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 58

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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HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

ISAAC ABNER BEERS .- An eventful life has been the portion of Mr. Beers, who was born in Tompkins County, New York, February 23, 1839, and here he attended the public schools of the district and graduated from them. Taking the teachers' examinations and successfully passing them, he began teaching when only nineteen years old. He was desirous of entering college and, to obtain the necessary funds, he taught in the district schools, his first one being in Bradford county, Pennsylvania. He retired after his first term there, and returning to Tompkins county, taught the next two terms in his home district. Having saved enough money to enter the academy at Ithaca, the county seat, he enrolled, but war being declared in 1861 he returned home and prepared to offer his services in the cause. In 1862 he enlisted in Company K of the One Hundred and Thirty-seventh New York Infantry, and served until the close of the war. The battles in which he participated saw him well to the front where the bullets were flying thick and fast, and some of the battles in which he took an active part were Chancel- lorsville, under Hooker; the Battle of Gettysburg, under General Meade; the Battle of Lookout Mountain, and the battles on the march through Georgia to Atlanta, having been promoted to commissary of the regiment, and served a's such during the historic Sherman's March to the Sea; he continued in servite till the close of the war, taking part in the Grand Review in Wash- ington, and being mustered out at Bladensburg, Md., in June, 1865. He is the only man living in Humboldt county today who has a medal for serving in the Battle of Gettysburg, and this is one of his cherished possessions.

After being mustered out he returned to New York, where he engaged in lumbering for one year and then moved to Galesburg, Illinois, where he resumed his teaching and later engaged in the lumber business. While in Galesburg he married Anna L. Woodward and in the spring of 1869 they moved to Carroll county, Iowa, where he engaged in farming. While residing in Carroll county he was elected county superintendent of schools, which office he held for two years. In 1877 he came to California and located in Arcata, Humboldt county, where he engaged in the carpenter's trade. He contracted for the building of houses in Arcata for a number of years and in 1882 he took charge of a general merchandise store on the Klamath river at Orleans Bar, which business he successfully managed for two years. He returned to Arcata in 1884 and again entered the contracting business, and this he followed for the next six years. In 1890 he was appointed United States Indian agent at Hoopa by President Harrison, and here he remained for three years, creditably performing the manifold duties of his position. In the fall of 1888 he was elected Justice of the Peace of Arcata, but resigned the office to accept the position of United States Indian agent. After his return from the agency he was again elected Justice of the Peace in 1894, and has been re-elected every four years since that time. For sixteen years he has been notary public and is the present City Recorder of Arcata, having served since 1894, so that for the past few years he has devoted his entire time and energies to his various public offices.

Mr. Beers is a member of Colonel Whipple Post No. 49, G. A. R., and is an ardent Republican, having cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln. His marriage occurred September 15, 1868, in Galesburg, Ill., to Anna L. Wood- ward, a native of Medina county, Ohio. Mr. Beers was bereaved of his wife, October 7, 1914; she was a devout member of the Presbyterian Church, in

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the fellowship of which her husband still continues. Mr. Beers has been distinguished for his enterprise, and since coming to Humboldt county has entered actively into all public movements that have tended to upbuild the community.

ELLIS HUNTER .- One of the notably successful young business men of Petrolia is Ellis Hunter, a member of a family well known in this region, and of unusual mental and bodily vigor. He is a son of Elias Hunter and grandson of Walker Sanders Hunter, the latter one of the earliest settlers around Petrolia and in his prime a prominent merchant and large landowner. The earlier generations of the family are fully mentioned elsewhere.

The eldest of a family of twelve children, Ellis Hunter was born June 19, 1876, at Petrolia, where he grew to manhood. He had the ordinary public school education and started work at the age of fourteen, being employed by the month on a ranch. For the six years preceding his marriage-from the time he was eighteen until he was twenty-four-he worked on the dairy ranch of one man, James Giacomini. During the several years following he was variously employed, for two years as a buttermaker with the Kinstra Company, of Seattle, wholesale dealers in butter, eggs and cheese. Returning to Petrolia he engaged in the hotel business, renting the Walsh ranch with hotel on it, and besides running the hotel he began agricultural operations on his own account, in time buying that place and then a little later the Gouthier ranch, a tract of four hundred forty acres. The Walsh property contains one hundred thirty acres in Petrolia and he owns and conducts the Petrolia Hotel located thereon, which he has enlarged and modernized. The house was originally one and a half stories high, and he has raised it and made a full two-story building, having an eighteen-room hotel, which under the able management of himself and wife has become one of the most popular hostel- ries in Humboldt county. Its table has the reputation of being unrivaled in this section-a well deserved tribute to Mrs. Hunter's superb cooking and due also to the advantage of having the best supplies always at hand. Fruits and vegetables of the finest quality are raised on the ranch, where Mr. Hunter keeps six cows to furnish milk, cream and butter for the hotel especially, and the large patronage from the tourist and automobile trade shows how far the fame of the good things so plentifully provided here has been carried. The hotel is equally noted for its cleanliness and good cheer, and its popularity is due in great measure to Mrs. Hunter, who deserves great credit for the assistance she has given her husband. Some eight years ago Mr. Hunter bought the livery barn at Petrolia, which he has since conducted, his father looking after affairs there. His larger ranch is located four miles northeast of Petrolia on Conklin creek, a branch of which stream flows into the Mattole river above Petrolia. There he raises beef cattle. He owns all his property clear, and no business man in the town commands more respect or good will among his fellows than Ellis Hunter. He is a Republican in his political views, but not an aspirant to office, though he has served as a member of the Board of School Trustees.

In Seattle, Wash., Mr. Hunter married Miss Martha Wright, a daughter of Marshall and Martha (Rudolph) Wright, pioneer farmers of Mattole. Mrs. Hunter was born in Petrolia. Mr. and Mrs. Hunter have two children : Warren Ellis and Mayme Myrtle. Mrs. Hunter is a member of the Seventh Day Adventist church.

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IRVIN H. DREWRY .- A stopping place in high favor with automo- bilists who frequent the road between Willits, Mendocino county, and Eureka, in Humboldt county, is the East View hotel. It is located on the Drewry ranch in southern Humboldt county, about one and one-half miles south of Harris, on the main line of travel in that region. The hotel and. ranch are owned and operated by Irvin H. Drewry and his sister, Miss Sarah E. Drewry, and though they took possession at a recent date the popularity of the resort is already widespread. These young people have undertaken con- siderable in their present venture, but they have made a beginning which promises well. Mr. Drewry has the principal care of the ranch, and he has already made a reputation as a stockman, cattle buyer and drover. With the Drewrys resides their maternal grandmother, Mrs. Sarah F. Williams, by whom they were reared, and who has been in California since 1852, having been brought to the state when three years old.

John P. Drewry, father of Irvin H. and Sarah E. Drewry, is a large landowner in the same vicinity, having a ranch of fifteen hundred acres lying in Humboldt and Mendocino counties, which he rents at present, however, to Ed. Smith, of Ukiah. He is now engaged as a captain of the guard at the Folsom City (Cal.) penitentiary. His first wife, whose maiden name was Mary E. Williams, died when her two children were very young, Sarah but eighteen months old, Irvin eleven days. Mr. Drewry remarried, and by his second union, to Mrs. Sarah Jane (Yeates) Hepburn, has one child, Carl Perry, now (1914) thirteen years old.

Irvin H. and Sarah E. Drewry were born in Mendocino county, and as their mother died so young they were reared by their maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. James H. Williams, on their Leggett valley ranch, situated on the south fork of the Eel river, about twenty miles due east of Rockport. They have had public school training, and have continued to hold their inter- ests in common, working together most satisfactorily. They made their first business venture in 1910, when they began by keeping a lodging house and store in Ukiah. As it proved a success they undertook more, renting a half interest in the McKinney ranch (a tract of nine hundred and sixty acres), which they operated for two years. There they became quite extensively interested in cattle, keeping about one hundred head, as well as a hundred hogs. It was there also that they had their first experience in the conduct of a summer resort, the Hunter's Home on that property doing well under their management. In December, 1913, they purchased the East View ranch and summer resort from Olive E. Snooks-five hundred and twenty acres of land and the hotel located on the highway as above related. After investing all their capital in this property these courageous young people still have an immediate future full of busy promise. But they are cheerful, capable workers, and have every prospect of carrying their enterprise along success- fully. The hotel is a comfortable and restful resort, and its guests partake of the best ranch products, fruits, vegetables, milk, cream and eggs noted for their high quality and freshness, and cooked and served under the efficient super- vision of Miss Drewry, whose culinary skill has already become known to the patrons. Her competent oversight of all the details necessary to the com- fort of guests contributes much to their health as well as pleasure, and the wholesome restfulness of the place is one of its greatest attractions. The patrons are principally automobilists.

Frank Deuel

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As a ranchman Irvin II. Drewry is progressing notably. He has profited well by his varied experience in the stock business, and is regarded as an exceptionally good judge of cattle and hogs, his own success being substantial evidence of his all-around knowledge in this particular line. He is a very tall man-six feet, six inches in height. His industry and good ideas on ranch management have even in the brief time he has had his present property become apparent, and his ambitions for its development along the most ap- proved lines have already commenced to be realized. There is a good home orchard and vegetable garden on the property, providing abundant supplies for the table. Mrs. Williams retains all her interest in the welfare of her grandchildren, willingly advising and assisting in the conduct of their affairs, and they thoroughly appreciate the substantial aid she has extended to help them take advantage of their opportunities in their present enterprise. With the family an old friend, Mr. Mitchell, has made his home for many years, and he has been most solicitous in encouraging Mr. Drewry and his sister in their attempts to make a success of their work. Mr. Drewry is a Pro- gressive in his political sympathies.

FRANK DEUEL .- That the romance of early California was not con- fined to either the days of Spanish and Mexican dominion, or to the life of the gold seekers, is amply shown in the experiences of such early pioneer families as that of Frank Deuel and his forebears. Mr. Deuel himself was born in Forest Hill, Placer county, December 6, 1855. From there his parents came to Humboldt county in 1859 and located at Trinidad. Later they located on the peninsula above what is now Samoa, but the Indians became troublesome and they moved into Eureka. Here the lad attended school for several years, until the family removed to Arcata, where he finished his education in the public schools. Conditions were of course exceedingly primitive, and by the time he was eighteen years of age he had gone as far as the local schools could take him, and he then went to work on the ranch with his father.

Mr. Deuel's first independent business venture of magnitude occurred in 1877, when in partnership with John Seely he purchased one hundred twenty acres of land in Arcata bottom. The following year they divided the ranch, each taking sixty acres. Here Mr. Deuel engaged in farming and dairying for a number of years, greatly improving the place in the meantime. In 1906 he retired from active business, leased the home place, and moved into Eureka to live. Life in the city, however, did not satisfy the man who had all his life lived in the great open places next to nature and loved them, and after a few years he returned to make his home on his farm, where he is residing at present.

During his lifetime Mr. Deuel has seen Humboldt county trans- formed from a wilderness into a land of beautiful farms and handsome homes, with all the attendant struggle and heartache, triumph, failure and success that ever attend periods of transformation. He has himself been a more than ordinarily successful farmer, and his sterling qualities of heart and mind have won for him a wide circle of sincere friends. In politics he is a Repub- lican and has served his party in various capacities, several times being a delegate to conventions. He has always taken an active interest in all matters

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of local public welfare, and for twenty-five years has served as school trustee in his home district. He is also keenly interested in fraternal organizations and is a prominent member of the Knights of Pythias and of the Native Sons.

The marriage of Mr. Deuel to Caroline Goble occurred April 14, 1883, near Bayside, Humboldt county. Mrs. Deuel is a native of Springfield, Ill., born February 9, 1856, the daughter of Abraham and Mary (Griffith) Goble, natives of Kentucky and Indiana respectively. The marriage of the parents occurred in Illinois, where Mr. Goble carried on farming until he came to California. Mrs. Deuel crossed the plains with her parents in 1862 with horse teams, settlement being made in Humboldt county. Later the parents crossed the plains twice, on both occasions Mr. Goble acting as captain of the train, and cach time returning to make his home in Humboldt county. On both of these trips their daughter accompanied them. Mr. and Mrs. Deuel are the parents of three sons, as follows: Frank, Jr., a machinist residing in Arcata ; John Scely, making his home with his parents; and Guy Richard, employed with the North-Western Pacific Railroad and residing in Eureka.

While the setting for the life story of Mr. Deuel is full of romance, it is but the closing chapter to the story which his father, Edmund Perry Deuel, commenced many years before. The father was born in Tompkins county, N. Y., October 30, 1823, and at an early age moved with his parents to Jackson county, Mich., where his father engaged in farming. Later the family moved to a farm in Saginaw county. Edmund lived at home, helping with the farm work until he was quite a lad, when he went to work as a woodsman. at which occupation he continued until he came to California. The first start was made with a six-horse team across the plains; but in attempting to overtake an outfit ahead, Mr. Deuel drove his horses so hard that they became exhausted and sick and he was forced to sell his outfit and return to New York. The next time he started it was by water via the Panama route, and during the winter of 1851-52 he reached San Francisco, then the land of promise. Failing to find the desired conditions in San Francisco, he went on to Sacramento, where he contracted for teaming and freighting from that city to Forest Hill. This was a profitable line of work and he followed it until he came to Humboldt county in 1859. The trip up the coast to Trinidad was made on the steamer Columbia. At Trinidad he again engaged in team- ing and freighting, using an ox-team for much of his work in the woods. Soon afterwards he engaged in the wood business on Humboldt bay. In 1869 he purchased the old Cochran place of one hundred sixty acres, all unimproved land located in Arcata bottom. It required several years of hard work to clear the land of brush and timber before he was able to engage in farming. In 1877 he sold the home place and moved to Washington territory, locating on a farm in Whatcom county. Edmund Deuel lived only a year after going to the new home, dying in October, 1878. His wife, the mother of Frank Deuel, was Marguerite Sherman. She was born at Saratoga Springs, N. Y., April 29, 1825, and their marriage took place when the bride was but seven- teen, in Jackson county, Mich., December 23, 1842. Three children were . born to them. Mrs. Edmund Deuel spent her last days with her children and died near Arcata when seventy-eight years of age.

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JAMES H. WILLIAMS was a native of Kentucky, a "forty-niner," and a pioneer settler in northern Mendocino county, where he lived for almost forty-five years. His first removal westward from the state of his birth was to Missouri, whence he came out to California in 1849, making the journey across the plains with ox-teams. He mined at Placerville, and in Butte and Plumas counties. After his marriage he continued to live in Plumas county for a few years, carrying on a dairy, and in 1869 moved over to Mendocino county, where he bought the Leggett valley ranch, purchasing the rights of three different squatters to obtain the land he desired. His active disposition and nobility of character made him a most desirable citizen from every stand- point. He had the energy and ambition to improve his property and assist in the opening up of his section to civilization, and his many fine traits en- couraged the proper kind of citizenship, the example he set influencing many to public-spirited efforts in behalf of the community as well as to enterprise in the management of their own affairs. His death occurred January 20, 1914, at Garberville, Humboldt county, when he was eighty-six years of age. To his union with Miss Sarah F. Rucker eight children were born who attained maturity. Cedelia is the wife of S. F. Webber; Jehiel is a guard at the San Quentin prison ; Mary E. was the wife of John P. Drewry ; William was drowned when fifteen years old ; John is a resident of Salida, Cal. ; Annie is the wife of R. E. Roach, of. Cummings, Mendocino county ; James lives with his mother; Lawrence was accidentally killed, on the railroad, at Fort Bragg, when twenty-one years old.

Mrs. Sarah F. Williams, widow of James H. Williams, is a woman of forceful character and interesting personality. Her experiences in California in pioneer days were many and varied, developing a fearless, capable disposi- tion which made her a most valuable helpmate to her husband. Her sympa- thetic consideration for others, fortitude and reliability have won her the affectionate esteem of her neighbors and friends everywhere, and her devotion to her family has never abated. Mrs. Williams was born in Illinois, in Hancock county, daughter of Ben and Sarah (George) Rucker, the former a native of Indiana, where they were married. Of the thirteen children born to them six died before the family removed to California, the parents and seven children crossing the plains in 1852, with ox-teams. The journey from Illinois took six months. They settled at Bidwell's Bar, in Butte county, where Mr. Rucker engaged in mining for a number of years. The mother subsequently removed to Plumas county. Mrs. Williams was but three years old when the family made the journey to California, and when sixteen she became the wife of James H. Williams.

CHARLES ALFRED LARSON .- From the age of twenty years Mr. Larson has made his home in the United States, and throughout all of this period he has been identified with Northern California, his original destina- tion in 1887 having been San Francisco and his first employment that of a laborer in a manufacturing plant at Oakland. Born in Westergothland, Sweden, July 16, 1867, he was reared on a farm and had no educational advan- tages except such as a neighboring school afforded. During 1888 he came to Eureka, a stalwart young man of twenty-one, industrious and capable, and ready to engage in any business that offered an honest livelihood. For two years he worked in the John Vance mill on G street, after which he engaged as a stevedore along the water front for a number of years. Meanwhile he

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was eagerly awaiting any opportunity for more important activities and thus it came about that finally in 1902 he was in a position to embark in general merchandising. The opening of the Eureka Co-operative Mercantile Company's store, at No. 1900 California street, marked an important epoch in his life, for since then, as president and manager of the company, he has risen to rank among the leading merchants of the city and county.

Solely through his own capable efforts and through his evident adapta- bility to the happy solution of mercantile problems, Mr. Larson has met with recognized success and has seen his business develop with such rapidity as to justify the establishment of a second store, where he has his headquarters. The new store at No. 2100 California street is large and well stocked, carrying a general line of merchandise, hardware, dry goods, shoes and similar acces- sories, in addition to having a department for the sale of hay and grain. In connection he built and is operating a large bakery, which supplies bakery goods for his own stores, as well as enabling him to fill orders for other stores in Eureka. The successful business man of today is the ripened product of the Swedish emigrant of 1887, ambitious to find a home in the new world, energetic and industrious, and never content to do less than his best in even the humblest task. He is a member of the Retail Grocers' Association of California and takes an active part in the Eureka local of the same, and served as delegate to the state convention at Del Monte in October, 1914. With all of his engrossing business claims he has found time for participation in the Scandinavian Brotherhood, Fortuna Lodge No. 212, I. O. O. F .; North Star Lodge No. 39, K. P., at Arcata, and Hoopa Tribe, I. O. R. M. He was made a Mason in Humboldt Lodge No. 79, F. & A. M., and is a member of Eureka Chapter No. 52, R. A. M., and Eureka Commandery No. 35, K. T. With his wife and family he is a member of the Swedish Lutheran Church, of which he is president of the board of trustees. By his marriage to Emma Anderson, a native of Sweden, he has six children, all of whom were born in Humboldt county, namely : Verona, Esther, Oscar, Alfred, Selma and Edwin.

JACOB RASMUSSEN .- Closely associated with the farming community of Humboldt county there will be found a generous sprinkling of Danes and others from the northern district of Europe. Mr. Rasmussen is a native of Denmark, having been born near the village of Rudkiöbing, on the island of Langeland, December 6, 1845. He is the son of Rasmus Christensen, also a native of Denmark and a man who devoted practically his whole life to farming, owning a small farm in Denmark and on the homeplace he died in 1854. Jacob Rasmussen received his earlier education in the schools of the old country, but wishing to better his condition he decided to come to Amer- ica and landed in New York in 1868, being absolutely without a friend or relative in the new country. He did not remain long in New York, however, but moved to Iowa, where, in Woodbury county, he found employment in a pottery, remaining there for twenty months.

Coming to California in 1870, Mr. Rasmussen located in Marin county, where he obtained employment on dairy farms. Hearing of the great oppor- tunities for a young energetic man in Humboldt county he took a trip to look over the field, but in the fall of 1873 he returned to Marin county, where on October 7 of that year he was married to Christine Nissen, a native of Tondern, Slesvig, Germany. She had come to California in 1871. After his marriage Mr. Rasmussen once more came to Humboldt county locating on

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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 58

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