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 72

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 72

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HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

Republican of the Progressive type, and his religious associations are with the Lutheran Church.

Mr. Plitsch has been twice married, his first wife having been Miss Nellie Foss, a native of Humboldt county and the daughter of J. B. Foss, a pioneer of that county. By this marriage Mr. Plitsch became the father of one child, Alice, who died at the age of twelve years. His second marriage, which occurred in Eureka, Cal., united him with Mrs. Viola (Warner) King, who was born in Josephine county, Ore., the daughter of John and Hattie (Butler) Warner, natives of New York and Pike county, Ill .; they became pioneers of southern Oregon, crossing the plains with ox-teams in the '50s. Mr. and Mrs. Plitsch had two sons, both of whom died in infancy. The two daughters of Mrs. Plitsch by her first marriage are both living in California, Alva, now Mrs. Alexander Tucker, residing at Stone Lagoon, and Ruth making her home with Mr. and Mrs. Plitsch.

HENRY B. HITCHINGS .- The probation officer of Humboldt county, who is filling a most responsible position with the same intelligence, tact and fearlessness noticeable throughout the long period of his service as chief of police at Eureka, claims New Brunswick as his native province and his parents, Andrew and Tryphena (Little) Hitchings, likewise were natives of that same Canadian country. The family came to California during 1869, a year memorable in western history on account of the completion of the first trans-continental railroad. At that time the eldest son, Henry B., whose birth had occurred in Charlotte county, March 9, 1859, was a lad of ten years, old enough to be greatly impressed by the importance of his first trip outside of the limits of his native province. Arrival in Humboldt county brought the family face to face with the privations and pioneer environment of this then sparsely populated timbered country lying between the mountains and the great sea. A millwright by trade and a skilled mechanic with consider- able ability along every line of general work, the father found employment with George Vance and for some years also conducted a spar-yard, where he made spars for vessels. He made the first truck-wheels used on the old truck cars that hauled the logs in the lumber camps and did much other work of a similar nature. For two years he served as marshal of Eureka and for a similar period he was a member of the council.

The parental family included five children, namely : Henry B., Sidney, George, Hattie (Mrs. Conant) and Guy. Of these the first was old enough at the time of leaving New Brunswick to appreciate the diversity of scenery en route to California and to enjoy the voyage from San Francisco to Eureka on the famous old steamer Pelican. Immediately after coming to this place he became a pupil in the old Brown school on H street and for some years he continued in the grammar school during the winter months, while in the summers he worked in the woods or in the mill. Later he became an assistant in his father's spar-yard. For five years he acted as janitor of the old court house, besides filling the position of deputy sheriff under Thomas M. Brown. At other times he earned a livelihood through carpentering. After about eighteen months as a member of the police force of Eureka he was promoted to be chief of police and continued to fill the office with efficiency for thirteen years. Under appointment from the state officers he served as deputy fish and game warden. For a time he was employed with the Western States Gas & Electric Light Company, and on the 1st of October,

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1913, he accepted an appointment as probation officer of Humboldt county, since which time he has devoted his attention wholly to the duties of the position. Besides being an Exempt Fireman, he is fraternally connected with the Elks and the lodge and encampment of Odd Fellows. By his mar- riage to Miss Martha J. Brown, a daughter of the late Thomas M. Brown, he became allied with a lady favorably known in Eureka as a charter member of the First Christian Church and a welcomed accession to the most select social circles. Four children form their family, namely: Helen F., Thomas M., Andrew and Idelia.

PHILIP NEEDS .- To those who were privileged to know him, Mr. Needs was not only a splendid type of the typical pioneer of the '50s, to whose energy and perseverance is due a large share of the remarkable development of California, but he was also a man who displayed ability in many avenues of usefulness and rose to a local prominence abundantly justified in the light of his varied talents. Well known for years through his practical interest in local enterprises, his passing, September 8, 1911, was mourned as a distinct loss to the community of his long association and by the friends gained during an identification of fifty years with the progress of Humboldt county. That he should have risen to success, notwithstanding the privations of orphanage and poverty in boyhood, lack of educational advantages and lack of friends to interest themselves in his behalf, betokens the sturdy, substan- tial qualities of his mind. Destiny qualified him to assume responsibility and fitted him for the lines of labor in which he gained prosperity. His life story in fact is one of those biographies that seem to combine the desirable elements of all stories of men who have risen to success and affluence through adversity and trials which would appear insurmountable through any human agency. Self-made in the strictest sense of the word, obtaining his start in business by frugality and thrift, he developed under the pressure of responsibilities until he became a leading man in his community, influential not only because of the great means he accumulated, but also because of the high character evidenced in all his transactions. His credit was good, not merely on account of his large possessions, but on account of his proven integrity.

No memories of parental love brightened the lonely childhood of Philip Needs, who for his first four years was a charge of the overseers of the parish of Lummon, England, where he was born in October, 1828. An aunt and uncle who lived in Berluscom parish took him into their home and as soon as old enough put him to work on a vinegar farm. Later he worked on other farms in England. During 1850 he crossed the ocean to Canada and found employment successively in mills and on farms. The year 1854 found him a pioneer homesteader of Iowa, where he proved up on a claim and then leased the land to tenants, while himself working for wages on near-by farms. Next he worked in a sawmill in Wisconsin and thence returned to Canada, where he remained for three years. A decision to try his fortune on the western coast brought him to California in 1858. After landing at San Francisco in June he went at once to the gold diggings on the Fraser river and later worked by the day on the dry ditch of the Sailor diggings. During 1859 he went to the Puget Sound region, where for two years he worked in the lumber woods and adjacent sawmills.

From his arrival in Eureka in 1861 until his death, September 8, 1911, Mr. Needs continuously was identified with the history of Humboldt county

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in logging industries and general business activities. By dint of perseverance he rose from poverty to financial prestige. Nor was his sole advance in the matter of finances. It had ever been a source of regret to him that he had received no education. At the time of coming to Eureka he could neither read nor write, but with genuine pluck he set about the task of making up for the deficiencies in schooling, and soon he had an excellent knowledge of the common branches, becoming particularly expert in arithmetic. After the burning of the Ryan mill, in which he had been employed, he entered the Vance mill and later engaged as a sawyer in the Bayside mill until 1872. Utilizing his savings as the capital for a brokerage business, he gave his attention to such interests until shortly before his death. During 1904 he erected the Needs building, a three-story frame building on E and Third streets, Eureka, at a cost of about $25,000, and the oversight of that valuable property he maintained personally until his death. Recognized as a man of financial acumen, he had been selected by depositors of the Randall Bank, Eureka, to settle its accounts upon the failure of the institution, and he discharged that responsible task with excellent success and general satis- faction.

Though Mr. Needs began to earn his own living when but eight years old hard work never apparently impaired his constitution, nor hard experience, his faith in human nature and kindliness of heart. Responsibility at too early an age is not considered desirable, yet the lessons he learned made him self- reliant and industrious, and ready to extend a helping hand to others in the same straits. The necessity for hard work never narrowed his outlook nor made him selfishly zealous in the promotion of his own interests to the exclusion of the rights of others or of his duties to his fellow men, and so he had a full life, enjoying the respect of his associates for his personal qualities as well as for his ability. Except for the office of road supervisor he held no public positions. He was always a Republican in political sym- pathy, but never took any part in the work of the party. Many years ago he joined the Sons of Temperance, and the moral and social betterment of the community never failed to receive his support. During 1871 he married Mrs. Caroline (Griffin) White, of New England ancestry, who died January 19, 1879, leaving one daughter by her first marriage, Nellie, wife of Thomas H. Chope and mother of a daughter, Carrie E. Chope, whose affectionate memories of Mr. Needs prompt this tribute to his character and life.

JERRY QUILL .- The quiet fund of wit, the ability to see the humorous in every situation and the power to look out on life with unfailing optimism and good cheer, these characteristics of the Celtic race enabled Mr. Quill to endure the privations of early youth in his native Ireland and to surmount the vicissitudes of many discouraging experiences in America, where for a time he engaged as a day laborer on farms in Canada and New York, earning barely enough for the most pressing necessities of existence. With the re- solve to seek California there came a great change into the humdrum routine of toil. After crossing the isthmus and sailing to San Francisco in 1859, he spent two years in the mines of Shasta county and then brought his family across the mountains to Humboldt county in 1861. Indians were then very troublesome and outbreaks were common. To protect the women and chil- dren of the party, a ring was made of pack-saddles around them and the men stood guard through all the long hours of the night. The baby son, John

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F. Quill, rode all through that journey in an apple box, strapped to the back of a mule.

A short time before bringing his family to Humboldt county Jerry Quill had been here on a tour of inspection and had purchased a tract of three hundred twenty acres on Salt river in the Eel river district. It was his intention to establish a permanent home on the place, but the danger of Indian hostilities was so constant that he sold the land and took his family into Eureka for safety. To earn a livelihood he worked in the mill of John Vance. At the end of the Indian troubles he returned to the Eel river district and bought a ranch on Nigger Head, north of Eel river, the improvement and cultivation of which engaged his close attention until he died in 1883. Eleven years later occurred the death of his wife, Julia (Tierney) Quill, a native of Canada. Three sons survive them, namely: James A. and Jerry, both of San Francisco, and John F., the second in order of birth and the only one of the three to remain in Humboldt county.

At the time the family set sail from New York City John F. Quill, who was a native of Albany, that state, was an infant in arms, hence his entire life practically has been identified with the west and with Humboldt county. During boyhood he assisted in the work on the home ranch and later he engaged in the hay and grain business in Eureka for two years. From 1891 to 1906 he owned the Bay livery stable on Third street, while since 1908 he has owned and operated the Eureka Drayage Company (formerly the Tufts- Davis' Drayage Company). Much of the heavy hauling in the town is done under his supervision and in addition he delivers to all parts of the county consignments from the National Biscuit Company, for which he is distributor, and the Hibernian brewery of San Francisco, for which he is agent. Goods are consigned to him direct from various eastern cities. His identification with public and political affairs has been limited to service as deputy sheriff under Thomas M. Brown and as a deputy under County Assessor George Shaw. His leading fraternity has been Eureka Lodge No. 652, B. P. O. E. In establishing a home he chose for a wife Miss Nellie Deering, who was born at Machias, Me., and in 1867 was brought to Cali- fornia by her father, George Deering, who had operated a sawmill in the Maine woods, but after settling in Humboldt county cultivated a ranch of one hundred sixty acres on Table Bluff and a three hundred acre ranch at Bucksport. The family of Mr. and Mrs. Quill comprises six children, all well educated, earnest and capable, filling creditably their chosen positions in life. They are as follows : Florence, wife of P. J. Rutledge, of Eureka : Harry, secretary of the Humboldt Lumber Association; Edward, head bookkeeper and assistant manager for the H. H. Buhne Company; Grace, a teacher in the Washington school, Eureka ; Carl, of Tacoma, Wash .; and Nellie, who is a teacher in the State Normal School at San Jose.

LOREN M. KLEPPER .- The proprietor of the Eureka Marble and Granite Works, who has been a resident of California since the early '90s and of Eureka since 1901, was born in Chicago, Ill., February 28, 1858, and learned the trade of a marble and granite worker in Minnesota, where and in Iowa he followed the occupation for a considerable number of years, first as a worker by the day and then as a foreman. For some time Stillwater, Minn., was his home and occupative headquarters. Upon coming to Cali- fornia he was put in charge of the Colton marble works in the city of Colton,

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where he remained for a number of years, meanwhile filling contracts of importance that carried him to different parts of the state. The marble work in the Academy of Science building, San Francisco, which cost $25,000 and was the finest work of the kind done there up to that time, represented his intelligent supervision in filling a contract for his company.

Subsequent to a period of identification with the Western granite works at San Jose, in 1901 Mr. Klepper came to Eureka and bought one-half interest with John O'Neil in the Eureka works. At the expiration of six years he purchased the interest of his partner and is now the sole owner. On his removal to Eureka he brought with him his family, consisting of his wife, formerly Mary M. Merrick and a native of Indiana; also their three chil- dren, namely : Mabel, now the wife of W. E. Peacock; Winfred M., now a student in the University of California; and Hazel, a student in the Eureka high school. Since coming to this city Mr. Klepper has been active in all local movements of importance and has the honor of being one of the organ- izers of the Eureka Board of Trade. His fraternities are the Elks, the Woodmen of the World and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

The marble and granite yards, located at the intersection of Fifth and Myrtle avenue, Eureka, represent one of the most complete works of the kind on the coast. Originally established by John O'Neil in 1884 and by him conducted alone until 1901, in the latter year Loren M. Klepper bought an interest in the concern and eventually became the sole proprietor. At that time the plant was located near the present site of the Times office, but Mr. Klepper removed to his present place of business and erected a plant with a floor space of 40x130 feet, equipped with the latest approved and most modern stone-working machinery. The dressing and the carving of the stone are done with pneumatic tools operated by compressed air. The plant has the capacity to handle the largest and most complex work, such as is necessary in the building of mausoleums, a line of work in which Mr. Klepper has been very successful. Seven attractive and dignified structures of this kind have been erected by him in local cemeteries. His designs are original and his work expresses the dignity and simplicity nowhere so appropriate as in the City of the Dead. The reputation of the proprietor has brought him cor- respondence from all parts of the state and he makes shipments to various sections of the coast, filling orders for monuments, tombstones, markers, tablets, curbing and all kinds of cemetery work in foreign and domestic marble or granite. With the exception of the dairy products of Humboldt county, its lumber and shingles, and certain novelties wrought from the redwood burl, it is doubtful if any manufactured local product reaches out into such distant markets as the products of the Eureka Marble and Granite Works.

WILLIAM SLAUGHTER ROBINSON .- Five different states made a home for Mr. Robinson during different periods of his life. In four of them the first twenty-two years of his life were passed, namely : Virginia, where he was born February 4, 1828; Tennessee, to which he accompanied his parents at the age of eight years; Kentucky and Missouri. For a period of fifty-seven years beginning in 1850 and closing with his death at Eureka, March 10, 1907, he lived in California and practically all of that time in Hum- boldt county, so he was thoroughly familiar with early conditions here and with the gradual transformation from frontier isolation to twentieth-century

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civilization. During the summer of 1850 he crossed the plains with an ox-team, arriving at Nevada City on the 20th of September and at once engaging as a teamster from Sacramento to Shasta City with Joseph Russ as a partner. In a short time he came with a party from Trinity to Humboldt county, where he and Mr. Russ had many exciting experiences in hunting elk in the Wild Cat and Bear river districts. The meat found a ready sale in Eureka and Arcata, so that their hunting expeditions brought them a fair profit. Stirring adventures with black and grizzly bears in the mountains brought them into constant danger, yet gave them the excitement of the chase so enjoyable to every hunter. It is said that Mr. Robinson was one of the most skilled marksmen in the mountains. His aim was almost unerring and when he started for the mountains with his hunting outfit, it was definitely understood that he would not return empty-handed.

Taking up ranch pursuits in the Eel river valley and developing a stock industry at Bridgeville, Mr. Robinson gradually accumulated two thousand acres of stock range and was one of the first men in the county to specialize in wool-growing, a department of activity that became fairly profitable under his constant supervision. Throughout all of his adult life he voted the Democratic ticket and gave stanch support to the party principles. On the organization of Anniversary Lodge, I. O. O. F., at Arcata, he became a charter member, while afterward he entered Hydesville Lodge No. 250, I. O. O. F., also as a charter member. Through his marriage to Lavina Electa Albee, daughter of Joseph Albee, a pioneer of Humboldt county, he became the father of the following-named daughters and sons: Mrs. E. Schreiner, of Ferndale; Grant, residing in Lewiston, Mont .; Caltha; Wil- liam A., in charge of the Robinson ranch; Mrs. Charles Allen, of Montana ; Mrs. Bert Griffiths, of Berkeley; Gertrude, of Eureka: Bertha, wife of E. S. Murray, also of Eureka ; and Edward J. Robinson, D. D. S. The youngest child, who like the other members of the family claims Humboldt as his native county, is a graduate of the Eureka high school and of the dental department, University of California, class of 1909. All of his professional experience, with the exception of one year at San Jose, has identified him with Eureka, where he is regarded as an efficient and educated dentist, thor- oughly familiar with the profession in its every detail. His fraternities are the Masons and the Native Sons of the Golden West.

GUSTAVE ADOLPH STRAND .- The city engineer of Eureka is a representative of that remarkable class of native sons of California, who · without advantages other than those they made for themselves have risen to prominence and become factors in the permanent upbuilding of their com- monwealth. All of his life has been passed in the west and, while still a young man, already he has had the supervision of some notable pieces of engineering work that tested and proved his scientific accuracy and professional skill. Realizing the inestimable value of thorough preparatory instruction, he endeavored to secure the best technical advantages the state afforded and he left no effort unmade that would lay broad and deep the foundation of his occupative knowledge. The common schools of San Francisco (in which city he was born November 11, 1887) gave him preliminary training in the customary branches, while his special training was had in the Vander Nail- len Engineering School of Oakland and the engineering department of the University of California at Berkeley. At the expiration of two years of

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study in the university he was equipped with sufficient knowledge to permit of practical work and from that time to the present he has been identified with important projects calling for engineering skill and proficiency.

The twenty thousand acres in the San Joaquin valley known as the Patterson irrigation project was the first large enterprise to engage the attention of Mr. Strand, who became an engineer there in 1908 and continued for two years in the prosecution of that important work. When he first came to Eureka in 1910 it was for the purpose of engaging in construction work on the Northwestern Pacific Railroad then in process of building. Most important was the contract he filled for the construction of four miles of the road from Camp Grant to McCann's Mills as well as the building of the Thompson Bluff tunnel on the same road. He was also in charge of the opening of Jacoby creek quarries, and furnished the rock for building the United States government jetties at the entrance to Humboldt Bay. Mean- while he served as city engineer of Fortuna for one year. In June of 1913 he was elected city engineer of Eureka by a majority of thirteen hundred, the large vote in his favor attesting his personal popularity as well as the general confidence in his engineering efficiency. Socially he and his wife (who was Miss Lydia Atkeson, a native of Trinity county) have a host of warm per- sonal friends among the people of Humboldt county, to whom their fine traits of character have endcared them. So intense has been his devotion to engineering and so fully occupied his time with the filling of contracts and the making of estimates that he has had little leisure for political activities and he has no fraternal connections aside from membership in the Modern Woodmen of America and the Improved Order of Red Men.

INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL .- Established in Eureka during 1901, the International Correspondence School has developed rapidly under the supervision of Robert Lewis Werner, who in 1908 became general manager of the district comprising Humboldt and Del Norte counties in California and Curry and Coos counties in Oregon, with one sub-agent in Marshfield, Ore., the main office being in Eureka, Cal. In the years of his supervision he has totaled about twelve hundred new students, which is about an average of fifteen per month or one hundred and eighty a year. The agricultural courses are the ones usually preferred, although there have been a goodly number of students in the drafting, surveying, and civil and elec- trical engineering courses. Among local men who have taken the course are Robert L. Thomas, ex-city engineer of Eureka and deputy county surveyor of Humboldt county ; Frank Kelly, chief engineer of the Pacific Lumber Com- pany at Scotia ; Fred Newman, deputy county surveyor : John Harnett, super- intendent of the Western States Gas and Electric Light Company at Eureka ; and G. A. Strand, city engineer of Eureka; all these being men who are a credit to the county and to the institution in which they prosecuted their studies by correspondence. The manager assists the students in getting a start with their studies and gives them such help as they may need, so that they are not hampered in the course by any lack of understanding of diffi- culties, and undoubtedly much of the success of the work may be attributed to this important feature. One of the chief instruments in bringing about the success and great interest in the work of the International Correspondence School was the organization of the Humboldt County Associated I. C. S.' student body by Mr. Werner. The meetings and associations of this body

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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 72

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