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 24
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 24
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married Edward Gambrel, who was born on the Gibson ranch in Round valley, Mendocino county, April 5, 1864, being the son of Smith W. and Sallie (Onyett) Gambrel, natives respectively of Virginia and Evansville, Ind. The family comprised five children, those besides himself being Lena, Anna, Charles and Smith. During the early '50s the father came to Cali- fornia and settled in Mendocino county, where for years he carried on farm pursuits in the Round valley. For years he was a leading factor in local affairs and served as justice of the peace. In young manhood Edward Gam- brel engaged in the dairy business at Oroville, Butte county, whence he re- turned to Mendocino county and since 1897 has been identified with the work on the McGlashan ranch. Fraternally he is connected with the Elks of Santa Rosa. Mrs. Gambrel gives her time to the supervision of the Burnee Hill ranch and to her property in Ukiah. With Mr. McGlashan she built the Mc- Glashan Building in Ukiah, where the postoffice is located, besides which she owns residence property there. She and her present husband still con- tinue the raising of fine Merino sheep. Burnee Hill ranch is one of the show places of the county. The lawn, which is like velvet, is irrigated from a spring a mile away, the water being stored in a reservoir of eight thousand gallons' capacity. For domestic use water is brought from another spring three- quarters of a mile distant, coming from a solid rock. The ranch comprises sixteen hundred acres and runs for one mile along the Russian river, and is almost three miles in width.
BYRON CLARK .- Maine has made a worthy contribution to the citizen- ship of California during the course of westward migration, but none of her representatives proved more worthy or steadfast in his endeavors to upbuild and advance the interests of his chosen home place than the late Byron Clark. The descendant of an old New England family, long resident in that rugged section of country, he was born in Ellsworth, Me., November 22, 1855, the son of Capt. Curtis Clark, the owner and master of a coasting vessel. The public schools of Ellsworth supplied the educational advantages which young Byron was permitted to enjoy, and after his schooling was completed he was variously employed in the east until the call of the west brought him to California in 1874. He was then a young man of about nineteen years, full of energy and determination, and he did not lack for opportunity to show his capabilities. Coming to Mendocino he found employment with the Mendo- cino Lumber Company, beginning to work for them in the woods. The work proved congenial and he rose from one position to another until he was finally made superintendent of the woods, a position which he held for about nine- teen years. Subsequently he was a boss in the woods for the Union Lumber Company for a number of years, and still later he held the same position with the Caspar Lumber Company, and it was while associated with the latter company that his death occurred, March 14, 1909. The lumber interests of the county lost a valued worker in his death, for he was thoroughly con- versant with all details of the business and his services were in constant de- mand : his family lost a devoted and indulgent husband and father, and the community a loyal, public-spirited, unassuming citizen who has been sadly missed. He was a man among men, one of Nature's noblemen who had won his way to success by his own self-reliance and energy. Fraternally he was also well known and very popular with his associates. He was a mem-
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ber of Mendocino Lodge, No. 179, F. & A. M., also of Mendocino Chapter and the Order of the Eastern Star of the same place, Ukiah Commandery No. 33, K. T., while in the Odd Fellows order he was connected with lodge, en- campment and the Rebekahs. Politically he gave his allegiance to Republican principles and candidates.
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A marriage ceremony performed in Ukiah February 3, 1886, united the destinies of Byron Clark and Miss Oleva Burger. She was born near Lay- tonville, Cal., the daughter of James and Nancy (Lambert) Burger, natives of Kentucky and Iowa respectively. Mr. and Mrs. Burger were married in Iowa and from that state they started for California with ox-teams in the early '50s. They settled in Long valley, where Mr. Burger became well known as a successful stockman. His later years were passed in Ukiah, and in that city his death occurred in 1899. Mrs. Burger still continues to make her home in Ukiah. Of her five children four are living, Mrs. Clark being next to the oldest. The greater part of her early life was passed in Ukiah. where she attended grammar school, and later she attended the San Jose state normal. Putting her knowledge to good account she adopted teaching as a profession and followed it for eleven years, eight years of this time being passed in the schools of Mendocino. After the death of Mr. Clark she re- moved to Ft. Bragg and has made this city her home ever since, giving to its welfare a wholesome interest that is characteristic. With her two children she resides in a comfortable home which she erected on Brandon Way. The son, Russell, is a graduate of Mendocino high school and the Santa Rosa Business College ; and the daughter, Leonora, a graduate of Mendocino high school and San Jose State Normal, is a teacher. Mrs. Clark is a member of the Presbyterian Church of Mendocino, in the work of which she is deeply interested. She is past matron of Ocean View Chapter, O. E. S., at Mendo- cino, is past noble grand of Far West Lodge of Rebekahs of that place, and for several terms was district deputy. Personally Mrs. Clark is a woman of noble characteristics, and all who are privileged to know her feel the impress of her radiant good nature.
W. R. MORRIS .- One of the youngest men in the employ of the Union Lumber Company is the foreman of the yards, WV. R. Morris, who is a native of the great middle west. He was born in Chicago, Ill., May 30, 1890, a son of H. F. Morris, who was a native of the same state, born in Quincy, and a banker in Chicago at the time of his death. His mother, Evelyn Schumacher before her marriage, was born in Wisconsin, and now makes her home with her son in Fort Bragg.
IV. R. Morris received his preliminary education in the public schools of Chicago, and later he attended the University of Chicago, altogether receiv- ing educational privileges above the possibility of the average young man. Some time after the death of the father, Mr. Morris and his mother came west, in 1908, coming direct to Mendocino county and to Fort Bragg. The son was fortunate in securing employment readily, accepting a position with the Union Lumber Company, and he has remained with the company ever since, being now foreman of the yards, a position which he has since filled with entire satisfaction to his superiors. The only organization with which he is affiliated is the Hoo Hoo, a lumbermen's organization well known throughout the west. Politically Mr. Morris is a Republican.
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DAVID T. JOHNSON .- Unusual executive ability has marked the career of David T. Johnson and offers great promise for the future enterprises of this native son, whose efficiency and integrity have given him leadership in the stock industry and made his name powerful along the entire north coast. To what degree his expertness in the stock business is a matter of early environ- ment and training, to what degree it came to him by inheritance and to what extent it results from a most careful study of every detail connected with such work, it would be futile to inquire, nor does it concern the present purposes of this narrative, which deals with facts, not with theoretical problems. Suffice it to say that certain mental endowments and certain conditions of environ- ment combined to make him an expert judge of stock and thereby to enable him to become a leader as stockman in the northern part of the state. His earliest memories of the home near Chico (where he was born) are asso- ciated with the buying and selling of stock and with the conversations of his father in regard to the good or poor qualities of animals. The elder John- son, whose name likewise was David T., and who was born near Bridgeton, Me., had come to California during the early '50s. An initial experience as a miner proved unsuccessful and he sought other means of earning a liveli- hood. For years he was associated with Sam Perrington in the buying of stock and the selling of meat in the mines. The butcher's trade proved profitable and gave him a start. During April of 1872 he brought his family to Round valley and became an extensive sheep-raiser of the locality, besides continuing to handle cattle. Until 1880 he lived in the village of Covelo, but then bought and settled upon a tract of ninety acres adjacent to the town. This property is still owned by his heirs, David T., George T. and Francis. When he died in August, 1890, he left to his family this home and the stock upon the place, but to have accumulated that neat estate indicated that he was a man of excellent business ability.
The marriage of David T. Johnson, Sr., at Howland Flat, Cal., had united him with Miss Mertie A. Larkin, who was born in New York state and received excellent educational advantages, being a graduate of Jonesville Academy. After completing her studies in the academy she came to Cali- fornia via Panama. A woman of remarkable ability and business acumen, after the death of her husband, with the aid of her sons she continued the stock business and general ranching. With the most optimistic faith in the rising valuations of land, she began to purchase unimproved tracts whenever the opportunity offered. Always she advised her sons to buy land as an investment. The result was all she could hope for and more than even her most sanguine predictions had foreseen. When the sons were still in their twenties they saw the wisdom of their mother's ideas demonstrated on more than one occasion and they joined her in reaching out in the purchase of landed property. When she passed away at San Francisco, January 18, 1910, it was felt to be a distinct bereavement not only to her sons, but also to the Presbyterian Church (of which she was a generous and sincere member), to general circles of society and to the entire community of Round valley. With superior business judgment she united gentleness of disposition, amia- bility of temperament and nobility of spirit. while loyalty to family and friends was also one of her attractive traits.
Since the death of their mother the sons have continued in the stock business, with David T., as the elder, the manager of their extensive interests. Primarily educated in Round valley, he later had the advantages of
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Heald's Business College, from which he was graduated in 1892. Having been trained to the stock industry from boyhood and having the encourage- ment of his mother, he soon became a leading factor in the cattle, sheep and hog business in the coast counties. As the herds increased, the lands also were enlarged until the brothers now have thousands of acres in Mendocino and Trinity counties, where graze their herds and flocks. They specialize with French Merinos and are the largest sheep-growers in Mendocino county. In the cattle industry they are breeding Red Durhams. About five hundred acres are tillable, now devoted to the raising of grain and alfalfa hay. Besides cattle and sheep they are raising horses, mules and hogs, and their business also includes the buying of stock, the feeding of the same and the shipping to San Francisco markets. With a view to draining the level lands Mr. Johnson brought to Round valley a steam tile machine and has manufactured tile of the three, six and eight-inch sizes, some of which, used successfully on his own lands, have been secured by others for tiling purposes. Always the results have been satisfactory. A progressive rancher, solicitous to build up the community and always in the forefront of any beneficial movement, he is aiding in the development of the valley and is furnishing an example of patriotism, loyalty to community and business integrity that others may well emulate. Through mental habits of a broad and expanding order he has reached out into many avenues of activity and usefulness, but always his interests in land and stock are uppermost in his thoughts and future plans, and he is giving to his chosen occupation the intelligent efficiency of long experience as well as the practical common sense that characterizes all of his dealings.
ERNEST ENDERLIN .- An industry which is still in the incipient stage in Lake county, the raising of milch goats and production of goats' milk, has a most able advocate in the person of Ernest Enderlin, now a resident of Lower Lake, where he has been settled since 1905. Mr. Enderlin is a native of Baden, Germany, born December 25, 1879. When he was four years old his parents brought their family to America, arriving at San Francisco, Cal., about 1883-84-father, mother and eight children. The parents are residents of the Lower Lake precinct in Lake county, having a forty-acre farm in Little High valley, at Spruce Grove. Mr. Enderlin is now sixty-eight years old, Mrs. Enderlin sixty-four. Of their family, Frieda (a half sister of the rest) is now the wife of Christian Eskelson, of San Mateo, Cal., proprietor of a creamery ; Louise is married to E. B. Hinton, clerk in a mercantile establish- ment at Chico, Cal .; Mary Magdalena is the wife of A. P. Mefford, a farmer, of Calistoga; Ernest is next in the family; Henry is a farmer, operating the Steinhart ranch; Sophia is the wife of Ralph Hopper, of Lower Lake; Hattie is the wife of Jens Nielson, a farmer at Ukiah, Mendocino county ; George is employed on the farm belonging to the State Agricultural College at Davis, Cal.
Ernest Enderlin attended school in San Francisco, and when a youth began a four years' apprenticeship to the trade of machinist in the shops of the Pacific Rolling Mills (now the Risden Iron Works) in that city. Mean- while, however, when seventeen years old, he came to Lake county and for two years was located at Lower Lake, returning to San Francisco to finish his apprenticeship. Subsequently he was employed as a machinist at the Dow Pump Works, Eagle Gas Engine Company and United Iron Works at Oak- land, continuing thus until a few years after his marriage. In 1905 he re-
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turned to Lower Lake and bought his present home in the western part of the town, having between three and four acres of ground and a comfortable house. Of late years he has done little at his trade, being engaged principally as a professional nurse, in which work he has proved very successful, his congenial personality and skillful attention winning the highest praise from all who have had need of his services.
Some time ago Mr. Enderlin began to take an interest in the subject of producing goats' milk, which at the present time has a market value of fifty cents per quart, being rich in the butter fats which are so nutritive and easy of digestion. The difficulty at present in this country is to get stock goats for breeding purposes, of the milch varieties, as the government has stringent quarantine regulations against the foot-mouth disease, barring all suspicious importations. There is no disease among the goats in Lake county, but the number is limited. For the last three years Mr. Enderlin has given attention particularly to the breeding of his herd, and he now has fifteen head of high- grade Toggenburg-Saanen milch goats. Milch goats are worth from twenty- five dollars to seventy-five dollars apiece, and a good animal yields from two to four quarts of milk daily. Mr. Enderlin estimates that there is probably about one hundred thousand acres of unoccupied brush land in Lake county which would furnish proper pasture for goats, and when eaten down by them could easily be prepared for orcharding, ready for the planting of apple, pear and olive trees, or vineyards. The industry has gigantic possibilities in the county. Condensed goat milk would solve the perplexing question of infant feeding in many a community, and condensing factories, Roquefort cheese factories and even sanitariums where invalids, especially dyspeptics, could be benefited by the milk diet, are some of the features which the development of this business might bring out. Mr. Enderlin has given considerable time to the study of this problem, and he has done much writing on the subject, contributing articles to live stock and agricultural papers, including the Goat Journal. He is local correspondent for the Lake County Bee and the Kelsey- ville Sun, as well as other papers, and he is doing his best to start a movement in favor of the project which he feels would add to the riches of the county and bring benefit to many, from the standpoint of health as well as financial rewards.
When twenty-two years old Mr. Enderlin was married in San Francisco to Miss Eva Marie Rousseau, and they have had six children, all of whom are vet at home, namely : Blanche, Evelyn, Rousseau, Milton, Harold and Euvelle. Mr. Enderlin is well known in the local fraternal bodies, being a member of the Lower Lake Blue Lodge and a Master Mason, and a past grand of Clear Lake Lodge, No. 130. I. O. O. F .. of Lower Lake.
LORENCE E. ALLISON .- The wide-awake town of Kelseyville has proved a good field for progressive business men, its residents appreciating the efforts local merchants make to give them good merchandise and service, and the benefit has been mutual. Though still one of the younger of the well- known storekeepers in the place, Lorence E. Allison, senior member of the firm of Allison & Stone, has established himself thoroughly in the confidence of the townspeople, and the trade he has built up within a few years would seem astonishing to any unfamiliar with conditions in the community or with his energetic character. His honorable career is considered a credit to the town, for he is a native of Kelseyville. Though his success is his own, the
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community has profited by it also, and in patronizing his up-to-date store so liberally has made possible many of the conveniences he has been able to place at the disposal of his customers.
The late J. Rolly Allison, father of Lorence E. Allison, came to Lake county in the sixties, and his father was a rancher in California in the early days. J. R. Allison married Mrs. Florence L. (Barker) Kelsey, a native of Massachusetts, who came to California with her parents when a girl of four- teen years, the family settling in Lake county. By her first marriage Mrs. Allison had four children, two of whom died in infancy, Susan and Elmer C. living to maturity. Susan is the wife of C. H. Peugh, a farmer, living at Modesto, Cal .; Elmer C. is a member of the firm of Renfro & Kelsey, butchers, of Kelseyville, and his father ran the pioneer butcher shop there, built forty years ago, but he has built a new one in 1914. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Allison : Lorence E .; Alton Grant, who is married and lives at Kelseyville; and Gladys, wife of A. N. Orcutt, a miner, of Garfield, Utah.
Lorence E. Allison was born February 14, 1884, and grew up in Kelsey- ville, receiving a public school education. He began work at the age of four- teen years, clerking in the general merchandise store of W. H. Marshall, at Kelseyville. When sixteen he went to Santa Rosa to take a course in Sweet's Business College, and after graduating returned to Kelseyville and resumed work with his old employer, with whom he remained for several years. For one year he was at Lower Lake with M. Levy, and for a short time he clerked at San Rafael with Hugh Gorley, with those exceptions continuing in Mr. Marshall's employ until he embarked in business for himself, in 1911, at Kelseyville. He commenced with a notion store, adding to his stock as trade demanded, and enlarged his accommodations, until he found himself at the head of one of the largest mercantile establishments in the town. On Decem- ber 1, 1912, he took Donald R. Stone into partnership, and these young men have made a thorough "go" of their venture. Their comprehensive stock of general merchandise includes everything for which there is likely to be any call-groceries, crockery, hardware, tinware, dry goods, hats and caps, boots and shoes, wire fencing and farming machinery, Mr. Allison being agent for the International Harvester Company's implements. He also has the agency for the Spires stage line. Mr. Allison's policy of fair and square dealing has not only brought him customers, but has also established his credit with the wholesale and jobbing houses. The store is centrally located, and the stock is displayed in an attractive and orderly manner, and conveniently arranged. There is no doubt that Mr. Allison's high personal character has been the main factor in his success, for he began with few advantages and had an up- hill road for some years, though his perseverance and industry proved suf- ficient to help him overcome the difficulties he had to encounter before lie became well established. His fellow citizens have shown their trust in his ability by selecting him for local offices, among them that of postmaster, which he filled from 1911 to 1913. He has also been popular in the social organiza- tions of the town, having been president of Kelseyville Parlor, No. 219, N. S. G. W., and council commander of Clear Lake Camp, No. 810, W. O. W. In politics he gives his allegiance to Republican principles.
In 1907 Mr. Allison married Miss Mary E. Grigsby, daughter of the late P. D. Grigsby, of Lower Lake. They have had two children, LeRoy Ellwood and Dialtha Gladys.
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2 3. Rolorbrugh
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JOHN SYLVANUS ROHRBOUGH .- Associated with the agricultural development of Round valley is the name of John S. Rohrbough, who is one of the most widely known citizens and one of the heaviest taxpayers in Mendo- cino county. From the age of seventeen years he has made his home in the coast country of California, having come hither in 1876 from Buckhannon, Upshur county, W. Va., where he was born February 12, 1859. He is the son of Jacob H. and Marella (White) Rohrbough, also natives of Upshur county, where the father was a farmer and business man, and on his mother's side is a descendant of the Jackson family of Revolutionary stock. He is the third in the family of four children and received a common-school education in his native place. The presence of an uncle, G. E. White, in Mendocino county was the factor governing his removal from the east and his arrival here during 1876, after which he was engaged as an employe on the ranch of his uncle in Round valley at a salary of $20 a month. Industry and energy were apparent in his earliest associations with agriculture. An innate spirit of frugality enabled him to save his first earnings to be used in the purchase of property, his first purchase being the flour mill in Covelo, where he has manufactured that product ever since by the steam full roller process, with a capacity of fifty barrels. He also engaged in the stock business, renting land and as he was able purchasing small ranches, thus becoming the owner of several thousand acres. And when his uncle G. E. White's large holdings were offered for sale by various banks and insurance companies on fore- closure of mortgage he took over all of them, going into debt for the larger part. Continuing to raise wheat and manufacture it into flour, which he shipped as far as Ukiah, and engaging in the raising of hay and feeding of cattle, he was enabled to settle the obligation, his different ranches now embracing in all some twenty-five thousand acres of tillable land in Mendo- cino, Humboldt and Trinity counties, over two thousand acres being level valley land nearly in the center of Round valley, forming one of the richest and most fertile tracts in the county, a small agricultural empire reflecting credit upon the ability of its owner and forming a source of merited pride on his part. He makes a specialty of raising large herds of cattle, which range on his different ranches, his brand being 55. For some years he has been breeding full-blooded roan Durham cattle on his home ranch, and these bulls are turned loose on his different ranges. He has also sold more than a score of these full-blooded animals to stockmen in the county, so contribut- ing greatly toward bringing the quality of the cattle to a high standard. He also owns large flocks of sheep, breeding French Merinos, and has raised a large number of horses and mules. In the operation of his ranch he uses the latest machinery, using the largest traction engine manufactured, a Rumely oil pull 30x60, for plowing as well as pulling the combined harvester. He is rapidly converting different fields into alfalfa and rents some of his lands for dairy purposes, which is rapidly taking a lead in intensified farming.
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