An illustrated history of Sacramento County, California : containing a history of Sacramento County from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future portraits of some of its most eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also prominent citizens of today, Part 53

Author: Davis, Winfield J., 1851- 4n
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 916

USA > California > Sacramento County > An illustrated history of Sacramento County, California : containing a history of Sacramento County from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future portraits of some of its most eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also prominent citizens of today > Part 53

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ORNLEIN BROS .- The history of Cali-

fornia for the past forty years brings into

prominence the careers of many inen whose fortunes have been entirely built up in a brief period of time within her borders, yet the state- ment applies particularly to the time immedi- ately following the discovery of gold, and the building of the Pacific Railroad. However, more recent years furnish some remarkable ex- amples of a similar character, with the exception that now business sagacity and foresight, and not luck or chance, are the most important fac- tors. A case in point is that of the Hornlein Bros., of Sacramento. Max Edward and Hugo A. Hornlein, twin brothers, were born in Mil- wankee, Wisconsin, December 12, 1859, their parents being Emil G. and Amelia (Price) Horn- lein, both of whom were natives of Saxony, who came to America at the age of seventeen and sixteen years respectively, and were married at Milwaukee. Emil G. Hornlein commenced the carriage-painting trade there. In 1869 he came to California. In 1870, one year after the trans- continental railroad was completed, he went to Ilarry Bernard, of Sacramento, and there dis-

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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.

played his wonderful mastery of his trade (with him an art). He painted the representation of the battle of Bunker Hill on the cannon " Union Boy," which captured the prize at the State fair. The gun is now an object of much interest at the Mare Island Navy Yard. Of course such proficiency was not required in his carriage- painting business, but, added to being a natural artist, he had cultivated his tastes in that direc- tion in his native land. He went from Sacra- mento to Woodland and started in business for himself, and with such success that his trade required the employment of from ten to twenty- five men the year round. He is now a resident of the vicinity of Santa Cruz, where he is a fruit- grower. Of his twenty children (of whom six were twins) eleven are yet living. When Max E. and Hugo A. Hornlein had reached the age of fourteen years, they went to work in a hotel, but at the same time carried on their education by attending night school. M. E. was night clerk and H. A. on the day watch, but both did duty in the dining-room. In 1880 they came to Sacramento, went to work in the Central Hotel, and were there and at the State House Hotel about two years. M. E. then went to Woodland to learn the carriage-painting trade, his brother finding another place at the Pacific Oyster House. Three weeks later Mrs. Sharp, the lessee of the Central House, went to Wood- land to persuade M. E. to come back to Sacra- mento and take the dining-room and bar of the hotel, offering the privilege for a $100 a month, rent to be free the first month if enough was not taken in to justify the payment of the agreed amount. After a conference between the brothers they agreed to give the proposition a trial. They had by this time saved up $500 apiece from their work. When they took charge the house had but a small business, yet within a month it had 100 boarders, and was full to its utmost capacity, and it is needless to say Mrs. Sharp got her first month's rent. Her lease ran out within a year. No one had ever made money there, and the last lessees had lost $4,000 in trying to make the house profitable. The

proprietor of the building, Mr. Watt, came to the Hornlein Bros. three months before the ex- piration of the lease to have a talk with them. They wanted to lease the house for five years, but Mr. Watt told them he did not wish to make a further lease. He said, as they were the only parties who had ever made money there, he would make them a proposition. This was, that they should purchase the property for $18,000. Mr. Watt said they could pay him $4,000 in cash, and the balance in payments extending over seven years, without interest. They ac- cepted, and writings were drawn up by which they were to pay him $166.67 per month for seven years. They continued to make such payments until the fall of 1888, when they took a clear bill to the house, with a mortgage of $4,000 on it. The bargain was made March 10, 1882, and in the meantime they had started in the land business. They filed on some land in Fresno and Tulare counties, and bought a section of land at the town of Traver, paying $6,400 cash for it, or $10 an acre. They kept that section a year and three months, then sold it to McCall & Co. for $27.50 an acre, clearing $13,000 on the transaction, and investing the profits in Lassen County. Hornlein Bros. now own five-sixteenths of a tract of land in that county consisting of 14,000 acres, their partner in that tract being ex-Surveyor General J. W. Shanklin, and their investment in it, with im- provements, now amounting to $17,000. It is devoted to stock-raising. They keep a complete set of books in which they can tell their finan- cial position at any moment, and every year a balance sheet is drawn up, each year showing a wonderful advancement over the last, so that they now have close to $100,000 on their side of the ledger. When the short space of time in which this result has been accomplished is con- sidered, the fact seems little short of marvelous. Max E. Hornlein was married April 28, 1884, to Miss Jennie E. Pulaski, a native of Sacra- mento, and daughter of August and Louisa Pulaski. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias Lodge and of the Division, in which he

W.E. Jerry

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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.

is Sentinel. He is a member of the Central Committee of the Republican party for Sacra- mento County. H. A. Hornlein is a Democrat politically. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias also.

HE FRIEND & TERRY LUMBER COMPANY, Sacramento. Directly after the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848, the valley of Sacramento became in con- sequence the scene of greatest activity, and the lumber interest became important. In the early '50's among the most prominent lumber firms here were those of L. P. Simpson, David In- galls, Z. Gardner, Bell & St. John, Randall & Peckham, and Samuel Perkins. Mr. Simpson's yard was located on the northeast'corner of Second and M streets, and there in 1852 were two young men at work as employes who after- ward became the most prominent lumber firm in the city,-Wallace E. Terry and Joseph S. Friend. Mr. Friend came from Gloucester, Massachusetts, but had a keen eye to business in New York city before coming to the coast, while Mr. Terry came from the Empire State. Upun becoming acquainted with each other in working together, these two talented and enter- prising young men determined to start into business on their own account. Accordingly, in 1853 they rented sufficient ground opposite the Simpson yard, and established business there, under the firmn natne which they have ever since had. Seven years afterward they bought ground on the south side of M street, between Front and Second, and moved upon it. Their business proved to be a success from the start, and incidentally led to a number of opera- tions in other departments of trade. In 1855 they were commissioned by parties in San Fran- cisco to buy hides, tallow and wool for export to New York, and during the next four years a large amount of money passed through the hands of this firm for that purpose alone. Men were sent out in every direction to gather up

and purchase these commodities which had re- ceived very little attention in the past, in fact had often been cast aside in mining camps as being practically worthless. Later, deer and bear skins, horns, old copper and lead and wild mustard seed were added to the first articles thus collected for shipment "the Horn around," and nearly every "prairie schooner" returning from the mountains brought in more or less of them, with perhaps enough lumber to make up a full return freight. At first the sum of $1 each measured the value of dry hides, but in a year or two English buyers entered the field and a lively competition carried the price up to $6 and $8 apiece, at which figures there was no profit for the New York house, and the busi- ness langnished. In the meantime lumber busi- ness was steadily increasing in importance and volume. When the Central Pacific Railroad was in process of construction (1861-'68), this firm furnished most of the material used. Many million feet of Oregon and redwood lumber, timber, piles, ties and telegraph poles were brought up the river by sailing vessels, and with the powerful aid of steam derricks quickly transferred to waiting cars for the busy, hungry "front." Some of these vessels were of the deep-water class, in which Friend & Terry were interested, and often brought full cargoes fron Puget Sound and Coast Mills through to Sacra- mento direct, without any halt at San Francisco. At this day, with the river bottom on top, such a thing would be impossible, and such " white- winged" crafts are now chiefly and painfully conspicuous by their entire absence from the once "port" of Sacramento. In 1868 Friend & Terry acquired a leading interest in the Boca Saw-mill, with a large acreage of timber lands in Nevada and Sierra counties, Mr. L. E. Doan holding the remaining interest. Boca (Spanish, mouth) is located at the month of Little Truckee River, at an elevation of 5,530 feet above sea level. In winter it was noticed that ice formed upon the pond, which had been made to furnish water-power for the mill, to a thickness of twelve to twenty inches, and in the following year an

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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.

ice-house of 8,000 tons capacity was erected and filled with the finest quality of natural ice. This was the first regular crop of merchantable ice harvested in the State of California, and the genesis of a complete revelation which was soon to follow in the trade. The entire product of this first year and the following three years was sold to the American-Russian Commercial Com- pany, J. Mora Moss, president, which had exer- cised an absolute monopoly of the business for years, bringing ice from Sitka and perhaps one or two other points in Alaska, and retailing it at from 5 to 12 cents per pound, where a better quality is now furnished to consumers at from ¿ to 1} cents a pound. The ice works at Boca have been added to from time to time, and have assnmed large proportions. Other companies have established plants in that vicinity, but ten to fifteen miles either west or east from Boca takes one beyond the limits of the peculiar belt in which ice can be profitably cultivated or successfully harvested. Importations from the north ceased years ago, and railroads have taken the transportation of ice from ships-probably forever. For fifteen years they imported East- ern pine, which was largely used in pattern- making, etc., and also Eastern oak and other hard wood, which was used in construction and repairs upon river steamboats, etc. They also imported sash, doors and blinds. This necessity is now superseded, as Oregon pine and native woods have taken the place of Eastern Inmber. Upon the death of Mr. Friend in 1871, the business was conducted by Mr. Terry alone for several years, during which time he took an active part, financially and otherwise, in the establishment of new gas works, woolen mills, box factories, street railways, insurance com- panies, and other enterprises of more or less in- portance to the city and to the county at large. In November, 1879, a part of his business was incorporated into a joint stock association under State law, as the Friend & Terry Lumber Com- pany, with Mr. Terry as president. The main office and yards continue to be on Second street, between M and N, under the personal manage-

ment of E. J. Holt. They have also an exten- sive yard at Twelfth and J streets, and are largely interested in Oregon redwood and sugar- pine mills. Mr. Terry was born in 1832, in Cortland County, New York. His father, Dr. Marsena Terry, -- who is still living, at the ad- vanced age of eighty-seven years,-was for a long period a prominent physician of Steuben County, New York. In 1836 or 1837 he settled at Sheridan, Chautauqua County, that State, and later moved to the vicinity of Bath, Steuben County, where the subject of this sketch grew up. He attended the academy at Prattsburg and the Wesleyan Seminary at Lima, New York, taught three terms of school at Campbell, and read law in the office of Barnes & Bonham, at Bath. In January, 1852, while he was in Judge Barnes' office, his brother-in-law, E. C. Thompson, re- turned from California, with favorable reports; and as he was organizing a small party to come again to this State, Mr. Terry concluded to come with them. One of the company was DeWitt C. Alden, a merchant of Bath. They sailed on the new steamer Sierra Nevada, on her first trip to the Isthinus, where they were detained eleven days, and thence to San Francisco, being forty- two days on the way. From Panama they came on the old steamer New Orleans, with a thousand on board,-twice as many as there was properly room for. The party proceeded on through Sacramento to Coloma and Georgetown, near which latter place they engaged in mining for six months. The experience here was very rough for a young man brought up as a stu- dent in the luxurious East. In September the company dissolved. Thompson returned East, where he has since amassed a fortune in dealing in mining lands, and Mr. Terry came to Sac- ramento. After recovering from an attack of typhoid fever, he started a school at Washing- ton, across the river, where he soon collected some thirty pupils; but the great fire of Novem- ber, which for a time absolutely ruined Sacra- mento, broke up the school, as about half the number of his pupils resided in Sacramento. He next became clerk in the office of L. P. Simp-

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son, the Inmberman on Second street, and there he met Mr. Friend, as before stated. Mr. Terry became interested in the New England saw- mill about nine miles above Auburn, a mill which cut 3,000,000 or 4,000,000 feet of lum- ber per year; and it was this fact that induced him and Mr. Friend to form a partnership in the lumber business, although they had virtu- ally no cash capital. In 1879 A. M. Simpson, of San Francisco, an early and very successful Inmber merchant, mill and ship owner, and Messrs. Holt & Son of Humboldt County, with extensive holdings in Redwood district, became · interested with Mr. Terry in the lumber branch of his business, and the present joint stock com- pany was formed. Reference should here be made to the Pioneer Box Company of which Mr. Terry is also president, with Mr. H. P. Martin as superintendent. The business was origini- nally started in 1874 by Mr. Matthew Cooke‘ the' distinguished etymologist, and ten years later wasincorporated by the present owners, who have just erected new and additional works of large capacity on the river front near T street, an indication of growth and prosperity. Enor- mons quantities of sugar-pine and fir lumber are here converted into crates, fruit baskets, boxes and packing cases of cvery description. The very latest machinery and appliances are used for this purpose, and spur railroad tracks are employed at both factories and warehouses to facilitate operations. The subject of this sketch seems to regard his twenty years' experience in the ice business as being fairly conspicuous above successes in any of the other industries with which he has been prominently identified, probably because in that line much greater ob- stacles and more determined opposition have been encountered. As president of the Boca Ice Company he was largely instrumental in forming the present Union Ice Company, which incorporated in 1882 and selected Lloyd Tevis and W. E. Terry as president and vice-president respectively. The organization was really a con- solidation of the six principal ice companies in California, and the fact that during a prolonged

and bitter war for supremacy, strong animosity had arisen, made the task of uniting them very difficult . of accomplishment. Mr. Terry las never sought political preferment; and the only occasion when he consented to hold office was in 1857, as alderman. Formerly he was a Doug- las Democrat, but for many years he has been a Republican. He is a thorough business man, a genial companion and an affectionate husband and parent. He is respected and honored by all who have the pleasure of his acquaintance. Mr. Terry was married at San Francisco in 1860, by Rev. Starr King, to Miss Lanra A. Morrill. a native of Maine. Their children are: Mae A., Laura E., Joseph E. and Wallace Irving. The last mentioned is now attending the State University at Berkeley, senior class, while the elder son has recently been promoted to the position of manager for the Friend & Terry Lumber Company.

ETER FLAHERTY, of the firm of Neary & Flaherty, proprietors of the Windsor Hotel, Sacramento, is a native of County Galway, Ireland, born May 21, 1847, his parents being Timothy and Bridget (Donahue) Fla- herty. When he was but a mere child of three months, the family came to America, and located at Bangor, Maine, where he was reared. His first employment was as bell-boy in a hotel, and after a year at that occupation he went on a steamboat in the coast trade. During the last year of the war, while aboard a Government transport, he was at nearly every harbor from Maine to Galveston. In 1868 he came to Cali- fornia, leaving New York January 15, on the steamer San Francisco, and after crossing Nica- ragna, took passage on the Moses Taylor for San Francisco, where he arrived February 15, 1868. He commenced steamboating on the Sac- ramento as office boy on the steamer Capital, and so continued for a year and a half. IIe then accepted employme.it on the street railway system of San Francisco, and was so engaged

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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.

for nearly two years. He then came to Sacra- inento and became shipping clerk for Henry Fisher, continning in that employ until 1876. He then engaged in the liquor business on Sixth street, between J and K streets. A year later he opened another place at 614 J street, and was in that block until the fall of 1887. On the 6th of November of that year, in connection with Fred Feary, he enter into the hotel business in the Windsor Hotel. This house was remod- eled in 1884 by its owner, John Q. Brown, and was conducted by William F. McFadden until the present proprietor took control. The Wind- sor is a successful house under the present man- agement, and reflects credit on the gentlemen who have built it up to its present standing. Mr. Flaherty gives his personal attention to the house. He was married in Sacramento July 1, 1877, to Miss Mary Doyle, a native of Mobile, Alabama, who came to Sacramento when an in- fant of three months. They have two living children, viz .: Mary Ethel and Coleman. Mr. Flaherty joined Company G (Sarsfield Guards) as a private, and rose through the grades of Corporal, Sergeant and Lieutenant, which latter he held for years. He is still a member of the company, though his business does not allow him to hold official positions for lack of time. He is also a member Owosso Tribe, Order of Red Meu, and of the Young Men's Institute. In politics he takes an active interest. Mr. Flaherty is a genial landlord and a popular man.

RED NEARY, of the firm of Neary & Flaherty, was born in County Roscommon, Ireland, Angust 4, 1855, and is a son of John and Hattie Neary. He spent his boyhood days at his native place, and in 1873 came to America, locating at Lowell, Massachusetts. From there he came to Sacramento, and learned the trade of boot and shoemaking with James Parsons. Afterward he was in business for him- self about two years, then commenced clerking in the Red House, where he was engaged about

five years, or until he embarked in the hotel business. In 1875 he became a member of Company G (Sarsfield Guards), in which he held all the non-commissioned offices and rose as high as Lieutenant. He became Adjutant of the First Artillery Regiment in 1882, and held that posi- tion until 1887, when he was elected Major of the regiment, his present position. His stand- ing in the military is a measure of the esteem in which he is held by his friends.

ENRY WEINREICH, one of the well- . known and long-time residents of Sacra- mento, is a native of Bavaria, now in the empire of Germany, born near Kaiserslautern, on the 10th day of December, 1823, his parents being Charles and Henrietta (Silverman) Wein- reich, the father a comb mannfacturer by occu- pation. Henry Weinreich spent his boylfood days at the place of his birth, receiving his edu- cation in the Government schools, between the ages of six and fourteen years, receiving con- siderable knowledge of business also, while en- gaged with an uncle, a wholesale merchant. He was but a boy when he determined to come to America, and in January, 1839, he sailed from Havre in the American sailing vessel Creole, bound for New Orleans, which port he reached on the 14th of April, having worked his passage across the Atlantic. He remained in New Or- leans for some time, aud there met some people with whom he was acquainted. He went up the rivers to Cincinnati, and thence into the country in Hamilton County, Ohio, where he worked for some time. He next went to Colum- bus, and there worked for a firm naned Com- stock & Clark, who were extensively engaged in the patent-medicine business. In May, 1842, he went to Van Buren County, Iowa, where he obtained employment with a man named Phil- lips, agent for the Sac and Fox Indians, who were then being moved to the Raccoon Forks, and Mr. Weinreich went there on that business, afterward returning to Van Buren County. He

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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY.

made several trips between the two localities, being engaged with his employer in all five or six months. His next employment was cutting walnut logs on Fox Island, and running them down the river to St. Louis, this being the com- inencement of that enterprise. He next went to the pineries of Wisconsin, and had an ex- tended experience. He was the first man to strike an axe into the timber at the present site of Ean Claire. Chippewa Falls and other local- ities well known now in the lumber industry were visited by him when in their infancy. In connection with another man he built a saw- mill, and did a large business in the manufact- ure of lumber. That region, however, was not well suited to his health, and in 1850 he went to St. Angustine, Texas, where he kept a res- taurant. In the latter part of 1851, in company with thirteen others, he started for California. They went to New Orleans, thence to the city of Mexico (by team and on horseback) and from there to Acapulco. They there took passage on the schooner Gnadalonpe No. 1 for San Fran- cisco, paying their fares to the captain before the vessel started, that official saying he would take on provisions at Mazatlan. When they touched there it was found that the captain had got rid of all the passage money, and the representa- tives of the company owning the boat held her, and would furnish no supplies. The American consul was applied to by the passengers, but could not help them out of their dilemma. They then concluded to take the matter in their own hands, and, running the vessel out of the harbor without a clearance, they put into Cape St. Lucas, where they bought and killed cattle and dried the meat in the sun, also taking some live animals on board. They obtained other sup- plies at San José, Mexico, and then proceeded to San Francisco, which port they reached after a voyage of sixty-four days, and there turned the vessel over to the captain. Mr. Weinreich went to Tuolumne County, where he engaged in manufacturing shingles, and also took a contract for making 100,000 shingles. In the fall of 1852 he went out of that business, and putting

np a building in Sonora went into the mercan- tile trade. In the fall of 1854 he came to Sac- ramento, and engaged in the cigar and patent medicine business, which engaged his attention until the fall of 1856, three wagons being em- ployed by him at that time, as his trade was wide-spread throughout the mining camps. His next occupation was keeping a billiard hall, and in 1858 he embarked in cattle-ranching on a tract of land adjoining the Haggin grant, and shortly afterward drove up here from Los An- geles County 220 head of horses. He traveled nearly eight years for a San Francisco firin and also carried on business at Markleeville for a time. In 1868 he established his present busi- ness next door to the number now occupied by him, into which he moved in 1878, though he is the owner also of buildings adjoining. Mr. Weinreich was married in Sonora, in February, 1853, to Miss Anna Weber, a native of Hanover. They have four children, viz .: Laura, Addie, wife of H. C. Chipman, member of the Board of Education; Charles and Katie. Mr. Wein- reich is one of the old-time members of Tehama - Lodge, A. F. & A. M., having joined in 1856. He is also a member of the Red Men, and of the Sacramento Turn-Verein.

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Author: Davis, Winfield J., 1851- 4n Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 916

Author: Davis, Winfield J., 1851- 4n
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 916