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 66

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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rise and the integrity of purpose that permitted no blemish or evidence of injustice in his entire record, public or private. Courage and confidence have characterized his career; an intelligent purpose has pointed the path to progress; superior attainments have enabled him to surmount many obstacles in the struggle for supremacy, but withal he has retained the kind- liness of heart that sees good in all, the earnestness of character that is unaffected by prosperity or adversity and the thoroughly admirable attri- butes that have made him a man among men.

GEORGE W. BURGESS .- As a justice of the peace for Van Dusen township, Humboldt county, George W. Burgess has rendered splendid ser- vice to the cause of peace and justice, law and order, in his home community. To him the functions of his office are the settlement of claims and difficulties in an amicable manner, and there is no other justice of the peace in the state whose record for the successful accomplishment of such service ex- ceeds his, and few if any which equal it. He is now serving his last of eight terms in this capacity, and during the past four years there has not been a fine collected or a suit prosecuted in his jurisdiction, all difficulties and differences having been peacefully settled through the splendid man- agement of Mr. Burgess. For some years he also served as deputy assessor. He is also interested in real estate and owns a fine farm of eighty acres a quarter of a mile from Blocksburg.

Mr. Burgess has been in California since November 15, 1862, when he landed in San Francisco from a trip across the Isthmus of Panama and up the coast. He is a native of Maine, having been born in Searsmont, Waldo county, August 4, 1839, and there he grew to maturity. The educational advantages were very meager, but he received a good common school educa- tion and had one year at high school. When he was eighteen years of age he commenced teaching in the public schools of the county, usually teaching during winter terms and in the summers remaining at home and assisting with the management and care of his father's farm. When he was twenty- three years of age he forsook the home environment and came to California. Arriving at San Francisco, he went at once into Napa valley, where for a time he found employment on a ranch, and then went into the mines at Weaverville. Later he took a wood contract on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at Jack's valley, Nev., remaining there for a year and a half. During this time his wife joined him, and later he met with an unfortunate accident, being struck by a heavy four-foot log as it rolled down the hill side, and he was pronounced fatally injured. He has, however, out- lived the doctor who made the fatal prediction and is still hale and hearty at seventy-five years of age. After his recovery he taught school for a term before leaving Jack's valley, and then became foreman for the William Winter's ranch. Following this he ran a hydraulic mine at Douglas City for one winter, this claim being the property of one Charles Trurot. In May, 1871, he removed into the mountain district of southwestern Trinity county, where he located a claim of a tract eight miles by twelve miles. The region had not been surveyed, and Mr. Burgess was the only white man therein. In 1875 the surveys were made and settlers began to come in. Mr. Burgess homesteaded a claim of one hundred sixty acres and acquired a similar tract of school land by purchase. Many of the settlers remained but a short time, and Mr. Burgess continued to purchase the abandoned

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rights of others until he owned a tract of eleven hundred forty acres. He prospered exceedingly in this locality, remaining until June 28, 1881, when he moved over to the Watch ranch, in Van Dusen township, Humboldt county, and for five years ran this property. December 5, 1887, he removed to Blocksburg, where he lived for two years, and December 5, 1889, he pur- chased his present place of eighty acres from a Mrs. Harris, and has since resided thereon.

Mr. and Mrs. Burgess have five children, three daughters and two sons, all natives of California, and well known in Humboldt county. Of these, Sadie A. is now the wife of Craig R. Thompson, a rancher of Alderpoint, and the mother of six children, George A., Edith A., Craig Gaston, Vina M., Clara D., and Ellis F .; George G. is a blacksmith in Blocksburg, and is married to Miss Maude M. Smith, by whom he has three children, Joseph G., Francis and Bessie S .; Dora is the wife of William Wilson, of Fortuna, where Mr. Wilson is a carpenter and millwright, and owns a ranch at Cuddeback, and they have six children, Laura S., Nellie F., Lester B., Helen Georgie, John E., and Vernon ; Lucena is the wife of S. Arnet Shields, ranger on the Trinity Forest Reserve, the family making their home in Blocksburg; they have five children, Stella N., Bernice R., George William, Edith S. and Sadie A .; and Edward I., who is manager of the home place, is married to Miss Julia Josephine Smith, of Blocksburg; they are the parents of five children, Theo- dore F., Lloyd Edward, Willard Howard, Earl Smith and Georgette M.

Mr. Burgess is one of the most enthusiastic boosters for Humboldt county particularly and for California generally that will be found anywhere. He is especially enthusiastic regarding the advantages of real estate invest- ments, and his advice to young men is to put all their money into land. He declares that the value is certain to increase with a rapidity that will surprise even the most sanguine, and that especially in the vicinity of San Francisco, as he believes that within a remarkably short time the region surrounding San Francisco Bay will be closely built up. In his warm appreciation of the possibilities offered by California Mr. Burgess is closely seconded by his splendid wife. She was Miss Sylvina Conant in the days of her maidenhood, a native of Appleton, Me., and her marriage with Mr. Burgess was solemnized at Searsmont, Waldo county, Me., September 17, 1861. Their home is plain but comfortable, and there the true California hospitality of a day gone by is still dispensed, giving the fortunate guest a glimpse of a period that has vanished. Both Mr. and Mrs. Burgess are well known and popular with their many friends. Mr. Burgess is a Republican and is well versed in the affairs of his party, particularly in questions of local importance.

CAROLINE COOPER BECKWITH .- The distinction of having been the first white women in the Eel river valley and the fourteenth and fifteenth white women in Humboldt county belongs to Mrs. Beckwith and her sister, Mrs. Rowena VanDyke. Mrs. Beckwith, hale and hearty at the age of seventy-nine, recounts many exciting and even dangerous experiences with the Indians that still roamed the dense forests. It is impossible for a writer of this day and generation to adequately depict the trials and anxieties of her pioneer history. There have been many memoirs written concerning the era associated with the discovery of gold, but every pen has faltered before the romance, the renunciation and the anguished apprehension of the women and

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girls who left their loved ones in the east and endured the terrors of Indian massacres, the privations of poverty and the loneliness of the western frontier. Grateful reverence from later generations is due these carly settlers, and the twilight of the useful existence of Mrs. Beckwith has been surrounded and brightened by the affection of children, the devotion of friends and the com- panionship of the few survivors of those far-distant days. Sorrows, such as come into every life, have flecked her pathway with shadows, but always she has been bright, courageous and hopeful. Joys, too, have come into her life, but perhaps nothing has given her more satisfaction than the devotion of her children, whose successful and useful careers she did much in establishing.

A native of Prince Edward Island, the childhood of Caroline Cooper seemed absolutely devoid of advantages. Her father, an English sea captain and a man of considerable prominence in maritime activities, had little money, and the maintenance of the large family in comfort in the rigorous climate of the island became a serious problem. Finally he was led to the west by the discovery of gold. Early in 1850 he set sail from his northern home along the Atlantic coast. Accompanying him, in a vessel he had built himself, were his wife and thirteen children and their families. All went well during the voyage of nine months, but misfortune awaited them, for the party arrived in San Francisco during a serious epidemic which carried away many mem- bers of the family. Three or four of the sons came to Humboldt county and engaged in lumber manufacturing, and were afterwards joined by two of their sisters, Caroline and Rowena. Three of the brothers were killed by the In- dians on Eel river and a fourth brother perished in the same manner near Hydesville. Of a once large family Mrs. Beckwith and Mrs. Rowena (Walter) Van Dyke are the sole survivors. It will thus be seen that Mrs. Beckwith's life has been unusually eventful and her knowledge of pioneer conditions in Humboldt county most comprehensive.

While the name of Caroline Cooper Beckwith is worthy of perpetuation in the annals of Humboldt county, not less worthy is the name of her honored husband, Leonard Crocker Beckwith, a native of Connecticut and from the age of ten years until eighteen a sailor on the high seas in a New Bedford whaler. Arriving in Humboldt county in the fall of 1851, he settled in the Eel river valley near Fortuna and bore a part in all the pioneer history of the community. Until his death in the year 1905 he owned and operated a claim of one hundred sixty acres near Rohnerville, but in addition to cultivat- ing the land he did much for the public service and also ran a pack-train to Trinity county. A brave Indian fighter, he enlisted in the early Indian wars and helped to drive the red men out of the county, thus making it possible for white settlers to engage in farming peacefully and uninterruptedly. On the organization of the Eel River Lodge of Masons he became a charter member and he stood four-square on the philanthropic and humanitarian prin- ciples of the order. Of his marriage to Caroline Cooper there were nine children, namely: Gertrude, Mrs. D. H. Allen, of San Francisco; Leonard, who was drowned in Van Dusen river ; Mrs. Anna Poole, deceased ; Frank Walter, of Humboldt county; Mrs. Caroline Prichard, of San Francisco; Harry S., of Los Gatos; Helen, Mrs. George S. Shedden, of Eureka; Mrs. Maude Stevens and Mrs. Hattie Davis, both of Seattle, Wash.

FRANK WALTER BECKWITH .- It may well be a source of pride to public-spirited citizens of Humboldt county that a goodly number of the

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native-born sons of the community have remained here to establish them- selves in some life work and by their integrity, intelligence and progressive enterprise have not only promoted their own fortunes, but in addition have been a credit to the county of their birth. Such a list of capable business men would include the name of Frank Walter Beckwith, who was born in the Rohnerville district July 31, 1859, and during early life became familiar with the difficult tasks of farming and stock-raising as conducted in this then frontier and isolated region. Love of the farm, however, was not sufficiently strong to subdue an innate desire to embark in business and at the age of nineteen he left the ranch to take a clerkship in a general store at Rohner- ville. Upon coming to Eureka he found employment in the store of J. Lowen- thal and there gained an experience of considerable value in later enterprises. From Eureka he went to Hydesville to open a general mercantile store and this business he conducted until the spring of 1915, when he sold it, having won and retained the trade of that section through his varied assortment of goods and uniform uprightness in all transactions.

The Hydesville store did not represent all of the business activities of Mr. Beckwith, who in addition thereto was the owner of the finest shingle mill in Humboldt county, this being a modern plant with substantial equip- ment and furnishing steady employment to thirty-five men. To develop a business to such an extent in spite of many handicaps indicates the possession of abilities out of the ordinary and Mr. Beckwith indeed merits consideration as a man of striking acumen and keen insight. This business was also dis- posed of in 1915. On the organization of the Eureka Lodge of Elks he became a charter member and since has retained a deep interest in the work of the order. As a Mason he has risen to the Knights Templar, Scottish Rite and Shriner degrees and has been prominent in the local work. By his marriage to Miss Gesina Drucker, of San Francisco, a Native Daughter, he has five children, the eldest of whom, Genevieve, is the wife of E. B. McFarland. The others, Shirley, Harry, Anne and Caroline, live with their parents in Eureka.

JOHN SLAUGHTER ROBINSON .- All citizens who cherish a patriotic affection for Eureka watch .with deepest interest the erection of new build- ings and appreciate every evidence of artistic taste and substantial construc- tion on the part of the men having in charge this most important department of civic advancement. Perhaps few have been more successful in the drawing of their own plans and specifications than has John Slaughter Robinson, who for more than twenty-nine years has been identified with the building business in Humboldt county, and during that long period of industrious activity has been awarded contracts of considerable importance. Skill with tools seems to have been a natural gift with him, for he can scarcely recall a time when he was not interested in everything pertaining to the trade of carpenter ; yet it happened that, instead of entering the occupation for a period of apprentice- ship during youth, he was put to serve under a blacksmith, and thus gave four years to a trade which he never followed and which has been of little practical benefit to him in the building business. As a boy he lived on a farm in Lawrence county, Mo., where he was born May 18, 1859, and where he had such advantages as the schools of the locality and period rendered possible.

For some years while still making his home in Missouri Mr. Robinson followed the trade of a carpenter, and this has been his chosen calling in

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Humboldt county, where for fourteen months, beginning in the spring of 1886, he followed the trade in Bridgeville and since then has lived in Eureka. For seven years he worked under Knowles Evans, the well-known contractor. At the expiration of the time he began to take contracts for himself and since then he has been given many building contracts of importance, including the following: Residence of Fred Bell on Third street, Eureka; residence of John C. Bull, Jr., on E street ; Smith home on E street; Bowker residence on the corner of Second and S streets; Need's block on F and Third streets ; the First Christian Church on Seventh street, Eureka ; the Odd Fellows' hall in Arcata ; Hotel Vance, and many others too numerous to mention. Besides his home in Eureka he is the owner of a ranch of eighty acres in the Ozark mountains in Missouri, as well as other holdings of considerable value. Fraternally he is a member of the Eureka Lodge No. 652, B. P. O. E. By · his marriage to Caroline Bennage, a native of Indiana, he became the father of ten children. Eight are now living, including twin daughters, Jessie and Bessie, the former the wife of T. Benson. The others now living are Mrs. Pearl Hill, Mrs. Annie Winters of Vallejo, Barney, Walter, Leonard and Frank.

AUGUSTUS COTTRELL .- An identification with Humboldt county that began immediately after the arrival of Mr. Cottrell in California during 1865 has continued up to the present time to the advantage of both himself and the county ; the former by reason of his stirring and profitable association with business enterprises ; the latter on account of his energetic cooperation in developing projects for the material upbuilding. The most unwearied exertion had been his previous experience, laying the foundation of the rugged constitution and tireless energy that enabled him to work his way forward to prosperity and local prominence. His early life had been passed at Oak Bay, New Brunswick, where he was born February 7, 1840, and where he had worked during boyhood on farms and in lumber woods, earning only his board and clothes, but gaining an experience of the utmost importance to later efforts. When he came to the west via the Isthmus of Panama and landed at San Francisco, he determined to seek employment in the lumber woods of Humboldt county. At that time only two steamers sailed from San Francisco to Eureka each month. Few people had begun to seek the oppor- tunities of Humboldt county, and the demand for transportation as a rule was slight, although at times the vessels were crowded to their utmost capacity and even beyond the limitations stipulated by law.

On his arrival in Eureka the young man from New Brunswick found a village whose entire business was concentrated upon one short street. Beyond in the forests there was considerable activity, for the demand for lumber had caused the erection of sawmills and shingle mills and the woods were re- sounding with the ring of many axes swung by stalwart young fellows. He had no difficulty in securing employment and engaged in cutting down trees or working in sawmills or scaling logs, also contracting logging for many years. Little by little he put by his carnings and finally he had saved an amount that enabled him to embark in business for himself. With George Connick as a partner in 1888 he established a grocery store and when later the partner sold his interest to Mr. Warren the title was changed to Cottrell & Warren, continuing as such through a considerable period of growing business. For some time, however, Mr. Cottrell has been the sole proprietor

Edwin Graham

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of the store, which he manages with the carnestness, energy and efficiency characteristic of him in every relation of life. To superintend a business of such importance leaves him little leisure for outside activities, yet he has proved himself a progressive citizen by the ready aid he gives to enterprises of merit and by his cooperation in educational, financial and commercial up- building. A service of six years as member of the city council and of four years as a member of the board of education impressed the people with his desire to promote the welfare of the city along worthy lines. At one time he owned valuable timber lands in partnership with Thomas Baird, to whom he later disposed of his interests in these great holdings. His principal fra- ternity is the Odd Fellows, with which he has been connected since 1867 and to whose lodge and encampment he has been a generous helper. He is an active member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Eureka and for many years has been a member of its board of trustees. With his wife, who was Martha Jane Brown, of Michigan, he has a high standing in Eureka society and a host of warm personal friends. By his first wife, Keziah (Young) Cottrell, who was born in New Brunswick and died at Eureka in 1901, he is the father of two sons, Emile L. and Charles C., and one daughter, Ida May. The sons are physicians of excellent education and recognized skill and have built up a growing practice in the village of Scotia, Humboldt county.

EDWIN GRAHAM .- The climate of southern Humboldt county is particularly favorable for the propagation of fine fruits, some of the choicest varieties reaching perfection of color and flavor here, and although there is a relatively small number of fruit growers it is being steadily augmented by those who have investigated the advantages of the location. The new rail- road line of the Northwestern Pacific, affording improved transportation facilities, is another argument to attract agriculturists of this class. Edwin Graham has a valuable homestead about eight miles northeast of Harris, off the Harris and Alderpoint road, and is at present specializing in the produc- tion of fine fruits, having about twenty-five acres planted in choice varieties and yielding abundantly in response to the intelligent care he has given them. He is a most capable worker, attending faithfully to the numerous details of orcharding, which keep him busy in practically all seasons.

Mr. Graham was born November 6, 1856, at Adel, Dallas county, lowa, about twenty-five miles west of Des Moines. Francis S. Graham, his father, was a prominent official and business man of that section for years, holding the county offices of assessor and treasurer eight years each. Selling his farm for $30,000, he embarked in the banking business, building the Bank of Dallas county, but he had reverses, and after the failure of his bank came out to Napa county, Cal., where he died in 1912, at the age of eighty-seven years. His widow died January 28, 1915, in Dallas county, Iowa, when almost eighty- five. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Francis S. Graham : Morris J., the present county clerk of Dallas county, Iowa; Edwin; John P., who died leaving a wife and three sons; Mary Elizabeth, wife of J. L. Simcoke, druggist, at Adel, Iowa; and William F., who is in business at Perry, Dallas county, Iowa.

Edwin Graham grew up on his father's farm in Iowa, and had the educa- tional advantages afforded by the neighboring schools. After his father's business losses he clerked in stores at Adel and Minburn, Iowa, following

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that kind of work for many years. The day after his marriage to Miss Adel Winans, of Adel, Iowa, he started with his wife for California, arriving at Healdsburg, Sonoma county, in October, 1877. After clerking there for two years he removed to Petaluma, where he was in the employ of Joseph Camp- bell, a pioneer merchant of that place, continuing with him for three years, when he engaged in ranching three miles out of town. In the fall of 1886 he removed to Willits, where he was a dealer and shipper of poultry and eggs. During this time he drove a band of two hundred turkeys overland from Willits to Cloverdale, where he sold them at a good profit. In the fall of 1889 he removed to Ukiah, where he accepted a position in the old Ukiah Ilouse. For ten years he acted as head clerk and bookkeeper at the old Ukiah House, and meantime, in 1893, took up the homestead in southern Humboldt county which he now cultivates and resides upon, having one hundred sixty-three and twenty-three hundredths acres, of which twenty- five acres are cleared and planted in fruit. He has over five hundred trees set out, including two hundred peach trees, principally Muirs, although he also has Wheatland, Triumph, Foster, Susquehanna and Strawberry varieties ; fifty fig trees of the White Adriatic variety, besides San Pedro White, San Pedro Black and California Mission ; apples, Early Harvest, Yellow Trans- parent, Summer Sweet Paradise, Red Astrachan, Gravenstein, Yellow Belle- flower, Ben Davis, Wallbridge, Newtown Pippin and Arkansas Black ; pears, Bartletts, Winternellis and Howell; prunes, Tragedy, German, French, Imperial Epinuse, Silver and Sugar; plums, Kelsey Japans, Imperial Gage, Washington, Jefferson and First Best; besides six hundred grapevines, Mis- sion, Muscat, Alexander, Mrs. Pince, Thompson Seedless, Black Malvoise, Isabelle, Muscatel and Zante currants ; blackberries, Himalaya Mountain, Lawton, Mammoth, Oregon Evergreen, Loganberries and Burbank's Phe- nomenon ; raspberries, Evergreen Red. Mr. Graham has taken great care in the selection of his fruit stock, and is reaping the results. In addition to his orchard work he is giving some attention to stock growing, raising about $500 worth of hogs annually. There is still considerable timber on his property, pine, spruce and tan oak, the latter especially valuable, not only for the bark, but also for the lumber, which is beautifully grained, takes on a high polish, and is strong and durable, particularly desirable for the manu- facture of fine furniture. Mr. Graham has won the highest respect of his neighbors by his industrious devotion to his work, and he is regarded as one of the most intelligent, progressive ranchmen in his locality, where he is helping to raise and maintain high standards by his own fine productions.

Mr. and Mrs. Graham have one child, David Morris Graham, now in the employ of Livingston Brothers, San Francisco, as head window trimmer ; he married Miss Hattie Babbage, of San Francisco.

ALBERT VAN DUZEN, JR .- California is justly proud of her native- born sons, and among them is Mr. Van Duzen, Jr., who was born in Del Norte county, July 15, 1878. His parents moved to Trinidad, Humboldt county, when he was but four years of age and here he received his educational train- ing in the public schools of the county until he was eleven years old. He then moved with his parents to North Fork, which is now Korbel, and here he attended the schools of the Scottsville district, now known as Blue Lake. He remained here two years, next going to Bayside, and in another year moved to Glendale and still continued his schooling for two years in that district and

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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 66

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