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 64

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

had commenced working when he was but seven years of age, being employed in the match factory at Mandal. He attended the public schools and was confirmed in the Lutheran Church at the age of fourteen. The following year he went to sea as a ship's cook on a sailing schooner, but did not like the work and later secured employment in a sawmill, where he remained for two years. He then again went to sea, being engaged in the lumbering business, carrying lumber from his native land to Denmark on sailing sloops. His next berth was on a three-mast barkentine, which sailed between Eng- land, Ireland and American ports, and in this connection he paid his first visit to America, landing at Baltimore, Md., when he was seventeen years of age. Returning to England, he was wrecked off the west coast of Ireland, and his escape from. death was almost miraculous. He afterwards sailed to Australia, England, France, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, the Medi- terranean Sea ports, South America and North America, continuing to follow the fortunes of the sailor until 1883. In the meantime, in 1880, he had married at Mandal Miss Magen Gunderson, whose father was a sailor and ship car- penter, at which trade Mr. Nilsen had worked for two years.

It was in 1885 that Mr. Nilsen came to California and located in Hum- boldt county. His brother, O. Nilsen, whose sketch also appears in' this edition, had come west the previous year, and his reports of the opportunities offered in the new country were such as to make the elder brother anxious to make the change and settle here. Leaving his wife in Norway (where she remained for five years before joining him in California), he arrived in Eureka in May, 1885, and very soon he found work as a carpenter. He helped to build the Minor mill at Glendale, and also helped to get out the necessary timbers, but overwork broke down his health, so that for a year he was unable to do anything. Upon recovering he and his brother and brother- in-law (Hans Gunderson, who had come to California with him) cleared and grubbed land under contract, meeting with an appreciable success. In 1890 his wife joined him, and they settled in Eureka. Mr. and Mrs. Nilsen were the parents of one child, a daughter, Johanna, born in the mother country. She came with her mother to California, where she died at the age of thirteen years. Mr. Nilsen had been engaged in the pursuit of his trade as a car- penter, but after the death of his daughter he engaged in dairying on Mad river. Later he moved to Bayside and again rented a dairy farm, meeting with much success in this new undertaking. From there he came to Buck- sport, in the fall of 1902, and rented Henry Deering's dairy ranch of one hundred seventy acres. In 1912 he bought his present place on the historic site of old Fort Humboldt, where he owns seven lots, and where he has built a handsome bungalow of seven rooms, with all modern improvements and conveniences. On this location General Grant was in command during the winter of 1853-54. Mr. Nilsen has also built a large dairy barn which is the most modern in scientific and sanitary construction, and which has accom- modations for forty milch cows. His ultimate intention is to install the latest scientific milker and other modern improvements for dairying. This site is especially desirable for a home place, as it is within reach of Eureka by electric car service, and is on a high plateau overlooking Humboldt bay, with a magnificent sweep of scenery.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Nilsen have many friends in the county and especially in Eureka and vicinity. They are members of the Norwegian and Danish

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Methodist Episcopal Church, where they take an active part in the denomina- tional activities. Mr. Nilsen is well liked wherever he is known and his business integrity is acknowledged to be above question. During the early years of his life, and even for a few years after he came to California, he was beset with many difficulties and met with discouraging reverses and mis- fortunes ; but within later years he has been prosperous and successful, and today is one of the influential and progressive men of the vicinity where he lives.

HUMBOLDT BREWING COMPANY .- The history of the Humboldt Brewing Company dates back to experiences that involved its stockholders in financial losses and made the plant a losing factor in the industrial devel- opment of Eureka, but recent years have witnessed a change in the entire mode of operation and new owners with new methods of manufacture and with the most modern devices of equipment have transformed the hitherto unprofitable investment into a popular and profitable enterprise. The Hum- boldt Brewing Company is headed by the Zobeleins of Los Angeles, the officers being as follows: George Zobelein, president; Edward Zobelein, vice-president ; William Kramer, secretary ; and Philip Zobelein, treasurer.

The carly history of the brewery shows a frequent change of ownership and a complete lack of success. The first step toward later success occurred with the purchase of the plant, then known as the Eureka brewery and situated on First street, by John U. Haltinner, July 8, 1895, seven years after which A. Johnson became a partner. During the summer of 1904 Messrs. Palmatag and Cressman bought the grounds forming the site of the present brewery on Broadway. They began to build and had the brewery perhaps one-half completed when discord arose between them and they sold out to Max Kuehnrich of Los Angeles, who purchased the plant. January 17, 1905, Messrs. Johnson and Haltinner, who owned two small brewing plants, sold them to Mr. Kuchnrich, and in 1905 the present company was incor- porated and took over the plant. In 1907, when the Zobeleins acquired the Los Angeles Brewing Company plant, they also acquired the Humboldt Brewing Company plant. In March, 1911, John R. Hagen, after a long ex- perience with the Los Angeles Brewing Company, brewers of the famous East Side beer, was transferred to Eureka and given charge of the plant, and since the advent of Mr. Hagen as manager the output has been increased and the business has doubled in volume, with every prospect for continued de- velopment under his capable supervision. Only one-fourth of the capacity of fifty thousand barrels is in use at present, so that the plant will bear a remarkable expansion of business before its capacity will be exhausted, and there is every reason to believe that with such a manager as Mr. Hagen progress will be permanent and development assured. The company manu- factures exclusively for wholesale and retail dealers in Humboldt county and bottlers and distributors elsewhere. Purity is the watchword of the concern and its manager has been called the "patron of purity" on account of his determination to turn out nothing but a pure product. He exercises the greatest care in purchasing malt or hops and in employing a competent brewer, nor is he less concerned as to the purity of the water used in the manufacture of the beer. To provide this requisite the company bored its own wells and regularly makes tests for the purpose of preserving the uni- formity necessary to satisfy not only its own code of purity, but as well

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its maintenance of a commercial standard. Through the alert and efficient management, the plant has been developed from a losing proposition to a valuable unit in the industrial prosperity of Eureka.

HARRY A. PERRY .- Prominently identified with the growth and upbuilding of Humboldt county is Harry A. Perry, who is a native son of California, born near Napa, Napa county, April 28, 1879, and he attended the public schools of Napa and Sonoma counties. His father, James Martin Perry, was a native of Switzerland, in 1866 coming to California, where he married Ida Farsblade, a native of Sweden, and settled on a farm in Napa county. In the fall of 1895 he came to Humboldt, but within a year returned to Sonoma county. In 1897 he returned to Humboldt county and since then has been a resident of the Eel river valley. Here he was employed on dairy ranches and gained his experience in the work that was to be his means of livelihood in after years. In 1907 he rented the present ranch on the island in Eel river, consisting of fifty-five acres of improved land. Twenty acres of the land he cleared and fenced off into sections of six-acre tracts. He is at the present time actively engaged in dairying and is interested in the breeding of a fine line of graded Jersey stock, having thirty of the finest cows in the county. He is a member of the Ferndale Cow Testing Associa- tion, president of the Humboldt County Dairymen's Association and is a director of the Farm Bureau of Humboldt county. He has passed through all the chairs of the Knights of Pythias and is at the present time deputy grand chancellor of the local lodge. He has always been actively interested in matters pertaining to the Republican party and is ready at all times to aid any movement that has for its object the good of the community. He is an ardent member of the Presbyterian church.

Mr. Perry was united in marriage with Leila Lucretia Hansen, a native of Ferndale, Humboldt county, having been born here January 20, 1885. Their marriage took place in Ferndale December 4, 1907, and of their union there have been three children, Evelyn Aileen, Gordon E., now deceased, and Dorothy Isabel. Mrs. Perry is the eldest daughter of George C. Hansen, who was born in Iowa and came to Humboldt county in the early '70s. He pur- chased a farm which he cleared and improved and engaged in the dairy busi- ness. In Ferndale he married Miss Lucretia Hall, a native of Michigan. They are retired, making their home at Point Kenyon. Mr. Perry is a successful and enterprising young man, one who is progressive, industrious and very public spirited.

OSCAR NILSEN .- Among the most desirable citizens that come to America from foreign shores there is no question but that the Scandinavians rank well at the head of the line, their industry, honesty, sobriety, and gen- eral high class of natural ability leaving little to be desired. Such an one is Oscar Nilsen, of Eureka, at present one of the most prominent general grocers that the city supports, and a man of sterling qualities of mind and heart. He came to America many years ago and has acquired his splendid business through his own efforts, ably assisted by his wife, and later by his children, all of whom are highly esteemed wherever they are known.

Mr. Nilsen is a native of Mandal, Norway, where he was born August 17, 1857. His father, Nils Christian Nilsen, was a tailor by trade, but he died August 12, 1866, when Oscar was but nine years of age. His mother, Johanna Christine (Jensen) Nilsen, thus left a widow with two small children (there

Harry , a, Perry

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HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

being another son, Nicolai Johan Gustav, two years older than Oscar, who is now a dairyman at Eureka) was beset with difficulties to provide for the needs of her little family, and Oscar started to work in a match factory when he was but nine years of age. He was educated and confirmed in the Lutheran church, and when he was fifteen years of age he went to sea as a sailor, following this line of occupation until he was twenty-two years of age. He sailed on various Norwegian ships for several years, and later engaged in sailing in the coasting trade on the eastern coast of North America. During that time he visited practically all the principal ports of England, Holland, Germany, Belgium, Scotland, the North Sea, the Atlantic coast of Canada and the United States and the Gulf of Mexico. Finally chance sent him to Hull, England, and while there he married Miss Theodora R. Gabrielsen, a native of Mandal, Norway, and together they returned to their native city. While in England Mr. Nilsen had been in correspondence with an old school- mate, James Osmundsen, who was engaged in bridge building in Humboldt county, Cal., and he became desirous of coming to California to make his home. Accordingly he left his wife in Norway and made the journey alone, coming by way of Philadelphia, and from there crossing the continent to San Francisco. From there he came to Eureka, arriving July 16, 1884. Three years later Mrs. Nilsen joined her husband and since that time they have made their home in Eureka.

Mr. Nilsen first found employment in the lumber camps and saw mills, working for a time at Korbel, and later in the shingle mills at Eureka. When the mills finally closed he took contracts to clear land, meeting with much success in this undertaking, in which for a time he was in partnership with his brother, they employing often as many as six men. After his wife came and they were located in Eureka, Oscar Nilsen was employed for two years as a longshoreman. Later he was employed as deliveryman for J. H. Trost, in the grocery business, and there learned much of the detail of that business. For five years he worked in a feed and seed house, and later for a feed, seed and farm implement house for another period of five years. Sixteen years ago he engaged in business for himself in partnership with A. R. Abrahamsen, under the firm name of O. Nilsen & Company, and as such has continued to do business continuously since. The firm makes a specialty of staple and fancy groceries, hay, grain and seeds, enjoying a large and splendid patron- age. They soon purchased the corner of Fifth and A streets and eight years ago they erected a two-story structure which is occupied entirely by their business. Even this has proved inadequate and in addition to it they now rent space on A street for their feed and hay business. They also deal exten- sively in seeds, carrying a large and assorted stock of garden, grass and farm seeds, without doubt the largest and most complete line of seeds carried by any dealer in Humboldt county. They conduct both a retail and wholesale trade and are modern, up-to-date and progressive in all their business methods and pride themselves in carrying only the highest grade of stock.

The home life of Mr. and Mrs. Nilsen has been especially happy. They are the parents of ten children, and lost one child in infancy. These children are all grown and are a credit to the community, being, like their parents, in- telligent above the average, industrious and progressive men and women, and well and favorably known in Eureka. They take an active part in the affairs of the community, being interested in social, religious and fraternal

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affairs, and all are engaged in business pursuits. In this they are closely as- sociated with their father, who is a prominent member of the Norwegian Nordmanna Literary Society. Of the children we mention the following : Sigurd H., who is the buyer for the grocery department of O. Nilsen & Company, married Miss Della Miner of Ferndale, and they have two chil- dren, Margaret and Baby; Margaret N. is the wife of Ben Anderson, of Eureka, and the mother of two children, Benhard and Clarence ; Carl O. is an employe of his father's establishment ; Nellie is the wife of Harold W. Hansen of Eureka, who owns and operates a machine shop on D street; Thomas, Joseph, Minnie (Mrs. Marcussen), Selma, Richard and Oscar, complete the family.

JOHN H. BLOEMER .- A representative type of the sterling men in Arcata is found in John H. Bloemer, proprietor of a flourishing laundry business which he inaugurated thirty years ago. So much of his life has been passed in the west that he might well be called a typical westerner, but nevertheless he was born and reared in the east and had also acquired his first business experience there. His earliest memories are of St. Louis, Mo., where he was born August 12, 1854, the son of parents who were able to give him good educational advantages. Appreciating his opportunities, he studied diligently in the public schools and later took a business course in Jones's College, and was thus equipped theoretically for the duties which he was to take up later. Opportunity offered a position as clerk in a grocery store in St. Louis, and he filled it acceptably for three years, in the mean- time saving his earnings as a nest egg for future enterprises. A part of his earnings was spent in the trip to California in 1876, and he considers the money well expended, for life in the west opened up to him possibilities that in the east he had never dreamed of. Coming direct to Arcata, Humboldt county, he was engaged in mining at Orleans Bar for about a year, when he left the Klamath river for the Salmon river, there buying an interest in the Andrew Baer mine. This he operated until 1882, and after selling it to William Bennett he returned to Arcata, which has been his home ever since. After his return he bought a block of land and erected his present residence. For a time he was in the employ of the Jolly Giant Mill Company, but in 1885 he resigned his position to start an enterprise which he believed could be developed into a thriving business. In his surmise he was correct, for the small hand laundry which he started at that time he has seen develop into an up-to-date establishment which has no equal in the city. It was maintained as a hand laundry until 1896, in which year it was equipped with steam, and from time to time since then improvements have been added in modern machinery and the latest devices for turning out immaculate linen. All departments of the work are equipped with steam power, and the purest of water is supplied from a deep well on the premises. Mr. Bloemer takes great pride in the business which he has built up, and he has reason to be proud of his success, for he has spared neither effort nor means in his deter- mination to serve his customers faithfully and well.

Mr. Bloemer's first marriage occurred at Orleans Bar, in 1876, uniting him with Miss Minnie Baer, who survived until 1883, and at her death in that year left four children. The eldest, John H., resides in Seattle, Wash., where he holds a position as engineer ; F. W. maintains an automobile ser- vice in San Francisco; C. W. is engaged in the real estate business in Bakers-

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field ; and Rose is auditor in the Union Savings Bank in Oakland. Mr. Bloemer's second marriage was solemnized in Arcata and united him with Miss May E. Hammitt, a native of Oregon, and of this marriage there is one child, Grace. For much that Mr. Bloemer has been able to accomplish in later years he gives credit to his wife, who is a woman of unusual business ability and sterling worth and has been of great assistance in furthering his interests. Fraternally Mr. Bloemer is a member of the Knights of Pythias, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and he also belongs to the affiliated order of Rebekahs. In politics he is an independent Democrat.

HON. WILLIAM KEHOE .- Politics in the hands of a man like Senator Kehoe is a straightforward matter requiring earnestness of purpose and energy of temperament; with him, politics never descends to partisanship, but partakes of the elements of statesmanship and contains the loftiest patriotism of spirit. More than a decade before a Progressive party had been formed in California he had put forward as his favorite principles such measures as lie at the basis of that organization. On these principles he had rested his policy as a citizen, as a lawyer and as a public official. With their aid he has become known for largeness of views and breadth of civic vision. In various bills and measures they have taken visible form, always for the well-being of the state and the advancement of its citizens.

A lifelong resident of Northern California and of the coast country, William Kehoe was born at Greenwood, Mendocino county, September 12, 1876, and at the age of seven years in 1883 accompanied other members of the family to Humboldt county, where he. completed a public school education. From early life he directed his studies with the law as his objective occupation, and the consummation of his hopes, as well as the beginning of his profes- sional responsibilities, came with his graduation in 1899 from the law depart- ment of the University of Michigan. During the same year he was admitted to practice in the courts of California. Returning to Eureka, he opened an office in this city, where he has since risen to merited prominence as a lawyer and public man, and where also he has participated in business as vice- president of the Alderpoint Development Company and secretary of the Mattole Development Company. His family consists of his wife, Mrs. Ella (Cook) Kehoe, a native of the town of Wiconisco, Pa., and one son, Harold B. Elected to the state assembly from the second California district in 1908, he served with efficiency. At the expiration of his term he was reelected to the assembly and was chosen chairman of the judiciary committee. In 1912 he was elected senator from the first senatorial district and in the session of 1913 he acted as chairman of the committee on corporations, a member of the judiciary committee and a worker on five other committees of import- ance, meanwhile introducing and taking a very prominent part in the passage of the immigration bill, the water conservation bill and the forestry bill, all measures vitally close to the permanent welfare of the state and the best interests of the people.

DANIEL HALLARAN .- Of the officials who are engaged in looking after the welfare of Eureka none is more earnest in his endeavors than Daniel Hallaran, who since January, 1861, has resided here, and now repre- sents the first ward as a member of the city council. He has been asso- ciated with the Vance Lumber Company and its successors, the Hammond Lumber Company, since 1867, originally as foreman of the mill and yards

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until the mill was destroyed by fire, and since that time as manager of the local yard.

Of Irish birth and ancestry, born August 8, 1840, Mr. Hallaran was only five years of age at the time he was brought to the United States, and during boyhood he was a pupil in the public schools of Springfield, Mass. At the age of fifteen, in 1855 he went to sea, shipping in the whaling bark Monte- zuma. From New Bedford he cruised around the Western or Azore Islands after whales for about three months, touching at Fayal Harbor several times for water. After capturing two whales they started for the Rio de la Plata, where they captured a large sperm whale. They then put in at St. Catharina, Brazil, for water, and started for a trip around the Horn, intending to cruise in the Arctic, but in a storm off the Rio de la Plata the bark sprung a leak and the captain headed her for New Bedford, while the crew worked the pumps the entire way. During the year 1856 Mr. Hallaran shipped as a boy on the clipper ship John Gilpin from New York city, bound for San Fran- cisco around Cape Horn, the voyage of one hundred fifty days being passed without special incident. Its most exciting moment was the hour of landing in San Francisco (in the fall of 1856), then in the throes of the civic up- heaval caused by the vigilance committee. Shipping in the United States revenue cutter Jeff Davis for Puget Sound, he witnessed many exciting scenes during the Indian troubles in Washington and saw the great Indian chief Lushi brought on board the ship in double irons, a prisoner, to be consigned to authorities at Olympia. Six months were spent in the north- west in the United States service and during that period he saw much of the country, passing through Seattle when it was an insignificant hamlet of three hundred persons.

Returning to San Francisco from Washington and exchanging govern- ment service for industrial pursuits, Mr. Hallaran found employment in the oil and camphor distillery of R. F. Knox located on Rincon point, in what is now South San Francisco, and continued there until the works were shut down. He then found work in a sawmill back of Redwood City, remaining there until he started for the mines at Oroville, Butte county. During 1858 he followed the stream of mining emigration to the Frazier river, but soon returned to the Oroville mines. Next he went to Siskiyou county and mined on the Klamath river, but he was not very successful. The winter of 1859-60 was spent in Stockton. The first trip he ever made to Eureka occurred in January of 1861, when he found a small seaport village whose entire busi- ness was concentrated on First street. After working for a lumber concern for some months in 1862 he went to the Salmon river of the north and engaged in prospecting, thence to Elk City and from there went on to the Big Hole excitement, where he prospected about three weeks when the stormy season came on and he had to get out of there on account of the snow. Returning to Elk City, he mined until the end of the season, and then made his way back to Eureka in the fall of the same year, resuming employment in his former capacity. When he left the second time it was for the purpose of revisiting his old home in the east, but after he had spent the greater part of 1864 in Massachusetts he returned to Eureka and secured a position in the mill of the Dolbeer-Carson Lumber Company. Very early in 1866 he again left for the mines, this time spending almost two years at Idaho City, and returning in October of 1867 to establish a perma-

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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 64

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