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 40
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 40
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117
OSCAR E. MEDDAUGH .- The veteran druggist of Lakeport has been engaged in business at his present headquarters in the Levy block on the corner of Third and Main streets since the year 1893 as the sole proprietor and for five years prior thereto had an interest in the same concern as a mem- ber of the firm of Maxwell & Meddaugh. Although identified with the apothe- cary's business for perhaps thirty years altogether, Mr. Meddaugh is still in the prime of manhood, with the possibility of many years of continued service in the future. We pay homage to such men as James G. Blaine, who wrote instructively on Twenty Years in Congress; but twenty or more years in the drug business in the same place attracts little attention, although it is an accomplishment equally valuable and worthy of praise. During all of these years Mr. Meddaugh has maintained his reputation for ability and integrity. He and his wife have reared a family of four children and their highest an- bition has been to give to each the best of educational advantages. But his achievements have not been limited to business integrity and domestic wel- fare ; always he has been a positive factor for the moral good and spiritual uplift of the community. Not only is he a leading member of the Baptist Church of Lakeport, but he is also a strong temperance advocate and an active worker for the prohibition cause. At times his business has been threatened and he may have lost trade by his temperance sentiments, but he has never failed to speak out boldly against the saloon and the legalized liquor traffic. In national politics he votes with the Republican party. A man of positive convictions and purposeful character, he believes in the good and eschews the bad. In all local matters he desires to stand for the greatest good to all, for progress, truth and right. Such men furnish the best types of
363
MENDOCINO AND LAKE COUNTIES
the citizenship of California and are a source of uplift to their adopted com- munities.
In the county of Oxford near the town of Tilsonburg, Ontario, Canada, Oscar E. Meddaugh was born February 6, 1863. There he received a common- school education and there he learned the drug business with William Mc- Donald of Tilsonburg. After considerable experience he became a registered pharmacist. During 1886 he married Mary E. Haycock, who was born and reared near Tilsonburg. Accompanied by his wife he came to California and arrived at Lakeport September 22, 1888. Immediately afterward he bought an interest in the drug business of W. A. Maxwell on Main street. At the time of the completion of the Levy block in 1891 the business was moved to the present location, where since 1893 Mr. Meddaugh has been the sole pro- prietor of an important concern, carrying a stock that, with the fixtures, rep- resents a very large investment. Meanwhile he and his wife have erected a handsome residence in Lakeport and have become prominent in the repre- sentative social activities of the town, where their attractive home is known as a center of gracious hospitality. Their eldest son, E. Stuart, is a member of the class of 1914, University of California ; the only daughter, I. Jean, is a junior in the same institution; the third child, G. Wallace, is a sophomore in the Lakeport Union high school; and the youngest son, Oscar E., Jr., is a pupil in the Lakeport grammar school.
WILLIAM LLOYD WALLACE .- Of the qualities that combine to give individuality to the character of Mr. Wallace a stranger is most forcibly impressed by his progressive spirit. In agriculture he has little use for anti- quated methods whose only recommendation is their long usage. If a modern innovation appears to be feasible he does not hesitate to experiment with it, whether the innovation be in the line of soil cultivation or new machinery or in the care of stock. It is said that he was the first farmer in Redwood valley to install a silo. Having made a study of ensilage and the feeding of silage to cattle and milch cows during the winter months and having become con- vinced of the utility and economy of the project, he decided to experiment along this line and the result already has justified his faith in that modern develop- ment of stock-feeding. In irrigation matters also he has been a pioneer and promoter. Realizing that the long summer droughts form the greatest draw- back to successful farming in Mendocino county he took steps to secure irriga- tion from the river and through his foresight in this direction he is enabled to raise crops valuable but not otherwise possible.
In the neighboring county of Humboldt. at Eureka. Mr. Wallace was born September 16, 1887, and there he attended the public schools, graduating in 1906 from the Eureka high school and then spending a year as a student in a business college. After about one year in the employ of the Santa Fe Railroad Company, he came to the Redwood valley and since then has been identified with the farming interests of Mendocino county. On July 21, 1912, lie was united in marriage with Miss Rena Ford, who was born in Mendo- cino county March 12. 1892, the daughter of E. M. Ford, and granddaughter of William Ford. honored pioneers intimately associated with the early his- tory of this section. With his wife Mr. Wallace holds membership in the Episcopal Church. Fraternally he is connected with Eureka Camp No. 652. B. P. O. E. On coming to this county October 11, 1909, he purchased fourteen hundred and fifty acres comprising what is known as the old English ranch
36-
MENDOCINO AND LAKE COUNTIES
and he was the first man to file a water right on the Russian river above Calpella. Sixty-five acres, being bottom land, proved exceptionally well adapted to alfalfa, which he raised in large quantities. On that farm he made a specialty of Durham cattle and Berkshire hogs. Early in 1912 he sold the ranch to the Finnish colony and in June moved from the place to his present farm of one hundred and sixty acres, of which he is a half owner with Wesley Ford. It is highly cultivated land situated two miles north of Ukiah on the road to Willits. The largest plant on the river for irrigation in Mendocino county is to be seen on this ranch and they find it a valuable acquisition during seasons of drought. Forty acres of the land are kept in grain and forty-eight acres in hops, while twenty acres are seeded to alfalfa and three acres are in a thrifty orchard of Bartlett pears, the whole forming a valuable estate whose varied products bring in a neat income as a reward of the care and skillful management of the owners.
FRANK DUNCAN .- The entire life activities of Frank Duncan were identified with the vicinity of Hopland, where he was born at the old home- stead of his father, Elijah Duncan, March 30, 1875, and where, having com- pleted the studies of the grammar school in the village, he engaged in the butcher business with his brother, Elijah, Jr., later with James Clendenin. purchasing the livery stable previously owned by Mr. Buckman. At the expiration of eight years the livery business was sold and he thereupon devoted himself to the improvement of his farm of one hundred and forty acres at the foot of Duncan's Peak, about three-fourths of a mile south of Hopland. This tract he had acquired some years prior to his removal from town. For a number of years before his death, which occurred July I, 1911. he devoted himself exclusively to the cultivation of the rich valley land embraced within the boundaries of the farm. While he had a vineyard of twenty acres on the ranch and found the raising of grapes a profitable adjunct of general agriculture, he was not a specialist. The list of products from his farm included grain and hay, cattle and hogs. It was his belief and the opinion also of his wife, whose intelligent co-operation greatly aided him in the expansion of their interests, that the raising of diversified products protected farmers from the financial troubles that invariably accompany the failure of a specialized line of labor ; hence he divided his interests between grain, fruit and live stock, and by this means each year witnessed a gradual and profitable expansion of his interests. Fraternally he was identified with the Foresters and maintained an interest in their work.
It was, however, in his home that the hopes and happiness of Mr. Dun- can most deeply centered. There his noble qualities stood out in greatest prominence. To promote the welfare of wife and child was his highest ambition. Arduous application and unwearied energy enabled him to leave them comfortably situated on the home farm, which Mrs. Duncan with the efficient help of her father. Judge James Clendenin, continues to operate with sagacious judgment. The Clendenin family is of Scotch lineage and was founded in America during the colonial era, Jock Clendenin, the great-great- grandfather of James, having crossed the ocean from Scotland and settled in Kentucky in 1773. At the beginning of the next century the family became represented in Illinois. William Simpson Clendenin, a native of Old Kaskas- kia, Ill., served in the Black Hawk war in the same regiment with Abraham Lincoln. While serving in the army he was stationed for a time in Wisconsin
365
MENDOCINO AND LAKE COUNTIES
and there became interested in lead mining. On receiving an honorable discharge from the army he returned to Southern Wisconsin and took up mining in Grant county, where his son James was born at Potosi December 21. 1849. The discovery of gold in California attracted him from the lead mines of Wisconsin, and in 1850, leaving his family at the old home, he joined the rush to the gold fields, where for five years he engaged in mining in the Sierra Nevadas. On returning to Wisconsin he remained for eight years in various business activities and meanwhile offered his services to the Union at the time of the Civil war, but was rejected on account of age. Prevented from fighting under the stars and stripes, he brought his family to California in 1863 and settled on raw land near Ripon. San Joaquin county, where he followed farming until his death.
The journey across the plains with horse and mule teams was made by James Clendenin with his parents when he was thirteen years of age. After reaching his majority he engaged in raising grain in San Joaquin county. During 1892 he came to Mendocino county, accompanied by his family, which comprised his wife and two daughters, Elizabeth and Charlotte. The latter afterward became the wife of H. G. Grant, a hardware merchant in Clover- dale. The former was born near Stockton and June 5, 1902, at San Francisco. became the wife of Frank Duncan, their union being blessed with one dangh- ter. Dorothy. Mrs. Laura (Seavy) Clendenin, the mother of Mrs. Duncan, was born in Washington county. Me., and was a daughter of Seth A. Seavy, who came around Cape Horn to California in 1852, and followed mining for some years. Returning to Maine, he volunteered in the Union army at the opening of the Civil war and remained in service for four years, being honor- ably discharged at the close of the struggle. Later he returned to California, vhere eventually he died in San Francisco. For many years James Clen- denin served as a member of the school board and at this writing he is justice of the peace. One of his first enterprises after coming to Mendocino county was the planting of a prune orchard on the east side of the river. After dis- posing of the orchard he engaged in the livery business with Mr. Duncan and since the death of the latter the Judge has given much of his time to the supervision of the farm in the interests of his daughter, Mrs. Duncan.
THOMAS D. BALDERSTON .- One who has merited the recognition of the people of this county for his inflexible honor, his integrity and the sterling traits of character which have been evidenced in his every move- ment in business. social and public life is Thomas D. Balderston, proprietor of the Calpella Hotel. Naturally endowed with unusual qualities of mind and experienced in the ways of life by his travels and the many trades he has followed, he has acquired an inner knowledge of the world which few men possess. His first home was in Dolington, Bucks county, Pa., where he was born May 29, 1861, the son of John and Elizabeth (McMaster) Balder- ston, who sent him to the common schools of the district and reared him to a life of industry. When sixteen years of age he left home to go to Texas, where he worked at various trades for a short time. The spirit of wandering. the desire to see the world and a hope to find better and more lucrative cm- ployment, took him to many states in the Union until in 1885, when he came to Rocklin, Placer county. Cal., where he entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. as brakeman. Later as conductor and then as vardmaster, he remained with the company until about 1897, when he resigned
366
MENDOCINO AND LAKE COUNTIES
to conduct a hotel and rooming house. He continued for about ten years in this enterprise, in which he was quite successful, but later moved to Emery- ville, where he engaged in the lodging house business for several years.
When Mr. Balderston came to Mendocino county in March, 1910, he settled in Calpella, where he purchased a hotel and also a feed and fuel yard, and this is the business he follows today. Popular, genial and thoughtful in all his dealings, he enjoys a gratifying patronage which attests to his good management and sagacious judgment. He is a charter member of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows at Rocklin, where he became a member at twenty-six years of age. Mrs. Balderston was in maidenhood Miss Grace Kuhfeld, a native of Sierra county, Cal.
ELIJAH RENSHAW POTTER .- That Mr. Potter was among the very earliest settlers of Round valley is attested in the fact that when he came to this district it contained forty residents, there being thirty-five men, three women and two children. Of that small company of pioneers, who endured the privations of frontier existence and met with courage the vicissi- tudes of life in a region far removed from railroads, he is perhaps the only survivor. One of the most serious obstacles which the pioneers confronted was the enmity of the Indians, who were at the time so numerous that de- termined co-operation on their part would have exterminated the white men. It was necessary to keep a vigilant outlook, lest in an unexpected hour the savages would surround a home for an attack. Mr. Potter knows much about the dangers in this direction, for he was only fifteen years of age when he fought his first battle with the red men, this being at Silver Creek, Eldorado county. Later he bore a part in other skirmishes, in which the victories of the settlers forced their enemies to seek other hunting grounds. He served in two different Indian wars, in 1851 and 1859, on account of which he draws a pension. Of course there were no schools in those days, but as families began to take up homesteads and children became numerous in the valley, it was necessary to provide buildings and teachers so that schools could be started, and in all of this forward work he bore a part.
Near the Tennessee river on a farm in Jackson county, Ala., Elijah Renshaw Potter was born December 1, 1835, and from there in 1843 he was taken by his parents to Springfield, Mo. The family was poor and the neces- sity of self-support took him from school at the age of thirteen. When gold was discovered in California and messengers brought the great news to Mis- souri he was fourteen, an age when many boys would hesitate about leaving home on a long journey, perhaps never to return. With customary enthusiasm and fearlessness he joined an expedition bound for the west and on his arrival began to prospect in Placer county. He vividly recalls the wild excitement prevailing at the time of the admission of California into the Union, September 9, 1850. For ten years he was employed at hydraulic mining in Shasta county and during a part of the time he met with encouraging success.
A trip of investigation to Mendocino county convinced Mr. Potter of the fertility of its soil and the value of its forests. He took up a pre-emption claim of one hundred and sixty acres in Round valley, cleared the land and began the task of cultivation, in due time proving up on the property, which he then sold. Thereupon he took up another claim a short distance from the first, and this he still owns, having much of the time devoted it to the raising of hogs and cattle. About 1908 he purchased his present home place in
367
MENDOCINO AND LAKE COUNTIES
Covelo, where he still engages in farming. Notwithstanding his advanced age he still follows the trade of a trapper with skill and success.
For four years he served as road overseer of Round valley, where from 1905 to 1909 he also filled the office of justice of the peace. Although he never studied law, he displayed considerable knowledge of the profession as justice and his decisions were characterized by impartiality and intelligence. Public affairs always have interested him and he devotes much of his leisure to the thoughtful consideration of national problems. In religion he upholds Baptist doctrines and has long been identified with the denomination.
Mr. Potter was married in Ukiah in 1868 to Miss Susan M. Atkinson, born in Placer county, Cal., and they have three children, viz., P. G., Melinda (Mrs. Bucknell) and Robert A., all of Covelo.
WILLIAM W. THATCHER .- The changes wrought in Mendocino county by about one-half century of progress have been witnessed and to a large degree promoted by Mr. Thatcher, a pioneer upbuilder of Hopland and vicinity. It was during 1867 that, having heard favorable reports concerning this county and further being informed of a general store offered for sale at Hopland, he came on horseback over the mountains to Ukiah and there turned southward, in due time arriving at Hopland, where in less than an bour he had purchased Conner's store. The quickness of judgment exhibited in that transaction is one of his leading characteristics, and even now, when more than four score years have laid their burden upon body and mind, he still surprises acquaintances with instantaneous decisions whose wisdom is proved by subsequent events. When once a decision is made, no later vacil- lation or regret mars his purposeful activities, and this attitude of mind appears in the fact that from 1867 to the present time he has continued to be the owner of the same store, although with advancing years he has turned over to his son, Evan, its general management. When he came here and for some years after his arrival the population was to some extent transient and not alto- gether desirable, but later the floating element sought other centers of activity and the permanent population took on its present form of thrift. energy and high principles of honor, giving to this part of the county a citizenship as desirable as it is prosperous and efficient.
From early life Mr. Thatcher was familiar with privations and inured to hardships. He was born near Springfield, Clark county, Ohio, November 8, 1831, and at the age of fourteen his father. James, having died, he took up the burden of the family maintenance and the farm management. Of course it was not possible for him to attend school with any regularity, hence he is mainly self-educated. The energy and determination of the little family made possible the buying of a small farm, and this he managed until the second marriage of his mother, after which he was free to take up the trade of a carpenter under an old acquaintance, Jimmie Johnson. The fact that an uncle, Hezekiah Thatcher, had sent back favorable reports from California led him to come to the west via the isthmus in 1854, at first joining the uncle in Yolo county, sixteen miles west of Davisville. In the following decade he earned a livelihood along various lines of enterprise. Day labor as a carpenter and the building of a ferry boat to cross the tules preceded the operation of a livery barn at Placerville. On the burning down of the stable he engaged as storekeeper at the Daily ranch, seventeen miles west of Sacra- mento. Next he built an inn at Whitehall on the road from Sacramento to
368
MENDOCINO AND LAKE COUNTIES
Virginia City, and this he conducted with fair success until the building of the railroad took him off the regular line of daily travel, after which he changed his location to Mendocino county. In 1869 he burned the brick used in the erection of a new store room and here he has since carried on a general mercantile business. In the meantime he has bought and sold a number of ranches and has seen property double and treble in value. About 1890 he erected the Thatcher hotel at Hopland, a substantial building with large rooms, high ceilings, modern equipment and excellent accommodations for the traveling public, the place being considered at the time of its erection by far the best-built hotel in the county.
In politics Mr. Thatcher has been a Republican ever since the organiza- tion of the party. Temperance principles receive his stanch support. Move- ments for the upbuilding of Hopland have his co-operation, and even now, although obliged by advancing years to forego a leading part in progressive projects, his support is none the less stanch and his patriotic spirit none the less genuine. By his marriage in Sacramento to Miss Sarah E. Roach, a native daughter of California, he is the father of five children now living. namely : Arthur, an attorney in Eureka ; Evan, who has charge of the store at Hopland ; Millie, who married John Kemp and lives in Los Angeles ; Sarah and Edith, both of whom married attorneys, the former now in the Sandwich Islands and the latter a resident of California.
WILLIAM DUNCAN .- The original identification of the Duncan family with Mendocino county dates back to July of 1858, when Elijah Hall Duncan became one of the earliest settlers in the fertile valley surrounding the present site of Hopland. There was little except the soil to attract an American to this then isolated region, whose primitive inhabitants, the savage Indians, still lingered among the lonely mountains and threatened the white settlers with extinction. With the utter fearlessness that had always been one of his lead- ing attributes of character Mr. Duncan proceeded to carry out plans for permanent settlement. By a payment of $1,000 in cash and fifty head of cattle he was able to obtain the title to seventeen hundred acres, part of which he afterward sold at $2.50 per acre, and that eventually, proving to be valnable for the raising of hops, became very high-priced. On that great ranch he first built a rude shack which did service until he moved to the county road, when he built a five-room log cabin. This later gave way to a modern and commodious residence erected on the hill by the county road, at the end of Duncan lane. His possessions finally embraced three ranches aggregating forty-one hundred acres, on which he engaged in raising farm products as well as horses, mules, cattle and sheep. From his home could be seen Duncan's peak, which was named in his honor. His name is also perpet- nated in Duncan springs, which he discovered on his ranch and which, on an analysis of the water, was discovered to contain curative properties in highly valuable proportions.
The life of this honored pioneer began in Tennessee December 8, 1824, and closed in Mendocino county July 23, 1889, after three years of failing health. That he achieved success was due to his own inherent powers and not to any favors shown him by destiny. When only eight years of age he was deprived by death of his father and mother. The family previously had moved to Missouri and there he learned the trade of a tanner and for some years operated a plant of his own. April 15, 1856, he married Elizabeth
William Duncan
371
MENDOCINO AND LAKE COUNTIES
Craddock, a native of Virginia. Their bridal tour consisted of a trip across the plains to California. A wagon drawn by oxen conveyed the necessities of the long journey. In addition they had on starting one hundred and sixty head of cattle. Of these the Indians took forty head. With the balance they were able to embark in stock-raising after their arrival in Sonoma county on the 7th of September. The original location was six miles east of Healds- burg, whence in the summer of 1858 Mr. Duncan brought his family and his cattle to the mouth of Feliz creek, where he began ranching and stock-raising in Sanel valley. Always a promoter of any enterprise for the benefit of the farming interests of the district, he was the second man to set out hops, and for years had on his ranch the largest field of this crop grown in the entire county. There still stands in the valley the old hop kiln erected by him, which was one of the first of its kind here. Besides drying his own hops in the kiln he accommodated his neighbors in the same way and proved a most helpful citizen as well as a progressive farmer. His wife, who survived him, continued at the old homestead until her death April 28, 1905. Their family numbered ten children and six of these are still living, the youngest being William, who was born July 31, 1872, and who received his education in local schools and the San Francisco Business College. After the death of his father he took an active part in the management of the ranch.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.