USA > California > Mendocino County > History of Mendocino and Lake counties, California, with biographical sketches of the leading, men and women of the counties who have been identified with their growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 107
USA > California > Lake County > History of Mendocino and Lake counties, California, with biographical sketches of the leading, men and women of the counties who have been identified with their growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 107
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The bonds proposed to be issued are to be secured by a deed of trust or mortgage on all the company's property, and there will be no recourse against stockholders for payment of either principal or interest. Stockholders will be liable for only the par value of the stock they agree to take. On the sale of the entire issue of bonds eighty-four per cent., $420,000, would be realized, which amount deducted from the $470.000 estimated as the cost would leave $50,000 to be raised from the sale of stock; hence the commission authorizes the issuance of five hundred shares.
The remaining serious question, according to the decision, is the possi- bility of the company's inability to earn both the operating expenses and in- terest on the bonds. On the issue of $500,000, face value. the annual outlay for interest would be $30,000. The commission suggests that securing waiver of interest for three years or a guarantee from responsible parties that interest would be paid would make the sale of bonds easier. The directors are ex- pected to present to the commission a plan under which they believe they can avail themselves of that body's authorization.
Mr. Thelen expresses, in the course of the document, his admiration for the pluck and perseverance of Lake county people shown in this enterprise and the earnest hope that it may succeed.
JOHN HENRY LINDSTROM .- The adventures of Sinbad the Sailor are scarcely more romantic, unusual and fascinating than is the family history of the Lindstroms, beginning as it does in far Palestine, and descending through a long line of men in whose veins flowed the blood of an adven- turesome race, and which in each generation appeared to gain rather than to lose in this special quality. The first known member of the family, leaving his native land by the Mediterranean Sea to journey to a far northern land and there to establish a home and a family, which more than five hundred years later should send a descendant to wander over the face of the wide earth, seeking adventure, and finding it, could scarcely have met with so varied an experience as has this last rover, John Henry Lindstrom, now en- gaged in the peaceful and lucrative occupation of selling automobiles in Fort Bragg. Mr. Lindstrom has journeyed in many lands and among strange people ; he has sailed the sea, and crossed rugged mountain chains, and met with danger and excitement in almost every imaginable form. For many vears he kept in a little book, which scarcely left his pocket, a careful account of these wanderings. But in one of his many perilous experiences, when a vessel in which he was sailing from Puget Sound to San Francisco was destroyed by fire while at sea, he lost his precious volume. The fire was dis- covered while they were far from any port. No friendly vessel came to their aid, and it was only by most careful management, and a good bit of sailor's
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luck, that the officers and crew escaped with their lives, but the vessel and everything aboard were entirely lost. The little volume had journeyed with its owner for many years, and its loss was keenly felt, for it could never be replaced.
The originator of the family was a Hebrew from Palestine. one Carl Robert Lindstrom, a man of wealth and breeding, who came to northern Sweden, became a landed proprietor and built a village called Lindstrom in Mora county. That was more than five hundred years ago, and the Lind- strom family has been represented in this village continuously since that time. By intermarriage with the natives they gradually came to forsake the religion of their fathers, and became Lutherans. The grandfather of John Henry Lindstrom, Gen. Robert Lindstrom, was in command of a Dragoon Regiment. He and two other brothers, who like himself were both generals in the active service of their country, secured their military release and went to Finland, where they obtained a large grant of land, and established a vil- lage bearing their name. Robert Lindstrom, the father of the present resident of Fort Bragg bearing that distinguished name, was born in Mora, Sweden, the eldest in a large family, and so was left at home to safeguard its welfare, when the father journeyed into Finland. Not caring for the life of the farm, nor yet of the city, he went to sea at an early age, and became a skilled navi- gator, afterwards becoming master of his own vessel in the Baltic lumber trade.
The first appearance of the Lindstrom family in American affairs occurred in 1830, when Robert. then Captain Lindstrom. came to the United States at the liead of a party of five hundred Swedes. They landed at Galveston, Tex .. and then traveled up the Mississippi river to St. Paul and Minneapolis, in which region they settled, taking up much land and opening up a vast new territory, they being practically the first settlers in that locality. Captain Lindstrom remained with the colonists for a period of five years, when he returned to Sweden and again took command of his vessel. He was married in Liverpool, England, in 1846, to Miss Margareta Strandberg, a native of that city. He continued with his vessel, sailing as a tramp in and around the Swedish and English ports and about the North Sea, taking his wife with him on most of his journeys. Their first child was a son, John Henry, now of Fort Bragg, born in the harbor of Lubeck. Germany, September 3, 1848. Following this event Captain Lindstrom sold his vessel and returned to the United States, locating in Minnesota in December, 1848. Here he engaged in the hardware business in Minneapolis until 1860, when he sold his interests, which were by this time very valuable, and returned to Lindstrom, Finland, where he passed his remaining years, dying in 1877. His wife followed him within a few years.
The little son whose romantic birth had caused so great a change in the fortunes and life of the father, and whose early recollections were all of America, attended the public schools of Minneapolis until he was twelve years of age, at which time the family returned to Finland. Here he was again put in school, and later entered the Agricultural College in Finland, where he continued until he was eighteen. At that time it was required of the students to take a trip to sea, and when the vessel reached Liverpool, young John Henry, taking advantage of the first opportunity, ran away, and took passage on the Nova Scotia, a sailing vessel bound for Buenos Ayres, shipping as a carpenter. Arrived at his destination he again secured a carpenter's berth on
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an out-going vessel and eventually arrived in the United States, landing at Pensacola, Fla., January 15, 1870. Here hc left the sea and proceeded by land to Chicago to visit an uncle, Captain August Lindstrom. Later he went again to Minneapolis, where he had lived as a child, and opened a blacksmith shop, blacksmithing having been a part of his training at the Agricultural College in Finland. Young Lindstrom remained here until 1881, prospering in his 'business. Subsequently he accepted a position with the Northern Pacific Railroad and removed to Brainerd, Minn., where he made his headquarters for four years. He then entered the employ of a lumber company and went to Eastlake, Mich., as a master mechanic.
The wanderlust still called, and with no home ties to hold him, young Lindstrom was prone to follow far and often. The next reply led him on a pleasure trip, to see far countries, and he journeyed by way of New York, Liverpool, Constantinople, Alexandria and Palestine, through Russia and Siberia, and finally back to New York. On his return he drifted to different parts of the country, always lured by the new and unexplored. In 1889 he was in Arizona, and helped to build the great bridge which spans the Colo- rado river at the Needles. From there he went to San Francisco and later into Oregon and Washington. He had visited these ports many years ago, when he sailed the Pacific on the Ocean King, the ill-fated vessel which was lost at sea by fire, and on which was destroyed the much prized diary. This vessel Mr. Lindstrom had helped to build at Bath, Me., and had sailed with her on her maiden voyage, with the carpenter's berth, under Captain Sawyer. They went to China and back to San Francisco, and then up the coast to Puget Sound, where they loaded with lumber and coal and set sail for the return trip to the Golden Gate, only to meet their tragic fate on the way. During his journeys by land Mr. Lindstrom worked at various occupations, such as blacksmithing, mechanical engineering, contracting and building, these being all trades learned during his attendance at the Finland Agricul- tural College. Tiring finally of this sort of life, he shipped as mate on a vessel bound for Chile, South America, and following this for several years, sailed on the coast vessels in that capacity.
Even the sea, however, lost its charm, and in 1891 Mr. Lindstrom came to Point Arena, Mendocino county, and opened a blacksmith shop. Later he removed to Mendocino City and engaged in the same business. Neither of these cities, however, entirely satisfied him as a place to finally settle down for a permanent home, and in September, 1892, he located in Fort Bragg, where he has since resided. Here again he opened a blacksmith shop and soon built up a flourishing trade, whereupon he sold the business and im- mediately opened another shop. This proceeding was repeated several times. with much profit to the energetic Lindstrom and with equal satisfaction to the purchaser. who preferred an established business rather than the joys of developing one. The last such place owned by Mr. Lindstrom was at Laurel and McPherson streets, and after its sale he opened a garage. As usual. however, after having the business well established and on a firm financial basis, its founder decided that it was more valuable to him as a marketable commodity than as a place of business for himself, and accordingly sold it, leasing the building which belongs to him. Since that time he has been handling the Detroit automobile with his customary success, and is making many friends in this new field of endeavor.
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Since coming to Fort Bragg and establishing a permanent home, Mr. Lindstrom has been united in marriage with Sophia Kaijankoski, a native of Finland, where her early life was passed, she not coming to American until 1886. During his residence in Fort Bragg Mr. Lindstrom has become identified with local affairs, and is especially well informed on all topics of public interest. He is a Democrat, and is vitally alive to all matters of im- portance to his party, whether state or national and follows the development of each new phase of a political situation with more than ordinary compre- hension and application. His greatest delight. however, is to relate the tales of his wanderings to an appreciative audience, of which there is never a dearth, for this descendant of an ancient race is an especially good talker and his life has been full of interesting and even wonderful experiences which lose nothing in their telling.
PROF. JOHN OVERHOLSER. - The founder of the Lakeport Academy, now identified with the Lakeport high school as science professor, has been associated with the cause of higher education in Lake county for so many years that the history of the one is practically a record of the other. Four weeks after his arrival at Lakeport in 1884 his association with educa- tional work was inaugurated and the academy was started in the old public school building, but in 1890 a permanent structure was erected. To the academy belonged the honor of being the first establishment of higher learn- ing in the county, with the exception of the Clear Lake College, founded by John Kelley in the latter part of the '70s, but now defunct. During 1900 the academy was leased to the Clear Lake Union high school district, and it is now serving the uses of the only high school in the county, with the Professor as instructor in the sciences, a department in which he especially excels.
Of Pennsylvania-Dutch parentage, a son of Daniel and Mary (Hartman) Overholser, and a native of York county, Pa., Prof. John Overholser was born February 14, 1851, and at the age of three years was taken to Ohio, the family settling on a farm near Dayton, where he attended common schools and was trained in the details of farming. He was third in order of birth among six children and had few advantages except such as his own tireless energy made possible. His own force of will and self-support enabled him to graduate from the high school of Xenia, Ohio, and to pursue the scientific and classical courses in Adrian (Mich.) College, from which institution in 1880 he was graduated with honors. Teaching has been his life work. In it he engaged as a source of livelihood and means of defraying his expenses in college. Upon receiving the degree of A. B., he returned to pedagogy with the eager- ness of one to whom the profession was a task of affection. From the country schools he was promoted to be principal at Beaver Creek and later held a similar position at Spring valley. After seven years of teaching in the east, mainly in Greene county, Ohio, he came to California in 1884 and has since been identified with the cause of higher education at Lakeport.
Under the personal supervision of Professor Overholser there was erected in 1890 a frame building, 40x50 feet in dimensions, with two stories, besides a basement with storerooms, bathrooms for boys and similar equipment for girls, together with lockers and other desirable features. The first floor con- tains a large assembly hall. a well equipped school library and three recitation rooms. The second story contains an unusually complete physical laboratory, a chemical laboratory that would do justice to a university and two com- modious recitation rooms. The building stands at a suitable distance from
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town, on a high and sightly location that not only affords ideal drainage, but also gives a picturesque view of the mountains and the lake, there being perhaps no high school more advantageously situated from a standpoint of attractive environment and beautiful scenery. The grounds comprise two acres, in the rear of which a modest cottage affords to the Professor a very comfortable home. Not only is he prominent in educational circles, but through his interest in the establishment of the Lakeport library he became a leader in literary circles. He is an attendant at the services of the Baptist Church and a contributor to religious movements. Fraternally he has been through the chairs of the Lakeport Lodge of. Odd Fellows. While taking a warm interest in public affairs and keeping well posted concerning national issues, he has never sought office nor cared for political prestige, his tastes leading him rather to the tasks of an instructor, the study of the sciences and other scholarly pursuits.
P. O. HARDELL .- That he is a self-made man in every sense of the word is evident in the case of P. O. Hardell, one of the large general merchants of Fort Bragg and the owner of a thriving cattle ranch near Albion. From family records it is ascertained that the name of Hardell has been repre- sented in Sweden for many generations, and there Peter O. Hardell was born near Haparanda, Norbotten, Sweden, March 5, 1865, and was reared on the paternal farm in that cold northern country. With assets consisting of a good common school education and a sturdy constitution he left home and parents when about twenty-two years old and came to the United States. Debarking at an eastern seaport in the spring of 1887, he started westward and passed a few weeks in Michigan, but not being especially attracted by the out- look he continued to move westward until he reached California. August of 1887 found him in Fort Bragg. Mendocino county, and it was not long before he found employment at logging and tie making, making trips into Humboldt county and into Coos Bay, Ore., but each time he returned to Fort Bragg, which he found the most to his liking.
During the six years that Mr. Hardell continued in this line of endeavor he accumulated sufficient means to invest in a business of his own, and in 1893 he established a general merchandise business on a small scale, which has since grown to be one of the largest and most dependable business enterprises of the city. The business was started on Franklin street in a small frame building that did service for nine years, when its capacity proved insufficient for the enlarging business and another location became imperative. It was at this juncture that he purchased property at the corner of Laurel and Frank- lin streets and erected a brick structure suited to his needs, fifty by seventy feet, two stories in height. At the time of the disastrous earthquake that devastated San Francisco and vicinity Fort Bragg also suffered considerable damage, Mr. Hardell among many others meeting with heavy loss thereby. The walls of the building were considered unsafe as a result of the terrific jar- ring and it was deemed advisable and even necessary to tear down the walls and rebuild. The stock of goods was accordingly removed to another and safer building and there business was conducted until the new structure was com- pleted. Instead of putting up a brick structure as before, he erected a frame building larger than the original one, this being sixty by ninety feet. Here may be found as choice and varied an assortment of general merchandise as the demands of a large city trade would make necessary. While he has built up a substantial mercantile business it has not consumed all of his thought, for
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he has also built up a splendid ranching enterprise on property which he pur- chased eight miles from Albion on Salmon creek. This comprises seventeen hundred and forty acres of land well suited to stock-raising, and he is raising cattle and sheep on an extensive scale.
The marriage of Mr. Hardell occurred in Fort Bragg and united him with Ida Markkula, who was born in Finland. Of the children born to them seven are living. as follows: Hagar Ingeborg, Helvi Cecilia. John Toivo, Frans Olaf Patrick, Elsi Saima Dagmar, Oscar Adolph and a child still unnamed. The family are identified with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Fort Bragg, and politically Mr. Hardell is a Republican.
JOHN ISAAC GRANHOLM .- One of the most enterprising and best known of the merchants of the thriving little city of Fort Bragg is John Isaac Granholm. whose place of business is located in the center of the business section, and which is generally acknowledged to be a source of pride to his fellow citizens. Mr. Granholm is himself a prominent citizen and a popular business man, with a host of friends and warm admirers. He is public- spirited and keenly alive to everything that makes for the betterment of his home city, whether that betterment be commercial, educational, moral or social, and he is always to be found well in the forefront of all such progres- sive movements.
While of pure Swedish extraction, Mr. Granholm was born in Malaks Vasalan, Finland, May 15, 1885, his parents having settled there some years before his birth. His father, Isaac Granholm, was a farmer and the son was reared on the farm, helping with the small labors from his early childhood and so thoroughly mastering the art of agriculture as it is practiced in his native land. He was educated in the public schools of Vasalan, which was a Swedish colony, and consequently the Swedish language was used and taught for educational purposes. This enabled him to secure his education in his mother tongue. The life of the Swedes in the Finnish colony was not all that might be desired, and did not have the opportunities that he heard of in the New World. The lure of the Land of Freedom was ever felt by men of strength and purpose, and in 1902 Mr. Granholm left his native village and came to California. locating at Fort Bragg. For a number of years he devoted much time to learning the customs of the new country, and followed different occupations which put him in close contact with many men, and where his clean strength went far to counteract the handicap of his unfamiliar- ity with manners and language. He lumbered in different camps until 1906. when he determined to enter business for himself, feeling by this time that he was prepared for an independent venture. He therefore opened a store in Fort Bragg, beginning with a very small equipment, and feeling his way carefully among the still somewhat strange environment. Built on this firm foundation the business has grown steadily and swiftly, and today he owns one of the most promising establishments in the city. The first venture was in general merchandise, and later he began to make a specialty of certain lines. He now has one of the finest lines of men's furnishings, boots and shoes, that the city boasts, and his business includes the patronage of the best trade in Fort Bragg.
Since coming to Fort Bragg Mr. Granholm has married Miss Anna Hendrickson, also a native of Vasalan, Finland, and of Swedish parentage. Both Mr. and Mrs. Granholm are well and favorably known in social and fra- ternal circles, and are prominent citizens. Mr. Granholm is a member of the
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Santana Tribe No. 60, I. O. R. M., and of the Loyal Order of Moose. He is an Independent in politics, but is none the less an influential factor in local affairs because of that, for he is known to stand squarely for his convictions of right, and as squarely and uncompromisingly against what he believes to be wrong, with no political dogma to influence his position. Altogether, Mr. Granholm is a type of citizen of which Fort Bragg has occasion to be proud.
JOHN MATTHEWS RUPE .- The discovery of gold in California was the attraction that brought the Rupe family from their Missouri home to the then unknown west. During the summer of 1849 James Rupe acted as cap- tain of an expedition of emigrants and in the same party was his son, John, a youth of almost eighteen, whose birth had occurred in Jefferson City, Mo., November 8, 1831. The journey was one of deep interest to the lad who had not before been out of his native commonwealth and who was keen to learn and quick to observe conditions in the remote region to which he came. Trying his luck in the mines and meeting with reasonable success, he finally acquired sufficient funds to begin farming, his chosen vocation, so in 1853 he pur- chased land at San Juan, then in Monterey but now in San Benito county, and there his son, John M., was born March 5, 1865. Eventually he left San Benito county for the undeveloped regions further north along the coast. On the 7th of July, 1882, he and his family arrived in Mendocino county, where he bought the old Sawyer place, an improved ranch of two hundred and fifteen acres in the south end of Little Lake valley. However, five years later he sold all of his interests in California and returned to Missouri, where he bought farm land and was prospered in agricultural enterprises. His death occurred in Admire, Lyon county, Kans., in 1899, at the age of sixty-eight years. His wife, Elizabeth (Matthews) Rupe, was born in Louisiana and came to California via Panama with her parents in 1851, dying in Los Angeles in 1903.
From the arrival of the family in Mendocino county until the return of his father to his native commonwealth, John M. Rupe aided on the home ranch. Under an elder brother, R. W., he learned the art of cheese-making and also became an expert in the manufacture of butter, so that when in 1889 he leased the De Camp ranch of a thousand acres he was prepared to specialize in cheese and butter. For twelve years he remained on the ranch and during ten years of the time he engaged in cheese-making. During 1900 he bought seventy acres one and a half miles east of Willits and by subsequent purchase he increased the size of the farm to one hundred and seventy-five acres, forming his present homestead. The entire tract is valley land under cultiva- tion and embraces a fertile acreage capable of producing large and remunera- tive crops. For convenience in the care of his hay the owner bought a baling machine and this he operates throughout the valley, baling hay for the farm- ers as their needs render necessary. Aside from hay and grain he makes a specialty of raising potatoes, some of the land being sediment soil which has been proven well adapted for potatoes, beets and carrots. The potatoes yield from eighty to one hundred and twenty-five sacks of marketable product to the acre. All these years he has owned a dairy of high grade Jerseys, and is raising Percheron horses, for which purpose he, with others, purchased an im- ported Percheron stallion, "Raumaur."
December 29, 1889, Mr. Rupe was united in marriage in this valley with Miss Emma Alice Muir, who was born in Little Lake valley. Mendocino county, the daughter of Pressley T. and Eliza J. (Baker) Muir, natives of
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