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 104

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 104

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Mr. Essig is engaged in ranching and in horticulture at Shively, where he owns eight acres a quarter of a mile above the town, and rents the Pacific Lumber Company ranch of twenty acres, just north of Shively, on which he has a lease. This property is principally devoted to orchard, and he is producing some exceptionally fine apples and making a specialty of raising tomatoes, in which he is making a decided financial success. Mr. Essig is a native of Indiana, born at Arcadia, February 8, 1862, the youngest of a family of fifteen children, there being ten sons and five daughters. His father, Henry Essig, was a native of Wurtemburg, Germany ; he was a cabinet-maker and farmer, and a member of the Lutheran church. He came to America at the age of sixteen years and located in Allentown, Pa., and was there married to Caroline Bosler, who bore his children and died at the age of sixty-nine years, the father living to be seventy-nine and dying in Indiana, whither he had removed with his family many years before.

Frank Essig was reared and educated in Indiana, and at the age of eighteen years started out in life for himself. At this age he was married to Miss Belle Todd (his first wife), and soon afterward the death of his father called him back to the home farm, which he then managed for five years. He was twenty-seven when he finally came to California, locating first in Sonoma county, and later moving to Napa county. His first wife had died before he left Indiana, and while residing at Santa Rosa, Napa county, Mr. Essig was again married, July 5, 1889, to Mrs. Fannie (Morris) Owens, the widow of James Owens, by whom she had five children. Mrs. Owens was the daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Halverstadt) Morris,

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well known California pioneers. But three of the children by her first marriage lived to maturity, and of these, Elmer resides in San Francisco, Isabelle is the widow of Jesse Doss and resides in Lake county, and Luella is the wife of William Bernhardt, and resides at Gardner, Douglas county, Ore. Mr. and Mrs. Essig have become the parents of four children, two sons and two daughters, all of whom are well known in Humboldt county. They are: Hattie, the wife of Harry Thompson, an engineer of the Pacific Lumber Company at Shively, and the mother of three children, John, Donald, and Glenn; Fred, a student at the University of California, at Berkeley; Charles, an electrician, with the Western Electric Company, in San Francisco; and Caroline, the wife of Lester Thornton, residing in For- tuna, and the mother of one child, a son, Maxwell. Mr. Essig's first wife left him two little sons, who were aged, respectively, four and six years at the time of his second marriage, and they were reared by the present Mrs. Essig as her own. Of these, the elder, Samuel H., is horticultural inspector in Ventura county, and married to Miss Hazel Crabtree, of Rohnerville; and Edward Oliver is professor of entomology at the University of Cali- fornia, at Berkeley, and the author of "Injurious and Beneficial Insects of California," ex-secretary of the State Board of Horticulture, and an expert horticulturist and an authority on this subject. He is married to Miss Ethel M. Langford, of Eureka.

Mr. Essig continued to reside in Sonoma county for two years after his second marriage, and then removed to Calistoga, Napa county, where he remained for three years, then going to Oregon, where he farmed at Florence, Lane county, for another three years. At the end of this time he came to Humboldt county, and has since resided here. He located at Fortuna, in February, 1895. farming and working for the Pacific Lumber Company in various capacities, and meeting with success in all his under- takings. He has taken an active part in the political and municipal affairs of his community since coming to Shively and is one of the most influential men of this part of the county. He is a Democrat, but is broader than any party and gives his support to the measures that are most beneficial to the community, and to the candidates who are best fitted to render valuable public service. Mr. Essig is keenly alive to the value of education, and has given to each of his children the best educational advantages that the day affords. In local educational matters he is always for giving the best of school advantages to the boys and girls, and has rendered valuable service as a member of the school board and has served as clerk of the board. He is also a member of and clerk of Shively Farm Center.

OSCAR RASSAERT .- A well known architect and chemist, as well as inventor and mining man, one who for some years has been intensely interested in scientific research regarding the extraction of valuable metals from the black sand, is Oscar Rassaert, a man of whom this state may well be proud. He has perfected a plan in which by an electrical chemical process he has been enabled to make a perfect separation of gold, platinum and iridium by amalgamation. He has also invented a machine, which he is now building at Eureka, Cal., for concentrating the sand and gravel before the separating process, having also built an extracting plant in the same town, enabling miners to get values extracted at a minimum expense. It will thus

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HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

be seen that the genius of Mr. Rassaert has brought forward another industry in the county, and one that materially benefits the mining interests of the entire state.

The Rassaert family is of Belgian extraction, being traced back in that country to the year 1342, and its members were prominent in the mercantile interests of their native land. Mr. Rassaert's father, Prosper, was a success- ful architect and contractor in the city of Ghent, Belgium, where he became one of the prominent and wealthy citizens, and there his son Oscar was born and received a thorough education in private and high schools, after which he began the study of architecture in the Academie of Beaux Arts of Ghent, and graduated with the diploma of architect and engineer. Practicing in the city of Ghent and perfecting plans for buildings not only in that city, but throughout Belgium, Mr. Rassaert spent his vacations in travel in various countries of Europe, where he continued his study of architecture. His was a profession which took him far afield, for in 1903 he set out for Lima, Peru, to compete for the plans for the Grand Opera House in that South American city, but on his arrival in San Francisco, Cal., he learned that, on account of political troubles in Peru and consequent turmoil there, it would not be advisable for him to continue his journey to Lima. Accordingly, he concluded to remain in San Francisco. He was instrumental in forming the Ferrolite Company, architects and builders, who were engaged in building in that city, and after the great fire in its rebuilding. They also experimented for the Western Fuel Company, wherein they made the first successful ex- periments with reinforced concrete. On account of his health, in the autumn of 1906 Mr. Rassaert went into the mountains to recuperate, and while in Plumas county became interested in placer mining, his knowledge of chemistry leading him to experiment and study to discover a manner of extracting gold from the black sand, and by his success in this experiment was the first man to accomplish the endeavor. During this period Mr. Rassaert visited many different mining districts of California, in 1912 coming to Humboldt county, where the Johnson mine was located north of Gold Bluff. A year later he purchased the lease of the Gold Bluff mine, which he has operated continuously since that time, the mine being situated seven miles north of the town of Orick, on the Pacific ocean, and extending for two miles along the coast. Here the ocean waves take the first step in the concentration process as they break against the bluff, whereafter the machine invented by Mr. Rassaert concentrates the beach sand containing valuable metals, separating by his original process the metals from the black sand : and as he also does the separating of the metals he thus obtains the largest possible values from them.

It will thus be seen that Mr. Rassaert is a man who gets results by his own energy and brain ; he works entirely for the end in view, and thus is enabled to accomplish his ambition and thus, too, by his enterprise and pro- gressive spirit he has made a success of mining to a greater extent and in different and more original ways than most men. Indeed, his is a career which many might do well to emulate.

HITIE ROBINSON .- A stirring young man of energy and business ability, honest, fearless, and a hard worker, Hitie Robinson is making his mark in the commercial life of Humboldt county as a dealer in fresh and

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cured meats of all kinds, and also engaged in buying and selling beef, hogs, dairy cows and sheep. He has a market at Shively, where he makes his home. The management of the slaughter-houses, the buying and selling, and also the management of the market, are attended to by Mr. Robinson, duties which he is discharging with great ability and financial profit. His trade in live stock is large and is constantly increasing.

A native of California and of Humboldt county, Mr. Robinson was born at Rio Dell, April 14, 1877. His father, Seth Robinson, owns a ranch at Shively, where he now makes his home. He was a native of Ohio, and came to California in 1851, locating in Humboldt county in 1853 or 1854, and has since made this county his home. He has been engaged in farming during this entire time, and for many years was dairy farmer for the Joseph Russ ranches, looking after as many as thirteen dairies. He is now eighty- two years of age. Hitie Robinson attended the local schools and later spent three years in Eureka, where he attended the Phelps Academy. His first business venture was as a teamster, contracting for the getting out of piling, bolts, and all kinds of split timber and telephone poles. He con- tinted in the contracting business until he engaged in his present occupa- tion in 1913.

The marriage of Mr. Robinson and Miss Rosa Emhoff took place in 1900. Of their union has been born one child, a son, Gilbert. Mr. Robinson takes an active part in local political affairs, and has rendered valuable service to his community as justice of the peace, to which office he was first appointed in 1908, and was regularly elected in 1910. He was not a candidate for re-election, as the duties of the office require more time than he can give from his private business. In his political views Mr. Robinson is a Republican and stands high in the councils of his party in all local affairs.

BERT Q. KEESEY .- A native of Ohio, where he had made a success of stock-raising before he came to California, Bert Q. Keesey is now one of the well known fruit-growers and market-gardeners of the southern part of Humboldt county, making his home near Pepperwood, where he operates a ranch of forty acres. Mr. Keesey is industrious and progressive, the type of man that always succeeds in whatever he undertakes, because of the value and fidelity of his service, his splendid judgment and his careful attention to details. His father before him was engaged in market-garden- ing on a large scale in Ohio, and it seems an inherited ability with Mr. Keesey to till the soil and secure phenomenal results with fruits and vege- tables, and he is never happier than when so engaged.

Mr. Keesey was born at Cadiz, Ohio, August 31, 1870, where he was reared and educated, learning to work on his father's farm and in his gardens. His father, James B. Keesey, was a German, of frugal and indus- trious type, and the son learned the value of the conservation of all resources and attention to detail when he was a small boy. He became engaged in the stock business at Cadiz when he was a young man and met with much success. He was married there, August 3, 1890, to Miss Carrie L. Nichols, also a native of Cadiz, and they have six children : Harry is an automobile driver in San Francisco and a machinist by trade; Charles is a musician in Eureka. Paul, Laurance, Ray and Chester are still at home.

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The first trip that Mr. Keesey made to California was in 1895, and for a year he remained in the southern part of the state, coming to Humboldt county in October of that year, and buying a small place at Fortuna. For two summers he returned to Arkansas, where he was then making his home, but eventually returned to Humboldt county to reside permanently, bringing his wife and family with him. He now rents a forty-acre ranch on which he raises apples and other fruits, including small fruits and berries in abundance. All kinds of vegetables are grown and the entire place is in a splendid condition and one of the best cared for ranches in the vicinity. He retails the vegetables, making trips as far as Loleta and Ferndale.

The local affairs of the community have always been of vital importance to Mr. Keesey and he is especially well informed on all economic and educational subjects. He is a careful student, and in his political views is a Socialist. He is progressive and broad-minded and as a thinker is well in advance of his time. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen. His keenest interest, however, lies in the farm bureau of Humboldt county, in which he is an influential worker, being a member of the farm center at Rohnerville. Mrs. Keesey is the close companion and friend of her husband in all his business undertakings and is a member of the Christian church in Fortuna.

MATT L. WARNER .- Although a native of Texas, Matt L. Warner is descended from old California pioneer families, both his parents being natives of this state, and his grandparents respected pioneers of an early day, coming from Ohio and crossing the plains with ox-teams in 1849. Business interests took his parents to Texas, and there he was born, August 30, 1882, the son of Edmund and Rebekah (Amen) Warner. His mother was a native of Petaluma, and the family is well known there at this time. The father was a cabinet-maker, and died in Texas, their son, Matt L., being the only child born of their union. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Warner returned to California, locating in Los Angeles, where she died in 1898. After the death of his mother the son came to Humboldt county to make his home with an uncle, A. E. Amen, also a native of Cali- fornia, and residing at Pepperwood, where he has since made his home. He attended school both here and in Los Angeles, receiving a good educa- tion.

Since reaching his majority, young Mr. Warner has been in business for the greater part of his time in Pepperwood, being engaged in the general mercantile business, and has a splendid trade. Mr. Warner is also post- master at Pepperwood, having received his appointment in 1914, and having since that time given splendid satisfaction in his new duties. He is a young man of exemplary habits and of exceptionally good character. His marriage occurred in 1903, uniting him to Miss Caroline Alice Winemiller, the daugh- ter of Mrs. S. C. Winemiller, and a native of Humboldt county. She has borne her husband four children, namely: Wesley, Jiovanni, Newell and Clyde.

Mrs. S. C. Winemiller is a native of Iowa, and was formerly Miss Sarah C. Thompson. She was only a small child when her parents came to Cali- fornia, and she was reared and educated in this state. Mrs. Winemiller is a woman of much ability and withal has lost none of her true womanli-

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ness and old-fashioned charm of manner and speech, although entirely modern in business comprehension and appreciation. She has a host of friends in Pepperwood and vicinity, where she has resided for many years.

GEORGE W. McKINNON, M. D .- It was the privilege of Dr. McKin- non to receive his medical training in one of the greatest universities of America, an institution noted for the superior talents possessed by members of its faculty and also for the high character of its student body, this being none other than McGill University of Montreal, from whose medical depart- ment he was graduated in 1888 with an exceptional standing and with the thorough preparation necessary for the attainment of professional success. Prior to attendance at the famous Canadian college he had alternated at- tendance at local schools with work on the home farm on Prince Edward Island, where he was born February 22, 1867, and where his parents were of the hard-working but unusually efficient agricultural class. Two years after he had completed the studies of the university he came to California and opened an office in Eureka with Dr. William H. Wallace as an associate in professional work.

A partnership of remarkable harmony came to an end in 1898 with the removal of Dr. Mckinnon to Arcata, where he has since engaged in general practice, becoming widely known throughout all this section of the county and rising to local prominence solely through his own merit as a physician and surgeon. The need of a hospital at this point impressed him forcibly from the first and in 1909 he carried out a long-felt desire in the building of Trinity hospital at Arcata, a modern structure of twenty-five beds, up-to- date equipment and every facility for the efficient care of the sick. Two per- manent trained nurses are employed at the hospital and others are available if needed. The Doctor has been deeply interested in every movement per- taining to medical work and has studied current literature with painstaking zeal. During 1908 he was honored with the presidency of the Humboldt County Medical Association and besides he is connected with the California State and American Medical Associations. Fraternally he is a member of the orders of Elks, Eagles and Knights of Columbus. By his marriage to Miss Annie Richert, a native of California, he is the father of two sons, Harold R. and Wilfred C., both of whom are receiving excellent educational advantages.

JOHN W. BRYAN .- As one of the pioneer hotel men of Humboldt county, his father having been in this business when he was a child, John W. Bryan is well known to the traveling public and is highly esteemed by all who know him. He purchased his present place, which he named Bryan's Rest, a delightful summer resort, in 1890, and, with the aid of his wife, has made a splendid success of its management. He has one hundred twenty acres in the ranch, and the location is ideal for a tourist resort, being located on the Eel river, and having all the advantages of beauty of scenery, splendid table, with home cooking, fruits and vegetables, eggs, butter, milk and cream, supplied from the home farm orchards and gardens. The trans- portation facilities are also of the best, Bryan's Rest being directly on the line of the Northwestern Pacific Railway, with a station of its own, called Bryan. Mr. Bryan is an ideal host for such a place, being of that genial. happy-hearted disposition which immediately puts his guests at ease, and

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possessing those indispensable qualities of the capable landlord, the ability to anticipate their every wish, and satisfy it almost before it is made known. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bryan have had many years of successful hotel experi- ence, having had charge of the leading hotel in Fortuna for many years, and many of the guests that come regularly to Bryan's Rest are old friends of the former days.

Mr. Bryan is a native of Ohio, born in Adams county, as was also his father, William H. Bryan, and his mother, Frances J. Lockwood. The father was engaged in farming in Ohio, and in 1870, when John W. was sixteen years of age (he having been born July 20, 1854), the family removed to La Salle county, Ill., where they remained for two years. In 1872 the family, consisting at that time of the parents and five children, came to California, locating in Monterey county, at Monterey, where they remained for four years, the father being engaged in the hotel business and also owning and managing a livery stable. In 1876 they came to Rohner ville, Humboldt county, where the father was elected justice of the peace and appointed a notary, and for many years maintained an office there. He died in Rohnerville in 1908, at the age of seventy-four years, after a pro- tracted illness lasting four years. The mother passed away three years before this time. They had five children: Martha, now Mrs. Van Sickle, of Rohnerville; John W., the subject of this article; Maggie, who was Mrs. Thomas Thompson, a resident of San Francisco, where she died, leaving two children ; Albert, married and living in San Francisco, where he died, leaving no children; and Oscar, who was drowned in Bull creek when he was eighteen years of age, while teaching school.

When he first came to Rohnerville Mr. Bryan started out for himself and worked at various occupations, generally being employed on the farms of the vicinity. When he was thirty years of age, August 2, 1884, he was married in Rohnerville to Miss Maggie McDaniel, a native of Albany, Linn county, Oregon, and soon afterward they went to Rohnerville, where they conducted the Bryan House, meeting with merited success. Later they conducted the principal hotel in Fortuna, and in 1890 they purchased their present place, which they named Bryan's Rest. They have made many improvements and their accommodations are strictly modern and up to date. Their hotel building is a two-story structure, forty by fifty feet, and is attractive and comfortable. The ranch is a very valuable one, and Mr. Bryan has fifty-five acres in Eel River bottoms under a high state of cultiva- tion. The land is very rich, and with present shipping facilities the products are so easily marketed that it is especially valuable.

Mrs. Bryan is a daughter of Austin and Mary (Wilkinson) McDaniel, born in Virginia and Kentucky, respectively ; they were married in Kentucky and crossed the plains to Oregon, where he engaged in mining and farming. The mother died in Oregon, and the father then moved to California; they had five children, four of whom are living, Mrs. Bryan being the second oldest.

Mr. and Mrs. Bryan have four children, all of whom are natives of this county, and are very popular, possessing their parents' rare charm of per- sonality. The children are: Dr. Lloyd Bryan of Eureka, county physician and surgeon at the Sequoia Hospital, and who is extremely popular, is

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married and has a daughter, Jane; Oscar Homer, a locomotive engineer on the Western Pacific Railroad, and married to Miss Marie Waldner, of this county, they having one child, a daughter, Doris; Ray W., in the employ of the Humboldt Commercial Company, Eureka; and Verna, a graduate of the Eureka High School, class of 1914.

Mr. Bryan is a member of the Knights of Pythias of Fortuna, and has been through all the chairs. He is a Republican, is always interested in the cause of education, and it was largely through his efforts that Engle- wood district was formed. He built a school house this side and Mrs. Colonel George built one on the other side of the river, and they had school in one or the other, wherever most convenient. He was a trustee for many years.

WILSON WOOD .- One of the notable estates of southern Humboldt county is the old Jewett ranch of twenty-four hundred aeres still owned and occupied by the heirs of the original proprietor, Enoch Phelps Jewett, and their families, the Woods, Grattos and Jewetts. Wilson Wood, who married one of the daughters of Enoch P. Jewett, is the eldest son of anothe- pioneer of the region, the late James E. Wood, at one time the owner of the celebrated Wood ranch, one and a quarter miles south of Garberville, a traet of twelve thousand acres now owned by Toobey Brothers. A man of stirring disposi- tion and ambitious nature, he improved that immense place and for years was heavily interested in sheep and other stock as well as agricultural opera- tions to some extent.

James E. Wood was a native of Whitehall, Greene county, Ill., born March 14, 1827, and died in southern Humboldt county, Cal., in 1907, aged eighty years. He had an eventful, busy and useful life. Coming to Cali- fornia in 1858, he mined for a time in Plumas and Nevada counties, and then engaged in hunting, supplying provisions to the government. About 1859-60 he settled in the vicinity of Garberville, Humboldt county, where he became very extensively engaged in the stock business, owning and operating what has been known since his time as the Wood ranch, about twelve thousand acres situated along the south fork of the Eel river. In his later life, however, owing to the hard times he met with financial reverses, and he lost the accumulations of a lifetime of thrift and well directed industry, through no fault of his own. Through his enterprise he developed and improved a vast traet of valuable land, and to his energy was due much of the advancement made in that part of Humboldt county during the last generation. He was respected for his upright character, and his descendants are representative citizens of the 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 104

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