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 69

Author: Irvine, Leigh H. (Leigh Hadley), 1863-1942
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Los Angeles, Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1328

USA > California > Humboldt County > History of Humboldt County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 69

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James Ferguson

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Aside from his business interests Mr. Ferguson has always been keenly alive to all matters of interest to the general public, and on all questions that have affected the welfare of the community. He is road overseer for the fifth district, having been appointed in 1902, and having held the position con- tinuously since. One of the best known pieces of work under his direction was the building of the Fieldbrook road. He has been actively interested in the political affairs of the county, and favors the Republican party, although he is an independent thinker, and always holds the best interests of the com- munity at heart, regardless of party affiliations. He has been honored by the confidence of his constituents on many occasions, and has represented his district at party conventions on frequent occasions during the past ten years. He is also a prominent member of the Redwood Lodge, I. O. O. F., at Guerneville.

The marriage of Mr. Ferguson occurred at Alliance November 24, 1890, uniting him with Miss Nancy B. Nicks, a native of Illinois, born at Spring- field, October 5, 1857. She was the daughter of Thomas and Nancy (Hall) Nicks, and came to California with her parents in an early day, locating in Humboldt county, where they were esteemed pioneers. Mrs. Ferguson died at her home February 27, 1906, leaving the family to mourn the loss of a faithful wife and loving mother. They were the parents of five children, one daughter and four sons, all of whom were born in Arcata, where they are well known. They are Pearl, Marvin, Ralph, Eugene and Lester. They have all been well educated in the public and high schools, and have received many other advantages which their father was forced to forego, but which he has steadfastly striven to provide for his children.

ARTHUR WILLIAM BLACKBURN .- The justice of the peace of the Ferndale district, who is also town attorney of Ferndale, secretary of the Ferndale Chamber of Commerce and a director of the local telephone con- cern, is well fitted in every particular to faithfully represent the interests of the people, to decide impartially matters of considerable importance and to promote local progress by his progressive aptitude for affairs. A native of Wisconsin, born at Rochester, Racine county, November 2, 1878, and a son of Matthew and Caroline (Anderson) Blackburn, he was given the best advan- tages his neighborhood afforded. After he had completed the studies of a private preparatory school known as Rochester Academy he entered the University of Wisconsin and continued a student in that institution until he was graduated in 1901 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Two years later his alma mater conferred upon him the degrees of Master of Arts and Bachelor of Laws, he having completed the regular course of law study in the university law department. During June of 1903 he was admitted to practice in the United States courts and all courts of the state of Wisconsin, but, instead of taking up professional work at once, he taught history for one year in the high school at Marinette, Wis., resigning the position in 1904 in order to remove to the west.

After one year in the law office of Gregor & Connick at Eureka in 1905 Mr. Blackburn came to Ferndale, where he has since engaged in professional work and public service. Appointed justice of the peace to fill an unexpired term, he was duly elected to that office in 1910 and has since officiated with precision, dignity and an impartial administration of justice. On the organ- ization of the Eel River & Southern Telephone Company, in which he was a

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leading factor, he was chosen to serve as a director of the concern and still fills the position. Any movement for local growth receives his quiet but capable support. In the fraternities he is allied with the Masons and Odd Fellows. Possessing a true public spirit, he endeavors to promote the wel- fare of Ferndale and Humboldt county and champions any movement for the general advancement. Through his marriage to Florence Bell, a native of Wisconsin, he is the father of three sons, Arthur William, Jr., John and Edwin.

WILLIAM H. BARNWELL .- In the early days of the history of California, before land had attained its present great value, vast areas were owned by wealthy rancheros and by the church which at one time held almost complete sway in Southern California. Thus the land from Capis- trano to San Diego was formerly the property of a single ranchman, while the original territory of the San Gabriel mission extended as far as the San Bernardino mountains. In our day no such enormous ownership is possible in this rapidly growing country, but there are today numerous landowners in California possessing prosperous ranches many acres in extent. Such a one is William H. Barnwell, a well-known rancher and road overseer of Hum- boldt county, Cal.

Born in Southampton, England, July 31, 1858, Mr. Barnwell was the son of Thomas Joseph Barnwell, a storekeeper, and Ellen E. (Jenner) Barn- well, who were the parents of sixteen children, William being the fifth in age. The first twelve years of his life were spent in school, after which he secured a position as messenger boy. But the desire for a more stirring life was uppermost in his mind, and following, perhaps, the example of a sailor uncle, Ilenry Hyde Ticknor, who had crowned his roving life by coming to far distant California where he became the owner of a one hundred sixty acre claim at Willowbrook and was one of the earliest white settlers of this county, the boy William Barnwell spent two years at sea, making several trips by steamship from Bristol, England, to New York City, and becoming a personal friend of the captain. After seven years spent in clerkship in London, Mr. Barnwell followed his unchanged determination and in 1880 came to his uncle in California, locating at Alderpoint, Humboldt county, where he took up a pre-emption and worked for his uncle who had then sold his sheep ranch and kept a roadside inn and store and owned a ferry. Be- sides these interests, his uncle had charge of the stage at Alderpoint, for at that date there was no train service such as we have today. By assisting his uncle in the running of this stage, Mr. Barnwell became efficient in the work and was taken into the employ of the Miller, Bullard & Sweasey Stage Company, running a stage from Eureka to San Francisco in thirty-six hours, changing horses every ten miles.

In January, 1884, Mr. Barnwell located a homestead claim at Chalk Mountain, Humboldt county, proved up on it and later bought the balance, and here is located today his vast ranch of nine hundred sixty acres called Chalk Mountain. West of this property lay an estate of twenty acres belong- ing to Greenleaf C. French, an old settler in the county, who had come from Maine when a young man. Four years after the death of Mr. French, Mr. Barnwell married his widow, Mrs. Orinda French, and acquired the owner- ship of this property which is known as Burr Creek ranch, on the Bridgville and Blocksburg road, and here stands his pleasant home which has recently

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been fitted with an acetylene gas plant and possesses the comforts and conve- niences of modern life. In all, Mr. Barnwell is the owner of nine hundred eighty acres, all of which is in the Van Dusen township, Humboldt county. Mrs. Barnwell had already been twice married and was the mother of seven children. By her present marriage she has one child, William H. Barnwell, Jr., who lives with his parents on the estate at Burr creek.

The beautiful residence of Mr. and Mrs. Barnwell, besides standing on an estate which is to both of them redolent of the enthusiasm of the pioneer spirit and the gentler thought of old home ties, abounds with all that modern taste can bring to the making of a hospitable and pleasant home, and is ex- pressive of the cordial and generous spirit of its owners. Of English descent, Mr. Barnwell brings to his country home in California the geniality of old England and here dispenses hospitality with much of the large and kindly spirit of old English squires of whom Washington Irving's books tell us. Vines and gardens, a piano and other musical instruments, guns and the kindly presence of dogs, speak of the pleasant home life as well as of the sportsman's interests and the health-giving outdoor life which all California's seasons offer.

JOHN ALEXANDER LANE, M. D .- It has been the destiny of Dr. Lane to be identified with Humboldt county throughout practically all of his life, for although a native of North Carolina, born in Guilford county, December 5, 1873, he was less than two years of age when his parents, Henry and Martha (Campbell) Lane, came to California, settling in this county and here rearing their two sons, George and John Alexander. Through his skill as a woodsman the father earned a livelihood for the family until it eventually became necessary to seek an occupation requiring less manual exertion and he then engaged in the hotel business at Fortuna, where he lived during his later years. The schools of that village were small, but more thorough than might have been expected, so that they afforded Dr. Lane the necessary foun- dation on which to build the larger intellectual and professional equipment of maturity. In the carrying out of his early desire to make a scientific study of materia medica and enter the profession of a physician and surgeon, he matriculated in the Cooper Medical College of San Francisco and had all the advantages offered by that old-established institution. Upon receiving the degree of M. D. at the conclusion of his regular course of lectures he remained in San Francisco for a year as an interne in the City and County hospital, then returned to Fortuna to take up professional work, but in 1907 removed to Ferndale and has here since made his home.

Through marriage to Augusta V. White, a native of Humboldt county and a member of a pioneer family honored throughout this section of the state, Dr. Lane is the father of three children, Lora, Henry and Tante. Activity in professional, public, educational and fraternal affairs has charac- terized his residence in Ferndale and his intelligent co-operation with local problems. The Humboldt County, California and American Medical Asso- ciations have his name on their lists of members and he in turn derives the benefits offered by their modern grasp of professional affairs. As a trustee of the Ferndale high school he has kept in touch with educational develop- ment and has fostered every measure tending toward the more thorough preparation of boys and girls for the responsibilities of life. His fraternal connections are numerous and include association with Eurcka Lodge, B. P.

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O. E .; Eel River Lodge No. 147, F. & A. M., at Fortuna ; Ferndale Chapter No. 78. R. A. M., of Ferndale; Eureka Commandery No. 35, K. T., Islam Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., San Francisco; the Eastern Star; the Lodge of Odd Fellows, in which he is past grand; and the Knights of Pythias, in which he is past chancellor commander.

BENJAMIN MAXWELL MARSHALL, M. D .- The association of Dr. Marshall with the professional life of Eureka commenced during the fall of 1903 and has continued uninterruptedly up to the present time, his interests not being limited to private professional practice, but including also a vital and important connection with hospital work. It is perhaps not too much to say that Eureka is unsurpassed in the character of its hospitals. Considering the size of the place, it affords a hospital service that is exceptionally up-to- date and thorough, and the physicians identified with these institutions are men of wide professional knowledge and the most earnest devotion to their chosen work. In this respect Dr. Marshall is surpassed by none, as evi- denced not only by his able service as county physician and as surgeon at the county hospital, but also through his splendid service for many years as chief surgeon of the Union Labor hospital, an institution founded on the cooperative plan by the Union Labor bodies of Humboldt county. The Doc- tor himself took a prominent part in the founding of the hospital and the building, erected in 1905, reflects in its modern appointments his determina- tion to secure for it a complete equipment, with facilities for operations of every character. A board of directors comprising members of the various unions in the county maintains a close supervision of the hospital. There is a capacity of fifty beds and it is not limited to its own members or their families, but is open to the public in general.

Descended from a long line of Scotch ancestry, the Doctor himself is a native of Ardpatrick, Argyleshire, Scotland, born November 26, 1875. At the age of six years he was brought to America by his parents, who settled in Canada during 1881 and later sent him to the public schools of that country. Ambitious to gain a broad educational opportunity that would prepare him for service in the world, he took a complete course of study in the classics at Westminster College in British Columbia, an institution affiliated with the famous Toronto University. After having graduated from that college he took up the study of medicine, which he prosecuted with the diligence char- acteristic of him in every department of mental research. During 1902 he was graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at San Fran- cisco, and afterward he was engaged as assistant to A. W. Morton, M. D., in the Morton hospital, San Francisco. Meanwhile he had gained consid- erable added experience through service as house physician in the City and County hospital and as an assistant to the chair of medicine in the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Such advantages proved of inestimable assist- ance to him when he embarked in private practice and enabled him to diagnose diseases with promptness and accuracy. For five years he was surgeon at the Humboldt county general hospital in Eureka, where also he has given most able service as chief surgeon of the Union Labor hospital. So engrossed has he been in professional work that it would not be expected of him to give active participation to the fraternities, yet we find him prominent in the Orders of Elks, Eagles, Red Men and Knights of Pythias, while at the same time he is deeply interested in the work of the Humboldt

albert F. Etter

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HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

Club and has aided its enterprises to the extent of his time and influence. By his marriage to Miss Josephine Pearson, a native of New Brunswick, he has two sons, Benjamin Maxwell, Jr., and Joseph W. Personally he is popu- lar in the community which his character and professional ability are helping to upbuild. A friend of the public schools, good roads movements and other well known local projects, his residence in Eureka has tended to the widening of its prospects and the enhancing of its opportunities.

ALBERT FELIX ETTER .- In the canton of Thurgau, Switzerland, where the Etter family originated, the science of horticulture has probably reached greater perfection than in any other spot on the earth. So it is safe to assume that heredity accounts for Mr. Etter's taste for his life work, par- ticularly as his parents, Benjamin and Wilhelmina (Kern) Etter, exhibited the same tendencies, though they made no attempt at scientific labors of the kind. However, the father was the first man in Humboldt county to grow lentils, and made a decided success of the venture. The mother was a nature lover and showed a gift in the cultivation of plants, and strong analytical and executive powers, which may well be cited as evidence that her talented son comes by his tastes and ability largely through the maternal line. Per- sonally he is too unassuming to claim anything he cannot prove for his work, and has such high ideals that he would disclaim any pretensions to fame. But when his accomplishments are summed up, and when time has proved their worth, it is safe to say that in his own line he will rank closely after such eminent horticulturists as Luther Burbank of California and N. E. Hanson of South Dakota-in fact, he is to Humboldt county what Burbank is to the world. Though yet a young man his experiments have ranged over a period of twenty-five years. The high order of his success could be attained only through the genius which must be accompanied by untiring industry, patience and adherence to a purpose until results crown the effort.

"Study nature, not books," was the motto of the great naturalist, Louis Agassiz, and Mr. Etter has endeavored to follow the advice of so distin- guished a leader in nature study. What he has done has brought him repu- tation as an authority, especially in the propagation of strawberries, but the great future of his work lies in its value to Humboldt county and the rest of northwestern California. Hitherto this region has not undergone the devel- opment as a fruit belt which his experiments are proving feasible. With the ever growing needs of the nation her soil must be more intensively culti- vated and will be as agriculturists recognize the advisability of making small tracts yield abundantly by concentrating their efforts rather than drawing small profits from large areas. The hundreds of trials which Mr. Etter has made with fruits, forage plants, grasses, clovers, etc., will influence the plant- ing of orchards and fields in this territory especially, having been made with the object of ascertaining what varieties thrive best here. Next to his joy in his work the scientist no doubt places its approval by his understanding colaborers, and then the appreciation of the public. Yet whether this comes in his lifetime or not the knowledge that he has done a real service makes all his efforts worth while. If this were not so, if he did not have this for his ultimate goal, his labors would not have the incentive which holds him until his object is attained, no matter what the obstacles which confront him.

Albert F. Etter was born while the family lived in Eldorado county, near Shingle Springs postoffice, November 27, 1872. Coming with his par-

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HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

ents to Humboldt county he remained at his father's home on the Eel river until twenty-two years old, meantime attending the public schools near home up to the age of fifteen years. From early boyhood he put in all his spare time at horticultural work, mastering grafting when a mere child, conduct- ing experiments in hybridizing and plant breeding from pure love of the game. He had done practical work at such things at the age of seven, with apples and peaches ; by the time he was twelve he had an excellent collection of dahlias and had begun breeding strawberries. Since he left school he has devoted himself to horticulture. The mere enumeration of his experiments would serve to illustrate how indefatigable he has been in his efforts to get at the varieties best adapted to this climate. Six hundred kinds-new and old-of apples (obtained mostly through the University of California) have been tried out by him, with the result that he has found the Northfield (origi- nated in Vermont several years ago), Rolfe, Ecklinville, Bedfordshire, Rein- ette, Annas and Kirkbridge to possess exceptional qualities of color, flavor and productiveness and well adapted for cultivation in northwestern Cali- fornia. As yet, these varieties are practically unknown in the horticultural world, and their introduction will mark a distinct advance. Of all these, he sees special merit in the Northfield, which he believes will prove as great a benefit to northwestern California among apples as the navel orange was to southern California among citrus fruits. It is large, attractive and hardy, and the tree has the additional superiority of holding its fruit and not drop- ping it on the ground before thoroughly ripe, a fault particularly noticeable in the Gravenstein. He has brought out a seedling of the Northfield which has all the good qualities of its parent. By his experiments he has demon- strated that the Northfield apple is immune to scab. The discovery of this fact is of great importance, opening as it does the possibilities of breeding a family of varieties circumventing one of the greatest obstacles to successful apple culture in many sections. It has been pronounced by one of the best food concerns as being the best apple for canning of all known varieties. Some ordinary varieties of apples, such as the Gravenstein, Wagner, Spitzen- burg, Hyde King and Roman Beauty, have also been found to thrive here.

Over one hundred varieties of forage plants, grasses and clover have been included in Mr. Etter's experiments in that department, in which he has kept in close touch with the activities of the United States department of agriculture. In this line his results have shown that the large white clovers of southern Europe are particularly well suited for the needs of the dairy section of Humboldt county, inasmuch as they have a large growth during the winter.

At present he is conducting extensive experiments with nuts, mostly English walnuts, chestnuts and filberts, some of which grow so well here that they should find a place among the staple crops of the county.

But it is as an expert authority on strawberries that Mr. Etter excels. In this field it is no exaggeration to say he is without a peer-a "plant wizard" whose achievements are bound to revolutionize many phases of the strawberry industry. The Ettersburg family of strawberries originated by him has distinctive characteristics never before attained in the production of strawberries. The perfection of the best varieties has been reached only through years of painstaking observation and practical demonstration at each step, a task whose magnitude may be guessed at when we are told that

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besides working with all the leading old varieties he has created thousands of new hybrid varieties. These experiments have been conducted with various objects in view, multiplying the difficulties of the work in proportion to the results sought. But the new types are so far superior to the old, not only in quality but in abundant crop returns for labor expended, that it is only a question of time when they will entirely supersede their less thrifty aucestors. This family of strawberries has been created on a completely new fine of ideas, hence the great difference from the species generally found under cultivation. Cultivated varieties have been blended with wild stock of known superiority and embodying the qualities desired, among them two species classed as Fragaria chilensis, though widely different in type-the Peruvian Beach or Sand strawberry and the Cape Mendocino Beach strawberry, secured in varying types all the way down the Pacific coast from Cape Mendocino to Patagonia, South America. The sand dunes of this coast from Alaska to Patagonia have all contributed parent stock, and the regions around Cape Mendocino, Point Arena, Ano Nuevo (Cal.), Callao (Peru), and Chile and Patagonia, have been ransacked and given up their treasures to Mr. Etter, who has found the hardiness and vigor he sought in the plants of the cliffs and dunes, subject for countless generations to drouth, exposure to rains, changes of cold and heat, overcoming and surviving sterility of soil, alkaline conditions and adversities of all kinds. The Beach strawberries, although producing an exceptionally fine flavored fruit, are of such extreme hardiness that they exist and thrive when through privation and sterility all other plants fail to maintain themselves. The wood strawberry in varying types indigenous to the coast of California, and the wild Alpine strawberry from Europe, are other wild species he has crossed with cultivated plants, and the resultant new species in quality and quantity of fruit surpass any- thing heretofore known.

Keeping in mind the various uses of berries for the market, Mr. Etter has now a number of established varieties evolved by infinite pains and judicious selection from all the kinds he created, each with its own merits, and though he does not hold out any promises which cannot be substantiated he is able to recommend all of them for cultivation in this climate. These include half-blood Beach berries, the Rose Ettersburg berry, five sister varieties which are one-quarter cach Cape Mendocino Beach, Peruvian Beach, California wood and the ordinary type, and two recently perfected varieties- Beaderarena and Trebla. The Beaderarena is a mixture of Point Arena and the Beaderwood, possessing all the characteristics of the foliage of the Beach types, a very distinctive and high quality, bearing large sized berries and exceedingly productive. But the Ettersburg Trebla is the marvel among all these. For flavor, color, firmness and size it is all that could be desired, and is so individual in appearance that unless seen could hardly be imagined even by a grower of ordinary types. Without irrigation a plant has produced three quarts of the choicest berries in six weeks' picking, twenty-five thou- sand quarts to the acre in a season. With irrigation this can be increased possibly to forty thousand quarts per acre, as the plants would be made to bear throughout the summer, under favorable conditions.

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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 69

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