USA > California > A history of the new California, its resources and people; Vol II > Part 62
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west of the town of Centerville, on the Kings river. He was alert, enter- prising and progressive, watchful of opportunities and continually taking advantage of the possibilities afforded in a business way. He conceived the idea of using the waters of Kings river for irrigating purposes. He was a prime mover in this direction, and formed a company which is now in existence under the name of the Fresno Canal and Irrigation Company. In instituting this movement he did a work for California whose value can- not be overestimated. All of his labors were of a character that proved of substantial benefit to his community, and were, as well, a source of individual profit, and thus he is numbered among the founders and promoters of Cali- fornia, whose labors were a valuable factor in laying the foundation for the present progress and prosperity of the Golden state.
At the time that he took possession of his ranch in Fresno county the town of Fresno was not on the map. The late Governor Stanford, then president of the Central Pacific Railroad Company, Charles Crocker, his associate, and Colonel Gray, head civil engineer, were entertained over night at the Easterby ranch, across which a preliminary survey had located the lines of the railroad. It was then and there that they decided to locate the town of Fresno at the most available point near the ranch. Again a survey was made from what was then called Sycamore, on the San Joaquin river, in a southerly direction, making a straight run, and by means of this the town of Fresno was located three miles west of the Easterby ranch, thus affording excellent shipping facilities for the owner.
Mr. A. Y. Easterby became connected with railroad building, being one of the organizers of the Napa Valley Railroad Company and its first president. Whatever he undertook he carried forward to completion, and he wrought along lines of great good. He belonged to the little group of distinctivelv representative business men who were the pioneers in anaug- urating and building up the chief industries of this section of the country. He early had the sagacity and prescience to discern the eminence which the future had in store for this great and growing country, and, acting in accordance with the dictates of his faith and judgment, he garnered, in the fulness of time, the generous harvest which is the just recompense of in- domitable industry, spotless integrity and marvelous enterprise. His death occurred on the 24th of June, 1893, but his widow is still living, and makes her home in Napa. In the family are five daughters yet living.
Mr. Frank G. Easterby acquired his early education in a private school at Napa, and later was a student in the Napa Collegiate Institute. He also attended Horrock's Academy for Boys, and was graduated from the Uni- versity of California in 1878 with the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. He was thus well equipped by liberal educational advantages for important duties in life, and, following the completion of his university course, he entered the internal revenue service, acting for five years as deputy collec- tor, from 1881 to 1886. He then turned his attention to commercial pur- suits, which he followed continuously until 1892, when he came to Napa, where he has since made his home. In November, 1902, he was elected tax collector of Napa county, and is now filling this position in a manner
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which indicates his public-spirited citizenship and his devotion to the gen- eral good. He has no fraternal affiliations, but is identified with collegiate and social clubs, and has made many friends not only in Napa but in all parts of the state in which he has resided for any length of time.
GEORGE WASHINGTON CAMERON.
George Washington Cameron, present assessor of Fresno county, is an old and esteemed resident of California, where he took up his residence shortly after the Civil war, during which he had given loyal service to the cause of the Confederacy. Notwithstanding the loss of an arm in that ter- rible struggle, he has devoted many of his subsequent years to the occupa- tion of farming, and in this as in all other enterprises of his career he has gained a most creditable degree of success. He is a man of eminent public spirit, energetic and progressive in character, and esteemed by all his fellow citizens for his uprightness and integrity in all the relations of a long and busy life.
Mr. Cameron was born in White county, Tennessee, in 1836, so that he is rapidly nearing the age of threescore and ten. Members of the fam- ily took part in the war of 1812, and his grandfather came over from Scot- land some time in the eighteenth century. His parents were Elisha and Mary (Hudson) Cameron, and the former followed farming and was also a tanner at Sparta, Tennessee.
Mr. G. W. Cameron had the rearing and training of a farm boy, and also worked with his father in the tannery up to the outbreak of the Civil war. In the spring of 1861 he enlisted in Company A, Twenty-fifth Ten- nessee Infantry, of the Confederate army, under Colonel S. S. Stanton. At the battle of Chickamauga in the fall of 1863, September 19, he was wounded and lost his left arm, which injury, while it has impaired his efficiency, has not prevented him from attaining through his own efforts a worthy place in life. He returned to Tennessee in the spring of 1864, and was engaged in farming there until 1869, in which year he moved out to California. He located first in Stanislaus county, where he continued farming until 1883, for the four years following served as assessor of the county, and from 1886 to 1894 once more engaged in farming pursuits. He has had his residence in Fresno county since the latter year, and during the first five years he was engaged in the vineyard business. He was then appointed deputy assessor, and after three years in that position was elected, in 1902, assessor of Fresno county, for the term of four years. He is a valued and trusted official, and has given utmost satisfaction in every line of his work.
Mr. Cameron was married in 1866 to Miss Mary A. Stone, a native of Tennessee and a daughter of Iredal Stone, who belonged to an old Kentucky family. There were four children of this marriage: Jennie, the wife of Eugene Shepherd; Emma, deceased ; Florilla, deceased; and Forest, wife of J. B. Pettit. Mr. Cameron affiliates with the Masons and the Modern Wood- men of America, and in politics has always been a Democrat and taken an active part.
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ARTHUR EWING SHATTUCK.
Arthur Ewing Shattuck, for ten years president of the Pacific States Type Company, of San Francisco, was born in Sonoma, California, on the 16th of May, 1864, and is a son of Frank W. and Olivia (Ewing) Shat- tuck, in whose family were two sons and four daughters. The father was a native of North Carolina and came to California in 1849, when the dis- covery of gold was drawing to this section of the country men from all parts of the United States, representing every avenue of life. He located in San Francisco and attained prominence in the public life of the rapidly developing district. He practiced law for many years, ranking with the ablest members of the bar, and also served as county judge of Sonoma county. His father, Judge D. O. Shattuck, a native of Connecticut, was the first judge of the superior court of San Francisco, being called to that bench in 1852. His name is deeply engraved on the judicial history of the state as that of one of the most eminent lawyers and judges who have practiced at the har of California. He was the adviser of a number of people who took a prominent part in public affairs at the time of the vigi- lance committees, and he stood firmly as the conservator of the rights and liberties, the life and property of those who held themselves amenable to law and justice.
Arthur Ewing Shattuck has therefore back of him an ancestral record of which he has every reason to be proud. He acquired his early educa- tion in the public and private schools of Petaluma, California, and at the age of sixteen put aside his text-books to enter upon a business career. When he was eighteen years of age he was appointed deputy county audi- tor, but on account of his youth he was retired from public office until he had attained his majority, when he was appointed deputy county clerk of Sonoma county and served in Judge Temple's court for a number of years. Subsequently he became a member of the editorial staff of the Santa Rosa Democrat, then published by Thomas Thompson, who was later appointed to the position of United States minister to Brazil, and in 1892 when Mr. Thompson became secretary of state of California, he appointed Mr. Shat- tuck as his assistant, and the latter largely had the management of the office until he resigned in 1894 in order to devote his attention to private busi- ness interests in San Francisco. He was appointed by Governor Waterman to the position of state's prison director, and upon the expiration of his term he joined his brother in a manufacturing enterprise in San Francisco under the firm name of the Pacific States Type Foundry, of which he has now been the president for almost ten years. Under his guidance the busi- ness of the house has been enlarged and extended until it is now an enter- prise of considerable magnitude, yielding a good profit to the stockholders.
Mr. Shattuck has largely withdrawn from active participation in polit- ical work in recent years, although he has been deeply interested in reform political movements, and has co-operated in these with such men as George K. Fritch, F. J. Le Breton and the late A. S. Halladie, Joseph Britton and others. These men have instituted non-partisan movements which at dif- ferent times have figured conspicuously in municipal and county elections.
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It was such a movement that resulted in the election of Mayor Phelan and also the first board of independent supervisors that San Francisco has had in more than two decades. He is the opponent of all misrule in municipal affairs, and his labors have been directed toward the election of men who will place the general good before partisanship and the welfare of the city before personal aggrandizement.
In 1895 Mr. Shattuck was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Sharp, a native of California and a daughter of William Sharp. Her father was one of the pioneer merchants of Sacramento. To Mr. and Mrs. Shat- tuck have been born two children, Margaret Ledeane and Kathryn A.
Mr. Shattuck belongs to the Native Sons of the Golden West and was a charter member of Sunset Parlor No. 26, of Sacramento. His life has been one of continuous activity, and through many years' connection with the public service he has won the unqualified confidence of the public by reason of an upright course that neither fear nor favor could change. It has been his effort in recent years to bring to political work the same hon- orable methods that characterize his business career and he swerves not from his high ideal either in commercial life or in matters of citizenship.
WILLIAM T. MAUPIN, M. D.
Dr. William T. Maupin, who with his son Dr. James Lawrence con- trols the leading practice of the San Joaquin valley, has been established in the medical profession in Fresno for eighteen years, and is now among the oldest practitioners of the county. He has been actively engaged in the voca- tion for forty years, and his life has thus been one long period of useful effort given to humanity, resulting in honor and lasting esteem to himself. He has been fortunate in his declining years to be able to delegate many of his responsibilities to his son, who is a most able and worthy successor to his father, and has himself been engaged in practice for nearly fifteen years.
Dr. William T. Maupin was born at Columbia, Boone county, Missouri, in 1839, being a son of William and Isabel (Lemon) Maupin, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Kentucky. William Maupin was a farmer by occupation, and the old state of Missouri counted him among her pioneer settlers. He took up a farm in the county of Boone in the year 1816, five years before the Compromise state was admitted, and he followed out his useful and busy career on the same farm for over sixty years.
Dr. Maupin attended the public schools of Columbia and finished his literary training in the William Jewell College at Liberty, Missouri. At the age of twenty he entered the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, and was graduated with the degree of M. D. in February, 1864. In the mean- time, at the outbreak of the Civil war, he had enlisted in the Confederate army under Colonel M. G. Singleton and served in Price's famous army. After his graduation he practiced in Columbia until 1886, and in that year came out to Fresno, where he has continued his professional work to the present. He has filled the position of health officer and was also a member of the board of education for several years. He is vice president of the State
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Medical Society and for several terms was president of the Fresno County Medical Society. He has taken much interest in Democratic politics, and was chairman of the Democratic county central committee. He affiliates with the Masonic order in all of its branches, being one of the leading Masons of this section of the state.
Dr. Maupin married, in 1866, Miss Mary A. Mathews, a native of Co- lumbia, Missouri, and her father, Lawrence Mathews, was of an old Virginia family that settled early in the state of Missouri. Four children were born of this inarriage: Lulu Bell, the wife of H. U. Maxfield; Dr. James Law- rence, mentioned below ; Betly B .: and Mary W., wife of A. O. Warner, jew- eler of Fresno.
JAMES LAWRENCE MAUPIN, M. D.
Dr. James Lawrence Maupin, son of Dr. William T. and Mary A. (Mathews) Maupin, was born in Columbia, Missouri, in 1868. He was edu- cated in the Missouri State University, from which he graduated in 1887 with the degree of A. B., and in 1890 he took the degree of M. D. at the Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons of St. Louis. He had come out to his par- ents' home in California in September, 1887, and after his graduation he re- turned to Fresno, where he has since been associated in the very large and successful practice founded by his father and now carried on by them jointly.
He is a member of the Fresno County Medical Society, the San Joaquin Valley Medical Society and the State Medical Society. He holds the office of treasurer of the Burnett Sanitarium. Fraternally he is a Knight Templar Mason and a member of the Woodmen of the World.
Dr. Maupin married, in 1895, Miss Mary Helm, who was born in Fresno. Her father, William Helm, is one of Fresno's pioneers, having settled in the county in 1856, and he is now a retired capitalist and one of the representa- tive men of this city. Dr. and Mrs. Maupin have two boys, James Lawrence and William Thomas.
CARL L. MULLER, M. D.
Dr. Carl L. Muller, son of Professor Edward Muller, was born Octo- ber 15, 1861, in Nevada City, in the home which is still occupied by his parents. He attended the public schools and was graduated in 1880 with the first class that completed the high school course here. While pursuing his high school studies he took the teacher's examination in 1879, and was granted a first-grade school certificate. He taught school from August of that year until May, 1886, in Allegheny, Sierra county, California, in Grass Valley, Nevada county, in Willow Valley, Nevada county, in the Oakland school district in this county, and in the public schools of Nevada City. While engaged in educational work he devoted his leisure hours to the study of medicine, and was also connected with the drug business as an em- ploye in W. D. Vinton's drug store. His preliminary reading was supple- mented by a course of study in the Cooper Medical College at San Fran- cisco, which he entered in June, 1886, there remaining until September,
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1887. He afterward matriculated in Jefferson Medical College, at Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania, and was graduated in that institution on the 4th of April, 1888, at which time the degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred upon him.
Dr. Muller then returned to Nevada City and entered upon practice here on the 20th of April, 1888. He has since been a representative of the medical fraternity and has enjoyed a large and constantly increasing patronage, which he well merits by reason of his devotion to his professional duties and his continued study in the line of medical science that he may promote his efficiency and render his labors of more value to his fellow men. He is also examining physician for every first-class life insurance com- pany that does business in this part of the state. He is likewise interested in mining properties and also in the Colinga & Banner Oil Mining Com- pany in the Colinga oil district of California, and is a director and treas- urer of the Prosperity Oil Company.
Dr. Muller was married February 17, 1892, to Miss Laura Stimmell, of Yreka, Siskiyou county, California, a daughter of H. Stimmell, now deceased, a hardware merchant of Yreka and a pioneer of that part of the country. They have one son, Vinton Adolph Muller.
Dr. Muller is a Republican in his political views, active in support of the party, and has been a delegate to a number of county conventions. He is one of the school directors of Nevada City and a member of the board of trustees of the free public library. He is also examining physi- cian for Company C of the National Guard of California and of the For- esters of America, and in the last named held membership. He also be- longs to the Masonic fraternity, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Native Sons of the Golden West. Having spent his entire life in Nevada City he has a wide acquaintance here, and that many of his stanchest friends are those who have known him from boyhood is an indication that his career has been such as to merit the public confidence and good will of those who knew him.
HENRY SCHMIDT.
Henry Schmidt, who has been the manager of the Brighton Flour Mill since 1902, is one of the most capable mill operators of the state, and has been in the business practically all his life, in fact, he got his first acquaint- ance with mills when he was a boy of nine years. He has been remarkably successful in his occupation, and has always been noted as a man of thorough reliability. substantiality and absolute integrity. He is a self-made man, has relied on his own efforts to bring him a competence, and has well de- served the success he has won and the esteem in which he is held by all his associates and friends.
Mr. Schmidt was born in Second Garrote, Tuolumne county, Califor- nia. January 16, 1870, a son of Charles Gottlieb and Mary (Hanson) Schmidt. His father was born in Baden, Germany, of a prominent family, and came to California across the plains in 1850, settling at Big Oak Flat,
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Tuolumne county. He clerked in a store for a time, then went into mining, and finally engaged in farming until his death, which occurred in 1888. His wife, a native of New Orleans and of German descent and a daughter of a California pioneer, is still living on the home place in Tuolumne county. There are six children living besides Mr. Schmidt, as follows: Charles and George, who are farming on the home place; Fred and William, who are mining in Tuolumne county : Minnie, the wife of John C. Mclaughlin, a mining engineer of San Francisco: and Caroline, the wife of William Pool, a miner of Groveland, California.
Mr. Schmidt received his education in the public schools at Big Oak Flat. He began working in the flouring mill at Second Garrote while still in school at the age of nine, and when twelve years old went to Sonora and worked in the flour mill for four years; he was then in the mill of Nelson and Son at Merced Falls for four years; was then in the employ of the Jason Springer sash and door factory in San Francisco for eight months; was with the Farmers' Union and Milling Company in Stockton for four years; then went to lone and was head miller of the Amador Roller Flour Mills for eight years, being secretary of the concern for four years of that time. He came to Brighton on June 10, 1902, and erected the Brighton Flour Mill and superintended the placing of the machinery, and has been its manager ever since. D. McCall, of Amador county, is president of the company. The plant has a daily capacity of one hundred and fifty barrels, and is in operation sixteen hours a day, year in and year out. The plant is independent and not a member of any flour combines. Its product is of very fine quality, and is consumed mostly in Sacramento county, whence it also draws most of its wheat supply, the farm wagons being unloaded at the mill doors.
Mr. Schmidt was married in Stockton, California, to Miss Bertha M. Mack, who was born in Nevada. Her father, Thomas Mack, was an early settler of California and a veteran of the Civil war, and he is now engaged in fruit-raising and farming in Brighton. Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt have four sons, Charles Gerald, Thomas Virgil, James Russell and Henry Alvin. Mr. Schmidt is a Democrat, although taking no part in politics as such, and fra- ternally he affiliates with the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Foresters of America.
HORACE G. PLATT.
Horace G. Platt, lawyer, with thirty years' successful practice in the city of San Francisco, is a representative of the New California in the spirit of enterprise and sound ability which have brought not only the bar but all the manifold interests and activities of the state to foremost importance during the last quarter century.
A son of an Episcopal clergyman, William Henry Platt, and through his mother. Cornelia Platt, connected with stanch Revolutionary stock, Mr. Platt was born in Selma, Alabama, August 26, 1852. When three years old the family moved to Petersburg, and in 1865 the home was transferred to Louisville, Kentucky, and in the public schools of the latter city he gained
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most of his preliminary education. His early advantages were excellent, although it was largely through his own persevering and ambitious efforts that he was prepared so well for a professional career. Mr. Platt is a graduate of the University of Virginia, in the class of 1870, having pursued the classical course. To earn his living while getting ready for the more strenuous life of a lawyer, he taught schools in various localities of the mid- dle west, came to San Francisco in 1875, and at the bar of this city long since gained an honorable position and a representative clientage.
A man of recognized civic usefulness as well as of marked ability in private life, he was called to represent his fellow citizens in the legislature in 1881, and his public spirit has been manifested in many other ways. A stanch Democrat during the earlier years of his political activity, he has since 1900 been a Republican. He affiliates with the Masonic order, and with the Pacific-Union, Bohemian and Burlingame clubs. Mr. Platt is unmarried.
ARTHUR THORNTON.
The name of Arthur Thornton is inscribed high on the roll of San Joaquin county's honored early settlers and eminent men, and the part which he has taken in the founding and development of the county well entitles him to prominent mention in this volume. He established the town of New Hope, in which he has long made his home, and his name is also well known in connection with the county's political history.
Born in Ayrshire, Scotland, May 19, 1838, Mr. Thornton is a son of William and Mary (Kennedy) Thornton, also natives of the land of hills and heather. In 1852 he came with his parents to America, the journey be- ing made on a sailing vessel from Liverpool to New Orleans, six weeks be- ing spent en route, and after spending a short time in the latter city the fam- ily made their way to Iowa, locating near Council Bluffs. In 1855, as a gov- ernment employe, Mr. Thornton came to California with Colonel Steptoe's command, which crossed the plains in that year from Salt Lake. At the Sink of the Humboldt in Nevada Mr. Thornton joined the forces of Quar- termaster Ingall, a part of Colonel Steptoe's command, the former going to Fort Lane, Oregon, while Colonel Steptoe continued on to Benicia, Califor- nia. After a short time spent at Fort Lane Mr. Thornton continued on his journey to California, crossing Scott Mountain with a pack train, and at Red Bluff embarked on a small steamer for Colusa, where he was transferred to a steamer bound for Sacramento. At the latter point he embarked on a larger steamer for Benicia, his final destination. Arriving there he left the employ of the government, and after a time secured employment on the steamer Oregon, plying between San Francisco and Panama, but at the lat- ter place the ship became disabled and he returned on the Golden Gate, ar- riving in San Joaquin county in 1855. In this then unsettled region Mr. Thornton labored earnestly to establish a home, and as the years passed exerted a wide influence on the public life, thought and action of the locality. The town of New Hope, of which he is the founder, stands as a monument to his enterprising spirit, and in all his undertakings prosperity has rewarded
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