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 38

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

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Other matters have secured their share of the attention of Mr. Hunt and he is generally interested in the business activities in Arcata. Among the newer and more recent undertakings in which he is interested may be men- tioned the First National Bank of Arcata, of which he is a director. He has always been keenly interested in all that pertains to the welfare of the com- munity, and has done much for the upbuilding of his part of the county. He is wide awake to the progressive spirit of the times, and with the same business sagacity that he has applied to commercial pursuits with such great success, he views the civic affairs of the city and the governmental affairs of county and state, building for the future, as well as caring for the present. In politics he is a Republican, a party man of the highest type, supporting his party because he believes the party is right, but willing and ready at all times to use energetic measures to be certain that it stays right,

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and that it strives only for the best of the community and of the people generally.

Mr. Hunt, together with his family, is a member of the Alliance Meth- odist Episcopal Church, in which he is an influential personality and he and his wife are members of the official board. The family and home life of Mr. Hunt is full of interest. He was married May 2, 1881, in Plumb Valley, to Miss Mary Ann Robertson, a native of California, and born Janu- ary 14, 1862, in Forest City, Sierra county. The parents of Mrs. Hunt both came from England, her father, John Robertson, having been born in Birming- ham, February 13, 1823, and her mother, Eliza Rudd, in Devonshire, in July, 1825. They both came to California by way of the Isthmus, but became ac- quainted after reaching the coast, and were married in Sierra county, about 1860. In the early days of his life on the coast Mr. Robertson engaged in mining, but later followed his trade as a blacksmith. He died in Humboldt county in 1909, his wife having passed away in Sierra county a few years previous.

Mr. and Mrs. Hunt became the parents of nine children, all but one of whom are now living, Charles Elmer, their eldest born having passed away when twenty-six years of age. The living members of their family are Cora Bell, now married to Andrew Jackson Taylor, and living in Modesto ; Stanley Albert, manager of the Bridgeville ranch ; Herbert Wesley, who mar- ried Jessie Whitmore, and is manager of the Mad river ranch ; Vernon Les- ter, now attending dental college in San Francisco; William Vinal, manager of the home ranch : John Russell, attending Humboldt State Normal ; Chester Eugene and Geraldine. They are all well known in Humboldt county, where they were born, and where they received their education.

Mr. Hunt is more actively engaged in business than ever and still man- ages and controls his extensive interests, besides which he is associated with all movements of interest in and around Arcata. However, he attributes his success in no small degree to the assistance of his faithful wife, who was always ready to aid with faithful hands and to lend him every encourage- ment in achieving their ambition to own their own home. His ambition, fostered from childhood, was the owning of his own ranch and working with stock. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hunt are very kind and charitable and are known for their liberality and hospitality. Mr. Hunt is well read, and keeps posted on all questions of public interest while the financial pulse of the country is constantly under his eager fingers, and judged with the skill of an expert financier.

HUGH WEBSTER M'CLELLAN .- For thirty years before his death a resident of Eureka. Mr. McClellan was always considered one of the most desirable citizens of that place, and became associated with a number of its interests. But his principal reputation was acquired in the sheep business, in which he engaged extensively and successfully, in that connection having a wide acquaintance all over northern California. After settling at Eureka he made investments from time to time in the city, owning bank and factory stock, but his attention centered about his agricultural operations, which he carried on to the end of his days.

Mr. McClellan was of Scotch ancestry, and his branch of the family was established in this country by his great-grandfather, who came from Scot- land and settled on a large farm in Franklin county, Mass. It was a valuable

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property and he carried it on successfully, and most of his children followed in his footsteps, adopting agriculture as their calling. One of his sons, John, was a member of the general assembly in Massachusetts and for many years a prominent politician of that commonwealth.

Hugh McClellan, father of the late Hugh Webster Mcclellan, was born in Franklin county, Mass., was a prosperous farmer all his life, and died in his prime, at the age of forty-five years. He was a man of modest disposition and retiring habits, and his principal interest outside of the cultivation of his farm was in his church. On political questions he was a stanch Whig, but he never took part in party activities or public affairs. He married Lucy Smith, also a native of Massachusetts, who survived him and remarried, removing to Chautauqua county, N. Y., and thence to Aurora, Ill., where she lived to the age of eighty-two years. Her son Hugh Webster McClellan was born October 31, 1837, at Charlemont, Franklin county, Mass., and was but five years old when his father died. He was a boy of twelve when he accompanied his mother to Chautauqua county, N. Y., and a few years later the family settled in Illinois, where his pioneer experiences began. When he was sixteen he was employed breaking raw prairie land in Kane county, that state, and two years later he went up to Fillmore county, Minn., where he found work in a sawmill. In 1857 he joined a railroad surveying party working over the southern part of that state, and two years later he set out for the Pacific coast. He made the journey by way of New York City and the Isthmus of Panama, landed at San Francisco, and soon afterward took passage on the steamer Columbia for Crescent City, Cal., to join his brother, Rhominer Smith McClellan, who had preceded him to the west in 1852 and had been in the livery and freighting business at Crescent City since 1854. The Columbia made three round trips before she could make a safe landing at Crescent City, so that Mr. McClellan spent two months on the ocean between his embarka- tion and his arrival at Crescent City, where he spent the next three years in his brother's employ. Then he concluded to try his fortune in the new min- ing country in the Boise basin, in Idaho, whither he journeyed by way of Jacksonville, Ore. In time he purchased his brother's business, operating pack trains principally between Umatilla, Ore., and Idaho and Montana, and he had a prosperous experience, adding several hundred dollars to his acquisi- tions by its sale in the year 1866. On one of his trips he covered a distance of five hundred miles, with forty-five pack mules, through a wild and sparsely settled region supposedly infested by Indians ; and though he had no special protection he was not troubled much by the savages, nor did he suffer any loss of stock or provisions by the way.

By this time he was anxious to make a visit to his old home in Massa- chusetts, but it proved very expensive, for the brother-in-law with whom he left his money while in New York City lost it, and Mr. McClellan had to borrow $40 to meet his expenses on the return trip to California. He resumed freighting, conducting a pack train between Umatilla and points in Idaho, and though he had most of the adventurous experiences which the daring souls of that day had to face he was fortunate in escaping disastrous conse- quences, either to himself or his property. It was while thus engaged that he made an acquaintanceship which led him into what proved to be the chief business of his life. He met a man who was in search of a young man to go into partnership with him in the sheep business, and they came to terms

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before long, the arrangement being that Mr. McClellan was to work as an employee two years, and then become a partner. After the association was formed they purchased twenty-two hundred head of sheep, which they drove to near Bridgeville, in Humboldt county, Cal., and the two men continued to hold their interests in common for the five years following, doing a highly satisfactory business. Then they divided their property, the partner retiring with a competency, and Mr. McClellan keeping his share of the sheep and the range, which gave him a fine start for the extensive business he was to develop. He became known as one of the most successful sheep raisers in Humboldt county, his pastures covering eleven thousand acres of deeded land and an equal area of government range, on which he grazed about five thousand head of sheep, as well as about one hundred cattle and a few horses. Besides, he owned a twelve-hundred-acre tract of farming land in Coos county, Ore. In 1881 he established his home at Eureka, at which place he resided the rest of his life, dividing his time between his home and his ranch, which he man- aged with excellent judgment. In addition to his attractive home at Eureka he acquired considerable city property, and he gave part of his time to the management of his banking and manufacturing interests. He was one of the organizers of the Humboldt Bay Woolen Mills Company, of which he was a director ; was a director of the Humboldt County Bank for a number of years and also held the same connection with the Home Savings Bank. Pub- lic affairs never received any share of his attention except what he thought was due to the community from any public-spirited citizen whose duty to his fellow men required him to take a stand on questions affecting the general welfare. Ile had the moral courage and unshakable honesty of his Scotch blood, and his conservativeness was the caution of forethought and not the disposition to lag behind when new ideas were on trial. All that he pos- sessed he acquired through his own efforts, and he deserved the success he won. Yet he always had a kindly feeling for young men just commencing to climb the hard road over which he had "arrived," and was ready with encour- agement and assistance to give them a timely lift. His death occurred at Eureka December 31, 1911, in his seventy-fifth year. Mr. McClellan was a member of Lincoln Lodge No. 34, K. P., of Eureka. He was a Republican in his political views.

In Humboldt county, July 24, 1872, Mr. McClellan married Miss Martha Cook, who was born in Henry county, Iowa, daughter of Joel and Charlotte (Thornburg) Cook, and the following children were born to them: Hugh Smith, who died when ten years old; Lucy C., who died when two years old ; John W., who has managed his father's ranch for a number of years; Jean- nette, Mrs. Graham; Gertrude, Mrs. Fraser, and Ethel, all of Humboldt county.

ANNA BARBARA GASSER .- The possession of strong, forceful char- acteristics, an inheritance from Teutonic ancestry, has enabled Dr. Gasser to rise by invincible determination to a high position among the osteopathic practitioners of Northern California. Her father, Frederick Wille (well-to-do farmer of the Black Forest in Germany), brought the family to California and settled in Stockton in 1878. The daughter received the advantages of the schools of the San Joaquin valley. Mental and physical qualifications admirably adapted her for the difficult profession of nursing and she engaged in such work with growing success and popularity, first at Stockton and then

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in the Burke Sanitarium near Santa Rosa. In 1890 she became the wife of Henry Gasser. Recently Dr. Gasser purchased a ranch of four hundred and twenty acres near Phillipsville, Humboldt county, which Mrs. Gasser named Fairmont ranch. It was improved with a vineyard and a varied assortment of apples, pears, peaches, plums and prunes. It is her intention to develop the ranch into a summer health resort known as Camp Gasser, and in this large enterprise she has the cordial co-operation of Mr. Gasser, who will have the purest of milk and butter, the freshest of eggs, the fattest of poultry as well as the choicest fruits for the guests of the country home.

A complete course of study at the California College of Osteopathy, San Francisco, followed by graduation in 1903, prepared Dr. Gasser for her life work and further preparation was had through a special course in electricity. In Eureka she owns a comfortable bungalow at No. 1036 E street and here she has her office. In the decade of her practice she has won an unusually large list of patients and friends. As a practitioner she combines skill and tact with an unusually profound knowledge of the needs of the body as well as accuracy in diagnosis of disease, so that she is remarkably well qualified for success in the profession. The State Association of Osteopathy and journals dealing with the science receive a due share of her attention and she continues to be a thoughtful student of the profession, affiliating with her alma mater as well as the parent school in Missouri. While a large practice leaves her little leisure for outside enterprises, she is a member of the Civic Club of Eureka and gives her support to all organizations or movements for the permanent progress of the city and county.

HENRY MELDE .- Even from his earliest childhood floriculture has appealed to Henry Melde with peculiar emphasis. In Silesia, Germany, where he was born, he began to care for a little garden of vegetables and flowers when he was only six years of age and at thirteen he sold grapes of his own raising. So unquestionably keen and strong was his liking for that line of work and so deep his interest in watching the development of plant life that he was apprenticed to the nursery business, and after completing his appren- ticeship he became assistant in a large nursery in Dresden and later served in a similar position in Leipsic and Erfurt, during this time developing his natural appreciation by cultivated tastes and thorough training. During the years 1871 and 1872 he was in and near Rio Janeiro, Brazil, making a scientific study of tropical vegetation. Shortly after his arrival in New York City in the fall of 1872 he secured employment as an assistant in a florist's establishment and in that capacity decorated the famous Delmonico restaurant. For six- teen years after his arrival in San Francisco via Panama in 1874 he followed his chosen occupation there, first as a landscape gardener for Gen. W. H. Barnes, later as florist and gardener for Governor Latham and eventually established himself as a florist in that city, having a nursery of his own. How- ever, the location did not prove desirable, as the vapor thrown off in the man- ufacture of strong acids at the chemical works destroyed his plants. It was for this reason that he decided to try a new location, choosing Eureka, among the sequoias, as his field of operation.

Since coming to Eureka in 1890 Mr. Melde has devoted himself very closely to his chosen calling and has received the growing appreciation of people competent to judge in such matters. Not easily or rapidly did he win his way to recognition as one of the foremost nurserymen of northern California, but an intelligent mastery of his occupation has enabled him to

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make good. A brief period was given to the raising of vegetables, but as soon as practicable he started a nursery. The initial step in this direction was the buying of a tract of stump land near Sequoia Park, and then he cleared the land of its stump and brush, so that it was in shape for profitable work. For the convenience of the business he has erected three hothouses with twelve thousand feet of glass, and this affords ample facilities for the growing of delicate plants and flowers requiring careful nurture. One of his chief pleasures has been the developing of new kinds of plants and flowers, and the Cactus Dahlia represents his latest effort in that direction. Some of his special varieties have been shipped to the east and even as far away as Germany, for his reputation is by no means limited to the county and state of his residence, but extends among florists and nurserymen in other sections of the world. His residence is built on seven big redwood stumps. The foundation, which is utilized as a basement, is not only unique, but for per- manency and durability could not be improved upon, and its use demonstrates the forethought and genius of the builder.

After an absence of forty-one years from his old German home, in the fall of 1913 Mr. Melde returned thither, not only for the purpose of renewing the friendships of early youth, but also in order to study plant conditions in Belgium, Holland and Germany. While away he had the privilege of attending the International Exhibition at Ghent and found it a source of artistic delight as well as occupative advancement. Among the collection of plants that he brought back with him to this country there were new varieties of rare plants. His work is his joy and his life. His family consists of his wife, also a native of Germany, and three sons, two of whom are his able assistants.

Mr. Melde is very optimistic for the future greatness of Humboldt county. Its forests are the finest and most imposing in the world. When one considers the age of the sequoias and all that has happened during their centuries of growth, to say nothing of the beauty which they add to the scenery, it is well worth a trip across the continent for one day's view. Mr. Melde is convinced that Humboldt county will some day be a very popular summer resort, only needing exploiting of its natural advantages and cli- matic conditions to bring it to the attention of the public.

EGIDIO TANFERANI .- For fourteen years a resident of Humboldt county, Cal., where he owns a valuable ranch adjoining the town of Loleta where he is engaged in the dairy business, Egidio Tanferani is a native of Italy, where he was born in Monte Crestese, near the city of Domodossola, Novara, April 18, 1870, his father being Ennocente Tanferani, a farmer and dairy man of importance at Monte Crestese. Both parents are still living, Egidio, the oldest of their six children, receiving his education in the public schools, and from a lad making himself useful on the farm, learning dairying as it was done in that part of Italy. In 1901 he left his native land, coming to Eureka, Cal., where he immediately found employment in a dairy near Ferndale, Humboldt county. Five years later he rented a ranch near Fern- dale, and one year later removed to the P. Kelly place near Ferndale, where he leased one hundred twenty acres of bottom land and became very suc- cessful in the management of a dairy of eighty cows. After seven years spent on the Kelly place he had accumulated some means, and being desirous of owning a ranch he in 1912 purchased his present property from Hill Broth-

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ers, an estate which comprises fifty-eight and one-quarter acres of land adjoining Loleta. This ranch being all rich bottom land, Mr. Tanferani here raises hay, beets and carrots, and the product of his dairy herd of forty milch cows he sells to Libby, McNeill & Libby Company. Upon his estate he has erected commodious buildings, including a modern two-story residence, where he has made an attractive home for his wife and three children, Clelia, Ennocente and Angel. Mrs. Tanferani was before her marriage Felecita Leonardi, born in Monte Crestese, the daughter of Angelo, a dairyman and farmer. She came to Humboldt county in March, 1909, and in April of that year married Mr. Tanferani. In his political interests, Mr. Tanferani is a member of the Republican party.

JESSE N. LENTELL .- Much of the important engineering work which has made Eureka so desirable a place of residence and so favorable a location for manufacturing and other business enterprises is the work of Jesse N. Lentell, a leading civil engineer of this portion of California, who served eleven years in this capacity for the city. In that and other capaci- ties he has made a name for accuracy and reliability so well deserved that he has had the honor of making the large relief map of Humboldt county which formed part of the county's exhibit at the Panama Pacific Exposition of 1915, at San Francisco. He did this work under contract with the county supervisors. Mr. Lentell has a state map, and a number of city and county maps to his credit, railway and road surveys, and other work requiring expert knowledge of his profession. In the course of a busy career he has acquired interests of considerable value, particularly in water and water- power projects and timber lands on the Mad river in this region.

Mr. Lentell's father, Rev. Jesse V. Lentell, was a Baptist minister, and was stationed at Worcester, Mass., at the time of the birth of his son Jesse. His mother's maiden name was Louisa R. Burroughs. Jesse N. Lentell was born at Worcester January 31, 1861, and was a child when his father removed with the family to Amherst, growing up at the various places to which his father's work took the family. His high school education was received at Amherst, Mass. His brother Junius V. Lentell having gone out to Nebraska, became engaged in farming at Valley, that state, and he persuaded Jesse to join him. The latter was then twenty years old. He farmed and taught school in Nebraska for a while, until he decided to return east and fit himself for civil engineering, taking a special course in that science at Lebanon, Ohio. After that he came out to California, locating at Oakland in the year 1883. There he became a deputy in the city engineer's office, working for the city one year, after which he took a position with the Contra Costa Water Company, now known as the Oakland Water Company. He remained in their employ for a year and a half, at the end of that period, in 1886, coming up to Humboldt county and settling at Eureka, where he still makes his home. Before long he had been commissioned to resurvey the city, fixing grades and street lines, and he made the first city sewer plan. Having made a reputation by his excellent work he was given the position of city engineer, which he held for eleven years, during which time he also filled the position of county surveyor for two years, combining the duties of both offices very effectively. His next work was for the Eureka and Klamath River Railway Company, surveying and laying out its road from Samoa to Little River, about twenty miles, and he has since been

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called upon to make various other railway surveys and locate railroads. For one summer season he had charge of the Crescent City and Grants Pass Railroad. In 1907 he located the Trinity state highway, from Salt creek to Mad river, a stretch of twenty-eight miles. He has made plans for a gravity system of water supply for the city of Eureka, to obtain pure city water from the Mad river as well as electric power, at a cost of one million dollars. In 1898 he published a state map, which he revised in 1904; besides which he published a map of the city of Eureka and several maps of Humboldt county, and also of several counties in California. The many large works to his credit, some of them carried out under difficulties which would have appalled a man of less resource, are sufficient evidence of his ability and thoroughness. Personally he is a citizen whom Eureka is proud to claim.

Mr. Lentell makes his home at No. 3120 D street, Eureka. He was married at Eureka in 1908 to Mrs. Frances Sunol Angus, a talented teacher and writer. She met with an automobile accident at San Jose in 1910, which proved fatal. Fraternally, Mr. Lentell is a member of Eureka Lodge No. 652, B. P. O. E., and Eureka Lodge No. 636, L. O. O. M., and he also belongs to the Humboldt Club.

EDWARD JACKSON ROGERS .- Ed Rogers, as he is popularly called, is the proprietor of the Rogers Resort, an excellent hotel near Bridgeville, Cal., of which property he is joint owner with his mother. The whole- hearted generosity and kindness of his nature which have endeared him to all his patrons are the outgrowth of Mr. Rogers' Irish ancestry, for both his parents were natives of the Emerald Isle whose people are known for the spontaneity of their temperament; and the ready wit of that nation is well exemplified in Mr. Rogers, whose smiling face and genial manner have made him perhaps the most popular of all the hotel-keepers in southern Humboldt county.

The mother of Mr. Rogers was Jennie Lewis, who removed with her parents from Ireland to Canada at the age of one year; thence she went to San Francisco, at which place she met and was married to Edward Hugh Rogers. Of this marriage three children were born : John H., who is now a dairyman at Lexington, Wash., and is married to Mary Friel of Ferndale, Cal., by whom he has six children (Genevieve, Estella, Norton, Neil, Margaret and John) ; Genevieve, now the wife of Watts Jeans, a farmer in Idaho; and Edward Jackson, who was born on the Van Dusen, near Carlotta, Humboldt county, June 26, 1876, and grew up in the hotel business at Rogers Resort, of which he is now the proprietor. The father had lived in both New York and San Francisco, and upon coming to Humboldt county started out for himself in the hotel business. He built the old Van Dusen House below Flannigan's mill, which was the first hotel and summer resort on the Van Dusen river and a very popular place. This house was burned, after which Mr. Rogers built the present Rogers Resort four miles north of Bridgeville. The father died twenty-three years ago, at the time of his death being the owner of twenty- two hundred acres of land. The mother is still living and runs the Hotel Grand at American Falls, Idaho. Rogers ranch is located sixteen miles south of Carlotta and now comprises about three hundred acres and is owned by Mr. Rogers and his mother, where he is also engaged in raising cattle, his brand being two 3's facing each other.

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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 38

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