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 98

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 98

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Esmest R. Liner.

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year and a half following, in 1867 entering the government service. He was sent out to China and placed in the harbormaster's department, where his work, though dangerous, was highly interesting. Piracy was then enjoying its palmy days in Chinese waters, where it is still practiced to some extent, and the English government was then directing its activities to putting down and preventing the evil. Mr. Ambrose saw service at three different stations on the Chinese coast, and himself had charge of one of the six stations main- tained there by England at that time. He was in the government service for nearly four years, at the end of which time he came to America, settling at San Francisco, Cal., in the year 1870. During his stay in China he kept up his work in music for his own pleasure only, but after coming to this country he resumed the profession, which he followed in San Francisco for over thir- teen years, playing the cornet and violin, leading cornet bands and orchestras, and teaching. His high-class work gained him a position among the most popular musicians in the city. Looking for a change of occupation and loca- tion, Mr. Ambrose came to Humboldt county in 1884, and settled at Rohner- ville, taking up a homestead about three miles east of where the Miranda postoffice is now located. He proved up on his land, planted an orchard, improved the property in various other ways, and then sold it, returning to Rohnerville, where he continued to make his home for a number of years. Throughout this period he was engaged at the work of his choice, teaching bands and orchestras and giving private lessons, and relinquishing the work only when he felt that his advancing age interfered with the perfect per- formances to which he always bent his energies.

Since he gave up his musical work Mr. Ambrose has been acting as post- master at Miranda, Humboldt county, to which office he was appointed in August, 1911. The office is of the fourth class, and under the civil service regulations. Now that the parcel post is established a considerable amount of business is handled at this point, and it is constantly on the increase. Mr. Ambrose has shown himself well adapted to the duties of his post, to which he attends punctually and intelligently, giving the utmost satisfaction to those who are served from Miranda. He has many friends in this part of the county who hold him in affectionate esteem for the kindly regard he has always displayed in all his relations with his fellow men here.

Mr. Ambrose was married in 1863 to Miss Onor Harding, a native of England, who died in that country not long afterward. It was then he went up to London to follow his profession in the city, as above related.

ERNEST R. LINSER .- Though still a young man, Ernest R. Linser is thoroughly experienced in the calling to which he bids fair to devote the principal part of his life-the development of northern California lands. He has just undertaken a large enterprise, having purchased in 1913 the property formerly known as the Davis ranch, to which he has recently moved. In his youth and carlier manhood he had an all-around training on the extensive Belle Springs ranch in Mendocino county, just south of the Humboldt county line, which he and a brother now own in partnership with their mother, and his success with that place should be a fair indi- cation of what he may expect to accomplish in his present venture. As a self-made young man he has few rivals in his vicinity, for his position and means have been acquired through his own labor, a fact which undoubtedly accounts for the large measure of confidence which his fellow citizens have

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shown in his ability to carry ambitious plans to satisfactory completion.

Mr. Linser is of German extraction, his parents, Frederick and Caroline (Weinkauf) Linser, having been born in Germany, where they lived until after their marriage and the birth of their first two children. They came to this country in about 1866, and for a time thereafter were located in New York state, where Mr. Linser was engaged at ordinary labor for three years. Thence they removed to Minnesota, where Mr. Linser took advantage of the opportunities offered to settlers, taking up a homestead in McLeod county. He went bravely to work to secure a home for his growing family, but he died after a few years and before he had proved up on his land, his widow completing the necessary work and complying with the requirements. Her family consisted of seven children, all small at the time of the father's death, and she was glad to avail herself of the chance offered not long afterward by her brother, Charles Weinkauf, who lived on the Belle Springs ranch in Mendocino county, Cal., of which he was a half owner with August Grothe. She came to California about 1880, with her little brood to the home he provided, and worked for him several years, and though her duties were many she was contented in being able to keep her children together. When her brother died he willed her an undivided quarter interest in the ranch, which consisted of forty-five hundred acres of well improved hill land, a fine grazing and stock farm. Through all the changes which the years brought, Ernest and an older brother, August, remained with their mother and devoted themselves faithfully to the rather formidable task, for two young men, of operating the ranch, and after many years of hard work they succeeded in buying off the heirs to another quarter interest in the property, thus coming into one-half interest in the Belle Spring ranch in partnership with August Grothe. Afterward the ranch was divided into two parts, Mrs. Linser and the two sons coming into possession of about twenty-seven hundred acres of the western part of the ranch. Mrs. Linser is now seventy-seven years of age, and is enjoying the rest and immunity from care which she so well deserves. Her noble efforts are fully appreciated by her family, and she is respected by all who know her and have been in any position to realize the extent of her labors.

Ernest R. Linser was born July 6. 1876, near Hutchinson, in McLeod county, Minn., and having been but three and a half years old when his father died, has but the barest recollection of him. He was the sixth child in the family of seven. His early education was obtained in the public schools of Mendocino county, and when a young man of twenty-three years he took a six months' course in the commercial department of the Santa Rosa business college, graduating from that institution. From boy- hood he helped on the ranch, and he should have his share of the credit for its successful development into the valuable property it is today. Some eight years ago Mr. Linser came up to Humboldt county, and rented the Nunn ranch of forty-five hundred acres located on the east branch of the south fork of the Eel river, living there alone for three years-until his marriage. He had phenomenal success with this land, which he continued to operate until he removed to his recently acquired property in the same neighborhood, a tract of twelve hundred eighty-eight acres which he pur- chased from Mel. P. Roberts in 1913. ITis plans for its improvement include the planting of an extensive orchard, apples, pears and walnuts, and he will

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give considerable attention to the raising of cattle and hogs. With a re- markable capacity for hard work with his own hands, executive ability perfected in the discharge of heavy responsibilities, and a character which bears no impeachment, his future looks promising indeed. Moreover, his fellow agriculturists in the vicinity look to him for leadership and coopera- tion in the promotion of many enterprises which will benefit the entire locality. Mr. Linser is a stockholder in the Garberville Mercantile Com- pany, which operates a large general store at Garberville and owns and runs two stage lines from that point, one to Dyerville and one to Thorn. both in Humboldt county. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias lodge at Garberville.

Mr. Linser is married to Mattic Hamilton, sister of John W. Hamilton, secretary of the Garberville Mercantile Company and general superintend- ent and vice-president of the large Woods ranch of the Western Live Stock Company. She is a native of Kentucky, and came to California from that state some time after her father's death. Mr. and Mrs. Linser have three children. Hamilton Rudolph, Vera Marie, and Leslie Frederick.

JOHN J. NEWMAN. In this region of extensive properties there are few agriculturists who have made any serious attempts at intensive farming, but John J. Newman has demonstrated that with proper care Humboldt county land may be made to yield as abundantly as any in the sections of boasted fertility. For thirty years he has been cultivating a fifty-acre tract on the Eel river, opposite Dyerville, in the southern part of the county, and the surprising results of his work have a value beyond the profit they have brought him, for they show the possibilities of the locality, and are an en- couragement to all who have his perseverance and ambition. A native of Pennsylvania, of German extraction, he has all the thrift characteristic of his race, developed generations ago under the stress of necessity, and persisting in the more prosperous descendants whose industry is better rewarded. His grandfather came to this country from Germany. His parents, Frederick and Caroline (Binz) Newman, were farming people, and lived and died in Penn- sylvania. John Joshua, their only child, was born July 18, 1853, at Milford, on the Delaware river.

John Joshua Newman grew up in Pennsylvania and had a thorough com- mon school training, attending a private German school, and he still reads and writes German as well as English. He became familiar with farm work from boyhood on the home place. After his parents died he sold his interests in his native state and came to Humboldt county, Cal., locating at Rohnerville in June, 1882. He spent one season there, and in 1884 bought his present place on the Eel river, a tract of fifty acres then only partially improved. The work of development has gone forward steadily since he took hold of the land, and the work has not been done in any haphazard fashion. Besides experi- menting carefully, he has studied faithfully the means of making the most of his property, applying his mind as well as his hands to the task with such good effect that his crops seem marvelous, though his intelligent, scientific attention can account for all he has achieved. His horticultural triumphs are due to unceasing study and unremitting care. He has selected the varieties of apples, peaches, potatoes and other fruits and vegetables best adapted to the conditions found in his locality, and then neglected no detail of culture to bring them to perfection, both as regards quality and yield. Absence of weeds

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and other evidences of close care add immensely to the attractiveness of the property. The fruit grown here is of beautiful color and flavor, Mr. New- man's Crawford peaches having so high a reputation that they bring top prices in the market. His peach orchard covers three acres, and he usually grows about eight acres of choice potatoes, which net him about three hun- dred dollars an acre. In fact, he has accomplished wonders on his little ranch, on which he has built two fine residences and a barn, and established a delightful home. He has been able to rear his family well, give his children the best of educational advantages and enjoys a more than comfortable liveli- hood, establishing a precedent in the development of Humboldt county land worthy the attention of all who have any interest in its value. Mr. Newman has been particularly attentive to the question of public education in his neighborhood and has served twenty years as trustee of his school district. Politically he is in sympathy with the Progressive party. The family are Lutherans in religious connection.

When twenty-four years old Mr. Newman married Miss Catherine Grath- wold, who was born in Pennsylvania, and they have had a family of four children : Anna M., graduated from the University of California, at Berkeley, and is now the wife of Horace Jenkins, who is in charge of the manual training school at Monterey, Cal .: John G. took the agricultural course at the Uni- versity of California, graduating, and is now running a ranch of six hundred acres in Potter valley, Mendocino county, he married Miss Hazel Barnett, of Potter Valley ; Fred Conrad, after two years in the civil engineering course at the Leland Stanford University, and having completed a course in the International Correspondence Schools of Scranton, Pa., is now a surveyor in llumboldt county, at Eureka, he married Miss Ellenor Bryant, of Eureka, and they have one child, Pauline; Clarence, a graduate of the commercial department of the University of California, was formerly employed as office- man by the Pacific Lumber Company, and is now operating the home place with his father, he married Catherine Felt, of Stockton, Cal., a granddaughter of the late Dr. Dwight Felt, of Eureka, Humboldt county, a pioneer physician of this section of the state, and they have one child, Ruth.

WILLIAM JOHN MAHAN .- Although not a native of California. William John Mahan has spent practically his entire life in this state, his parents coming west when he was but a few months old, and locating in Sierra county. They made the long journey around Cape Horn, many months being consumed on the way. After a few years spent in Sierra county the family removed to Humboldt county in 1867, locating on the property that is now the home-place of Mr. Mahan. His parents, James and Ellen (McCormick) Mahan, had ten children, eight of whom are living, William J. being the oldest. This worthy couple of pioneers made this farm their home, and established a reputation for business sagacity and reliability that is worth more than much gold, and also being very successful in their business undertakings. The father died in 1898 and the mother now makes her home in Eureka.

Mr. Mahan is a native of Illinois, having been born in Galena, Jo Daviess county, July 12, 1862. This same year his parents removed to California, where they located on a farm. After a few years they settled on Mad River, opposite what is now Blue Lake, but which was then known as Scottsville, and here the son received his education in the public schools.

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a Widnes

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At the age of seventeen he gave up attending school and went to work with his father on the ranch, remaining at home until he was twenty-three years of age. At that time he went to work in the woods for Jim Gammon at Bayside, being employed in the lumbering camps. Here he remained for two years, and the following year was with Frank Graham at similar work, then during the winter for John Vance. The next four years he was with the Minor & Kirk Company located on Warren creek, and for six years after that with Isaac Minor, at Glendale, and constantly occupied in the woods. The next two seasons he was with William Carson on the Elk river lumbering, and in 1893 he went back to work for Isaac Minor, also in the woods, at Glendale.

It was in 1895 that Mr. Mahan returned home and took charge of the home-place and engaged in dairying and farming, making a specialty of the former. The farm included seventy acres of improved river bottom land of great richness. The last few years much of the bottom land has been washed away by the flood waters of Mad river, leaving at the present time only about thirty acres of good bottom lands. When the father had the management of the place, he spent many hundreds of dollars in the erection of dykes and break-waters to keep out the floods, but when the river is at its highest these are prone to go down with the flood. At one time there was a very valuable orchard on the place, but this too, was washed away. This shrinkage of the bottom land of the farm so interfered with the possi- bilities of dairying that Mr. Mahan has given up that line of farming indus- try, and has taken up the poultry business instead. He commenced on a small scale in 1910, with but twenty-four laying hens, and today he has a flock of more than six hundred hens. The undertaking has proven very successful and is one of the most attractive poultry farms in the valley. The place is well equipped with the latest incubators, brooders, and other appliances for a successful poultry business.

Mr. Mahan has been successful in all his undertakings and is well known and liked throughout the valley, where he has many life-long friends. In politics he is a Democrat, but has never desired political preferment.

The marriage of Mr. Mahan took place July 22, 1886, at Eureka, uniting him with Maggie Frances Keating, a native of Humboldt county, born on Elk river. She is the mother of two sons, Raymond Edward and Harold Joseph : the former is attending the Arcata high school. Mr. Mahan, together with his family, is a member of the Catholic church.

CARL W. WIDNES .- A young man of marked executive ability and business acumen, honest and upright, and one who is meeting with great success along his chosen line of occupation, Carl W. Widnes, who comes of a fine old family in Christiania, Norway, is an example of the kind of foreigner whom America welcomes to her shores and is glad to adopt as her son. .. member of the firm of Peters & Widnes, proprietors of the Log Cabin and the Eureka bakeries, the two largest of their kind in the city of Eureka, Mr. Widnes was born in Christiania, the capital of Norway, the son of Anton Widnes, who was proprietor of a bakery in that city, where he did a successful business until the time of his death. The son, Carl W., was educated in public and private schools of Christiania, and at the completion of his educa- tion was apprenticed as a baker in the same city, learning the trade in all its details and making a specialty of cakes and confections. Then, as a journey-

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man, he worked at his trade in various cities in Germany and Denmark, until the death of his father necessitated his return home to take charge of his parent's business. On account of the good reports he had heard from the Pacific coast, Mr. Widnes was fired with a desire to make his home in Cali- fornia, and accordingly in 1905 he came to Eureka, where he soon found employment in the Log Cabin Bakery, and nine months later was made fore- man of the cake department for the company, a position he filled acceptably until his resignation in 1914 to take a much desired trip back to his old home. During his residence in Eureka, Mr. Widnes had been an active member of the Norden Singing Society, of which he is now an ex-president, and he accom- panied this society to Christiania at the Jubilee Exposition, with his fine bass voice assisting the society in the rendition of the beautiful Songs of the North ; on the way to New York they gave concerts in the leading cities between Portland and New York, and in Norway in most of the principal cities of that country, receiving ovations due them from their countrymen. It was with intense enjoyment that Mr. Widnes revisited the familiar scenes of his home country, his trip consuming about five months, or the weeks included between May and October. On his return to California he purchased the Eureka Bakery, situated at No. 423 Fifth street, Eureka, where he continued the business, five months later taking as partner John Peters, who bought a one-half interest in the business, while Mr. Widnes purchased also a half interest in the Log Cabin Bakery, the two men thereafter continuing the busi- ness as Peters & Widnes. The last mentioned bakery, located on Fifth near Il street, is the manufacturing plant. The bakery is equipped with the most modern machinery to be found in a plant of this kind. It has a large capacity for baking bread, putting out from three thousand to five thousand loaves a day. A specialty is also made of making cakes and confections, the business along this line being one of the largest and most important between San Francisco and Portland.

Prominent in many of the local societies, Mr. Widnes, besides having been president of the Norden Singing Society, is also a member and ex- president of the Normana Literary Society. Fraternally he was made a Mason in Humboldt Lodge No. 79, F. & A. M., and also holds membership in the Foresters and Red Men. In religious circles he is active in the Norwegian Lutheran Church, where he was at one time a member of its board of trustees.

GEORGE McDONALD GRATTO .- The little village of Harris, pic- turesquely situated in the mountainous region in the southern end of Hum- boldt county, is. a favorite stopping place for automobilists passing through that section, and its location in the heart of a rich agricultural region also brings many business men here who find profitable patronage among its well-to-do settlers. The Harris House, conducted by Mr. and Mrs. George M. Gratto, enjoys well merited popularity among all who visit the town, and its proprietors are probably the most widely known in the southeastern corner of the county, for their energetic spirit not only pervades almost every channel of their activities, but spreads out to wider fields. Besides the hotel they conduct a general merchandise store in the town, where Mr. Gratto is also postmaster, and they combine their various interests very effectively.

Mr. Gratto was born September 10, 1860, at Machias, Maine, where his early years were spent acquiring a common school education and serving an apprenticeship to the shoemaker's trade. When nineteen years old he

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accompanied his father to California, settling at Blocksburg, Humboldt county, where he followed shoemaking for a time. Coming to Harris a num- ber of years ago he has by dint of intelligent management conducted all his affairs most successfully, and the fact that he is now one of the foremost men of the place is due entirely to his own efforts. He has built his store, hotel and residence here, and in other ways made material contributions to the growth of the town, besides using his influence always for the good of its best interests. Mr. Gratto made a recent visit to the cast, among his relatives in Maine and Massachusetts.

On November 28, 1886, Mr. Gratto was married to Miss Martha Asenath Jewett, daughter of the late Enoch Phelps Jewett, and they have had three children: Gladys Celia, born August 27, 1890, who died December 27, 1891 : Eva Belle, born November 16, 1887 ; and Ruby Asenath, born August 1, 1892, who was married to Charles W. Wilson, the ceremony occurring on the top of Jewett Rock, January 16, 1915, in the presence of twenty-two relatives, after which a wedding breakfast was prepared and served on the rock. Mrs. Gratto is noted for her neighborly and hospitable disposition, sharing her husband's popularity in and around Harris. As one of her father's heirs she owns a large stock ranch at Harris.

Enoch Phelps Jewett, father of Mrs. Martha A. (Jewett) Gratto, was a native of Springfield, Mass., and a member of a family well known in that state from Colonial days and represented in the Revolutionary war on the colonists' side. A genealogy of this family, in two volumes, has recently been published. Its carliest progenitor in America, Deacon Maximilian Jewett, was born in England in 1607, son of Edward Jewett, a cloth manufacturer of Bradford, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Deacon Jewett married in his native country, and in 1638 sailed with his wife, Ann, from Hull, England, in the ship John, as members of a company under the leadership of Rev. Ezekiel Rogers. They arrived at Boston, December 1, 1638, spent the winter at Salem, and in the spring of 1639 founded the town of Rowley, in the Massa- chusetts Bay colony. Deacon Jewett's descendants in every generation have been noted for vigor of intellect and high moral character, and the branch of the family in Humboldt county, Cal., has been no exception to the rule.

Stephen Jewett, great-grandfather of Enoch Phelps Jewett, was born October 5, 1736, in Thompson, Conn., and moved to Lanesboro, Mass. His wife was Mehitable Harris. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, a sergeant in the company of Asa Barnes, Col. B. Ruggles Woodbridge's regi- ment, muster roll dated August 1, 1775; entered May 17, 1775, service two months, sixteen days.

Timothy Jewett, son of Stephen, was born March 5, 1763, in Lanesboro, Mass., and like his father was a Revolutionary soldier, his record reading as follows: "Timothy Jewett, private, Capt. David Wheeler's company, Col. Benjamin Simonds' regiment ; service eight days ; company marched from Lanesboro to Manchester, October 12, 1780." He married Elizabeth Phelps.

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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 98

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