dairy, Andrew Gallia, is a progressive and enterprising young man. He was born in the Valtropia Valley, Province of Brescia, Italy, December 30, 1883. His father, Antonio Gallia, was a dairy farmer, so young Andrew naturally became famil­iar with the occupation he now follows when he was a young lad. After he had completed the public schools he aided his parents on the home farm until 1903, when he made his way to Ticino, Switzerland, and there he was employed on a dairy in the Alps region. In 1906 he came to California. After spending a short time in Marin County, he hired out to a dairyman at Modesto, where he remained for eighteen months. In 1909 he came to Eureka, being employed for short periods on the Sweasey dairy and the Torkelsen dairy until 1910. In that year he started in the dairy business for himself and the outgrowth is the Sequoia dairy, where he is doing a successful business and has now a large number of customers. His dairy, which comprises two hundred acres of grazing land, which he leases, adjoins Sequoia Park. He has built up a splendid dairy herd and by his close application to business and the high standard of the milk he retails he has met with well deserved success. Mr. Gallia is well liked and has made many friends since his advent in Hum­boldt County.

 

 

JOHN AND ROCCO SCALVINI.—We find among the late corners to Humboldt county enterprising dairymen in John and Rocco Scalvini, natives of Bagnolo, Province of Brescia, Italy, born July 5, 1879, and August 15, 1885, respectively, and sons of John Scalvini, who is represented in the sketch of his two other sons, George and Antone Scalvini. John and Rocco received a good training on the farm in Italy as well as good education in the public schools. In 1904 John came to the United States and located in Humboldt County, where he was employed on dairies in the vicinity of Ferndale for five years. He then returned to Italy, spending seventeen months in his native land, when he again returned to Ferndale.

 

Rocco Scalvini came to Syracuse, N. Y., in 1906, and worked on a railroad and in a soda factory for nine months. In April, 1907, he came to Ferndale, where he was busily employed on a farm and dairy until 1911, when the four brothers, John, Rocco, George and Antone leased the S. Smith ranch of ten hundred acres in the Guthrie district and operated a dairy. One year later John and Rocco purchased the interest of the other brothers and still con­tinue to operate the large ranch and dairy of seventy-five milch cows. The ranch is well adapted to dairying and the Scalvini brothers are meeting with merited success. Politically they believe the principles of the Republican party are for the best interests of the country.

 

  

FRANK L. VANDUSEN.—It is interesting to chronicle the career of a man who has successfully held important positions and filled them ably and well, always being equal to the emergency. Such a man is Frank L. Vandusen, who was born in Glens Falls, Warren County, N. Y., October 29, 1862. His father, James Walter Vandusen, a native of the same place, was descended from an old Knickerbocker family of New York. He was superintendent of a sawmill in Glens Falls and during the Civil war served in a New York regi­ment as a musician until the order to muster out all regimental bands. After the war he removed to Ottawa, Canada, where he was superintendent of the sawmill for the Brunson-Weston Lumber Co. He died in 1883, aged fifty-six years. The mother was Eliza (Crandle) Vandusen, also born in Glens Falls, N. Y. She died in Ottawa in 1912. Her brother, Stephen Crandle, came to California during the gold excitement, crossing the plains with ox teams in 1849. He was afterwards a pioneer rancher near Petaluma, Sonoma County. Of the five children born to Mr. and Mrs. James W. Vandusen, only two are living.

 

Frank L. Vandusen was the second oldest of the children comprising the parental family and he received a good education in the public schools of Ottawa. As a boy he worked around the sawmill of the Brunson-Weston Lumber Co., learning the business and working his way up in different depart­ments of the mill. When his father died he succeeded him as superintendent of the mill, being then twenty years of age, and continued in that capacity until all available timber was used up and the mill closed down. Mr. Vandusen then went across the Ottawa river to Hull, Quebec, entering the employ of the E. B. Eddy Manufacturing Company as mill superintendent and three months later was made assistant superintendent of the plant, continuing for a period of twelve years. In 1909 he accepted a position with the Brunson-Weston people, owners of the Little River Redwood Lumber Company, with a mill at Bulwinkle, Humboldt County, of which he became superintendent in February, 1909. Ever since he has held the position, performing his duties with care and efficiency that years of experience in the lumber industry have made possible. During the six years he has been connected with the mill it has not shut down for repairs and no repairs have ever been made on Sundays. Mr. Vandusen has applied himself closely to his calling and from the time he was twenty, when he was made mill superintendent, began studying mechanical drawing and he has become very proficient, so much so that he makes all his drawings of new and old work, and is thoroughly familiar with every part of the work in hand.

 

Mrs. Vandusen was in maidenhood Florence Graham, a native of Ottawa, of Scotch parents and a lady of good family and refinement who presides over his home with grace and dignity. By his former marriage Mr. Van­dusen has a daughter, Ruby, who is a graduate of Miss Heads' school in Berkeley.

 

Mr. Vandusen was made a Mason in Eddy Lodge No. 41, F. & A. M., at Hull, Quebec, and still holds membership in that lodge, besides which he is a member of Ottawa Lodge No. 224, I. 0. 0. F., of which he is past Grand, and of Geo. B. Encampment, I. 0. 0. F. in Ottawa. He is also a member of the Hoo Hoo's, an organization among lumber men. He has a deep regard for Christianity and is a member of the Christian church, while politically he is a Republican. Mr. Vandusen is intensely interested in the lumber Manu­facturing of Humboldt County and has plans for making a practical use of the waste of the mills that otherwise would go to the slab fire. His experience in the East with E. B. Eddy & Co. demonstrated to him that all the waste can be manufactured into useful articles, such as pails, tubs, washboards, brush-backs, matches, etc., and would create new industries for the county and give employment to many people.

  

 

WILLIAM W. PASS.—A native son of Humboldt county, born in Eureka September 17, 1882, William W. Pass is the son of William Venables and Frances (McConaghy) Pass, natives of Liverpool, England, and York county, New Brunswick, respectively. . When a child the father came to New Brunswick with his parents, William and Martha (Colburn) Pass, and there he grew to manhood, following lumbering until 1875, when he came to Cal­ifornia and followed lumbering until his death. William W. Pass' great grand­mother was the Rev. Mrs. Venables of Liverpool, England, and Mrs. Martha (Colburn) Pass was a sister of the late Andrew Colburn, of St. John, New Brunswick.

 

William W. Pass was reared in Eureka and received his education in the public schools and after completing it he entered the employ of the Vance Lumber Company at Essex, in the cook house. Later he held the same posi­tion at the Newburg Mills, where he remained about five years, then for four and one-half years was with the Occidental Company in the same capacity, afterwards he was for two and one-half years with the Hammond Company.

 

In October, 1911, Mr. Pass came to Bulwinkle, entering the employ of the Little River Redwood Company. He has continued with them as cook ever since and is prominent among the citizens of Eureka.

 

Mr. Pass was married in Eureka in 1904 to Miss Ola May Cartwright, the daughter of J. F. Cartwright, one of the very old settlers of Arcata. Mr. and Mrs. Pass have two children, William and Auda. Fraternally he is a member of .Eureka Lodge No. 8012, M. W. A.

  

 

BERT HUGO TORONI was born at Vogorno, Canton Ticino, Switzerland, March 8, 1885. His father, Battiste, was also a native of Ticino. At the time of the mining excitement in Australia he was one of the gold-seekers and followed mining at Greenfield, Australia, in which he was quite successful. After sixteen years he came to San Francisco and followed gardening near that city for eleven years, when he returned to Ticino, where he was married to Catherina Jacobs, and he settled down to farming near Vogorno. The father is dead; the mother still resides on the old home place. Of their eleven children, Bert is the second youngest, receiving his education in the schools of Vogorno, after which he was apprenticed as a baker, follow­ing that trade for two years and eight months. From a child he had a desire to visit the Pacific coast, a desire that came to him naturally from hearing his father tell of his experiences in foreign lands. He also had a brother Joe F., an aunt, Mrs. Victoria Moranda, in Humboldt County. So in April, 1901, he reached Eureka. He found employment immediately on the Bunker Hill ranch, on Bear River ridge, where he continued for nearly three years, and then on the Mayflower ranch in the same vicinity for four years, when, having practiced economy, he was in a position to start dairying on his own account. Leasing the Clausen ranch near Waddington for two years, and then a ranch on Paradise Island, which he ran for seven months and sold out, in 1913 he leased a part of the Herrick place of two hundred twenty acres at Loleta, where he milked sixty cows. Selling his lease at a good profit in 1914, he purchased twenty acres on Cock Robin Island, which he devotes exclusively to dairying, owning a splendid herd of fifteen milch cows. The soil is rich bot­tom land and he raises large crops of hay and green feed. In Ferndale, December 8, 1908, Mr. Toroni was married, being united with Amelia Nellie Mary Genzoli, a native daughter of Capetown, Humboldt County, the daughter of Maurilo and Rosina (Minnetta) Genzoli, natives of Ticino, Switzerland. The father was one of the first Swiss settlers of Humboldt county, where he is one among the most prominent and prosperous dairymen in the county, now operating a large dairy at Capetown ; he also owns a ranch at Newman, Cal., and another at Willows, and is well and favorably known. Mrs. Toroni is the oldest of four living children born to Mr. and Mrs. Genzoli. She was educated in the public schools at Capetown and is the mother of three children: Rosa, Clara and Margaret. Politically Mr. Toroni is a firm believer that the principles set forth by the Republican Party are for the best interest of the whole country. Personally, Mr. Toroni is a very pleasant and agreeable man, and he is well liked by all who know him.

  

 

SECUNDO CRIVELLI.—Secundo Crivelli was born at Toricella, near Logarno, Canton Ticino, Switzerland, July 6, 1884. His father Giuseppe Crivelli, was a bricklayer and was foreman on the construction of buildings for many years in Paris, until his marriage to Carolina Mayistretti, after which he engaged in farming and dairying in Ticino, where he raised his family. They are now retired and make their home with their son, Secundo, on Elk River. They were the parents of eight children, as follows : Silvio resides at Loleta ; John, of Alton ; Antone lives in Yuba county ; Secundo, of whom we write ; Charles J., a dairyman near Loleta ; Olympia, Mrs. Fasoletti, lives near Grizzly Bluff ; Teresa, Mrs. Fasoletti, lives in Switzerland ; Rosa, Mrs. Rezzonico, also of Grizzly Bluff.

 

Secundo Crivelli received a good education in the public schools until twelve years of age, when he was apprenticed at the bricklayer's trade in Paris, and after completing the trade he followed it in France and afterwards in Switzerland until November, 1905, when he came to California, persuaded by the good reports he had heard that he could better his condition here. He came to Petaluma and was employed o. n the Lakeville ranch. In 1907 he came to Eureka and was employed on a dairy at Loleta, then for a time on. Salmon Creek, when he returned to Loleta and was employed on the dairy of Antone Rava for eighteen months. Having saved enough money to start in business, he formed a partnership with his brother, Charles J., and leased a part of the Herrick ranch at Loleta and there operated a dairy of eighty cows. A year later he sold his interest to his brother and .came to Elk River. In November, 1911, he leased the James Nellison place of about one hundred sixty acres, which he devotes to dairying; a year later he rented an additional twenty-one acres adjoining for two years. However, at .present he runs the Nellison ranch where he has a dairy of twenty-four cows. The place is rich bottom land where he has plenty of pasture and also raises ample feed for his herd.

 

In Eureka occurred the marriage of Mr. Crivelli and Mrs. Amelia (Trippi) Christanini, a native of Lucca, Italy, and to them have been born two children: Simeon and Lorenz. By her former marriage Mrs. Crivelli had one child, Joseph. In his political views Mr. Crivelli espouses the principles of the Republican Party.

  

 

VALENTINE FRANCIS HARRIS.—The superintendent of Sequoia Park, V. F. Harris, is well and favorably known in Eureka for his great inter­est in the improvement of the park. He was born in Auckland, New Zealand, February 14, 1849, the son of William Harris, born in England, where he married Miss Leone Conley and they removed to New Zealand, and in 1852 brought their family to San Francisco, when V. F. was three years of age. He received his education in the public schools of California, after which he followed mining and ranching, coming to Humboldt county in September, 1871, and November 25, 1881, locating in Eureka where he has since resided, being variously employed until June 14, 1904, when he was appointed superin­tendent of Sequoia Park, and has held this position ever since, except two years he was out on account of the change of administration, after which he was reappointed, August 7, 1907, and the consensus of opinion is that he has filled the position satisfactorily and well, and indeed he gives all of his time to looking after the Park and seeing that it is well kept.

 

The Park was purchased from Bartten Glatt in 1894 by the city of Eureka and work was begun on its improvement, June 14, 1904, and under Mr. Harris' superintendence it has been transformed from an old log claim to a beautiful park. The fifty acres are laid out with beautiful roads and walks and an artificial lake has been constructed. Mammoth Sequoias that have fallen he has converted into bridges and others are made into stairways, giving a splendid rustic effect. There is a children's playground, band stand and picnic grounds, in different parts of the park, arranged with seats and tables, as well as furnaces to aid in preparing the lunches. The zoo is a most inter­esting feature, containing deer, elk, etc., the whole .giving a most pleasing effect.

 

He was married, on Table Bluff, to Mary Griffin, who was born in Shasta County, and they have one child, Mary, Mrs. Murphy, of Eureka.

  

 

ZACHARIAS LEONARDI.—Among the men who have come to Hum­boldt county from Sunny Italy we find Zacharias Leonardi, who was born near Monte Crestese, near Domodosola, Province of Novara Piermotte, Italy, May 30, 1884. His father Angel Leonardi was quite an extensive farmer until his demise. After completing the public schools, he continued on the home farm at Monte Crestese helping his father until May, 1912, when he came to Humboldt County, California, being in the employ of his brother James Leonardi on Eel River Island until he determined to engage in dairying on his own account. In November, 1913, he leased the present place of 40 acres from L. Petersen which he devotes to a dairy of twenty-two cows. The place is bottom land, enabling him to raise ample feed for his herd. The marriage of Mr. Leonardi and Marie Daoro occurred in Ferndale, and to them have been born two children, Marie and Racp.ele.

 

GERVAISO AND ANGELICA BIASCA.—The West Point dairy ranch is at present operated by Gervaiso and Angelica Biasca, brother and sister, and they are meeting with deserved success. They were born in Prosilo, near Lodrino, Canton Ticino, Switzerland. Their parents were Gervaiso and Man­sueta (Fogliani) Biasca, farmer folk on the Ticino River, who are still living on their farm near Prosilo. They were the parents of seven children as fol­lows : Theodora, died at thirty-six years; Louigina, the wife of Ferdinand Ambrosini, residing at Ferndale ; Mansueta, Mrs. Charles Berti, of Cape-town ; Angelica and Gervaiso, of this review ; Mary and Louis, residing with their parents in Ticino. The children all received a good education in the local public schools. Angelica came to Humboldt County in 1909, remaining with her sister Mrs. Ambrosini until she engaged in business with her brother Gervaiso, who came to Humboldt county in 1912, and was employed on the Woodland Echo ranch for Ferdinand Ambrosini. In 1914 with his sister Angelica, he leased the West Point ranch, where they are meeting with deserved success in dairying, having a herd of sixty-five milch cows. By the aid of a gas engine, they separate the cream and make butter, which is made into cubes and squares and shipped to San Francisco. In addition to dairy­ing they also raise cattle and hogs. West Point is a large ranch located on the Pacific Ocean near Capetown. The Biascas are members of the Catholic Church at Ferndale.

 

JOSEPH BONOMINI.—A man of much energy and perseverance is Joseph Bonomini, a dairyman on Mad river, across from Blue Lake. He was born at Livemmo, province of Brescia, Italy, June 22, 1879, being the third oldest of four children born to Giuseppe and Fiori (Ramboldini) Bonomini. His father was a farmer and dairyman and Joseph learned butter and cheese-making, meantime receiving a good education in the public schools of his old home. From reports received he was desirous of trying his fortunes in California, wages and opportunities being greater here than in his mother country, so in February, 1904, he came to California and very soon afterward located in Humboldt county, His funds were very much depleted and he immediately sought work, which he obtained on the Sweasey dairy, near Eureka. He was a steady, industrious young man and remained there for a period of five years. Next he worked one season for John Ballatti at Loleta, when he concluded to engage in dairying as an occupation. With that end in view he rented about three hundred ten acres of the Herrick place at Loleta, afterwards taking in his two brothers as partners, where they operated a dairy of from eighty-five to one hundred cows. While thus engaged, he with five other ranchers, bought the creamery in their locality. Mr. Bonomini was its secretary and afterward its president.

 

In 1913-14 the dyke broke and the flood came so quickly that it caught some of his dairy herd and he lost twenty-six cows. In 1914 he sold his lease and came to West End, in the vicinity of Blue Lake, and leased his present place, which he devotes to a dairy of thirty cows. This place is rich bottom land, where he has ample pasture and raises sufficient green feed for his herd.

 

Mr. Bonomini's first marriage occurred in Italy, he being there united with Angela Turrizanuni, who died in her native Italy, leaving one child, Angela Mary. He was married again, in Eureka, to Mary Pillottia, a native of Mura, Brescia, Italy, and they leave two children: Fiori and Joseph. Fraternally he is a member of Loleta Lodge No. 56, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and politically he is a Democrat.

  

 

PETER FASOLETTI.—Peter Fasoletti is a native of Bellenzona, Ticino, Switzerland, born in 1864: He was raised a farmer lad and received a good education in the local schools, after which he apprenticed and learned the machinist trade. He spent fifteen years as a machinist in the railroad shops at Bellenzona, after which he was employed at his trade in the railroad shops in Setti, France, afterwards returning to Switzerland. In 1912 he brought his family to Humboldt County. He was employed on a dairy in Elk River and afterwards at Loleta until November, 1914. He then started in dairying for himself, leasing the present place of 56 acres at Grizzly Bluffs, being rich bottom land, this producing ample feed for his dairy herd of twenty-four cows. Mr. Fasoletti was married in Bellenzona, being united with Miss Olympia Crivelli, also a native of Ticino and a sister of Charles J. and Secundo Crivelli, a dairyman in Humboldt County. To Mr. and Mrs. Fasoletti have been born two children, Leonardo and Americo.

  

 

SILVIO DOMENIGHINI.—The Alps region in Switzerland has sent many substantial settlers to California, who have won success in the various lines of business they have chosen. Among these we find Silvio Domenighini, who is engaged in dairying near Fortuna. He was born in Vogorno, Canton Ticino, September 26, 1877. His father Bartol owned a farm at Vogorno which he operated until his death. By his union with Severina Anselmi, who still resides on the old home place, he had seven children, as follows : Olivia, Mrs. Gambonini, and Angelina, Mrs. Cordo., reside in Ticino; Silvio, of whom we write.; Salvatori, Charles and Bartol, reside in Coos county, Oregon, and William lives near Ferndale.

 

Silvio received a good education in the schools of his native place, after which he continued to assist 'his parents until the age of twenty, when he enlisted in the Swiss army, serving •the required time, when he was honorably discharged, after which he concluded to come to California to better his con­dition, and in January, 1899, he arrived in San Francisco. The first seven months were spent in a dairy in Marin county, and in August of 1899 he came to Humboldt county. He was employed for eighteen months in the dairy of J6e Moranda at Loleta, after which he followed the same line of work in Salmon Creek and Ferndale, when he drifted into Coos county, Oregon, where lie spent two years, after which he returned to Loleta and leased a dairy ranch of forty acres from Bartol Moranda, having a herd of twenty cows and con­tinuing there for a period of five years. In November, 1913, he leased the pres­ent place of forty-five acres, just south of Fortuna, devoted to dairying. This place is fertile bottom land on which he raises large crops of feed for his twenty-six milch cows and is making a decided success.

 

In Ferndale, September 23, 1911, occurred the marriage of Mr. Domen­ighini with Nancy Gamboni, also a native of Vogorno, and they have two children, Silvio Fred and Severina Emma. Politically he espouses the prin­ciples of the Republican Party. 

 

 

CLAUS NISSEN RASMUSSEN.—The Elk River Creamery is in charge of a very energetic and capable young man, Claus N. Rasmussen, who is well versed and experienced in the minute details of the business. He was born near Tondern, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, Sept. 5, 1888, the second oldest of a family of six children born to Rasmus and Martha (Christiansen) Ras­mussen. He received his education in the public schools of that vicinity. When fifteen he determined to come to Humboldt county, Cal., where he had an uncle Anton Rasmussen engaged in dairying. Arriving in 1903 he was in his uncle's employ for eighteen months and then worked for others in the same vicinity until 1909, when he entered the employ of the California Central Creameries, being for the first few months at the Crown Creamery, located on Eel River Island, and before the close of the year was placed in charge of the Elk River Creamery, a position he has held ever since, performing his duties satisfactorily to his employers as well as his patrons. This creamery is the receiving station for milk for Elk River and vicinity, the separated cream being sent to the main plant in Eureka. This plant also manufactures casein and full cream cheese, using about five thousand pounds of milk a day for making cheese.

 

Mr. Rasmussen was married in Ferndale, being united with Miss Annie Elliers, who was also a native of Tondern and they have one child, Edith. Mr. and Mrs. Rasmussen were both reared in the Lutheran faith, and they still adhere to that religion.

 

 

RUDOLPH DENNIS AMBROSINI, a leading dairyman of Capetown, was born at Prosito. near Lodrino, Canton Ticino, Switzerland, June 20, 1877. His father, Dennis Ambrosini, after spending many summers in Paris, France, working at his trade, settled on his farm on the Ticino River where he died in 1886. The mother was Celesta Biasca who still resides on the old home farm. Of their five children, four grew to maturity : Rudolph, of this review ; Max, who spent about twelve years in Humboldt county, but now resides in Ticino ; Guttard is in the employ of our subject ; James is a merchant in Ferndale.

 

Rudolph Ambrosini received a good education and from a lad learned dairying as it was done in the Alps region. Having heard good reports of wages and opportunities for young men in California, he concluded to try to better his condition and when seventeen left his home and kindred, arriving in Eureka, Humboldt county, Feb. 5, 1896. After working for a short time on a dairy on Cannibal Island, he worked for about six years on different ranches near Ferndale, when he became foreman on the Mayflower ranch, a position he held for two years. His ambition was to have a dairy of his own, and having saved some money, in 1903 he leased the Mountain View ranch of fourteen hundred acres and for eight years devoted his time to dairying, milk­ing an average of eighty-five cows. On the expiration of his lease he obtained a lease of the Frank Peters ranch at Capetown. This is one of the most val­uable dairy ranches on the coast, comprising four hundred fourteen acres on Bear river. He has a splendid dairy comprising Guernseys and Holsteins, sixty-five cows in all ; he also raises cattle. With the aid of a steam engine, he runs his separator and manufactures butter which is put up in squares for family trade and sold in Ferndale and Eureka, while the surplus is shipped to San Francisco. The marriage of Mr. Ambrosini occurred in Ferndale where he was united with Carrie Mead, a native of Kansas. Her father, Alfred Mead moved from Kansas to Oregon, afterwards coming to Humboldt County, now residing in Bridgeville. To them have been born five children: Ernest, Dennis, Irene, Alma and Roland. For the past four years Mr. Am­brosini has been a member of the board of school trustees for Capetown dis­trict and is clerk of the board. Politically he believes the principles of the Republican party are for the best interests of the whole country.

 

ALBERT LUNDBERG.—The son of Judge F. A. Lundberg, a prominent attorney and judge in Stockholm, Sweden, Albert Lundberg, now a trusted employee of the Elk River Mill and Lumber Company of Falk, Cal., with which firm he has been connected for thirty years, was born in Westrejot­land, Sweden, on June 19, 1856, and grew up in the city of Stockholm, where he was educated in the public schools and academy. After the completion of his education, Mr. Lundberg started in the grocery business in that city, continuing in that line of business until the year 1884, at which time he sold his business, the next year coming to California, where he located at Eureka, in Humboldt county, with his wife and daughter, in which county he has made his home ever since. His first employment on coming to California was with the Janes Creek Mill, where he continued for a period of three years. Removing to Falk, in the same county, he was next in the employ of the Elk River Mill and Lumber Company, where he has since remained con­tinuously. This mill was built about the year 1886, and since 1888 Mr. Lund­berg has been employed there, beginning work as the operator of a planer, and two years later being made foreman of the yards, which position he has held ever since. For six years Mr. Lundberg held the office of trustee of the Jones Prairie school district, and throughout that time was also clerk of the school board, one of his greatest interests being the cause of education, as well as the advancement and upbuilding of the town and county where he has made his home. In his religious associations he is a Lutheran, while his polit­ical connections are with the Republican party.

 

Mr. Lundberg has been twice married, his first marriage having taken place in Stockholm, uniting him with Miss Selma Gathlin, a native of the same vicinity, who died in Falk, Cal., leaving one daughter, Mrs. Julia Swenson, a resident of Portland, Ore. The second marriage of Mr. Lundberg occurred in Eureka, the bride being Miss Louisa Knudsen, who was born in Bergen, Norway, and came to Oakland, where she became a graduate nurse, her brother, Captain L. J. Knudsen, having also made his home in California, where he is a prominent master mariner in San Francisco.

  

 

GEORGE F. MELLER.—A native son of Humboldt county, and one coming of a fine old family, is George F. Meller, who was born at Salmon Creek, April 30, 1872, the son of Henry S. Meller, born at Nazareth, Pa., who crossed the plains to California in an ox-team train in 1850. A butcher by trade, he established himself in that business in Sacramento, but was burned out in the great fire in that city. He was married in Sacramento to Margaret Jamison, a native of the state of Iowa, who had come across the plains with her parents in 1850, and is now living at Oakland, Cal., at the age of eighty-two years, her husband having died in 1889. After being burned out in Sac­ramento, Henry S. Meller and his family removed to southern Oregon, where he operated a saw mill and also engaged in other business until about the year 1868, when he came to Humboldt county and settled at Table Bluff, later locating on Salmon Creek, where he was engaged in farming, stock-raising and butchering, running a butcher wagon throughout that part of the county. Of his family of eight children, five were sons and three daughters. His son George F., was sixth in order of birth, and grew up on the farm at Sal­mon Creek, receiving his education in the local public schools, after which he was engaged in work upon the ranch until his father's death. He then entered the employ of the Milford Land and Lumber Company on Salmon Creek, where he remained for four years, then working for a year in the woods on the Freshwater. In 1895 he went to Usal, in Mendocino County, where he was in the employ of the Usal Lumber Company for two years, during this time learning the filing of saws. Next he went to Greenwood, where for a year he was filer in the mill of the L. E. White Lumber Company, returning thereafter to Humboldt County, where he took the position of head filer for the Pacific Lumber Company at Scotia, continuing there for a period of eight years. Thence he removed to Bayside, during the erecting of a mill there, remaining in that work for a period of three months, after which he spent four months as filer at Lamoine, Shasta county, holding a similar posi­tion at Metropolitan mill for six months. In February, 1907, he accepted his present position as head filer at the Falk Mill for the Elk River Mill and Lum­ber Company, where he is rendering active and efficient service.

 

The political interests of Mr. Meller are with the Republican party, while his fraternal connections are with the Eureka Lodge No. 652, B. P. 0. E., his wife being a member and past president of the Ladies' Circle of the Grand Army of the Republic at Eureka. Mr. Meller was married at Rockport, Men­docino County, to Effie Albert, born in Yuba County, where she grew up and was educated, and they are the parents of one daughter, Margaret Meller, a pupil in the Eureka High School. Mrs. Meller's father, James W. Albert, served in the Civil war and followed mining in the Sierra region.

 

MARTIN F. MOZZINI.—The proprietor of the Excelsior Dairy in Humboldt County, Cal., is Martin F. Mozzini, a splendid young business man, who, from childhood, has been acquainted with ranching, dairying and the stock business, having assisted his mother, Mrs. Antoinetta Mozzini, in those lines at her Loleta ranch before engaging in business for himself.

 

Born at Santa Cruz, Cal., January 10, 1892, Mr. Mozzini is a true native son of California, though of foreign ancestry, and his life thus far has been spent in ranching and dairying pursuits in this western state. At four years of age he removed with his mother to Humboldt County, where he has since resided, and here received his early education in the public schools of Loleta, completing this instruction with a course at the Eureka Business College, where he was graduated on April 29, 1909. For a time he assisted in the management of his mother's business at Loleta, also being employed at the Euhne dairy, and after this practical experience he determined to go into business independently. Accordingly, in September, 1914, he bought out the Excelsior Dairy and leased his present ranch at Elk River Corners, which comprises one hundred thirty acres of bottom land, whereon he operates a large dairy, milking a herd of eighty cows. His dairy is sanitary and kept up in the best modern fashion, the cows being carefully fed and cared for, and on his fertile land he raises ample hay and green feed for his stock. The product of his dairy he sells at both wholesale and retail in the city of Eureka, a small auto truck being used for the delivery of the milk, which simplifies the busi­ness for himself and increases the convenience and promptness with which his patrons are served. Aside from his dairy, Mr. Mozzini is also engaged in stock-raising to a considerable extent, and has purchased stock in various portions of Humboldt County, where he is well and favorably known as an upright business man, successful in all his undertakings. In his political affil­iations, Mr. Mozzini is a believer in the principles of the Republican Party, and, like many others of California's native sons, is an .ardent protectionist. His fraternal connections are with the Fraternal Brotherhood and the Knights of Columbus of the city of Eureka, where he is also a member of the Eureka Parlor, Native Sons of the Golden West.

  

 

MRS. TERESA YERMINI.—An enterprising woman, of much energy and native ability, Mrs. Teresa Yermini of Eureka, Cal., has met with success in her business undertakings and is the proud mother of a family of talented children.

 

Born in Camorino, in Bellinzona, Canton Ticino, Switzerland, Mrs. Yer­mini was the daughter of Martin Mozzini, a native of that place and a promi­nent farmer and dairyman, his wife having been Martha Mozzini, both having died in their native country. Mrs. Yermini received a good education in the local public schools, and in the year 1886 came to California, her brother Stephen then residing at San Luis Obispo. •this state, and at that place ,she was married, on November 17, 1887, to John Yermini, a native of the same place as herself, and the son of Casper Yermini, a well-to-do farmer and also for many years the mayor of Camorino. John Yermini had been educated in the public schools at his home, and in 1879 had come to California, locating in Humboldt County, where he followed dairying. After his marriage he brought his bride to Ferndale, where he operated a dairy of sixty-seven milch cows on a fine ranch. In the early days the milk was panned, the cream skimmed by hand, but later a separator was used, the churning done by horse power, and the butter shipped to Eureka and San Francisco markets. Mr Yermini was one of the original stockholders and builders of the old Eel Rimer Creamery in the vicinity of Waddington, this being the second creamery built in Humboldt county. Afterwards he conducted a dairy of sixty cows at Fortuna for thirteen years. Making several trips back to his old home in Switzerland, Mr. Yermini, on the death of his father, fell heir to the old farm in Camorino and located on it, assuming the duties of his illustrious, parent who was deceased. The wife and children of Mr. Yermini, however, preferred to remain in Humboldt County, this having been the birthplace of all the children, and accordingly they returned to California, where the edu­cation of the children was continued and the mother established herself suc­cessfully in business. In 1911, Mrs. Yermini leased her present place, the Zanone ranch on the Elk river, comprising seventy acres of rich bottom land which yields an abundance of crops of hay and green feed for the herd of thirty cows of the Jersey and Holstein breeds, Mrs. Yermini being also engaged in stock-raising here and making a specialty of growing potatoes for the local market. In her political preferences she is a stanch Republican, like many others from her native country who have settled in this state, being a strong protectionist. She holds an enviable position in the respect and admi­ration of all who know her, because of her many fine qualities, her integrity, and kind and generous impulses.

 

Mr. and Mrs. Yermini are the parents of six children, Teresa M., a graduate of the Eureka Business College ; Marina Laura, a graduate of the Fortuna high school and the San Jose State Normal School, and now teaching in her home county ; Ida, M., a graduate of the Nazareth Academy, and stenographer for the Eureka Merchants' Association ; Ernest P. and Milio B., both of whom assist their mother on the ranch ; 'and Cora Judith, who is attending the Eureka high school.

 

LOUIS B. MOSCHETTI.—Although born in Italy, where the rest of his family continue to make their home, Louis B. Moschetti has become a resident of the state of California, where he is making for himself a fine record in the dairy business near the city of Eureka, in Humboldt county, a Section of the state which can boast of many active and efficient sons of Switzerland and Northern Italy who have come here to better their fortunes.

 

Born in Teglio, Sondrio, in Lombardia, Italy, August 3, 1891, the son of Bartol, a farmer and dairyman of that place who died on February 26, 1914, and Kathrina Betinelli, who still resides at the old home in Teglio, Louis B. Moschetti is the youngest of a family of seven children, and grew up as a farmer's boy in that part of Italy, receiving his education in the local public schools. Until sixteen years of age, he remained at home, helping his parents on the farm, but, concluding to try his fortunes and better his condition if possible in the new land of California, he came to the United States in 1907, where he secured employment on a farm in Yuba county, Cal., and later in the same line of work in Sutter county. In the year 1911 Mr. Moschetti re­moved to Humboldt County, securing employment on a dairy at Loleta. Three years later, in September, 1914, in partnership with M. F. Mozzini, he leased the Hinch place at Elk River Corners, but two- months later the partnership was dissolved, Mr. Moschetti selling out his interest. He then leased the Jack Shanahan ranch, which consists of eighty-three acres located on Elk River, where he now operates a large dairy, comprising a herd of thirty cows, the ranch being well adapted to the purpose and enabling him to raise plenty of hay and green feed for his herd.

 

The marriage of Mr. Moschetti took place in Eureka, on February 26, 1914, uniting him with Miss Martina Mozzini, who was born in Canton Ticino, Switzerland, the daughter of Antoinetta Mozzini, a prominent woman of Humboldt County where she is well known in the dairy business. Mrs. Moschetti grew up in Humboldt County, is a graduate of the Eureka Business College, and is in every way a capable helpmeet to her husband. They are the parents of one son, Eugene Louis. In his political views Mr. Moschetti is an upholder of the principles of the Republican Party.

 

 

WALTER HILTON PINKHAM.—Now that the opening of the Panama Canal is practically an accomplished fact, and the ship that sails from New York or other Atlantic ports, will find herself within the Golden Gate in a fraction of the time that was formerly required to make the journey from our greatest Eastern seaport to the greatest Western gateway, the men who took this same route half a century ago are recalling memories of their trip "across the Isthmus", when that stage of the journey was especially tedious and fraught with many dangers. There are many of the pioneers of an early day, nevertheless, who chose this route rather than face the danger and hard­ship of the trip across the Indian infested prairies, and to these the completion of this greatest undertaking of the age, assumes a peculiar interest. One such pioneer is Walter Hilton Pinkham, well known citizen of Humboldt County, where he has resided for many years, and in which he has extensive property interests.

 

Born at Lexington, Somerset County, Me., April 24, 1849, the childhood and early youth of Mr. Pinkham were passed in the little village in Maine, where he received his early education, attending the public schools until he was" sixteen. His father was Wright Hale Pinkham, a native of Brunswick, Me., who was for the greater part of his life engaged in the peaceful art of farming. At one time he owned and operated a saw mill in the Maine woods, and for a number of years he worked in the woods in winter, tilling his farm in the summer time. After leaving school the son assisted his father on the farm for a number of years, but letters continually received from two older brothers, giving flattering accounts of the opportunities offered for young men to rise in almost any chosen occupation, filled Walter with a growing desire to seek his own fortune in the golden West, and as soon as he was able to secure the consent of his parents, he joined his brothers in California. As said before, he made the journey by way of the Isthmus, landing in San Fran­cisco in 1867, from which he went into San Mateo county, where his brothers were located, and secured work in Pescadero, teaming. He remained in this vicinity for a number of years, operating his own teams and meeting with appreciable business success. He was constantly on the outlook, however, for opportunities to better his condition, and on January 8, 1873, he removed his family to Humboldt county, where he went to work in the lumber camps, teaming and logging for various lumber companies for four years.' He was next associated with the Hooper Lumber Company, at Trinidad, where he was also employed in logging and teaming, remaining for five years. While with this company he was sent to Trinidad in 1882, and the following year, he entered the employ of Jim Kirk and Issac Minor, logging on Mad' river. Again in 1884 he worked at teaming for J. M. Gannon.

 

The roving nature of this employment did not please Mr. Pinkham and in 1885 he gave up such work and located in Trinidad, where he opened a hotel, which he conducted for many years. In 1902 he sold his interest in the hotel, retaining the saloon business, which he conducted separately. He still owns this business, but has retired from active participation in its manage­ment. Mr. Pinkham has been particularly successful as a hotel proprietor, and has secured possession of some valuable real estate, among which may be mentioned several timber claims in the mountains.

 

Mr. Pinkham has been twice married, the first wife being Miss Martha Knowles, a native of Maine, their marriage taking place November 26, 1872. Three children were born of this union, two sons, George and Melvin, both deaceased, and a daughter Grace, Mrs. B. P. McConnaha, of Trinidad. The second marriage occurred June 26, 1902, in Trinidad, when Miss Mary Stewart, a native of New Brunswick, was the bride. One child has been born of this marriage, a son, Wright Hale Pinkham, named for his paternal grandfather.

 

For over thirty years Mr. Pinkham has been a resident of Trinidad, and for nearly fifty years a resident of California. He is a man of sterling worth, a member of the old school, and a type of the early pioneer, which is fast passing from the scene of action. He is exceedingly proud of his young son, and is preparing to live life all over again in the fortunes of his heir.

 

FRANK EUGENE FALOR.—California may well be proud to claim as one of her sons a man of as fine attributes as Frank Eugene Falor, who at the time of his death had been for twenty-five years a trusted and esteemed foreman of the Elk River Mill Company in charge of the Bucksport wharf and lumber yard of the firm. The Falors were pioneers of Alliance, Cal., and Frank Eugene was brought up on the old Falor farm above Alliance, having been born in Hoopa, in the same county, April 26, 1861, and was a brother of A. A. Ialor, well known in Alliance. The education of Mr. Falor was received in the public schools in the vicinity, after which he entered the employ of a lum­ber company and remained in that business until the time of his death. From 1887 he was associated with the Elk River Mill Company as foreman of their Bucksport wharf and lumber yard. Mr. Falor was a man of integrity and uprightness devoting his entire time to his business, to the exclusion of all other interests, and enjoyed the esteem and trust of all who knew him. His death occurred January 17, 1913.

 

In his political preferences Mr. Falor was a Republican, and his fraternal associations included the Eastern Star, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Humboldt Lodge of Masons No. 79. By his marriage in Bucksport, on January 23, 1890, he was united with Miss Nina E. 'Cave, a native of Arcata, Cal., where her father, Richard Cave, a pioneer from Iowa, who had crossed the plains with ox-teams in 1849, had cleared and improved a ranch, after some time spent in mining in this state. The parents of Miss Cave had been married in Arcata, her mother having been Caroline Dodge, a native of Iowa, who had come with her parents to Arcata where they died at the home which they had made and improved. Miss Cave, the next to the oldest in their family of seven children, received her education in the pub­lic schools of Arcata, where she was later married to Mr. Falor, and is at present a member of the Presbyterian Church and the Arcata Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star. She became the mother of three children, Richard Irwin, Frank Eugene and Mae Falor, and since her husband's death has con­tinued to make her home in Bucksport.

 

 

 

DANIEL WALTER McGOWAN.—Of Irish descent, Mr. McGowan was born in the state of Washington, near Seattle, October 25, 1863, and is the son of Terence McGowan, a native of Ireland, having been born there about the year 1818. On coming to America, he first located in Portland, Maine, where he engaged in the tailoring business, and from there he came to the Pacific coast, settling in the state of Washington, where the city of Seattle now stands. Here he enlisted in the army and became the company tailor, but on being transferred to San Francisco he retired from the army and moved to Humboldt county, where he followed the tailoring trade until the time of his death, passing away at Arcata. He married Ann Rigney also a native of Ireland, who came to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama and located with her husband in Arcata where she passed away December 10, 1904. Daniel McGowan received his education in the public schools of San Fran­cisco but in 1870 the family moved to Arcata and here his education was com­pleted, his teacher being Mrs. Todd. Leaving school, he first became em­ployed by W. H. Murphy on his cattle ranch, driving, and later he entered the butcher shop of A. Chapman in whose employ he remained eight months, but on the nineteenth of October, 1880, he entered the shop of J. C. Bull, Jr.,' and there he has remained ever since, rising from a helper to the active man­agement of the business. During his thirty-three years of service with Mr. Bull he has served in every branch of the business and at the present time he has full charge of all affairs. There were only a few people in the vicinity of the store when it first opened and it is now doing a large and flourishing bus­iness, being the only butcher shop in Arcata. His rise was entirely due to his own ability, trustworthiness and hard work and the model shop stands as a monument to his industry. He is the only man in the vicinity who has been employed for the length of time that he has, thirty-three years, and he is justly proud of his fine record. He has always taken an active part in all political matters, serving as City Trustee on the Republican ticket, and he is also a member of the Blue Lodge, F. & A. M., F. 0. E. of Arcata, and Mrs. McGowan is a member of 0. E. S. He was married in San Francisco, November 3, 1904, to Louise McClough, a native of England. He has always been an industrious, hard-working man and is admired and respected by the entire community.

 

WILLIAM NELSON SPEEGLE.—Remarkably well fitted both by instinct and training, for the newspaper profession, William Nelson Speegle is the president, editor and general manager of the Standard Publishing Company, publishers of the Humboldt Standard. Yet, a man endowed with native attainments as Mr. Speegle is, cannot well escape the calls of other activities, and so it comes that his name is linked closely with many of the leading activities of Eureka, his home city.

 

Born in Monterey County, December 29, 1871, the son of M. M. Speegle and wife,' California pioneers, William N. Speegle was educated in the public schools of Salinas and of Santa Rosa. On leaving high school he immediately found his way into a newspaper office and he has never yet found a desire to leave it. He first became a printer's apprentice on the Santa Rosa Repub­lican, but after learning the mechanical end of the newspaper business he showed talents for other departments of the work and soon found himself in the "front office."

 

In August, 1893, he came to Eureka to enter the employ of the Humboldt Standard and has been with that paper, in every executive capacity, until the present time when he is at its head. Conservative, intelligent and far-seeing in his business methods and dealings, to Mr. Speegle goes a large measure of the credit for building up in Eureka a newspaper of the high class which has been reached by the Humboldt Standard.

 

But, as said before, his personal qualities have caused a heavy demand to be made upon him in lines of civic, social and fraternal activities. . He was one of the charter members of Eureka Lodge No. 652, B. P. O. E., and has held every office in his lodge. He was one of the first to suggest the building of a lodge hall by the Eureka Elks, and the beautiful Elks' Club is the result. He was a member of the Elks Building Association at the time the hall was erected and still retains his membership and is prominent in its work. Mr. Speegle is also a Mason, being a member of Humboldt Lodge No. 79, F. & A. M.; of Humboldt Chapter No. 53 ; Eureka Commandery No. 35, K. T., and a member of Oakland Consistory of Scottish Rite Masons, and of Islam Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a Native Son and a member of Humboldt Parlor No. 14.

 

In 1911 Mr. Speegle's work in the community was recognized when his appointment as postmaster at Eureka by President Taft was received with expressions of deep satisfaction throughout the city. Although he has long worked for the interest of the community, this is the only public office he has held with the exception of a brief term of service as a deputy county clerk. Mr. Speegle has always devoted his efforts to furthering the interests of others and it is not in his nature to seek personal reward. An attainment which has done much to bring the name of William Speegle into prominence is a naturally wonderful and well trained tenor voice, with which he often pleases Eureka audiences, being generous in giving his time and ability towards the pleasure of the community.

 

His wife was formerly Miss Cora A. Thompson, a daughter of one of Eureka's most prominent families.

 

 

LOT M. BROWN.—One of the enterprising and progressive residents of Humboldt county is Lot M. Brown, who for nearly forty years has made his home on the Pacific coast. Born in Winslow, Me., December 22, 1852, he was the son of Samuel W., also born in that town, and grandson of Dr. Ezekiel Brown, also a native of the state of Maine, who served as surgeon in the Revolutionary war and was a physician at Brown's Corners, in the town of Benton, Me., dying in the year 1844. His son, Samuel W., the father of Lot M. Brown, served in the War of 1812, and was engaged in farming at Winslow, Me., during the greater part of his lifetime. The mother of Lot M. was Abigail Crosby, of Maine, daughter of Jesse Crosby, a farmer of that state, and she died at Winslow, having been the mother of nine children, three of whom are at present living: Mrs. J. M. Burrill, of Eureka; Lot M. Brown, and Mrs. Tozier, of Waterville, Me.

 

Brought up at Winslow, Lot M. Brown received his education in the local public schools, and at the age of thirteen starting out to make his own way in the world. His first employment was upon neighboring farms, until the age of sixteen years, when he went to work on the river and in the woods; on the former as a river driver, and in the woods driving bull teams. He also spent some time in Pennsylvania in the same work, and was likewise em­ployed in driving on the Merrimac and Connecticut rivers. It was in 1876 that Mr. Brown came to the Pacific coast, locating first at Tacoma, Wash., where he was in the employ of Ezra Meeker in the construction of the North­ern Pacific Railroad for a year, going thence to Vancouver, B. C., where he drove ox teams for the hauling of logs in the woods. In 1879 he became proprietor of the Dayton Hotel at Vancouver, where he continued until 1881, in which year he sold his interests there and came to Eureka, Cal., which has been the principal place of his business ever since. Here he purchased the liquor business of Mr. Dabey in the Bay Hotel, on the present site of the Bank of Eureka, and continued it until 1888, when he sold out and built the Alton Hotel at Alton Junction, in Humboldt county, which hotel he con­tinued to run until the year 1892, at which time he sold out his interests at Alton and returned to Eureka. Soon afterwards he went into partnership with C. L. Pardee, the two men becoming proprietors of the Vance Hotel, which arrangement continued until 1897, when Mr. Brown sold out to become proprietor of the Union Hotel at Healdsburg, Sonoma County. Abandoning this in 1900, he spent some time at Verdi, Nev., running a hotel, returning to Eureka in 1902, where he opened his present establishment, where his enter­prise and popularity have caused it to be known always as Lot's Place. With his son-in-law, F. G. Hinds, he built the Sequoia Tavern at the entrance to Sequoia Park, Eureka, which is a beautiful and popular establishment, built upon a block of ground adjoining the giant redwood trees, and has in con­nection with it a ball room, ice cream parlor and refreshment room.

 

In his political views Mr. Brown is a stanch Republican, and in fraternal circles he is known as a. member of the Knights of Pythias and the Loyal Order of Moose, while his interest in the progress of the city is shown by his membership in the Eureka Development Association. His marriage with Miss Annie M. McDonald, a native of Calais, Me., was solemnized in Eureka, and they have one child living, namely, Ruby, now the wife of Frank G. Hinds, an accomplished musician, who plays the clarinet and is president of the Musicians' Union in Eureka. Mr. Brown is the happy grandfather of four children, Charles E., Nina, Archie and Tot Hinds.

 

JOSEPH CRIPPEN ALBEE.—California is always proud to remember the brave pioneers by whose efforts in the early days of the settlement of the country this western land of ours has come to its present prosperous con­dition—pioneers whose courage was not dampened by the hard and dangerous journey across the plains, by the struggle for existence in a new land, nor by the depredations of hostile Indian tribes. None holds a higher. place among the early settlers of Humboldt county, Cal., than the father of Joseph Crippen Albee, Joseph Porter Albee, who like his wife, Calthea (Putnam) Albee, was a native of Huron county, Ohio, she having been descended from the same family as Israel Putnam, and members of her family having taken part in the Revolutionary war. The parents of Joseph Crippen Albee were married in Ohio and removed to northern Illinois, where they carried on the occupation of farming. In 1849, at the time of the discovery of gold in Californiar the father crossed the plains with ox teams, and became one of the first settlers in 'Weaverville; Cal., where he followed mining, his wife and three daughters joining him in California, coming westward via the Isthmus of Panama in 1850. In the autumn of 1852 Mr. Albee with the family re­moved to Humboldt County, making the journey on horseback over the mountains, accompanied by pack mules and a few cattle, and in this new section made his home at Table Bluff until 1856, when the family moved to Redwood Creek, where he engaged in stock raising. He also conducted a hotel on the pack trail between Arcata and the Klamath 'mines, and later, when the Indians went on the war path, the government sent soldiers to guard the house, the family staying there until 1862, when the soldiers were removed. After that Mr. Crippen moved his family to Arcata, he himself going back and forth to his ranch, feeling no fear personally of the Indians, whom he had always treated with the utmost kindness, but during one of his trips to the ranch, in the fall of 1862, while plowing near the house he was shot by Indians in ambush and killed. After his death his wife con­tinued to reside for a time at Arcata, later removing to Eureka, where she remained until the time of her death in 1905 at the age of ninety years.

 

It will thus be seen that Joseph Crippen Albee, now a well-known resident of the vicinity of Blocksburg, Cal., comes of truly pioneer ancestry on his father's side and patriotic forbears of Revolutionary fame on his mother's side of the family, he himself being a native son of California, where his birth occurred in Humboldt county, at the old Albee ranch at the junction of North Fork and Redwood Creek, on February 19, 1858. One of a family of eight children who lived to grow up, he found it necessary, at the time of his father's sudden death, to assist his mother financially in the care of her large family, and accordingly, having completed his education in the public schools of Eureka and Arcata, he early secured employment on the ranch of W. S. Robinson at Bridgeville, Cal. The seven brothers and sisters of Mr. Crippen were : Mrs. Annie Monroe Chisholm, of Eureka ; Mrs. W. S. Robinson, of the same city ; Mrs. D. E. Baker, of Petaluma, Cal.; D. P. Albee, of Rock Creek, Idaho ; L. H. Albee, of Eureka ; George B. Albee, city superin­tendent of schools of Eureka ; and Mrs. Mary Parry, who died in San Fran­cisco. With two of his brothers, Joseph Crippen Albee started in the sheep industry at the age of twenty-two years, he having at that time located a homestead on the Little Van Dusen river, the venture prospering financially until the hard winter of 1889 to 1890, when all the stock perished. Mr. Albee, however, started over again with C. T. Schreiner, of Ferndale, this time in the cattle business, the partnership having been carried on continuously since that time, Mr. Albee having the management of the cattle raising. He is now the owner of four hundred eighty acres at his home ranch, where he has made all necessary improvements for the betterment of the place, besides owning and leasing with his partner over five thousand acres and taking out a forest permit, the cattle on their estate being entirely of the Durham strain. As the locality about the Little Van Dusen is becoming popular for trout fishing and as a summer resort since deer are plentiful there, Mr. Albee and his wife have of late years conducted a hotel during the summer months, which has already attained a great measure of popularity and is well filled during the vacation season, the hotel being reached by trail from Fort Seward and Blocksburg.

 

The marriage of Mr. Albee occurred in Eureka, on June 3, 1907, his bride being Miss Mary A. Dickinson, a native of Liverpool, England, who has proved herself a woman of rare business and executive ability and a splendid helpmeet to her husband in all his undertakings. They are the parents of two sons, Joseph Porter and Jack Neville Dickinson. In her religious associa­tions Mrs. Albee is a member of the Episcopal Church, while the political affiliations of her husband are with the Progressive party.

 

 

 

FREDERICK JOSHUA PRESTON was born in Arcata, Cal., October 2, 1865. His father, John C. Preston, born near Cincinnati, Ohio, came to California with his two brothers, Miller and William, in 1849, crossing the plains with ox teams in company with Joseph Childs. He mined on the Trinity River until 1850, then came to Uniontown, now Arcata, Humboldt county. The brothers took up claims and engaged in stock raising. Miller Preston, who was a tanner, built and operated a tannery for many years until he retired, having become very wealthy. After three years William returned • to Illinois. John C. Preston was a successful farmer and became well-to-do. He died in 1885. His wife was Sarah J. Lindsay, a native of Iowa, and also crossed the plains in 1849, coming with her parents to Weaverville, and in 1853 she came to Uniontown, where she was married. After she was widowed she married Miller Preston. His death occurred in Arcata. She now resides in Blue Lake. Of her first marriage were born twelve children, all living, as follows : Catherine, Mrs. Hough, of Washington; Sarah, Mrs. J. R. Graham, living near Korbel ; John F., a rancher at Blue Lake; Frederick J.; Elizabeth, Mrs. Marsh, of Korbel ; Martha, Mrs. Green, of Del Norte county ; Eva, Mrs. Brown, of Arcata ; Hannah, Mrs. Gault, of Eureka; Plonnie, Mrs. Taylor, and Maple, Mrs. Harrison, living in San Mateo county ; Charles and William, living in Arcata.

 

Frederick J. Preston received a good education in the Arcata schools. After his father died he continued to help his mother on the farm until twenty-three years old, when he entered- the employ of the Z. Russ Co., on Bear River Ridge, riding the range, and became foreman, a position he filled for them on different ranches. In 1898 he started for the Alaska gold fields, going in over the Chilcoot trail, then down the lakes and river to Dawson, remaining about one year. When the Cape Nome excitement came he im­mediately followed the rush and mined on the beach until it froze up, when he returned to Humboldt County, having spent two years in the frozen north. After his return he engaged as a dealer in cattle and hogs, and a few years later began sheep growing, of which industry he has made a decided success. He now leases the Dublin Heights and Mountain View ranches, on which he runs sheep, keeping about two thousand head.

 

Mr. Preston was married in Eureka to Miss Grace Briscoe, a native of Nebraska, and they have two children, Maple and Elvan. Fraternally he is a member of Blue Lodge No. 347, as well as the Rebekahs. Politically he is a stanch Republican.

 

WILLIAM HENRY BOWDEN.—The vice-president and manager of the Shelter Cove Wharf and Warehouse Company, W. H. Bowden, is one of the most enterprising and leading men of southern Humboldt county. He was born.at Lincoln, Me., September 24, 1871, the son of William Henry and Carrie (Philbrick) Bowden, also natives of Maine. The father was a farmer and died in 1877. The mother is now making her home in San Luis Obispo, Cal., and her five children all reside in the state. They are as follows: Charles Collier, of San Luis Obispo ; John W., farmer and oil operator at Garberville ; William Henry, of whom we write ; Della, living in San Francisco ; and Belle, in Los Angeles.

 

William Bowden's childhood was spent on the sterile New England farm, receiving a good education in the public schools. When sixteen years of age he came to California with his mother. His brother, John W., had come to San Luis Obispo some years previous and they joined him at that place. During the first three years William was employed on a ranch, then came to San Francisco, where for three years he was employed on the San Pablo avenue car line and afterward for a like period on the Market street line. In 1897 he started north in the rush to the gold fields of Klondyke. He prospected in the vicinity of Skagway and Wrangle Narrows, but found nothing, and as he was not justified in staying there he returned to San Francisco in 1898 and was again with the Market street railway until 1900. In that year he again made a trip to the frozen north, going to Nome City, Alaska, where he was engaged in mining on the beach for one year. At the end of this time he returned to San Francisco, being employed in the Union Iron Works as a ship riveter for three years. In 1904 he came to Garberville, Humboldt County, and engaged in the general merchandise business until 1908, when he sold out and purchased an interest in the Shelter Cove Wharf and Warehouse Company, becoming vice-president and manager. He makes his home in Shelter Cove and devotes all of his time to the advancement of the company's interests. The wharf was built more than thirty years ago. The present company incorporated and purchased it in 1902. The wharf is eight hundred sixty feet long and large steamers dock alongside. Mr. Bowden superintends the repairs of the wharf, the building of warehouses and other buildings. The company has a pile driver and runs a blacksmith shop, also a bark mill run by a steam engine, where tanbark is ground and shipped to foreign countries. A private wagon road has been constructed four and one-half miles to connect with the county road. Shelter Cove is the shipping point for southern Humboldt and northern Mendocino counties and is the best harbor between Eureka and San Francisco, and the second best harbor in the county. The company also owns and operates the Shelter Cove Hotel.

 

Mr. Bowden is public spirited and enterprising and is always ready to help worthy enterprises. Being interested in aiding the developing of the oil field in Southern Humboldt, he was one of the organizers and a director in the Briceland Oil Company. In San Francisco occurred the marriage of Mr. Bowden and Margaret Gildea, who was a native of Ireland. Being an energetic woman and possessing much business ability, she aids her husband materially in his manifold duties. Politically Mr. Bowden is a strong pro­tectionist and Republican.

 

 

 

LEE EDWIN EVANS was born near Fairfield, Jefferson County, Iowa, October 30, 1879, the son of Benjamin and Rosanna Catherine (McLeary) Evans, who still. reside on their farm in Jefferson county, Iowa. The father served as a soldier for four years in the Nineteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry. Of their thirteen children, ten of whom are living, Lee Edwin is the fifth youngest. One other member of the family living in California is Rawley W., who is foreman of the What Cheer ranch for the Z. Russ Co.

 

Lee Edwin Evans was brought up on the farm in Iowa and was educated in the public schools. After completing the local schools he continued to assist his parents until he was seventeen years of age, when he began for himself, working out on farms in the neighborhood until 1900, when he made his way to North Dakota. Near Minot he located a homestead, but left it and engaged in ranching in the same vicinity until 1906, then removed to Wyoming. There he found employment on the C. B. & Q. R. R., at bridge building for one year, after which he entered the employ of the Big Horn Timber Company as a flume builder, continuing with them for four and one-half years. During the second year he was made foreman of flume building and filled the duties of his position with ability and dispatch. His next position was with the Acme Coal Company at Acme, Wyoming, where he began at the bottom and learned the blacksmith trade, working as such until he came to California in March, 1913, desiring to follow ranching and stock raising. He obtained employment with the Z. Russ Co., and a month later was made foreman of the Bunker Hill ranch of about twelve hundred acres located six and one-half miles from Ferndale and is devoted to sheep raising. He has also been given charge of the Mountain Glenn ranch of twelve hundred acres adjoining Bunker Hill, which is devoted to raising cattle.

 

Mr. Evans is a young man of exemplary habits and by his close applica­tion and native ability is proving a valuable man in the position which he occupies.

 

 

 

BENJAMIN A. SNODGRASS.—Among the men who are making a success of cattle raising in Humboldt county is Benjamin A. Snodgrass, a native of Henry County, Mo., born February 7, 1872. His father, George W. Snodgrass, was also a native of Missouri, where he was a farmer. In 1879 he removed to Dixie Valley, in what is now Canyon County, Idaho, where he has since followed farming. The mother of Benjamin was Laura Sherman, also a native of Missouri, now deceased., Of their four children Benjamin A. Snodgrass was the second oldest. Up to the age of fifteen years he attended the public schools, then started out to make his own living, being employed on cattle ranches, riding the range in eastern Oregon and western Idaho. For three years he was on the Mammon cattle ranch and two years on the Burnett cattle ranch in Idaho, and became an expert rider and cattle roper. In 1892 he came to Humboldt County, and for the first year was employed on the What Cheer ranch for Z. Russ & Co., on Bear River Ridge, then about two and one-half years on the Mazeppa ranch as headquarters. Later he was in the employ of Ira Russ on Mad River for about three years, and during this time spent three winters attending the Eureka Business College, where he was graduated May 20, 1898. After his graduation he came to Rainbow Ridge ranch as foreman for the same man, and remained with him for three years, still later being foreman for Joseph Russ at the Ocean House ranch for seven years. The experience and knowledge gained during past years created an ambition to engage in cattle growing on his own account, so he rented two thousand acres of the Rockliff ranches on the Mattole and north fork of the Mattole and began the business of which he has since made a success. He bought two herds of stock cattle in Trinity County, four hundred forty-nine head, driving them to the Mattole, and after selling one hundred thirty of them he turned the remainder on the ranges. In 1911 he gave up the Rockliff ranches and leased the Taylor Peak ranch of about thirty-two hundred acres, five miles from Petrolia, at the head of the north fork of the Mattole, where he keeps on an average three hundred fifty head, besides which he is engaged as a cattle dealer and meeting with deserved success. His brand is the letter M. In connection with his own business, since 1911 he has also been superintendent of Z. Russ & Sons' Mattole ranches, including about five thousand acres devoted to cattle raising, about eight hundred head being kept on these ranches.

 

Mr. Snodgrass was married in Hydesville to Miss Lillie E. Feenaty, a native of Trinity County, the daughter of Henry Feenaty, an old settler of the county now living retired in Hydesville. Mr. and Mrs. Snodgrass have one child, Grace C. Fraternally he is a member of Ferndale Lodge No. 220, I. 0. 0. F., and of Myrtle Encampment at Ferndale, while with his wife he is a member of the Rebekahs. Politically he is a Democrat. As stated above, on coming to Humboldt county Mr. Snodgrass had the reputation of being one of the best riders in the county and at fairs and races gave exhibitions of horsemanship and riding. He rode some horses that were outlaws and considered unconquerable, and at one time rode a wild bull on the Ferndale grounds. Personally he is a very pleasant and affable man, and like the great west where he was reared is big hearted and liberal and has hosts of friends who esteem him for his kind and generous ways.

 

LUTHER WILLARD SIBLEY.—A prominent and enterprising rancher and the present postmaster at Iaqua, Luther W. Sibley is a native of Michigan, born near Dewitt, Clinton county, April 27, 1875, the son of Levi W. and Alzina (Carr) Sibley, natives of Plattsburg, N. Y. The father served in the Civil war as a member of Company A, Ninety-sixth New York Volun­teer Infantry, and was seriously wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg, and was also wounded in another battle. After a service of three years and eleven months he was honorably discharged, after which he came to Michigan, where, in Ingham county, he was married to Alzina Carr, the Carr family being very old settlers of the county. He became a well-to-do farmer and with his wife resides on his place near Dewitt.

 

Of their seven children Luther, the third oldest, received his education in the public schools and the Lansing high school, after which he entered the Michigan Agricultural College at Lansing, where he completed a special course. He then engaged in the creamery business, operating a creamery at Dewitt for ten and one-half years. In the meantime he started a lumber yard which he conducted the last five years of his residence in Michigan.

 

In 1906 Mr. Sibley made his first trip to the Pacific coast, and from Port­land, Ore., came to Humboldt county. He liked the country, and after making three trips within a year concluded to locate here, a change which he hoped would benefit his wife's health. Disposing of his interests in Michigan he located here permanently in 1907. Purchasing the old Frame ranch of eleven hundred forty acres at Iaqua, twenty-eight. miles east of Eureka, he has since followed farming and stock raising, meeting with good success. He raises an abundance of hay and grain and operates a thresher run by a gas engine, threshing not only his own grain, but that of others as well. He also specializes in dairying, milking about twenty-five cows. The ranch is located on Booths run and is also well watered by other streams and springs and is well wooded with fir and tan oak, about one hundred fifty acres of the ranch being under cultivation. Aside from the ranch he also owns some redwood and fir timber. In 1909 he secured the reestablishment of the postoffice at Iaqua and was appointed postmaster, and has had the postoffice at his place ever since.

 

In Dewitt, Mich., occurred the marriage of Mr. Sibley and Florence Pennell, a native of that place. She died here in 1910, leaving one child, Luther Willard, Jr. Mr. Sibley was school trustee of Iaqua district one term and was also clerk of the board. Fraternally he is a Mason, being a member of Dewitt Lodge in his native place in Michigan, while politically he is a Progressive.

 

JOHN H. GIFT.—Of old Quaker stock and an old settler of Humboldt county, having crossed the plains with his parents in 1864, John H. Gift, a prominent cattle grower of Iaqua, was born in Fontanelle, Adair county, Iowa, March 24, 1858. His father, Isaac Gift, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., where he was reared, later removing to Tiffin, Ohio, where he married Evelyn Overmier, a native of Ohio. Her father, Solomon Overmier, was also a Penn­sylvanian and a Quaker, who crossed the plains to California in 1846. He kept a hotel in Sacramento in which he met with success, afterwards returning to Ohio. His second trip to California was in 1864, he being the head of the train. He lived many years in Humboldt County, but died in Oregon. Isaac Gift removed from Ohio to Adair county, Iowa, where he became possessor of a beautiful farm on Nodaway bottoms. On May 12, 1864, with his family he started for the west, crossing the plains with ox teams and wagons. Two hundred miles west of the Missouri river, while crossing the Platte River, the party got a wetting, and the Gifts and some other members stopped to dry their clothes. Still others of the party, however, went on without stopping. When the Gifts and Overmiers arrived near Fort Laramie they were told of the massacre of their late companions and were shown forty new graves. The Gift team arrived in Fort Laramie July 4 and then pressed on toward Green river. There they were surrounded by Indians and all of the little train would no doubt have been massacred but for the wisdom of Grandfather Overmier, who had had experience and under­stood the Indian nature. He had a long-stemmed pipe with a big bowl which he smoked from behind the wagon wheels, blowing smoke to the four winds. The Indian chief, after much hesitation, finally came down, threw away his arrows and implements of war and took a whiff of the Quaker's pipe, then gave a loud whoop and all of the bucks mounted their ponies, swam the Green river and left the train in peace. The party continued on to Salt Lake City, where they traded their oxen for a span of mules and started for California. They did not succeed in crossing the desert before one of the mules laid down and 'died. Isaac Gift was a large, strong man, one who would not give up, so he arranged a rope and pulled against the remaining mule, carrying the neckyoke for forty-eight hours, while the boys and others rolled on the wheels until their shoulders bled, the drops falling on their bare feet; their shoes had given out and they could not replace them. To add to their suffer­ing, they ran out of water and their tongues became parched; finally the remaining mule gave out. In the midst of their distress a man rode up from behind and kindly loaned them his mule, and with the fresh animal they arrived at Sand Springs, Nev., with tongues parched and protruding. Fortunately there were soldiers stationed at the place who kept them from drink­ing water and also eating to excess, so all the members of the party were saved. They then made their way on to Virginia City, Nev., where Isaac Gift, being a millwright and carpenter by trade, found employment in the Golden Curry mill at $10 per day. The family remained in that city until the fall of 1865, when they came with a freighting outfit (sixteen-mule team with three big wagons, i. e., the two trailing the first one through the Sierras, by way of Hangtown, or Placerville, to Sacramento, where they boarded the boat Chrisopolis for San Francisco, and then on the steamer Del Norte to Eureka, arriving October 12, 1865. The first three years the family spent in Eureka, until in 1868 they moved to Iaqua, where the elder Gift homesteaded one hundred sixty acres near a large, cool spring. After building his house he followed stock raising until he died in 1881. His wife continued to reside on the place until her death in 1903. Their family consisted of seven children, and of them we mention the following : Albert died in Eureka in 1914; Allen lives in Eureka ; Joseph in Iaqua ; Robert in Hoquiam, Wash.; John H. is the subject of this sketch ; Sarah L., Mrs. Russell, died in Hydesville ; George L. is also a resident of Iaqua.

 

John H. Gift was a boy of five years when he crossed the plains with his parents, and on account of the harrowing Indian escapades and their narrow escape on the desert the trip was indelibly impressed on his memory. The members of the party walked nearly two thousand miles, most of it barefooted, and the lasting impressions will never be erased from Mr. Gift's memory. Since 1865 he has made his home in-Humboldt county. 'He went to public school in Virginia City, Nev., Eureka and the Iaqua district. When twelve years old he began riding the range and driving cattle, also followed packing, cooking and teaming not only here, but in the Sacramento valley. He homesteaded eighty acres of land near Iaqua and began stock raising and improving the place, meantime making trips to the Sacramento valley, where he worked at teaming to earn money to improve his ranch. His stock in­creased and he did well and was thus enabled to buy land adjoining. For some years he was in partnership with his brother George, but a few years ago they divided their holdings and dissolved partnership. He now owns eleven hundred sixty acres of land. The John H. Gift ranch is well watered by streams and numerous springs and is well wooded, having quite a large tract of redwood and also other varieties, such as pine, oak and madrone. The place is devoted to cattle growing and he has about one hundred eighty head of the Short Horn Durham breed. Of late he also specializes in dairying, milking about twenty-eight cows in the season and manufacturing butter for the Eureka and San Francisco markets. He also raises large quantities of hay and grain, having threshed as. much as four thousand bushels of oats a year.

 

The marriage of Mr. Gift occurred in Eureka, where he was united with Miss Anna C. Jewett, a native of Fredericton, New Brunswick, and they have three children, George, Harry and Lloyd. Mrs. Gift was an educator and is a woman of much ability, and for ten years taught school in, Humboldt County. She is now serving as trustee of Iaqua school district, a position her husband also held for many years, he being clerk of the board for a time. Fraternally he is a member of Fortuna Lodge No. 221, I. 0. 0. F., in Eureka, and of Mount Zion Encampment, I. 0. 0. F. Politically he is a Republican. He served acceptably as road overseer of fifty-four miles of roads and trails in his district for five years.

 

 

 MRS. MARY BARRY.—One of the old-time settlers on Kneeland Prairie is Mrs. Mary Barry, who was born in the city of Cork, Ireland, the daughter of Timothy and Bridget (Hassett) Mullen. She grew up in that city and was married to Edward Barry. They came to Philadelphia, Pa., in 1865, and a few years later came to California, locating at Ross' Landing, near San Rafael, Marin County, where they followed dairying. About 1875 they located in Humboldt County, where they purchased one hundred twenty acres on Kneeland Prairie and began improving the land and also carried on stock raising. Mrs. Barry has been a successful farmer and stock raiser, having added to the original acres and now owns two ranches adjoining, comprising six hundred forty acres, which are now operated by her son-in-law and daugh­ter, Mr. and Mrs. Cosgrove, who besides being engaged in cattle growing also run a small dairy with considerable success.

 

Of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Barry, Timothy J., a farmer on Kneeland Prairie, married Ella Fink and they have one child, Alice L.; Phillip F., employed with the Hammond Lumber Company in Eureka, married Sadie Pierson ; Sadie is the wife of Charles Quigg, train dispatcher at Eureka, and they have three children, Thomas, Charles and Graham ; Mary is the wife of Thomas Cosgrove, who, as stated above, manages the ranches for Mrs. Barry, and they have one son, William Thomas.

 

Mrs. Barry is a pleasant woman with generous impulses and is always ready to lend a helping hand to those who have been less fortunate.

 

 

RAE FELT, M. D.—A representative member of the Felt family, and one of the most honored native sons of Humboldt county, Dr. Rae Felt is adding glory to the name of his father made famous in almost half a century of medical practice and business activity here. His position in the profession has always been among its most trusted members, and deservedly, and within recent years he has increased his reputation by his unselfish work in the interest of the Sequoia hospital at Eureka, of which he was the founder. He is now acting as president of the board and as chief surgeon of the institution, which is the most completely equipped establishment of the kind in Cali­fornia north of San Francisco. Dr. Felt's father, the late Theodore Dwight Felt, M. D., has full mention elsewhere in this work.

 

Rae Pelt was born May 19, 1869, at Hydesville, and his early life was spent there and at other locations in the county—Felt's Springs, Rohnerville and Fortuna.. His education was begun in the district schools, but he had the advantage of very superior home training which he has found of in­estimable value. During the time the family lived at Fortuna he assisted his mother in the drug store which she conducted for several years at that place, and thus his preparation for his life work began very early. He finished his public school work at Eureka, graduating before he was eighteen years old, at which time he was granted a teacher's certificate. He taught school for some time, and then devoted himself to the study of medicine, entering the medical department of the University of California, from which he was graduated, receiving his degree of M. D. in November, 1890. The next year he spent very profitably in the United States Marine hospital at San Fran­cisco, as surgical assistant, and was then appointed to the United States revenue marine service and assigned as surgeon to the steamer Richard Rush, which was ordered to the Behring Sea and coast of Alaska to protect the seal industry. After a year in that position he returned to Eureka to commence practice, becoming associated with his father, who moved to Eureka in 1891, and they worked together until the father's death, in 1898. His modern training and apparent fitness for the profession supplemented his father's experience and resource, and they established a practice which the younger man has continued very successfully, proving a worthy successor to his father. In both general practice and surgery there is a wide demand for his services, his name having become well known in all parts of Humboldt County, where he has performed many successful operations and taken part in numerous consultations, his fellow physicians according his opinions the utmost respect. He has not only endeavored to make a success of his own work, but has labored zealously to uphold the most approved professional standards in the community. His own conscientious work, in his private practice and in his connection with the Sequoia Hospital and Sanitarium, shows his personal ideas on such matters. He was appointed the first chief surgeon on the Eel River and Eureka Railroad, which position he held until it was transferred to the hospital department of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad, and since then has filled his present position of division surgeon.

 

Dr. Felt took a leading part in the organization of the Humboldt County Medical Society, has served as president of that body, and is also a member in high standing of the California State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, the Pacific Association of Railway Surgeons and also a member of the American Association of Railway Surgeons. Socially he has numerous connections, belonging to Humboldt Parlor No. 14, N. S. G. W. ; Humboldt Lodge No. 79, F. & A. M. (master in 1904) ; Humboldt Chapter No. 52, R. A. M.; Eureka Commandery No. 35, K. T., which he served as treasurer for several years, from May, 1902; Islam Temple, A. A. 0. N. M. S., of San Francisco; the Order of the Eastern Star; and Eureka Lodge No. 652, B. P. 0. E., of which he was a charter member. He also holds membership in the Humboldt Club, and in the chamber of commerce at Eureka, and he was one of the principal organizers of the Gentlemen's Driving Club ; though deeply interested in the success of the latter he declined the presidency because of his numerous other responsibilities, feeling that he could not do justice to its duties. His interest therein is only natural, for he inherits his father's love for fine horses, and was at one time especially devoted to the breeding and raising of standard horses on his stock ranch at Capetown on the Bear river. He has a number of fine horses, among which are Telltale Perlo and Edith Light. The former Comes from stock which his father raised, and her great-great-great-granddam Jude was the animal on which the elder Dr. Felt swam the Eel River on many occasions.

 

Besides the ranch just mentioned Dr. Felt owns a dairy ranch of two hundred twenty-five acres at Freshwater, six miles from Eureka, which he supervises personally, hiring competent help for the actual labor. "The Maples," as his ranch is called, was so named on account of the beautiful natural maple grove at his summer home. He has lately improved the ranch with large barns, which are the most modern and sanitary in the county, having metal stanchions, concrete floor and large windows for admitting plenty of sunlight. Recently Dr. Felt brought from the east a carload of full-blooded registered Jersey cattle of the Island type, and now has a herd of about one hundred head, one of the finest registered herds of Island bred Jerseys in the state. The Maples is located about six miles north of Eureka on the Arcata road and is watered by the stream called Freshwater. In connection with the ranch large quantities of alfalfa are raised, as well as clover, rye, grass, carrots and beets, and grains.

 

Dr. Felt has been taking part in politics since he attained his majority, an ardent Republican like his father before him. He has been a delegate to political conventions since eligible, and in 1902 acted as chairman of the Republican county convention. His work in the party, as in everything else which attracts his interest, has been well directed, and has been appre­ciated by his coworkers and his fellow citizens generally, who trust him to look after their welfare as he would after his private concerns. There are few activities in the locality with which he has not been associated, in an influential capacity, and many of the best movements in the city owe their success to his cooperation.

 

On December 18, 1892, Dr. Felt was married to Miss Anna A. Smith, a native of Alameda County, Cal., the daughter of a pioneer family.

 

 

 

JOHN W. HAMILTON.—Humboldt County has had many instances of the opportunities which her early settlers enjoyed, as shown by the good fortune which has attended those who, coming here with no resources except their courage and strength, have acquired wealth and position. When land was cheap, simply because it was in an undeveloped region and there were no means at hand of marketing its produce, its potential value could not be counted as in these days of modern commerce, and the pioneers who then acquired large holdings did so with little or no expenditure. If they were farsighted enough to retain them, their fortunes were established. But that the opportunities were not exhausted with the passing of the old order is shown in the records of such men as John W. Hamilton, of Garberville, Hum­boldt county, whose success has been substantial enough, and so honorably gained, as to be creditable .under any circumstances. He came to the county in 1896, for a year's stay in search of health, and was not only satisfied in that respect, but he has prospered so well in his business undertakings that he has remained here ever since.

 

A Kentuckian by birth, Mr. Hamilton is the eldest of three children born to Hance and Mary (Richardson) Hamilton, both also natives of Kentucky. The father was a farmer, living and dying in Meade County, that state. The mother came to Humboldt county, Cal., in 1909, arriving December 19, and died here in 1910. The two other children born to them are : James W., who continues to reside on the old home property in Meade county, Ky.; and a daughter, Mattie, who came to California with her mother, and is now the wife of Ernest R. Linser, a rancher of this county, on the east branch of the south fork of the Eel River.

 

John W. Hamilton was born August 31, 1873, at Brandenburg, Meade bounty, Ky., and grew up on the home farm. Though he is interested therein as one of his father's heirs he has not yet taken his share. He finished his studies with a course in the state college at Lexington, and lived in his native state until 1896, when he came to California for his health, suffering from malarial fever. At San Francisco he met Ezra Reed, a friend of his father, and in April came up to Humboldt county with the Reed brothers and Lem Dale (all business men of Garberville), making the trip by way of Ukiah, overland. They arrived at Garberville, April 19, and Mr. Hamilton went to work as a clerk for the Reed brothers, in whose employ he continued four years. By this time he had become familiar with local conditions, and in company with C. W. Conger, who was from Long Creek, Ore., he bought out the Reeds' store, Conger & Hamilton doing an extensive general mer­cantile business there for the next four years. In 1904 Mr. Hamilton pur­chased his partner's share therein, and carried on the business as sole pro­prietor until the year 1911, when he sold to the Garberville Mercantile Com­pany, of which he has since been a stockholder. He has been secretary of the company from the time of its incorporation. This is an important local enterprise, but Mr. Hamilton has been obliged to make it secondary to his responsibilities, assisting in the management of the Woods ranch, now giving the greater part of his time to its operation.

 

The Western Live Stock Company, which is incorporated under the laws of the state of California, is a Humboldt county concern, all its officers being of this county, viz.: William G. Dauphiny, of Ferndale, president ; John W. Hamilton, of Garberville, vice-president; and George T. Toobey, of Eureka, secretary and treasurer. This company owns the Woods ranch, which contains about twelve thousand acres, devoted to the raising of cattle, horses, hogs, sheep and fruit on an extensive scale. It lies a mile and a quarter south of Garberville, on the south fork of the Ee