USA > California > Mendocino County > History of Mendocino County, California : comprising its geography, geology, topography, climatography, springs and timber > Part 73
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went to Idaho; thence to Oregon, where he remained till 1866; thence to Montana; thence to St. Louis; thence to Illinois. In 1869 he returned to Mendocino county, and has since resided at Ukiah, except two years spent in Round valley, and one and a half years spent in Hopland. He married, August 6, 1866, Miss Mary J. Corder, in Illinois. His wife died May 14, 1877, leaving five children: Cora M., Augustus F., Purd Jr., Demata, and Robert J.
Nathan C. Hinshaw. Was born in Platte county, Missouri, March 26, 1845. In 1865 he went to Montana with a train of freight teams, and spent two years there. He then spent a winter in Salt Lake, working on the Union Pacific Railroad. He then went to White Pine, and after a short time came to California, locating in Sonoma county, where he engaged in farming till 1873, when he came to Mendocino county, and engaged in ยท farming one and a half miles from Ukiah. At the end of three years he engaged, in company with C. P. Smith, in the meat market business in Ukiah under the firm name of Smith & Hinshaw. At the end of one year he disposed of this business, and associated himself with A. C. Perry in the livery business in Ukiah, which business he still follows. He was married, September 12, 1874, to Miss Ellen York, a native of California. They have one child, Albert L.
John P. Hoffman. Born in Pennsylvania, December 5, 1825, where he received his education, and lived on a farm until twenty-one years of age, when he, leaving his parents behind, went to Wisconsin, where he taught school and worked in a saw-mill until April, 1849. He then crossed the plains to California with ox-teams; arrived at Placerville in October, making the trip in six months. He spent the first winter in mining, and in the spring opened a boarding-house and butcher shop on the Cosumnes river, where he remained for six months. Then he engaged in the butcher- ing business in El Dorado county for a short time; then returned, via Panama, to Illinois, where he engaged in mercantile business four years; then followed the same business in Iowa until the spring of 1860. He then again crossed the plains to California, bringing his family, consisting of wife and two children, one an adopted child; followed farming in Amador county until 1868; then came to Mendocino county and settled on his present place, located about three miles from Ukiah, where he has since resided. Mr. Hoffman married, in 1856, Miss Jane B. Kirkwood, a native of Indiana. Their children are: Emily J., born May 31, 1858; Ellen A. born August 27, 1861; Martha L., born July 21, 1865; Alice E., born February 27, 1869; Ida, born September 10, 1871, died October 15, 1871; Nellie F., born June 13, 1873; and Bertha L., born September 24, 1877.
Charles Hofman. Born in Austria, June 5, 1843, where he resided until thirteen years of age, when he immigrated to the United States. He
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clerked in a store in St. Louis for four years, and then he came to California, via Panama. Upon his arrival here, he engaged as a clerk in a store at Grass Valley, Nevada county, where he remained until 1864. He then took up his abode in San Francisco, where he followed his previous occupation three years. Mr. Hofman then returned to Grass Valley, and took up his old position, remaining there until 1870. He then came to Mendocino county and engaged in general merchandising at Ukiah, where he has since remained. He married, in October, 1873, Miss Sophia Wiener, a native of Connecticut. There are two children: Celia, born October 28, 1875; Jacob, born December 8, 1879.
W. J. Hildreth. Born in Ralls county, Missouri, August 17, 1834. When but a child, his parents moved into Lewis county, where the subject of this sketch remained until fifteen years of age, when he, leaving his parents behind, crossed the plains to California, arriving at Webberville, September 15, 1850. He engaged at once in mining, which occupation he followed until 1858, when he came to Mendocino county, and was one of the first to settle on Eel river, where he remained for five years, being engaged in stock- raising. He then settled on his present place, consisting of two thousand two hundred acres, located about four miles from Ukiah. Here he is engaged in farming and raising cattle and sheep. Mr. Hildreth married, February 14, 1865, Miss Florence Bevans, a native of Lewis county, Missouri. They have five living children: Clara, Mary, William, George, and Joseph. They have lost two, Thomas B., and Henry.
William A. Hagans, Whose portrait will be found in this history, was born in Fulton county, Illinois, March 22, 1832. When about eight years of age he, with his parents, moved into Bates county, Missouri, where they resided on a farm until 1851, when they crossed the plains to California. The father and one son had come to this State in 1849 and at the time the subject of this sketch came, he was accompanied by his mother, two brothers, and one sister. The father and brother met them at the Sink of the Hum- boldt and returned with them, arriving at Sacramento September 17, 1851. They all stayed on a ranch which the father had previously bought, located in Yolo county, about twelve miles from Sacramento, until January, 1852, when they moved to Sonoma county and settled near Sebastopol. Here they followed farming, stock-raising, and dairying, for about one year; then moved upon a ranch about five miles from Petaluma. In August, 1855, the subject of this sketch, settled by himself on a ranch located on Mark West creek, about five miles above the old adobe house, where he followed stock- raising and dairying until 1863, when he came to Mendocino county and bought a half interest in the Ukiah hotel, of his widowed sister. He took charge of the house until 1868, then settled on a farm about one mile below Ukiah, where he farmed for one year, then leased the Fountain House, which
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is located on the old road leading from Ukiah to Cloverdale. This house he conducted for two years, then, in company with a brother, E. B. Hagans, engaged in wool-growing in Lake county, where he remained about five years. He then, in November, 1876, returned to Mendocino county and bought the remaining interest in the Ukiah Hotel, which he has since con- ducted. His father is now living with him, while his mother died, December 25, 1874. Mr. Hagans married, January 9, 1865, Miss Miranda Case. By this marriage they have had one child, now dead.
William Holden. He arrived in California March 4, 1850, having crossed the plains from Missouri by New Mexico, down the Gila, and crossed the Colorado into California. He spent two years in the Mariposa mines and then settled in Stanislaus county. In the fall of 1856 was elected to represent that county in the Assembly; in 1857 was elected to the Senate from Stanislaus and Tuolumne, and in 1860 moved to Mendocino county. In 1861 he was elected to the Senate from Mendocino, Lake and Napa. In 1863 he was elected County Judge of Mendocino county, and served as such eighteen months, and was then ousted on a writ of quo warranto and the place given to E. R. Budd, who ran against him for that office. In 1866 was elected to the Assembly, and in 1867 was nominated and elected Lieu- tenant-Governor of this State. Amongst the Legislative Acts introduced and passed by him, and which have been of beneficial interest to the people of this State, the following are the most important: In an Act providing for the sale of our State land he incorporated the provision which has ever since been followed, that the purchaser should pay twenty per cent of the purchase money down and have a long credit for the balance, paying ten per cent interest to the State. This provision has enabled many a poor man to purchase and improve his land who otherwise could not have done so. Nearly all of the railroad companies have adopted the same system in selling their lands. He introduced and passed the bill establishing the State Land Office, by means of which system and order have been brought out of the chaos and confusion of our State land affairs and titles to land made more secure. He introduced and passed the bill establishing the Agricultural, Mining and Mechanical Arts College, and, although there were but thirty Democrats in the Senate and Assembly, was elected in joint convention one of the Directors to locate that institution, which was located at Berkeley. The Board of Directors, consisting of Governor F. F. Son, Charles F. Reed, William Holden, C. T. Ryland and three others, recommended to the Legis- lature that a University be established at Berkeley, and that the lands granted to the State (one hundred and fifty thousand acres) for the estab- lishment of the Agricultural and Mechanical Arts College should be applied to the maintenance of the Agricultural and Mechanical Arts Colleges, which were to be a part of the University. In 1867 and 1868 a bill was intro- duced establishing the University. Mr. Holden was the Lieutenant-Gov-
alex Jefferson
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ernor and President of the Senate, and was placed, by resolution, on the Committee to perfect the bill establishing the State University. The bill made the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor and State Superintendent of Public Institutions ex-officio Regents of the University. Previous to 1866 there existed by law a State Board of Swamp Land Commissioners. During that session Mr. Holden introduced a bill, which became a law, abolishing the Swamp Land Board and giving the control of the swamp land reclamation to the Boards of Supervisors of the counties in which the swamp lands were situated. On taking the chair as President of the Senate, Governor Holden delivered the following eloquent and pointed address :---
"Senators,-Having been elected by the free voters of this State to the office of Lieutenant-Governor, and having cheerfully taken the oath of office prescribed by our organic law to support the Constitution of the United States and this State, and to faithfully perform the duties of my office, I enter upon the discharge of these duties with a full knowledge of the responsibilities of my position and the obligations my oath has placed me under to the people of this State to perform these duties faithfully and honestly. In presiding over the deliberations of this body, although elected as a partisan, as all officers of a political nature are, I earnestly hope that in the interpretation of the rules you have adopted for your guidance, no con- siderations of a political nature will ever induce me to knowingly violate in the least the oath I have to-day taken. You have made your rules. I will enforce them though it do strike down the dearest personal or political friend I may have on this floor. To the able and experienced Senators I see before me it would be almost useless to suggest how much the dispatch and correctness of business depends upon a strict construction and rigid enforce- ment of the rules you have adopted for your government. I shall therefore rely upon the hearty co-operation of the members of this body, acting like myself under the solemn responsibilities of an oath to cheerfully aid me in the enforcement of these rules, that we may not only do credit to ourselves as a body, but advance the material interests of the commonwealth. Being a legislator, only in a limited sense, and not being by the law permitted to mingle in debate, I avail myself of this opportunity to return through you to the people of this State my sincere thanks for the distinguished honor they have conferred upon me, and to assure them that no act of mine shall ever prove that their confidence has been misplaced. The recent elections, not only in our own, but in our sister States, have demonstrated to the world that the American people, though at times led astray by excitement, are deeply impressed with an earnest devotion to constitutional liberty, and that, at mere 'second sober thought,' they are ever ready to rectify the wrongs committed under unusual and extraordinary excitement. Hence, while I earnestly hope that laws passed under such circumstances of a pro- scriptive character, requiring unusual judgment from eminent and useful citizens as a condition to engage in their legitimate business, may be repealed, I as earnestly hope that no measures of a retaliatory nature may be passed, or attempted, for such would be violative of the plainest principles of wise statesmanship, as well as of all the Christian virtues. I would not throw a doubt upon the integrity of this body, elected when or by whom it may have been, by even suggesting that it were possible for it to fail to carry out the
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known wishes of the people it represents as clearly and emphatically manifested in our late elections. Obedience to the wish of a majority expressed in a con- stitutional manner and not violation of its provisions is so clearly the quin- tessence of republican institutions, that he or they who fail to heed it when thus expressed, have but little cause to boast of patriotism or devotion to principles. With the Constitution of the United States defining the powers granted by the States to the Federal Government, and those prohibited to the States on the one hand, and the Constitution of the State limiting the powers of the Legislature on the other, together with an honest determina- tion to advance the material interests of a confiding constituency, it may be impossible in our Legislation to materially err. If restrained within these limits, no power on earth has a right to question our acts, because one sovereign cannot question the acts of another. If governed by an earnest desire to lighten the burdens of taxation, advance the interests of the labor- ing classes, and to ameliorate the condition of the inmates of our asylums, you will receive the sincere thanks of a generous people. If proper measures are adopted to induce immigration, your hills and your valleys will be settled by the hardy sons of the Green Isle of Erin, the sea-girt shores of England, the sunny plains of France, the mountains of Switzerland and the lowlands of Holland; your mountains will yield up their treasure, the wilderness and solitary places shall be glad for them, and the desert will rejoice and blossom as the rose. The first rays of the morning sun shall tinge the spires of a thousand temples of learning; the song of civilization shall regale the ear at every turn in life; instead of the crescent, shall wave the banner of the Cross; instead of the Pagoda, shall arise temples in which to worship the ever-living God. If you encourage our agricultural interests, the mother of commerce and the mechanical arts, the joyous hum of the workshop will grcet your ears, and our sails bearing our produce to distant climes will whiten every ocean. In the conflict of opinion which will inevitably arise in the discus- sion of questions upon which senators may honestly differ, if the same charity is extended to others as is demanded by each, when our labors are brought to a close, and the gavel falls dissolving this body, the most kindly feeling may exist between its departing members; and in after life our minds may revert to the time spent here as the brightest oasis in the dreary pilgrim- age of life-the Chair now awaits the pleasure of the Senate."
At the closing of the same session, while the Senate was awaiting messages from the Governor, Senator Pendegast arose in his place and presented to Governor Holden, a magnificent watch and chain-a gift from all the Senators-in a neat and eloquent speech. In reply, Governor Holden said :-
"Senators: I accept your generous gift with emotions too deep for utterance. The eloquent and chaste remarks of your organ, the distinguished Senator from Napa, are gratifying to me because he represents my own district. I thank you, Senator, for the happy and delicate manner in which this presentation has been made. Your language is as ingenuous, pure and beautiful as the workmanship or material of which this valuable present is made. At the opening of this session I pledged myself to preside fairly, faithfully, and impartially over the deliberations of this body. Now, at its close, I am proud that I can say, before Heaven, that I have not knowingly or inten- tionally violated that pledge in the least particular. That I may have erred in judgment I do not pretend to deny. Who does not? But may my
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tongue fail hereafter to give utterance if I have done so willfully or corruptly. That passion may at times have gotten, for a moment, the better of my judgment, I freely confess. We will charge that to the frailties and imper- fections of human nature. But if, in the discharge of what I deemed an official duty, I have wounded the feelings or offended the dignity of any Senator here, I now most humbly beg his pardon. In this
' Let the past as nothing be, For at last the future will but be the past.'
But I hope the pleasant associations and kindly feelings that have grown up during this session may last to the end of life, and be remembered as one of the brightest spots in its dreary pilgrimage. If this present had been made but to follow former precedents, I should prize it only for its value in gold in the market. If as a testimony (and I have been informed and believe it is) that I have honestly, faithfully, and impartially performed my duty, I would not exchange it for the brightest jeweled diamond that ever decked an Empress' brow. I accept it as the latter, and will esteem it, and hold it dearer than anything but my integrity, my country, and my God. I thank you, Senators, friends, for this beautiful present, and with this staff, pre- sented two years ago to-night in the other branch of the Legislature, by those from whom my acts had won esteem and respect in spite of former prejudices, engendered by the passions of the times, and these glasses to guide my steps, I will tramp, tramp on to the end of the journey of life; and when these pulses shall beat but softly, the blood creep but lazily through these veins-this heart throb but gently, and the billows of time shall be seen dimly through the death film gliding into the gentle waves of Eternity-the steady tick of this watch under my pillow-this staff, then no longer useful, and these glasses that cannot restore my vision, will cause the expiring lamp to burn the brighter for a moment, as they recall the wandering memory back to the donors of these mementoes of esteem, and the pleasant associations here, while in the full vigor of manhood. I thank you again, Senators, for this evidence of your confidence and esteem. I wish I could express the fullness of my gratitude, but words faint upon the lips when the heart itself would speak."
J. S. Haile. Was born in Sumner county, Tennessee, August 16, 1837. Migrated with his father to Missouri in 1839; from thence to California in 1852, and lived in Napa county from 1852 to 1858, and in Solano county from 1858 to 1873, since which time he has resided in Ukiah, Mendocino county. Received his education at the Presbyterian Academy, in the old town of Sonoma, during the years of 1859 and 1860. Studied law in the office of Wallace & Rayle in Napa City, during the years 1861 and 1862, and in the office of Wells & Whitman, in the years 1863 and 1864. Was admitted to practice law in January, 1865. In politics, is a Democrat. Has held the office of District Attorney of Mendocino county for four years from 1875. Was married to Victoria Reeves, daughter of Colonel D. D. Reeves of Suisun, Solano county, in 1867. Has two boys as results of this marriage: Davis Reeves, age twelve, and Richard Carroll, ten years old.
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Has at all times worked for the interest of the Democratic party in the field and on the stump. As a speaker before the people, has hardly an equal in the county, and as a jury lawyer he stands in the front ranks of his profession.
William Isbell. A native of Tennessee; was born July 4, 1829. When but a child his parents moved to Arkansas, bought a farm and remained two years. The country being so unhealthy they sold out, and moved to Oliver's Prairie, Newton county, Missouri, at which place William was raised and educated, being raised on a farm. On the Ist day of May, 1850, in company with William Shannon, a school-mate and intimate friend of his, started on horseback, with pack mules, across the plains. They traveled alone until they reached the Big Blue river, where they were overtaken by Thomas Isbell, a brother of William Isbell, and A. J. Wright, a brother-in- law of Thomas Isbell. These two gentlemen had a wagon and team, and being anxious to accompany William Isbell and William Shannon, they cut up their wagon and made themselves pack-saddles out of it; then the happy company journeyed together and alone from any other company through to California, arriving at Mud Springs, Placer county, on the 4th day of August of the same year. The party being broken up here they run "jawbone" for a week's provisions, and at the end of the week the party of four had made enough in mining to pay for the provisions they had bought, and had $3.50 over. William Isbell told his brother Thomas
and two other friends that he should try some other occupation; where- upon he borrowed some money of the Bullard boys, at Mud Town, rigged up a team and went to freighting on the road; and in a short time he made enough to pay the borrowed money, and had enough over to keep himself and his team through the winter, which he spent in the mountains near Cache creek, in Yolo county, California. With his brother Thomas and two other friends, in the spring of 1851, he went to Weaverville, Trinity county, with six mules loaded with provisions, which he sold. Returning to Sacramento City he loaded his mules again and went to Yreka, Siskiyou county. He continued the business of packing until in December of the same year, when he bought, in Sacramento City, seed barley, plows and equipage for farming, and winter's provision for four men; then went to Cache creek, in Yolo county, took up a claim, and put in one hundred acres of barley. In the spring he sold it out, and put a stage line on from Colusa to Shasta, known as Isbell's Accommodation Line. He continued the business of staging on different roads until January, 1854, at which time he returned to the States via Panama and New Orleans, arriving at his father's, in Olivers' Prairie, Newton county, Missouri, about the 20th of February. After visiting his parents a few weeks he bought up some two hundred head of cattle, and on the 1st day of May started with them across the plains, and arrived on the Sacramento river in August of the same year. He kept his cattle until the following year, and then
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sold them in Shasta county, California, in November, 1855; and returned home in the spring of 1856. During his absence in California his father died, leaving his mother alone with some negroes on the farm. He remained with her, and married in the winter of 1856, on the 9th of December. He engaged in farming and stock trading until 1861, when the late war broke out, in which he took an active part; was Captain of Company E, Fifth Regiment, Eighth Division, Missouri State Guards, in General Sterling Price's army, in which he continued for four years, or until the surrender, distinguishing himself on many occasions. In 1865 he moved to Benton county, Arkansas, bought a farm, and, in 1870, was elected Sheriff of said county. In 1872 he was re-elected to the same office, which he held until September 15, 1874, at which time he returned to Ukiah City, California, bought the flouring mill known as the Ukiah City Mills, which he thoroughly renovated and made anew ; built up a very thrifty business, and the mill is crowded to its utmost capacity at the present time. As above stated, William Isbell married Miss Mary W. Gibson, of the same county and State as himself, who was born July 9, 1831, in Rutherford county, Tennessee, by which union they have four children-three boys and one girl, - viz .: Thomas D., born September 27, 1857; Nannie E., born January 11, 1859; William G., born September 27, 1865; and Sterling Price, born April 20, 1867.
James A. Jamison. Born in Arkansas February 15, 1831, where he received his education and resided until 1849, when he crossed the plains the southern route to California, arriving at San Francisco, November 20th of the same year. In the following March he went to Tuolumne county, where he followed mining until the fall of 1851, when he went to San Joaquin county, where he followed teaming for four years. He then went to Mariposa county, where he bought a dairy, which he conducted for two years. He then sold that, and bought a farm in Tuolumne county, where he followed farming until 1858. He then came to Mendocino county and settled in Anderson valley. In the fall of 1859, he went to Healdsburg, Sonoma county, where he spent the winter, and in the spring started for Washoe, but at Sacramento his team was stolen, and he changed his mind and went to Tuolumne county, where he remained till the spring of 1864, when he returned again to this county and settled in Redwood valley until 1866, when he settled in Ukiah, where he has since resided. In 1866, he was elected assessor of Mendocino county, and held the office four years. He has held the office of Constable one term, and is at present Marshal of the city of Ukiah, which office he has held three terms. Mr. Jamison married, March 20, 1853, Miss Masse Shepherd, a native of Illinois. By this union they have seven children: Leonora, Laura, Adolphus, Eugenia, George James and Lorretta.
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