A Volume of memoirs and genealogy of representative citizens of northern California, including biographies of many of those who have passed away, Part 11

Author: Standard Genealogical Publishing Company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago, Standard Genealogical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 902

USA > California > A Volume of memoirs and genealogy of representative citizens of northern California, including biographies of many of those who have passed away > Part 11

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After six weeks spent in that city Dr. Manlove went to the southern

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mines in Amador county, where he remained until the spring of 1851, engaged in mining, trading and in the practice of medicine. He then sold his interest and went to Nevada City. For a time he engaged in mining and prospecting in the northern part of the state, but not meeting with the success he antici- pated, and tired of this roving life, he made a permanent location in Sacra- mento county, where he purchased a half section of valuable land. From that time until his death he engaged in the cultivation of cereals and fruits, and also practiced medicine to some extent. His business career was interrupted only by two years' service as sheriff of Sacramento county, from 1857 to 1859. He was one of the pioneer grape-growers of this section of the state, begin- ning the cultivation of that fruit as early as 1858. He did much to perfect the grape-growing interests of California and for many years his opinions were regarded as authority in matters of fruit culture. He was especially enthusiastic in regard to the raising of cherries, and his opinions in that mat- ter were borne out by practical experience. He also had good crops of peaches, apricots, plums and oranges, and likewise raised pecans, butternuts. eastern and English walnuts, Japanese persimmons and dates. His farm became one of the most highly improved in this section of the state, and through his efforts he largely promoted the interests of fruit-growers in Cali- fornia. In 1887 he was appointed by Governor Bartlett a member of the board of viticulture, a position which he filled with credit. He also did an important work in connection with the patrons of husbandry and succeeded in establishing at least fourteen successful local granges. In politics he was a Democrat and filled a number of places of trust and responsibility.

Dr. Manlove married Miss Frances L., a daughter of Hon. Shubel N. Baker, who came to California from Coldwater, Michigan, in an early day. He was a merchant of Sacramento and associate county judge under the old constitution. The Doctor and Mrs. Manlove were married in September, 1859, and became the parents of two children .- J. Edward and Catharine A.

John Edward Manlove, whose name heads this review, has spent his entire life on the old family homestead where his birth occurred September 9. 1861. He pursued his education in the schools of the neighborhood and spent three years in a private school conducted by E. P. Ilowe. Sixteen years ago he assumed the management of the home farm, which comprises more than three hundred acres of the arable and fertile lands of central Cali- fornia. He was married in 1892, to Miss Elizabeth Manlove, who was born in Lake county, California, and died in Sacramento, April 25. 1893. at the age of twenty-two years, leaving a son, William A., who is now six years of age. On May 10. 1900, Mr. Manlove married Mrs. Margaret I. Leach, of Ross Station, Marin county, California, and since that time they have lived near that place, in a cosy home owned by them; but still Mr. Manlove retains his business interests in Sacramento county.

Politically he is a prominent representative of the Peoples' party, assisted in organizing the party in Sacramento county and was a delegate to its first convention. Ile has always labored earnestly and actively in its support and his efforts have been effective in the promulgation of its principles among his

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fellow townsmen. For ten years he was a member of the Native Sons of California.

Mr. Manlove is one of the best known and most popular citizens of Sac- ramento county. He has spent his entire life here and has been an active factor in business circles and has gained a very wide acquaintance. The old family homestead which he occupies is situated on the Jackson road, seven miles east of the capital city. It is bisected by the Placerville Railroad ; and the Manlove station, which was named in his father's honor, on account of its close proximity affords excellent shipping facilities. The house is a com- fortable and commodious structure, sheltered by gigantic oak trees and sur- rounded by beautiful flowers. Its hospitality is widely celebrated and the members of the household occupy leading positions in social circles. Mr. Man- love gives his time and attention to the cultivation of field and orchard and his harvests indicate earnest labor and excellent business methods.

I. G. ZUMWALT.

I. G. Zumwalt is one of California's native sons, his birth having occurred in Colusa county, which is still his home, on the 24th of January, 1872. His father, John R. Zumwalt, was born in Illinois, on January 27, 1826, and in 1870 came to California, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was educated for the practice of medicine but abandoned this pro- fession on account of ill health, and for a number of years engaged in the manufacture of wagons, but spent the last years of his active business career as a farmer. His wife, Sarah Phebe Zumwalt, was born in Pike county, Mis- souri, on February 20, 1842, and is still living in Colusa.

The enterprising lawyer of whom we write spent the first sixteen years of his life on a farm, and acquired a good education to prepare him for the responsible duties which daily come to one who is in business life. He was for two years a student in the high school in Colusa, graduating in 1890, after which he entered Pierce's Christian College. and on leaving that institution, in May, 1892, he took up the study of law, under U. W. Brown, in Colusa. In 1894 he was admitted to the bar. He has since been engaged in active prac- tice, and his advancement toward the front rank of the legal profession has been continuous and rapid, until now he has one of the largest criminal and civil practices in the northern part of the state of California. In 1898 he was elected district attorney and is now capably filling that office. He is well versed in the principles of jurisprudence, and, having a good command of lan- guage, his arguments are forceful, logical and convincing.

In the last few years, aside from his reputation as a lawyer, he has become noted as a business man of keen foresight and sterling worth. He is now secretary and a director of Cook's Springs Mineral Water Company, one of the largest mineral water companies in the state of California, which bot- tles and ships natural mineral water from this famous resort all over the Pacific coast.

Mr. Zumwalt is an ardent Democrat and has, during the two last presi-

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dential campaigns, made numerous speeches in behalf of the leaders of his party. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and attends the Methodist Episcopal church, of which his people are members. He is a favorite in social circles, being one of the popular resi- dents of Colusa, where he enjoys the friendship of many of the best people of the locality.

OLIVER W. ERLEWINE.

The specific and distinctive office of biography is not to give voice to man's modest estimate of himself and his accomplishments, but rather to leave a perpetual record establishing his character by the consensus of opin- ion on the part of his fellow men. That great factor, the public, is a discrim- inating factor, and yet takes cognizance not so much of self-exaltation or of modesty as the intrinsic essence of character, strikes the keynote of individ- uality and pronounces judicially and unequivocally upon the true worth of the man,-invariably distinguishing the clear resonance of the true metal from the jarring dissonance of the baser. Thus in touching upon the life his- tory of the subject of this review the biographer would aim to give utterance to no fulsome encomium, to indulge in no extravagant praise; yet would he wish to hold up for consideration those points that have shown the distinction of a pure, true and useful life,-one characterized by indomitable persever- ance, broad charity, marked ability, high accomplishments and well-earned honors. To do this will be but to reiterate the dictum pronounced upon the man by his fellow men.

Professor O. W. Erlewine, now the principal of the city schools of Sac- ramento, was born January 10, 1852, and was the fourth in order of birth in a family of five children, whose parents were Samuel and Rebecca ( Hubbs ) Erlewine. The family is of German lineage and the original American ances- tors settled in this country at an early day and were frequently engaged in the struggles with the Indians which marked the early settlement of this land. His father was a native of West Virginia and died in that state, at the age of eighty-four years, but the mother is still living there, at the age of seventy- six.

Upon the old home farm in that state Professor Erlewine spent the days of his boyhood and youth, and after completing the public-school course in Wetzel county, West Virginia, pursued a course of training in a preparatory school for teachers in Carthage, Illinois. He has devoted much of his life to educational work, teaching school for two years in the state of his nativity and three years in Illinois before his removal to the west. He came to Cali- fornia in 1880 and for nine years engaged in merchandising as the manager of the Grangers' Business Association ; but the cause of education was one in which he was deeply interested, and ultimately he returned to his professional labors along that line. For six years he was a member of the board of educa- tion of Sacramento, and then, after four years spent in the office of assistant postmaster, was chosen superintendent of the city schools, in which capacity he has most ably served for the past six years. He has succeeded in raising

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the schools to a very high standard of excellence, and with the assistance of a competent corps of teachers he has advanced the importance and thorough- ness of the work in each grade. His marked ability to impart clearly and readily to others the knowledge he has acquired made him a most successful educator from the beginning of his professional career, and Sacramento owes much to him for the progress made along educational lines in the public schools under his superintendence.

In 1878 was celebrated the marriage of Professor Erlewine and Miss Emma L. Bross. Her father, Benjamin Bross, was a native of Germany and after crossing the Atlantic became a farmer of Illinois, where he is still living, at the age of eighty-four years. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Mary Merrill, was born in Vermont and died in 1885. Unto Professor and Mrs. Erlewine have been born three children: Mary R., in 1880; Eva E., in 1882; and Maud A., in 1884.

Our subject belongs to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and is a most valued member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being a past grand patriarch of California. He is very popular among all classes, possess- ing a genial and social disposition. He is a man of high intellectuality, broad human sympathies and tolerance and inbued with fine sensibilities and clear- ly-defined principles. Honor and integrity are synonymous with his name, and he enjoys the respect, confidence and high regard of the entire com- munity.

COLONEL T. H. BERKEY.

Sacramento county, in which is located the fair city of Sacramento, is favored in having represented upon its list of officials individuals whose endowments fully capacitate them for the discharge of the responsible duties that devolve upon them. The subject of this review is the assessor of the county, having been elected to this important office through the suffrage of the Republican party, in whose interest he has rendered timely and effective ser- rice, being known as one of the uncompromising advocates of the principles of that political organization.

Colonel Berkey was born in Somerset, Perry county, Ohio, January 5, 1842, and there resided until his emigration to the west, his identification with the Pacific coast dating from June 25, 1869, at which time he arrived in Sacramento, where he has been engaged in various important business ventures. His fellow townsmen, recognizing his worth and ability, often called him to public office, where he has manifested his loyalty to the general good by faithfully and promptly executing his duties. He was elected the county clerk of Sacramento county in 1877, and after capably filling the position for two years, was re-elected in 1879. serving for a second term of three years, so that he filled the office for five consecutive years.

On his retirement from office he turned his attention to the real-estate and insurance business and soon secured a good clientage along that line, handling some important realty transactions. In 1894 his fellow townsmen again called him to office and he was elected assessor for a term of four

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years. In 1898 he was again elected, so that he is now serving for the second term, which will terminate January 1, 1903. While undoubtedly he has not been without that honorable ambition which is so powerful an incentive to activity in public affairs, he is one that has subordinated personal ambition to the public good and sought rather to benefit his county than the aggran- dizement of self.

FRED. F. CASSIDY.

Mr. Cassidy, of this review, was born in Grass Valley on the 16th day of January, 1874, his parents being Felix and Nellie ( Tobin) Cassidy, and most of his life has been spent in his native city. His father was born in Michi- gan, March 12, 1840, his parents having been early settlers of the Wol- verine state. In 1868 he came to California and has since been identified with the mining interests of this locality, having at different times filled the posi- tion of foreman for several mines of this district. He was united in marriage to Miss Tobin, a lady of Irish birth, who was reared in the Empire state, and their union was blessed with six children, Fred. F. being the third in the order of birth.

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Mr. Cassidy is a graduate of the high school of Grass Valley, being a member of the class of 1899. Since graduation he has been connected with the large grocery house of Clinch & Company, and at present is the head bookkeeper for the firm. He is also a large stockholder and a director of the hardware firm of Brady & Cassidy, and is the resident agent of the Milwaukee Mechanics' Insurance Company.

In politics Mr. Cassidy is a Democrat. He is a valued member of the Native Sons of the Golden West, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is a young man of sterling worth, well liked in social circles and justly merits the confidence of the business public. .

HON. G. J. CARPENTER.

The subject of this biographical sketch is a native of Harford, Sus- quehanna county, Pennsylvania, where he was born May 4. 1823. His grandparents were pioneers of his native county and state, as his remoter ancestors were of the old Bay state, where the first of the Carpenters landed in 1636 and the first of the Thayers, his maternal ancestors, in 1638. His grandparents were among the first settlers of his native town, where Asahel Carpenter and Amanda Malvina Thayer. were married May 25, 1822. They had five sons,-Gideon Judd. Frederick, Cyrus Clay, John and Em- mett,-and one daughter, the youngest of the family and named after her mother, who died when a mere child. Of the family the subject of this sketch, Frederick and Emmett, are the sole survivors.

Of the Carpenters in recent history, Senator Matt. Carpenter, of Wis- consin, and Cyrus Clay, brother of our Californian, have been most con- spicuous. The last named, Colonel C. C. Carpenter, having settled in Iowa, was first on the staff of General Dodge and later on that of General Logan,

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on Sherman's magnificent march through the Confederacy and around to Washington, whence he returned to lowa, of which state he was afterward twice governor and twice a representative in congress. Of the Thayer tribe, on the maternal side, William H. Seward was the chieftain, to say nothing of many prominent men in all the higher walks of life.

From this glance at his breed and brood, it will be seen that the subject of our sketch had in him the elements of his epoch and characteristics. His career was also influenced by early frontier experience. In 1835 his father moved in a two-horse wagon, over corduroy roads, to Warren county, Indiana. Here, while his father followed land surveying, he worked on a little backwoods farm, in sight of the Wabash river. At the end of six years, saddened by the loss of his mother and brother John, the rest of the family returned to Harford, where two years later his father and sister died. Again among friends and relatives who were the founders of Frank- lin Academy, he was, at intervals for eight years, a student at that insti- tution. During his academic term he was a fellow student of J. H. McKune and Amos Adams, before whom, as district judges of California, he after- ward practiced. His reading of law under a retired professor was sus- pended in 1849, when he again determined to try his fortunes in the west. This time Chicago was his objective point, but California was his unfore- seen destination. With his three comrades and a good outfit, he spent the summer of 1850 on the plains with the overland pioneers of that year; and a few days before the admission of California into the Union he pitched his tent under the tall pines which then overshadowed Georgetown, minus pretty much all the rest of his outfit.

The end of a long and tiresome journey was the beginning of his life work in the paradise of miners, where every disappointment had in it the pleasures of hope and golden visions of fortunes yet to be made. The next five years, excepting only the summer of 1854, he devoted all his energies to placer and river mining. Beginning at Greenwood, his mining career ended at Big Bar, on the middle fork of the American river, where he organized and engineered the most daring and expensive fluming operation ever undertaken on that river. By a flume over two miles in length, fifteen feet wide and four feet deep, the river from Volcano to Big Bar was com- pletely drained and made to run the wheels and pumps by which it was done. Eye witnesses of this achievement, and of his discovery and opera- tions on the Big Crevice at Big Bar, are still living in Placerville. When he left the mines for other occupations, he owed nothing. and but for the festivities of a miner's life in the 'sos they would have been largely indebted to him.

In 1854 the gayeties of mining were varied by a stumping campaign, in which, with no colleague and few followers, he confronted the fierce and vindictive conspiracy against David C. Broderick. It was a campaign of bitter antagonisms, two years in advance of the senatorial election, in view of which he had been nominated by the Anti-Gwin Democracy for the State Senate. Thus to lead the clansmen of Broderick, in a losing 6

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combat for a desired future reprisal, was a paradox of self-sacrifice not to be declined. The campaign was made for all that was in it, and with the result anticipated. Two years later the defeated leader of a forlorn hope was nominated by the united Democracy and elected to the State Senate by a signal majority. By the following legislature of 1856-7, the great northern leader, who was afterward murdered because he was opposed to slavery, was triumphantly elected to the United States Senate. In the Dem- ocratic caucus by which he was chosen his champion from the then Empire county of the state had the honor of being designated by himself to put him in nomination for the long term. For this purpose the correct order of nominations was reversed and the short term reserved to be finally con- ferred on William M. Gwin, by the advice and consent of his successful opponent, who had too much respect for the determined opposition of his Eldorado friend to ask of him the mistaken concession to a shrewd and unscrupulous foe,-a concession for which the only reward of D. C. Brod- erick was a foul and successful plot against his life.

Such was the fierce and implacable combat in which the subject of this biography won his spurs and developed his capacity for fighting. It seems to have forecast his subsequent career. But having no predilection for legislative positions, which were often at his command, after his sena- torial term he returned to the scene of his mining ventures. In 1860 lie canvassed and voted for Douglas, who had a plurality in the county. In 1862 he was elected, as a pronounced Union Democrat, to the office of county clerk. In 1864 he canvassed and voted for Lincoln and was an uncompromising supporter of his administration until the last drum beat of the Civil war, when he again espoused the cause of Jeffersonian Dem- ocracy, against a Republican majority in the county of fifteen hundred, flushed with the victories which he had helped to win. Only two years later, in 1867, he was nominated by the Democracy for district attorney and was elected by a handsome majority. Twice re-elected by increased majorities, in the fall of 1874. three months before the expiration of his third term, he resigned the office to accept the more difficult service of standing between his county and its bondholders in the next assembly, to which he was nominated by his party and elected without a canvass. Being one of a large Democratic majority in that house, in a contest with Judge Archer, of San Jose, he was chosen for Speaker. Between him and all the members of that assembly, including Joseph McKenna, then the leader of the Republican minority, now a Justice of the United States supreme court, the courtesies of personal and official intercourse ripened into many life-long friendships. During the entire session no scene of dis- order lasted a minute and not a single successful appeal was taken from his parliamentary rulings; and, judging from the press comments of the times, without distinction of party, he not only accomplished the object of his election but more than justified his choice as Speaker.

At the close of the session with his legislative record he returned to Placerville, where on the following 4th of July he delivered the Centennial

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oration. The same year, while engaged in the practice of his profession, against his earnest protest, he was impressed into a nomination for con- gress against Hon. Frank Page and a standing Republican majority of more than five thousand in his district. After a formal canvass and a foregone defeat, he once more returned to his home and profession in Placerville. Two years later, in 1878, without solicitation or reference, he was appointed by his friend, Governor Irwin, to the responsible office of Supreme Court Reporter, and in the ensuing two years issued Volumes 52 and 53 in the series of California Reports. But when the Kearney constitution was adopted the reporter's salary was reduced from six to two thousand dollars and he had no further use for the office. He returned to the practice of law in his own city and county, both of which had voted against the Sand Lot craze.

But he was again drawn from his retirement when, in 1879, another disastrous sand-storm broke over his party and state. For him there was in the new constitution, with its portentous public and private consequences, the irony of fate. Going back to its origin in the assembly of which he was the Speaker, there is a passage of unwritten history, hitherto known to but few even of his personal friends. As explained by himself, the legislature at the last previous session had passed and submitted to the peo- ple of the state an act providing for a convention to revise the constitu- tion. From the returns of the general election, to which it was referred, it was found to have received only a majority of votes on that measure and not of all the votes cast at that election, as in his opinion required. His judgment was that of the assembly, a majority of which held, against the dissenting opinion of John R. McConnell, a very able but eccentric lawyer, who was chairman of the Judiciary Committee, that no call for a convention had been authorized. To insure this result the Speaker had exercised his privilege as an assemblyman. Later on in the session he was taken into the confidence of his friend McConnell, who complained that after putting him in a responsible position he had gone aside from his office and out of his way to beat a known hobby of a very devoted friend. He was also informed by the irrepressible advocate of a constitutional con- vention, that he was about to introduce his hobby again, and to have it beaten by the Speaker would break his heart. Thus assailed on his non- combative side, reserving to himself the right to vote against a measure that seemed to have but few supporters, he consented to keep out of its discussion. For this inconsiderate promise and the unexpected result, he has never forgiven himself: and for its ultimate consequences, his repentant friend went down with sorrow to his grave.

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A Volume of memoirs and genealogy of representative citizens of northern California, including biographies of many of those who have passed away, Part 11

Author: Standard Genealogical Publishing Company, Chicago, pub Publication date: 1901 Publisher: Chicago, Standard Genealogical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 902

Author: Standard Genealogical Publishing Company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago, Standard Genealogical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 902