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 39

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 39

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Mr. Rogers' popularity is bringing him well deserved advancement in his chosen line of work, and he neglects no means of making his hostelry one that will be frequented by numerous visitors. At present he is spending thousands of dollars in building an addition to the main structure, rebuilding and remodeling, and beautifying the grounds and drives about the hotel; and it is safe to prophesy that the years will bring to Mr. Rogers unprece- dented success in his business in return for his efforts to make his hotel an ideal one for his guests.

GEORGE UNDERWOOD .- Few men in any field of work have the satisfaction of experiencing more real success than Mr. Underwood has been rewarded with in his forty years as an educator. Now, filling his fourth term as county superintendent of the public schools in Humboldt county, Cal., he has every reason to feel gratified with the approval his unselfish efforts have met, for the large majority he received at each election is an unmistakable indorsement of his services. The loyalty and support of his associates in the profession, and of former pupils, however, afford him probably his greatest pleasure and have been a spur to continued achievements for many years past. Mr. Underwood is a native of Ohio, born April 29, 1855, at Pleasant Ridge, Hamilton county, son of Benjamin F. and Mary Jane (Bell) Underwood. He was reared in the state of his birth, and after obtaining what education the common schools there afforded took a thorough course at the National normal school at Lebanon, Ohio, an institution of high standing whose influence undoubtedly had much to do with his early proficiency in the profession. He had been brought up as a farmer boy, but he commenced teaching at the age of nineteen years and has followed the calling without interruption since. For five years he was engaged in the district schools of Butler county, Ohio, but he was ambitious to try his fortune in the great west, and in the year 1882 he settled in California. He immediately secured a position as teacher, and did notable work at Rohnerville, Humboldt county, where he was principal of the public school for a period of fifteen years, during which time the grammar school of that place attained a reputation as one of the best of its class in the state. Mr. Underwood's successful methods and conscientious, effective attention to his pupils attracted general notice, and in the fall of 1902 he received the nomination of county superin- tendent of schools, on the republican ticket. being elected by a majority of two thousand. His fellow teachers and former pupils took an active part in the campaign, giving him personal support and winning over their friends in large numbers, and his constituents had no reason to regret their choice. Since then he has been re-elected to succeed himself in 1906, 1910 and 1914 with large majorities. He first entered upon the duties of his office January 1, 1903, and modestly but resolutely set about the task of introducing into all the schools of the county the methods which had proved so superior at Rohner- ville. His re-elections are sufficient evidence that he has not disappointed the people in his grasp of his responsibilities or his ability to carry them. They have given him a free hand and encouraged him to do his best, and he has not failed them, the fine record he has made for himself being merely the reflection of the high standard which the schools of Humboldt county have attained under his administration. Before his election as superintendent he refused offers of other positions because of his interest in his work at Rohner- ville, which was returned in kind by his fellow citizens there. The basis of

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his system is to instruct pupils in the method of acquiring information for themselves rather than teaching them the comparatively few things which may be mastered by pure effort of memory, instructing them to know things because they know the "reason why." It is to his special credit that his pupils at the Rohnerville grammar school were admitted to the third year of the Berkeley and other high schools of the state without the usual pre- paratory course. Because of his authoritative position among educators he has frequently been solicited for contributions to educational journals and other publications, his articles having a popular circulation.

Mr. Underwood is highly appreciative of the trust which the citizens of Humboldt county have placed in him, and also of the friendly esteem in which he is held by his fellow educators. Throughout his career he has endeavored to increase his fitness for his chosen work by continued study, and as a scholar he is looked up to by all who have had the opportunity of estimating his attainments. His executive ability has been as valuable as his mental training in every position he has been called upon to fill, and he has developed as new responsibilities have come to him, proving capable wherever placed. All his efforts are being directed toward maintaining a state of efficiency in the Humboldt county schools above criticism, and his energy has aroused a similar spirit among all his assistants.

In 1884 Mr. Underwood was married to Miss Annie Davis, daughter of John B. Davis, who came to Rohnerville in pioneer days. Three daughters and one son were born to them, the son dying in infancy. The daughters are: Stella Irene, who served four years as her father's assistant and is now the wife of S. C. Forsey, residing in Oakland ; Rilma Anita and Dariel May.

Mr. Underwood is a Mason and an Odd Fellow, belonging to Eel River Lodge No. 147, F. & A. M., and Eel River Lodge, I. O. O. F., of Rohner- ville, and with his wife is a member of Rohnerville Chapter No. 76, O. E. S .. Mrs. Underwood is a member of the Congregational church. Mr. Underwood has been a prominent member of the Ninth District Agricultural Association, which he served as secretary for a period of seven years. With his family he resides at No. 1016 Ninth street, where their many friends and acquain- tances are welcomed with true hospitality and goodwill.

WILLIAM S. CLARK .- There is hardly a phase of the development of Eureka, Humboldt county, with which William S. Clark, the present mayor of the city, has not been associated during the thirty years of his career as a business man here. His father, the late Hon. Jonathan Clark, owning large real estate interests here, opened Clark's addition to the town and had planned and started the second enlargement at the time of his death. Up to that time William S. Clark had followed his early inclinations for agricultural pursuits, but when the care of the valuable estate passed into his hands he had to continue the work begun if he expected to realize on it, and thus his extensive operations had their origin. His transactions have been numerous and important, establishing stable values in different portions of the town, for like his father he has planned with an eye to the future good, a fact which has been sufficiently apparent to enhance his popularity. The townspeople have shown him many honors and at present, besides holding the chief executive office, he is commissioner for Humboldt county to the

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Panama-Pacific Exposition. His business and social connections are nu- merous and creditable.

Mr. Clark is a native of Humboldt county, born February 20, 1858, at Bucksport, son of Jonathan and Maria (Ryan) Clark. His education was acquired in the public schools of Eureka. When he began work he applied himself to farming, and as soon as he became of age his father turned over to him the management of a dairy farm of six hundred acres which he owned, at Table Bluff, this county. This occupied his attention for several years following, and he was gaining steadily in knowledge and experience of the calling he had chosen when his father's death made it necessary for him to handle all the interests of the estate instead of the comparatively small portion which he had looked after prior to that time. He has but one sister, Eliza, and her interests as well as their mother's have been faithfully cared for by Mr. Clark.

As his real estate operations have been his chief responsibility it will be interesting to see how much Mr. Clark has contributed to the growth of his city in that line. Little of the second enlargement of Clark's addition to Eureka had been sold when he assumed his father's interests, and he sold off most of the remainder in town lots. In 1900 he platted a third enlarge- ment to the Clark addition, a tract of about two hundred acres which within a few years he had sold in acre blocks or as residence lots. Now most of the southwestern portion of the residence district of Eureka is com- prised in Clark's additions, and Mr. Clark has also been interested in an castern addition to the town-thirteen acres on Seventeenth and J streets which he laid out in company with Ernest Sevier. Large lots were laid out and the subdivision, sale and improvement of the tract were planned with the greatest care, no pains being spared to convert it into highly desirable residence property. Many handsome homes have been erected thereon. Mr. Clark also built the South Park race track, which he has since cut up into city lots. To encourage home builders the Eureka Land & Home Build- ing Association was formed, and he has been one of the influential factors in shaping its policy, which has provided opportunities for those desiring to acquire homes, without capital or financial backing. He is a director of that concern and an active member of the Chamber of Commerce, of which he is a past president. His personal investments in the city are so large as to be proof positive of his sanguine opinion regarding its continued prosperity.

For a number of years Mr. Clark has supplemented his private activ- ities with public service. After two terms of service in the city council he was elected mayor in 1903, and his administration was so favorably remem- bered that in June, 1913, he was elected for another term, which he is now filling. It was quite in keeping that the honor of representing Humboldt county at the Panama-Pacific Exposition should fall to him. Politically he has always been a Republican. Socially he is a member of the B. P. O. Elks and of the Sequoia Yachting and Boating Club, being a director of the latter body, which he helped to organize.

On June 2, 1886, Mr. Clark was married to Miss Celia Griffin, who was born in Humboldt county, daughter of John and Mary Griffin. A family of four children has been born to them: Jonathan Earl, Alice E., William S. and Lec D.

Robert Henry

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ROBERT HENRY .- The genius of the inventor seems full often to have flowered in the heart of the pioneer, who ever made a virtue of necessity and constructed for himself from the materials at hand such implements and tools as were needed for his work. And it was no unusual thing for these same articles to prove far better than one had ever deemed possible, and from such simple beginnings as these have come great inventions and articles of value to mankind. A California pioneer who possesses the gift for invention in a marked degree is Robert Henry, of Blue Lake, who already has given the world a number of clever devices and who is now at work on several more which he hopes soon to have perfected in all their minor details.

Mr. Henry is a native of York county, New Brunswick, having been born on a farm ncar Fredericton, October 4, 1844. He was the son of Robert and Elizabeth (Scott) Henry, both of whom died when Robert was a small child. He attended private schools for a few years, this being before the days of public schools in that part of the province. Besides being left an orphan, circumstances were such that he was forced at an early age to start out for himself. He worked in the woods in the spring of each year driving logs on the rivers, and working on the ranches in the neighborhood during sum- mers when the work in the woods was slack. The first year he received $7 a month for his labor, and the second year was raised to $10.

Following this line of occupation Mr. Henry lived in New Brunswick until he was twenty-one years of age, when he determined to come to the United States, where the opportunities were better and where he would also escape the rigors of winters in the north. Accordingly he landed at Alpena, Mich., situated on Thunder Bay, Lake Huron, and there found em- ployment in the woods at Milltown. Shortly after accepting this position, however, he was taken ill with typhoid fever and returned to Alpena, and it was not until three months later that he was able to resume work. Upon returning to the woods he was paid $35 a month, and in the spring of the year he went out on the log drive at $3.50 a day. During the summer he worked on the state highway between Alpena and Saginaw and in the winter again worked in the woods. The following year he returned to New Bruns- wick. At that time a railroad from Bangor to St. John was in course of con- struction and suggested to Mr. Henry the idea of opening a general mer- chandise store. Accordingly he built a store and hotel on the shore of Magua- davic lake. There he continued successfully for two years, after which he sold the store and hotel and engaged in the butcher business, supplying the railroad company with meat. When the road was completed this store was closed, and although at a later date the same company urged him to open another similar place at a new construction camp, Mr. Henry did not like the conditions and so declined the offer. In 1873 he went into New Hamp- shire and again worked in the woods, having charge of the blacksmith shop for the lumbering camp. In December, 1873, he removed to Wisconsin, where he was with the Eau Claire Lumber Company, first in the woods and later in charge of the blacksmithing. The wages paid for logging were much higher, however, being often as high as $4 a day, and he later returned to the better paid labor. At another time he cooked for a crew of eighty men on the drive on the Eau Claire river in Wisconsin.

A brother of Mr. Henry had for several years been located in California and his letters from the coast telling of the climatic advantages and of the

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higher wages to be had were the direct cause of his decision to come west. It was November 9, 1875, that he arrived at Eureka and during that winter he cooked for a crew of men on the Washington claim, where they were making shakes. The following summer he worked in the woods, and began at that time his search for land on which he might locate. There were at that time many men who were supposed to be locators but whose chief interest was in getting money from the uninitiated, who was often shown one piece of land and later found that he had filed on another, often many miles away. Mr. Henry had several unpleasant experiences with this type of tricksters, but his native intellect and his attention to detail saved him from serious mistakes. Later he filed on several good locations and after a time began him- self to locate others. This occupation he followed for several years, meeting with much success and making many warm friends by his careful attention to details and his absolutely fair dealings with the settlers.

This work was eventually given up for the work of timber expert and contract estimating on timber acreage land, an occupation which he followed successfully until within the last few years.

Many years ago Mr. Henry determined to build a permanent home at Blue Lake and at the earliest possible opportunity the foundation for the future home was laid. This was in the year that President Mckinley was assassinated. This home is considered one of the finest in Blue Lake. After the death of his first wife several years ago this property was sold, but Mr. Henry still makes his home in the pretty little city. In October, 1913, in Blue Lake, he married Mrs. Mary J. (Hodgson) Barnum. Born near Toronto, Canada, she removed with her parents to Minneapolis, Minn., in 1860, and in 1866 married Edwin Barnum, a native of Hamilton, Canada, and a soldier in the engineer corps in the Civil war, enlisting from Minnesota. He was en- gaged in the real estate business, but later removed to North Dakota, where he farmed for eleven years, then became a merchant in Lakota, afterwards retiring to Duluth, Minn., where he died in 1910. In the fall of 1912 the widow came to the vicinity of Redding, Cal., and in 1913 came to Blue Lake.

Mr. Henry is well known throughout Humboldt county and has many friends wherever he is known. He has been a member of the Masonic lodge since 1868, having been made a Mason in Solomon Lodge No. 6, Fred- ericton, and since 1882 has been a member of Humboldt Lodge No. 79, Eureka.

Although he is retired from active business life, Mr. Henry is always busy. His workshop is the center of his manifold activities and he is planning and working constantly on some one of the several inventions which he hopes soon to be ready to patent and give to the world. Among them is a window fastener, also a cuspidor lifter, both of which are a success. Several other articles have already been put on the market with much success and there are at present several more in the process of passing through the patent office. One of these is an ingenious automatic device to prevent fish from leaving the main canal and going into the small irrigating ditches and getting on the land, which will save millions of fish a year to the government.

DANIEL MATHESON .- The city assessor of Eureka has seen much of life on the western hemisphere and has endured innumerable privations not only in the logging camps of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, but also in the undeveloped mining regions of Alaska, where he prospected during a

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pioneer period that considerably antedated the famous rush to that country. The experiences that came to him enriched his life with thrilling adventure, but added nothing to his store of savings and for these he has depended largely upon the ordinary occupations of the work-a-day world. The memories of his early life cluster around the little town of St. Stephen in New Bruns- wick, where he was born December 17, 1860, and where he received such meager advantages as local schools made possible. The family was poor and the need of self-support was thrust upon him while yet a boy on the home farm. Although skilled in all kinds of farm work he did not turn to the tilling of the soil for a livelihood, but instead found employment in the lumber woods of his native province, where his skill as a woodsman and his splendid health enabled him to earn higher wages than many others in the same occupation.

During the years of his employment in New Brunswick forests Mr. Matheson heard much concerning the excellent wages paid in the logging camps of California and these favorable reports induced him to come to Eureka in the fall of 1882. He was then a young man scarcely twenty-two years of age, in the prime of physical strength and able to lead the crew in the logging camps and at the sawmills. To such as he naturally there came ready employment at fair wages. After almost three years in the forests of Humboldt county he went to Siskiyou county in 1885 and there had his first experiences in mining camps. While recognizing the fascination of the mines, he was not satisfied with the location and so in the spring of 1886 sought the unexplored mining regions of Alaska. For a considerable period he mined at Juneau, a camp then scarcely known to the outside world and containing so few of the actual necessities of existence that the record of its pioneers is a story of almost incredible hardships.

It was in the midst of such a primitive environment that Mr. Matheson remained for two and one-half years. Upon his return to Eureka in the fall of 1889 he resumed work in the logging woods, but later took up the in- surance business and acted as agent for a number of prominent old-line companies. Meanwhile he acquired local prominence in the Republican party and did much to promote the welfare of that organization in his home town. In 1906 he was a candidate for the office of city assessor of Eureka, to which office he was duly elected and is now serving his fourth term, which he fills with fidelity and painstaking accuracy. With his wife, who was Mary Murray, a native of Eureka, and their son, Earl, he has established a comfort- able home in this city and is regarded as one of the public-spirited citizens, whose activity is proving helpful to local progress. With characteristic civic pride he has identified himself with the Eureka Board of Trade and has co- operated with all of its movements for the advancement of the town. In local fraternities he is no less prominent than in local politics, being a member of the Eagles, a leading worker in the blue lodge of Masons and at one time or another the incumbent of all the offices in the local camp, Woodmen of the World.

JAMES MILTON FARLEY .- A native of California, and a resident of Humboldt county for more than twenty years, James Milton Farley is de- scended from one of the well known pioneer families of early California days. His entire lifetime has been passed within the confines of his native state, and for the greater part of that time he has been engaged in farming and

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dairying pursuits. His present home place is on the Eel river, and he is especially interested in dairying and the raising of registered and graded live stock.

Mr. Farley was born in Sonoma county, a short distance from Petaluma, January 15, 1854. He is the son of Francis Hall Farley, a native of Ohio. His mother was Elizabeth (Kraut) Farley, born in Indiana. In 1852 the family crossed the plains with ox teams, to California, locating in Sonoma county. There were six children in the family at that time, and the present honored citizen of Ferndale was not born until two years later. The Farley family is one of the oldest and best known of the carly pioneers, having lived in California since the time of their first coming to the state. When the son, James Milton, was a few years of age they moved from Sonoma county to Marin county. Here he attended the public schools until he was fifteen years of age, after which he remained at home assisting his father with the farm work until he was twenty-one. Later the father returned to Sonoma county, where he engaged in stockraising and farming until the time of his death.

It was in 1875 that young Mr. Farley first left home and engaged in business for himself. His first venture was in the leasing of a ranch at Point Rey, consisting of some two thousand acres, and here he engaged in dairying and stock-raising, maintaining a herd of two hundred milch cows. For seven years he remained on this ranch, following this line of endeavor, and always meeting with the greatest of success. At the end of this period he sold his interests here, and moved to near Petaluma, where he purchased a ranch and again engaged in dairy farming and stock-raising, continuing here for another period of seven years, and making this venture as successful as the previous one.

It was in 1895 that Mr. Farley came to Humboldt county, locating at Hydesville, where he was employed in the creamery. Within a short time he was made manager of this creamery, remaining in charge until 1902. He then returned to Ferndale and went to work for John Neilsen, on his ranch on Eel River island. Mr. Neilsen was engaged in dairying and farm- ing, and for ten years Mr. Farley was his trusted employee and intimate friend. At the end of that time Mr. Neilsen deeded him a tract of forty acres of partially cleared land, which is the present home place of Mr. Farley. Here he is engaged in farming and dairying, and is meeting with much success. He has cleared and improved the land, and brought it under a high state of cultivation. At present he maintains a herd of about twenty- five graded and registered milch cows.

The marriage of. Mr. Farley occurred in San Francisco, September 11, 1884, uniting him with Miss Maggie Winters, the daughter of John and Kate (Currey) Winters, and a native of Philadelphia, Pa. After Mr. Winters' death, the mother brought her two children to California, making their home first in Marin county, afterwards living in Petaluma, where she was married to John Neilsen, after which Mr. and Mrs. Neilsen lived in Humboldt county, engaged in farming ; both are deceased. Mrs. Farley has borne her husband eight children, six of whom are living: Nellie, Mrs. Ed Ammer, of Ferndale; Mable, Mrs. Antonsen, of Eureka; Ambrose; Katie, wife of Frank Ammer, of Ferndale; Violet, Mrs. Milton Sweet, of Aberdeen, Washington; and Harold.

Mr. Farley is exceptionally well liked in his community. He is a man

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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 39

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