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 26
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 26
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Independent in politics, while primarily a Democrat, Mr. Long believes in voting for the man he deems best fitted for the office, and he has proven himself a conscientious and active citizen wherever local matters have been concerned. He believes in the making of permanent improvements in the town where his interests are centered, and has built a new, modern residence at a convenient distance from the business center. While not a member of any church, he believes in their influence for moral good and lends his sup- port to them as well as the Sunday schools. He married December 18, 1905, Alice Hurt, who was born in Lake county, and five children have been born to them: Harold, Gerald, Thomas, Joseph and Leta Alice.
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NATHANIEL WARREN KENT .- That it is possible to secure a sub- stantial degree of success in Mendocino county the prosperity of Mr. Kent abundantly proves, for he is the owner of a large and well-improved ranch two and one-half miles south of the village of Mendocino in the Little River district, and is extensively engaged in stock-raising, dairying and kindred industries. Recently he has added a creamery to his other enterprises. The plant is modern and well-equipped. The quality of the output is indicated by the statement that he has received the highest awards for his butter at local fairs. In the creamery as in every other department connected with the farm thrift, sanitation and intelligence predominate. The oversight of the owner is everywhere in evidence. In the selection of stock for his dairy he exercises the most careful judgment in securing the best Jersey blood and in this way he is building up a very valuable herd.
Perhaps the prominence of Mr. Kent in agricultural circles is due in some degree to the fact that he has been a lifelong resident of Mendocino county and the son of an honored pioneer family. His father, William Henry Kent, who was born in Mount Vernon, Me., came to California in 1851 via the Isthmus to San Francisco. His first venture in the west was in the mines, but it was not a success, and by the time he was reduced to four bits he concluded it was time to seek other employment. His familiarity with logging in Maine induced him to seek similar work in Mendocino county. At first he engaged in logging on Big river, and eventually he became camp boss. In 1857 he bought a squatter's claim from Mr. Beall, and this he improved and continued to make his home until his death. He was greatly interested in road-building, often using his own teams to carry out projects that he deemed essential, and he served one term as supervisor of his district. In maidenhood his wife was Miss Charlotte Cofren, of Vienna, Me., and her mother was Sarah Greeley, a member of the same family as Horace Greeley. Mr. and Mrs. Kent were married in Maine and in 1855 Mrs. Kent came by way of Panama to Cloverdale, Cal., from there riding horseback on the Indian trail to Mendocino county. Only two white women had preceded hier here. The history of the Kent family in this country is traced back to the first settlement made in Connecticut in 1640, from there going back to the twelfth century in England. To William H. Kent and his wife two children were born, Everett William, who died in 1902, and Nathaniel W., whose name heads this sketch.
At the old homestead on Little river, where Nathaniel W. Kent was born. June 10, 1864, he learned the rudiments of agriculture and acquired skill in the care of stock. A course of study in Heald's Business College, San Francisco, qualified him for commercial affairs. His mother died September 2, 1891, and his father passed away January 25, 1906, leaving to him the ranch of four hundred and ninety-six acres at Bridgeport and two hundred and seventy of the old home place at Little River. The example of the father was fol- lowed by the son, who gave considerable attention first to sheep and later to dairying. Through energy and patience he has developed one of the finest dairies in the district and the enterprise is proving profitable as well as popular. For a number of years his father had the largest butchering busi- ness in Northern California and our subject aided him in the business. He had charge of the slaughter house on the ranch, and killed thirty cattle a week for a time. His Jersey herd has been bred to a high grade, representing the St. Lambert strain largely. A part of the ranch is devoted to intensified farm-
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ing, large crops of peas and beets being raised and furnishing feed the year around.
The Kent farm house is said to be one of the finest country homes in Mendocino county. The home is presided over graciously by Mrs. Kent, for- merly Mary Emma Phelps, a native of Owatonna, Minn., born May 16, 1868, the daughter of Oriville and Mary (Butterfield) Phelps, born in New York and Michigan respectively. About 1884 the family came to California, but in the fall of 1887 Miss Phelps returned to Minnesota, and there the following year she became the bride of Mr. Kent, their marriage being solemnized June 1, 1888. Seven children were born of their union, namely: Dwight N. of Vallejo; Ralph L., deceased; William Howard; Ruth, Donald, Edith and Florence. Mr. Kent was made a Mason in Mendocino Lodge No. 179, F. & A. M., and with his wife is a member of Ocean View Chapter, No. 111, O. E. S. The family are associated with the Presbyterian Church in religious affili- ations. Active in politics, Mr. Kent has been chosen delegate to local con- ventions of the Republican party and has been influential in promoting its interests. Both as a neighbor and as a farmer he stands high. His popu- larity results from a lifetime of devotion to the interests of the community and a progressive spirit that inspires him to advocate all measures for the general welfare. To such men as he the county is indebted for past progress and future prospects.
HIRAM KENNEDY .- Within the spacious bounds of the Kennedy ranch in Long valley may be found an establishment so complete in every detail that it should be the pride of its owner, who has been a pioneer in that region in more respects than one. He has occupied his home tract there since 1859. and is now one of the largest land owners in the locality, principally engaged in the raising of cattle and hogs for the beef and pork market. But for a period of twenty-nine years he was extensively interested in dairying, in which line he was perhaps the first farmer east of Clear Lake to meet with enough profitable success to justify his continuing it. He has made and sold tons of first-class butter, and in the early days of the Bartlett Springs Resort in Lake county supplied the dairy products used there, to which fact doubtless much of its popularity was due, as it was famous for the excellence of its table. Mr. Kennedy is a "Yankee" by birth, and though most of his long life-he is now in his eightieth year-has been spent in California, he still retains many typical New England qualities, not only the thrift and pride of independence, but also the keenness of intellect and ingenuity which marks the true sons of that section. His energetic personality, alert bearing and physical activity evince the executive ability which has made his many achievements possible.
New Hampshire is Mr. Kennedy's native state, and he is of the fourth generation of his family in this country, his great-grandfather, James Ken- nedy, having been born in Londonderry, Ireland, from which country he came to America. He made a settlement in what is now Hillsboro county, N. H., near the Unconono mountains. The first white child born at Goffstown, that state, was Thomas Kennedy, a cousin of James Kennedy (father of Hiram Kennedy), to which fact the inscription on the shaft of native slatestone which marks his grave bears witness. One of Hiram Kennedy's aunts bore the maiden name of Louisa Stark, and she was a granddaughter of General Stark of Revolutionary fame, who lies buried at Manchester, N. H. James
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Kennedy, grandfather of Hiram Kennedy, was born at Goffstown, as was his father, James Kennedy, Jr. The latter was engaged as a sawmill man at Goffstown until he came to California among the "argonauts of '49," making the trip around the Horn in the bark "Chester," which proved to be a very slow vessel, the tedious, stormy voyage consuming nine months. He landed at San Francisco in April, 1850, and engaged in placer mining until joined by his son a few years later, eventually entering into agricultural work with him, and he died at his son Hiram's home in Long valley some years ago, lacking only five months of completing his ninetieth year. He had married Phoebe Robie, who was a native of Maine, their marriage taking place at Goffstown, N. H., where she died at the age of fifty-three. Six children were born to this union, Clarinda, Diantha, Roberta, Hiram, Almus and Esther. Clarinda died in 1893. Diantha, who is also deceased, married William Moody, a sea captain, and lived in Boston, Mass .; she had two children. Roberta, deceased, married James Colby, a farmer, and had one child ; they lived at Dunbarton, near Goffstown. Almus, a veteran of the Civil war, was a painter until his retirement; he married Miss Belle Wilson, of Davis, Cal., where they now reside; they have no living children. Esther is the wife of Albert F. Morrell, a prominent resident of the Morgan valley, and they have had five children.
Hiram Kennedy was born at Goffstown, N. H., November 20, 1834, and obtained his education in the public schools there. When sixteen he went to work for the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company at Manchester, N. H., and he gained a very thorough knowledge of boilermaking and machinist work under his boss, Mr. Farrier, a highly competent man, who turned out some fine locomotive boilers. By that time Mr. Kennedy's father had gone to California, and the youth did the best he could to make his own living and also help his mother, trying so earnestly that although he had a very severe boss he worked his way up steadily, himself becoming head of the shop. At the age of nineteen he left to follow his father to the west, expecting to join him at Volcanoville, where the family had last heard from him, and where he was following placer mining. Bidding good-bye to his mother and the rest of the home folks, he sailed from New York on the steamer "George Law" to Aspinwall, and crossed the isthmus, being obliged to go eleven miles of the way on foot. At Panama he embarked on the "Sonora" for San Fran- cisco, where he arrived after a twenty-six days' journey from New York City, which he had left August 4, 1854. The voyage up the coast from Panama was marked by many unpleasant experiences. Cholera claimed twelve of the passengers, and sixty miles below San Francisco the boat ran on a rock, but managed to get away and finish the trip. Mr. Kennedy proceeded at once to Volcanoville, only to learn that his father had gone to Shasta county. Being out of money, the young man took a position at the "Illinois House," a Dutch hotel on J street, Sacramento, with a man named Merker, and worked there three months before he found where his father was. They met at Dicks- bury, and from that time mined together in Butte and Plumas counties. The father was about discouraged, believing the mines were played out, and after following that work for a few years more they resolved to try their fortunes in land and agricultural operations.
When Mr. Kennedy and his father came into Lake county in 1859 they had but eighteen hundred dollars between them, and they put thirteen hundred
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dollars into their first purchase, acquiring a possessory right in one hundred and sixty acres. They bought from the original settlers, Ben Knights and a Mr. Willis, known as Knights & Willis, and later had the land surveyed, acquiring the patent from the government. At that time James Kennedy and his sons Hiram and Almus each took up one hundred and sixty acres, Hiram Kennedy afterward pre-empting one hundred and sixty acres and homestead- ing a tract of eighty acres. His other one hundred and sixty consisted of lieu lands. His holdings at present, including land he has bought from the govern- ment and others, aggregate a little less than two thousand acres. The story of his busy life between his arrival in Long valley and the present is one of constant effort, yet he also found time for hunting in the early days and missed none of the experiences which constitute the "atmosphere" of a region opening gradually from its primitive state to one of advanced development. Few men know more of the typical phases of life in the early days than he, and few have taken more interest or pains to preserve relics and valuable mementoes of those times.
At the time he commenced dairying Mr. Kennedy took in a working partner. J. Durst, with whom he was associated for two years. since when he has been in business on his own account except as his sons have become interested with him. His large dairy was a profitable venture throughout the twenty-nine years he made a specialty of that branch, but he has given it up to devote all his attention to the raising of beef and pork, in which he deals extensively. He has one hundred and twenty-five head of cattle and one hundred and fifty hogs on hand as a rule, has facilities for killing, scalding and cutting over fifty hogs a day, and also has a large smokehouse, sometimes curing hams and bacon from as many as one hundred hogs in a year. His product is high class and much in demand in the local market. All the opera- tions are conducted in the most systematic modern manner, the equipment on the place being conspicuously perfect in every detail, for his son Albert is an all-around electrical engineer and machinist, and he and his father manage all the repair work of every kind necessary on the ranch. Wagons, machinery of various kinds, and everything about the place are kept in first- class order, facilitating the work immensely. A waterworks system has been installed, so that the barns, cattle and hay yards, house and wash rooms are supplied with an unlimited flow of pure mountain water, and power is fur- nished for running a grindstone and the dynamo for electric lighting. The machine shop is well equipped with drills, lathes, and woodworking and iron- working machinery. Mr. Kennedy has rebuilt his home. but a number of the timbers which his father hewed out for the original building still remain. It is a commodious and comfortable house, unpretentious, but suggesting the generous scale on which all his work has been carried on.
In his machine shop Mr. Kennedy has quite a collection of traps, in- cluding a grizzly bear steel trap about seven feet long, which was made by the pioneer blacksmith at Lower Lake, Mr. Tremper, in the early days. Hunt- ing was his principal recreation for a number of years after he settled here, and he has killed grizzly, cinnamon, brown and black bears in Long valley. his house being decorated with rugs from the hides of bears, deer, panthers, foxes and other wild animals he has hunted. He has also preserved carefully the skulls of different varieties of native wild animals, such as bears, panthers. etc., while dozens of deer antlers tell the story of his successes. However, he
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has relinquished this sport, and he allows no shooting on his own premises, a fact which the deer seem to have learned, for they browse there unafraid, seeming to understand the full freedom and absolute protection assured them. from deer hounds as well as from hunters. In consequence, herds of deer inay be observed from the porch of Mr. Kennedy's residence with the aid of a telescope almost any day, grazing in large numbers, from twenty to fifty together. He is indeed a typical member of the stock from which he springs. Many of the Kennedys have been educators, many have shown a genius for mechanics, and many like himself have been successful farmers and financiers, large landowners and influential members of the communities in which their lots have been cast.
In the year 1872 Mr. Kennedy married Miss Rose Wilson, of Davisville, Yolo county, Cal., daughter of Alexander and Eliza (Cronk) Wilson, the father a native of England, the latter born in New York, of Holland-Dutch descent. They came to California from Pennsylvania (in which state Mrs. Kennedy was born) in 1863, sailing from New York and crossing the conti- nent by the Nicaragua route, and Mrs. Kennedy was brought up in Yolo county. Three children have been born of this marriage: Alexander W., mentioned more at length below; Milo Russell, a physician and surgeon of Eagleville, Modoc county, this state, who married Winona Adams and has three children, Mabel, Milo and Thomas ; and Albert H., also mentioned later.
Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy are both prominent in 'Masonic circles, his mem- bership being with Lower Lake Lodge, No. 183, F. & A. M., and with the Royal Arch Chapter ; he has been a master Mason for fifty years. Mrs. Ken- nedy is a member of Lower Lake Chapter, No. 231, O. E. S., and is one of its past matrons. Politically, Mr. Kennedy has been a Republican in sentiment. but party affairs have never engaged much of his attention, though he is in- terested thoroughly in public movements. In his eightieth year, he is still working and enjoying his work, and he is blessed with good health, though he has had his share of misfortune in that respect, having in the course of his life had six accidents, runaways, etc. Though seriously injured more than once, he has recovered completely, so far as permanent effects are concerned.
Alexander W. Kennedy, eldest son of Hiram Kennedy, was born at the Kennedy homestead May 19, 1873, and has spent his whole life in Long valley. The home place, with its varied and numerous interests, has always offered plenty of outlet for his energies and business ability, and from the time he was able to help he became his father's mainstay there. His own house, barns, etc., are located about half a mile above his parents' home in Long valley, and he has one hundred acres in his own name, besides a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres which he has taken up. General farming. principally stock raising, has occupied his attention, and his industrious appli- cation to everything he undertakes, as well as his unassuming but reliable character, have made a substantial place for him in the good will of his neigh- bors and friends everywhere. His sense of fairness and justice are recognized by all who have had dealings with him, in any of the relations of life. Any- thing that tends to benefit the general welfare finds his encouragement and support ready, and he is a worthy representative of the name he bears. Mr. Kennedy was married about ten years ago to Miss Mary Schindler, of High valley. and they have two children, Sylvan and Bertha.
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Albert H. Kennedy, youngest son of Hiram Kennedy, was born October 15, 1878, on the old Kennedy homestead place in Long valley, and grew up there amid conditions which were a constant incentive to one of his mechani- cal turn. He attended school in Long valley, and afterward took a course at Van der Naillen's school of engineering in San Francisco, attending there for a year and a half, and graduating in 1902. Going to Monterey county, he took a position with the Spreckels Sugar Company, which he held for nine months, at the end of that time going to San Francisco again, doing drafting and electrical engineering. His next change was to the employ of the Alaska Packers' Association, for which he went to Naknek. Bristol Bay, Alaska, as electrician, remaining there five months. The next spring he went up again and stayed for a year and a half, in the employ of the same company, and on his return to San Francisco took a position at Santa Rosa with the Pacific Gas and Electric Corporation, with which he continued a year and a half. A defective switch caused an accident in which he had his hands badly burned and came within an ace of death, and this experience made him decide to make farming his life work thereafter. He has a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres adjoining part of the Hiram Kennedy land, his own and his brother's and father's holdings totaling about twenty-five hundred acres, principally devoted to stock, grain and hay farming, with the production of beef and pork as a specialty. Here he has had abundant opportunity to work out many of his own ideas in mechanical lines, besides adapting the best of others' minds. His mechanical ability is universally recognized, and he has been made manager of the Associated Farmers' Telephone lines of Lower Lake, a sort of co-operative arrangement among the local farmers, each valley having its own line, and all uniting to maintain a central exchange at Lower Lake, where two operators are engaged. The day service is from seven in the morning until eight at night.
In 1909 Mr. Kennedy married Miss Daisy Brady, of Davis, Yolo county, and they have one child, James Burnell. Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy are interested keenly in Masonic work, Mr. Kennedy being the present master of Clear Lodge, No. 183. F. & A. M., at Lower Lake, serving his fourth year in that position ; he and his wife belong to Lower Lake Chapter, No. 231, O. E. S.
MRS. ROSA D. EXLEY .- Of old and honored southern lineage, Mrs. Exley was born near Elizabethtown, Hardin county, Ky., and is a daughter of the late Rev. C. S. and Nancy (Daugherty) Daugherty, who, although bearing the same name, came from families entirely unrelated. For sixty years, from early manhood until his death at a venerable age, Mr. Daugherty gave the most efficient and self-sacrificing service to the Methodist Episcopal Church South, whose ministry he adorned and whose doctrines he upheld with intel- ligent zeal. Meanwhile he owned and managed his fine plantation of one thousand acres near Elizabethtown, where were wont to gather fellow- ministers to receive practical counsel and cheerful encouragement from this learned man of the church. His devotion to his family was equalled only by his love of the church, and he gave to wife and children the affectionate atten- tions that gave him the first place in the heart of each. There were five chil- dren and three of these are still living, Mrs. Exley being the youngest child and the only daughter. So rapid was her advancement under the capable
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training of her father that at the age of sixteen she was qualified to teach school, and for seven years she followed that profession with commendable zeal and noteworthy success.
There had been two brothers of Rev. C. S. Daugherty who were attracted to California by the lure of the gold fields. The second of these left Kentucky early in 1857 and undoubtedly perished on the plains, but no word of his fate ever came back to the waiting relatives. The other brother, Benjamin, had crossed the plains in 1855 on muleback and had arrived in Sacramento with fifty cents as his total capital. Fortunately he secured work at once with a lumber company and was paid $8 per day. Soon he drifted to the mines at Marysville, but did not find the hoped-for fortune in the camp or river bed. Directing his attention to the. acquisition of land, he became a pioneer of Little Lake valley, Mendocino county, and took up one hundred and sixty acres of government land near the present site of Willits. There he remained until his death in 1883. All through this part of the country he was known as General Daugherty, the title coming from his skillful re- sistance of Indian attacks on the plains, where he so shrewdly and success- fully outgeneraled the savages that he was given a military title among his acquaintances. Having no family to inherit his property, it fell to the brother in Kentucky, Rev. C. S. Daugherty, who in 1901 with his son, Robert, came to Mendocino county and laid out the Daugherty addition to Willits. When the business had been settled and the addition sold Mr. Daugherty returned to his Kentucky plantation in April, 1904, and there he passed away February 5, 1914, having survived for some years his aged wife, who died at the old home June 28, 1908. Their daughter, Mrs. Exley, joined her father and brother at Willits March 28, 1902, and in San Francisco November 23, 1904, she became the wife of M. D. Exley, who was born and reared in that city. A painter and decorator by trade, he has continued to follow the trade since his marriage, although a portion of his time is given to the ranch owned by Mrs. Exley and located one mile west of Willits. Two hundred and five acres are devoted largely to pasturage, hay and grain, and stock-raising has been made a vital part of the farm work.
The family of Mr. and Mrs. Exley consists of four children. namely : Fred Cornelius, Rosa Daugherty, Alice Roberta and Richard Martin. In addition Mrs. Exley took into her home a lonely girl of twelve years, Rose Kramer, who now at nineteen years is repaying the kindnesses of the past by her own affectionate devotion to the entire family and particularly to the small children. This act on the part of Mrs. Exley is indicative of her helpful, kindly and capable disposition. Brimming over with the milk of human kind- ness, she is ever ready and anxious to assist those less fortunate than herself and never allows an opportunity to pass for the doing of some unselfish act in the interests of others. For years she has been a communicant of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Descended from stanch old Democratic fore- fathers, she is ardent in her advocacy of the same principles and takes much interest in public affairs. To an exceptional degree she possesses business ability and all of her interests are controlled with sagacious judgment, while combined with this important attribute are cheerfulness under all circum- stances, gentleness and a loyal devotion to family and friends.
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