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 51
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the confidence and esteem of all who have in any way whatever been asso- ciated with him.
Mr. Hellwig has been a reader all his life and has kept himself well posted on the general topics of the day. In Masonry he has for years taken a deep interest, has received the higher degrees of the order, including the thirty-second of the Scottish rite, and has been honored with high official position. He is a past master of the blue lodge and past high priest of the chapter. Politically he is a Democrat, but has never sought or held office, his own private business claiming his time and attention.
JAMES H. HENNESSEY.
James H. Hennessey is the proprietor of the Empire Livery & Feed Stable and is one of the popular residents of Nevada City, for his genial manner renders him a favorite with all classes. He is a native of the Emerald Isle, where his birth occurred on the 23d of May. 1834. He is descended from a family of wealth and education, its male representatives being prom- inent merchants of Dublin and owners of a line of vessels sailing between New York and the Irish capital. His parents were William and Mary ( Mar) Hennessey, the former a native of the city of Dublin and the latter of Queens county, Ireland. In their family were six children, our subject being the youngest and only son. His father died before his birth and the mother's deathi occurred two years later, so that James H. Hennessey was early left an orphan. Several of the children were brought to America in 1843 by a maternal uncle, and our subject spent his boyhood days in New York city.
During the greater part of his life he has been connected with the livery business, and is therefore an excellent judge of horses. He gives personal supervision to his stables, knows the condition of every animal to be found therein and looks after the welfare of each. He came to California in 1868, and for a brief period resided at Grass Valley, but soon afterward made a permanent location in Nevada City. His barns are located on Broad street. opposite the National Hotel, and there fashionable turnouts may be secured at reasonable rates. He is very accommodating and courteous and is always pleasant in manner, and has secured from the public a liberal patronage, which he well merits.
Mr. Hennessey gives his political support to the Democracy, and is unswerving in his advocacy of its principles. He is also an earnest supporter of Catholicism, and takes an active interest in every measure that is calculated to promote the best interests of his city and county. He is light-hearted. generous to a fault and gives freely and willingly to all in need of assistance. Perhaps he is sometimes imposed upon by reason of this quality in his nature. but he never errs on the other side by withholding his aid when it is needed. His many excellent characteristics have gained him a large circle of friends, and few men in the community are more widely known than James H. Hennessey.
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CHARLES LEWIS ADOLPH HEWEL.
The career of the subject of this sketch is an illustration of the declara- tion that faithfulness in a few things makes a man master over many and an exemplification of the value of character in the battle of life. Charles Lewis Adolph Hewel, one of the most prominent citizens of central Cali- fornia and one of the most public-spirited men of Modesto, Stanislaus county, was born in Hanover, Germany, May 9, 1835, a son of Ludwig and Con- radine ( Korosh ) Hewel. His father was an officer in the German army and his mother was a daughter of a Prussian officer who fell at the battle of Waterloo. His great-grandfather was an officer in the army of Frederick the Great, and through circumstances of which he had no control he was forced into a duel, as a result of which he was forced to leave Prussia and seek refuge in Hanover. From these facts, fragmentary as they are, it will be seen that Judge Hewel is descended in both the paternal and maternal lines from families in which military men were conspicuous. The Hewels were Lutherans and the Koroshes were Catholics. Ludwig Hewel was thrown from his horse and killed in the forty-fourth year of his age, in August, 1849. His wife, Conradine, died in her sixty-sixth year and was buried in Modesto, California, while her husband was buried in his native land. They had ten children, and of their four sons Judge Hewel is the oldest and the only survivor.
Judge Hewel was educated in his native city in Hanover and was four- teen years old when his father died. Not long after that event he went to' sea and during the succeeding three years he visited many parts of the world. In 18;1, when he was sixteen years old, he shipped at New York for Cali- fornia, and, making the passage around the Horn, landed at San Francisco July 5. 1852. From San Francisco he went direct to Mariposa and engaged in mining at Agua Fria and at other camps in the southern part of Mariposa county, where he remained for about three years. In 1855 he came to Stanislaus county and mined at French Bar on the Tuolumne river, and dur- ing the forty-five years that have elapsed since he has been a resident of the county except during eighteen months when he was in Shasta county.
Judge Hewel has been a life-long supporter of the principles of the Dem- ocratic party. In 1864 he was appointed deputy county clerk of Stanislaus county and virtually had charge of the office most of the time until 1866, when he was elected county clerk, in which capacity he served with much ability and to the entire satisfaction of the general public until 1868. He began the study of law in 1862, was admitted to the bar in 1864 and was soon after appointed court commissioner. After leaving the county clerk's office he gave his attention to the practice of law at Knight's Ferry, with Abraham Shell as a partner, and gained a large and lucrative patronage.
In 1872 he removed to Modesto, where in 1876 he formed a law partner- ship with W. E. Turner, which existed until 1889. when he was elected judge of the superior court and as such he served on the bench five years, with great distinction. He retired from legal practice because of an impairment
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of his sense of hearing, and in association with C. D. Lane became largely interested in quartz mming in Del Norte county, California, and in Arizona. Later he became a one-third owner of the Utica mine at Angel's Camp. Cala- veras county. From time to time he became the owner of tracts of land which aggregate about six thousand acres, and he is a stockholder and director of the three banks of Modesto,-the Modesto Bank, the National Bank of Modesto and the Union Savings Bank ; and he is the president of the Stanis- laus Oil Company, which, operating in the hills fourteen miles south of Huron, in Fresno county, has drilled to a depth of fourteen hundred feet and has found abundant promise of success.
Judge Hewel is one of the most eminent Freemasons of the state of California. He was initiated as an Entered Apprentice, passed the Fellow Craft degree and was raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason in 1874. and quickly became conversant with the work and teachings of the order, filled all the offices in the blue lodge and soon took the degrees of capitular Masonry and was exalted to the sublime degree of Royal Arch Mason and filled the several offices of his chapter. He took the degrees of chivalric Masonry and was constituted. created and dubbed a Knight Templar in 1876. After having acquired all the degrees of the York rite and all the degrees of the Scottish rite up to and including the thirty-second, when he was hailed a Sub- lime Prince of the Royal Secret, ineffable degrees of the Scottish rite, he has been greeted as a member of the Ancient Arabic order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He has the honor of being a past grand high priest of the order in the state of California and is held in high esteem by Masons every- where on the coast.
In 1872 Judge Hewel married Miss Maria Fisher, a daughter of Jacob Fisher. of Schoharie county. New York, who has borne him eight children, four of whom are living: Blanche. Arabella V .. Catherine S. and Clarence. The family has a delightful home at Modesto, the upper portion of its resi- dence being the house in which Mr. and Mrs. Hewel passed the earlier years of their married life and in which their children were born. When a more spacious residence became necessary Judge Hewel, wishing to retain the old house on account of its associations, elevated it and built under it the more modern portion of his present residence.
T. J. TIRPIE.
T. J. Tirpie, who occupies the position of public administrator of Nevada City, has spent his entire life in California and is justly proud of the fact that he is a native son of the Golden state and has witnessed much of its advancement and progress. He was born in Nevada City, on the Ist of May, 1869. his parents being Frank and Bridget ( McManus) Tirpie, both of whom were natives of the Emerald Isle. His father was a bookbinder by trade and and on bidding adieu to the land of his birth he crossed the briny deep to New York city, where he arrived in 1852. Here he worked at his trade for three years, after which he came to California, where he became identified with min-
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ing interests. He has since been connected with the search of the metals that nature has so bountifully supplied to California and which have proved one of her chief resources of wealth.
T. J. Tirpie is the youngest of four children and at the early age of four- teen years he started out in life on his own account. He began working in the mines and for many years was connected with his father in that way. Early in 1897 he met with an accident which forced him to remain idle for several months, and when he was again able to resume work he turned his attention to the stone-cutter's trade, in which line he is now taking and executing con- tracts. The work done under his supervision is always of a high grade, giving satisfaction to those who engage his services. He is prompt and reliable and his business methods will bear the closest investigation.
In 1898 Mr. Tirpie was elected to the office of public administrator of Nevada City for a four-years term and is therefore the present incumbent. He is associated with the Miners' Union, was one of the promoters of the organization and is now filling the office of financial secretary. He also holds membership in the Ancient Order of United Workmen. His home relations are very pleasant. On the 16th of August, 1896, he was happily married to Miss Sallie McCauley, of Pennsylvania, a lady of culture and refinement sustaining a high reputation in educational circles. For eleven years she engaged in teaching in the public schools of Nevada City, and in 1894 was the nominee on the Democratic ticket for county superintendent of public instruction. Although the county was very strongly Republican, she was defeated by a majority of only seventy-two, a fact which indicates her popu- larity. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Tirpie is now graced by the presence of two interesting little children,-Adrian T. and William G. Their friends are numbered among the best people of the community and their home is noted for its hospitality.
CHARLES MYRON BURLESON.
There are many men in California who have come into the state during comparatively recent years and have been a factor in its development since the war period who are especially deserving of a place in a work of this char- acter, and one of the best known of that class is the leading citizen of Mokel- umne Hill, Calaveras county, whose name is above.
Charles Myron Burleson was born in lowa, April 17. 1853. and came of Scotch-Irish ancestry. Shadrach Burleson, his great-grandfather, from Scot- land, was an early settler at Troy, New York, and Mr. Burleson's grand- father in the paternal line was a pioneer in Iowa, then a part of the territory of Wisconsin, in 1827, and had all the experiences of primitive civilization in that part of the country. William Burleson, the father of Charles Myron Burle- son, was born in the state of New York, and was a year old when his father went west. He was educated in the public schools near his prairie home and married Miss Sarah Ann Mallard, also a native of the state of New York, who bore him four children, who with their parents are all living. Mr. Bur-
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leson is now seventy-four years old, and his wife is in her sixty-eighth year. The subject of this sketch is the only member of the family not a resident of Jackson county, Iowa.
Mr. Burleson was educated in the public schools in Iowa and at the Iwa State University, at which he was graduated in the class of 1869. as a civil engineer. In 1871 he came to California and lived for a time at Oakland, but for the past twenty years has been a resident of Mokelumne Hill, where he has busied himself with mining and as a surveyor and mining engineer. and has long held the office of deputy United States surveyor. He has been the super- intendent of a number of important mines, among them the Concentrator, Empire and Black Wonder mines, and the success of all these properties has been enhanced by the able manner in which he has handled them.
In 1883 Mr. Burleson married Miss Stella M. Wells, who was born at West Point, Calaveras county, a daughter of that prominent pioneer, the late William Wells, and they have three children, named Stella, Norma and Bruce. Mr. Burleson has been a Republican from his youth and he has been electe l to the office of supervisor, which he has so well filled that he has no opponent to a re-election. He was received as an Entered Apprentice, passed the Fellow Craft degree and was raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason in 1874, took the degrees of capitular Masonry, and was exalted to the august degree of Royal Arch Mason, and was constituted, dubbed and created a Knight Templar in 1876, and he has received also the degrees of cryptic Masonry and passed the circle of Royal and Select Masters. He has been secretary of his blue lodge for two decades and he and his wife are members of the Orders of the Eastern Star and Daughters of Rebekah. for Mr. Burleson is prominent also as an Odd Fellow. Mrs. Burleson and their children are communicants of the Protestant Episcopal church, and the family enjoys a wide acquaintance and its members are highly respected wher- ever they are known.
CHARLES ALLEN CURTIS.
One of the representative men of Calaveras county, California, residing at Murphy's, is the subject of this sketch. He came to the state in 1849 and ha's never regretted the venture.
Mr. Curtis was born in Richmond, Maine, on the 15th of April, 1825. His ancestry was English, his great-grandfather Curtis emigrating from that country to the United States and settling in Maine at a very early day. His son Charles carried on the name and the same religious belief in the same state, living to the age of eighty-four years and dying a highly respected and lamented citizen. William Curtis, the father of our subject, was born in Maine in 1798 and lived there to manhood, marrying Mary Kelley, of the same place. They lived to the average age noted by the Psalmist, having been the parents of a large number of children, three of whom survive; but Mr. Curtis, our subject, is the only resident of California. They were of the Baptist faith. good and worthy people who left the world better than they found it.
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Charles Aburtis .
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Charles A. Curtis was educated in his native state and grew there to man- hood. About that time the breezes from the western country began to bear tales of the golden country on the Pacific, and with the thousands of others from the east he turned his face in that direction. Under the capable seaman- ship of Captain Woodbury of the stanch bark, Lanark, he engaged passage around the Horn and arrived safe and sound. after a voyage of five months.
Mr. Curtis made his first attempt at mining at Hawkins Bar, on the Tuol- umne river, but was quite discouraged for a time. He was taken sick, prob- ably from the new conditions of life, and retired to Stockton for the winter. The following April he arrived in Murphy's and worked with success on the land immediately back of where the Michler Hotel now stands, and in differ- ent portions of the town. The diggings were rich and he did well, he and four companions picking up twenty ounces a day. He found several seven and eight dollar nuggets and in one panful of dirt had twenty-four dollars.
In 1852 Mr. Curtis became one of the organizers of the Union Water Company, continuing in charge of it for seven years, selling water to the miners. His natural ability was soon recognized and he was made the assessor and tax collector for the town, continuing in that office for four years. Good roads became almost necessities, and he was the man who, as roadmaster, for twelve years struggled with that undertaking. It required energy and capital, in those days. He was one of those who made the road to the "Big Trees," and was one of the four men who cut down the only one of those monarchs of the forest that has ever fallen. The cut was made eight feet from the ground and after the thick bark had been removed, it remained thirty-two feet in diameter.
Since that time Mr. Curtis has engaged in farming, owning several tracts of land. He built his home in Murphy's in 1854, when lumber was one hun- dred dollars per thousand feet. Now beautiful shade trees surround his house and it seems an ideal place in which to pass many happy years. Like many another eastern lad, Mr. Curtis had left a promised bride behind him, and when fortune had favored him he returned and in Boston, Massachusetts, was mar- ried Miss Catherine Caswell, a native of that city. The return trip was made by the isthmus. The family of Mr. Curtis consisted of five children :--- Charles William and Melvin, ranchmen: Mary Jenett, the wife of Edson Thorp, deceased at the age of forty years; Richard, deceased ; and Henry, who met death by accident.
In 1879 Mr. and Mrs. Curtis celebrated the first quarter-century of their married life with a silver wedding. In a cozy corner of their parlor may be seen a large collection of rich designs of the white metal. being tokens from their many friends. Their lives must be spared only three more years till the half-century mark has been reached, when they will have the pleasure of cele brating their golden wedding. Both Mr. and Mrs. Curtis are respected and beloved in the community where they are best known. Mrs. Curtis is a con- sistent member of the Congregational church, a good and devout woman, while both represent well the best citizens of Calaveras county. 26
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L. J. FONTENROSE.
The original family of Fontanarosa-for such was the spelling in Italy- has been changed to the present form of Fontenrose since representatives of the name established a home in America. For many generations the ancestors resided in sunny Italy, and there John Fontenrose, the father of our subject, was born in the province of Genoa. His wife, Maria Fontenrose, was also a native of that land, and one child was born to them in Italy, Jane, who is now the wife of Angelo Quirolo, a resident of Sutter Creek. In the year 1850 the father came to California, by way of the isthmus route, and turned his attention to mining in Tuolumne and Calaveras counties. At that time Amador county was not yet organized. He met with success in his business ventures, and returning to the east he visited his family, in 1852, after which he again came to the Pacific slope. Once more he went to the Atlantic coast, joining his family in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1857 they went to Philadel- phia and thence to New York, where they took passage on a steamer bound for San Francisco. In 1859 they located at Tunnel Hill, near Jackson, where the father engaged in mining and in conducting a boarding-house. making his home there until 1874. when he was called to his final rest, in his fifty- fifth year. During the Civil war he loyally defended the cause of the Union, and was a faithful adherent to republican institutions and principles. He left a family of four sons and four daughters. His wife survived him until May 1, 1898. and passed away in her seventieth year.
L. J. Fontenrose, of this review, was their third child and was born in the city of Philadelphia, on the 27th of September. 1850. Brought to Cali- fornia in early boyhood, he obtained his education in the public schools of Sut- ter Creek, and entered upon his business career as a clerk in a general mer- cantile establishment. Subsequently he was employed as an engineer in the mines, attending the cages. In 1879 he was appointed deputy county clerk. recorder and auditor, and after serving in that capacity for a year was elected to that position. On the expiration of his term he was again made the nom- inee of his party, but was defeated by Thomas Conlon. When that term had expired the two gentlemen became nominees of their respective parties, and Mr. Fontenrose won the election. He held the office for nine years, winning the position over Mr. Conlon at two different times. His service was most commendable, being ever characterized by fidelity and loyalty. During the time he did some insurance business, and upon his retirement from office became one of the leading representatives of the insurance interests in Ama- dor county, doing business for twenty large companies at the present time. He is an excellent penman, a man of marked executive and business ability. accommodating and reliable, and these qualities have gained for him marked success. In the year 1888-9 he traveled as a special insurance agent. He now does a large volume of business annually and is regarded as one of the most prominent in his line in this section of the state.
In 1881 Mr. Fontenrose was united in marriage to Miss Mary E. Meehan. h native of Jackson and a daughter of James Mechan, a prominent and
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esteemed early settler of the town. Mr. and Mrs. Fontenrose now have two sons, J. L. and John M., hoth attending school. In 1893 Mr. Fontenrose transferred considerable insurance business to his wife, and they are now part; ners in the enterprise. He is also a dealer in abstracts and does a large amount of business in that line. They have a very pleasant home on Pitt street, and the household is noted for its hospitality, which is enjoyed by their many friends. Mr. Fontenrose throughout the greater part of his life has been familiar with the enterprising and progressive spirit of the west, and his own efforts have been characterized by unremitting diligence and energy. He has been true to every trust reposed in him, and he lends his aid and co-opera- tion to all movements intended to advance the material, social, intellectual and moral welfare of the community.
DENNIS RYAN.
Dennis Ryan, a prominent old settler of California, residing at Sonora, Tuolumne county, has now retired from active business life. He came to this state in 1854 and is a native of county Tipperary, Ireland, his birth having occurred there on the 28th of September, 1832. His parents were Dennis and Mary ( Bradshaw ) Ryan, also natives of the Emerald Isle. The father was a business man of ability and hoth he and his wife attained the age of sixty-eight years. They were devout members of the Catholic church. They became the parents of eleven children, of whom only two are now liv- ing: John, a resident of New Jersey, and Dennis, of this review.
The subject of this review was educated in the county of his nativity. and in 1844, when but twelve years of age, he crossed the Atlantic to Que- bec, Canada, as a passenger on a sailing vessel. The voyage lasted two months, during which they encountered severe storms and heavy seas, the great waves dashing over the decks, the vessel seeming in imminent peril. Mr. Ryan remained in Canada for two years, working as a farm boy at eight dollars per month. In 1846 he went to Providence, Rhode Island, where he tended bar for which he received one dollar per day. Later he was employed in other and more remunerative business lines and little by little his capital was increased as the years passed.
On the 26th of June, 1852, Mr. Ryan was united in marriage to Miss Susan Flood, a native of Ireland, and in 1854 they sailed together for Cali- fornia, hoping to benefit their financial condition in the golden west. They brought with them their two little children: Dennis, who afterward died, at the age of nine years. and John T., who is now residing with his father in Sonora. They came direct to this place, and Mr. Ryan engaged in min- ing on the site of the town. He worked very hard and was successful in his ventures at first. On one occasion he was fortunate enough to pick up a nugget worth four hundred dollars, and in connection with others he on that day took out nineteen ounces more of gold. That was their best day's work. He continued working in the different mining camps in Tuolumne county, but as the years passed this industry became less profitable and in
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