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 81

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 81

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A company of neighbors organized and mnade pursuit. Rudolph Klots had charge of the com- pany and the following men participated in it: Fred Schuler, Bill Pool, John Spencer and two men from Cow Creek. The Indians were over-

taken at night on Antelope Creek some thirty- five miles away, surrounded, and at daylight the whites shot seven of them and got back a part of the things, including the razor; so that they knew they had found the right ones.

The first house which Mr. Dersch built on his property was of logs. He afterward built the house where his wife was killed. This was taken down, and in 1870 their present stone house was built. The boy Fred has now become one of the most successful stock-raisers in the country. He owns a large ranch, and has visited Germany and married a nice German wife. They live on the old ranch were they have spent so many years; and their uncle, the subject of this sketch, lives with them. Not- withstanding he has been deprived of his sight for so long, he has been very successful, and is the owner of a fine property.

OCTOR ISAAC ATWOOD, prominently connected with several valuable mines in Shasta County, is a native of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, boru September 24, 1812. His father, John Atwood, Jr., was a na- tive of Connecticut. The Atwoods of the United States sprung from three brothers, who came from England in an early day. One located at Boston, one on the Hudson River, opposite Albany, and the third in the Green Mountain State, the first being the Doctor's branch of the family tree. His father married Miss Nancy Lester, a native of Berkshire County, Massa- chusetts. She was Elihu Lester's daughter, who was at the Boston Tea Party of Revolutionary fame. He served his country throughout that struggle as a valiant soldier, lost the sight of one of his eyes in the struggle, settled in Massa- chusetts at the close of the Revolution and lived there until he died. It was his misfortune to lose his other eye by an accident, and was blind several years before his death. The Doctor had eight brothers and sisters, and only himself and a sister now survive. The sister is now

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HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.

the wife of D. C. Wocd, of Lake Mills. Wis- consin. In 1836 the family jemoved to Joffer- son County, Wisconsin. The whole family set- tled there and a portion of his life he worked at contracting and building ; was one of the work- men on the old capitol building of Wisconsin. For several years he was interested in and ran a saleratus factory at Lake Mills. Early in the history of Wisconsin he was in horticultural business and had one of the first vineyards in the State. For many years, tco, he was inter- cted in the nursery business. Later in his life he owned and ran a Turkish bath institution in Minneapolis, and was very successful in the san.e np to 1886, when he came to California. Ilte he spent the first nine months at Sau José. He then went to San Francisco, and was for some time interested in the sale of magnetic goods. While there he became interested in mines and mining stock, and has organized. with other Eastern capitalists, five mining com- panies in California,-the Eureka, Tellurinm, Annarena, Clear Creek and the Heckla. Their shares were all paid up and not assessable, and they have the money in the treasury to develop them. The work is in rapid progress. These mines have large quantities of very rich ore. At the Tellnrium mine they have 290 acres of land, and the ore at two different assays has given over $33,000 of gold to the ton. Dr. Atwood owns a one-forth interest in these mines. He intends, as a result of these mines, to found a home for aged people at some point in California.

Ile is both a Mason and an Odd Fellow.

He has been married thrice; first in 1838, to Miss Mary Wheeler. They had three children, born in Wisconsin, namely: George, Herbert and Emily. Mrs. Atwood died in 1852, and some years after he married Julia Whitney, by whom he had five children, three of whom are living, namely: Savel, Clara and Florence. Ilis wife died in 1871, and in 1872 he married Mrs. Haskell, who had five children by her former husband, born in Wisconsin, namely: Charles, Helena, Byron, May E. and Alice. The Doc-

tor affiliates with the Republican party; was a Postmaster in Lake Mills, Wisconsin, before the last war, and is an intelligent and worthy citi- zen.

RS. AGNES BEMMERLEY, proprietor of a farm in Yolo County, is the widow of John Bemmerly, deceased, who was born in Wittenberg, Germany, in 1824. and came in 1852 to California. crossing the į lains with oxen and settling in Yok County in 1853. He died Angust 8, 1872. a man well and favor- ably known throughout a large community. He left to his wife and five children 6.000 : cies of land. He was married in this county, Octo- ber 14, 1860. The children are Mary E, John F., Jr., Agnes H .. William A. and Einest A., all natives of this county.

AMUEL C. GRAY, one of the earliest of California pioneers, is also the pioneer living resident of Benicia, having come to this city in June, 1849. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1816. At the age of sixteen he became clerk in a wholesale straw-goods honse in Baltimore, and at twenty-one was accountant in a wholesale boot and shoe estab- lishment in the same city, remaining there eleven years. He came by the Panama route to California, arriving at the time already stated. Coming at once to Benicia he engaged in merchandising until 1861, when he was elected County Treasurer and held that office for three years. In 1867 he removed to San Francisco, where he was a member of the firm of Gray, Jones & Co., proprietors of the Santa Cruz tannery for twelve years; the company then dissolving, he returned to Benicia. He now has extensive real-estate interests in this place, which will probably be enhanced in value with the general development now in progress [ around the bay of San Francisco, especially in

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HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.

water front property. He is the President of the Electric Light and Motor Company, and Secretary of the Building and Loan Association of Benicia.

He was married in 1847, in Middletown, Connecticut, to Miss Lucy Wetmore, a native of that place. After a little more than a year's residence in Baltimore they came to California, where their five children had been born; four of these are now living, three in Benicia and one in San Francisco. They are: Dr. Edward Gray, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume; Arthur, born in 1853; Theodore, born in 1855, and living in San Francisco; and Lucy Gertrude, born in 1866. One son, Franklin Henry, died in 1852, in infaney. Mr. Gray's first wife died in 1879, and in 1887 he was married to Miss Frances Garretson, a native of Racine, Wisconsin, and daughter of N. H. and Jane Frances (Howard) Garretson, the parents being natives of Connecticut. Mr. Gray is a zealous member of the Episcopal Church, with which he has been affiliated for the past thirty years.

DWARD GRAY, M. D., the third white child of American parentage born in Benicia, has been in the practice of medi- cine for the past twelve years, ten of them in Benicia. His parents arrived in California in June, 1849, and he was born in November fol- lowing. His father, Samuel C., a native of Boston, came at once to Benicia on his arrival in this State, and engaged in business with his brother-in-law, Chauncey Wetmore, and has bean connected with the public interests of So- lano County much of the time since. The Doetor's mother, nee Lncy W. Wetmore, was a native of Connecticut.

At the age of fourteen years Dr Gray went East and prepared for college at Middletown, Connecticut, and after three years' study there, he in 1867 entered Yale College, where he gradnated in 1871. He then took an additional

course of one year at the Scientifie Department of Yale, after which he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York city,- which is the Medical Department of Columbia College,-and graduated there in 1875, after the usual course of three years. Next he served a year in the Presbyterian Hospital, on the honse staff; he then attended clinics and studied specialties in the general hospital of Vienna, Austria. In 1877 he returned to Cal- ifornia, where he has since been continuously engaged in his chosen calling. For three years he was Assistant Surgeon at Fort Gaston, in Humboldt County, and since that time he has been a resident of Benicia. He is a member of the State Medical Society and also of the So- lano County Medical Society.

He was married in 1876 to Miss Gertrude, daughter of Rev. H. M. Colton, of Middle- town, Connectieut, and they have three chil- dren: Henry C., boin April 13, 1878; Samuel Herbert, June 29, 1879; Percival, March 8, 1883; one child, Theodore W., died in 1882, and Mrs. Gray died in July, 1884, at Fort Gas- ton. In November, 1889, Dr. Gray married Miss Maria Willey, a native of California, and daughter of Rev. S. H. Willey, of Van Ness Seminary, San Francisco.

RS. KATE F. MUSICK, the proprie- tor of the Millville Hotel, is a native daughter of the Golden West, being born a few miles from Millville, November 1, 1857, the daughter of John B. Hunt, a Cali- fornia pioneer and a native of Huntsville, Mis- sonri. He came to California in 1849, and was married to Mary C. Boyce, a native of Tennes- see, bnt raised in Missouri. In 1853, when eighteen years old, she crossed the plains to California and they were married at Millville. They had six children. Only Mrs. Musick and her sister Mamie are living; the latter is now the wife of Mr. Hainline, of Anderson.

Mrs. Musick was married to Charles Alonzo

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Musick in June, 1877, and they had six chil- dren, four of whom are living, namely: Jolin W, Dollie, Grover A. and Pearl. Mrs. Musiek is a member of the Rebekah Degree, I. O. O. F. Her husband was a native son of the Golden West, born in Yolo County, December 12, 1853, the son of William Musick, a pioneer, and now a resident of Shasta County. C. A. Musick was a respectable citizen, a kind and loving husband and father, and notwithstanding every possible effort was made to ward it off he fell a victim to consumption and died in Igo, Octo- ber 10, 1889, greatly lamented by his family, relatives and a large circle of friends and ac- quaintances. Mrs. Musick is a refined and pleasant lady, is a good hostess, and in addition to her other property owns a residence and vil- lage lots in the growing village of Anderson.

HARLES STEWART, tanner at Benicia, has been a resident of this place since 1871, except five years in Napa, as a mem- ber of the firm of McBain & Co., and sixteen months' ranching near Snisun. He was born at Rogers' Ilill, Pictou County, Nova Scotia, in 1850, where he learned his trade of an uncle. At the age of nineteen years le came to Califor- nia, after the opening of the overland railroad, and located in Solano County. For the first sixteen months he worked on a ranch near Snisun, and then returned to his trade at Benieia. Four years afterward he went to Napa and pur- chased an interest in the tannery of McBain & Co., where he continued about five years. In 1880 he sold out there and returned to Benicia, and here he worked for eight years as head tan- ner for Mckay & Chisholm, and in March, 1888, in partnership with James W. McBain, he pur- chased the establishment known as Brown's tan- nery. In the summer of 1890 he purcha-ed McBain's interest, and now enjoys a successful and increasing trade. On two additional lots he has put np new buildings and introduced new appliances, enabling himself to do first-class

work. His specialty is sole leather, and his market is San Francisco. Mr. Stewart has by his own exertions, good management and economy built up a position for himself among the manufactured interests of California which is permanent. Ile is a member of Benicia Lodge, No. 94, A. O. U. W., and of the Congre- gational Church since 1887, and totally abstains from the use of tobacco and intoxicating liquors.

He was married January 10, 1877, to Miss Mary McPhail, a native of Ontario, Canada, and they have five children: Margaret J., William, Janet A., John and Charles A. Margaret was born February 3, 1878; William, December 7, 1879; Janet Ann, March 3, 1882; John Logan, September 8, 1884; and Charles A., March 5, 1887. Mr. Stewart's parents, William and Jane (Logan) Stewart, are natives of Nova Scotia, of Scotch parentage, and came to California, where they spent the remainder of their days; his father was a farmer. Mrs. Stewart's parents, John and Margaret (McDonald) MePhail, were natives of Canada, whose parents came there from the Highlands of Scotland.

AMES W. McBAIN, late of the tannery firm of Stewart & MeBain, of Benicia, has been a resident of this place for the past two years, and of California since 1876. He was born in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, in 1853, and was educated at the Picton Academy. After teaching school several years he began the study of medicine in the office of Dr. Muir, at Truro, where he remained about a year: then he attended lectures two years in the Medical Department of Dalhousie College, but his health becoming feeble he spent a year in Bos- ton; he then came to California. His health immediately improved here, and he began work in a tannery of his brother in Napa. Several years afterward he purchased an interest in the establishment, but two years later sold it, went to Benicia and became a member of the firmn of Stewart & McBain, but in the summer of

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1890 sold out to his partner. (See sketch of Charles Stewart:) The firm purchased the property known as Brown's tannery, improved it and made additions until they were abreast with all modern methods of tanning and hand- ling feather.

June 19, 1879, is the date of Mr. McBain's marriage to Miss Martha Stewart, a native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and of Scotch an- cestry. Her parents were Robert and Cath- erine (McNulty) Stewart, natives of Pictou, Nova Scotia. Mr. and Mrs. McBain have three children: Alva, born January 22, 1880; Stew- art Irving, June 24, 1888, and one born Octo- ber 20, 1889. Mr. McBain's parents were Alexander and Grace (Mckenzie) McBain, also natives of Pictou, and of Scotch parentage. Mrs. McBain was brought to California while an infant by her parents in 1864, since which time they have resided in Benicia and Napa. Her father for a number of years operated a tannery in Benicia. A sister married Thomas McBain, proprietor of a tannery in Napa City.

APOLEON MINOR .- In formning an esti- inate of any section, we instinctively turn to the ranchers and farmers of the region, as the surest test of the stability and future prospects of the place. If we find them pros- perous and progressive, we know assuredly that the section must be good and carry away the best opinion. Judged by such a standard. Yolo County has no competitor in California in the vastness of its resources and the certainty of the brightest future. Indeed, it is on all sides admitted that Yolo is the county of com- fortable homes and well-to-do farmers, a county where all have plenty and must an abundance of the good things of this world. Prominent among the representative agriculturists of Yolo County is found Napoleon Minor, a pioneer citizen and a worthy man in every respect He was born in New London County, Connecticut, October 30, 1832, and is the son of Thomas B.

and Marian (Dolbear) Minor. Before proceed- ing to give a detailed account of Mr. Minor's life, it will be well to refer to the name Dolbear, which will be recognized at once as one of the older and more distinguished of New England. John Dolbear, from whom the family is sprung, came originally from Shropshire, England, where he was born in March, 1747. His son was George Dolbear of Boston, Massachusetts, who married Mary Sherwood, of Fairfield, Con- nectient, and died January 1, 1790. His son, George Benjamin, born December 25, 1752, died January 26, 1828, married Margaret Fox, born November 15, 1755. Their children were Mary, born October 12, 1782, and died January 25, 1828; Lucy, born January 8, 1785; Benjamin, born November 28, 1789; Guy, born Novem- ber 24, 1790, died June 18, 1823; and Marian, the mother of the subject of this sketch, born December 20, 1795.

Mr. Minor remained at his birthplace until twenty-two years of age, when in 1854 he set out for California on board the ship Northern Light. Reaching San Francisen, he remained there but a short time before going to Downie- ville, where he prospected for a time. Thence he went to Marysville and for three weeks worked on Webb's Ferry. After that he took a job of cradling grain at $4 per day for George Leet. A month later and he was at Yuba City working on a thresher at $2.50 a day, a job that lasted two months. He then bought a team and went to freighting from Marysville into the mountains. This business he continued from 1859 to 1861. In the following year, in part- nership with Mr. C. French, he took a band of sixty-five mules to Colusa County to graze. That was the year of the great floods in the Sacra- mento Valley, and for a while they were kept busy hunting high spots for their stock. They also bought hay, etc., of James Winkler, on the Sacramento River at St. Lonis in Sierra County ; in 1867-'68 they bought goods and sold thein at Pine Grove. As soon as they could they went back to Marysville with their stock and went thence, to the Butte mountains, and from

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there to Spring Valley, where they left their stock for the winter. In the following spring. Mr. Minor freighted to Austin, Nevada, and other points, and then, coming down to the valley, rented land of the California Pacific for four years. In 1871 he sowed 790 acres to wheat, and on account of the dry season only harvested 9,000 pounds of grain. Nothing daunted him, however, and by 1875 he was en- abled to purchase the fine ranch which is still his home, and which lies about a mile west of Davisville. It consists of 600 acres of the best land, where in addition to general farming he raises a great deal of stock.

Mr. Minor is a man of indomitable energy, a hard-worked and a shrewd business man, but generous and public-spirited, and has accom- plished very much during his life. He was married in August, 1870, at Sacramanto, to Miss Mary E. Rogers, a native of Connecticut. She died universally regretted, December 1, 1878, aged thirty-three years and ten months, leaving two children,-Maud E., born July 24, 1871, and Lorenzo G., born May 6, 1873. On October 26, 1881, Mr. Minor was married for the second time to Miss Lonise Wolf, a native of Keokuk, Iowa. They have three children: Arthur N., Lonise L. and Albert L.

ALTER MILLSAP, a farmer near Cacheville, was born in Missouri, Feb- ruary 27, 1833, the son of Hyal and Rebecca (Huffaker) Millsap, natives of Ken- tucky, who emigrated to Missouri and finally died there. The latter was then brought up by an uncle, who lived in Clinton Connty, that State. In 1850 he came overland with some cattle to California, and arriving at Hangtown he disposed of them and worked in the mines during the ensning winter. In 1852 he bought his present ranch of 117 acres in Yolo County, near Cacheville, and here he has ever since re- sided a prosperous farmer and a well-known citizen.

In 1856 he married Miss Amanda J. Lowe, a native of Kentucky, and the names of their children are: William Newton, Martha Wash- ington, Oliver, Cassander Amanda, Leander Walter, Lucy Eleanor (deceased), Rowena, Rufus Melvin, Wirt, Gertrude and Albert Perry.

ENRY HERMAN BUTZBACH is the "village blacksmith" of Millville, who has gained by the strong blows of his good, brawny right arm a nice home and a good shop, and in his line is the leading business man in town. He was born in Berrien County, Michi- gan, March 8, 1856, the same year in which the great Republican party of the country was born. It is therefore a natural consequence that he should be the stanch Republican that he is, and it may truly be said of him that he was born one. His father, Philip, and his mother, Amanda (Herman) Butzbach, were hard-working, well-to-do German people who, to improve their condition and give their off- spring a chance under the free institutions of America, emigrated to the United States in 1848, and became the parents of thirteen healthy children, twelve of whom they suc- ceeded in bringing up.

Mr. Butzbach, the subject of this sketch and their third child, learned his trade in Michigan and worked at it for eleven years. He then emigrated to Oregon, and six months after came to California. He worked at San José, Pleas- anton and San Francisco, but during all this time he was unsettled; and in order to. settle his mind he returned East and married Miss Amanda Arnay, a native of Ohio. A year afterward he returned to California and decided upon Millville for their future home. He pur- chased a good home and shop, opened his bnsi- ness and at once stepped to the front, getting the business in Millville and vicinity and for many miles out; and now there have come to live in and enliven the home of Heury Herman Butzbach and Amanda, his wife, two happy

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little boys, whom they have named Harry R. and Edwin P., both born in the village of Mill- ville, in the County of Shasta, in the beautiful State of California.

UGUST KERGEL, a Yolo County agri- culturist, is a native of Prussia, His parents were Gotlieb and Anna Rosa (Veimert) Kergel, natives of that country; the father, born in 1804, died in 1885, and the mother, born in 1811, died three months after her husband, both in the old country. Mr. Kergel, our subject, was born August 12, 1832, and September 22, 1860, he started for Califor- nia and arrived in San Francisco. Directly he took a boat from Sacramento and in a short time went into Yolo County and began to work for John and Michael Bemmerly, and was in their employ five years; and finally he purchased a ranch where he now resides, being now the owner of 640 acres.

His first wife, whom he married in 1868, died the next year, and subseqently he married Miss Eslock, his present wife, and they have seven children, named Lewis, August, Charlie, Joe, Agnes, Nettie and Annie.

GRIFFITH, a retired merchant of Cache- ville, Yolo County, was born in New- castle, Staffordshire, England, September 17, 1822, a son of Aaron and Sarah Griffith, who had six sons but no daughter. The father was one of five brothers, four of whom came to the United States in 1813. Three of them settled in Elizabethtown and engaged in the manufacture of stone crockery; the fourth went West and all trace of him was lost. The eldest son, Edward, acted in a father's place for his younger brothere, by furnishing a home and keeping them together for a number of years.

Before he was five years of age the subject of this sketch lost both his parents, and he, be-

ing the youngest, was placed in the care of a grandmother. He worked in the crockery busi- ness in Stoke-upon-Trent, Staffordshire. After he had passed into his twenty-first year he left home for Liverpool, with only about sixpence in money, and walked the entire distance, fifty- two miles, and found a home with John Lan- caster, a barber. To obtain a little cash he first pawned his flute and then his silk hat; the flute be redeemed. Soon afterward he pawned his coat, while he borrowed another from Mr. Lancas- ter. In the meantime he was going the rounds of the docks endeavering to obtain a berth on some ship in order to leave England. At length Messrs. Lord & Co. desired a few apprentices on their barque Miracle, and young Griffith bound himself to them for a term of seven years, wages to be one ponnd the first year and to be raised a pound each year. His first voy- age was to Quebec, Canada, for lumber; second, to St. John, New Brunswick; third, to Savanna, Georgia, in the spring of 1844. At this time he was coxswain of his captain's "gig," as his boat was called, and it was his business to kcep it clean and ready for use. He was a favorite of the captain's and was learning some points of navigation from him; but more confidence was placed in him than he desired, as he with others were planning to run away from the ship. With only twenty-five cents and a few miscel- laneous articles he struck out for Charleston, South Carolina, which point he fortunately gained the next day, as a st: ge-driver took him through for a little china tea-set he had with him. The same evening he was on a steamer working his passage to New York city. The mate of the steamer gave liim twenty-five cents in money, as balance due him besides his pas- sage, and so he had fifty cents when he landed in New York. He directly but by accident found distant relatives there, and found his way to his uncle Robert Griffith, at Elizabethtown, one of the four brothers, and after stopping with him a short time returned to New York and got a situation as clerk. The California gold excitement broke out in 1848 and Peter Stuyve-

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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 81

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