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 28

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 28

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HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

Ira B. Thomson was born August 17, 1845. He was five years old when his mother died, but his stepmother was kind to him and treated him as one of her own, and he had a good home in his boyhood. He was reared on his father's farm near the Ohio line in western Pennsylvania. He had such advan- tages as the common schools of the day afforded, helped with the farm work at home, and learned house carpentry under the tuition of his father, also acquiring a considerable knowledge of cabinetmaking. When twenty-five years old he left home, going to Iowa, where he followed farming on his own account, owning one hundred and twenty acres of land near Washington. There he was married, October 8, 1874, to Miss Jessie B. Knox, and in 1878 came to Humboldt county, Cal., with his family. For the first two years they lived at Arcata, where Mr. Thomson found work at his trade and in a sawmill, in 1880 removing to Eureka, where he has resided continuously since. The two years immediately following he worked for Mr. Simpson, a contractor, the next three years for Mr. Butterfield, also a contractor, and since 1885 he has been contracting and building on his own responsibility. Mr. Thomson has made a specialty of residence work, doing jobbing as well as contracting, and has made it his business to keep abreast of the times, giving his patrons the benefit of the innovations and improvements which have revolutionized modern standards of living and housekeeping during the three decades that he has been an independent builder. His ideas on utilizing space, on con- scientious, substantial construction, artistic arrangement and the economy of introducing conveniences have come to be appreciated by particular patrons until he is now regarded as one of the leading men in his line in the city. Among the residences he has erected may be mentioned those of G. W. Hunter, C. H. Connick, John Connick, Charles Fitzell and E. S. Murray. The building of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, which he is now putting up at the corner of Eleventh and H streets, is valued at $9,000.

As a citizen Mr. Thomson has been as much of a success as in his busi- ness relations. He is well known among the Odd Fellows, having passed all the chairs in the local lodge and been a member of the grand lodge. He assisted in the organization of the Presbyterian church at Eureka, was one of its first elders, and has continued to hold the office ever since by re-election, being one of the most esteemed members of the congregation. Every local movement promising to benefit the majority of his fellow citizens receives his hearty support.

Mrs. Thomson was born in Ohio, daughter of William and Mary E. (Short) Knox. Like her husband she is a prominent member of the Presby- terian church, taking an active part in the work of the Ladies' Aid Society, and is also interested in Odd Fellowship, having joined the Rebekah degree, in which she has passed all the chairs. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Thomson, Frank L. and Edna V., the daughter now married to C. C. Turner, an electrician, at present living in Schenectady, N. Y .; they have one child, Carlton Covey. Frank L. Thomson is an accomplished and licensed architect, a graduate of the Armour Institute at Chicago, Ill., where he spent four years after completing his course, and he has also followed his profession in Texas for five years. His attainments and special training make him one of the most competent men in his line in this region. He is now residing with his parents at Eureka, the family home being at No. 1134 J street.

Thomas Hinch

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HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

THOMAS HINCH .- The life which gave visible expression to the mind and spirit of Thomas Hinch began in 1838 in a humble Canadian home near the lumber woods of Enterprise, became identified with California through a westward trip via Panama in 1863, and came to an end on earth February 23, 1913, after an association of almost fifty years with Humboldt county. With- out question one of the best-known men of Eureka, he was also highly honored for devotion to duty, stanchness in friendship and capacity for business affairs. One of his leading characteristics was his faith in the future of Humboldt county. No one surpassed him in optimistic views concerning local affairs and this enthusiasm continued unabated in times of stringency as well as in seasons of prosperity, his first thought always being for the advancement of those enterprises which represented so large a part of his life. Inheriting from a sturdy Canadian parentage the qualities noticeable in that people, he added to these the self-restraint and discipline learned through hardships and contact with an unfavorable environment. His life-work was based upon principles of justice to himself and others, and an unswerving integrity characterized all of his transactions.

From 1863 to 1865 a resident of San Francisco, principally engaged in teaming, during the latter year Mr. Hinch came to Humboldt county and took up land on the Elk river about six miles south of Eureka, where he gradually drifted into the dairy business. At that time no roads had been opened to his farm and he had to haul through the woods all of the lumber used in the building of his ranch-house and barns. Ultimately he became the owner of three ranches in the same neighborhood. Developing the land from its primeval condition, he made it a source of profit and even at the present time these holdings still remain in the possession of the family. During 1873 he left the country and moved into Eureka, where he started a grocery on the corner of California and Cedar streets. Later the firm of Hinch, Salmon & Walch was organized. In a few years he sold out his interests to his partners and embarked in the real estate business, buying lots, building houses and selling on the installment plan, an enterprise justified by his faith in the city and by subsequent results. The children of his first wife, who was a Miss Spratt of Canada, were named as follows: Margaret, the wife of Thomas Shanahan ; William J., an employe of the Hammond Lumber Company ; Edward and John, both of Oakland ; Elizabeth, who married Elmer Young, of Scotia ; and Joseph, of Oakland. The second marriage united him with Miss Mary Lynch, a native of Dundee, Scotland, who, with their chil- dren, Vera, Thomas and Eugene, survives him, occupying the old homestead at No. 1610 California street, and who is at the head of a home life and social connection permeated with the spirit coming from long association with high ideals.

PETER BELCHER .- During more than forty years of continuous asso- ciation with the business life of Eureka, Peter Belcher has had various inter- ests here, and for some time has been giving a large share of his attention to the affairs of the Eureka Pavement Company, of which he is president. In its operations at Eureka this concern has laid enough pavement in the town to have its workmanship and reliability thoroughly tested, and the fact that it continues to receive a good proportion of the contracts in that line is a sub- stantial recommendation. In 1886 Mr. Belcher started the abstract business which was later incorporated as the Belcher & Crane Company, abstracters. 3

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HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

When their business was taken over by the Redwood Land & Investment Company he remained as manager of the abstract and insurance department until he repurchased the entire plant and is now sole owner, having the largest business of the kind in northern California.

The Belchers have been established in America from the Colonial period, several generations of the family having lived in New York state, where one of the name started an iron foundry in 1766, at what was then known as "Belcher's Forge," on the Ramapo river, now included in Tuxedo park. John Belcher, father of Peter Belcher, was born in Orange county, N. Y., and was there reared and married. After his marriage he followed farming and teaming in that county for a number of years. In 1857 he went out to Wis- consin and obtained possession of a pine timber tract, but sold it after three or four years. Meantime his family had moved to Paterson, N. J., where he joined them, and he passed the remainder of his life at that place, dying in 1903, at the advanced age of eighty-seven years. He did mason work after settling there, became a contractor and builder and was one of the most popular men in his line, getting a large share of the public work. At one time, late in life, he was superintendent of the sewer system in the city. His family consisted of fourteen children, of whom Peter was the eldest.

Peter Belcher was born December 23. 1839, at Sloatsburg, Rockland county, N. Y., and had very limited school advantages. His parents having a very large family it behooved him to support himself and assist them as soon as possible, and when he was fourteen he left home to begin work for others, beginning as a farm hand. By self-study he was enabled to pass an exam- ination entitling him to a teacher's certificate when he was eighteen years old. During the two winters preceding his immigration to California he taught district school in Passaic county, N. J., at what is now known as Hewitt, so named for Abram S. Hewitt, of New York City, Peter Cooper's successor in the ownership and control of the iron works located there. In 1860 Mr. Belcher came to California, armed with recommendations from influential people in New York as to his reliable qualities. But he had to make his way on his own achievements, every man being judged in the new country by what he was worth to the community and standing on the merits of his conduct in his relations with his fellow men. He began work in the employ of Adams, Blinn & Co., of San Francisco, burning lime in Marin county, and was thus engaged through the summer of 1860. In the fall of that year he moved to Knight's Ferry, Stanislaus county, and for the several years fol- lowing mined during the winter months and worked on ranches in the sum- mer. He visited various mining fields in the hope of bettering his luck, work- ing on the Reese river, in Nevada county, and on the John Days river in Oregon. For one summer he farmed in the Willamette valley. In 1864 he returned to California, mined that winter at Mameluke Hill, in Placer county, and in the spring of 1865 went to work on the Central Pacific Railroad, near Auburn. His health having been affected by the vitiated air of the mines and tunnels in which he had operated he contracted fever and had to give up railroad work. For some time he was engaged as a miner in the Union mines at Copperopolis, Calaveras county, and when they closed down he went to Telegraph City and kept store for a year. Subsequently he did a commission business at Stockton, Cal., and was again attacked by fever, which made him decide to get nearer to the coast, where he could have the benefit of sea air.

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HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

On October 1, 1870, he arrived at Eureka, in Humboldt county, where he began his business career as a clerk for R. M. Williams & Co., wholesale grocers and commission merchants, with whom he remained one year. He and Thomas Cutler then entered into partnership and purchased the stock of R. M. Williams & Co., and for some time did a wholesale commission business as Cutler & Belcher and Cutler, Belcher & Co. They handled large quantities of potatoes, the principal crop of Humboldt county, but the unstable values and unfavor- able market conditions proved the undoing of the firm, and Mr. Belcher dis- posed of his interest therein. During the next ten years he was in the employ of W. H. Johnston, a leading hardware dealer of Eureka, as manager, begin- ning business on his own account when he severed that connection. He founded the business afterward conducted by the Belcher & Crane Company and the Redwood Land & Investment Company, making abstracts of title and dealing in real estate and insurance. After doing business alone for six years he formed the association with A. T. Crane, under the firm name of Belcher & Crane, which lasted for four years, and in February, 1890, Belcher & Crane became an incorporated concern, under the name of Belcher & Crane Company. On June 1st of the same year they sold all their interest in the abstract, real estate and insurance business to the Redwood Land & Invest- ment Company, in which Mr. Belcher purchased a one-fifth interest, becom- ing one of the directors of the new organization. However, the abstract busi- ness was conducted as the Belcher & Crane Company as of yore. He was also appointed manager of the abstract and insurance department, and held that position until the company discontinued business in 1906. Mr. Belcher then purchased the old corporation and abstract business of the Belcher & Crane Company from the Redwood Land & Investment Company, and since then has continued as sole proprietor. He is president of the company, while his son I. R. is secretary. They hold most of the patronage in this part of the state, being the largest abstract company on the Pacific coast north of San Francisco, and require the help of over twelve assistants in the conduct of their extensive business.

The Eureka Pavement Company, in which Mr. Belcher's chief interest now centers, enjoys a high reputation in this region as the result of substan- tial construction work in its line. For a number of years Mr. Belcher was financial manager of the concern, in which he is one of the principal stock- holders, and he is now its president. This company has had contracts for fifty-five blocks of paving in Eureka, and also did the paving on Main street, in Ferndale, Humboldt county, as well as eleven blocks in Marshfield, Ore.

In the prosecution of his private business Mr. Belcher has naturally be- come familiar with industrial and commercial conditions in Eureka to an extent not possible to many, and he has great faith in her future. He has been public-spirited in the encouragement and substantial support of all projects looking to her improvement, whether from the material or social standpoint. His progressive stand on questions affecting the general welfare has been shown by his fidelity to the best interests of the town in settling matters pertaining to education, and the improvement of living conditions. He is respected for his own creditable career, which has been successful be- cause of his untiring industry in whatever he undertakes, continued some- times in the face of discouragements which would dishearten a man of weak spirit. He has taken considerable part in the administration of city govern-

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HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

ment, having been a member of the board of education one term, a city coun- cilman for one term, and chief of the fire department for two terms. Though a Republican on questions regarding the national policy, Mr. Belcher is thor- oughly nonpartisan in local affairs, believing that the city is best served by the man best qualified, without taking any account of his political associa- tions. Fraternally he holds membership in the Masons (belonging to Hum- boldt Lodge No. 79, F. & A. M.), which he joined in 1879; the Odd Fellows (Humboldt Lodge No. 77, I. O. O. F.), which he joined in 1866, and the Knights of Pythias (Lincoln Lodge No. 34); altogether he served about twenty-five years as Master of Exchequer of the local organization of the last- named and during this time Pythian Castle was built on Fourth street. He is past officer in the Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias, and served as trustee of I. O. O. F. Hall Association at the time of the building of the I. O. O. F. hall, corner of Second and F streets.

Mr. Belcher was married at Telegraph City, Calaveras county, in 1868, to Miss Ella Breckenridge, a native of Kentucky. They have had a family of five children : George H., who is vice-president of the Bank of Eureka ; Frank W., who was connected with the Savings Bank of Humboldt and now engaged in the real estate and insurance business; Lottie, wife of David W. Evans; I. R., manager of the Belcher & Crane Company. Eureka; and Merton, who received his higher education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, Mass., and is now assistant cashier of the Humboldt County Bank.

D. CLINTON SCOTT .- The changes of more than three decades have wrought their transformations in the material aspect and in the population of Humboldt county since ended the earthly activities of the honored pioneer, Dr. Scott, who as one of the first to engage in dental practice along the coast of Northern California, as a man of civic prominence, as a faithful official and progressive citizen, left the impress of his forceful personality upon the com- munity of his adoption. A native of Pennsylvania, he became a California settler of the carly '50s and was attracted to the mines by reason of the great excitement connected with the discovery of gold. Besides trying his luck in the mines of Placer county he served there as deputy county clerk and deputy assessor. It was not, however, his desire to devote his entire life to mining enterprises or deputyships; he had an ambition to fit himself for dentistry. In pursuit of that purpose he went to San Francisco and took a thorough course in the dental profession, having the advantages of con- siderable experimental work and actual practice in that city.

Upon coming to Eureka in 1866 Dr. Scott opened an office and soon gained considerable practice, for he was the pioneer dentist of the town and his skilled work 'won for him a wide professional popularity. While devoting his time closely to practice he did not neglect any duty that falls upon a public-spirited citizen. Recognizing his fine business ability, impartiality of judgment and devotion of citizenship, the people selected him to serve as county treasurer of Humboldt county, also as police judge and justice of the peace, and he continued at the helm of public affairs until his death, which occurred January 27, 1882. For years prior to his demise he had been identi- fied with Masonry. Surviving him were two daughters, Mrs. Eloise Pettin- gill and Mrs. Mabel Skinner, and his wife, who bore the maiden name of Virginia C. McDaniel and had crossed the plains in 1852 from her native Virginia, in 1867 becoming a resident of Humboldt county, where she still makes her home.

LosKinsey

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HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

LOUIS THOMPSON KINSEY .- Especial interest attaches to the lives of the native sons of the west, the men who in early years became familiar with privations and inured to hardships; who through intelligent foresight rose from poverty to independence; whose friends have increased in number with the passing years and now give honor and companionship to the pioneers identified with the beginnings of a western civilization. One of the influential men now residing in Eureka is Louis Thompson Kinsey, whose birth occurred in Siskiyou county, this state, December 17, 1852, and who has been familiar with the growth of Humboldt county from his early childhood, contributing after he attained manhood to the development of local resources.

A son of the late Charles and Annie F. (Cornog) Kinsey, natives of Pennsylvania, Mr. Kinsey is a member of a pioneer family, for his father crossed the plains during the summer of 1850, settled temporarily at The Dalles, Ore., thence came to California in 1852, and engaged in mining and stock-raising in Siskiyou county. On coming to Humboldt county in 1857 he drove a band of two hundred head of cattle across the mountains and took up range land suitable for the pasturage of the stock. It was not until 1878 that he disposed of his stock and retired from the business. Thereafter he lived in retirement from business cares. His death occurred February 22, 1900, at the age of eighty-seven years. During young man- hood Louis T. Kinsey became closely identified with official affairs. For three terms he filled the position of county treasurer with recognized efficiency and for one term he served as county clerk. Appointed mayor of Eureka to fill an unexpired term, he later was chosen for the office by the vote of the people.

While the filling of important offices has taken much of the time of Mr. Kinsey, his principal interests in the world of affairs have been in con- nection with banking and stock-raising. He was one of the original stock- holders of the Bank of Eureka and its associate, the Savings Bank of Hum- boldt County, and served these institutions as assistant cashier, cashier, and in later years filled the office of vice-president of the Bank of Eureka, and president of the Savings Bank of Humboldt County.

Mr. Kinsey is a firm believer in the future advancement of Eureka, which he has seen develop from a town of one street to a city of consid- erable dimensions, and believing also in the future of the back country, he has given practical evidence of his faith by making investments in local property and at this writing owns a stock ranch of four thousand acres located in the southern part of Humboldt county. Besides his holdings in the county he owns a valuable ranch near Kenwood, Sonoma county, and is a stockholder in the large land holdings of Mott & Co., of Oakland. Fraternally he is connected with the Odd Fellows and has been a member of the Knights of Pythias since 1876. By his marriage in 1872, to Miss Jennie Hart he has an only son, Charles H. Kinsey, whose sketch will be found on another page. Mrs. Kinsey is a native of California and a member of one of the earliest American families of the state, for her maternal grand- parents, Moses A. Meader and his wife, both Vermonters, left the east early in 1846, and sailed in a vessel around Cape Horn, landing in San Francisco some years before that port had become the destination of gold- seekers from every section of the world.

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HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

CASPER STINEMETS RICKS .- The name of Ricks is so intimately associated with the history of Eureka and Humboldt county generally that no annals of that region could be written without mention of members of the family, nor could any biography of Casper Stinemets Ricks be anything but part of the story of the opening up and development of that part of California where he came as a "forty-niner." It was principally through his influence that the county seat was established at Eureka, and there was hardly a citizen of the town who did more to place its affairs in such excellent condition that it has thrived from the start. He represented his district faithfully in the state legislature, served as district attorney of Humboldt county, handled his extensive business affairs with consummate ability, and worked untiringly for the early establishment at Eureka of such institutions as he knew there would be need for in the future. Though it is a quarter of a century since he passed from earth, his work lives and has stood the test of time.

Mr. Ricks was a native of Indiana, born November 10, 1821, at Rome, Perry county, son of John W. Ricks, who had settled in Indiana when a young man. His early life had been passed in Kentucky, where he was born February 7, 1795. He was a prosperous merchant in Perry county, owning stores at five different points in that section, from which it may be inferred that he was ahead of his generation in enterprise, his business record sounding very modern indeed. His career was cut short at the com- paratively early age of thirty-seven years, his death occurring in 1832. Mr. Ricks was not only an energetic business man, but an earnest worker in the Baptist Church, and as an exhorter exercised great moral influence among his fellow men. His wife, Louisa Stinemets (originally spelled Steinmetz, member of a Pennsylvania family), born in 1800, continued to live at Rome after her husband's death and died there in 1865. She, too, was a faithful member of the Baptist Church, and a devoted mother to her eight children, all of whom were young at the time of Mr. Ricks' death. We have the follow- ing record of this family: Casper Stinemets was the eldest; Ellen died in childhood ; William died in 1850; Louisa married Burl Lea and died at the age of thirty-eight years; Samuel H. is deceased; John W. came to Eureka in 1853, but lived here only a short time, dying in San Francisco when seventy-four years old ; Susan, wife of Hiram Carr, died in 1900; Thomas, the youngest, born in 1831, joined his brother Casper at Eureka in 1851 and was given an interest in the business; in 1863 he returned to his old home in Indiana to marry and soon afterward started with his bride for Eureka. From San Francisco they took passage on the schooner Dashaway, which was lost at sea with all on board.

Casper Stinemets Ricks attended school until fifteen years old, when he commenced work as a dish washer on the flatboats plying the Ohio and Mis- sissippi rivers. He was thrifty, and saved as much as possible, within a few years having enough to buy an interest in a flatboat which he retained until 1842. That year he went to New Orleans and engaged in the lumber and commission business, and with the exception of a short period during which he was superintendent of a sawmill at Natchez he continued it until 1849, doing well. But the gold fever took him in 1849, and he set out for San Francisco, by way of the isthmus. He had bought his ticket from New Orleans to his destination, but through some mistake had received trans- portation only to Panama. Here he was initiated into the conditions then

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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 28

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