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 96

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 96

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In 1873 he erected two fine brick buildings in Red Bluff. Other buildings had been put np, but this was the inanguration of a better class of buildings. They were located on the west side of Main, between Oak and Pine streets. Mr. Lange engaged in the mercantile business and purchased hides, being very snc- cessful in his enterprise. He was overtaken by disaster, however, and after being burned out twice found himself so crippled that he felt compelled to engage in the saloon business, which he did and which he now continnes. He has an attractive store, well filled with choice wines and fine liquors, and is patronized by the prominent business men of Red Bluff and vicinity. The second story of this building is beautifully finished and furnished for a dwell- ing, and is occupied by his family. The wallg of the rooms are profusely decorated with oil paintings, the work of Mrs. Lange's own hands She is quite proficient in this art. Among her works are pictures of flowers and fruits, and best of all is the grand mountain scenery of California.

Mr. Lange was born in Prussia, December 5, 1830. He received his education in his native country, and there acquired the profession of a surgeon. He was married in Brooklyn, New York, in 1854, to Caroline S. Fickert, a native of Saxony. She is a sister of the late Charles W. Fickert, one of Red Bluff's prominent busi- ness men. Mrs. Lange owns some property in this city and also in San Francisco. Mr. and Mrs. Lange have had three children: Charles W. and Lonise M., born in Brooklyn; and

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Amelia C., in Tehama County. Louise is the wife of Mr. Frank Nanmann, and Amelia wedded Mr. Ralph Wray. Both Mr. Lange and his wife are members of Rebecca Lodge. He is Captain of Patriarch Militant, No. 3, and P. C. P. of Encampment No. 21, Red Bluff, and P. G. of Lodge No. 76, I. O. O. F. He also belongs to the A. O. U. W.

All pioneers love to dwell on the reminis- cences of other days, and who is not interested in hearing them relate the wonderful experi- ences they have had and the funny incidents which happened during the early settlements. Mr. Lange tells the following:

The three gentlemen who formed the first school board of Red Bluff were very illiterate. They were told that it was their dnty to examine the teacher and see if he was qualified to teach. They did not know what to do, but finally decided they would visit the school, would each keep his hat on, would have a pipe in his mouth and smoke with all his might; if the teacher made no objection to this, they would decide he was not qualified to teach. They went and did as agreed. The teacher promptly walked np to them and said, "Gentlemen, it is against the rules of the school to smoke or to sit with hats on." All three jumped to their feet, slapped him on the back and said, "Yon are just the fellow we want to teach this school."

AMUEL SHRYOCK, engineer of the Woodland City Water-works, is a son of John and Mary (Sheets) Shryock, the former a native of Maryland and the latter of Rochester, New York. He was born in Ham- ilton County, Indiana, November 14, 1827, where he, on growing up to manhood, served his time as an apprentice at the carpenter and joiner's trade. In 1853 he came to California and was in the mines until December, 1855, when he went to Yolo County and purchased a squatter's right near Woodland. Subsequently he purchased an interest, with William Borden,

in a general machine and blacksmith shop in Woodland, and conducted it for three years. Next he was engaged in the manufacture of syrups for two years; and then he started a machine shop, and three years subsequently he and a man named Studenburg bought the Wood- land Flouring Mills and ran them two years. In 1868 he sold out, went East on a visit, when he was married to Miss Rachel Williams, a native of Indiana. Returning in 1874 to Wood- land, he began running a threshing-machine, and continued with it nine years, when he dis- posed of that and was employed by the Wood land Water Company in his present position. His wife died in June, 1875, leaving three children: John J., born in May, 1869; Ger- trude A., in 1871, and Josephine A., November 8, 1873. Mr. Shryock, when running his machine shop, furnished a great deal of the material for the court-house at Woodland.

AMES BROWNLIE, one of the prominent citizens and business men of Vallejo, has been a resident of that place ever since 1858. Born at Carluke, Lanarkshire, Scotland , August 15, 1836, he learned there the trade of carpenter and joiner, exhibiting in his work the thorough traits of the Scotch character. After spending abont two years at his trade in the Inmber districts of the north of Scotland, he then, at the age of twenty-two years, namely, in 1858, emigrated to California in company with his brother, John Brownlie, who had come six years previously and was established in busi- ness at Vallejo, and thus he was at once thor- oughly posted in the peculiarities of his newly adopted country. They came by way of New York and Panama, landing in San Francisco June 1, 1858, and in Vallejo the same day. After working a short time at his trade in this place, he went to the mines in Humboldt County, where he met the usual experiences of those who endeavored to become rich by digging gold. His first misfortune in that region was a

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shipwreck on the Humboldt Bar; but, un- daunted, he pushed on to Klamath River, where he worked hard, with no success. Winter came on, and at one time he was lost for three days and nights in the snow, experiencing much hardship.

In March, 1859, he returned to Vallejo, hav- ing learned all he cared to abont mining. He followed his trade on Mare Island until 1869, thus accumulating sufficient capital to embark in business, meanwhile making in 1863 a visit to his native land. On his return to this coun- try he was one of the passengers on the Ocean King from New York to Aspinwall. On board this ship was a draft of 100 United States sail- ors carried as passengers and intended for the man-of-war vessels on the Pacific coast. They were under the command of ---- Aminen, now Admiral in the service. The sailors were mil- tinous during the whole passage. On one oc- casion, when off the Cuban coast, they made an attempt to capture the ship, with the intention, it was supposed by some, to turn her over to the Confederate authorities. Captain Ammen was aware that some mutinous intention was entertained, and had a barricade built between the fore and after parts of the ship. The muti- neers made a rush to pass this barricade, when they were fired into by Captain Ammen, who, reinforced by the captain of the ship and the Union men that were armed. Two of the mu- tineers were killed and the others retracted. The ring-leaders were put into irons, and the balance guarded until the ship reached Aspin- wall. Only the bravery and determination of Captain Ammen and the Union men prevented the capture.

In 1869 Mr. Brownlie formed a partnership with the late John E. Williston, and they opened a grocery store, conducting it three years; then Mr. Brownlie took the sutler's store on Mare leland, on his own account, and by this busi- ness he accumulated considerable means. In 1879 he opened his present grocery store, in addition to his store on Mare Island, and he continued to operate both until the incoming

of the late Democratic administration, since which time he has devoted himself exclusively to his business in Vallejo. In his entire busi- ness career he has exemplified the industry and perseverance and thrift which characterized the sturdy Scotch from whom he descended. He is Republican in politics and a thorough Ameri- can in habi's and principles, though still re- taining a kindly remembrance of his childhood home; is full of pleasant reminiscence of his early life in " Bonny Scotland," and of his trials and experiences of his first years in this State. He has been City Trustee for three terms, and now holds that office, to which he has been elected rather for the confidenee reposed in him by his fellow-citizens than for any strictly party reasons. He is a member of the Masonic order and of the order of the Knights of Honor.

In 1867 Mr. Brownlie married Miss Mary H. Mc Millan, a lady of Scotch birth, and they have two sons: John A., who is now employed with his father as book-keeper and general manager; and Wallace McMillan, born July 17, 1890.

LGERNON MORDANT GOODNOUGH was born in Des Plaines, Cook County, Illinois, March 16, 1838. His father, Daniel Goodnough, was a hard-working farmer of English descent, and his mother, Harriet M. Conant, was a direct descendant of the world- famous French Huguenots, a woman of rare intelligence, and gentle, Christian spirit, who died at the early age of twenty-three years, leaving one child, an infant son, the subject of our sketch. Soon after the death of his mother his father removed to Vermont, where the son was reared and educated, gradnating at Middle- bury College in Vermont, in 1861. He was married May 12, 1862, to Miss Lucy H. Lang- worthy, of Middlebury, Vermont, who, until the time of her death, August 26, 1890, was a true helpmeet, and a most amiable and affec- tionate wife, whose serene Christian faith bore fruit in a life devoted to others' good, a life rich

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in kind words and helpful deeds. Shortly after marriage, Mr. Goodnough engaged in teaching in Massachusetts, his last school being the High School in Barnstable, after which he pursued a course of studies in Yale Theological Seminary, and subsequently was installed pastor of the Congregational Church in Mystic Bridge, Con- necticut. Failing health induced him to resign his charge, and in 1867 he came with his wife to California, across the Isthmus, under the auspices of the American Home Missionary So- ciety, and was for three years settled in San Mateo, California, where a commodions church was built during his pastorate, when he re- moved to Vallejo, and after some years of min- isterial labor there, his health still being deli- cate, he engaged in mercandising, building np a large trade by strict attention to business and honorable dealing with all, in musical instru- ments, in which he had previously had some experience. In the character of a " music dealer," he is now widely and favorably known on the Pacific coast, having some 2,000 patrons to whom he refers with pleasure. As a singer of home-songs he is known to thousands in California, and wherever known is always wel- come. He sings over 400 songs from memory (without the sight of words or music), and there is perhaps not another man in America who can sing as many from recollection only. He is the general agent for Calfornia for the "Smith American Piano & Organ Company" of Boston, with whom he has been dealing for some thirty years, and he still enjoys their fullest confidence.

In 1872 Mr. Goodnough went East on a lec- turing tour, delivering in the Representatives Hall in Montpelier, the capital of his native State, and in many other important towns, a lecture on California, entitled " Five Years in the Sunset Land." This lecture was spoken of by the press in most flattering terms, and re- ceived by large audiences with marked interest and favor, and winning for the lecturer an en- viable reputation as a platform orator of unusual ability as well as an enthusiastic Californian.

In 1884, after nearly ten years of mercantile

life in San Francisco, Mr. Goodnough purchased a large tract of land near Redding, in Shasta County, and shortly afterward he came there to reside; this tract of land was sold some three years later, for about ten times what it had cost. He now lives in Stillwater Valley, six miles east of Redding on a handsomely im- proved place he has named " Prospect Park." He has young fruit trees in great variety grow- ing, but is mostly interested in a new raisin grape called " Thompson's Seedless," said to be the best article in its line. In addition to his home place, he has four other improved places in Shasta and Solano counties, and several un- improved properties held as investments. Mr. G. has one son, Algernon M. Goodnough, Jr., now a resident of Randolph, Maine, who bids fair to become the equal of his father in enter- prise and integrity. We may add that Mr. Goodnough is a member of the Presbyterian Church and of several fraternal societies, and con- sidering that what he has acquired is due solely to his own honest efforts, he may well take pride in the results of his labor.

HOMAS BONA DOZIER is the junior member of the law firm of Wiley & Dozier, Redding, one of the most reliable and capable law firms of the city. Mr. Dozier was born in Williamsburg District, South Caro- lina, March 12, 1865. Four generations of his family were born in that portion of South Caro- lina, namely: Jolin Dozier, his great grandfather, who was a lawyer; his grandfather, Anthony White Dozier, born in 1801; his father, Dr. L. F. Dozier, born September 23, 1835, and him- self. The Dozier family were of French extrac- tion, settled in the South in a very early day, and were a noted family of influence, talented and wealthy. His grandfather, Anthony White Dozier, was a prominent lawyer and a member of the State Senate from his district for several terms. His father was adjutant on General Longstreet's staff all through the civil war, and

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there were eight brothers all in the Confederate service, and one of them a commander of one of the ships of the Confederate navy. Another uncle, Dr. Joseph Beard, was the founder of the New Orleans small-pox and yellow fever hospi- tal, a man of great skill as a physician and sur- geon and in wealth a millionaire. Mr. Dozier's father married Miss Agnes Bona, a native of his own district and daughter of Mr. Thomas Bona, a descendant of the French Huguenots and a man of large means. She was raised in New Orleans. His parents had five ehildren, and his mother died in September, 1868. His father now resides at Napa, and has had charge of the Asylum for the Insane for the last sixteen years. Only two children survive: the subject of this sketch and his brother, Dr. W. E. Doz- ier, who is now located at Susanville, Lassen County, California.

Mr. Dozier was brought to the State of Cali- fornia by his parents in 1868, when he was only three years of age, and in the fall of the same year he lost his mother. He attended the pub- lic schools until ten years of age. After that he attended the Oak Mound School for boys and young men located at Napa City. He graduated in its high school department when sixteen years old, and got his law degree in the Hast- ings Law College of California, graduating there June 26, 1888. He purchased an interest in his present firin in September of the same year, and at once commenced the practice of his profession, in which he has so far been remarkably success- ful. He is highly spoken of as a talented young man and a gentleman. He is First Lieutenant of Company E, Eighth Infantry Battalion, Fifth Brigade N. G. C., and has been a member of the guards at San Francisco for a number of years. As might be expected he is an enthus- iastic young Democrat, takes a lively interest in polities, has been a member of both the last county conventions of his party, and " stump- ed " the county in 1888 and also in 1890, in favor of the Democracy. Mr. Dozier's firm have a fully equipped office, are agreeable and liberal in affairs of the town, are hard workers,

have a good practice, and have such honorable and straightforward ideas of business that they are destined to draw a large share of the law business of their own and adjoining counties.

Mr. Dozier was married, April 22, 1889, to Miss Maud Watson, only daughter of W. C.Wat- son, of San Francisco. Mr. Watson established the Bank of Napa in Napa County in 1870 with the Hon. Chancellor Hartson. His wife is the great-granddaughter of George C. Yount, the first white man to have a Spanish grant north of San Francisco, he having had granted to him a portion of Napa Valley. George C. Yount came to California in 1829 and estab- lished the first flour-mill in the country, also built the first shingle-mill. Mr. Dozier's wife is the granddaughter of Dr. J. C. Davis, who died leaving large properties in San Francisco, around Washington and Kearny streets, and is also the niece of Senator J. P. Jones, of Nevada. Mr. Dozier and wife have lost one child, a boy, Sydney W. Dozier, aged a few months. Mr. Dozier has been the first to experiment with table and raisin grapes in Shasta County, and has proven that they could be snecessfully grown.

J. FOWLER, a gardener at Woodland, and one of the well-known pioneers of the State, is a son of William and Hessey (Dickson) Fowler. His father, a native of Tennessee, camne early to California and died August 25, 1886; and his mother, a native of North Carolina, is still living, at the age of seventy-three years. Mr. Fowler was born in Hendricks County, Indiana, and was six years of age when he was taken to Missouri, where he lived until 1849, when he became one of the first to journey overland that year to California. IIis first stop was at Grass Valley, Nevada County, and shortly afterward he located on the place where he now lives, within twenty rods of the city limits of Woodland. IIis place of forty acres is set mostly in fruit, but he owns alto- gether 440 acres in this State. In 1850 he re-

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turned to Missouri, and in 1852 came back to California. He is the oldest settler in Yolo County, and has two brothers, who live with him: Caleb and Thomas, and also an unmarried sister, Melissa.

JOSEPHUS BRADBURY. - The gentle- man, whose name heads this sketch, came to California in 1849, and has seen as much of pioneer life as any man in the State. He is a native of England, born March 4, 1825. His parents, both English people, brought him to America in 1826. They first settled in Phila- delphia, and afterward removed to Wheeling, Virginia. He is one of a family of nine chil- dren, of whom only he and his sister, Mrs. Frank Hawkins, of Steuben, Ohio, are now liv- ing. His brother John was a Union soldier, and lost his life at Island No. 10.

Mr. Bradbury spent ten years of his youth in Ohio, where he attended school and, in part, learned the carpenter's trade. In 1844 he went to New Orleans, and, in 1849, at the age of twenty-four years, came to California, crossing the plains in a company of thirteen. With one of this company, Jacob Holander, he formed a partnership, when they stopped at Weaverville, California, and began mining operations. Mr. Holander worked in the mines while Mr. Brad- bury went to Sacramento for supplies. He pur- chased a four-mule team, for which he paid $600. He loaded them with provisions and took the load to Weaverville. In Placer County Mr. Bradbury built the first house. Before the roof was on, they had a dance in it, cach dancer paying an ounce of gold, without supper. At that dance there were only six women-all Nor- man women. When his house was completed, Mr. Bradbury kept a hotel and supply store. He paid a man and his wife $400 per month to cook and do the work. The price per meal was $2. He also built and equipped a blacksmith shop. While at Sacramento, he saw a set of blacksmith tools on one of the boats, and, as the

owner wanted to sell it, he gave $300 for the set. As soon as it was landed he could have sold it for $600. He purchased a mule team and two hours later he sold it, and made $200 by the transaction. Such occurrences were very common in those times. The scythe they used in crossing the plains, he sold in Sacramento for $50 to some parties who were wanting to make hay of wild oats, below the town. There was not a scythe in Sacramento.

At their store and hotel they took their pay in gold dust. It was weighed on the head of a whisky barrel, and the dust was scattered about in the dirt around the barrel. From one shovel full of the dirt that they cleaned up, they got $7. Mr. Bradbury continued in the hotel busi- ness until 1851. In 1850 he learned that the emigrants in Carson Valley were out of pro- visions. He packed ten mules with flour, bacon, beans, sugar and coffee, and at once set out for that place. His flour sold for $2.50 per pound, and other things in proportion. Ten pounds of flour he traded for a two-horse carriage and a good set of double harness, that was new when it left the States. Their stock had died and they had no more usc for the carriage and harness, and were obliged to have something to eat. When he returned, he made a second similar trip.

In 1851 Mr. Bradbury followed a trail up through Tehama County, and went to Weaver- ville in Trinity County. The people on the Salmon River were reduced almost to starvation. Mr. Bradbury and his party encountered many dangers in making the journey at this time. The snow was very deep, at some places twenty feet, and they were obliged to make roads by cutting spruce bushes, so that the mules could travel. Three nights the mules had nothing to eat except rushes. At one place they found twenty dead mules. Upon reaching their des- tination they sold nine head of cattle for $2,700, but they were selling mule meat at one dollar per pound, the people being reduced to that kind of meat. They crossed the north fork of the Trinity River twenty-three times in one day. Mr. Bradbury sent his mules back the way

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they had come, and he went on to Yreka travel- ing on snow-shoes, which were made of bent willows with sacking stitched over them. They rode down the hills on their shovels, swam the rivers, slept in the snow, and Mr. Bradbury says he had to change positions in the night to take his head out of the water. On arriving at Yreka he took up a mine there, mined a short time, and then sold his claim for $1,000. He then got a pack train and went to Portland, Oregon, and that summer packed from Port- land to Scott's Bar on Scott's River, and to the Klamath River.

He returned to Sacramento and was there the night of the great fire, in 1852, when nearly all the town was consumed. He had just purchasd a team, and with that he began hauling goods ont of reach of the fire. For this work he was paid fifty dollars. After teaming there a year he went to San Juan and took up a ranch. Ranching was to slow for him, so he left that property and went to Nebraska City, Sierra County, were he erected a building in Jim Crow Cañon, and kept store there two years. At the expiration of that time he sold out and came to Tehama County, purchased 800 acres of land and engaged in sheep-raising. In 1865 he came to Red Bluff and began to deal in stock, and has continued that business ever since. He does a large business in Colusa, Shasta and Tehama counties, and supplies Trin- ity County with hogs. Mr. Bradbury has two valuable mines, one at Maddox and the other ou Whisky Creek. He has realized $400 from a ton of the rock, and expects larger returns.

Mr. Bradbury purchased four lots on North Main Street, Red Bluff, and built a nice and commodious dwelling for himself and family. Nothwithstanding he withstood the darts of Cupid many years, he was finally married, in 1880, to Miss Theresa Hagelman, in Weaver- ville, Trinity County, where she was born and reared. Their union has been blessed with two sons, Charles E. and George Thomas. Mr. Bradbury is well known throughout Northern California and, in fact, over the whole State.

Politically he is a Republican. His pioneer experience and inany adventures through which he has passed, if written up, would fill a volume. He relates the following:

In 1863 a party of renegade Gun Indians were lawlessly raiding through the county. They had killed a white man and his horse and a half-bred Indian boy. The white men who pursued them had given up the chase and had returned to their homes. At Thomas Creek the Indians killed an ox that belonged to a mill there, and then encamped in a ravine below the mill. About twenty men-ranchers, miners and the miller-gathered together and de- cided to attack the red men. Mr. Brad- bury was one of the party. They made the attack jast at daylight. Two of the white men were shot, and every Indian was killed, except two who escaped, and one of them, they believed, was wounded. The white men killed were Shannon and Ford.

At another time, Mr. Bradbury relates, he was instrumental in saving the life of a man who was about to be hung. Mr. Bradbury had pitched his tent back of a building that proved to be a gambling house. In the night, after they had been playing, an Irishman and a gambler got into a row, and the gambler was going to cut the Irishman to pieces. A third party interfered and rescued the Irishman. He, being drunk, turned upon the man who saved him. The man who came to the rescue then jerked the Irishman down and kicked him in the face, and made his escape. A party fol- lowed him, brought him back, put a rope around his neck and were going to hang him. Mr. Bradbury then interfered, told the lynchers that he had seen the whole difficulty and told them how it was, after which they set the man at liberty.

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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 96

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