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 38
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 38
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An experience in brick-making and other occupations filled the first days of the residence of Mr. Anker at Cloverdale, Sonoma county. In 1873 he began trucking with one team. From that small beginning he built up a steady business. In 1887, two years before the railroad was built to Ukiah. he came to this place and here he has since engaged in the truck business. which in 1910 was incorporated as the N. Anker Company, with himself as president, his eldest son as treasurer and manager and the second son as secretary. An auto truck as well as eighteen head of horses are utilized to meet the demands of the business. Aside from a general truck and transfer trade, the company engages as general contractors for the leveling of land in Mendocino and Lake counties. Their interests are further diversified by identification with viticulture through the ownership of fifty acres in a vine- yard together with a small orchard. The barns of the company are located on the corner of Mill and Main streets, while the warehouse stands in the heart of Ukiah on Stanley street.
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While engaged in business at Cloverdale Mr. Anker established domestic ties, being married, May 6, 1877, to Miss Katie Ludvig, who was born in Eggensund near Flensborg, Schleswig, then a part of Denmark. During girlhood Mrs. Anker came to California and settled in Cloverdale. Eight children were born of the marriage, namely: Joe C., who died at the age of twenty-one; Louis C., treasurer and manager of the N. Anker Company ; Mrs. Amelia Ganter, who died at twenty-eight years; Florin E., now with the Cali- fornia Telephone & Light Company at Santa Rosa; Myrtle E., the wife of W. B. Dickie, of Ukiah; Neil M., who has the agency at Ukiah for the Stand- ard Oil Company, a position which Mr. Anker himself filled for sixteen years; Katie L., wife of Oscar Olson, of Ukiah ; and Gladys, who is a skilled musician and brightens the family home with her cheerful presence. In politics Mr. Anker is a Republican. Both he and his wife are members of the Ukiah Presbyterian Church and he has served on its board of trustees. When his parents were growing old he sent to the old home in Denmark for them and had them join him in California, where their last days were happily passed under the affectionate care of his wife. In the fraternities he has been con- nected with the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Masons. While living at Cloverdale he was made a Mason in Curtis Lodge, of which he officiated as master for three years. At this writing he belongs to Abell Lodge No. 146, F. & A. M., at Ukiah, and with his wife holds membership in Kingsley Chapter No. 58, O. E. S., besides being identified with the Rebekahs. At Cloverdale he was a leading Odd Fellow and since coming to Ukiah he has been officially connected with the lodge in this city.
J. E. WELLER .- The financial interests of a large aggregation of the people resident in and near Fort Bragg are wisely conserved through the agency of the First National Bank of Fort Bragg, an institution that during the more than two decades of its existence has had a steady growth in number of depositors, amounts of deposits and confidence of the public. Business men have found the concern alive to their welfare and concerned in their
prosperity. Those desirous of commercial credit or loans have been accom- modated generously, when the security of the funds has not been jeopardized thereby. All in all, the organization has been governed by a directorate pro- gressive yet cautious and accommodating yet conservative, and these prin- ciples have been carried out in the policy of the officers, particularly in the executive supervision of the president, J. E. Weller, who in 1891 came to California and settled at Fort Bragg shortly after the establishment of the bank, and entered the institution in a minor capacity, gradually advancing until he was finally promoted to his present position of authority and financial leadership.
A native of Bradford county, Pa., and a graduate of the high schools at Athens, that state, J. E. Weller has been self-supporting from the age of seventeen years and meantime has developed qualities of self-reliance and sagacious judgment of the utmost value to him in the serious undertakings of his business career. For three years he was employed in the Santa Fe office at Topeka, Kan., and in the same city he gave five years of commercial, salaried service to the firm of Stephenson & Peckham. From Kansas he came to California, where ever since he has been identified with the First National Bank of Fort Bragg and as a leading citizen and president of the local Cham-
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ber of Commerce, he has been a leader in civic affairs. In this town he has fraternal connections with the Odd Fellows and Masons and his associations of that nature are increased by membership in the Santa Rosa Lodge of Elks and the Improved Order of Red Men. His family consists of his wife and daughter, Lucille, the former having been Miss Helen Stewart, of Glens Falls, N. Y.
EDWARD E. BROWN, D. D. S .- The president of the Fort Bragg Garage and Machine Company came to California with the intention of devoting his energies to the practice of the dental profession, but a later development of trouble with his eyes caused him to turn over to an assistant the care of his office and since then he has engaged in business pursuits. Like many of the men whom the possibilities of California have attracted to its commercial and professional circles, he claims Canada as his native land, and was born at Picton, Province of Ontario, but passed the years of youth mainly in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The completion of common-school studies was followed by a decision to take up the study of medicine, to which science he devoted two years of conscientious application, only to decide at the expiration of the time that the practice of the profession did not appeal to him. Thereupon, in 1892, he began to train himself for dentistry, taking up the profession as a student in Minneapolis and eventually receiving his degree from the dental department of the Central University of Kentucky at Louisville. Upon coming to California he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons at San Francisco, from which he received the degree of D. D. S. and in 1898 opened an office at Fort Bragg, where from the first he proved himself to be conscientious, skillful and thoroughly efficient in all lines of dental work. In 1907 he took a post graduate course at Haskell Post- graduate School of Dentistry in Chicago. When it became necessary for him to relinquish at least temporarily all active association with the office, he established an assistant therein and turned his attention to business affairs.
The Fort Bragg Garage and Machine Company was incorporated Feb- ruary 14, 1910, and the present officers are: E. E. Brown, president ; W. H. Dixon. vice-president ; J. E. Weller, secretary ; L. Barnard, treasurer. The company maintains a modern garage, equipped with every facility and device associated with the most recent development of the motor business. A gen- eral electrical and supply department adds to the importance of the shop and every modern electrical appliance is carried in stock, with an expert electrician in charge. The garage is the headquarters and agency for two popular cars. the Buick and Ford. In addition to maintaining a close supervision of the shop and his other interests in Mendocino county, the president of the com- pany is serving as Mayor. He had been elected a member of the board of trustees in April of 1913, and in 1914 was elected president of the bcard. With his wife, who was Miss Emma E. Neff, a native of Port Huron, Mich., and formerly a teacher in the public schools of Mendocino county, he has a high social standing in the community and has a circle of friends as large as his list of acquaintances. Prominent in a number of fraternal. orders, he is acting as keeper of the records and seals of the Knights of Pythias, also is past master of Fort Bragg Lodge No. 361, F. & A. M., besides being clerk of the local organization of the Woodmen of the World and a member of the Order of Eagles. Professionally he is a member of the alumni association of the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the California State Dental
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Association. He is very much interested in good roads and everything tending to make automobiling more enjoyable and profitable. He is a mem- ber of the California State Automobile Association and the American Auto- mobile Association.
LILBURN H. BOGGS .- Perhaps in no respect has the progress of Lake county been retarded to a greater degree than in the absence of adequate transportation facilities connecting it with the outside world of activity. As the stage line to the best of its ability grappled with the serious problem of transportation, there were not wanting men of ability and optimism to seriously consider the possibility of constructing a line for steam cars. Always, however, the expensive matter of mountain construction with attendant tunnels has deterred public-spirited men from inaugurating an enterprise. It has been left to Lilburn H. Boggs to display the tremendous energy and undaunted pluck for which several generations of the family have been noted and which found distinguished expression in the life of his grandfather, Gov- ernor Lilburn W. Boggs, a pioneer of 1846 in California and alcalde of the northern district of this state. As president of the Clear Lake Railroad Com- pany he is now promoting the construction of a railroad from Lakeport to Hopland, there to connect with the main line of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad. Although the distance is not great the state railroad commission estimates the total cost of construction and equipment at about $750,000 and already $75,000 has been expended by the company in making the survey between the two towns named and in the grading of the road preparatory to the laying of ties. It is the ambition of the president and the other pro- moters of the enterprise to make it possible to celebrate the completion of the railroad at the time of the great Panama Canal Exposition in 1915, thus enab- ling visitors to San Francisco at that time to inspect the beautiful scenery and study the natural resources of Lake county, should they be so inclined.
When Henry Carroll and Martha Jane (Young) Boggs started from Jackson county, Mo., to join other members of the Boggs family in Cali- fornia, their son, Lilburn H., was only three months old, his birth having occurred February 4. 1850. During 1864 the family came to Lake county and the father organized the Farmers' Savings Bank, which still is owned and operated by others of the name. Lilburn H. Boggs was educated in public schools, McClure's Academy at Oakland and Heald's Business College in San Francisco. On the organization of the Farmers' Savings Bank in 1875 he became assistant cashier and continued as such for seven years, when he resigned to take charge of the sawmill on a tract of four thousand acres of sugar pine, yellow pine and fir, in which he also had a one-third interest. This tract is located just north of Middletown, on Boggs Mountain, and is wholly within the limits of Lake county. The manufacture of lumber was continued for about five years, and the acreage and forest are still retained. For years Mr. Boggs has been a leader in Democratic councils. As early as 1882 he was elected sheriff and thereupon accepted the office and began to devote his attention to the duties of the office. Twice he was re-elected to the office for consecutive terms and again, after an interval in which there was a Republican victory, he was returned to the office for two more terms, finally retiring in 1895. Throughout the five terms of his incumbency the office was filled with energy, fearlessness and tact, and his long retention as sheriff indicates the popularity which he gained among the people of the county.
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The family residence of Mr. Boggs on a ranch of three hundred and fifty acres in Big valley is a modern, substantial structure befitting the dignity of the family name. The lady who graciously presides over the home was, prior to her marriage in 1871, Miss Sarah C. Elgin, of St. Helena, Napa county, a native of Missouri and a daughter of W. A. Elgin, a pioneer of St. Helena. There are now four living children, the eldest daughter, Lew, having died at fourteen years of age. Floyd H. is now cashier of the Farmers' Savings Bank at Lakeport, in which the youngest child, Henry Carroll, acts as assist- ant cashier. The elder daughter, Irene, resides on the home ranch with her parents, and the younger. Beut Y., is the wife of George Voss, a druggist of Lakeport. To the prestige of the family name Lilburn H. Boggs has added by his honorable identification with the development of Lake county and particularly by his public-spirited efforts to secure for it the advantages of a railroad.
JAMES M. KERR .- A well-known citizen of Mendocino county is the hotel proprietor at Albion, James M. Kerr, who was born near Campbellford in the province of Ontario, Canada. July 6, 1858, and was bereft of his father, William, in May of 1864. The mother, who bore the maiden name of Ellen Meikeljohn, was born in Fifeshire. Scotland, April 14, 1828, and at the age of fifteen years accompanied her parents to America, in 1843, settling with them on a Canadian farin of broad acreage but scant improvements. At the age of twenty years she became the wife of William Kerr, who was born in Ireland; and his death in 1864 left her with a family of seven children and practically nothing for their support. For this reason the children were obliged to become self-supporting at an early age. The son, James M .. was sent to a Canadian farmer to work for board and clothes. He was ten years of age at the time and his work consisted mainly of the chores that form so large a part of farm work. Meanwhile he was sent to school in the winter months. He continued farm work in Ontario until 1881, when he went to Saginaw, Mich., where he secured employment in a saw-mill and continued for five years. Then he began to do railroad work.
During 1886 Mr. Kerr became an apprentice in the machine shops of the Pere Marquette Railroad at Saginaw, where he gave special attention to car construction. From Saginaw he was sent to Holly, Mich., in 1891 to act as inspector of cars for the same company. Upon the transfer of station and holdings to the Grand Trunk Railroad corporation in 1896, he resigned his position and took up other lines of enterprise. With Walter J. Moore as a partner he embarked in the ice business at Saginaw. At the expiration of three years he bought the interest of his partner in the business, which he continued for a short time alone and then sold to L. C. Smith & Co. Later he entered other lines of work, but the failure of his health resulting from rheumatism caused him to seek the benefits of the California climate. A first trip to the west was made in 1903. Soon he returned to Michigan greatly benefited by the vacation and change of climate, but the rigorous winters of his home state brought on a return of his former trouble and in 1904 he came to California to settle permanently. A few months in Mendocino county benefited him greatly, and after nine months in business at Caspar he sold out and joined his brother, Robert Kerr, in conducting the South Side hotel in Albion. The death of his brother in 1910 left him the sole manager of the business, in which his mother, who came to Mendocino county in 1887 and at
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first settled on Salmon creek, is also interested. Fraternally he is connected with Aerie No. 833, Fraternal Order of Eagles at Fort Bragg, and also is a member of Holly Lodge No. 134, F. & A. M., at Holly, Mich. At Peterbor- ough, Canada, February 19, 1880, he married Miss Sarah Jane Doherty, who was born in the province of Ontario April 23, 1859, and died at Holly, Mich., February 19, 1894, leaving two daughters, Stella May. Mrs. Fred Barton, of Saginaw, and Ethel Irene, who lives with her father.
HANS ANDERSON .- There is much work of a highly responsible na- ture involved in the management and successful conduct of the famous Bart- lett Springs resort, in Lake county, a health and summer resort which has had long continued popularity. The water, noted for its medicinal qualities and highly esteemed for table use, is bottled and shipped in large quantities, being well known all over the Pacific coast especially, and in Central America as well. The site of the resort was discovered about forty years ago by a man named Bartlett traveling in search of health, and the delightful atmospheric conditions and mineral water so benefited him that he settled there. This was the beginning of a sanitarium which has since been visited by people from all parts of California, as well as from other states. For over eighteen years Hans Anderson has been engineer at the resort, and being a skillful machinist and plumber has been very valuable in looking after much of the equipment necessary for the comfort of the guests and the important sanitary arrange- ments.
Mr. Anderson was born in 1868 at Chicago, Ill., where his early life was spent. He had common school advantages in his native city, and started to learn his trade there, in 1888 coming out to California and first settling in San Francisco. At that place, at Sacramento, and at Dixon, Solano county, he continued to enlarge his experience as a machinist, and over eighteen years ago he took the position of engineer at Bartlett Springs, where he has been employed continually since. The very fact that he has been retained there so long speaks well for his ability and reliable character. He has adapted him- self to the increased demands of his position as the place grew and developed, the care of the machinery and plumbing being a very important part of the direction of the vast establishment which has grown up at this point. Some idea of the responsibilities of his work may be gained from the statement that there are eighteen hundred acres of land in the Bartlett Springs property ; that there are in all about two hundred buildings, including the three main hotel buildings, imposing and modernly appointed structures, and a number of housekeeping cottages upon the grounds for those who prefer family life, accommodating in all about five hundred guests; and there is a large swim- ming tank, steam laundry, and other conveniences which come within his province. The building erected for the season of 1911 has twenty rooms with baths and toilets, winter dining rooms and kitchen, hot and cold water in each room; there are two rooming houses besides the hotel cottages, and an inclosure with fourteen tents furnished for hotel use with running water in each. As a number of families make their summer home at this place every- thing is done to provide for their wants, and besides stores of various kinds there is a butcher shop equipped with a complete refrigerating plant, with facilities for making over a ton of ice a day. The cement swimming tank is twenty by eighty feet in dimensions, and the mineral, tub and vapor baths must all be liberally supplied, so that it will be seen that keeping the ma-
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chinery and plumbing of this large and well organized establishment requires executive ability and thorough knowledge of sanitary engineering as well as mechanical skill. It is conceded that the obliging assistants have had much to do with the satisfaction guests have expressed with the excellent service, and Mr. Anderson has done his share toward looking after the comfort and health of those who have come to seek health or pleasure in this ideal spot. His industry and honorable life have won him the respect of his employers, who appreciate his devotion to their interests. By thrift he has been able to accumulate some valuable property, having three fine income properties at Sacramento and two residence properties at Lakeport. Though quiet and unassuming, without any desire to take part in public affairs, he takes a deep interest in their efficient administration, and is public-spirited about sup- porting high principles and the men who stand for them; politically be be- lieves in the doctrines of the Republican party.
In 1897 Mr. Anderson married Miss Katie Lynch, step-daughter of John Ryan, a ranchman in the East Upper Lake precinct of Lake county, by whom she was brought up. Mrs. Anderson died in the fall of 1913, and the only child born to this union is also deceased. Mr. Ryan and Mr. Anderson have been associated in various matters for a number of years. Mr. Anderson is an Odd Fellow in good standing, belonging to the lodge at Dixon, Solano county.
CHARLES WHITED .- The postmaster at Willits, who was appointed to the office May 20, 1913, by President Wilson, taking the office July 11, 1913, lanks among the leading citizens of the valley and for years has been a leading factor in local public affairs, serving as town trustee for four years and also filling the office of town clerk with recognized fidelity and intelligence for eight years. Practically all of his life has been passed in Mendocino county, for, although a native of Iowa, having been born near Burlington, he was only two years of age when in 1869 his parents, Joseph and Mary (Short) Whited, came to California and selected for a permanent location the valley where subsequent years of energetic and business-like application deservedly have given them a high standing among pioneer families. Under the careful training of the father, who was the pioneer builder in Willits and rose from day work as a carpenter to the taking of important contracts, the sons, Charles and L. R .. were instructed in every detail connected with the trade, so that in their present partnership as builders they are enabled to fill contracts with the most scrupulous exactness and devotion to detail. One of their recent im- portant contracts has been that for the completion of eight miles of state highway north of Ukiah, a large enterprise in which they had D. L. Sawyer as an associate. In addition they have been awarded contracts for the build- ing of many concrete bridges in the county, as well as the contracts for all of the houses erected at the plant of the Irvine-Muir Lumber Company.
From the age of sixteen years Charles Whited largely has devoted his time to the building business, although also in early life he taught school for a short time, operated a threshing machine and a sawmill and engaged in ranching in the valley. After some time given to ranching he erected the Palace hotel, now the Central, on Main street and served as proprietor of the same for ten years, meanwhile rebuilding it after it had been destroyed by fire. A goodly number of the houses and business buildings in Willits stand as monuments to his efficiency as a carpenter and he is still active in this line of work. Those who once have engaged his services retain thereafter a high
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Chus Whited
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opinion of his skill in the building business. By his marriage to Miss Eliza- heth J. Vincent, daughter of Frank Vincent, a pioneer blacksmith of the valley, he has one son, Carl, a graduate of the Willits high school and now an assistant in the Willits postoffice.
JOHN THOMAS BOND .- Mr. Bond has a fine estate of six hundred and forty acres in Morgan valley, all the improvements on which are the result of his own ambitious efforts. The eldest son of one of the oldest settlers in this region, he was born in the valley, has passed all his life on his native soil, and has the distinction of having been one of the pupils in attendance the first day school was opened there. All the members of the family have large interests in the locality, and he is no exception. Henry Bond, his father, popularly known as "Harry" Bond, came into Lake county in the year 1857, and has been a resident of Morgan valley since 1860. A native of England, born in Somersetshire March 12, 1832, son of Thomas and Mary (Ewletts) Bond, he is now past eighty-two years of age, but active and attending to various business affairs, a typical representative of the Quaker stock from which he springs. His parents had a family of five children : Amelia, who lived and died in England, became the wife of Charles Cullen and had three children; Henry is mentioned later; Thomas was an old-time miner who came to California in pioneer days; John died in Australia ; William was in Australia when last heard from. The father lived and died in Somer- setshire, where he followed the business of liveryman. He passed away in 1860, at the age of seventy-nine years, his wife dying in England at the same age, in 1869.
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