USA > California > A history of the new California, its resources and people; Vol II > Part 45
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The educational advantages which Peter Belcher received were limited, for the family was large, the family finances were somewhat straitened,
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and at the age of seven years he had to begin earning his own living. When thirteen years of age he left home and went to work upon a farm in Orange county, New York, where he was employed until twenty years of age. He then came to California in 1859, locating first in Marin county, where he was engaged in burning lime for Adams, Blinn & Company. The follow- ing summer he went to Stanislaus and Calaveras counties, where he engaged in mining for three years, and later he followed the same pursuit in dif- ferent parts of the state until 1865. In that year he went to Stanislaus county and for three years conducted a mercantile establishment. In 1868 he became a resident of Stockton, California, and as a commission mer- chant was identified with the business interests of that county for about two years. During the period of his residence in Calaveras county he served as telegraph operator and also as postmaster and express agent at Copper- opolis.
In 1870 he came to Humboldt county, and after clerking for a year he purchased the store in which he had been employed, that of R. N. Williams & Company, and continued in the business until 1876. For the succeeding ten years he was manager of the hardware store of W. H. Johnson, and dur- ing the same period was agent for the Home Fire Insurance Company, of New York, being appointed agent in 1866 and acting in that capacity up to the present time. In July, 1886, he engaged in the abstracting business and in 1891 formed a partnership with A. T. Crane under the firm style of Belcher & Crane, and in January, 1900, this was incorporated under the name of the Belcher & Crane Company. Mr. Belcher was elected president of the company, but in June of the same year they sold out to the Redwood Land & Investment Company. The business has since been conducted un- der the old name with Mr. Belcher as general manager of the company. He is also the owner of the business conducted under the name of the Eureka Paving Company, of Eureka, manufacturers of bitumen pavements, concrete piers, foundations and sidewalks. This has become an important and profit- able industry, many extensive contracts in this line being awarded him.
In May, 1868, Mr. Belcher was united in marriage to Miss Ella Breck- enridge, a native of Newport, Kentucky, and a daughter of Robert Breck- enridge, a representative of an old Kentucky family. They have four sons and a daughter: George A., who is assistant cashier in the Bank of Eureka; Frank, who is bookkeeper in the Savings Bank of Humboldt county; Irwin, an abstractor with the Title, Insurance & Abstract Company of Los Angeles, California, this being the largest corporation of the kind in California; Lot- tie, wife of David Evans, a lumberman of Eureka; and Mertin.
Mr. Belcher exercises his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of the Republican party, is accounted a leader in its ranks in Hum- boldt county, and for sixteen years was chairman of the county central com- mittee of his party, and so ably did he manage its affairs that the party won many notable successes. His interest in politics is that of a public-spirited, progressive citizen, who realizes that there devolves upon each individual a responsibility in connection with good government, and he therefore always keeps informed concerning the issues of the day and never falters in his al-
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legiance to his honest convictions. He was a member of the city council and chairman of the school board. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias fraternity, and is a charter member of the Humboldt Club. In an analysis of his life record we see that he is a self-made man, deserving of the credit and praise which every self-made man merits. Not because he had more advantages at the outset of his career-for he began work as a farm hand at the early age of thirteen,-not because he had special school privileges, for his at- tendance at school was necessarily limited, but because he had the strength of character to plan his life work, and to persevere therein, has he steadily advanced to the goal of prosperity and made for himself an honorable and an honored name.
EDGAR B. WRIGHT.
Edgar B. Wright, county superintendent of schools of San Joaquin county, California, has been engaged in educational work since he was nine- teen years of age and is one of the thoroughgoing and progressive workers in his line.
Mr. Wright is a native of Wisconsin. He was born in Trempealeau county, June 19, 1865, son of Phineas and Mary (Carpenter) Wright, na- tives of New York. His father was a sawmill operator in the lumber woods of Wisconsin for a number of years, up to the time of his death, in 1875, after which the family came to California and located in Lodi, San Joaquin county.
Edgar B.'s education was begun in the public schools of his native county and continued in San Joaquin county, first in the public schools and later in San Joaquin Valley College at Lodi, where he graduated at the age of nineteen. After his graduation he was employed as teacher in the Lodi pub- lic schools, and for nine years, from 1890 to 1899, was principal of schools there. The last-named year he was elected county superintendent and in 1902 he was re-elected for another term of four years, his constituents thus showing their appreciation of his earnest and efficient labors for the advance- ment of educational interests in San Joaquin county.
Mr. Wright married, in 1887. Miss Fanny Smith, a native of San Joaquin county, and a daughter of Frank Smith, one of the pioneers of the countv. They have one daughter, Ethel.
The fraternal organizations with which Mr. Wright has identified him- self are the Masons, Elks and Knights of Pythias. He is, politically, a Re- publican, taking an enthusiastic interest in both local and state politics,
JAMES MILTON MAYFIELD.
James Milton Mayfield, who is now the owner of a fine ranch in Napa county, was in his youth a farm hand who had no special advantages in his early life, but who through strong purpose and unremitting diligence has worked his way steadily upward to a position of affluence. Mr. May- field is a native of Alabama, his birth having occurred in Tuscaloosa county on the 3d of July, 1833. His parents were Samuel and Eliza (Mills) May-
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field, both of whom were natives of Alabama. He acquired his early educa- tion in the common schools and was reared upon a farm at his birthplace, where he remained until the Ist of April, 1859. Determining to try his fortune in the west he then went to New Orleans, where he took passage on the steamer Empire City bound for Havana. After a short stay at the latter place he sailed for Aspinwall, now Colon, on the steamer Star of the West and crossed the Isthmus of Panama by rail. At the town of Pana- ma he boarded the steamer Golden Age bound for San Francisco and ar- rived at the Golden Gate on the 16th of May, 1859. He did not tarry long in that city, however, but came directly to Napa county, where he worked as a farm hand until the fall of that year. He then rented a tract of land from A. L. Boggs and began farming on his own account.
In 1861, in partnership with James Coleman, Mr. Mayfield leased a tract of land from the Coombs and the Clyman estates and was engaged in its cultivation for one year. In 1862 he began farming on a more exten- sive scale in connection with his wife's uncle, operating land in Cornerus creek. There he continued until 1865, when he disposed of his interests there, and in 1866 took up his abode in Napa City. At that time he pur- chased the farm which is now known as the Mayfield ranch. He also owns three miles south of this place at Oakville a splendid ranch property, and he is ranked with the leading representatives of agricultural interests in his county, now having extensive landed interests, his farms being improved with all modern equipments and yielding to the owner a splendid return for the care and cultivation he bestows upon them. In all of his work he has been practical and enterprising, and his efforts have been so directed that his labors have made him one of the successful men of his community.
On the 9th of November, 1862, Mr. Mayfield was joined in wedlock to Miss Rosalie Chapman, a daughter of Levi and Lavina L. Chapman, of New London county, Connecticut. Their marriage has been blessed with seven children: Thomas I., born June 17, 1864; Samuel G., born July 9, 1866; Edwin Milton, who was born June 27, 1868, and died when a month old; Leonidas Milton, born March 8, 1870; William E., born February 8, 1874; Lavina E., born April 1, 1876; and Annie Rosalie, who was born May 12, 1880, and is now the wife of A. Callen, a well known merchant of Napa.
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In citizenship Mr. Mayfield is progressive and public-spirited, and is especially interested in community affairs, putting forth every effort in his power to advance the welfare and progress of this portion of the state along lines of substantial growth and improvement. His fellow townsmen, recog- nizing his fitness for office, have manifested their confidence in him by elect- ing him assessor of Napa county, in which position he served during the years 1868-9. Greater official honors, however, were in store for him, for in 1877 he was chosen to represent his district in the state legislature for a term of two years. He has ever regarded a public office as a public trust and in the discharge of his duties has been most faithful, so that over the record of his official career as well as his business and private life there falls no shadow of wrong or suspicion of evil.
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HARTLAND LAW.
Among those who have attained distinctive prestige in the practice of medicine in the city of San Francisco, and whose success has come as the result of close application and hard and laborious work, stands Dr. Law, who is a man of scholarly attainments and who has made deep and careful research into the science to which he is now devoting his life. He is one of the prominent representatives of the Hahnemann or homeopathic school of medicine, whose methods and principles are becoming more highly appre- ciated and approved year after year.
Dr. Law is a native of England, his birth occurring in Parkgate Rother- ham, Yorkshire, on the 7th of July, 1858, his parents being Crossly and Rebecca Law, both now deceased. The son received his elementary educa- tion at Naperville, Illinois, this being supplemented by study in the Chicago University, and his medical education was received in the Hahnemann Medi- cal College, San Francisco, in which he graduated November 18, 1893. Thus he was prepared by a broad general knowledge for entrance into pro- fessional life. As the years have passed by an extensive practice has come to him, and he has gained an enviable record as one of the able and success- ful practitioners of medicine in San Francisco, but this has only been at- tained through persistent and unabating energy. Dr. Law established the Viavi system of treatment in the United States, and which has since been adopted in twenty-three other countries, which demonstrates its wonderful success. He is deeply interested in the affairs of the city which is his home, always advocating the measures which have advanced its welfare, and among others erected the Crossly office building. He is a 32d degree Mason, acting president of the Young Men's Christian Association, and lecturer on the history of Medicine at the Hahnemann Hospital College.
WILLIAM STURTEVANT HARLOW.
William Sturtevant Harlow, who is now engaged in real estate opera- tions and in the insurance business in Oakland, was born on Nantucket island off the coast of Massachusetts on the 2d of February, 1838. His father, James Harlow, was a native of New Hampshire and the family is of English lineage and was established in America at a very early period in the colonization of New England. The grandfather of our subject, re- siding in that section of the country in colonial days, became deeply inter- ested in the progress of events which led up to the Revolutionary war and when the colonists attempted to throw off the yoke of British oppression he joined the American army and fought for national independence. His son James Harlow was engaged in merchandising and contracting. He was one of the first representatives of the latter field of industry in San Fran- cisco, following the business here on a large scale in the '6os. He built the Howard Street Methodist church, of San Francisco, and many other important structures which were erected about that period. He served as coroner of Butte county. California, for one term, and there remained until 1862, when he went to the Fraser river district of British Columbia, joining
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in the rush to the new gold fields there. He had married Lucy Clark Sturte- vant, who was born at Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Her father and two brothers were ministers of the gospel. She is a descendant in the maternal line of the Clark who came from England on the Mayflower in 1620 and whose name is one of those cut on Plymouth Rock. The Sturtevant fam- ily is of English and German descent. James Harlow died in the year 1882. One son, Josiah Clark Harlow, is now an operator on the Oakland Tribune. While residing at Virginia City, Nevada, he represented his district in the state legislature for one term. He was state printer there for eight years and during the greater part of his life has been connected with the printing business. He is a prominent Mason and also a leading member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and has been sent as a delegate from his local lodge to the state and national bodies of these fraternities on several different occasions. The living daughter of the family is Mrs. Alice Stombs, the widow of W. H. Stombs, of Oakland.
William Sturtevant Harlow pursued his early education in the public schools of Troy, New York, until thirteen years of age, after which he entered the East Greenbush and Schodack Academy of Greenbush, New York, a very prominent educational institution at that time. He concluded his studies in 1852, in which year his parents sent for him and his brother to join them in San Francisco in February. 1853. This they did in that month, making the trip around Cape Horn. In 1857 Mr. Harlow went to the mines of Butte county and engaged in a search for the precious metal on the Placer river and ravine. At first Orville was the nearest postoffice and later an office was established at Ophir. During the time Mr. Harlow was engaged in mining there ex-Governor Perkins was working in a store in that locality. Mr. Harlow continued to follow mining until 1862, when he returned to San Francisco, where he did some journalistic work on the Alta and the Call. He was engaged in newspaper business during the greater part of the time until 1870, when in the month of March he came to Oak- land and accepted a position in connection with the Transcript, of which William Foote was editor. When Mr. Foote withdrew from his connection with that paper Mr. Harlow took editorial charge, continuing there until the 3Ist of December, 1871, when he became connected with the Oakland News. On the Ist of November, 1875, he entered upon official service un- der Sheriff Harry Morse and acted as under sheriff during the greater part of the time until the 5th of January, 1903. He was prompt, fearless and efficient in the discharge of his duties, and in 1884 he wrote, arranged and published a book entitled " Harlow's Duties of Sheriffs and Constables," which is now running in its second edition. It was published in 1895 and treats exhaustively and comprehensively of the duties of sheriffs. It is accepted as a text book by the attorneys and is the only volume of that char- acter that has been published in the state, if not west of the Mississippi. He has now prepared the manuscript for the third edition, which will probably be issued soon. It is a book of great value to sheriffs and constables and has become recognized as authority on the subject of which it treats.
During all of the time in which Mr. Harlow was connected with the
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sheriff's office he found some opportunity to devote to newspaper work and received some very favorable notices for short stories which appeared in the Oakland Tribune, and which were copied into other papers. Mr. Har- low has not only literary taste and ability, but also considerable knowledge of law. He studied the principles of jurisprudence and about 1883 was ad- mitted to practice by the superior court. Although he has never given his at- tention to the duties of that profession he has, nevertheless, maintained a close knowledge of the legal principles and practice through his official serv- ice. Since leaving the sheriff's office he has engaged in the real estate busi- ness, and in connection with ex-Sheriff Calvin B. White is now conducting a general real estate and insurance office. They have secured a good client- age, and the business which they do annually has reached a large figure.
In 1892 in Oakland Mr. Harlow was united in marriage to Miss Louisa C. Eames, who was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Her father is a farmer of Gernian descent. Both Mr. and Mrs. Harlow are well known in Oak- land and this portion of the state, and he has a particularly wide acquaintance because of the office which he so long held and also because of his connection with journalistic interests. He has ever been a most earnest and inflexible Republican and is accounted one of the leading representatives of his party in this locality. His fraternal affiliations are with the Masons and with the Elks.
HIRAM LAMBERT RICKS.
Throughout his entire life Hiram Lambert Ricks has been a resident of Eureka. His birth occurred here during the pioneer epoch in the city's history-on the 29th of July, 1859. The name Ricks has been closely, act- . ively and honorably associated with the annals of Humboldt county from an early day, and its representatives have aided in shaping the policy of this part of the state and in controlling many events which have had marked effect in producing the substantial development and progress of the locality.
Casper Stinemets Ricks, the father, was a native of Indiana and was of English lineage, his ancestors having come from the "merrie isle" in the seventeenth century. The family home was at that time established in North Carolina and later generations moved to Kentucky early in 1800. When quite young Casper S. Ricks was thrown upon his own resources, and the excellent success which he achieved in life was due entirely to his effective, earnest and honorable labor. He has scorned no employment that would yield him an honest living, and in his youth was employed in various ways. After a few years he was found running a flat boat on the Mississippi river between New Orleans and Cairo, Illinois. In 1849, soon after the discovery of gold in California, he came to the Pacific coast by way of the Isthmus of Panama. He realized that there would be good business opportunities in the far west, for the tide of emigration was flowing strongly and con- tinuously toward this state, and it was a self-evident fact that the settlers would need the supplies furnished in different mercantile establishments. Mr. Ricks, therefore, shipped a consignment of goods to California, and on reaching his destination disposed of these at a fair profit. Like the ma-
Adaline A M. Ricki
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jority of settlers here, he too engaged in mining, operating in the mines on Feather river. Shortly afterward, however, he came to Eureka and was one of the first settlers in the struggling little hamlet, and became one of the owners of the townsite. In fact, at one time he owned two-thirds in- terest in the townsite. Not long after reaching this place he was joined by his brother Thomas, and they formed a partnership to engage in the real estate business. As the district became more thickly populated and there was a greater demand for property the brothers realized handsomely from their investment, and they also conducted their business affairs so as to aid materially in the upbuilding and improvement of the city.
Casper S. Ricks served as deputy land recorder for many years and was also inspector of the port of Eureka. In 1856 he was elected by the Ameri- can party to represent his district in the state legislature and proved a very active member of the house in Sacramento, aiding in shaping the early policy of the state. He continued one of the foremost factors in the development of Eureka, and his intelligent and well directed efforts made him a leader in community affairs. He was president of the first board of town trustees of Eureka, noted quickly and with correctness the possibilities of the county, and did everything in his power to promote development along substan- tial lines that would result in benefit at the time and also prove of lasting good
He married Miss Adeline Amelia Fouts, who was of German lineage, her ancestors having settled in North Carolina early in the seventeenth cen- tury. While the efforts of Mr. Ricks were potent in public affairs, the in- fluence of his wife was none the less strongly felt in social cir- cles, and there has been perhaps no lady in all Eureka that has been so universally loved and respected. She was born near Jef- fersonville, Indiana, on the 16th of February, 1829, and in 1854 gave her hand in marriage to Mr. Ricks, who was led to make her acquaintance through the high words of praise bestowed upon her by a brother-in-law of Mr. Ricks. Their friendship deepened into love and resulted in mar- riage. Her first trip to California was made by way of the Nicaragua route in 1852, and later she came to this state by the Panama route. That she was a woman of marked ability and kindness is attested by all, and it is said that those who knew her the longest liked her the best. The special qualities which won the attention of all with whom she was associated were her many kind deeds and her brilliant intellect. As a neighbor and friend she was loved by all, for she had ready sympathy and tact combined with a kindliness and charitable spirit that caused her to think good rather than ill of everybody and to render ready assistance to all who needed her aid. She possessed a naturally strong mind and was a wide reader and deep thinker, being particularly well informed. Few people have a broader knowl- edge of the questions of the day on political subjects than had Mrs. Ricks, and it is said of her that any member of Congress could be mentioned and she would know his place and his record. In belief she was an advocate of the Democracy and could express her views clearly and advocate them with strong and incontrovertible argument.
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by President Harrison, and held that position for six years. Through many years he was one of the school trustees of the locality and did much for the advancement of educational interests in his community. No public trust reposed in him has ever been betrayed in the slightest degree and his public- spirited citizenship has been manifest in active support of every measure promulgated in the community that has for its object the material, intellectual or moral upbuilding of this part of the state.
EMIL POHLI.
In every community of any size there are men who, coming from the ranks of students, enter the professions and bring the astuteness of other callings to the work they afterward select as their field of usefulness. He who comes to the practice of medicine, or law, or even to the ministry after a previous training in some other strenuous field often finds that his prior experience has sharpened his faculties.
A case in point is seen in the achievements of Mr. Emil Pohli, one of the best known of the comparatively recent members of the San Francisco bar. Before entering upon the practice of his profession he had seen much of life as an instructor of others in the exact science of mathematics. and as a skillful stenographer accustomed to studying the actions as well as the words of men in all ranks and conditions of life. It is not remarkable, there- fore, that Mr. Pohli's work in the law is marked by strict attention to de- tails, by a systematic handling of cases, and by a careful analysis of human motives, as well as of the law and the evidence.
Mr. Pohli was born on November 12, 1862, in the town of Zuerich, Switzerland. He was primarily educated in the excellent public schools of the world's greatest "little republic." After his public school curriculum had been finished Mr. Pohli spent considerable useful labor as a student at the Red Cross Seminary at Zuerich. Coming to the United States, and seized with the ambition to train his mind still further, he devoted himself with assiduity to a course at the Northwestern College, at Naperville, Illinois.
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