A memorial and biographical history of northern California, illustrated. Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy...and biographical mention of many of its most eminent pioneers and also of prominent citizens of today, Part 65

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1000

USA > California > A memorial and biographical history of northern California, illustrated. Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy...and biographical mention of many of its most eminent pioneers and also of prominent citizens of today > Part 65

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Mr. Manasse was married in 1864, to Miss Amelia lIelwig, born in his own native town, and a daughter of Henry Helwig, for many years engaged in the tanning business in San Francisco. They have six children: Lena, a graduate of Snell Seminary, Oakland; Henry, who graduated at Napa College, and is now

connected with the Norton Tanning Company, of San Francisco, of which Mr. Manasse is a stockholder and director; Anna, also a graduate of the Napa College; Edward, who is now learning the tanning business in the Sawyer establishment; August, attending the Oak Mound. College; and Amelia, who is still at- tending the Napa public school. Mr. Manasse is a member of the Masonic order, Yount Lodge, No. 12; member of Napa Chapter, No. 30; member of the Napa Hall Association; member of Napa Lodge, No. 18, I. O. O. F., and of the Odd Fellows' Hall Association, of Napa.

A. JACKSON, horticulturist near Wood- land, is one of the most extensively known citizens in Central California: is well known even in the Eastern States as a fruit raiser and packer. He was born February 14, 1831, in Knox County, Ohio, a son of B. B. and Polly (Ruggles) Jackson, natives of Penn- sylvania. The father, a farmer by occupation, removed to Ohio at an early age, remained there until 1860, and then came on to California in company with his sons, and here he remained until his death, which occurred in 1868, in Yolo County, when he was about sixty-eight years old. Mr. Jackson, our subject, was brought up on a large farm in Ohio. In 1864 he came to California across the plains, the trip occupy- ing some ninety days. Going direct to Yolo County, he rented land in the vicinity of Wood- land and began farming, raising wheat. In a few years he found himself able to purchase a home for himself, which he did by buying eighty acres for $1,750. The farm is now valued at $400 per acre, and improvements $8,000. For ten years he continued wheat-raising, haul- ing the same to Sacramento to market. He began the fruit industry in 1883, and has sold his land in ten-acre tracts until he now has only thirty acres left, which is in the city limits of Woodland and devoted to choice fruit-trees and

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vines. He took the first preminm at the State Fair in 1889, receiving the gold medal for the best six varieties of table, raisin and shipping grapes. In the season he employs from thirty to forty hands, white labor, all from Woodland. He is also a large buyer and packer. His goods are shipped and sold to all the Eastern States and Canada. This year (1889) he shipped 100 tons.

Mr. Jackson was married in 1850, to Miss Cynthia Cummings, a native of Ohio, and their children are: Ella, wife of Henry Fisher, a resident of Hunford, Tulare County; also one son, Ralph W., twenty-one years old.

· F. HOLDEN has been a resident of Napa for seven years. For two years of this time he purchased wool for the Boston market, and for the same length of time was book-keeper for the Sawyer Tanning Company and the Norton Tanning Company, at their San Francisco office, but for the past three years he has been treasurer and manager of the Napa Woolen Mills. This concern was originally started in a small way, but in 1885 it was formed into a stock company, of which S. E. Holden is now president, B. F. Holden, treas- urer and manager, and C. R. Gritman, the cashier of the Bank of Napa, secretary. This company doubled the capacity of the mill, which now occupies one main structure, 100 feet square, of two stories and basement, and an ad- joining building for the engine and boilers. On the main floor there are sixteen broad Knowles looms, and the finishing machinery; on the second floor is located the carding and spinning machinery; while the scouring and assorting of the wool is carried on in the base- ment. Two boilers, one of fifty-horse-power and one of thirty, furnish steam for the engine and for the necessary process of manufacture. About $150,000 worth of goods, principally flannels and blankets, is turned out by these mills every year. They employ about forty

hands, use mostly Californian wool, and manu- facture only fine wool blankets and a fine grade of flannels, used for shirts and suitings. Since Mr. Holden has assumed the management of the mills they have gradnally improved in their general results, and are now in fairly prosperous condition, and the outlook is very promising. Their products are mostly disposed of in San Francisco, through the house of Murphy, Grant & Co., Greenbaum, Weil, Michels & Co., but they have also been forwarding a considerable quantity to T. A. Shaw & Co., of Chicago. They also ship goods to Sacramento, Los An- geles and Portland, Oregon.

Mr. Holden was born in Saxonville, Massa- chusetts, in 1842. His parents were B. F. and Harriet (Morse) Holden, both branches of the fam- ily being of old New England stock, whose ances- tors emigrated from England in the seventeenth century. His father moved to Concord, New Hampshire, in 1843, and established a woolen factory under the firm name of B. F. & D. Hol- den, which afterward became the Concord Manu- facturing Company, in which B. F. learned the business, and later acquired an interest that he still continues to hold. He attended the public schools of Concord, and was a member of the class of 1865 of Wesleyan University, at Mid- dletown, Connecticut. He was married in 1864 to Miss Minnie Crockett, of Middletown. Re- turning to Concord, after leaving the Univer- sity, lie engaged in the woolen business at Bristol, New Hampshire, where he remained until 1883, when he came to California. They have two children: Mary Genevieve, a graduate of the State Normal School at San José, and now engaged in teaching in Napa County; and Clarence, who is attending school at Napa. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Holden was a member of the New Hamp- shire Legislature. elected from Bristol for the sessions of 1874-'76. In 1887 he invested in the stock of the Napa Woolen Mills, and took charge as treasurer and superintendent. This position he now holds. During the few years he has lived in California, Mr. Holden has ap-

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plied the same active and intelligent effort to his business that distinguished him in his New Hampshire home, and as a result the establish- ment he represents is moving forward success- fully, and building up a very large and successful business.

ILLIAM DAY, one of the prominent business men of Suñol, was born at Aurora, Erie County, New York, June 20, 1852. His father, Ithamar C., a Canadian by birth, emigrated into the United States when a young man. He married Miss Elvira Davis, a native of Vermont. William was reared and educated in his native town, and on reaching the age of manhood he went to Portage County, Wisconsin, and in a few months came on to California, by way of the Isthinus of Panama, and located at Suñol. First he worked upon the ranch of Charles Hadsell for twelve years, and in 1886 he established his present business, as proprietor and manager of the livery, feed and sale stable and trader in live-stock. He has also a large warehouse for the storage of hay, grain, etc., and he also has an extensive com- mission business. He is a member of the Board of School Trustees, a worthy citizen and a man who enjoys the confidence and respect of his neighbors.

Mr. Day was married in San Leandro in 1871, to Miss Nettie Bennett, a native of Wisconsin, and they have nine children, namely: Frank, Daisy, Frederick, Walter, William, Emma, Ar- thur, Nellie and an infant son.

ENRY PERRY, machinist and proprietor of a shop in Woodland, is the son of Elisha and Nancy Perry, natives of Maine. He was born in Franklin County, that State, March 16, 1822. At the age of twenty-two he went to Wareham, Massachusetts. In the year 1847 he went to Penobscot County, Maine, where he was

engaged in blacksmithing for ten years. He then came to California in 1858, by water, and since then has made two trips East He first came to Yolo County in 1860, when there was but one house in Woodland, and was owned by Frank Freeman, and ever since then Mr. Perry has made Woodland his home. He embarked in the machine business in 1870, in a shop back of the present Bank of Woodland. His present establishment is on Fourth street, between Main and Lincoln avenue. He does a much larger business than the size of his shop would indicate. The machinery he is running here cost $2,500. The engine is a five-horse power. Blacksmith- ing is also an industry included within his operations.

In 1849 Mr. Perry married Miss Elizabeth Whitehouse, by whom he had two children, John F. and Jessie R., and Mrs. Perry died in 1864, while Mr. Perry was in California. January, 1869, he married Mrs. Rachel Mudgett, a widow with two sons. By the present marriage there are the following children: Etna J., aged eighteen years; Emma W., seventeen years, and Clarence H., sixteen years.

EORGE C. MARTIN, a farmer near Woodland, is a son of James and Lina (Williams) Martin, who were among the early settlers of California, and will be re- membered by many old pioneers. They were natives of Virginia, where they remained until 1844; they then moved to Livingston County, Missonri, and resided there until 1853; he sold his property there, spent one summer in Texas, returned to Missouri and remained there until the spring of 1854, when he with his family came overland to the Golden State, with horse and ox teams, and settled in Yuba County, eight miles above Marysville, on the Yuba River. There the senior Martin resided until his death in 1861, when he was sixty years of age. His wife survived until 1884, when she died, in Yolo County, at the age of seventy-tive

Aaron Bell

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years. In their family were four sons and one daughter, all of whom came to California. One son, M. D. Martin, came in 1849, and died in Yolo County in June, 1872.

George C. was born January 30, 1833, in Giles County, Virginia, and had been all his life upon a farm. He was with his father in Yuba County until 1862, when the well- remembered floods of that year destroyed their agricultural stock. He sold out and came to Yolo County, purchasing a farm northwest of Cacheville, where he remained until the fall of 1870. He then purchased his present property, consisting of 160 acres of choice bottom land, a mile and a half southeast of Woodland, which is well improved and fertile and well stocked with farm buildings, etc. He has altogether in Yolo County 410 acres. His home place is especially adapted to the raising of fruit and alfalfa.

Mr. Martin was married March 7, 1867, to Miss Mary A. Waysman, a native of Missouri, and they have three sons and two daughters, namely: Jackson L., Anna L., James W. (who died July 25, 1883), George V. and Mary V.

ARON BELL, Superior Judge of the county of Shasta since 1879, came to California in 1852. He was born in Pennsylvania, December 2, 1832. His ances- tors have resided in America since before the Revolution and were from Scotland. His grandfather, John Bell, participated in the Revolution on the side of the colonies; served under Benedict Arnold; went with him on his expedition to Quebec, and after the war settled in Ohio where the city of Cincinnati now stands. Afterward he moved to Pennsylvania and set- tled on a farm. Later he was in the mercantile business for some years. He was a zealous Presbyterian; was married in New Jersey, and had six sons and two daughters. John Bell, Jr., the fourth child, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and was in the iron foundry business for many 26

years in the State of Pennsylvania. He mar. ried Miss Christiana Evans, of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, and with his family set- tled, in 1855, in El Dorado County.

Judge Bell was the eldest child of their fam- ily of six children, four sons and two daughters. He was educated in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, studied law in a law school there, and after coming to California pursued his studies for several years and was admitted to practice in the old District Court in 1864. He practiced law in the city of Sacramento for three years gave United States land law his special atten- tion, and became an expert in that department of law practice. A United States land office having been established at Shasta, and the officers thereof, not understanding their duties very well, had some complications with the department at Washington. The Judge went to Shasta to assist in straightening out matters. Becoming favorably impressed with the county, he located there. He was appointed Register of the Land Office in the place of the register who had resigned. He served in this capacity until 1879, when he resigned to run for the office of Judge of the Superior Court, having received the nomination from the Republican party. The county at that time had 250 Dem- ocratic majority, but Judge Bell was elected by 600 majority, a very flattering vote. The duties of the office of Superior Judge were at that time quite onerous, and many times he had to decide cases on which there had been great difference of opinion. In his first term a most trying and unheard-of case came before him. The sheriff elect of the county was refused the office by the incumbent on the ground that he had not given the county sufficient bonds. It was claimed that by the census of 1880 the county had ad- vanced from a county of the third class to that of the second class, and that he should not hold the sheriffalty, as he had not given legal bonds. The Judge was applied to and the matter duly tried before him; he gave an order to an officer to seize the books and papers of the office and to take sufficient force to execute the order.

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The out-going sheriff, with his inen arined with Henry rifles, held the court-house with the door barred on the inside, refused admittance and threatened the officer if he touched the door it would be at the peril of his life. It took the force of several men to break it in, which they did and seized the books and papers of the office. The people took sides in the affair and many were very much incensed with the out- going sheriff's course. The case was carried to the Supreme Court and the Judge's action sus- tained in every partienlar.

Another very exciting and notable case was that which was held to prevent the removal of the county-seat from Shasta. When Judge Bell gave his decision in that case the court-house was filled, anvils were fired by citizens of Red- ding and great excitement prevailed. The case was taken to the Supreme Court, and after three years' litigation the case was decided in accord- ance with Judge Bell's decision.

It is a matter of record that in eleven years only one case was returned and retried. His decisions have been made with reference to his duty as a judge of the law, and his legal ability has been most flatteringly sustained, both by the Supreme Court of the State and by his fel- low citizens. At his last election his majority was 700, when the majority of his ticket was only eighty. During most of his history in California he has been interested in mines and mining. In 1853 he was a partner with Mar- shall, and was often with him and his men. He has a cane made from the head block of Sutter's inill when gold was discovered. Judge Bell and his brother, who is an expert miner, are in- terested in several valnable mines and also in timbered lands at the base of Mount Shasta. He is interested in a box, shingle and lath fac- tory, and in 1889 manufactured over 400,000 raisin boxes.

Judge Bell takes an active part in several of the fraternal societies of the county. He be- carne an Odd Fellow in 1855; has been a mem- ber of the Grand Lodge since 1861, and is a member of the Veteran Association of the

State. He is one of the charter members of Shasta Lodge, A. O. U. W., which started in 1878; and he has been made Grand Commander of the American Legion of Honor of the State for two terms. His father died in 1862, and his mother is still living, a hale, hearty, old lady of seventy-seven years. She resides with the Judge and his interesting family in a nice residence in Redding, where he can spend the evening of life, having merited the confidence and esteem of his fellow-citizens.

He was married in January, 1874, to Miss Julia Fipps, a native of Missouri, and formerly a successful school-teacher in Shasta. They have had three sons, born in Shasta County, viz .: Jesse, George E. and Harvey.

M. BUFFINGTON, an old, honored pio- neer of the Pacific coast, and one of the most influential of the early settlers of Stockton, was born in Somerset, Bristol County, Massachusetts, February 15, 1818. Originally of English descent, and in the old Massachusetts colony, his ancestry dates back to the early settlement of Salem, when three brothers- John, Joseph and Jonathan-immigrated to that place about 1660. The subject of this sketch attended school in his native State, and at the age of fourteen he took a thorough course in English, mathematics and the Latin classics at the State Normal School of Rhode Island, and after reaching manhood he entered the business of manufacturing boots and shoes at Providence, that State.

On the breaking out of the gold excitement from California, he came hither, by the Isthmus, landing at San Francisco June 13, 1849, from the steamer Oregon, on her second trip. He joined the throng of miners, and searched for gold over a year, averaging fifteen ounces per day. Coming then to Stockton, he started a bakery, when flour was $12.50 a barrel; in a few months it advanced to $50 per barrel and bread sold for 32 cents a pound. But Mr. Buffington

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was not the man to be limited to an underling's life. Being public-spirited, he made his mark in the " city of the plains," which is yet strik- ingly visible. He organized the public schools of Stockton, was elected Superintendent and served as such from their organization until 1853, when he was elected Alderman. In April, this year, he was elected Mayor of Stock- ton, and held this office one term of two years. Being also actively interested in the political interests of the country, he organized the first Republican club and was chosen its first Presi- dent. He also served as superintendent of the Sunday-school for several years.

In 1857 he removed to San Francisco, and since then, for over a third of a century, he has beeu actively engaged in business and promi- mentiy identified with commercial and mining interests. He was elected member of the Board of Education of San Francisco, and served in this position several years. For a time also he Was Registrar of voters, when the enrollment was in the different wards. In 1884 he changed his residence to Oakland.

He has been prominently identified with the Masonic fraternity for over thirty-six years, having become a member of Morning Star Lodge, in Stockton, in 1854, and he is a Knight Templar and a Thirty-third-degree Mason, Scottish rite.

March 8, 1843, Mr. Buffington married Miss Mary West Eddy, daughter of one of the oldest families of Providence, Rhode Island, and they have had two sons and three daughters.

SOVEREIGN, manufacturer of wagons and buggies at Woodland, is the son of Richard and Elizabeth (Plummer) Sover- eign. His father, a native of Pennsylvania, was a carpenter by trade; and his mother was a native of New Jersey. Mr. Sovereign was born in Canada, in 1833, and in 1845 he went to Illinois and learned his trade; and in 1860 he came to California and for the first seven years

resided in El Dorado County; in 1867 he moved into Yolo County, where he has ever since re- mained. He is following his trade at Wood- land, with signal success. He is a member of Woodland Lodge. No. 22, A. O. U. W., and also of the K. of P.

For his wife he married Elizabeth Collins, who was born in Watertown, New York, and they have five children, viz .: Emma, aged thirty-two, now the wife of John Freeman, and residing in Fresno; Isabella, aged thirty, is now Mrs. J. H. Martin, of Woodland; Ar- thur, aged twenty-eight, a blacksmith of Wood- land; Seth, aged twenty-six years, and Charley, aged twenty one.

- W. OSBORNE, a blacksmith and wheel- wright at Suñol, was born near Barrie, 0 Canada, February 22, 1856, where he grew up to years of manhood. His parents, Edward and Elizabeth (White) Osborne, were both natives of England. He came from Can- ada into the United States in 1872, settling first in the State of Nevada, where he learned his trade and remained until 1879. He next fol- lowed his vocation two years in Washington Territory, and then until 1884 in Umatilla County, Oregon; and then about three. years in Modoc County, this State. In 1887 he went to Shasta Connty for a year, and in the spring of 1889 he finally settled at his present place, where he is prospering in his calling. He was inarried at Weston, Oregon, July 31, 1881, to Miss Frances Ferguson, a native of Iowa, and they have three children-Emma J., Eunice J. and William C.

G. PERKINS, proprietor of the flouring mill at Woodland, is a son of Frederick

a F. and Eleanor (Lee) Perkins, natives of Connectiont, the father a farmer by occupation. Mr. Perkins of this sketch was born at Niles,

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Michigan, in 1846; in 1863 he came to Cali- fornia and was first engaged in keeping books in San Francisco. In 1871 he started for Lower California with 13,000 head of sheep, but suffered misfortune and got out with 2,500 head, turning them over to creditors. He re- turned to his old home in Michigan and there remained until 1888, when he again came to California to prospect for a permanent home. He finally selected Woodland, in June, 1889, where he has since run the City Mill. It is owned by the Bank of Woodland; its capacity is thirty-five barrels a day, the engine being seventy-five horse-power. The expense of ran- ning the mill is $25 a day. It was built in 1860.

In 1872 Mr. Perkins was united in marriage with Miss Josephine Glover, of Detroit, Mich- igan.

H. ROBINSON (colored), farmer and teamster at Woodland, is the son of Denis and Mary A. (Winrow) Robin- son, natives of Kentucky. llis father was a slave up to the time of his death in 1839, in Ralls County, Missouri; his mother died in California, February 17, 1889, at the age of eighty-five years. She was freed by Robert . Briggs, of Ralls County. when W. H. was six- teen years of age. He was born in that county, March 11, 1835, and was freed at the age of thirty by the emancipation proclamation, up to which time he was owned by John C. Briggs. He came to California in 1868, landing in San Francisco December 24, having made his jour- ney by sea and the Isthinns. He was a resident of Buckeye, Yolo County, until 1873, when he went to Woodland, where he now has a nice little home on two acres of land. Ile does all kinds of farm work for other parties, having all the varieties of farming implements necessary, and he is well known as an industrious and up- right citizen. He is a member of the Christian Church, as is also his family. He married, in

Ralls County, Missouri, Sarah A. Shields, who was born in Kentucky, and they have two chil- dren,- Mary A. and Samuel H.

ILLA MIRAVALLE .- One of the most picturesque and attractive spots in the vicinity of St. Helena is the Villa Mira- valle, the delightful country-seat of Tibureio Parrott, Esq., the well-known viticulturist. Located in a sheltered cone or glen in the Myacamas range of mountains which skirt the western border of the Napa Valley, with full view of the town and only a mile distant from its center, it is led up to by a winding and ro- mantic road and avenne. The residence is sit- uated at some distance from the county road on an eminence that displays its fine architectural proportions to great advantage. A rough de- scription may not be out of place. Including verandas, which are broad and ample, running quite around the house and covered with the finest specimens of sub-tropical plants, the resi dence has a frontage of eighty feet, by a depth of forty-five feet. It is of two stories, with cen- tral tower rising to a height of seventy feet above the ground. The lower story is of the beautiful white liparite, quarried in the vicinity, and the upper of brick, the whole house finished in hard wood and of a pleasing mediaval arch- itecture. From the tower a magnificent view, panoramic almost in scope and variety, is pre- sented, including the whole of St. Helena and all the adjacent portions of the Napa Valley, while the eastern horizon is cut by the green folds of hill and mountain that form the east- ern littoral of the valley. Immediately beneatlı the eye are the orchards and vineyards of the estate, and beyond these the iniles of grape- vines, for which the section is noted. The es- tate is of 800 acres, and reaches from the valley to the crest of the first.range of hills, looking down on the further side upon the famous White Sulphur Springs. The hillsides, when not cleared and planted to vines, is covered with

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A memorial and biographical history of northern California, illustrated. Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy...and biographical mention of many of its most eminent pioneers and also of prominent citizens of today, Part 65

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 1000

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1000