History of Humboldt County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 100

Author: Irvine, Leigh H. (Leigh Hadley), 1863-1942
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Los Angeles, Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1328

USA > California > Humboldt County > History of Humboldt County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 100

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IIISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

his district, where he is one of the influential members of the Republican party.

Mr. Baldwin is a native of Chatham, Northumberland county, New Brunswick, where he was born September 27, 1858. Here he spent his boy- hood days on the farm of his father, attending school in the winter and assisting with the farm work in the summer months. After finishing his school course he went to work in the woods, but continued to live at home with his parents until he was twenty-one years of age. At that time he went to Pennsylvania, as the wages in the United States were better than those paid in Canada. Here he also worked in the lumber camps, remain- ing until 1883. In the spring of that year he returned to his home in New Brunswick and began his preparations for coming to California, where it was known there was great demand for men, and where the wages were high. In the fall he made his start, and arrived in Sonoma county the first month of the following year (1884). There was no delay in securing em- ployment, and his first work was for a man named French at Guerneville. Later he was employed by Brown & Armstrong for a year at the same place.

It was in 1887 that Mr. Baldwin first came to Humboldt county. He remained but a short time, however, going to Fresno county, where he found better opportunities at that time. Here he was for a year employed in the sugar pine woods, lumbering in the Sierra Nevada mountains. In 1889, he was married in Sonoma county, and soon returned to Humboldt county, where he has since resided. In the fall of 1889 he went to work for the Korbel Lumber Company, and in the spring of 1890 took charge of the work of road building for this company. which at that time was known as the Humboldt Milling Company ; afterwards this company was absorbed by the Northern Redwood Lumber Company. He continued with this company in charge of their road construction work until 1906.

During all the time of his employment in Humboldt county, Mr. Bald- win had been actively interested in securing land for himself. He had taken up several claim's in the mountains and had lived on one of these for five years, while working for this company. He had also purchased a ranch. of seventy-two acres, all improved land.

It was in 1906 that Mr. Baldwin purchased his present home site of five acres at Blue Lake and at the same time he gave up working for the North- ern Redwood Lumber Company, and accepted a position with Stanley Thompson, getting out ship timbers, and remained in his employ for two years. While with Mr. Thompson he was nominated supervisor for the third district on the Republican ticket, and was elected for a term of four years in 1908. In 1912 he was reelected, and at present serves the public in this capacity. He is exceedingly conscientious in his application to his duties as supervisor and he never allows anything to interfere with the affairs of his office. He is familiar with the road work, and his practical knowledge of road construction is invaluable to the county and is a valuable asset among the many abilities of the supervisor from the third district.

The marriage of Mr. Baldwin to Miss Mary Angeline Carr occurred in Sonoma county, at the home of the bride's parents, July 3, 1889. Mrs. Baldwin is a native of Pennsylvania, where she was born March 21, 1871. She came to California with her parents who located in Sonoma county

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HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

about 1875. Her father, William Carr, has followed the fortunes of the farmer for the greater part of his life, and is at present located on a ranch at Guerneville, Sonoma county, where he is well and favorably known. Mrs. Baldwin has become the mother of four children: William C., James D., Nellie G. and John, the latter deceased. The eldest son, William C., is a graduate of the Eureka business college, and is manager of the People's Store in Arcata : James D. is attending the Oregon Agricultural College in Corvallis, Oregon : Nellie G. is attending the Humboldt State Normal school at Arcata.

Mr. Baldwin has been very successful since coming to Humboldt county and is today classed as one of the most progressive and sterling citizens of the county. He is a man of broad mind and progressive ideas, with an unusual understanding of public questions and is especially well informed along all business and political lines. He is recognized as a man of abso -. lutely sound business principles and his dealings with his fellowmen have been of such a character that his word is as good as his bond wherever he is known.

Aside from his business and political associations, Mr. Baldwin is well known in certain fraternal circles, where he is interested, although he is not what is known as a lodgeman. He is a prominent member of the Odd Fel- lows, and is one of the veteran members of the order in this section of the state, having joined Redwood Lodge, No. 281, I. O. O. F., at Guerneville in 1885, but is now a member of Blue Lake Lodge, No. 347, 1. O. O. F., of which he is past grand and the present secretary.

Mr. Baldwin is the son of Daniel Baldwin and Mary ( Mclaughlin) Baldwin, both natives of New Brunswick, where he himself was born. His father was born in 1819, and the greater part of his life he was a tiller of the soil. For a short time he varied this by lumbering in the adjoining woods. He died at the age of eighty-one years. The mother of Mr. Baldwin is also dead, having passed away in 1889. Her entire life had been spent almost within sight of the place of her birth. She was a woman of great strength of character and of deep maternal affection, and her influence on the lives of her children cannot be overestimated. She was the mother of nine children, five of whom are living, Mr. Baldwin being the fifth in order of birth.

WILLIAM JAMES TURNER .- As president of the Garberville Mer- cantile Company, and one of the principal stockholders in this corporation, William James Turner is one of the prominent and influential citizens of Garberville, where he has made his home for many years. He has owned and operated a blacksmith shop here for a number of years past. Descended from a long line of Irish ancestry, he was born in County Armagh, Ireland, July 12, 1861, the son of Robert and Margaret (McCreary) Turner, both natives of Ireland, where they lived and died. The father was a wagon- maker, carpenter and blacksmith, and had a large establishment for the manu- facture of wagons, farm implements and tools, besides doing repair work and much general blacksmithing, and often employed as many as sixty men at a time. There were four children in the family, one daughter and three sons. Of these the daughter died in infancy, and the three sons all came to America, eventually settling in California. Joseph became a machinist and was for a short time located in San Francisco, later coming to Garberville, where he

William Turner ·cuses

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HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

opened a machine and blacksmith shop, and owned and operated a stock ranch on the south fork of the Eel river. He had married before leaving Ireland, and was accompanied by his wife when he came to California. At his death, in 1880, he left a widow and three daughters, and the widow has since died. John also came to Humboldt county and for a time had charge of the brother's stock ranch on the Eel river, where he died.

William James Turner spent his boyhood days in Ireland, where he attended the common and high schools of his native village. He began to work in his father's shop when he was a boy and grew up with the trade, becoming a skilled blacksmith and machinist. It was in 1885 that he came to America, coming to California, where his older brothers had preceded him by several years. He went at once to the ranch on the south fork of Eel river, where his older brother, Joseph, had died in 1880. The ranch was then being conducted by his brother John. Later W. J. Turner bought a blacksmith shop in Garberville, and built up a splendid trade, through the rendering of prompt and efficient service. He still owns and operates this shop, which is one of the best known in the community.

The marriage of Mr. Turner took place in Eureka, in 1909, uniting him to Miss Emma Kemper, born in Sonoma county, the daughter of C. W. and Margaret (Merritt) Kemper. Her parents were well known in Garberville, where they lived for many years, and where both passed away.

Aside from his business as a machinist and blacksmith, Mr. Turner has been in close touch with the affairs of Garberville during his long residence here, and is an influential citizen. When the Garberville Mercantile Com- pany was organized in 1911 he was one of the prime movers and also a heavy investor in the stock of the company, and was chosen its first president, which position he still fills. Other officers of the corporation are: E. R. Linser, vice-president ; John W. Hamilton, secretary-treasurer, while the Bank of Humboldt County is the depository.

In addition to their general merchandising business, which is probably the largest business of its kind in southern Humboldt county, the company own and operate two stage lines, connecting Garberville with adjacent terri- tory. Their business on these lines is important and extensive. They employ three drivers and one hostler on each line, own twenty-five horses, which they use in this connection, and lately have also put on an automobile truck.

Mr. Turner has been almost phenomenally successful in his business ventures, and his judgment and foresight are such as to enable him to make many successful investments and business ventures. He is well informed, a good financier, and a careful and capable business manager. In all his interests he has had the sympathy and cooperation of his wife, who is a woman of rare ability and judgment. Both Mr. and Mrs. Turner are highly respected in Garberville, and enjoy the friendship of a wide circle of acquaintances. They are members of the Presbyterian church and regular attendants of its services. Mr. Turner is a Republican in his political affiliations, but has never been actively associated with the affairs of his party outside of local issues. He is progressive and an independent thinker, and has always worked for the welfare and general betterment of his home city and community.

Mr. Turner is a true Irishman in that he is very proud of his ancestry and nativity, although he is a true and loyal son of his adopted state. Mrs. Turner represents one of the oldest and most highly respected pioneer families of

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HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

California, her parents having come to this state in the pioneer days, and made it their home since that time.

ALEXANDER LAMB .- One of the wealthy stockmen of Rohnerville, Alexander Lamb has been a resident of Humboldt county since 1866, coming to the Pacific coast immediately after the close of the Civil war, throughout which he had served with honor and distinction. His parents had come to California during his time of military service and as soon as he was mus- tered out he joined them. They were then engaged in the stock business and Mr. Lamb, who is now the only living member of the family, has since continued in this line with exceptional success. Since 1866 he has been fifty-one years in the saddle, and has probably ridden more miles on horse- back than any other man of Humboldt county. Under the corporate name of Lamb Brothers Company, they own nine thousand acres of stock-ranch land in the Ball Hills, twenty miles east of Rohnerville, where he manages an extensive stock ranch. He is president and manager of the company, and is a man of strict integrity, progressive and industrious, and stands exceptionally high in his home community. His home place is an eighty- acre ranch on the main road between Rohnerville and Hydesville, which he operates himself.

Mr. Lamb is a native of Indiana, born in Monroe county in 1845. His father, also Alexander Lamb, was a native of North Carolina, as also was his mother, Abigail Trodgen, her parents being descended from an old Southern family of distinction. The father was a farmer and removed to Indiana shortly after his marriage, and there a family of nine children were born, the present respected citizen of Rohnerville being the eighth child, and the only one now living. When he was but a small child the family removed to Lucas county, Iowa, where he grew to maturity, attending the public schools and working on his father's farm. At the age of seventeen he re- sponded to the call of President Lincoln for volunteers, and enlisted in Company L, Eighth lowa Cavalry, in 1863. He was mustered in at Daven- port, drew horses at Louisville, Ky., and entered the Army of the Tennessee, being in the battles from Resaca to the taking of Atlanta, then fighting under General Thomas at the battles of Franklin and Nashville, where General Hood's army was annihilated. Mr. Lamb served until the close of the war, making a splendid record for courage and daring, and was never wounded, although he had many narrow escapes, having two horses shot from under him in one day. The company was mustered out at Clinton, lowa, and Mr. Lamb returned home to find that his parents and family had migrated to California, having crossed the plains with wagons in 1864. He himself made the trip by way of the Isthmus of Panama, arriving in San Francisco, June 19, 1866, joining his parents and brothers and sisters at Rohnerville, where he has since made his home.

The marriage of Mr. Lamb occurred at Hydesville, uniting him with Miss Frances Palmer, a native of Missouri. Of their union were born six children. five of whom are living. They are all natives of Humboldt county, and are well and favorably known in Rohnerville, where they have been reared and educated. They are: Winfield, Leonard, Henry, Abigail (de- ceased), Charles and Ray.

Mr. Lamb is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and is particularly proud of his war record. The standing of his family since first

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HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

they came to Humboldt county more than fifty years ago has been such as to place any representative of the name in high favor, and of this, too, Mr. Lamb is very proud. He is progressive and broad-minded, and has always given of his best for the general welfare of the community.

PETER NICHOLAS J. PETERSEN .- As one of the demonstrators of the Farm Bureau of Humboldt county, Peter Nicholas J. Petersen is well known throughout the county, and is in very close touch with the farmers and their needs. He himself has been actively engaged in farming since he was a young man and so has a very wide practical knowledge of the existing conditions. For the past season he has been demonstrating the value of lime as a fertilizer in the raising of alfalfa and has been very suc- cessful in gaining the attention and co-operation of the farmers. He is associated in this work with A. H. Christiansen, farm advisor for the county, who is in charge of the demonstration work. Mr. Petersen's own ranch is three-quarters of a mile south of Grizzly Bluff and consists of sixty acres, being generally known as the old Wooldridge place. It is one of the best kept and most attractive places in the vicinity, a credit to its owner and a source of pride to the neighborhood.

Mr. Petersen is a native of Abenrade, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, and was sixteen years of age when he came to America. He is the son of A. E. Petersen, well known throughout the Ferndale district as a man of great strength of character and purpose of mind. He and his forbears were natives of Schleswig, born there when it was a part of Denmark. He owned a splendid dairy farm and was one of the prosperous men of the community, but the German dominion was so offensive that he disposed of his holdings there, and together with his wife and family migrated to America, in 1894, locating in Humboldt county, Cal., where he purchased a farm. The son, Peter Nicholas, the subject of this article, has inherited many of the splen- did qualities of heart and mind that distinguished his forefathers. He at- tended the public schools in Schleswig, where he was born, June 24, 1878. learning both the Danish and the German language. The family was a large one, and although the family was in good circumstances it was neces- sary for the boys to work whenever they were not in school. This same condition maintained after their coming to America, and for five or six years Nicholas worked on the various farms in the neighborhood, and then rented the Sam Fulmer ranch on Eel River Island for three years, this being a dairy ranch of eighty acres. Following this he rented the Joe Shaw ranch at Centerville, where he continued to engage in dairy farming for six years. At that time, in 1913, he purchased his present place, where he has established a permanent home. With a passing glance at this place today it is plain to see that the owner is a man of ability and industry. The dwelling house, yard, fields, pastures, orchard, water supply, and large new dairy barn all speak of and for the man who is responsible for them. When he purchased the place he at once remodeled the dwelling, and everything else has been brought up to the same standard of excellence, the dairy barn being the last word in scientific construction.

The marriage of Mr. Petersen in Ferndale, November 15, 1911, united him with Miss Johanna Linnemann, a native of Sorup, Jutland, Denmark, the daughter of Carl Linnemann, who followed farming in that country until his death. Mrs. Petersen finished her training in the school of domestic

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HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

science at Sjaelland, and afterwards was a teacher of this science in Copen- hagen, continuing this until she came to California for a visit. In Hum- boldt county she met Mr. Petersen and their marriage followed in Ferndale, as above stated. She is a woman of rare personal charm and has gathered about her a circle of warm friends. She has one child, a daughter, Edith.

Quite apart from his responsible position as farm demonstrator for the county, and also from his popularity as a man of affairs, Mr. Petersen occu- pies a place of prominence in the fraternal, religious and governmental affairs of his community. He is especially prominent among the fraternal orders with a large Danish membership, and has been active in the affairs of the local organization of the Danish Brotherhood, of which he has been a member for many years. He is a member of the Lutheran church at Fern- dale, and keenly interested in all its activities. In his political views Mr. Petersen is a Republican and has taken an intelligent part in the local affairs of his party. He is, however, essentially interested in his own busi- ness affairs, and his success therein is far more vital to him than any obso- lete political problem. In all questions that affect the local improvement and progress he is keenly alive to their full importance and ready to give his earnest support for the betterment of the community, county, state, or nation.

CHARLES WESCOTT .- Coming to Scotia in 1900 from South San Francisco, where ill health had forced him to resign from a lucrative posi- tion, Charles Wescott accepted a minor position with the Pacific Lumber Company at this place and steadily worked his way upward, until in 1910 he was made foreman of the drying department for the Scotia mills, which important position he now fills, having charge of the dry kilns and of the handling of all the lumber in that department. The importance of the work that he controls may be easily understood when it is known that the freight rates on lumber from the coast to the Missouri river points are forty-two cents per hundredweight, sixty-five cents to Chicago, and seventy-five cents to New York; and that while a foot of green redwood lumber, fresh from the saw, weighs seven and one-half pounds, the same lumber, skillfully dried in the kilns, weighs but two and one-half pounds. Thus it is seen that the drying process is a wonderful saving in freight rates, and that the work is necessarily intrusted to a man of great reliability.

Mr. Wescott is a native of New York, having been born in Essex county, June 12, 1875. His father, Leander Wescott, was a farmer of Essex county and was very well-to-do. He was born in Essex county, at Wescott Hill, which was named for his grandfather, Oliver Wescott, who came to America from England in Colonial times. Oliver Wescott was a patriot of the truest type, and together with his son, the grandfather of the present respected citizen of Scotia, fought in the Revolutionary War, both being engaged in the battle of Plattsburg, where they fought side by side. Charles Wescott grew to young manhood in Essex county, attending public and high schools of the district, working on his father's farm, and in the woods, the latter occupation appealing to him most strongly. The Wescott home was located in the woods, and while yet a boy he learned all the craft of the woodsman. There were seven children in the family, two sons and five daughters, only two of whom are living at this time, the other member being Mrs. Daisy Hathaway, of Lewis, Essex county, N. Y. The parents are both

Sherman Stockhoff

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HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

deceased, the father having lived to be sixty-three years of age, and the mother to be sixty. When Mr. Wescott was twenty-two years of age he forsook the home farm and came to California, and in 1897 engaged in the meat packing business, working his way up until he became foreman of the Western Meat Company at South San Francisco, where he remained for three years. His health broke down at that time and he was obliged to seek employment in a different climate. Quite naturally his inclination turned him toward the lumber woods, and he went to Eureka, where he remained for a short time, and then came to Scotia, where he entered the employ of the Pacific Lumber Company in the spring of 1900. For a time he was engaged as a handler of lumber, but his ability and application made his promotion certain, and after a time he was made foreman of the old dry kiln, holding this position for a year and a half, then becoming assistant foreman of mill yard "A." This position he filled for three years, when he became foreman, and was later transferred to the dry kilns.

Mr. Wescott is deeply interested in his work and is of a mechanical turn of mind, having made numerous changes and improvements in the dry kilns which have greatly increased their efficiency. He is an adept in the use of tools, in cabinet work and in the methods of finishing and polishing the various kinds of woods that are found in Humboldt county. One of the most interesting things that he has discovered is a method for finishing up boards cut out of redwood bark. He gives them a soft, plush-like finish which makes very novel and beautiful furniture, and of these he has made various pieces of furniture for his own home. Formerly Mr. Wescott was fire chief of Scotia and filled the office very capably. He is also exception- ally well liked by the employees of the Pacific Lumber Company who are under his direction, and also by his employers. He is firm and exact, but always fair and reasonable.

The marriage of Mr. Wescott and Miss Vera Locke, of Grand Island, Neb., occurred in Scotia in 1911. They are now the parents of two small daughters: Verda and Ione. Both Mr. and Mrs. Wescott are popular socially and have many friends in Scotia. Mr. Wescott also takes an active part in the local fraternal affairs. He is an influential member of a number of local orders, including the Knights of Pythias, Weeott Tribe, No. 147. I. O. R. M., and the Modern Woodmen.

ULYSSES SHERMAN STOCKHOFF .- One of the prominent resi- dents of Elk River, Cal., where he is engaged in farming and as overseer of a section of the road, Ulysses Sherman Stockhoff is well known and liked as a progressive and enterprising man in that section of Humboldt county.

The parents of Mr. Stockhoff came to California in the early days, his father being John Henry Stockhoff, a native of Oldenburg, Germany, who became a cattle dealer in Iowa, where he married Charity Ann Winters, who was born in Tennessee, but came to Missouri with her parents when a child. where she grew up. In the '60s, John Henry Stockhoff crossed the plains with ox teams to Nevada, where for a year he engaged in ranching, coming thence to California, and locating in Sonoma county, where he spent a year in chopping wood. The next year he was engaged in making ties, etc., hiring as an assistant to his boss of the previous year, and later took up contracting and teaming near Fort Ross, took a homestead there, which he cleared and improved, operating a dairy thereon and buying adjacent land,

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HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

so that he had a large stock ranch and dairy of about eight hundred acres at the time of his death, which occurred in 1914, his wife having passed away in 1893. They were the parents of five sons and one daughter, Ulysses Sherman Stockhoff being the third oldest of the family, the names of the children being as follows: Mary A., now Mrs. Zeek, residing at the old home at Fort Ross; Samuel H., a stock man in Larabee valley, Humboldt county ; Ulysses Sherman, a farmer of Humboldt county ; John F., a farmer near Elk River Corners; William S., who went to Alaska, and has not been heard from; and Cornelius, who for years has been driving the stage for Holloway out of Point Arena, and is well known in Mendocino county.

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History of Humboldt County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 100

Author: Irvine, Leigh H. (Leigh Hadley), 1863-1942 Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Los Angeles, Historic Record Company Number of Pages: 1328

Author: Irvine, Leigh H. (Leigh Hadley), 1863-1942
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Los Angeles, Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1328