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 62

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

two years previous to this time his wife had been constantly with him on the water, but after the birth of their first child, Adeline, she had to remain ashore. He brought his wife and child across the continent to San Francisco, arriving in June, 1884. After four days they came on to Eureka and have remained in Humboldt county ever since. Mr. Merriam claims to be a Humboldter because he never crossed the bar after the day of his arrival.

The conditions on the coast were quite different from what he had been led to expect, and Mr. Merriam soon decided to try his fortunes on land. He secured employment with S. S. Loveren on his ranch near Mad river where the chief occupation was dairying. Mr. Merriam had never worked on a farm and was not familiar with any of the farm work, never having even harnessed or hitched a horse before this time. He was, however, strong and willing to work and to learn, and remained with Mr. Loveren for two years.

For the next three years he worked on various ranches in the neighbor- hood, learning much of the ways of the new country and the new occupation, and becoming an efficient farmer. In 1889 he determined to engage in farm- ing for himself, and going into the mountains, he leased a stock range from Thomas Baird and started in the stock-raising business. This enterprise was undertaken on a small scale in the beginning, as stock at that time was high. The following year he took up a homestead on Boulder creek, near the old Rock ranch, his tract comprising one hundred and sixty acres. Here he re- moved with his family, remaining until their home was proved up on, which was in 1898.

It was this same year that Mr. Merriam decided to leave the homestead and go with his family into Blue Lake to reside. They moved into the thriving little city July 25, 1898, and here they have built a permanent home, where they now reside. Mr. Merriam was already well known in the community and his popularity was attested when in the following November he was elected justice of the peace, on the Populist ticket, and has been repeatedly re- elected since, holding office continuously from that time until the present.

Soon after locating in Blue Lake Mr. Merriam took up the insurance and realty business on a small scale, increasing his interests and the scope of his operations as his business developed. Now he is one of the leading insurance men of the county, and his real estate transactions are also important. He deals in both life and fire insurance, representing some twenty companies, and has written many policies in both Trinity and Humboldt counties.

The marriage of Mr. Merriam and Miss Clara Russell Webster took place at Parrsborough, Nova Scotia, June 15, 1881. Mrs. Merriam is a native of Nova Scotia, born in Cumberland county May 6, 1860, and her mother was born in that county April 15, 1835. Mrs. Merriam bore her husband five children, one of whom died in infancy. Of the others we mention the follow- ing : Adeline M., born in Nova Scotia, and now residing in Blue Lake, is the wife of Eugene B. Tamboury and the mother of one child, Clara Anetta ; Harold Mathew, born in Alliance, Humboldt county, married Minnie Griffith ; Mary Henrietta, also born in Alliance, May 4, 1887, died in Blue Lake in 1901 ; Elsie Marion, born at Thief camp, on Maple creek, became the wife of Chester Moore, of Blue Lake. Mrs. Webster, the mother of Mrs. Merriam, at present makes her home with her daughter in Blue Lake.

Mr. Merriam is very much interested in all matters of public interest in Blue Lake and indeed throughout Humboldt county. He is an enthusiastic

Sophus. N. Jorgensen

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advocate of suffrage for women and his efforts are largely responsible for the fact that Blue Lake is the banner suffrage town in the county. He has taken an active part in all suffrage movements and worked earnestly for the passage of the amendment which enfranchised the women of California. He is also well known in fraternal circles, and is a prominent member of the Woodmen of the World and of the Red Men, being connected with the local lodges of each organization. He is the father of what is known as the "Blue Nose Picnic" in Humboldt county, which was started as the result of his effort to bring together and renew acquaintances of the people who came to the county from the New England states and the provinces of Canada, em- bracing an Atlantic coast line from Cape Cod, Mass., to Cape Race, New- foundland. Obtaining the available addresses he sent each person a postal written by himself, and the first picnic at Blue Lake, held in August, 1911, was well attended, being one of the largest picnics held in the county, and it has since become an interesting annual event.

The varied experiences of both Mr. and Mrs. Merriam give them a wide outlook on life, and there is a fund of interesting tales that they may tell when their fancy so inclines. Mrs. Merriam was the first woman ever known to land on the Isle of Mona, an uninhabited island seven miles long. located in the Mona channel midway between San Domingo and Porto Rico.

An interesting possession of Mr. Merriam, and one on which he has spent much time and effort, is a book in which he has recorded the name of every family in Blue Lake, the date on which they took up their residence there, where they came from, who they are, and such other valuable and avail- able information as he deems of interest.

Throughout the county Mr. Merriam is regarded as one of the most reliable and trustworthy men in the community, and his prosperity is due entirely to his own efforts and to the confidence that has been reposed in him by his fellow citizens and the resulting patronage that this has brought into his office. He has also been especially successful in all his dealings with the Indians, by whom he is regarded as a true friend and is referred to by them by the familiar name of Joe, which carries with it great respect.

SOPHUS NICOLAI JORGENSEN, M. D .- The man who pursues a purpose with resolute energy usually becomes an important factor in the professional or business circles of his community. In this respect Dr. Jor- gensen has not proved an exception to the general rule, for through skill in the practice of medicine and devotion to the demands of the profession he has risen to a position of influence at Fortuna, his headquarters for more than a decade of continued activity and usefulness. It has been his practice to study every modern development in therapeutics. With this end in view he has read current medical literature with interest and concentration of thought and has maintained an active membership in the Humboldt County. California, and American Medical Associations, besides being personally and intimately identified with the American Institute of Homeopathy.

Salt Lake City, Utah, is the native home of the Doctor, and January +, 1868, the date of his birth, but he has few childhood memories, except such as are associated with San Francisco, the family having established a home there in 1870. Always eager to learn, he proved a diligent and intelligent pupil in the San Francisco schools and when he had completed the studies of the common branches he turned his attention to medicine with a view to 18

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entering upon the duties of that profession. Following an unusually cred- itable record as a medical student he was graduated from the Hahnemann Hospital College of Medicine in 1897, with the degree of M. D., and has since followed the practice of medicine and surgery, for one year in Nevada City, Cal., and since 1898 in Humboldt county, the first five years in Hydes- ville, and since 1903 in Fortuna. Aside from being identified with associa- tions of a professional order he has some social and fraternal associations, notably with the Knights of Pythias and the Eureka Aerie of Eagles.

A. DAMGAARD .- The senior member of the firm of Damgaard & Strain, of Eureka, Humboldt county, Mr. Damgaard has built up a good business in the sale of Napa, Sonoma and other California wines. He has lived in Humboldt county since 1898, most of the time at Eureka, and has made a success in the wholesale liquor trade. Mr. Damgaard came to Cali- fornia in 1894, the year of his arrival in America, and before he went into business on his own account was variously engaged, principally at agricul- tural work. He is a native of the Isle of Fyen, Denmark, born April 22, 1871, and came to America in 1894, arriving at Omaha, Nebr., on the twenty-third anniversary of his birth. It was also the day Coxey's army reached that point. After spending the summer in Nebraska he continued on to the coast, and for some time was in Contra Costa county, Cal., where he found employ- ment at all kinds of farm work, cattle ranching, general farming, driving teams, bailing hay and operating a threshing machine. In 1898 he came to Humboldt county, making the trip on the steamer Chilcot, and landing at four o'clock on the morning of September 22d. His first location here was at Ferndale, in the Eel river valley, where he remained for two and a half years ; the first year and a half he worked at teaming, breaking marsh land, and did any other work which came to his hand. For six months he was clerk for G. A. Waldner in the Western hotel, Eureka, then for two years was in business in Ferndale. Selling out, he went down to San Francisco, at which place and Oakland he was employed for a year, since when he has been settled at Eureka. Here he has established a family wholesale liquor business in partnership with Mr. Strain, their location being at No. 103 Fifth street.

Mr. Damgaard is a member of the Loyal Order of Moose and of the Eagles fraternity, and his genial disposition has brought him many friends. A lover of sports and outdoor life, he spends six weeks of each year camping out in the mountains of Humboldt county, to hunt and fish, which he enjoys more than any other diversion. Mr. Damgaard is a Republican in his political views, but beyond voting taking little active part in the cam- paigns.

In 1901 Mr. Damgaard was married at Eureka to Miss Selma Sjöblom, of Eureka, who was born in Sweden, and their family consists of two children, Myrtle and Lillian. Mr. Damgaard owns the fine residence at the corner of Clark and E streets which he occupies with his family.

EDWARD BACKENSTOSE, D. V. S .-- The distinction of being the oldest veterinary now in active practice in California belongs to Dr. Back- enstose, who is well known in Eureka not only as a successful practitioner in his chosen line, but also as a food and sanitary inspector. It seems little less than remarkable that one who was graduated from the New York Vet- erinary College as early as 1854 should still be engaged in active practice

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and, notwithstanding the arduous and at times dangerous experiences of the intervening sixty years, should still exhibit the skill characteristic of his earlier days of professional work. During boyhood and youth he saw much of the dark side of life. The death of his parents and his own desolate condition without money or friends made him familiar with sorrow and privation at a time when the majority of boys are care-free. He was born at Geneva, Ontario county, N. Y., March 31, 1833, and in 1850 was employed to drive a stage between Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, which places were then still unconnected by any railroad line. Considerable ex- perience in the driving of a stage-coach with all of its hardships and fre- quent dangers gave him a broad knowledge of life. During the years of such work he developed a love for horses and skill in caring for them. Indeed, it became apparent that he was unusually expert in the selection of remedies for the diseases of all animals and he gained a record so enviable that he was sent for in important cases throughout his section of the country. This led eventually to his course of study in the veterinary college and to his selection of the profession as a life calling.

Practice in the southern states, continued uninterruptedly for a period of years, was interrupted when the Civil war began in 1861. The Doctor, then in New Orleans, hurried back to New York City, there to enlist as a veterinary surgeon in Governor Sprague's Rhode Island regiment. While nominally a veterinary, this did not prevent him from taking an active part in every engagement and he fought at Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, Antietam and many other battles of strategic importance. His regiment was noted for courage and he was worthy of the command with which he associated. Three times he was wounded in action and to this day he carries a bullet in his body, a memento of that great struggle. During the war he became deeply interested in military tactics and the life of the cámp proved so interesting that after he had been honorably discharged he volunteered for service in the regular army. Accepted as a veterinary sur- geon in the army, he was assigned to Washington Territory and for fifteen years was stationed at Walla Walla. During this time he served in the Joseph Indian war in Washington and was ordered to Montana, but before his regiment arrived the battle of Little Big Horn had been fought and lost, and it was ordered back to Walla Walla. Finally he resigned from the ser- vice and in 1884 came to California, where for seven years he was county veterinary of San Diego county and at the same time built up a large private practice. Since 1892 he has practiced his profession in Eureka, where since 1905 he has served under appointment as food and sanitary inspector and for a number of years also held office as veterinary of Humboldt county. A devoted believer in the principles of Masonry, he was made a Mason in Lake Erie Lodge, A. F. & A. M., in Girard, Pa., in 1860, and is now a member of Humboldt Lodge No. 79, F. & A. M., Humboldt Chapter No. 52, R. A. M., and a charter member of Eureka Commandery No. 35, K. T., and also holds membership in Islam Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., San Francisco.

WILLIAM LORD .- Few pioneers surpass Mr. Lord in length of asso- ciation with the history of Humboldt county, for with the exception of his first eighteen years (1840-58) all of his life has been passed within its limits. During all of this long period, up to 1910, he has been more or less con- nected with mining enterprises and at various times has owned sixteen

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different mines on the Klamath river, so that he is as well informed as any man in regard to mines in this section of the state. A member of an old family of New England and himself a native of Carroll county, N. H, born February 8, 1840, he was seven years old when the family moved across the state line into Maine, settling at Milo, where he received a public-school education and remained until eighteen years of age. So keen was his interest in the west, brought into conspicuous public notice through the discovery of gold, that he determined to seek a livelihood on the Pacific coast and, coming here in 1858 via the isthmus, he settled on the Klamath river in Humboldt county. For a long period he was one of the leading men at Orleans, where he bought six different mining claims, besides conducting a general store and running a pack-train from the bar to Arcata. About 1886 he removed to Arcata and here he has since made his home, now largely retired from business enterprises and enjoying in his advancing years the comforts made possible by former frugality and thrift. At the time of the Indian troubles he was in the midst of the region made perilous for white men, but his own warm friendship for the red men and his long-continued kindness to them seemed to exempt him from any danger whatever at their hands.

In the establishing of domestic ties Mr. Lord chose as a helpmate Miss Eleanor H. Locke, a native of Maine, a woman of fine mind and keen insight · into both national issues and domestic problems, and a very active worker in the cause of temperance. Their children, seven in number, are as follows : Oscar William, of Eureka; Lewis M., bookkeeper for Richard Sweasey, of Eureka : Wilbur, of El Centro, Cal. ; Mrs. Bessie Lytle, of Arcata ; Benjamin Edward, winekeeper for the Humboldt Stevedore Company, Eureka; Frank D., who was accidentally killed by an electric shock at Knight's Landing, in July, 1907 ; and Edward L., of Los Angeles. The eldest son, Oscar William, was born December 4, 1870, at Orleans, Klamath (now Humboldt) county and had a primary education in Arcata, supplementing the same with a course in the Eureka Business College in 1887-88. As a wage-earner he had his first experience as bookkeeper with Baker, Nye & Co., of Arcata. Coming to Eureka in 1891, he entered the employ of the Ricks (now the Eureka) Water Company and has continued with the same concern and its successors ever since. Starting as bookkeeper, he afterwards also became collector and in these capacities became thoroughly familiar with the entire system. On the organization of the Eureka Water Company he was elected secretary in January, 1903, and on the death of W. G. Corbaley in October, 1913, he . succeeded him as superintendent. When the system was taken over by the city of Eureka September 1, 1914, he was appointed superintendent of Public Works by the City Council and as such continues superintending the city water works. It is generally conceded that the council could not have made a wiser choice, for his experience with the Eureka water system for nearly a quarter of a century has made him more familiar with the water supply, distribution and the citizens' needs than any other man. The position is one entailing great responsibility, but he has proved equal to every emergency and his management of the water interests has been satisfactory to all inter- ested parties. In fraternal relations he is a member of the Eureka Lodge No. 652, B. P. O. E. Three children, Clarence W., Miriam and Ruth, have been born of his union with Miss Lottie Riddell, a native of San Francisco

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and a daughter of William S. Riddell, for some years a resident of that city. During 1877 the family came to Humboldt county, where Mr. Riddell had a position with Franklin Ellery for a time, but for ten years afterward he remained in the employ of the John Vance Lumber Company. Removing to Los Angeles in 1893 he has since made his home in that city. Mr. and Mrs. Lord are members of the First Congregational Church of Eureka. For many years he was a member of the board of trustees and since 1906 has been superintendent of the Sunday school. In 1909 he built a comfortable resi- dence at No. 1312 H street, where the family dispense genuine hospitality to their many friends and acquaintances.

LUTHER LEE HOTCHKISS .- Years of experience have given to Mr. Hotchkiss a thorough knowledge of the lumber business and enable him, almost at a glance, to place a correct valuation upon a tract of timber or a block of lumber. Before he came to Humboldt county in 1910 he had worked in timber regions in different portions of the country both north and south and had been connected with practically every department of the industry from the felling of the trees to the shipping of the lumber. It was shortly after the Civil war that he first began to work in the lumber business and since then he has been connected continuously with the work, rising from a most humble place to one of responsibility and proving his worth to lumber companies time and again in enterprises involving tact, energy, intelligence and shrewd judgment concerning the various grades of lumber. During early life he lived in Connecticut, where he was born in New Haven and educated in the grammar school of Meriden and the high school of New Britain. The first money he ever earned came through work in a factory at Meriden where ivory novelties were manufactured. Later he spent several years in the Hartford office of the William H. Imlay Lumber and Paper Company. On removing to the middle west he found employment in the commission business at Battle Creek and afterward was connected with the money-order department of the American Express Company at Detroit.

The outbreak of the Civil war in 1861 found Mr. Hotchkiss true to the Union and so anxious to enlist in the service that he returned to his old home in Connecticut, where he became a private in Company B, Third Con- necticut Infantry, and with the regiment went to the front. The most im- portant engagement in which he bore arms was that of Bull Run. On the expiration of his term of service he received an honorable discharge and returned to Detroit. Mich., where he entered upon a long identification with the Brooks & Adams Lumber Company. In these years of growing expe- rience in the lumber industry he proved his worth to the company employing him. During a long period of busy years he considered Detroit his home, although the demands of the lumber business were such that he was fre- quently called on long trips to other sections and during 1888 the interests of the yellow pine lumber business took him to Brunswick, Ga. Large enter- prises engrossed his attention upon his return to Detroit and later he was connected with timber interests near Green Bay, Wis. Upon coming to Humboldt county in 1910 he entered upon the duties of manager of the Pa- cific Lumber Company at Scotia. Since 1912 he has made Eureka his head- quarters and has engaged in the buying and selling of timber lands, for which important work his previous experience admirably qualifies him. Since coming west he has been an active member of the Humboldt Club of Eureka,

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while prior thereto he became connected with the blue lodge chapter and commandery of Masons at Milwaukee, Wis., and Oasis Temple, N. M. S., at Charlotte, N. C. By his marriage to Eliza C. Conkie he is the father of a daughter and a son, namely: Marion H., who married Dr. C. C. Cottrell, of Scotia ; and Ray, now living in Oregon and employed at Coos bay in Coos county.

CHARLES EVERDING .- For about a quarter of a century (1868-1892) it was the privilege of Charles Everding to be identified with the business interests of Eureka, where as a partner of Capt. H. H. Buhne in the hardware line, as a leader in movements for the material upbuilding of the town and as a factor in the advance made in every department of local activity, he was counted a representative of that splendid German-American class indis- pensable to the progress of the west. For years his intelligent and kindly face was familiar to the people of the community. They recognized in him the traits that make for good citizenship and civic loyalty, as well as the intrinsic qualities of character that win and retain friends. Even in the independent financial circumstances of his later years he retained the fru- gality and industry of his boyhood years and never forgot the training he received in the parental home in Hanover, although after coming to America at the age of twenty-one he never again had the privilege of renewing the associations of early life or of seeing once more the humble cottage familiar to his earliest memories.

An experience in the manufacture of starch at Cincinnati, Ohio, qualified Mr. Everding for the same business, as a partner of his brother, John. in Berkeley, Cal., where he settled during 1862. Six years later he came to Eureka and here he remained until his death in 1892, meanwhile increasingly prominent in business, in social affairs and in the activities of the Odd Fellows.

In Cincinnati, Ohio, December 22, 1851, Mr. Everding was united in marriage with Miss Catherine Kohlman, also a native of Hanover, Germany, and both members of the Lutheran Church. Mrs. Everding survives her husband, and resides at the old home surrounded by the love and tender care of her youngest daughter, Clara A., who lives with her. The two other living children are Louis C., of Arcata, assistant manager of the North Red- wood Lumber Company at Korbel, Humboldt county ; and Sarah, the wife of E. Miller, residing at San Jose. Edward Everding, in early life was book- keeper in the mill of D. R. Jones and later was the second man to serve as cashier of the Humboldt County Bank, where his keen intuition in financial affairs proved of the utmost assistance to the growth of the institution. Active in Odd Fellowship, in banking circles and in business affairs, his death in the year 1894 removed from Eureka one of its leading men and was regarded not only as a distinct loss to his own family, but likewise to the town of his lifelong identification.

AUGUSTUS GUSTAFSON .--- A fondness for the life of a sailor and the necessity of carning his own livelihood took Mr. Gustafson to the sea when he was yet a. mere lad in his native country of Sweden. Born December 12, 1858, he had traveled in all of the oceans and touched at all of the leading ports of the world before he sailed around the Horn on an English ship which cast anchor in the harbor of San Francisco during 1879. Nor did his experiences on the high seas end with his temporary sojourn in San Francisco, for soon he was induced to enlist in the United States navy, after

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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 62

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