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 112

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 112

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Mr. Perrott is a native of California, born in Marin county, January 21, 1862, the son of Mathew and Sarah A. (Miller) Perrott. His father was a native of New York state and came to California in 1849, locating in Marin county, where he engaged in farming. When George was six years of age

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the family removed to Humboldt county and located near Rohnerville, where the father again engaged in farming and stock raising. He owned and im- proved a farm of three hundred acres. He also had several trades, one being that of wagon maker, and he was engaged in the manufacture of heavy wagons, and also owned and conducted a livery stable. The son George attended the public schools of Rohnerville and assisted with the farm work at home. His first work for others was when he entered the employ of A. Lamb, of Rohnerville, in the meat market, where he learned the trade which has since stood him in such good stead. He has a splendid record of fifty- five months in this business without the loss of a single day. He was also interested in the training of trotting horses and became very expert in this work, being in the employ of A. and Winfield Lamb as a trainer of fast horses for several years, remaining with these brothers altogether for ten years, from the time he was twenty-four until he was thirty-four. He then went to the Santa Clara valley and drove fast horses for George P. McIninny, a millionaire and a great fancier of trotting horses, Mr. Perrott being his trainer for five months. In 1896 he came to Scotia and at the special request of his former employer, A. Lamb, took charge of his meat market here. Since that time he has remained here, the market of which he was in charge being later taken over by the Eel River Mercantile Company and Mr. Perrott being put in charge of the department which he has since so ably handled, except for a brief period of nine months, when he acted as manager of the Scotia hotel for the Pacific Lumber Company.

Mr. Perrott has been twice married, the first time being in 1891, when he espoused Miss Kathryn Davis, the daughter of John B. Davis, of Rohner- ville. She bore him two children, George Leland, now a machinist in the employ of the Pacific Lumber Company, at Scotia, and Lyle Preston, a resident of Metropolitan. Mr. Perrott was married a second time in 1906, being united with Miss Daisy Leonora Rickart, of Scotia.

In addition to his popularity in the commercial world, Mr. Perrott is well known and especially well liked in fraternal and social circles, where he takes an influential part in affairs generally. He is a member of the Odd Fellows, Rohnerville Lodge, and is past grand of the same. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias. Scotia Lodge, and of the Weeott Tribe No. 147, I. O. R. M., at Scotia, and has been through all the chairs twice, and a delegate to the grand lodge six times. He is also a charter member of both these last named orders. He is also prominent in politics and has been a member of the Republican County Central Committee.

The family of Mr. Perrott's parents was a large one, he being one of nine children, eight of whom grew to maturity and are still living. The living members of the family are: Frank Mathew, residing at Haywards, Cal. : William, of Fortuna; Charles E., of Rohnerville; Benjamin, also of Rohner- ville ; George W., our subject : Dr. W. L., of Eureka ; May, Mrs. T. J. Smith, of Fortuna ; Harry A., deceased, and Sadie, Mrs. Starks, of Fortuna.

E. LESTER COTTRELL, M. D .- Dr. E. Lester Cottrell has been physician and surgeon of the Scotia Hospital since November 1, 1909. The attending surgeon is constantly called upon to perform operations of minor and major importance in cases of accidents, of which there are bound to be many.

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Dr. Cottrell is a native of California, born in Eureka, August 14, 1874, the son of A. Cottrell, a grocer of that city, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this edition. He passed his boyhood days in Eureka, where he attended the public and high schools, and later entered the San Jose State Normal, graduating in 1896. For several years he taught school, being principal of the grammar school at Petrolia for a year, and then for three years teaching in the grammar schools of Eureka, being principal of the Grant school for two years of that time. He bid good-bye to the pedagogical profession with the old century, and in the fall of 1899 matriculated at the Cooper Medical College in San Francisco, where he remained for a year. He then went to Washing- ton, D. C., where he filled a position with the census bureau for a year, at the same time completing his second year of medical study. The third and fourth years of his course were taken at the Jefferson Medical College, at Philadelphia, where he graduated in 1903. He then became resident physician at the Western Pennsylvania Hospital, in Pittsburg, during 1903-4, at the close of which time he returned to Eureka, where he practiced for three months. He then went to Fortuna, where he succeeded Dr. S. M. L. Dougherty. For almost five years he remained at Fortuna, and then accepted the post which he occupies at present, and removed to Scotia, where he has since resided.

Dr. Cottrell has taken an active part in the medical affairs of Humboldt county since his return here from his studies in the east, and was president of the County Medical Society in 1914.

Aside from his splendid reputation in a professional way, Dr. Cottrell is also popular fraternally and socially and enjoys the widest acquaintance among the people of his part of the county. He is a prominent Mason, a member of the Blue Lodge, Chapter and Commandery, of Eureka, and is also a Shriner, being affiliated with Islam Temple, San Francisco. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias at Scotia. In his political preferment Dr. Cottrell is a Republican and is keenly alive to all that pertains to the best interests of the community, following the line of his own judgment on men and measures in all local issues, rather than confining himself to party lines.

The marriage of Dr. Cottrell and Miss Ethel Williams, of Fortuna, was solemnized at the latter city June 12, 1906. Mrs. Cottrell was for some years engaged in educational work in Humboldt county, and is past president of the Sequoia Club of Scotia.

LEWIS LARSON .- One of the best known manufacturers of shingles and shakes in Humboldt county is Lewis Larson, who lives on a splendid eighty-acre ranch between Rohnerville and Hydesville and operates his shingle mill, which is three miles beyond Cuddeback. He is one of the very few operators in this line who have not closed their mills during the de- pression of 1913-14, and this is largely due to the splendid cooperation of the Larson family, the sons and daughters being in the employ of their father, and giving their best effort toward making a success of the undertaking. They are all energetic, enthusiastic and hard working, and the product of their mill is a superior grade of shingles.

Mr. Larson is a native of Sweden, born at Engelholm, January 10, 1864. His father was a farmer and owned a ninety-acre farm in the mother country, where he died at the age of sixty-eight years. The mother lived to be seventy.

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The boyhood days of the son Lewis were passed on his father's farm and his education was received in the public schools of the district. In 1882 he came to America, locating first in Kansas, where he worked as a farm hand in Wilson county. In October, 1883, he came to California, spending a brief time in San Francisco, and then coming up the coast to Eureka. He was with the California Redwood Company for a year and then entered the employ of John Vance, veteran lumber man, in his lumber mills, first as a sawyer, and later became a filer. After the death of his father he inherited $2500 from the estate, and this he invested in property, purchasing a fine ranch of eighty acres on the road between Hydesville and Rohnerville, forty acres of which is bottom land. His first venture in the making of shingles was on the Van Dusen river, where he built a shingle mill on the Irvine place, four miles further up than his present property. This he ran for twelve years, with great success. His present mill he built in 1912, and has operated it continuously since that time. It has a capacity of fifty thousand shingles and ten thousand shakes per day.

The marriage of Mr. Larson took place in 1890, when he was united with Miss Hannah Person, a native of Sweden. They have become the parents of nine children, all of whom have been born in Humboldt county, where the elder members of the family have been educated, and where they all reside at this time. They are: Roland, a sawyer in the shingle mill; Elsie, now the wife of Arthur Johnson, who is employed in the moulding mills at Eureka; Emma, who is employed at the shingle mill; Lloyd, also employed at the mill ; Allen, Elsa and Eva, all attending school in Rohnerville; and Sophus, Benjamin and Arthur, younger members of the family.

Mr. Larson takes a keen interest in all public questions and is deeply interested in the local and political affairs of the state, but as a non-partisan. He is a member of the Woodmen of the World, and is well known in that order. Among business men with whom he is brought in contact he is known as a man of ability and strength of character, honest, industrious and upright, and well above the average in native ability.

GEORGE F. WOODCOCK .- It is a noteworthy fact that the average pioneer is a stronger man at an advanced age than is the product of a modern and more complicated civilization, and one of the splendid evidences of this is George F. Woodcock, of Rohnerville, who, although almost eighty years of age, conducts a thrifty little ranch of some twenty odd acres between Rohnerville and Fortuna, where he may be found hard at work every day in the year. He is capable of doing as hard a day's work as a man half his years, and is not in the least distressed thereby, rather enjoying the exhilaration of the strenuous exercise. For more than half a century he has resided in California, being variously engaged during that long and eventful period, although for twenty-seven years he was in the employ of one company, being one of their most trusted and trustworthy men.

Mr. Woodcock is a native of Charlotte county, New Brunswick, having been born March 20, 1837. His father, David Woodcock, was a native of Maine, as was his paternal grandfather, also David Woodcock. Both lived and died in New Brunswick, although they were essentially American in their sympathies and ideas. The father was married in New Brunswick to Miss Sarah Thomas, a native of that province. He was a shoemaker by trade, the

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grandfather being a carpenter, and both were industrious and prosperous, although neither ever accumulated riches. There were nine children in the family of David Woodcock, six boys and three girls, George F., the subject of this sketch, being the eighth child. The eldest member of the family was a daughter, Ann Woodcock, who later married Elias Smith and is living in New Brunswick at the age of almost ninety years. One of the brothers, James Woodcock, was a teamster and bridge builder in Humboldt county, for many years, where he died. George F. Woodcock received very few educational advantages, there being opportunity for attending school only a few brief months in the winter. He began work as a lumberman when a boy in his native province and became at an carly age inured to hardship and severe manual labor. He came to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama, going at once into the gold mines on the American river in Placer county, arriving there the latter part of September, 1859. Times were then very hard and he secured the necessary outfit for the wood chopper, laid in a simple supply of food and "batched" while he chopped wood, receiving in wages $4 per day. Later he engaged in gold mining, but did not find that the returns were satisfactory, and so gave that up. He tried to enlist in the Civil war, but was unable to get into the company that he desired, and so went north into Humboldt county, going to Eureka, where he went to work in the lumber woods. He was employed by the D. R. Jones Company and for twenty-seven years remained with them, during the last fifteen years of that time being in charge of their outside work, and much of the time running three teams and one hundred twenty men. He was married in Eureka, in 1880, to Miss Mary Wilson, the daughter of Eli G. Wilson, a stone mason by trade, a minister in the United Brethren Church, and well known in Eureka. Three years after his marriage Mr. Woodcock determined to engage in farming and so came to Rohnerville and purchased his present home property three- quarters of a mile from town. Here he has established a pleasant home and keeps the property under a high state of cultivation through his own indus- trious application and splendid judgment.

Mr. and Mrs. Woodcock have become the parents of eleven children, all except one of whom have grown to maturity. They are all well known in Humboldt county, where they were born and educated, and where they now make their homes. They are all industrious and prosperous, having in- herited the splendid traits of character that distinguish both their parents. They are: Lillie, the wife of the late L. M. Nason, a school teacher, who died in Eureka in 1914; George, a woodsman for the Eel River Valley Lum- ber Company ; Fred, residing at home; Frank, a teacher; Gladys, the wife of Ed Baxter, a woodsman, and residing in Rohnerville; James, attending school in Eureka ; Percy, a teacher on the Klamath river ; Clara, Blanche and Grace, residing at home.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Woodcock are exceptionally interesting people and both are interested in many things outside their immediate home. They are particularly active in church work and are members of the Methodist Epis- copal church of Rohnerville, of which Mr. Woodcock is a trustee, while Mrs. Woodcock is the superintendent of the Sunday school. Mr. Woodcock is a Progressive in his political preferences and personally he is all that the term implies, especially on questions of local import, and is always to be found in

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support of any movement that tends for the religious, educational or social betterment of the community. In his home life Mr. Woodcock has been especially happy.

J. L. JOHNSON .- The responsible position of foreman of the machine shops for the Pacific Lumber Company at Scotia is at present held by J. L. Johnson, a young man of much ability and high integrity of character, who has occupied this position since June, 1911, and is giving the greatest of satisfaction. He came to Scotia and entered the employ of the Pacific Lum- ber Company fifteen years ago, when he was a youth of but nineteen years, and has steadily made his way upward through sheer ability and pluck. He is a natural born machinist, no doubt having inherited this tendency from his father. He always delighted in machinery and was apprenticed to learn the blacksmith's trade when he was sixteen, giving three years of time to the mastering of this trade. He was not able to secure schooling beyond the grammar schools owing to pressure of financial necessity, he being the eldest of a large family, and so obliged at an early age to shoulder his share of the responsibility. When he first went to Scotia he was put to work in the black- smith shops, but after a comparatively short time there he was transferred to the machine shops, where he has been since that time.

Mr. Johnson is a native of New Jersey, having been born at Jersey City, September 28, 1881. His father was J. B. Johnson, and is now a pattern- maker and car-builder for the Caspar Lumber Company, at Caspar, Mendo- cino county, Cal. He is a native of Copenhagen, Denmark, and served as a corporal in the Danish army and became a pattern-maker and car-builder in his native land. He came to America when he was twenty-two years of age, locating in New Jersey, where he was married to Miss Lena Price, a native of Schleswig Holstein, Germany. After some five or six years in New Jersey, the family removed to California, locating at Navarro, Mendocino county, and going from there to Caspar, where he has since resided, being for this entire time in the employ of the Caspar Lumber Company. The mother is still living. There were seven children in the family, one of whom died in childhood, the others, three sons and three daughters, living to grow to manhood and womanhood, the sons all following mechanical lines.

As foreman of the machine shops of the Pacific Lumber Company, J. L. Johnson holds a very responsible position, for the repairing of the engines, rolling stock and stationary machinery of this great company is a large undertaking. He is possessed of a mind of rare judgment and poise, and his estimates on work are phenomenally accurate. He is pleasant, congenial and well liked by those who come in contact with him, either as workmen under his direction, or as superior officers of the company.

The marriage of Mr. Johnson was solemnized in Eureka, May 18, 1905, uniting him with Miss Zella Maude Rickart, of Scotia, the daughter of Edmund L. Rickart, who is now employed as foreman of the yards for the Holmes-Eureka Company (lumber) at Eureka, but who was with the Pacific Lumber Company, at Scotia, for nineteen years. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have become the parents of three children, two daughters and a son : Mildred D., Melvin and Dorothy. Both Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have many friends in

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Scotia, where they are favorites in their social circle. Mr. Johnson is a member of the Odd Fellows, Hydesville Lodge No. 250. In his political preference he is a Republican and takes an interest in all that pertains to the welfare of Scotia and community. He is progressive and broadminded and is known as a citizen of sterling qualities.

J. A. TRAVIS .- Blessed with a buoyant spirit, a splendid intellect and a superb manhood, J. A. Travis is well fitted for the position which he occupies as manager of the Fortuna yards of the Eel River Valley Lumber Company, which is the distributing point for this place and Ferndale, and the rich coun- try surrounding these places. He has won this position by the force of his own ability and application, his promotions following one after another until in 1909 he assumed the duties of manager of the yards, which he has since filled. He has done much for the business during that time, the volume being constantly on the increase and a splendid patronage having been built up throughout the community.

Mr. Travis was born in Fonistell, St. Charles county, Mo., but removed from that place to Benton City, Audrain county, Mo., when he was a small child, his father thereafter conducting a general merchandise store at Benton City. They remained at this place until the son was twelve years of age and then migrated to California, in 1889 locating at Oakland. Here he attended school and later took a commercial course, continuing his studies by attend- ing night school, after he had secured a position as clerk. In the spring of 1902 he came to Fortuna and entered the employ of the Eel River Valley Lumber Company in the yards at Newburg, working up from that to his present position of trust and responsibility. Mr. Travis is the son of C. W. and Nannie (Kinney) Travis, his father being a well known farmer of the Rohnerville district at this time.

The marriage of Mr. Travis and Miss Ada Lafferty, of Coquille, Ore., was celebrated in 1904, and of this union has been born a daughter, Arletta, aged three years Both Mr. and Mrs. Travis have a host of friends in Fortuna. Mr. Travis is a member of the Eel River Lodge No. 147, F. & A. M., of Fortuna, and is deservedly prominent in Masonic circles. He takes an active part in the general affairs of the town and is regarded as an influential and progressive citizen.

AMOS MADISON CUMMINGS .- A young man who is rapidly coming to the front as an orchardist and rancher in the justly celebrated Bull creek district is A. M. Cummings. He it was who took the gold medal on King apples at the San Francisco apple show in 1914, and his orchards are a de- light to the eye as well as being particularly profitable to their owner. He is the son of a Humboldt county pioneer, and was born and reared in the Mattole valley. He is industrious and energetic and is making a decided success of his farming enterprise. He maintains a hotel, or resort, on his ranch on Bull creek, and is well known and highly esteemed throughout this part of the county.

Mr. Cummings was born in the Mattole valley, February 5, 1876. His father, Louis J. Cummings, was a pioneer in the valley, locating there in 1867, and making his home continuously in the county until the time of his death in 1892. He was married in the east to Miss Elizabeth Miner, a native of Ohio. who is still residing in this county, making her home at Eureka

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with her daughter, Mrs. J. S. Burnell. The parents came to California in the early part of 1862, settling first at Marysville, where they lived for five years, coming to Humboldt county in 1867. There were four children in the family, of whom Amos Madison was the youngest born. Of the others, the eldest, George A., is a justice of the peace and a rancher, living on the old Cummings homestead in the Mattole valley; F. J. is ex-principal of the Ferndale High school, and is now secretary of the Dairy Association of Humboldt county, and a very well-to-do rancher living near Ferndale; Phina is the wife of J. S. Burnell, attorney-at-law, and extensive land owner, resid- ing in Eureka.

The youngest member of this splendid family, Amos M., was reared in the Mattole valley, attending the public schools at Petrolia, and completing his education at the business college in Eureka. Following this he returned to the Mattole valley and assisted with the care of the home place until his marriage to Miss Eunice Hazleton, of Pepperwood, which occurred Febru- ary 8, 1902. He then rented a ranch in the Mattole valley and engaged in the stock business for a number of years, and in 1907 came to Bull creek, where he purchased his present home place of three hundred acres. He has cleared some of the land and enlarged the orchard, there being but four acres of orchard at the time of purchase. He now has ten acres. He is a booster for his home community, which is one of the finest apple producing sections of the state, and took an active part in the planning and arrange- ment of the Humboldt county exhibit at the San Francisco apple show in 1914, carrying away a gold medal therefrom, the entire exhibit taking the first prize. Mr. Cummings exhibited Kings and Jonathans, the former being his prize exhibit. He will also exhibit at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915.

Mr. and Mrs. Cummings have four children, three sons and one daugh- ter, namely: Laurence, Laurel, Curtis and Lisle. Mr. Cummings takes an active part in local affairs and is recognized as an influential citizen. His property lies about seven miles from Dyerville, on Bull creek, and is very valuable. It was formerly the property of N. P. Endicott, who sold it to the present owner in 1907. Mr. Cummings is a Progressive in his political pref- erences and is all that the word implies in the best sense, being wide-awake, and always ready to give his support to movements which stand for the up- building and development of the general welfare. He has rendered valuable service on the local school board, and has taken prominent official positions on election boards and other similar positions.

AMOS HANSELL .- As one of the enterprising and prosperous orchard- ists of the Eel river valley, Amos Hansell is today well known throughout his part of Humboldt county, and his orchard is one of the finest in the vicinity. He is a true pioneer, having come to this county when he was but little more than a babe in arms, and having spent his lifetime here. His specialty in the horticultural line is apples, and he handles an extensive variety, including such kinds as Spitzenberg, Jonathan, King, Rhode Island Greenings, Bellflowers and Pippins. He has been engaged in the nursery business since he was a boy and is an expert in this line. In addition to his apples he also raises cherries and tomatoes, both of which do well in this vicinity. His ranch is located on the left bank of the Eel river, opposite

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Camp Grant,-about two miles above Dyerville, and is of a rich, sandy loam, sub-irrigated, and is very productive. The residence is especially at- tractive, its architecture being in harmony with the setting in which it is placed. It was erected by Mr. Hansell's father, who was a carpenter and joiner, and most of the finishings were prepared by hand, and are exquis- itely done. The doors are two inches thick, and are made from selected redwood, as also are the door and window casings.

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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 112

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