USA > California > A history of the new California, its resources and people; Vol II > Part 56
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FRED MANNING MILLER.
Fred Manning Miller, city engineer of Grass Valley, and son of one of the oldest and best known citizens of the town, has himself made a fine record in business affairs and in his chosen profession, and has been con- nected with the installation and operation of some of the most important public utilities of Grass Valley.
He was born in this city March 2, 1873, and was educated in the public schools, graduating from the high school in the class of 1889, and then en- tered the University of California, where he was graduated in 1894. In July, 1894, he returned to Grass Valley and designed the local sewer system. From 1896 to 1898 he was engaged in placing the water works in Nevada City, and from 1899 to 1900 had charge of the sewer system of Nevada City. He was consulting engineer for the Grass Valley system, and since that time has been doing work for the local mines, being also an able mining en- gineer. In 1894 he was elected to the office of county surveyor of Nevada county for a term of four years, his period of office expiring while he was in the army. In January, 1903, he was appointed city engineer, and is still serving in that office. He has acted as consulting engineer for the Mojave Gold Mining Company in Arizona, but with offices in Philadelphia ; and also for the Empire Mines and Investment Company.
Mr. Miller joined Company H, Second Regiment of the California National Guard, in 1895, and when it was reorganized in 1897 as Company I he was elected second lieutenant. At the commencement of the Spanish war the entire company volunteered for service and was attached to the Eighth California Volunteers, Mr. Miller being retained as second lieu- tenant. The company was in Camp Barrett at Oakland, and afterward at Vancouver Barracks in Washington, where it was mustered out, January 31, 1899. On his return he was elected captain of Company I, of the
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Second Regiment, which was reorganized in August, 1899, and he served one term of two years.
Mr. Miller affiliates with the Benevolent and. Protective Order of Elks, the Masons and the Native Sons of the Golden West, and is a member of the local volunteer fire department. He was married in Nevada City, in July, 1000, to Miss Gertrude L. Adair, a native of Nevada City and a daughter of Isaac Adair, deceased. They have one son, Manning Adair Miller.
FREDERICK RUSS.
Frederick Russ, of San Francisco, is a prominent member of the fam- ily perhaps best known in the annals of San Francisco. There are few liv- ing to-day who sought home and fortune in this state during the golden days of forty-eight or forty-nine, which are the years known to the world at large as defining the early limits of California history, but it is the dis- tinction of the Russ family that their settlement dates from the early part of the year 1847, almost a year before the discovery of gold in the Sacra- mento valley set a monumental epoch in the world's history and in a few months transformed the quiet Spanish village of San Francisco into a city of tents and then into a substantial city of many thousand souls. But a distinction greater than priority of settlement belongs to the men of the Russ name, and their prominence in connection with the history of the city and state is the result of great public works undertaken by them, large business enterprises successfully managed, and personal careers of several men who will be known and honored as long as California has annals and annalists.
Imanuel Christian Charles Russ was born March 10, 1795, in the duchy of Saxe-Meiningen-Hildburghausen, Germany. He learned the jew- eler, or gold and silversmith's trade, becoming very proficient, especially in the making of filigree work. He married in 1823, and in 1833 came to the United States. He was in the jewelry business in New York city for some years, having a profitable trade, as things went in those days, and earning a good living. A wholesale robbery, by which his store was looted of nearly all its valuable stock, almost discouraged him and turned his career in the direction where the greatest results of his endeavor were to be apparent.
During the Mexican war he joined what has been in California history the famous Stevenson regiment, and, with his three sons, who had like- wise joined the same regiment, and with his wife and other children, em- barked on the sailing vessel Loo Choo, which bore them round the Horn to San Francisco, where they made landing March 26, 1847. The place which a year later was to be a scene of bustling confusion and business activity was then composed mostly of Mexican and Spanish hidalgos, who followed the easy manners of old Castilian days, and at that time the Old Mission was the principal center of the settlement.
Mr. Russ bought from the alcalde, or the chief magistrate of the town, three fifty-vara lots of land; part of which is now covered by the Russ
Henry BRuls.
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House. He also opened a jewelry and assay office, and in the early days of mining he was an important authority for the miners, who brought their nuggets or prospects to him. But his rare foresight and prudence as an investor suggested that the best thing to do after the gold emigration set in was to buy land, and this policy made him a fortune. In 1850 he bought nineteen fifty-vara lots, and during the remainder of his lifetime his real estate interests in the city occupied most of his time and attention.
Mr. Russ loved music with true Teutonic fondness, and the Russ Gar- dens which he established in the first years of San Francisco were famed through all the west and gave him a popularity that never died during the life of anyone who ever partook of his hospitality. He built the Pavilion, one hundred feet in diameter, which was used as a dancing hall, and for which he procured the best musicians obtainable, and many were the joyous hours passed there by men who still live in the city. In many other ways was he identified with the growing and thriving city, and his faith was unwavering that it would some day rank among the great cities of the world. The famous Russ House, which was built in 1862, has been a lasting memorial to. his life and deeds, and it seems that a kind providence cares for this structure, for during the more than forty years of its exist- ence it has escaped all the conflagrations that have devastated the surround- ing districts.
Mr. Russ died June 4, 1857, honored and beloved among the thou- sands with whom his career had been associated and who had received ben- efit from his worthy deeds. He was a great reader, and in religion and poli- tics was liberal in thought and generous of pocket book. His children were as follows: Adolphus G., deceased, who was in Company C of Stevenson's regiment, with his father; Charles E., deceased, of Company F of the same regiment ; Caroline, deceased; Augustus P., deceased, of Company F; Miss Elizabeth, deceased; Eliza, deceased; Frederick; Henry B., mentioned also below; Mrs. Emeline Gutzkow, wife of the famous author; and Louisa, Mrs. F. O. Wagner.
Mr. Frederick Russ was born at Bergen Hill, New Jersey, in 1837, so that he was ten years old when he landed in San Francisco. He received his education in the local schools and then at Pacific College, after which he began to travel. He has been around the world about a dozen times, and was in India and Asia before any railroads were there. He also trav- eled twelve thousand miles through Russia, and he is a local authority on the physical features and the resources and people of that great country. He has not been a mere globe trotter, for he has traveled with definite objects in view, and his broad general culture and devotion to art and literature have found ample scope for expansion in his career. He is one of the managers of the Russ estate, and is now retired and confines his business interests almost entirely to this property. His wife is Mrs. Marie (Cole) Russ, and they have two boys, Fred G. and Ralph A. They have one of the most beautiful homes in California, situated at Berkeley, the residence being sur- rounded by large, well kept grounds, and with a flora of plants and flowers hardly to be surpassed in the state.
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Mr. Henry B. Russ, another son of the California pioneer and a brother of Frederick, is also one of the prominent men of San Francisco. He was reared and educated in this city, and has also traveled extensively, but outside of his real estate interests he has entered into no business enter- prise. He is especially well known for his connection with the famous Olympic Club, being its treasurer and having been one of its most active members for many years. In politics he is a Republican, but really inde- pendent as concerns local affairs. He was elected supervisor for the tenth district in 1881, and gave a capable administration of his office, and both he and his brother have always been dependable citizens who might always be relied upon for co-operation and assistance in every public enterprise, thus following in the footsteps of their revered father.
Mr. Henry B. Russ has been married twice. His first wife was Jose- phine Hammersmith, and their three children were: Florence, wife of John L. Hoffman; Alice Mary, wife of George Hounch; and Henry S. His present wife was Annie Stevens, daughter of F. C. Stevens, and their three children are E. F., Linda B. and Inyo A.
WILLIAM FRANK ALEXANDER.
William Frank Alexander was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on the 10th of December, 1853. His father, M. C. Alexander, is a native of North Caro- lina, and throughout his entire business career he followed the occupation of farming. He removed from his native state to Tennessee, and was there married to Miss Loretta Wallace, whose birth occurred in Tennessee. About the year 1871 they came to California, and are now making their home in Napa, the father having reached the age of eighty-three years, while his wife is eighty-four years of age.
William F. Alexander spent his early boyhood days under the parental roof near Nashville, Tennessee, and in that locality acquired his early educa- tion as a pupil in what was known as the Split Tree School. Better educa- tional facilities were later afforded him, and he was graduated from Illinois College at Jacksonville, Illinois, in November, 1869. Soon afterward Mr. Alexander started out upon an independent business career and went to Mis- souri, where he became engaged in the cattle industry. During the period of the Civil war he had largely spent his time in Texas. In 1870 he camne to California, making his way to Napa county, and the following year was joined by his parents. In this state Mr. Alexander turned his attention to farming, and also engaged in teaming for a year. He was the first man to introduce a cooking house in the field in connection with threshing opera- tions in Napa county. For three years he engaged in teaming and farming, and then became general manager for the famous Napa Soda Springs, act- ing in that capacity for five years, from 1881 to 1886. He then resumed farming, and was engaged in threshing the grain for nearly all the agricul- turists of Napa county, doing an extensive business in that direction. His attention is now devoted to agricultural pursuits with excellent results.
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Mr. Alexander is the father of ten children, seven of whom are still liv- ing, four by his first wife and six by his present (second) wife.
In his fraternal relations Mr. Alexander is an Odd Fellow, belonging to the lodge, encampment and Patriarchs Militant. He is likewise connected with the Knights of Pythias fraternity and with the Order of Druids. His political allegiance is given to the Democracy. He has recently been elected supervisor on the Democratic ticket. He is still farming but sold his own farm and built a charming home in the heart of Napa City, where he and his family live. All that he possesses has been acquired through his own energies and labors, for he came to Napa county in limited financial circum- stances, and has gradually worked his way upward.
CHRISTOPHER J. MILLER.
Christopher J. Miller, a prominent business man of Grass Valley and chairman of the board of supervisors of Nevada county, was born, reared and has gained a notable degree of success in this county, and along with his individual preferment and benefit has come great advancement in the welfare and material upbuilding of his community. Public utilities have found in him an especially progressive agent, and his work in this direction is at the present time one of the principal factors in making Nevada county of high repute in public improvements.
Mr. Miller was born in Grass Valley, California, February 9, 1862. His father, James Miller, was born in Massachusetts, of German stock, and came to California in 1860, via Cape Horn. He was by occupation a stationary engineer and miner, and followed those pursuits in Grass Valley, but about 1865 left this place and went to Idaho, where he died in 1869. He was married while still a resident of the east to Miss Catherine Fitz- gerald, a native of Ireland, whence she came to America in girlhood. She had three sisters, two of whom died in Massachusetts, and one is living with her at the present time.
Mr. C. J. Miller was educated in the public schools of Grass Valley, and after graduating from high school in 1877 took a four years' appren- ticeship in the machine shops. He is an expert mechanical engineer, and was engaged along various lines of that occupation for some years. In 1899 he was appointed deputy county assessor of Nevada county under H. C. Schroeder. In 1900 he was appointed superintendent of the new twelve-mile sewer system of Grass Valley, and continued as the efficient director of the affairs of that important work until the following November. His election at that time to the office of county supervisor, from the second district, necessitated his resignation from the superintendency, and he has since devoted his entire attention to county affairs. He was elected chair- man of the board in January, 1902, and still holds that position. One of the most important services that he has performed in this office has been to procure the purchase of a rock crusher, in 1902, this machine being used to make material for the construction of macadam roads. The good roads movement has found a very ardent advocate, yet eminently practical withal,
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in Mr. Miller, and under his direction a few miles of high-grade pike have already been built, with such manifest benefit to the county that Nevada county can in the course of a few years boast of roads the equal of any in the west. Mr. Miller has devised the entire system of manufacturing the material, and has reduced the cost to sixty-five cents per ton. The mine . aumps supply the material in the rough, and the various mine owners have given the privilege of using all the rock about the mines and are also assist- ing heartily in the work. In March, 1901, Mr. Miller became a partner in a furniture and undertaking business with A. L. Gill, the firm being the Gill-Miller Company, Incorporated.
Mr. Miller has taken an active part in local Democratic politics since becoming a voter, and is nearly always a delegate to the county conventions, although he has no time for state convention work. He served for three years in Company H of the National Guard of California, under command of Captain P. T. Riley. He is a member of Quartz Parlor, N. S. G. W., of Court Pride, F. O. A., and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
Mr. Miller was married in Nevada City in July, 1884, to Miss Mollie F. McCarthy, who was born in Nevada county and was a daughter of the late Dan McCarthy, one of the prominent early pioneers of the county. He was in the hotel business during most of his career here. He was of Irish descent.
BISHOP WILLIAM I. KIP.
Bishop William Ingraham Kip, much of whose distinguished and no- ble career was spent as bishop of the Episcopal church in California, was the first one of that high official position in the church to be sent out to the diocese of California, and his labors here for forty years formed a conspicuous monument to his own noble spiritual character and were a factor of greatest value in the promotion and advancement of the cause of the church along the Pacific coast. His beautiful, sincere and high-minded life was an inspiration to the zeal of all his co-workers, and the impression he made on the religious progress of California is one of the important ele- ments of the history of the church in this state. Besides his own enduring life work, he also left children and grandchildren who have made for them- selves honorable places in the world's activity, and a son and a grandson are among the prominent citizens of San Francisco and are mentioned in the following paragraphs.
Bishop Kip was born at Albany, New York, October 3, 18II, a son of Henry and Mrs. (Ingraham) Kip. The name, originally De Kype, belonged to an old Dutch family of the Knickerbocker stock who made set- tlement in New York in the seventeenth century. Henry Kip was a promi- nent banker of New York. Bishop Kip married a Miss Lawrence, who was a descendent of Sir Henry Lawrence, president of Oliver Cromwell's council and of one of the oldest English families, some of whose members had also come to New York early in the seventeenth century.
In 1852 Bishop Kip came around the Horn to San Francisco, having
Un. Tratan. Stel. Nordea of California -
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been sent out as the first Episcopal bishop of the state, and his first diocese contained what are now the dioceses of Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Francisco. He was retained in his honorable post until his death, in 1893, when he was over eighty years old. He left two sons, Colonel Lawrence Kip, an army officer of New York, and William Ingraham Kip.
The latter son, now an esteemed resident of San Francisco, was born in New York in 1840. He married Elizabeth Clementine Kinney, whose father, the Hon. William B. Kinney, was proprietor of the Newark Daily Advertiser and was United States embassador to Italy. She was a half- sister of Edmund Clarence Stedman, the noted author. Four children were born of this marriage. The son William Ingraham was for a number of years rector of the Good Samaritan missions in San Francisco, and died in 1902.
Lawrence Kip, another son of William I. and Elizabeth C. (Kinney) Kip, was born in San Francisco, October 2, 1869, and is now a well known attorney of this city. He was educated at Trinity school and at the Uni- versity of California, and was admitted to the bar in 1890. In 1895 he was admitted to the supreme court of Hawaii, and engaged in practice there for about a year, after which he returned to San Francisco. Much of his law reading was done under D. M. Delmas, and in his early practice he devoted much of his time to criminal work, but of late has taken up corporation practice quite extensively.
Mr. Kip is a Republican in politics, and fraternally affiliates with the Knights of Pythias and the Knights of the Maccabees. He married, in 1893, Miss Willa Dick, whose father, James Dick, was prominent in pub- lic life in Indiana, where she was born, and was state auditor of that com- monwealth. She is also the niece of Archbishop Purcell, of Cincinnati.
JOHN SAMUEL BEARD.
John Samuel Beard, judge of the superior court of Siskiyou county, active and successful at the bar or on the bench in California for over forty years, is a man of eminent ability, of great erudition in the general fields of knowledge as well as the law, and of breadth and wholeness of char- acter such that he appeals to the favor and regard of all men without dimin- ishing any of the dignity and force which characterize his position in county and state.
Judge Beard was born October 30, 1836, at Milton, Northumberland county, Pennsylvania. Of excellent parentage and ancestry, he traces his descent, on his father's side, back to three brothers who came from the north of Ireland and in the early years of the nineteenth century settled in Ohio. These brothers were of the old-school Presbyterian stock, origi- nally from Scotland. On the maternal side Judge Beard comes from the old Eckert and Gehrig families of Pennsylvania. James Beard, the father, who was born at Enon, Clark county, Ohio, March 25, 1813, and who died at Sunbury, Pennsylvania, June 14, 1879, was successively a mer- chant, a school teacher, drover and butcher, and in 1851 was elected pro-
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thonotary of Northumberland county, which position he held six years, the remaining years of his life being devoted to the practice of law. Judge Beard's mother was Susan Margarette Gehrig, born near Reading, Berks county, Pennsylvania, March 18, 1808, and died at Sunbury, Pennsylvania, in 1892. She married James Beard February 13, 1834, and the issue of their marriage was eight children, five boys and three girls. Two of the latter died in childhood. The eldest, Esther Ann Beard, married John W. Bucher, of Sunbury. Judge Beard and two brothers, George Eckert Beard, of Sunbury, and William Gehrig Beard, of Shamokin, Pennsylvania, are still living.
Educated in the common schools of Milton and Sunbury, and in the once noted seat of learning, Rhodes Academy, where were taught the higher English branches and the Greek and Latin classics, in the spring of 1853. primarily on account of ill health, Judge Beard left school and accepted a position with a corps of civil engineers under Kimber Cleaver, engaged in making a survey of the Shamokin Valley, now the Reading Railroad. Kim- ber Cleaver was the first Republican candidate nominated in Pennsylvania for governor, in 1854. In July, 1854, young Beard quit the engineer corps to accept service under his father in the prothonotary's office. While there he studied law under Hon. S. Richard Peele, now of Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. He was admitted to the bar, April 7, 1857, before he had reached his majority, and thereafter until 1859 he practiced law in Sun- bury, Pennsylvania.
Continued ill health and a keen desire for travel were the principal reasons which induced Mr. Beard to leave the east and seek a home in the west. Crossing the plains in 1859, he arrived in Oregon in the late autumn of that year, and after drifting about in the Placer-mining coun- ties of southern Oregon and northern California he resumed the practice of law, first at Fort Jones and then at Yreka, Siskiyou county, where has been his home and center of professional activity ever since. In May, 1864, he formed a partnership with L. N. Ketcham, since deceased. The incidents of the war of the rebellion, however, drove most lawyers out of business for a time, and hence for several years Mr. Beard was engaged in teaching school. He did not resume the practice of law until 1872, open- ing his office at Etna, Siskiyou county.
Judge Beard's public career has been no less successful and honorable than his private practice. In 1878 he was appointed chairman of the first board of education in Siskiyou county. In 1882 he was elected district at- torney for the county, an office which he held until his election, in 1890, to the position of superior judge. He is now serving upon his third term as superior judge, his present term expiring in January, 1909. In view of this record it is needless to speak of the successful manner in which Judge Beard has discharged the responsible duties of his office. Of an eminently judicial character and bent of mind, a jurist by nature as well as by training, he has exercised his powers for the welfare of the entire county and state and has devoted his energies with that freedom from self
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interest and personal bias which has rendered his administration of law and justice untainted and above cavil and doubt.
A staunch Democrat up to the time of Lincoln's second election, in the campaign preceding that election Mr. Beard took the stump as an ad- vocate for the great emancipator, and ever since that time, both in national and state politics, has taken an active interest as an unswerving Republi- can. While on the bench, however, he has regarded the high interests of his office and prudently kept out of county politics, in consequence of which fact he has had the support of both the great parties. In his last two elec- tions he has had no real opposition from any quarter.
On October 31, 1857, just a day after reaching his majority, Judge Beard was initiated a member of the Sunbury Lodge, I. O. O. F., and still holds membership with the order in Yreka Lodge No. 19. He is also a member of Howard Lodge No. 96, F. & A. M., of Yreka; Cyrus Chapter No. 15, R. A. M., Yreka; Shasta Council No. 6, at Shasta; is past com- mander of Mt. Shasta Commandery, K. T., at Yreka; and is master of the Royal Secret of the thirty-second degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scot- tish Rite, in San Francisco Consistory of the southern jurisdiction. Also a Knight of Pythias, he is past chancellor of Yreka Lodge No. 168. In 1851 Judge Beard united with the Lutheran church of Milton, Pennsyl- vania, to which church his parents then belonged. He is now a member of the Methodist church at Yreka.
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