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 35
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James Berry Brown
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JAMES BERRY BROWN was born July 12, 1837, in Camden, Preble county, Ohio. He was the scion of a long puissant line of ancestors com- mencing almost at the threshold of the pioneers of American freedom. Pos- sessed with the stimulus of a high ambition and the heritage of a sturdy an- cestral stock, he has proved himself the heir of moral purity and excellence and of great educational force and power in the community in which he has lived for the last fifty-three years.
All his ancestors were Friends or Quakers in religious faith, and the earlier ones came to this country with the William Penn colonists near the close of the seventeenth century, and settled near Camden, New Jersey. Later they moved to Virginia, and still later from there to North Carolina, where they were at the time of the Revolutionary war. After this they divided on the slavery question, the proslavery wing going further south, finally becoming slaveholders, and those opposed to slavery came north and settled in Ohio, near Circleville and in Preble county, where they formed, with other Friends, quite a colony. Mr. Brown's mother, Nancy (Berry) Brown, was of Scotch-Irish descent. Her parents were Scotch Covenanters, or Presbyterians. His grandfather served with William Henry Harrison in the War of 1812.
As soon as he was old enough he attended school, such as they had in those days. In the fall of 1847 the family moved to Lee county, Iowa, where he also attended school until the spring of 1849, when his father, as did many others, caught the gold fever, and started across the plains to California with ox teams. Although he was only twelve years of age at this time, his father, before starting for California, put him to work with a neighbor farmer for the summer at $4 per month. His father, however, soon returned from California, broken in health, and James Berry was thrown upon his own resources not only for his own living and education, but he had to assist the family as well.
He received his early education in the schools of Ohio, and finally, after they had moved to Iowa, by dint of the strictest economy, he was enabled to attend the state normal department of the University of Iowa in 1855 and 1856, where he could not stay to graduate, but did stay long enough to receive from the head of that department a certificate entitling him to teach in the state of Iowa "all the English branches." He taught his first school in Cincinnati, Appanoose county, Iowa. He was then only nineteen years of age and in that school he enrolled sixty-four pupils, ranging from five to twenty-one years of age-indeed a big task for the first school of a young man of only nineteen years. His school must have been a success, for he taught there three years. When not teaching he was going to school, work- ing on the farm and in the mills to get means to acquire more schooling that he might be the better prepared for educational work-his chosen life work.
With the Pike's Peak gold excitement in the spring of 1859 came the "parting of the ways" which comes to most men. He caught the fever, like many others, and in May, 1859, he, his brother, Jesse R. Brown, and another partner, drove from his father's home in Iowa for Pike's Peak, elated and hopeful of great success. He left a father and mother, a brother and three sisters, expecting to return soon. But they never met again. Before they reached Pike's Peak they changed their plans and headed for California, the land of gold and sunshine. After a long, slow and tedious journey through
6
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deserts, over mountains and across plains they arrived in Butte county, on September 30, 1859.
His first work in California was herding sheep on Table Mountain. The following summer he worked on a farm near Chico. It was here he cast his first vote, which was for Abraham Lincoln, the martyr and the greatest man of his time. It took nerve to so cast a vote in some places in this state at that time. The state was then in a political turmoil. Speakers were then going up and down the state discussing the great question that was dis- rupting the Union, and the state was saved to the Union only by a hair's breadth. The rebel sentiment was strong in many parts of the state.
Mr. Brown was in San Mateo county when Fort Sumter was fired upon. He attended the great Union demonstration on July 4th of that year in San Francisco, where General Sumner (who had just succeeded Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, who had for some time been in command of the Department of the Pacific, and who was later one of the leading generals in the Confederate army) was the notable in the great procession and demonstration.
Mr. Brown, then as now, was loyal to the core, and on November 26, 1861, at the Presidio, enlisted in the first regiment that was mustered to go east, via isthmus, into active service at the front. But to his great disappoint- ment the regiment was retained on this coast, split into small detachments, which detachments relieved the regulars stationed at the various localities so they could be taken east where hostilities between the north and south had commenced. Mr. Brown's company and one other were sent to Santa Bar- bara, where they remained until April, 1862, when they were returned to
San Francisco Bay and landed on Alcatras Island. They remained there but a short time when they were sent to Fort Humboldt, in Humboldt county, where they remained in the service until their terms had expired and they were then taken to San Francisco and discharged. In 1864 their service in Humboldt county consisted mainly in tramping over the mountains sup- pressing the uprisings of the Indians.
Having seen much of Humboldt county during this service, and having formed a favorable opinion of the county, he decided to return to it ; so, on January 5. 1865, he took passage on the old bark Jeanette, Captain Smith in command, and after a voyage of twenty-nine days, with nothing left to eat but salt codfish, pea-soup, hot cakes and coffee, landed at the foot of F street in Eureka.
In coming here it was his purpose to again take up the vocation of teach- ing. His first position was as teacher of the Bucksport school, where he remained three years. In April, 1868, he was elected principal of the Eureka schools, and in the following November he was appointed county superin- tendent of schools. He filled these positions jointly until the end of 1874, when he declined reelection as county superintendent, and devoted his whole time to his work as principal of the Eureka schools. In the fall of 1886 he was again elected county superintendent of schools. He then resigned as principal of the Eureka schools and devoted his whole time to his duties as superintendent. He served as superintendent in all twenty-two years, and as teacher in this county thirty-two and one-half years. He has been engaged in educational work in this county for forty-eight and one-half years.
Mr. Brown is of a positive, unbending nature, and maintained the strict- est discipline in school-severe at times-and some thought on occasions too
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severe and needlessly so. He was an enthusiastic worker in the school room, and had the faculty of awaking in his pupils the same enthusiastic spirit he possessed, as well as the faculty of imparting to them the knowledge he had gained.
While he demanded and compelled, the most rigid deportment in the school room, the most exact compliance with his rules of government, he was genial without and held the highest esteem and respect of his pupils, and we believe, among the thousands that attended his school, not one can be found today that does not honor and respect him-proud that they had once been a pupil of his-and all feel that his teachings and the influence he exerted upon them while they were under him have largely moulded their lives in the right direction and are proud to call him teacher. The influence upon their lives of his sterling integrity and his moral purity and excellence can never be fully known, but undoubtedly it has assisted largely in the bet- terment of their lives, and thereby in the upbuilding of this community.
The teacher of our youth attunes the chords that stretch far down through the coming centuries and as they are attuned so will they resound.
Mr. Brown recognized the fact that a school should fit the pupil for the struggle of life, and not to relieve him from it; that an education should not be a surface shine, but should evolve character and fit the pupil for the opportunity when it comes, and it comes at least once in a lifetime to all.
Many of his recommendations while superintendent of schools of this county have been formulated and enacted into laws and are now a portion of the laws of this state governing our school system.
This man stands out preeminently as an educator, the upbuilder of char- acter, the moulder of moral sentiment-the man who, probably more than any other man in the community, instilled into the rising generation truth- fulness of thought which leads to honesty of action.
It is great consolation to him in his advanced years to have his old pupils, now many of them the fathers and mothers of families, come to him and renew the old-time memories of by-gone school days, as they frequently do.
Mr. Brown was made a Mason in 1868, is a past master of Humboldt Lodge No. 79, F. & A. M., of which lodge he has been secretary for thirty-five years, and which office he now fills. His reports to the Grand Lodge of Masons of California are models of neatness, full and concise in statements, and perfect in form-so much so that they have attracted the attention of the Grand Lodge.
He helped organize what was known as the Eureka Guard, from which grew the present company of the Naval Reserve, and which was a company of the National Guard of California. It was organized in 1879. He was elected first lieutenant at its organization and afterwards captain; was finally commissioned and mustered brigadier-general of the Sixth Brigade of the National Guard of California, and is now on the retired list as such.
He is a charter member of Colonel Whipple Post No. 49, G. A. R., and a past commander of the post. His love of country and interest in the growth of patriotic sentiment is second to none. He takes great interest in the Grand Army and loves to meet with the boys of '61 to '65 around the camp- fire and hear them spin their old-time war stories.
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His present family consists of his wife, Adele Cummings Brown, a daughter, Katherine Lueve Brown, and himself.
The above is a brief sketch of his life-nothing in it startling, strange or heroic; yet it shows an effort to accomplish the best that was in him, and, through his calling, the impress for good he has made upon the consciences of the thousands of youths of our land is far-reaching, beyond estimate, and cannot be measured in dollars and cents. He was and is a man of high ideals and his aim was to so teach and act that those who went forth from under his tuition should have like ideals. The best one can do is equal to the best any other one can do. Pompey buys a brush, whitewashes a fence, and earns fifty cents. This is the best he can do. Patti sings a song and earns $1500. Millet paints "The Angelus" and earns $150,000. If each does his best, isn't each entitled to equal credit?
Today Mr. Brown is honored and respected by all his grown-up pupils, by his neighbors and friends, by all who know him, as being a man of ster- ling integrity, of moral purity and force, of truthfulness in thought, of hon- esty in action. His sun will go down, but his influence for good will live on and on, always tending towards the light.
JOHN U. HALTINNER .- From the age of eighteen years Mr. Haltin- ner has made his home in the United States, having at that time crossed the ocean from his native country, Switzerland, in the hope that the new world might afford to him greater advantages than appeared to be offered in the land of his birth. The fact of having an uncle in Santa Rosa caused him to come at once to the Pacific coast and to seek the county-seat of Sonoma county, where in the brewing plant of the uncle he found immediate employ- ment. The privations of early poverty had made him self-reliant and natural endowments of industry and perseverance aided him in his effort to rise out of the class of lowly paid day laborers. It became possible for him in the course of a few years to buy the brewing plant from his uncle. to whom eventually he sold the property.
A long identification with the brewing business in Santa Rosa was fol- lowed by the removal of Mr. Haltinner to Eureka in 1895 and here he bought the Eureka brewery, formerly owned by P. McAllenan, a plant somewhat small in dimensions, but characterized by the excellence of its brew. For seven years he continued the business without any partner, but at the expiration of the time he formed an association with A. Johnson, the two remaining together doing business under the name of the Humboldt Brewing Company for eighteen months, when they sold out to Mr. Kuehnrich, who in turn sold to the present owners. In 1905 he made a trip to Switzerland, Germany and France, and after some time passed in those countries returned to Eureka and entered the employ of the Humboldt Brewing Company. He had charge of their steam beer plant until 1908, when he resigned and retired from active business affairs, since which time he has lived quietly at his home, No. 279 Hillsdale avenue, and with his wife and three children has held the confidence of associates and the warm regard of friends. Humboldt county has in him a stanch believer in its future prosperity and a firm advocate of all those measures calculated to promote the common welfare.
Lewis S. East.
Elizabeth E. East
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LEWIS SHERMAN EAST .- A son of one of the pioneer families in Humboldt county, Cal., and one of the most progressive and successful farm- ers in the vicinity of Alton is Lewis S. East, a prominent man in the affairs of the county, where he has recently been chosen president of the Hum- boldt County Farm Bureau, being prominently connected also with many other interests and enterprises in that part of the state.
The father of Lewis S. East was John Samuel East, a native of London, England, where he was a farmer. Before his marriage he went to Australia, and at Adelaide was united with Miss Sarah Jane Sweeney, a native of Dub- lin, Ireland. In Australia Mr. East followed farming, giving it up in 1861, when he brought his family to California, by sailing vessel, landing at San Francisco. Until 1863 he resided in Marin county, in that year coming to Humboldt county. Settlement was first made on Ecl river island at the mouth of the river ; from there removal was made to Cuddeback, where Mr. East started to take up a claim, but the Indians were so troublesome that he had to take his family into Hydesville for safety, thence later going to Rohnerville. There he was engaged in making shaved shingles for about two years, after which he purchased a sixty-five acre ranch on Eel river bot- tom, one mile below Alton, on which he made great improvements, residing there until his death, January 2, 1891, at the age of fifty-five years. His wife died in 1895, at the age of fifty-three.
There were nine children in the East family, the two oldest having been born in Australia: Daniel J. is a stock rancher residing at Iaqua, Cal .; Edward G., a commission merchant, resides in Eureka; Adeline, who was born in Marin county, became the wife of A. L. Zahner, proprietor of the Star Hotel, Fortuna; John R. is a farmer and retired rancher, residing near Alton ; William J. is a dairyman and race horse driver at Rohnerville; Lewis S. is the subject of this sketch ; Sarah J. died at the age of nineteen ; Mary died at six years of age; Emily Theresa is now the widow of Seth Drake of Fortuna.
Lewis Sherman East was born at Rohnerville November 19, 1870, and grew up on the farm in the Eel River valley. He was married December 17, 1896, to Miss Elizabeth Ellen Davis, of Alton, the daughter of Harrison Davis, a native of Ross county, Ohio. Mrs. Davis was in maidenhood Margaret Keating, a native of London, England. She was raised in Australia until seventeen, when she came to Humboldt county, Cal. Here occurred her mar- riage to Mr. Davis. He became the owner of a farm on McDiarmidt Prairie, making his home there until accidentally killed by a train in 1906. His widow still makes her home in the vicinity of Alton. They were the parents of twelve children, ten of whom are living. Mrs. East, who was next to the oldest, was reared and educated here. Mr. and Mrs. East have one child, Ethel M., who is a freshman in the University of California at Berkeley.
Aside from the management of the East Brothers ferry, one mile below Alton on the Eel river, which he personally operated for ten years, Mr. East has been engaged in farming, dairying and stock raising; his present farm consists of one hundred ten acres of bottom land and sixty-five acres of grazing land. He is breeding thoroughbred and high grade Jersey cattle, having a herd of forty-two milch cows. He owns an orchard of seventeen acres where he raises fine apples, shipping fifteen hundred boxes per year.
Mr. East is the president of the Humboldt County Farm Bureau, to
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which office he was elected in August, 1914. The other officers of this bureau are : H. E. Adams, of Carlotta, Cal., vice-president; C. J. McConnaha, secre- tary and business manager; A. H. Christensen, farm adviser. The four directors at large are: F. A. Cummings, Ferndale; E. B. Bull, Ft. Seward ; F. A. Newell, Fortuna; and F. E. Morrell, Arcata. Besides these there is a director elected from each of the thirteen farm centers in the county.
Numerous other companies claim the attention of Mr. East, for besides the above-mentioned position, he is a director in the Ferndale Agricultural (Fair) Association, vice-president of the Dairy Association at Ferndale, a member of the Ferndale Cow Testing Association and of the Rohnerville Percheron Horse Company, of which he is also treasurer, this company own- ing the celebrated gray imported Percheron stallion, Idumeen, five years old, weighing twenty-one hundred and thirty pounds, and costing $4,800. Mr. East is also president of the Eel River Valley Chamber of Commerce, which was organized in 1914 for the purpose of promoting the best interests of the Eel River Valley. He is a member of the Republican county central com- mittee.
Fraternally Mr. East is a member of Eel River Lodge No. 210, I. O. O. F., at Rohnerville, of Hydesville Encampment, I. O. O. F., and is past officer in both. Ile and his wife are members of the Rebekahs at Hydesville. Mr. East likewise holds membership in the Golden Star Parlor, N. S. G. W., at Alton, having been through the chairs.
COGGESHALL LAUNCH & TOW BOAT CO .- The important fac- tor in the life and prosperity of every seaport is necessarily its shipping. The value of its imports and exports, combined with the size, number and efficiency of its carriers, registers on the commercial thermometer the size and importance of the port in the business world. Had an article been writ- ten about the close of the nineteenth century on the shipping industry as connected with the inland waters of the Humboldt bay, it would have touched upon the now obsolete wind-jammer, at the present time relegated to ancient history as regards the commerce of the Pacific coast ports very much as is the whaler of Atlantic coast ports; superseded in her work and importance by the modern steamer of much greater tonnage and carrying capacity. The steamer propelled by its own power combines efficiency, despatch and econ- omy impossible in the deposed wind-jammer. As great a change as is notice- able in the large outside cargo carriers may be noticed in the class and char- acter of bottoms used in the inland waters of the bay. Were the bay business handled today with the same equipment used at the time the wind-jammer handled the commerce of this port and were the crude methods of that time still in vogue, the dispatch demanded by the outside vessels while in the bay completing cargoes could never be given.
The inland transportation of the Humboldt bay is an auxiliary of the outside. Methods on the bay have advanced and system has been inaug- urated where formerly it was "every man for himself." As far as the steamer is ahead of the practically discarded sailing ship, so far are the bay craft of the present day ahead of the class of boats used in the olden times. During the opening year of the twentieth century the transportation of two million shingles from some mill up in one of the sloughs to the tackle of a ship would have taken a large share of the lighter equipment of the bay. The pike-pole navigators, several of whom were doing business then, would have been
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utilized in the task. ' Today an order for five million shingles delivered along- side would give no one any particular concern. They would be loaded on lighters, of which there are several capable of handling from one million to a million and a half. The load would be taken in tow by a launch of suf- ficient power to handle and dock a large steamer. More easily than under the old system one million shingles were handled, this whole large lot would be docked alongside. The modern launch, equipped with from fifty to one hun- dred or more horse-power, has taken the place of the picturesque relic of the "good old days" and the man with the pike pole. Shipping coming in from outside demands the services of a force of longshoremen greatly in excess of the number required in former days when the men went to the vessels, taking cargo in the stream and at wharves several miles distant from the city wharves, mostly in row boats or in small and unreliable launches. Today the gasoline marine engine is conceded to be as reliable as steam, and no matter what number of men may be required to work a ship, they are put aboard from a large launch with celerity and certainty.
In the olden times large picnics were handled by means of small lighters which were tied up to a central wharf. When a load was procured the pic- nickers were towed down the bay to the desired place. Today when there is a picnic, with an attendance of upwards of four thousand, a service is inaugurated composed of powerful, comfortable boats, capable of carrying from one hundred to two hundred persons, and these leave for the picnic grounds at intervals of ten or fifteen minutes. Formerly parties wishing to go to the trans-bay town of Samoa hired a row boat and pulled across. Many times a breeze would spring up prior to their return, making the bay choppy, so that the rowers would return drenched to the skin. In former days ves- sels wanting boiler water and loading at points on the bay where the desired article was not obtainable, were under the necessity of leaving their docks and stcaming to Eureka to secure water before going to sea. At present vessels wishing oil and water lay at their dock and an oil or water barge comes alongside giving them whichever they desire, the ship thus being saved delay and consequently saved money as well.
These comparisons between conditions on the bay in the past and at the present time are not made in a spirit of criticism. The methods and equip- ments of those days were sufficient for the then requirements. When the need for larger, better service came, there were men ready to embrace the opportunity. The result is that the waterfront is up-to-date. Steamship men and travelers are quick to appreciate the launch service on the Humboldt. Those who have visited at every port on the Pacific concede that the launches here are superior in equipment, design and comfort to any vessels of the same class on the entire coast. In 1912 the underwriters of San Francisco were considering the advisability of accepting risks on launches and sent their representative to survey the launches on the Humboldt bay. As a result they adopted them as a standard to which the San Francisco launches must adhere in order to be considered insurable risks.
One June morning ten or more years ago a transparency reading "Coggeshall Launch Co., Ferry to Samoa," appeared at the foot of F street, Eureka, (this street being the launch center of the port). Capt. W. Coggeshall was the "Company," being himself president, secretary, office boy, ticket taker, and master of the little boat of twenty-passenger capacity which he had
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purchased from William McDade, the Humboldt bay shipbuilder who since has made a reputation as a master builder extending from Puget sound to the Pacific coast. No one knew anything about Captain Coggeshall except that he evidently was a Yankee and smilingly stated that he was from Nan- tucket, an island off the Massachusetts coast. When he left on his scheduled trips across the bay on the little boat, the Island Home, the transparency was left to "hold down the job" until he returned. The trim boat attracted favor- able attention, but there were already two or three small power boats on the bay and the people did not understand how another launch could support its owner. Yet within three months Captain Coggeshall had designed the Nantucket, Mr. McDade had built the boat and it was in commission, for a long time running as the Pomona. The next step of the venturesome Captain was the building of an office and the taking in of the transparency. It was thereupon freely predicted that the building of the large boat would finan- cially ruin the owner, for the Nantucket was the first passenger launch in the port and there seemed little use for such a vessel. Yet within a year a third launch was designed and built, the next year a fourth was added, a year later a fifth was added to the possessions of the company, this being the Wannacomet. Two years later the Miacomet was launched and put into commission. The first boat was built thirty feet in length with seven horse- power; the last boat was sixty-five feet long, with one hundred and thirty- five horse-power.
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