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 89

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

GEORGE W. HUNTER .- About half way between Upper Mattole and Ettersburg is the home ranch of George W. Hunter, a member of the well known family of that name which has been associated with the development of this part of Humboldt county from the days of its first settlement. The Hunters are a family of distinctive traits and have been numerously repre- sented in the county for over half a century.

Walker Sanders Hunter, father of George W. Hunter, was born in Mont- gomery county, Mo., and followed farming in that state until 1854, when he brought his family across the plains to California. Like many other emi- grants, they made the trip in wagons drawn by oxen, the journey taking about six months. They arrived in the Mattole valley in Humboldt county the year mentioned, but the Indians being very troublesome, they went on up to Shasta county, where Mr. Hunter mined for about five years, near the little town of Buckeye and in sight of Mount Shasta. Returning to Humboldt county in June, 1859, he bought land in the Mattole valley, settling about two and a quarter miles from Petrolia, where he owned two claims, aggregating about eighteen hundred acres. He acquired large mercantile interests as well, his fortune at one time amounting probably to $100,000. But the mercantile venture, in which he had a partner, turned out unfortunately, and he lost $60,000. But he did not forfeit his integrity or honor, or his propensity for work, and his reputation and standing did not suffer with his loss of fortune. Seventeen years ago he returned to Missouri, where he has since lived, at Marshall, Saline county, now (1914), at the age of eighty-five, spending his days in peaceful retirement, in the enjoyment of excellent health.

Mr. Hunter married Miss Nancy Bellamy, also of Missouri, who died at Petrolia in 1893, aged sixty-six years. They had a family of ten children : Elias, who lives at Petrolia, is mentioned fully elsewhere; Pascal M., who died in April, 1912, at the age of fifty-six years, was lighthouse keeper at Punta Gorda, Cal. (he left six children) ; Eliza Ann, now a resident of Petrolia, has been twice married, her second husband being Robert Watson, who is deceased (she has five children) ; Melissa died when fifteen years old ; Ange- line is the wife of Walter A. Scott, formerly of Humboldt county (where he served as supervisor), now of Seattle, Wash., and has three children living ; Elvira is the wife of Barney McDonough, a rancher, of Corning, Tehama county, Cal., and has a family of six children : Maggie, also of Corning, is married to Francis Muller, a ranchman, and has twelve children ; George W. is mentioned below; Edward is a ranchman in Tehama county; Thomas, who is a resident of Chehalis, Wash., is a widower with seven children.

George W. Ilunter was born October 23, 1866, near Petrolia, where he was reared and educated. He has been a representative Hunter in his home life, and in his relations to the community, having brought up a large and self-reliant family, and having himself succeeded by hard work in attaining substantial standing and comfortable means through his own efforts. His principal interests as stockman and farmer are on the place where he resides, a tract of six hundred forty acres on the main road between Upper Mattole and Ettersburg, adjoining which his son Ray has taken up one hundred sixty acres as a homestead. George W. Hunter also owns one hundred sixty acres four miles south of Petrolia. Mr. Hunter has handled his ranching operations carefully, and though he has had to work hard he has had his reward in his continued prosperity and in the progress his children have made.

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Mr. Hunter was but nineteen years old when he was married, near Petrolia, November 1, 1885, to Miss May Ellingwood, of Ferndale, who was then seventeen. She is the daughter of Giles Warren and Alice J. (Bishop) Ellingwood, both of whom were born near Eastport, Me. From there they came to California around Cape Horn on a sailing vessel to San Francisco in 1857. Settlement was first made in Santa Cruz, where Mr. Ellingwood followed ranching, after which for a time he worked at his trade of cooper in the Spreckels sugar refinery in San Francisco. In 1879 he came to Ferndale and erected a cooper shop, making a specialty of the manufacture of butter kegs and fish barrels, and won the reputation of being the best cooper in the county. Mr. Ellingwood died in Oakland in 1906, and his widow passed away in Eureka in 1909. Of the six children born to them Mrs. Hunter was next to the youngest. She was born at Santa Cruz and was educated in the schools of San Francisco and Ferndale.

Twelve children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Hunter, viz .: Levina, wife of Harry Schaffer, a tailor, of San Francisco (she taught school in Hum- boldt county and at San Francisco prior to her marriage); Dora, wife of Oscar Smith, an employe of the Union Iron Works, residing at San Francisco; Ray, now twenty-four years old, who has acquired a homestead of one hun- dred sixty acres adjoining his father's place; Ira, who owns eighty acres in the Mattole valley; Donald; Grace; Russell and Blanche, twins; Clara; Myrtle : Lewis, and Madge. They are promising young people, healthy in mind and body, and appreciative of the efforts the parents have made to afford them proper home environment and educational advantages. Mrs. Hunter has been an exceptionally capable helpmate and her husband at- tributes his prosperity to her practical encouragement as well as to his well directed labor.

JOSEPH STOCKEL, SR .- Tracing his ancestry back through a long line of sturdy German stock, and himself a native of Strass, Bavaria, Germany, born January 11, 1851, Joseph Stockel, Sr., is a true son of his father, sober, industrious, and frugal, giving his best effort to any endeavor to which he puts his hand, and meeting at all times with a more than ordinary meed of success. He is now the owner of much valuable property in Humboldt county, including some very valuable town property at Shively, where he makes his home; a ranch of thirty-six acres at Shively, with $10,000 worth of improve- ments ; a stock range of one hundred sixty acres on Bull creek; a homestead of one hundred sixty acres on Prairie creek ; a timber claim of three hundred twenty acres on the south fork of the Eel river, and a residence property on Harris street, in Eureka. His place at Shively is principally given over to the raising of fruit and vegetables, there being about fifteen acres of care- fully selected varieties of various kinds of fruits, which he retails in Eureka, making the Eureka place his headquarters during the fruit season.

The father of Mr. Stockel, likewise Joseph Stockel, was a farmer in Bavaria, and served in the German army. His mother was Mary Rugger, also of Bavaria, both parents being now deceased. There were six children in their family, four sons and two daughters, Joseph being the first born. His mother died in 1859, when he was but eight years of age. He attended the common schools until he was fifteen years of age, and then was apprenticed to a carpenter and joiner, and at nineteen had mastered his trade, and for a year traveled over Germany as a journeyman. In 1871, when he was but

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twenty years of age, he left his native land for America, coming to West Chester, N. Y., where he took employment for a short time on a farm. He soon found employment more to his liking, however, in a furniture factory at Williamsburg, N. Y., where he continued until December 25, 1871, when he traveled westward to Chicago. This was soon after the great fire and there he found employment as a carpenter, working mostly in and around the great stock yards, where he became well acquainted with such historic characters as Old Hutch, P. D. Armour, the Swifts and Nelson Morris.

It was in 1874 that Mr. Stockel first came to California, locating in San Francisco, where he found work at his trade. Later he came up to Humboldt county, arriving in Eureka in 1876, and has since that time made his home in this county. He at first purchased a horse and wagon and drove through the country, buying and selling farm produce, and later conducted a peddler's wagon throughout the county. In 1881 he preempted a timber claim on the south fork of the Eel river, near where U. S. Grant Myers now lives, and improved the same, planting an orchard and erecting buildings. Later, in 1885, he homesteaded one hundred sixty acres on Prairie creek. He had much trouble over the title to this last place, it being claimed by a mining company on account of the splendid water right which it commanded, and it cost Mr. Stockel several thousands of dollars and years of litigation to secure a clear title to it. This property he also improved, and still owns. While living on this homestead he was married, in Eureka, January 29, 1891, to Miss Catherine Hassler, a native of Gross Sonnendeich, Schleswig, Germany, the daughter of John and Gescha (Caslen) Hassler. Mrs. Stockel's parents were born in Schleswig, Germany; the mother died there; her father came to America, and died in Eureka. Mrs. Stockel came to Humboldt county in May, 1889. Soon after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Stockel became proprietors of the Phillipsville store and ranch. After their children grew to school age, as the educational advantages in this section were very poor, Mr. Stockel decided to locate at Shively. Accordingly he came to this place and bought a part of the old Shively estate, where he has since made his home. He has erected many buildings in Shively, including several store buildings, a two- story hotel building known as Stockel's Resort, and several cottages which he rents to workmen and their families.

Mr. Stockel stands high in the municipal councils of Shively, and while accredited as a Republican, he always supports what he believes will accom- plish the most good for the general public. He has served in various capacities in local political matters and his judgment is always respected. He is a keen business man and a born salesman and has prospered exceedingly in all that he has undertaken; he, however, gives no small degree of credit for his success to his faithful wife, who has always given him her wise counsel and able assistance in all of his undertakings and ambitions.

In 1913 Mr. Stockel made a visit to his old home in Bavaria, and traveled extensively throughout Germany, visiting all the larger cities and seeing all the points of interest throughout the Fatherland. He also visited many of the larger cities in the United States and Canada, visiting the east and south on his trip to Germany, and coming through Canada and down the west coast of the United States on his return journey. Arriving home, he enthusiastically declared Humboldt county to be the garden spot of them all. Mr. and Mrs. Stockel have six children, all natives of Humboldt county, where they are

8 8 Kane

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being reared and educated, and where they are well and favorably known. Of these, Martin is residing on the home ranch, which he assists to manage ; Andrew is in Fresno; Joseph, Jr., is on the home ranch; Frank is employed on the state highway : Katie and Ida, the only daughters, are also residing at home, the latter graduating from the Eureka business college in 1915.

JOHN EWING KANE .- Another of the substantial farmers of the Blue Lake region in Humboldt county is John Ewing Kane, who for thirty years has been a resident of the county, coming here when he was scarcely twenty-one, and since that time making his home within the confines of Humboldt county. For much of the time he has been associated with the lumbering industry, but for a number of years past he has been engaged in farming, and today he owns one of the most highly improved ranches in the valley, and is known as one of the prosperous farmers of Blue Lake.

Mr. Kane is a native of Ireland, having been born in Ballycastle, County Antrim, April 11, 1864, the son of Daniel Kane, a farmer. Early in life the son became familiar with farm-life, as his duties on the ranch com- menced when he was a mere lad. His early education was received in the public schools, but at the age of sixteen he gave up school and went to work with his father on the farm. The conditions were not to his liking, however, and when he was twenty years of age he determined to seek his fortune in the land across the sea, where there were greater opportunities for the man who was not afraid to work. Accordingly he came to Ontario, Canada, in 1884, and for a year followed the life of the farmer in that region. At the end of the year he again moved westward, this time coming to Eureka, Humboldt county, Cal., arriving in March, 1885. At first he se- cured employment with the Dolbeer-Carson Lumber Company, and after several years of the mill work was promoted to the position of head-sorter. Two years later he went to work for John Vance in the mill on Mad river, remaining until 1890, when he entered the employ of Isaac Minor as head of the sorting department. Two years following he was with the Excelsior Company at Freshwater, and in 1898 returned to work for Mr. Minor at Glendale as head swamper.

After several years at Glendale Mr. Kane transferred to the employ of Pollard & Dodge at Newburg, where he remained for some time, and then was with the Northern Redwood Lumber Company for eight years.

During all these years in the woods Mr. Kane had been accumulating a fund for the purchase of a farm, it being his greatest ambition to own a tract of land in this region. In 1912 he was enabled to purchase the place which has been his home ever since. This is a tract of forty acres of im- proved land, all under cultivation, besides which there is an apple orchard of ten acres, all in bearing. At the time of purchase there was a large house on the place, but little else. Mr. Kane has erected a large barn and other outbuildings and in other ways improved the property. He is at present engaged in dairying and is meeting with much success. He started with only twelve milch cows, but has since continued to increase his herd. The ranch is acknowledged to be one of the best in the community, and under the present skilful management is proving very profitable. Mr. Kane's long experience in the woods makes his services in demand with lumber companies and he is now head swamper with the Northern Redwood Company in the Korbel woods.

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Mr. Kane has many friends throughout the valley, especially among the men with whom he has worked for so many years in the forests and the mills. He is a Republican in politics, but has never been especially active in political affairs. He is progressive and up to date and well informed on all current topics. He was made a Mason in Arcata Lodge No. 106, is a member of Humboldt Chapter No. 52, R. A. M., and of Arcata Chapter No. 207, O. E. S., also of No Surrender Loyal Orange Lodge No. 143, I. O. R. M.

Mr. Kane was first married to Mary Redmond, who was born in Ireland and was a sister of the present sheriff, Robert A. Redmond, of Eureka. She died on January 28, 1903, leaving six children: Bessie, Mrs. McBride of Fieldbrook; Sadie, bookkeeper for A. Brizard Company, Arcata; Alex- ander, fireman for the Northwestern Pacific Railroad and residing in South Bay; James, managing the home ranch; and Jennic and Bernice. Mr. Kane's second marriage, in Eureka, united him with Miss Jane McMillan, a native of Ireland, who came to Eureka in 1904.

LEON BAKER .- A native of Warren county, Pa., and born in Colum- bus, February 3, 1859, Leon Baker has been a resident of Humboldt county, Cal., since 1912. For the greater part of his life he has been engaged in merchandising and has been very successful in his undertakings. For the last few years he has been retired from active business, and is living quietly at his home in Blue Lake, enjoying the fruits of many years of industry.

Mr. Baker received his early education in the public schools of Columbus, attending the grammar and high schools until he was seventeen years of age, at which time he went to work in a general merchandise store, remaining in this position for two years. When he was nineteen he went to Lincoln, Neb., and took up the trade of harnessmaker, working at this for four years and becoming very proficient in all the details. Later he started in business for himself, opening a small hardware store in Lincoln in 1882. Starting on a small scale, Mr. Baker builded on a firm foundation, and gradually enlarged his stock of goods, and in a short time he owned one of the best establish- ments in Lincoln, with a splendid trade both for his hardware enterprise and his harness shop, his reputation as a skilled harnessmaker being well known throughout the community.

When Mr. Baker first came to Lincoln it was a town of from eight thousand to ten thousand inhabitants, and his business grew with the city (now something like fifty thousand inhabitants). His sons still have charge of the business which their father established, which is today one of the large concerns of Lincoln. In 1908 he incorporated his business as the Baker Hardware Company, of which he is president. In 1912 he retired and moved to Blue Lake. In 1914 he was elected a member of the board of city trustees and is giving his time to improvement of the town. He has lately been elected president of the Humboldt Federated Commercial Bodies.

The marriage of Mr. Baker took place in Lincoln, Neb., May 20, 1885, uniting him with Miss Maggie Wittmann, a native of Ripley county, Ind., born November 2, 1862. She has borne her husband five children, three daughters and two sons: Mary, Mrs. Frost, of Opportunity, Neb .; Lewis W .. manager of the store in Lincoln, Neb .; Susie H., Mrs. Eugene Fountain, of Arcata; Marguerite, violinist in Minor Theater, Arcata; and Walter J., at home.

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Mr. Baker is the son of Lewis Baker, a native of New York, born in Freedom, March 31, 1833. His paternal great-grandfather, Captain Stuart, served in the Revolutionary war. He attended a private school for a time and when he was ten years of age moved with his parents to Columbus, Pa. When a young man he went to work in the oil fields of that vicinity, they being the first to be developed in that section of the state. In 1880 he started in business for himself, opening a general merchandise store and later adding a hardware department. He continued to conduct this business until 1901, when he retired from active life, and is enjoying the declining years of his life in rest and quiet. He has always been actively interested in the affairs of his community and especially in questions of public welfare. He is a Republican in politics, and has been closely associated with the affairs of his party, and at one time was assemblyman in the state legislature of Penn- sylvania.

The father of Mrs. Baker was Joseph Wittmann, a native of Germany, born in 1837, and a harnessmaker by trade. In 1859 he came to the United States and followed his trade here, locating first at Ripley, Ind. For eleven years he followed his trade of harnessmaker and saddler, during a part of this time also carrying a hardware stock in connection with his other lines. In 1870 he moved to Lincoln, Neb., which was then a very small place, Mr. Wittmann being one of the pioneers of the city, and there as in Indiana he followed his trade with good returns. He was a Democrat in politics and was always interested in the affairs of his party. He passed away in 1904, having for the previous few years been retired from active participation in business and political affairs.

DAVID MILTON RAMSEY .- No childhood memories have survived the flight of years with greater vividness than those of Mr. Ramsey in con- nection with the trip to California in 1853 from Missouri, where he was born in the city of St. Louis, August 24, 1844. Almost before time had begun to be measured for him, his father had died and the mother had married again, so it happened that he came with his stepfather to the west, enduring the hardships of the voyage via the Isthmus of Panama, then crossing to the Pacific on muleback, and lastly traversing the broad expanse of water to San Francisco on the John L. Stevens, one of the old vessels then in usc. The family settled in Sierra (now Plumas) county, and the stepfather, a man of energy and business aptitude, carried on a large mercantile establish- ment at Warren Hill, besides conducting two branch stores at other points in the same county. One of his most important enterprises was the buying of gold dust for the Wells Fargo Express Company.

David M. Ramsey attended local schools until 1858, after which he became a student at Durant College, Oakland. After completing his college course, he joined his parents who had in the meantime moved to the ranch at Cloverdale, in Sonoma county, after leaving the mining regions. This was a part of an old Spanish grant and embraced one-half square mile of bottom land, together with four hundred fifty acres of pasture land. Few settlers had preceded him into the solitudes of that section. Over broad ranges his cattle wandered unmolested and he found cattle-raising, with the subsidiary occupation of hog-raising, a source of fair profit. However, the isolation from other farmers, the distance from markets and the proximity of hostile Indians caused the family to dispose of their large holdings and remove in 1866 to

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San Francisco, where the son David secured a position in the postoffice and also became a member of the Military Band, also taking a course in a business college while in that city.

Coming to Eureka in 1899, Mr. Ramsey for five years acted as local agent for the C. P. Doe Steamship Company, since leaving which position he has been associated with the Humboldt Stevedore Company as paymaster, handling all the finances and superintending difficult matters with an accuracy that has met the approval of his employers. During hours of leisure from business duties he has found pleasure and profit in developing, into a summer hunting and fishing camp, a tract of one hundred sixty acres on Mad river, at the mouth of Blue creek, having a half mile of Mad river on his place. When he secured the tract it was a timber claim and is still studded with pine and tan oak. On the property he has put up a rustic bungalow, made from red- wood shakes : here he makes his headquarters, and for diversion he spends frequent vacations in the healthful sports of hunting and fishing. As a youth of twelve years, Mr. Ramsey ran the pack train for his stepfather, in old Sierra county, gathering the gold dust from the different stores and bringing it by muleback to the main store at Warren Hill. In his leisure hours he worked on an old abandoned claim from which he had the clean-up, and from this source he secured a fair return for his labor. He has never fully re- covered from the lure of seeking the elusive gold dust and it is difficult for him to refrain from joining the rush to the different gold strikes that are made.

Through his marriage to Anna A. Condon, a native of Belfast, Me., and a daughter of Isaac Condon, who was a member of the Vigilance Committee in San Francisco, Mr. Ramsey became united with one of the pioneer families of California. During the early '70s his wife's father had come to Humboldt county and embarked in the occupation of fishing for halibut off the Mendo- cino coast, stopping the steamers on their way to San Francisco and loading his catch on board, for sale in the city markets, where halibut in those days brought a price of about forty cents per pound.

CHARLES HART KINSEY .- Through the accomplishments of father and son the name of Kinsey is well and favorably known, not only in Eureka but through a large portion of Humboldt, where both have passed the greater part of their lives and where their interests are now centered. (For a more detailed account of the family the reader is referred to the sketch of Louis T. Kinsey on another page.) .

The son of Louis Thompson and Sarah Jane (Hart) Kinsey, Charles Hart Kinsey was born in Eureka, January 5, 1876. His boyhood and youth were passed in his birthplace, and in the meantime he secured a good common school education here. Following closely upon his graduation from the Eureka high school in 1893 he matriculated in Leland Stanford Jr. University, continuing his studies in that institution during the years 1894 and 1895. A leaning toward a study of the law characterized the next two years of his life, while pursuing his legal training at the Hastings College of Law in San Francisco. In 1898 he left school and returned to Humboldt county to take charge of a ranch, assuming active management of a five thousand acre property for a period of seven years, or until 1905. After leaving the ranch he returned to San Francisco and again pursued the study of law, being admitted to the bar in 1907. For two years he was a law clerk in the office of Jordon, Rowe & Brann, and in 1909 opened an office of his own. His

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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 89

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