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 41
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 41
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Upon his marriage in 1895 to Miss Jennie A. Barker, a native of Mendo- cino county, Mr. Duncan rented the sheep ranch east of Hopland that be- longed to the family estate. The property is still under his supervision and is owned by himself and a brother, E. J., being devoted by them to the sheep industry. The tract comprises three thousand two hundred and seventy acres and contains at this writing about fourteen hundred head of Spanish merino sheep. Mr. Duncan makes his home in Hopland, where in 1912 he bought the general mercantile store formerly owned by his brother, Samuel, and this establishment he is now managing with efficiency and success. In politics he votes with the Democratic party. Although not identified with any religious organization, he is a generous contributor to the Christian Church, to which his wife belongs, and he has also aided other movements for the uplifting of the community. In his family there are three children, Neva, Terrel LeRoy and William H. His enterprising spirit is recognized by his acquaintances, who appreciate his willingness to give of his time and influence to aid local projects of merit. In his circle of associates he is esteemed for his sterling worth.
CHARLES MARTIN BUCKNELL .- The northern coast country of California has been the home of Mr. Bucknell throughout his entire life. From his birth, which occurred October 23, 1867, the family lived in Lake county until the fall of 1879, when removal was made to Mendocino county. His schooling had commenced in his native county and was continued in Round valley, but his educational opportunities were meager, and the in- formation he now possesses is the result of self-culture and observation rather than attendance at school. Comforts were few in his childhood home. The most diligent labor was necessary in order to provide for the family the necessities of existence ; there was no thought concerning the luxuries. With willing hands and cheerful heart he took up his share of the burden and aided his stepfather in the maintenance of the family, continuing to thus assist until the time of his marriage to Miss Linnie Potter, a native of Round valley and member of an honored pioneer family.
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Steady work for a number of years on ranches and the utmost economy in every expenditure put Mr. Bucknell in a position where it was possible for him to invest in land. The purchase of one hundred and fifty-nine acres in 1893 made him one of the land-owners in Round valley, where he farmed for some time with the usual share of reverses and successes. Renting the farm to a tenant in 1902, he became an employe on the Dave Johnson ranch, where he remained for seven years. On selling the home farm at that time he invested the proceeds in a livery business at Covelo, where at present he owns the only livery and stage stables in the entire valley. Besides the usual livery trade he hauls freight for stores in Covelo and owns a passenger stage and fast freight line between Covelo and Dos Rios, a distance of fourteen miles. As a business man he is energetic and efficient, keeping a close over- sight of every detail connected with the stable and the stage line and manag- ing affairs so as to secure a profit without making an undue charge for services in his line. In politics he votes the Republican ticket. Fraternally he is connected with Covelo Camp No. 635, Woodmen of the World, while in religion he is an earnest member of the Baptist Church.
GUY HASKETT .- The fourth in the family of five children that blessed the union of Samuel W. and Miranda (Barnes) Haskett, who are represented elsewhere in this volume, was Guy Haskett, who was born in Petaluma, Cal., December 19, 1859. He was reared in Ukiah, where he attended the public schools until nineteen years of age, when he began working on neighboring ranches. He married when quite young, and after marriage he was employed on the Walker Valley ranch for Mr. Angle, later buying a ranch of his own of one hundred and sixty acres in the Little Lake valley, three miles east of Willits. Here he engaged in raising hay and potatoes for about twenty years, making this ranch his home and actively superintending all affairs pertaining to it.
Mr. Haskett was married in Ukiah to Anna Angle, the daughter of Rench Angle, a native of Hancock county, Ill., having been born there in 1828. In 1831 Mr. Angle's parents moved to St. Clair county, that state, and there he received his education. When fifteen years old he started out in the world for himself, first going to Chariton county. Mo., and later to Quincy. Ill., where he was employed in chopping wood along the Mississippi river for fifty cents a cord. He then went to Warsaw, Hancock county, Ill., and while there learned of the gold strike in California. Starting for the west May 15, 1850, he first located in Placerville September 23 following, and there he remained until 1854. when he purchased a farm twelve miles from Marysville. Not finding conditions as favorable as he hoped. he moved to Mendocino county and engaged in farming in Walker valley, where he bought the home place of one thousand acres, adding to his original purchase until he had sixteen thousand acres devoted to sheep raising and general farming, and here he passed the remaining years of his life. While spending the winter of 1858-59 in the vicinity of Victoria, on Vancouver Island. he discovered the first gold found on the island, since which time more or less of the precious metal has been mined there. Mr. Angle married in June, 1859. Catherine Orender, a native of Illinois, and their daughter Anna was married to Mr. Haskett February 10. 1885.
To Mr. and Mrs. Haskett there were born seven children. They are: Amy. a graduate of the College of the Pacific at San Jose in 1913. now teach-
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ing school in Mendocino county ; Max, employed by the Northwestern Pacific Railroad; Ethel and Bertha, students attending the University of California; Victor and Bessie, pupils of the Willits high school, class of 1914; and Eleanore. Mrs. Haskett is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, always entering into its various benevolences. Mr. Haskett is a member of the Woodmen of the World and in national politics is a Democrat. He has always achieved success in his farming enterprise, being one of the widely known stockmen in the vicinity, and is admired and respected by everyone. He is a worthy native son of California, of whom she is justly proud. .
M. H. IVERSEN .- The bar of Mendocino county has a popular and promising representative in M. H. Iversen, who since being admitted to practice in the courts of California has maintained a law office in the county, being a member of the firm of Preston & Preston, of Ukiah. All of his life has been passed in this county, where he was born at Point Arena in 1883 and where he received a grammar-school education, supplemented by self- culture that has given him breadth of mental vision and depth of thought. While yet a mere lad, untrained in the wisdom of schools or of the world, his ambitions turned toward the law as the desired sphere of his future activi- ties, but the necessity of self-support as well as a decided fitness for peda- gogical work turned his attention temporarily toward school-teaching. His first term of school was taught in the Mckinley district. Later he was re- tained as principal of the Mendocino city school. After eight years devoted to educational work, during which period all of his vacational leisure was given to the study of the law, he relinquished teaching to devote himself to his chosen profession, being admitted to the bar in 1909, and in June of that year he associated himself with the present firm, taking charge of the Fort Bragg office. Elected city attorney of Fort Bragg April 18, 1910, he filled the position with intelligence, fidelity and efficiency until January, 1914, when he resigned and moved to Ukiah, giving his attention to the firm's interests in the county seat.
Retirement from the work of teaching did not cause Mr. Iversen to lose interest in educational matters ; on the other hand, his co-operation in public- school work is as active as in the days of his own service as a teacher. From July of 1909 to July of 1911 he served as a member of the county board of education, and for one year of the time he was honored with the office of president. It has been recognized by the people that he is not only interested in the free-school system, but abundantly qualified by experience, deep study of the subject and constant observation concerning advancement made in the standard of education to promote the progress of the schools of his com- munity. Besides being one of the organizers, he is also one of the first directors of the Fort Bragg Commercial Bank and a promoter of the welfare of this growing concern. Fraternally he is connected with the Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World, and has passed all the chairs in the local camp of the latter. In addition he is past dictator of the Loyal Order of Moose and is deputy past grand president of Alder Glenn Parlor No. 200, N. S. G. W., at Fort Bragg. By his marriage to Miss Gladys McGinsey, a native of Mendocino county, he has a son and daughter. Merle and Juanita.
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OLE SIMONSON .- As one of the successful ranchers in Mendocino county as well as an influential factor in many business and social enter- prises, Mr. Simonson is well known throughout the length and breadth oi the county, where he has made his home since 1865. Early recollections take him back in memory to the southern part of Norway, where he was born at Logndal July 12. 1838, the son of another Ole Simonson. Until he was seventeen years old he remained at home with his parents, attending school and working on the home farm as his school duties would permit, after which he began life for himself by taking a position as a school teacher. Finally, however, a desire for a broader outlook induced him to leave the homeland for the New World. In April, 1858, he sailed from Stavanger on the sailing vessel Elisa, which landed in Quebec with its burden of human freight about eight weeks from the time of starting. From Quebec Mr. Simonson made his way to Illinois, locating in Petersburg, Menard county, where he was fortunate in securing work as a farm hand. He continued farming in that locality until 1863, when he started to cross the plains and reached his destination about five months later. Temporary settlement was made at Santa Rosa, Sonoma county, but the following spring (1864) he went to Nevada to try his luck in the mines. An experience of four months sufficed to satisfy this ambition, and at the end of this time he again went to Sonoma county and worked on farms until 1865. It was in that year that he and his brother Zacharius joined their forces and rented farming land in Little Lake valley, Mendocino county. The venture proved so successful that four years later they purchased one hundred and sixty acres from William Buck. For several years the brothers continued in business together, carrying on general farming and stock-raising, but finally the partnership was dissolved, Zacharius Simonson disposing of his interest in the property to Upp and Whitehorn and later purchasing land in the southeastern part of the valley.
Ole Simonson retained his half of the land purchased in partnership and devoted it to general farming and stock-raising. For over twenty years he has raised large quantities of potatoes. This commodity seems especially well adapted to this soil, four and five tons to the acre being an average crop. while seven tons to the acre have been grown. One season, when potatoes were scarce, he received two cents per pound for his product. In the mean- time Mr. Simonson was steadily clearing his land for crops, and when this was done and he was free from debt he purchased four quarter sections of redwood timber land. In addition to this he purchased fifteen acres of fine pasture land adjoining his farm, and this ranch is now one of the best paying in the valley for its size. Since 1901 Mr. Simonson has been financially inter- ested in the Muir & Irvine Lumber Company, manufacturers of lumber and dealers in general merchandise at Willits. Another enterprise which profited by his splendid business judgment was the Willits Hotel Company, a cor- poration which in 1903 erected a hotel of magnificent proportions in Willits at a cost of $45,000. With other enterprising citizens he assisted in organiz- ing a county agricultural society in 1879, and for three years he served as president of the association. The grounds were disposed of in 1903 and are now used by the Willits Jockey Club as a race track. Besides the numerous interests already mentioned, Mr. Simonson holds stock and is a director in the Round Valley Commercial Company. With five others he organized and incorporated the Little Lake Valley Land Company, of which he is a director.
1. Simoneou
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This company bought three hundred and sixty acres of land adjoining Willits on the south, which has been subdivided into ten-acre tracts and nearly all are sold. He is also an incorporator of the Commercial Bank of Willits, of which his son, T. E., is a director.
On March 2, 1871, Mr. Simonson's marriage united him with Miss Martha A. Sawyers, a native of Missouri and the daughter of Thomas Sawyers, who brought his family from that state to California in 1854 and later, in 1858, moved into Little Lake valley, Mendocino county.
Of the six children born to Mr. and Mrs. Simonson five grew to years of maturity, as follows: Ida M., Mrs. Beard, of Dos Rios; Margaret S., a teacher in the Willits school; Bergie F., Mrs. Luther Baechtel, of Willits; Thomas Edwin, who manages the home farm; and Mary M., who is also at home.
In 1879 Mr. Simonson was elected supervisor and again in 1897, and for four years he was president of the Willits town board. While he is inter- ested in public affairs he is not an adherent of any political party, giving his vote and influence to the candidate best fitted for the office in question. Personally Mr. Simonson is a man who thinks for himself and acts upon his convictions. While he possesses a worthy ambition to make and enjoy his share of this world's goods he has never trespassed upon the domain of others in the acquisition of his possessions.
HERBERT V. KEELING .- There are few men in any field of activity in Lake county who have been more conspicuously successful than Herbert V. Keeling, attorney-at-law and president of the Lake County Title & Abstract Company. As the legal representative of many corporations, as well as individuals who have local interests, he occupies a leading position in the profession and among his fellow citizens generally. His forceful character, eminent ability and strong personality have been factors which have com- bined to enable him to reach the highest distinction in the twenty years of his legal career. Most of his business connections are of a professional nature, but he has not limited his energies to the realm of business, widening an already large circle of interests by his political, fraternal, church and social relations.
Mr. Keeling was born in England, at Edmonton, County of Middlesex, on May 21, 1867. His father, Rev. W. G. Keeling, was a clergyman of the Church of England, and his mother was Ellen Venn. Both parents are now deceased. They had a family of nine children, of whom eight still survive, four sons and four daughters. Herbert V. Keeling, fourth born of the family, is the only one living in the United States He remained in his native land until twenty years of age, receiving an excellent education. After attending preparatory school at Brighton he entered Dover College at Kent, finishing the classical course in that institution. He was in a commercial house in London for one year, but office life of that kind did not appeal to 'him and he began the study of law. However, he had not yet decided upon the pro- fession, for when he came to America, in 1887, he first tried his hand at agriculture, enrolling as an apprentice, under the farmer pupil system, for one year. This was in San Luis Obispo county, Cal. From there he moved to Santa Barbara county, where he also remained a year, by which time he realized that farming was not his vocation. In 1889 he came to Lake county, where he soon resumed his legal studies, being admitted to the bar in 1893, 19
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since which year he has been engaged in practice. A mere statement of the associations he has formed would be sufficient indication of his standing. His services are particularly in demand as a corporation and land title lawyer, for which he seems to be specially adapted, his forethought, clear insight and absolute grasp of intricate conditions fitting him to handle large affairs in the most masterly manner. In addition to his extensive clientage he repre- sents numerous important interests in the locality, and he is examining attorney for the Lake County Title & Abstract Company, of which he is also president. It is the oldest concern of the kind in the county, the best equipped for accurate work, and commands nine-tenths of the patronage in this section by undisputed reliability.
Mr. Keeling was made a Mason in the Lakeport Lodge in 1895, and has passed all the chairs in that body, having been master twice; he also belongs to the local chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star and has twice heen honored with election as worthy patron ; and is an Odd Fellow, holding membership in the Lakeport Lodge. He is secretary of the Lake County Bar Association, being sincerely interested in the promotion of the highest professional standards, and he has been prominent in local political concerns as an influential member of the Democratic party, at present serving as chair- man of the county central committee. His offices are in the Levy block at Lakeport.
By his first marriage, in 1891, to Miss Mattie Hobbs, of Lakeport, Mr. Keeling has one surviving child, H. Vincent, now a youth of eighteen and a student in the University of California. The mother died in 1907. In 1911 Mr. Keeling married Miss Gertrude Wells, of San Francisco. They have no children. Mrs. Keeling has remarkable vocal talent, having a soprano voice of exceptional range and sweetness which has gained her a foremost place in musical circles, and her gracious assistance at church services and on social occasions has been thoroughly appreciated in Lakeport. Mr. Keeling, also, is a musician of unusual attainments, his natural endowments having been developed by painstaking study under the guidance of well selected teachers, and he shows the technique of a professional as a violinist. His sense of harmony and fine taste are especially notable, and his contributions on any program are always keenly enjoyed. He is a leading member of the Episcopal Church at Lakeport, which he serves as clerk, and he has been one of its main supporters in every way since the church was built in the year 1899. Whatever he enters, Mr. Keeling endeavors to maintain the best ideals and to put them into practice as far as possible, and every enterprise with which he has concerned himself has profited by this ambition to stop short of noth- ing but the best. The home he built, situated on the edge of Clear lake, is considered the most beautiful residence in the city of Lakeport.
PETER M. HOWARD .- At the time of the arrival of the Howard family in Mendocino county in 1858 few settlers had preceded them to this then iso- lated valley between the mountains and the sea. The fertility of the soil, the value of the great forests and the opportunities offered for cheap trans- portation of products by ocean freight did not interest those early settlers whose thoughts were fixed upon the gold mines or upon business openings in the large cities. An investigation of different localities in Northern California with a view to agricultural development had brought to Mendocino county the father, Mark William Howard, a Carolinian, and a stalwart, rugged
G.P. Rdivine.
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farmer, who after crossing the plains from Missouri during the summer of 1856 had settled in Calaveras county with the intention of ranching. How- ever, he soon removed to a ranch near Geyserville, Sonoma county, and from there, in the fall of 1858, came to a great tract of raw land (a part of the Yoka Rancho) north of Ukiah, where he died in 1901 at an advanced age. His wife, Rachael Markham, also a Carolinian, died on the old home place eighteen months after the death of her husband. They had twelve children, and to each one they left a ranch. Eight of the children are still living.
The seventh in order of birth in the parental family, Peter M. Howard was born in Missouri in 1850, and therefore was about six years old at the time of the expedition across the plains with ox-teams and "prairie schooner." He became a valuable assistant to his father in the transformation of a raw, unimproved piece of property in Mendocino county two miles northeast of Ukiah into a productive ranch. With the diminishing strength of the father and his own increasing usefulness he ultimately became manager of the farm. After the death of the parent he continued to run his own ranch of about one thousand acres in Coyote valley seven miles northeast of Ukiah, where he followed farming and stock-raising. He made all of the improvements on the place and brought it to a high state of cultivation, which enabled him to sell it at a handsome profit in the spring of 1913. Being, however, a lifelong worker and a man to whom idleness is objectionable, he could not retire to leisure, but instead upon leaving the farm and settling in Ukiah he took a contract for the sprinkling of five miles of country road and this work now engages his attention. He has also purchased thirty-five acres of land adjoin- ing Ukiah. Two children, Arthur B. and Alice C., were born of his union with Miss Nancy Hopkins, who was born near Ukiah and passed her entire life here, dying in Mendocino county.
GEORGE ROBERT REDWINE .- As a truck gardener Mr. Redwine has established a reputation throughout Mendocino county, but more particularly in Round valley where lies his small farm, the object of his skilled care and scientific management. Every foot of the twenty acres owned by him is under an intensive state of cultivation that proves profitable, although neces- sitating the most constant attention on his part, especially during the growing season. While successful with vegetables and melons of every kind, he has gained his highest reputation with tomatoes and watermelons. No melons in the valley are more luscious than those which come from his fields, nor are there any tomatoes raised that are larger or of finer quality than those which he sells from his garden. His pear orchard of seven acres is well kept and the farthest advanced of any in the valley. Aside from farming he takes an active part in business and public affairs and ever since coming to the valley he has been the incumbent of some local office, for two years as deputy con- stable, for twenty years filled the office of constable, and for eight years served as deputy sheriff, all of which positions he has filled with efficiency.
Mr. Redwine was born at Dry creek, Eldorado county, December 9, 1864. the son of Frederick Augustus and Mary (Turner) Redwine, natives of Vir- ginia and Missouri respectively. The father crossed the plains to California in 1849 and the following year he returned for his family. For a time he engaged in the hotel business, until May 1, 1865, when he located in Round valley, being one of the first white settlers. Here he located a claim and followed farming. He served as justice of the peace for about twenty years,
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and died here in 1887. his wife following him a few years later. Of their family of eleven children George Robert is sixth oldest and was brought to Mendocino county on the 1st of May, 1865, so that his earliest recollections are of the coast country. As a boy he alternated his time between school and work on a ranch. From 1883 to 1886 he was employed as a clerk in the store of Henry Marks. By working on ranches for several years and saving his earnings he was in a position to buy the twenty acres adjoining Covelo which he still owns. This land he has given over to truck gardening, a branch of farming for which the fertile soil is well adapted. Ever since he attained his majority he has been active in local politics and is a Republican. Besides serving as a notary public he has been justice of the peace since Jan- mary, 1911, following in the footsteps of his father as a judge and like him his decisions have showed impartiality and a wide knowledge of the law. Fra- ternally he is connected with Ukiah Aerie No. 319, Order of the Eagles, and Covelo Camp No. 635, Woodmen of the World.
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