USA > California > A history of the new California, its resources and people; Vol II > Part 52
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In 1853 Mr. Younger returned with his bride to California and this time crossed the plains with an ox team. He brought with him five hundred head of cattle and thirty horses for the purpose of stocking his California ranch and also thirty men to assist him in its operation. On reaching his destination he at once became actively engaged in farming and stock-rais- ing and in 1859 gave his attention especially to the breeding and raising of thoroughbred horses, cattle and sheep. This line of business activity en- grossed his attention up to the time of his demise. He was earnest and per- sistent in his labor, capable in his management and discriminating in his judgments, and as the result of these commendable characteristics he won a very desirable measure of success.
To Mr. and Mrs. Younger were born six children: Edward, Alice, John, Harry, Augusta, and Rosalie. At the time of the father's death the son Edward assumed the management of the home farm and has continued in the raising of fine stock, making a specialty of shorthorn cattle and road- ster horses.
Colonel Younger's patriotic citizenship and his deep interest in public affairs well fit him for the position of a leader, and again and again he was called upon to serve in a public capacity that indicates the confidence and trust reposed in him by his fellow townsmen. In 1842 he was called upon to represent his district in the lower house of the state legislature of Mis- souri, and he was commissioned a colonel of Missouri regiment under the administration of Governor Boggs. For eight years he was a member of
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the California state board of agriculture and was long recognized as an act- ive and influential factor in Democratic circles in California, serving fre- quently as a delegate to the county and state conventions. He became a member of the New Constitution party in 1876 and one of its recognized leaders. In 1856 he was one of the founders of the Santa Clara County Ag- ricultural Society, became its president and served almost continuously on the board of directors up to the time of his demise.
He passed away April 11, 1890, at the advanced age of eighty-one years. He was a man of fine personal appearance, tall and erect, with a military bearing. He became one of the best known men of California, hon- ored and respected by all. While he commanded the confidence and respect of all with whom he was associated in Santa Clara county, where he was best known, he was given that warm personal regard and friendship which only come through close personal relations and a congeniality of tempera- ment. All who knew him had the highest admiration for his good qualities of heart and mind, and he left behind him the record of a highly honorable and useful career.
SIDNEY JOHN PEARD.
Sidney John Peard, county recorder of Nevada county, California, was born in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, April 14, 1856, a son of John and Sarah (Smith) Peard, both natives of England. Emigrating to America the father became a miner of Pennsylvania, and in 1856 emigrated westward, becoming a resident of Nevada City. For many years he was engaged in mining. In the early days he was the owner of the Pennsylvania mine, at Nevada City, now known as the Oustomah quartz mine, which has produced and is still producing heavily. He was for many years foreman of the Mountaineer mine and for seven years was foreman of the Oakland quicksilver mine, of Sonoma county. He was one of the first settlers at the gravel mines known as Cement Hills, and in his earlier years was a very active factor in the de- velopment of the rich mineral resources of this part of the state. He is now living a retired life in Nevada City, at the advanced age of eighty- one years, but his wife passed away in 1890. In the family were two daugh- ters: Sarah Odgers, the wife of Harry Odgers, a miner of Nevada City, and Mary, the wife of Otto Pelke, a cabinet-maker of Chicago, Illinois.
Sidney J. Peard, the only son, was but fourteen months old when brought by his parents to Nevada City, and has therefore been a witness of the greater part of the development of this portion of California. He en- tered the public schools at the usual age and was a high school student until he entered upon his business career. Putting aside his text books he went to Marysville, California, where he learned the trade of a machinist and engineer, and subsequently located in San Francisco, where he spent fourteen years as chief engineer at the San Francisco Wool Scouring House, at Fifth and Bluxom streets. On the expiration of that period he returned to Nevada City, where, in 1897, he established a retail liquor house, con- ducting the business with success for six years, when he was elected to the office of county recorder, in which capacity he is now serving.
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Mr. Peard has always been a Democrat in his political affiliation and one of the active workers of the party in its local ranks. In 1900 he was elected city trustee for a term of two years and was appointed city clerk. holding the office from 1900 until 1904 inclusive. In 1902 he was re-elected trustee, his term expiring in May, 1904. In 1902 he was elected county recorder for a term of four years and in the discharge of his official duties he is prompt and public-spirited.
On the 23d of August, 1903, Mr. Peard was united in marriage to Miss Maggie Watson, the wedding being celebrated in Nevada City. She was born in Nevada county, a daughter of Thomas J. Watson, who re- sides in North Bloomfield, California. He is a miner and one of the old Californians who took an active part in public affairs in pioneer days. He represented an old Michigan family, of Scotch lineage, and he served his country as a soldier of the Civil war, valiantly defending the cause of the Union. Mr. Peard is a member of the Improved Order of Red Men, the Knights of Pythias fraternity, the Foresters of America and the Sons of St. George. Having spent almost his entire life in this state, he is well known in Nevada county, in fraternal and political circles, and has consid- erable local influence.
G. R. GEORGESON.
The history of mankind is replete with illustrations of the fact that it is only under the pressure of adversity and the stimulus of opposition and competition that the best and strongest in men is brought out and developed. Perhaps the history of no people so forcibly impresses one with this truth as the annals of our own republic. If anything can inspire the youth of our country to persistent, honest and laudable endeavor it should be the life record of such men as he of whom we write. The really deep and great thinkers of the world recognize that there is no element so detrimental to a young man at the outset of his career as an inheritance. It seems to take from him ambition, all desire for activity and therefore the possibility of all great accomplishment. But the man who is forced to meet life's conditions and shape them to yield to him a living and who must rise by his own efforts is he who comands respect and accomplishes that which pushes forward the wheels of universal progress. Such a one has been Mr. Georgeson, now a leading representative of the real estate and insurance business in Eureka.
He was born on the 29th of November, 1865, on the Shetland islands north of Scotland and is the third son of John and Catherine (Watt) Georgeson, who were also natives of Scotland and represented old families of that country. When a young man the father followed the sea and later engaged in operating in the Balarat mines in Australia, but subsequently he returned to Scotland, and at this writing is engaged in merchandising in that country although now seventy-two years of age. In his family were twelve children, seven sons and five daughters.
George Robert Georgeson was educated at the Happy Hansel public school of Walls, Scotland, and at sixteen years of age came to America, making his way direct to Humboldt county, California, where for a number
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of years he was associated with different leading mercantile enterprises as an employe, thus continuing until 1892. In that year he was married and also started upon an independent business career, being engaged in real estate operations and also became agent for various insurance companies. In 1893 he was appointed agent for Wells Fargo & Company and in 1896 was ap- pointed agent for the Pacific Coast Steamship Company, and discharges the duties of this position in conjunction with his real estate business. In 1903 he built the first four-story building in Humboldt county, located at the corner of Fourth and E streets, and known as the Georgeson building. It is the finest building in the county and is a monument to the enterprise, labor, ambition and commendable effort of Mr. Georgeson. He has been largely interested in various important land transactions and is now an ex- tensive owner of timber lands. His real estate operations now represent large sums of money annually, and while he has prospered in his under- taking he has at the same time so directed his labors as a real estate agent as to make his work of direct benefit in the substantial upbuilding of his por- tion of the state.
In 1892 occurred the marriage of Mr. Georgeson and Miss Alice W. Randall, a daughter of A. W. Randall, who is one of the pioneers of Hum- boldt county and a veteran of the Mexican war. They have two sons and two daughters: Lloyd W .; Vira; Gael R., deceased; and Clair Jean. In 1893 Mr. Georgeson purchased one of the finest residences in Eureka and has taken a just pride in laying out and beautifying the grounds, and to-day his is one of the lovely homes of the city. In matters pertaining to Eureka's development his interest has been of a most helpful character, and he ev- .operates in every measure or movement that tends to advance the welfare of the city. He is a member of the chamber of commerce and one of its trustees, is also one of the trustees of the city library, and is acting on the building committee for the new Carnegie library, which is being erected here. He belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Mount Zion Encamp- ment. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party and he mani- fests a true citizen's interest in the political conditions of the country as affecting the state and national welfare, but has had no aspirations for office himself. Coming to America a youth of but sixteen years with no capital, he has made the best possible use of his time and opportunities, and his life record proves conclusively that with reasonable amount of mental and physical power success is bound eventually to crown the labors of those who have the ambition to put forth their best efforts and the will and manliness to persevere therein.
GEORGE W. FENWICK.
The rapid development of all material resources during the closing years of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century has brought business enterprises up from the day of small things to gigantic proportions, where millions of dollars take the place of hundreds and where men are required to handle fortunes as coolly and carefully and as success-
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fully as their grandfathers handled limited capital. . All the history of the world shows that to grapple with new conditions, to fill breaches in all great crises men have been developed and have stood ready to assume new and great responsibilities which have been discharged well and profitably. Many youths now taking their first lessons in practical business will work up gradually from one responsibility to a higher one and then to still higher ones, as has Mr. Fenwick, and will be as he has been, the right man for the right place when in the march of advancement the place is ready and they are needed for it. Mr. Fenwick to-day is one of the foremost and dis- tinguished representatives of commercial interests in Humboldt county and central California and stands at the head of a leading productive industry that has been of marked value in promoting the general prosperity and in enhancing the welfare of Eureka and the outlying districts.
Mr. Fenwick is a native of New Brunswick, his birth having occurred in Kings county in that province in 1848. The public school system of Kings county afforded him his early educational privileges, and he later attended the University of New Brunswick, in which he was graduated with the class of 1869, the degree of Bachelor of Arts being then conferred upon him. He entered upon his business career in the capacity of a teacher and was identified with public education in New Brunswick until 1883, when he made his way westward to Montana. There he engaged in lumber- ing with A. B. Hammond, operating extensive lumber interests, in fact, the largest in the western states. He was so connected until 1898, when the partners disposed of the business to the late Marcus Daly, of the Ana- conda Copper Mining Company, of Butte, Montana. Two years later Mr. Fenwick came to Eureka to assume the duties of manager of the Vance Redwood Lumber Company, a corporation organized through the efforts of Mr. A. B. Hammond, for the purchase of the interests of the John Vance Mill and Lumber Company. The company is capitalized under the laws of the state of New Jersey for two million dollars. Mr. Hammond is presi- dent, and in addition to being manager Mr. Fenwick is also treasurer. The Eureka & Klamath River Railroad is owned by the Vance Redwood Lum- ber Company, in connection with which it operates its own line of steamers on the coast and ferry boat on Humboldt Bay. This is one of the largest institutions of its kind in central California, with a mill capacity of one hundred million feet of lumber per year. At present three complete logging camps are in operation, aggregating an output of seventy-five million feet of logs annually, which are taken from timber lands owned by the company. and shipped to their Samoa mill, where they are manufactured into the various redwood products and shipped to all parts of the world. The Samoa plant is located on the peninsula of Samoa, with a water front of one and a quarter miles, while the company has docks, warehouses and general shipping facilities ; and in addition to the sawmill, operate a complete planing mill plant, large sash and door factory, shingle mill and dry kilns. In fact this is one of the most complete business interests in all its departments that have been developed in California. The output has reached mammoth pro- portions, the trade extending to many parts of the world, and it is a marked
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local benefit because of the large number of workmen employed, whereby vast sums of money are annually put into circulation in central California. In 1873 was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Fenwick and Miss Mary Hammond, a daughter of A. B. Hammond, Sr., of New Brunswick, and a sis- ter of A. B. Hammond, who is the president of the Vance Redwood Lumber Company. Since becoming a naturalized American citizen Mr. Fenwick has given his political support to the Republican party. Prominent among the business men of Eureka, he has for four years been closely identified with the history of this city as a representative of one of its most important indus- tries. He is a man of keen discrimination and sound judgment and his executive ability and excellent management have brought to the concern with which he is connected a large degree of success. The safe, conservative policy which he inaugurated commends itself to the judgment of all and has secured to the company a patronage which makes the volume of trade trans- acted of great importance and magnitude. The prosperity of the company is certainly due in a large measure to its treasurer and manager-the gentle- man whose name initiates this review.
FREEMAN GATES.
Professor Freeman Gates, a representative of an old New England family of English descent, himself a native and one of several generations resident in the state of Vermont, came out to California, by the Isthmus route, in 1852, and though spending some time in mining in the northern counties of the state he was best known and his fame rests most securely upon his long and able identification with the educational work of Santa Clara county and San Jose city. He established the first public school in San Jose, was also the first county superintendent of schools in Santa Clara county, and afterward planned a higher course of study and built the San Jose Institute, which during the remainder of his life was the leading educational institu- tion of central California, and was attended by pupils from all parts of the state. An indefatigable worker, a man of strong mentality, of scholarly attainments and executive ability, his efforts in behalf of the educational development of the state were of the most beneficial character, but his life work was cut short by a comparatively early death, in 1872, when he was only forty years of age. Later, when the suggestion was made that a San Jose public school should be named in honor of this pioneer educator, there appeared in the local press a very appreciative and reminiscent sketch of his life and work in the city, and from that article the following extracts are herewith given :
"Another story of early days in San Jose has been added to the multi- tude already clustering around her history. It is one of those dreary little sketches that the old pioneers reminiscently repeat to their children, of life when this city was in its infancy. In those days San Jose was an embryo city, rather inchoate and undefined. What are now our broad streets were then but cow trails leading away to the scattered adobe dwellings, through fields where the mustard spread its twenty-foot depth of golden glory.
FREEMAN GATES
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"Through these luxuriant yellow fields two lads, James and Waldo Lowe (the former afterward state senator), were once sent to find the little school building that was to be the scene of their educational start in life. San Jose was school-poor then, and welcomed warmly the arrival of young Freeman Gates, who came well equipped for his work and anxious to impart what he could of his knowledge to the children of this undeveloped city. He had come on what Ernest Rhys would call 'an errand of miracle,' and he began bravely to accomplish the work before him.
"At present our thoroughly efficient schools are sending forth dozens of graduates possessed of the most satisfactory equipment that a superior educational system affords. It is interesting to look back to this small school situated in the midst of acres of brilliant mustard and see in its work the beginning of our present school department of which we are so proud.
"To this man's school two youths were going. Where two paths come together in the mustard field they met two other boys who were on the same mission-two French lads who could hardly make themselves under- stood in English. To those of us who have listened to the eloquence and noted the comprehensive command of our language that D. M. Delmas possesses it seems incredible that he could have been one of those little un-Americanized French boys. The four children continued along the patlı until they came to a small building in a great yard, now the corner of Santa Clara and Third streets.
"Here other boys and girls had gathered, and the work of Freeman Gates had begun, in the performance of which he left an indelible imprint upon the city's history or progression. Looking back through the haze of many years, James Lowe recalls his instructor, 'a man kind and firm, gentle yet vigorous, involuntarily drawing us to him by the undefinable spell of his manly character.' He was one of the strong forces in the life of the com- munity, beloved not alone by his pupils, but respected and admired by their parents, in whose homes he was a frequent and ever-welcome visitor.
"He sought to make the school life of his charges a period so pleasant that the remembrance of those days would be one of the brightest spots in their later recollections. He sought to combine opposing elements in their life, work judiciously mixed with pleasure; an unconscious appreciation of the value of a broad understanding of things, theory tempered by applica- tion ; and the significance of the material and the figurative. Little did his pupils realize that he was so effectually molding their characters, but their later work caused them to look back, to measure his endeavors and estimate the effects. To his students Freeman Gates was a powerful figure, and through them he has undoubtedly imprinted at least a moiety of his vitality upon the succeeding generations of San Jose's citizens."
Freeman Gates married, in 1857, Adeline M. Rhodes, a cousin of Judge A. L. Rhodes, a former well known lawyer of San Jose and for fourteen years chief justice of the state. Professor Gates and wife had four sons and two daughters, of whom three sons are the only ones living at the pres- ent time.
These three boys-Carroll, Howard and Egbert-are justly proud of
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being sons of a man whose connection with the early history of California and San Jose in particular gives his name an established place in the annals of the city and the state.
HAROLD F. CHARTERS.
Harold F. Charters, cashier of the First National Bank of Eureka, Cali- fornia, is one of the enterprising young business men of Humboldt county and throughout his business career has been identified with banking interests. He was born in Sussex, Kings county, New Brunswick, in 1877, and is a son of Edmond A. Charters. He pursued his education in the public schools and at the age of fourteen years entered the Bank of Nova Scotia, at Sus -. sex, which is one of the oldest banks in the province. In that institution he gained his first knowledge of the banking business and laid the foundation for his advancement in financial circles, by reason of close application, un- wearied industry and unfaltering fidelity to duty. He was first employed as junior clerk and later was promoted to teller, while subsequently his capa- bility caused him to be stationed at the following different branches of the bank, in charge of important interests: St. John, New Brunswick; King- ston, Jamaica; Boston, Massachusetts; and Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Mr. Charters left the last-named place in October, 1901, and came to California, in order to accept the position of cashier and manager of the First National Bank of Eureka, in which capacity he has since served in a most capable and acceptable manner. It was on the 4th of November, of that year, that the bank was opened for business with the following officers : A. B. Hammond, president ; G. W. Fenwick, vice president ; H. F. Charters, cashier ; and Guy L. Roberts, assistant cashier. The institution, under the management of Mr. Charters, has had a most prosperous career and has come to be recognized as one of the strong financial concerns of this part of the state. It is the United States government depositary, is capitalized for one hundred thousand dollars, its surplus and profits amount to $8,487.97, and it has in circulation seventy-five thousand dollars. The success is largely attributable to the efforts of Mr. Charters, who is well versed in the banking business.
DAVID EVANS.
David Evans is numbered among the honored dead of Eureka. He was numbered among the leading men of central California, whose life record forms an integral part of the history of this state, and in his death Eureka and Humboldt county lost one of its most prominent business men and loyal citizens. As the day, with its morning of hope and promise, its noontide of activity, its evening of completed and successful efforts, ending in the grateful rest and quiet of the night, so was the life of this honored man. His career was a long, busy and useful one, marked by the utmost fidelity to the duties of public and private life, and crowned with honors conferred upon him in recognition of superior merit. His name is insepa- rably interwoven with the annals of the west, with its best development and
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its stable progress, and his memory is cherished as that of one who made the world better for his having lived.
Mr. Evans was born in Carmarthanshire, Wales, in 1838, and was a representative of an old Welsh family. He followed the sea for a number of years, and in 1856 came to California, then a young man of eighteen years, ambitious, energetic and enterprising. He made his way to this state in a sailing vessel and settled in Humboldt county. He first worked in a sawmill in Eureka as a common laborer, but his fidelity and close appli- cation won him ready recognition in successive promotions and after several years he was made foreman of one of the mills. Thus he gradually im- proved his position and, husbanding his resources, he became part owner in a small niill, but that venture did not prove a financial success. Later he became associated with Joseph Russ and C. H. King in the lumbering busi- ness and they organized the California Redwood Company. Mr. Evans went to Scotland and interested Scotch capital in the enterprise to the extent of six million dollars and the company was known as the Scotch Syndicate. They began operations on a larger scale than any other company upon the Pacific coast, buying thousands of acres of timber land, operating sawmills, establishing their own shipping facilities and, in fact, making arrangements to carry on the business in every department independent of other industrial concerns, and when the company at last passed out of existence by the dissolution of the partnerships it had made its stockholders handsome returns upon their investment, while the promoters had become rich men.
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