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 33
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 33
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I. O. O. F., at Middletown, being the present noble grand, and his wife belongs to the Rebekahs. She is a leading member of the Presbyterian Church of Middletown, taking special interest in mission work and the activities of the ladies' aid society. In all of Mr. Young's enterprises she has been his valued coworker, and she has had her full share in his success. They occupy the residence on Union street, Middletown, which he built in 1872.
On November 20. 1866, Mr. Young married Miss Lutitia M. Berry, who was born at Fulton, Ill., daughter of Baxter Bell and Elizabeth (Cameron) Berry, the father a native of Tennessee, the mother of Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Berry moved to near Oskaloosa, Iowa, and from there came overland to California in 1852, settling in Sonoma county, where they were pioneers. Of their nine children only three now survive: Lamira S., Mrs. Cannon, of Mid- dletown ; Lutitia M., Mrs. Young ; and Eva, Mrs. Scudder, a resident of Sebas- topol, Sonoma county. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Young : Wirt Haight, now engaged in farming in Coyote valley, married Lizzie Hughes, and they have two children. Ethel May and Wirt Raymond. Baxter Ewing, now located at Oakland, Cal., married Miss Hattie Adamson, by whom he has one child, Margaret Lois. Lizzie M. died when about three years old. Charles W. is at Sacramento, engaged as foreman in the reclama- tion of lands along the Sacramento river, in the employ of the California National Bank ; to him and his wife Velma (Brooks) have been born two chil- aren, Charles Glenn and Lutitia Adeline.
FARMERS' SAVINGS BANK, LAKEPORT .- With an authorized capital stock of $100.000, divided into one thousand shares of the par value of $100 each, but with only twenty per cent, or $20.000. paid in at the time of organization, the Farmers' Savings Bank of Lakeport was established December 8, 1874, and in the forty years of subsequent enterprise has had a history of growing prestige and unwavering confidence on the part of de- positors. Those at the head of the institution have been conservative to an unusual degree, but this very spirit of conservatism has been their shield against unwise investments or heavy loans, so that they stand now as final- ciers of unquestioned ability, abundantly able to guide the destinies of the concern through future responsibilities.
The names of the persons who subscribed the original $20,000 are as follows : J. H. Renfro, H. Charmack, C. A. Piner, Z. C. Daver. Thomas Allison, T. T. Scott, Martha C. Reeves, Robert Oliver, D. P. Shattuck, H. C. Boggs, J. W. Boggs, W. J. Nicholson, Charles Piner, James B. Jamison, Thomas Ormiston. Benjamin F. Shaul, Aaron White, Charles McIntyre, John Gard. William Stonebraker, A. H. Nobles, G. W. Gard, Seth Rickabaugh, John Pos- tels, Preston Rickabaugh, W. F. Kelsey, D. D. Davis, William Nobles, I. N. Gard, James Kelsey, William Gard, J. R. Allison, John Kelsey, William G. Reeves, Thomas B. Reeves, Latanus N. Nobles, John R. Lamb, J. E. Shirley, H. J. Cooper, W. A. Christie, Jonas Ingram. J. W. Robbe, Louisa Thompson, J. C. Thompson, N. W. Washburn. Lindsey Carson. W. J. Butler, G. C. Rippey, John Lynch, J. W. Mackall, George Tucker, H. D. Snow. Woods Crawford, A. P. McCarthy, M. C. Tucker, George W. Wilson, R. S. Johnson, J. M. Martin, J. J. Bruton. Price Snider, Henry Palmer, M. Asher, R. C. Tallman, William J. Biggerstaff, John Jones, S. Ballinger, Peter Clark, Robert Buck- nell, Sylvia Thomas, J. W. Doty, D. T. Taylor, A. B. Hughes, N. H. Thull, D. V. Thompson, L. Gurnett, D. Q. McCarthy. G. A. Lyon, R. Phillaber,
FC. Handy.
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George T. Martin, S. C. Combs, Daniel McLean, E. B. Bole and D. O. Shattuck.
The present board of directors of the bank comprises the following named gentlemen : J. W. Boggs, J. Banks, J. W. Byrnes, F. H. Boggs and W. D. Rantz, all of Lakeport; together with S. T. Packwood, of Upper Lake, and Andrew Smith, of Finley. The officers for 1914 are as follows: J. W. Boggs. president ; Jabez Banks, vice-president; F. H. Boggs, cashier and secretary ; H. L. Boggs, assistant cashier ; and George R. Smith, assistant cashier. The institution is well and safely managed under the personal and intelligent supervision of the officers and directors, who have established a reputation for a conservative spirit in all business transactions and have thereby drawn to their list of depositors many of the best and most successful business men of Lake county.
FRED C. HANDY .- It would be impossible to present any resume of the Mendocino state hospital without due mention of Fred C. Handy, for- merly secretary and now steward and business manager of the institution. The position that he fills is one demanding the highest efficiency and wisest judgment. Decisions of importance must be made promptly, problems must be solved sagaciously and large affairs must be governed with wisdom. No less than fifty different departments come under his immediate supervision. All purchases are made by his authority and with his approval. The task of distribution also comes within the scope of his jurisdiction. All of the con- struction work of recent years (aggregating in value more than $500,000) has been superintended by him personally. In addition he has charge of the kitchen, dining-room, dairy, laundry, bakery, shops, etc. ; also manages the buy- ing and selling of the stock, the care of the stables and the cultivation of the great estate of one thousand acres comprising the hospital farm, the whole forming a task of such magnitude that the greatest care and an unusual amount of time are demanded for its successful consummation and the maintenance of a high-class business system is absolutely imperative.
A native of Eldorado county and a lifelong resident of California with the exception of a few years spent in Honolulu during the incumbency of a position of official importance, Mr. Handy understands conditions as they exist in the west, is familiar with the development of this section of the country and has great faith in its future progress. He was born near Placerville, November 26, 1865, a son of Philo and Laura (Roper) Handy, natives of Ohio and Illinois respectively. The father served in the Fifteenth Illinois Regiment under General Grant, in which he received wounds at the battle of Shiloh. After the close of the war, in 1865, he crossed the plains to California with teams and wagons. He followed mining until 1870, when he located in Round valley, Mendocino county, and thereafter followed farming. Fred C. Handy attended the grammar schools and the Santa Clara high school, as well as the Academy of Science, from which he was graduated in 1884. Upon returning to Mendocino county to take up the active duties of life, he devoted his attention for a time to the raising of sheep and the tilling of the soil in Round valley. Later he filled a number of offices with intelligence and fidelity, being connected with the offices of county assessor, county tax col- lector and county clerk as a deputy and later serving as undersheriff of the county. Before the Mendocino state hospital had been completed he was chosen secretary of the institution and entered upon his duties October 1.
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1893, after which he filled the position for eight consecutive years. Next he spent three years in Honolulu as deputy United States marshal. Upon his return to California in 1903 he was chosen steward or business manager of the Mendocino state hospital and in that important position he has placed the business affairs of the institution upon a sound basis. Of the officials who became connected with the hospital at the time it was started in the lat- ter part of 1893, he alone remains. Under different administrations and various boards his work has been alike satisfactory. Naturally, he is some- what progressive in his views, somewhat of a reformer in his ideas. Many of the reforms for which he worked he has had the gratification of seeing adopted. His life has been given to service to his commonwealth. To pro- mote the welfare of the institution with which he is connected, to increase its usefulness and enhance its efficiency, comprise ambitions that form the very foundation of his character, the keynote of his energetic temperament. Yet he has not centered himself selfishly upon the one ideal nor limited himself narrowly to the one institution; on the other hand, with his wife, who was Miss Amy Morrison, a native of California, he has been a power for good in all movements for the social and educational upbuilding of the community ; he has been and still is a director in the Bank of Ukiah and has made other associations in business or public affairs. Fraternally he has had many im- portant connections. In Masonry he is past master of Abell Lodge No. 146, F. & A. M., past high priest of Ukiah Chapter No. 53, R. A. M., commander of Ukiah Commandery No. 33, K. T., past patron of Kingsley Chapter, O. E. S., and for some years served as inspector of this Masonic district. In the local lodge of Odd Fellows he is past grand, while he furthermore has been influ- ential locally in the Knights of Pythias, the Eagles and the Woodmen of the World.
ALLEN SAMUELSON .- A native son of the Golden West and descended from an old pioneer family of California, Allen Samuelson is today one of the rising young men of Mendocino county, occupying a position of responsibility with one of the largest lumber companies in that part of the state. He was born at Albion, Mendocino county, July 28, 1889, and is the son of August and Catherine (Miller) Samuelson, who came to California almost forty years ago. The father is a native of Sweden and is descended from one of the old and highly honored families of that country. After com- ing to California he became an edger in the sawmills, holding at different times positions with various mills, but making his residence at Fort Bragg.
Although born at Albion, Mr. Samuelson spent his boyhood days in Fort Bragg, where he still has many life-long friends. His education was received in the public schools of the busy little city, where he attended the grammar schools, and for a short time the high school. The lure of the business world, however, proved too strong for this ambitious youth, and after a short time he discontinued his studies and was apprenticed as a filer in the Union Lum- ber Company's mill at Fort Bragg. Here he continued for four years, and rose to the position of second filer. Later he entered the employ of the Irvine-Muir Lumber Company at Irmulco, as head filer, a position of trust and responsibility. After a time he resigned this position to go to Vancouver, B. C., as second filer in lumber mills located there. The northern city, how- ever, failed to hold this native son away from the land of his nativity, and at the end of a year he returned to accept the position of head filer with the
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Northwestern Redwood Company in their Mendocino county mills, entering upon his new duties December 1, 1913
Mr. Samuelson is still with this company, and is accredited as one of their most trusted employes. He makes his home at Northwestern, where he is well and favorably known and possesses a host of warm friends. He is a member of the Redmen at Fort Bragg, and is considered one of the most promising young men in the county. His success is due entirely to his steady and earnest application, his unfaltering reliability and trustworthiness, and to his general skill in his chosen occupation.
The Samuelson family is one of the oldest and best known in Mendocino county, and is highly respected and honored. There are seven children, of whom Allen Samuelson is the eldest, and all are worthy citizens of their native county.
WILLIAM WEIGAND .- The proprietor of Hotel Willits, who ranks among the leading landlords of Mendocino county and is an active member of the California Hotel Men's Association, has engaged in the hotel business from early life, meanwhile acquiring an experience and familiarity with details that gives efficiency to his present management and a high degree of success in return for his labors. Although a native of Pennsylvania, born in the city of Philadelphia, December 11, 1867, from the age of three years until about twenty he lived at Oppenheim on the Rhine in Germany. His father, Philip, who was born at Dahlheim, Hessen Darmstadt, spent a considerable time in Philadelphia where he was among the first fire brick manufacturers in that city. In 1870 he took his family to Germany and there remained until death. Four of the brothers in the family enlisted in the Union army during the Civil war and three of them perished on fields of battle during that great struggle.
Returning to the United States in 1887, William Weigand settled in Boston, Mass., and embarked in the hotel and catering business. Three years later he removed from Boston to Minneapolis and became interested in the same line of business. For a considerable period of years he conducted an enterprise with fair profit. The year 1898 found him in California. He located at Windsor, Sonoma county, and became proprietor of the New Western hotel until the railroad was completed to Willits, when he assumed the management of the Hotel Willits. After a year he left to engage in business for himself, but at the expiration of eighteen months he again leased the Willits, of which he since has been the popular proprietor. This is not only the largest hotel in the county, but claims distinction as being without a superior in the mat- ter of equipment and accommodations and was also the first to establish a dining room a la carte. The lobby of the hotel has been made attractive with a substantial maple floor, a large fireplace and neat furnishings. The Eagle cafe and restaurant are owned by Mr. Weigand, who is also the owner of the building in which the cafe is conducted.
Through his marriage in Minneapolis to Miss Mary Oversett, a native of Risfjorden, Norway, Mr. Weigand gained a thoroughly competent help- mate, who is now giving personal attention to the management of the Hacienda hotel of seventy-three rooms, located at No. 580 O'Farrell street. The Hotel Willits, which Mr. Weigand purchased in November, 1913, and annex include ninety-five large rooms, comfortably furnished and equipped with modern conveniences. In addition he is the owner of the old Quass ranch, which
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he uses for a summer home and which is situated six and one-half miles north of town. At no time has he been active in politics and his interest in public affairs is limited to the casting of a Republican ballot at national elections. Fraternally he holds membership with the Sons of Hermann, the Aerie of Eagles at Willits, and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks at Santa Rosa.
WILLIAM FORD .- One-half century of change and progress has brought its sweeping transformation, lifting obscure towns into the prestige of largely populated cities and bringing the swift motor car into the highway where once could be seen only a primitive ox-cart with its load of human freight or a lonely plowman taking his weary way to his shack on a homestead claim,-such are but a few of the changes Mr. Ford has seen since he arrived in Mendocino county in 1864, a pioneer in the great northern sections of Cali- tornia as yet unknown to the farmer and undeveloped in resources. His had been a life of hardship and privation and he was prepared by training for the difficulties in his path as a pioneer farmer, in the district surrounding Ukiah. The home in which he was reared had been destitute of comforts and he had been obliged to work laboriously, with infrequent opportunities to attend school. His parents, John and Hopy (Highsmith) Ford, were farmers on the then frontier of Illinois and it was in Crawford county, that state, he was born August 25, 1831. In his long life he has seen a remarkable advancement. He came west in 1850 almost two decades before the completion of the first transcontinental railroad. Since then railroads have spanned the country, electricity has been made a factor in community development, the telephone and telegraph, with the more modern wireless system. have obliterated dis- tance, and now the most remarkable task of the ages, the great Panama canal, is nearing completion. With customary interest in great enterprises he has kept posted concerning all of these factors in modern advancement. not allowing old age to diminish his deep interest in all that makes for the good of the country.
For fifteen months after coming to California Mr. Ford worked in and near Placerville, after which he engaged in getting out timber in the heart of the redwood district near Pescadero, San Mateo county. Two years were spent in the milling business near Watsonville. Santa Cruz county. Next he went to the San Juan valley, Monterey county, and entered land, but finally had to abandon the claim owing to the difficulty in establishing a title. It was then that he sought Mendocino county. Here again he was confronted by the difficulty in securing a clear title to land. The large body which he secured did not have a clear title established and he was forced to go through the most strennous labors to establish his claim to the property. Calling the attention of others to the dire need of having correct titles, he started an interest culminating in the present secure land measures for the protection of the titles of land owners. When once his title was guaranteed he began to improve the tract, consisting of one thousand acres purchased from Thomas Gibson and fourteen hundred acres entered as homesteads and claims. Afterward he added to it until he had about twenty-seven hundred acres located five miles northwest of Ukiah. The great range was well adapted to stock and he made a specialty of horses, cattle and sheep. At times his flocks numbered as many as twenty-five hundred head. The lowlands were devoted to crops, mainly alfalfa, of which he cut two crops each year. Meanwhile he had purchased the residence of Judge McGarvey in Ukiah,
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and here he and his wife (Sarah Lynch, a native of Arkansas) established a comfortable home and reared their children.
The Ford household consisted of the following children : James Alfred, a farmer on the home place; Martha Ann, deceased; Mary Elizabeth, who mar- ried James York, of Mendocino county : William Adolphus, in the real estate business and who made a specialty of raising hops in this county for years; Julia Hopy, who married F. Arnold Ford, also of this county; Enoch M., a farmer near the old home place and supervisor of Mendocino county ; and Sarah Belle, who married M. Banker, of Ukiah. Mr. Ford was bereaved by tile death of his wife September 29, 1913, at the age of seventy-three. The first presidential vote of MIr. Ford was cast in 1854 and ever since then he has supported the principles of the Democratic party. During 1870 he was elected treasurer of Mendocino county and served for four years; again in 1890 he was chosen for the same office, that time. continuing in the position for eight years. For years he has officiated as a trustee and class leader in the Metho- dist Episcopal Church. Not only is he a pioneer of California, but in addition he ranks as one of the state's workers, one of those who aided in developing the hitherto unknown resources of the west and whose efforts have been of value, not merely to himself and family, but in a larger degree to all the people of the county and to everyone interested in the agricultural development of Northern California.
JUDGE FRANK A. WHIPPLE .- Among the many important accom- plishments which the efforts and indefatigable will of Justice Whipple have brought to completion none perhaps has carried as intense weight and figured as conspicuously as the securing of the high school for Fort Bragg, in the face of great opposition. the fight even being carried through the courts, and it is the children of this section of the coast who are the greatest benefactors of his untiring labor and unselfish effort. A gentleman, a scholar and an unusually keen business man, his forceful character has been felt in many avenues throughout the vicinity, but educational matters have most attracted his aftention.
Judge Whipple was a native of Oberlin, Ohio, the son of Henry E. Whipple, who came from his native Williston, Vt., to Oberlin when a young boy. Afforded excellent educational advantages, he was a graduate of the Oberlin College, later becoming a professor in same, and for some years re- mained in that capacity, during the time being ordained minister. He re- signed the professorship finally to accept a call to Hillsdale (Mich.) College, aided in its establishment, and served as professor there for a long period. He figured prominently as aid on the staff of Governor Blair, war governor of Michigan, and in 1870 resigned and came to the coast. As editor of the Humboldt Times, which paper was owned by his brother, he served efficiently until appointed to a position in the government mint at San Francisco, where his last days were spent. He was an earnest preacher and during his life had preached in the Baptist Church for sixty-four years all told. His wife, who was Elizabeth Packard before her marriage, was born in Massachusetts of splendid family. Her death occurred in Fort Bragg; the mother of three children, she was an exemplary parent and teacher, imparting to her family the beauty of thought and refinement which is a marked characteristic in them today.
Born October 25, 1850, Judge Whipple was his parents' second child. He
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was reared in Hillsdale, Mich., entering the public schools and then Hillsdale College, in which the foundation of his unusual fund of knowledge was laid. Leaving college, he engaged for a time as clerk in the store of his brother there, and in 1872 followed his father to California, locating in Mendocino county, and engaging in the mercantile business at Kibesilah, which place is situated fifteen miles north of Fort Bragg. There was no mail route into this town, and his strong influence toward bettering conditions was immediately felt in the community by his succeeding in procuring the mail route and the establishment of a postoffice at Kibesilah. While living here, in 1885, he was appointed justice of the peace of Ten Mile River township, and at the end of this term was elected, and has been re-elected each term since, covering a term of service of twenty-nine years. In December, 1887, when the mills were moved to Fort Bragg, he moved there also, it being in the same town- ship, and established his office, where he has since performed the duties of justice of the peace and followed the business of general conveyancing, in- surance, etc., with marked success.
Judge Whipple married in Hillsdale, Mich., Miss Frances A. Smith, a native of Hillsdale county, that state, where for a time she was engaged in educational work. To them were born four children, viz .: Allen, Genevieve (Mrs. C. E. Sherrick), Henry and Frances (Mrs. Ray Pedrotti), all of them residents of Fort Bragg. The Judge is prominent in the Red Men fraternity, being a charter member of Santana Tribe No. 60 at Fort Bragg; he is past officer and served as the Great Sachem of the Great Council of California in 1897-98, and three times attended as delegate the Great Council of the United States ; is also past officer of the Knights of the Maccabees. A Republican in political sentiment, well versed on all current subjects pertaining to national and local politics, he has been active in and served as chairman of the County Republican Committee. He served for twenty years as a member of the board of school trustees, refused office for five years, and was again prevailed upon to accept office in 1914. As has been mentioned before, he was the prime inover in the action to secure the Fort Bragg high school, remaining to fight it through after other members of the committee had resigned because of the conflict. He served as the first president of the board, justly meriting the praise and gratification which he received from the citizens of Fort Bragg.
MRS. HARRIET C. BIGGERSTAFF .- A long-time resident of Lake- port closed her life history and a personage of position passed from among her friends with the death of Mrs. Harriet C. (Savage) Biggerstaff, November 23, 1896, at the age of seventy years. This history began in the Kentucky home of Pleasant M. Savage November 17. 1826, took on interest through an excellent education in Lexington, a cultured city of the Blue Grass state, and developed into useful service and individual effort through her removal to Missouri to engage in teaching. After having devoted the year 1852 to educational work at Glasgow, Mo., in a female seminary of which her brother, Rev. George S. Savage, held the principalship, she removed to Plattsburg, same state, in 1853 for the purpose of teaching the children of a deceased brother. In that city she became the betrothed bride of William J. Bigger- staff, with whom she was united in marriage June 1. 1854. Of her influence as wife too much cannot be said in terms of praise. At the time of her mar- riage Mr. Biggerstaff was not a Christian, but such was the influence of her godly life, such the splendid power of her active Christianity, and such
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