USA > California > A history of the new California, its resources and people; Vol II > Part 40
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Desirous of engaging in business on his own account Mr. Jones then rented land of Mr. Warden in 1860-a tract of two hundred acres-hut on the 10th of July of that year there came a heavy rain, beating down all the vegetation and so crushing the crops in the fields that it appeared as though logs had been rolled over them and the yield would not cover the price of harvesting, so that Mr. Jones lost all that he had saved, and again he had to begin work by the day or month. Many a man of less resolute spirit would have been utterly disheartened, but he summoned his courage to meet the situation and made a new start.
He engaged in building stone walls and bridges, for which Napa county is famous, and has constructed at least five miles of stone wall in the Foss valley. It was in this way that he again made his start and every wall is a monument to his strong determination, resolute spirit and unfaltering in- dustry. He adopted the trade of sheep shearing, which he did under con- tract, making arrangements with the owners of large sheep ranches to cut the wool for the market .. He employed a corps of men and has been at their head for thirty-five years. He has tried many times to retire from this business, but the leading ranchmen of the county have been so persis- tent in their demands upon him that he has never been enabled to abandon the business and still follows it, finding it a good source of profit. Super- visor Raney, the wealthiest rancher and sheep-raiser in Napa county, located . at Capell, is a warm personal friend of Mr. Jones.
A ranch of two hundred and forty acres is the visible evidence of the life of activity and energy which Mr. Jones has led. It is mainly devoted to the raising of sweet corn and watermelons, and he also raises all kinds of deciduous fruits and nuts, while upon his place he also has some cattle and sheep, and in each branch of his business he is meeting with desirable suc- cess. Such a life record should serve as a source of encouragement to others,
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proving that success comes as the result of earnest and persistent labor. He has never married and his brother Andrew Jackson Jones resides with him on his ranch, having come to California a number of years ago in very poor health, from which he has fully recovered under the genial influences of the sunny clime of the Golden state.
HAMILTON A. BAUER.
Hamilton A. Bauer, who has the distinction of being the youngest member of the state senate of California, is a young and rising lawyer of San Francisco, and his ability and learning and his great popularity with all the citizens have brought him into prominence within four years of his admission to the bar. He has spent all his life in this city, where he first manifested his talents for the professional career which he now adorns, and he was also fortunate in having a most successful and politically and socially prominent father as his example.
Mr. Bauer was born in San Francisco, November 25, 1877, a son of Emile and Annie (Brady) Bauer, the former a native of Alsace, then a part of France but now of the German empire, and the latter a native of Boston, Massachusetts. His father came to America at the age of three years, his parents settling in St. Louis. In 1852, in company with his brother Jacob, he came to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama. Shortly after arriving in San Francisco he and Robert White established a news agency in this city, the firm name being White and Bauer. The agency was later absorbed by the American News Company of New York and redesignated the San Francisco News Company. Mr. Emile Bauer has been identified with this concern from its establishment to the present, and has been its manager for the past fifteen years. From almost the time of his coming to California he has been active in Republican politics, and in 1877 was secre- tary of the county committee. His family consists of four boys and two girls.
Mr. H. A. Bauer attended the public schools of San Francisco, and after finishing at the high school took a preparatory course at Manzanita Hall at Palo Alto. He then entered Stanford University, graduating with the class of 1899 and with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was ad- mitted to the bar of San Francisco in 1900, and at once began the practice which he has continued so successfully to the present time. In 1901 he was elected a member of the general assembly from the fortieth district of San Francisco, and in 1903 he was chosen a member of the state senate, with his term expiring in 1907. He was chairman of the public health and quaran- tine committee and a member of other committees, and takes a prominent part in the deliberations of the legislature notwithstanding that he is the youngest member of the body. He has followed the footsteps of his father in his political proclivities, and the Republicans of San Francisco recognize in both of them loyal and energetic workers for party growth and influence.
Mr. Baner affiliates with Oriental Lodge, F. & A. M., and with the Foresters of America, and is also a member of the Greek letter society Phi Kappa Psi.
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W. J. DOGGETT, JR.
W. J. Doggett, Jr., partner with C. P. McLeod in the Sonoma Land Company at Santa Rosa, is one of the native sons of California, and since entering upon independent activity has enjoyed a satisfactory amount of worldly prosperity and is already numbered among the public-spirited and enterprising element to whom the future business, financial and industrial progress of this county and section of the state will in large measure be due.
Mr. Doggett was born in Solano county, California, August 11, 1875. His father, W. J. Doggett, Sr., was born in Arkansas in 1843, and is now a resident of Santa Rosa, but his mother is deceased. Mr. Doggett, Jr., was educated in the public schools of Solano county, and has the distinction of being a graduate of the two most prominent business colleges of Santa Rosa. He has for several years been engaged in the real estate and general brok- erage business, and in June, 1903, formed the connection mentioned above. He affiliates with the Fraternal Order of Eagles, the Modern Woodmen and the Woodmen of the World. Before he embarked in his present business he was engaged in the livery and the grocery business.
Mr. Doggett was married October 26, 1896, to Miss Vida F. McLeod, and they have three children, the eldest, Averil, aged five, and Muriel is three years old.
HUDSON B. GILLIS.
Hudson B. Gillis, lawyer, financier and business man of Yreka, Siskiyou county, stands at the head of his profession in this part of California, and as a member of the bar for over thirty years he occupies an enviable position of prominence among the lawyers of the Pacific coast. He has devoted his best years and energies to this life work, and although he has been repeatedly offered high political preferment and has stumped the county in behalf of other candidates, his ambition has always been to be a lawyer and has never led him to seek the honors of office. He has applied himself to all depart- ments of his profession, and has the reputation of being the best posted attor- ney of Siskiyou county, in which he has tried more cases and won more cases than any other lawyer since the state was adinitted into the Union. Per- haps his Scotch characteristics as well as the substantial qualities inherited from a noble father and an even-tempered mother have contributed much to his success, although his own energy and progressiveness and hardy western spirit are such as never to fail him in the race for higher things. Few men of northern California are identified to a greater degree than Mr. Gillis with its commercial and financial interests, and in the past thirty or more years he has taken a hand in many of the important enterprises which have been at the foundation of his county's material development and upbuilding. Out- side of his profession and business he is also a man of many attainments on other fields. He is one of the influential Democrats of his county and section of the state, and during the early part of his career held several offices re- quiring his professional ability. He and his talented wife are also social leaders of Yreka and Siskiyou county, and their beautiful home is one of the
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centers of culture and intellectual progress for hosts of friends and acquaint- ances.
Mr. Gillis was born in Ridgway, Elk county, Pennsylvania, November 8. 1842, being the second son of Ridgway B. and Margaret Gillis. His grandfather, James L. Gillis, was a colonel in the war of 1812, and was a judge in Pennsylvania and a prominent and gifted man both socially and professionally, being on intimate terms with many of the leading men of the nation. "He married a daughter of the celebrated Ridgway family and founded the town of Ridgway, Pennsylvania, which he named for her.
An uncle of Mr. H. B. Gillis is Admiral James Henry Gillis, a retired admiral of the United States navy and who devoted his life to naval service. He took a prominent part during the Civil war, and had been retired on ac- count of age before the outbreak of the Spanish war. He received the thanks of three nations for gallant conduct. The Brazilian government expressed to liim its gratitude for rescuing, at the imminent risk of his own life, sailors from a wreck after two other attempts at rescue had failed. Peru also ten- dered thanks for gallantry in the rescue of shipwrecked sailors. Admiral Gillis has a son, Irvin Gillis, who has already distinguished himself in the American navy and has attained the rank of lieutenant. It was he who, during the last war, jumped into the sea and unscrewed the head of a White- head torpedo which was wandering about, and in a moment more would have struck the vessel on which he was and perhaps destroyed it. He has recently been commissioned to go to Japan for the purpose of taking observations during the Russo-Japanese war.
Ridgway B. Gillis, the father of Mr. H. B. Gillis, moved from Pennsyl- vania to the middle west, and during the pioneer days of western travel was a wagon master. He was in the employ of Russell, Majors and Waddle, who had the contract to furnish the army with provisions. He took two different wagon trains of provisions from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Salt Lake City, and was given the sobriquet of "Captain " for commanding these trains. Early in 1850 he came to California, where he followed mining for seven years. In Iowa he was a stock dealer, farmer and merchant, living part of the time in Mt. Pleasant and part in Marshall. His death occurred in 1876. His wife, Margaret (McBain) Gillis, was a native of Scotland. Her father was in the East India service of the British army, and she was taken to the East Indies when a sinall girl. From there she came to Philadelphia, where she completed her education and where she also met Mr. R. B. Gillis. She was of real Highland stock, and was distinctly connected with the Stuart family. His father's family was also of Scotch descent, going back as far as the Glencoe massacre. His mother spent most of her life in Philadelphia and in Iowa, and also paid a couple of visits to her son in California. She died in 1902, in Iowa, and was buried in Marshall.
Hudson B. Gillis spent his boyhood days in Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska. In June, 1869, he graduated from the Iowa Wesleyan University at Mt. Pleasant. During his college career he maintained himself by his own ex- ertions, and by alternate work for a livelihood and by hard study practiced the method whichi so many determined young men have found to lead to suc-
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cess. During the last two years of his college work he devoted himself principally to the study of law, having chosen that profession for his voca- tion. In the fall of 1869 he came to California with the intention of making the Pacific coast his permanent home. He continued his law studies for some time in the office of George Cadwallader, in Sacramento, and then came to Yreka. Here he entered the office of Judge E. Steele, and by teaching school part of the time for his support he finally perfected himself for the extensive practice of his profession. He was admitted to the bar of Siskiyou county in 1871, and was not long in gaining one of the most lucrative prac- tices in the county. Public confidence and its patronage came to him and remained with him, so that he has long been at the head of the bar of Siskiyou county.
Mr. Gillis has from the first taken an active part in politics as a Demo- crat, his services being in constant demand. Of recent years he has refused nominations for such high offices as congressman, state senator and public judge, but in the early years of his residence in Yreka he was a successful candidate for several offices. He was elected district attorney in 1875, re- maining in that position four terms, for about eight years. He was one of the Siskiyou county commissioners appointed, in 1876, to wind up the affairs of Klamath county, dividing the money and obligations between Humboldt and Siskiyou counties. He was a member of the school board for eight years and chairman part of the time, and was also a member of the high school board for two ternis.
Many business and financial interests have received Mr. Gillis' attention during his residence in Yreka. He has been vice president of the Siskiyou County Bank for the last ten years. He is vice president and one of the organizers of the Denny Bar Company, which is incorporated and has a paid-up capital of two hundred thousand dollars and conducts six commer- cial houses-at Etna, Fort Jones, Callahans, Cazelle, Cecilville and Green- view. He has been one of the directors and the attorney for the Yreka Railroad since its organization. He is a member of the firm of Harmon & Gillis, which conducts the largest livery stable of Siskiyou county, located at Yreka. He has also some mining and farming interests in the county. For twelve years he was engaged in the sawmill and lumber business, and for a year conducted the largest mill in the interior part of the state, at Sis- son, under the name of the Sisson Mill and Lumber Company, which was established in 1887, and the average daily cut was eighty thousand feet of lumber. Mr. Gillis disposed of his interests in this concern several years ago.
Mr. Gillis is an honored member of Howard Lodge No. 96, F. & A. M., in which he has held the chair of worshipful master for three years. He is also a Knight Templar, and is now grand captain general. He is past com- mander of Mt. Shasta Commandery, and has filled all the stations in the grand commandery up to grand captain general. He also commanded the Twelfth division of the parade at the triennial conclave held at San Fran- cisco September, 1904.
In the fall of 1871 Mr. Gillis married Miss Anna M. Reynolds, a native of Ohio and a daughter of Isaac and Maria E. Reynolds. She comes of
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Revolutionary stock and of English descent. Her father was a prominent Methodist minister of Ohio, Virginia, Iowa and California. Two boys are the living children of Mr. and Mrs. Gillis, and they lost three children. Claude Earl is in the junior class, and Kenneth Claire is in the sophomore class of the University of California Claude has made the football team of the varsity, and Kenneth played on the freshman football team and is a member of the university baseball team. They prepared for college at the Belmont high school, both being graduates of that institution, Claude being at one time captain of both the football and baseball teams, and Kenneth holding the highest military rank of the school when he graduated.
Mr. and Mrs. Gillis have had a most happy married life of over thirty years, and have made themselves very influential in all social circles. Mrs. Gillis is a lady of high attainments in literature, and she took a Chautauqua class through the regular and post-graduate courses. She was a school teacher before her marriage. They have probably the most commodious house in the county, it having been planned to suit their own tastes, and they have sometimes entertained as many as one hundred persons at one time.
ROMULO MELITON FRANCISCO SOTO.
Romulo Meliton Francisco Soto has been a prominent and well known lawyer in San Francisco for a number of years, and has been counsel in many important cases of litigation. California has been his home from birth, and most of his education and all his active efforts have been carried out in this field. He has won the respect and confidence of associates and fellow citi- zens by his ability and integrity, and is in the midst of a career which promises yet more for the future than has been accomplished in the past.
Romulo Soto was born in Monterey county, California, in what is known as the "Los Carneros," April 1, 1855. His father, Jose Manuel Soto, was born in Peru, ran away from San Carlos College in that country when he was seventeen years old, and came to California in 1849, and is still living. Jose Soto married Maria Perez, a native of California, as were her father and mother.
Romulo's early education was gained at home, and was entirely in the Spanish language. His English training was obtained at Santa Clara Col- lege, which he entered September 5. 1868, and from which he was graduated June 5. 1876, with the degree of A. B., although in the meantime he had been absent from his studies two semesters. From Santa Clara he entered the law department of Harvard University on September 25, 1876, and was gradu- ated as a Bachelor of Laws on June 24, 1878. On the following October 18th he became a student in the law office of Winans, Belknap and Godoy at San Francisco. Joseph W. Winans was the polished orator of the last constitutional convention of California in 1878, and Jose Godoy is now con- nected with the Mexican legation at Washington. In the offices of this firm Mr. Soto remained until July 19, 1879, which was the date of his admission to practice by the supreme court. He engaged in private practice on Decem- ber 5. 1879, at Salinas, California, and was district attorney of Monterey
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county in 1885-6. In 1887 he opened an office in San Francisco in partner- ship with James Herrmann, but in 1890 this relationship was discontinued, and since then Mr. Soto has practiced alone. From October, 1893, to August, 1903, he was engaged in some very important legal business affecting a large number of California people. He and George H. Maxwell, of the National Irrigation Association, represented the taxpayers of the districts of Alta, Brown's Valley, Central, Tipton. Jamacha, Escondido and Poso, in litigation involving the validity of the organization of these irrigation districts and the bonds issued by them under the Wright law. It was a bitter fight on both sides, but Mr. Soto finally abandoned it when the United States supreme court rendered an adverse decision in a similar case in the Tulare districts, and in which he was also one of the counsel.
Mr. Soto was married October 22, 1879, to Miss Rosalinda Susan Duffy, whose father was a prominent tanner of Boston, and was a veteran of the Civil war. Mr. and Mrs. Soto have no children living. In politics he is a Republican, but gives only a good citizen's attention to such matters, as he is thoroughly devoted to his profession.
SEELY FREDERICK LONG, M. D.
Dr. Seely Frederick Long, who since 1881 has engaged in the prac- tice of medicine in San Francisco and is the author of many valuable arti- cles on surgery, was born in New York county in the province of New Brunswick, February 19, 1855, his parents being Charles A. and Johanna A. (Hammond) Long. In the paternal line he is of Holland-Dutch lineage and the family was established in the state of New York at an early pericd in its colonial history. Representatives of the name served in the Revolu- tionary war, and soon after the close of hostilities members of the family sailed front New York up the Bay of Fundy and thence up the St. John river to a point in New Brunswick above Fredericton, settling there in a fertile valley through which flows the stream known as Long's creek. Mrs. Long was of English and Irish parentage and her people were early settlers of New Brunswick. She was also related to the Slocums, a prominent old American family of New York and Ohio.
Dr. Long was one of a family of seven sons and four daughters, and he pursued his early education in the schools of New Brunswick, continu- ing his studies until he reached the age of twenty-two years, when he left his native country for California, arriving in that state in 1877. He estab- lished his home in Eureka, Humboldt county, and there entered upon the study of medicine with Dr. S. B. Foster, one of the leading physicians of Humboldt county and a graduate of Columbia College of New York, as his preceptor. Dr. Foster had settled in Eureka about 1875, and under his direction Dr. Long continued his reading until he entered the medical depart- ment of the University of California. Subsequently he matriculated in the University of the City of New York and completed a course of study there by graduation with the class of 1881. In the same year he returned to San Francisco, where he entered upon the practice of his profession, in which
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he continued to the present time, and a liberal patronage has been accorded him. He has been an earnest and close student of his profession, keeping in touch with the advanced thought and progress of the times. In 1897 he established the Buena Vista Sanatorium, a modern general hospital and training school for nurses, and the conduct of this he proposes to make his life work. It is splendidly equipped for the care of the sick and has already gained an excellent patronage, which has made it a well known medical in- stitution of San Francisco. During his twenty years of active practice Dr. Long has written many valuable essays on surgery which have been pub- lished in the medical journals of the country. He practices along advanced scientific lines and his work has been attended with splendid results.
In 1882 was celebrated the marriage of Dr. Long and Miss S. Ella LaGrange, a native of Iowa and a daughter of Lafayette and Matilda (Wa- terhouse) LaGrange, who were prominent residents of Dubuque, numbered among the early pioneer settlers of Iowa. Dr. and Mrs. Long have three sons : Seely F., Jr., who is a graduate of the California School of Mechan- ical Arts, is now a student in the University of California, where he is pre- paring for the practice of medicine and surgery ; Herbert E., the second son, is a student in the Lowell high school of San Francisco; and Melville H. is pursuing his education as a pupil in the Lowell high school.
Dr. Long is identified with a number of fraternal societies, holding membership with the Masons and Odd Fellows, also the Knights of Pyth- ias. He was formerly a member of the San Francisco board of health and is an ex-surgeon general, having served under General Markham as a mem- ber of the National Guard of California. He belongs to both the county and state medical societies and through the interchange of thought adds to his own knowledge and enables others to profit by his own experience. His devotion to his profession and its responsible duties has been most marked, and in a calling where advancement depends upon individual merit he has attained high honors and large successes.
CLYDE P. McLEOD.
Clyde P. McLeod, senior member of the Sonoma Land Company at Santa Rosa, is one of the wide-awake and progressive young business men of this section of the state, and his life of little more than thirty years has been marked with unusual success, and shows a record of constant progress from its beginning. The Sonoma Land Company, which he and W. J. Dog- gett, Jr., organized in June, 1903, does a general real estate, land, loan and insurance business, and already a number of important deals have been trans- acted through its offices.
Mr. McLeod was born in Brockton, Massachusetts, September 9, 1873, and is a son of G. A. and Margaret (Sears) McLeod, who are both living in Solano county, where his father is a hardware merchant. Mr. McLeod was brought to California at the age of four years, and was educated in the public schools of Sonoma county and in the Pacific Methodist College at Santa Rosa, where he was graduated in 1888. He at first learned the black-
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smith's trade, but after following it for several years entered the employ of the Pacific Bank in San Francisco. On leaving that institution he embarked in the real estate business, and has followed it up to the present time, hav- ing offices in both San Francisco and Santa Rosa.
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