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 42
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 42
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Mr. Redwine's marriage was solemnized in Round valley October 30, 1889, and united him with Miss Amy Belle O'Ferrell, who was born in Covelo July 30, 1869, a daughter of Peter K. and Esther (Ouyett) O'Ferrell, who were also pioneers of Round valley and became the owner of one hundred and sixty acres of land adjoining Covelo. Mr. O'Ferrell was a Virginian and a brother of Charles P. O'Ferrell, for many years member of Congress and United States Senator from Virginia and afterwards Governor of his state. Mrs. Redwine received a fair education in local schools. Two daughters, Marie and Mildred, were born of their union. The elder is now a student in the State Normal School at San Jose and the younger is attending the Round valley high school. Any movement that promises to benefit the community receives the endorsement and practical co-operation of Mr. Redwine, who showed his loyalty to the district by buying stock in the Round Valley Tele- phone Company at the time of its organization and further by the purchase of shares in the Round Valley Creamery Association, a co-operative concern of promise to the farmers. A progressive spirit is apparent in his identifica- tion with the valley and in his desire to promote beneficial measures.
JOSEPH A. BRUNDIGE .- The superintendent of the celebrated Quer- cus ranch in Big valley, near Kelseyville, is a man of executive force, sound judgment and business sagacity, together with a knowledge of engineering and mechanism that enables him to operate steam and electrical machinery with ease, and with an understanding of men that qualifies him for their successful supervision in work with stock or land or fruit. Under his capable oversight, assisted by the artistic ability of his wife, the ranch is being trans- formed into one of the show-places of the county, a terrestrial paradise con- taining almost every fruit grown in the temperate zone, with ornamental and shade trees in graceful profusion, and with all the domestic animals, including poultry in such choice strains as Pekin and Muscovite ducks, Toulouse geese and bronze turkeys. A cordial hospitality is dispensed to all whom the reputation of the place or business affairs bring to the ranch, and visitors depart delighted with their experience at this delightful country estate.
Mr. Brundige was born in Allen county, Ind., near Fort Wayne, April 26, 1863, and is a son of the late Robert W. and Elizabeth (Ambler) Brundige, natives respectively of New York state and Indiana, and the latter deceased in 1865. The paternal grandfather was born in England of Scotch lineage,
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while the maternal grandfather was a native of Scotland and served as a justice of the peace in Allen county, Ind. When three years of age Joseph A. Brundige was taken by his father to Marshall county, Ind., and there he received a public-school education. He was the youngest of four children, the others being as follows: William, now a hotel-keeper at Santa Rosa, Cal .; Samuel, a carpenter in Los Angeles; and Sarah, who married Wesley Greek, an Indiana farmer, and died at thirty years of age, leaving two chil- dren, Celia and Ray. After the death of his first wife Robert W. Brundige married again, the second union resulting in the birth of four children, namely : Clara, who married John Miller, a dry-goods merchant at Plymouth, Ind .; Edmund, employed in the Studebaker wagon works at South Bend, Ind .; Homer, a wood-turner living in Indiana ; and Emma, Mrs. Harry Force, also of Indiana.
The presence of an aunt, Mrs. Catherine Alter, in Paradise valley, Lake county, brought Mr. Brundige to California in 1887 at the age of twenty- four, and for fourteen years he lived on the Alter farm, taking charge of the crops and stock. For two seasons he ran the City of Lakeport for the Bartlett Springs Company. This ninety-foot steam launch made seventeen miles per hour and was the most speedy, as well as the finest boat on Clear lake. As captain of that launch he proved his skill and efficiency. About 1905 he engaged with Mr. Gopcevic of San Francisco as manager of "Kono Tayee," the summer home of Mr. Gopcevic, on the east side of Clear lake, and as captain of the Whisper, the steam steel yacht, also of the three motorboats kept on the lake for the use of the owner of the property and his guests. After three and one-half years as manager he took a course in mechanical engineering at Heald's Business College at San Francisco, and then engaged in farming for himself in Scott's valley. However, a year later, in 1910, he returned to the employ of Mr. Gopcevic as superintendent of the Quercus ranch, which position he fills with recognized efficiency, taking charge also of "Kono Tayee." Private affairs have engaged his attention to the exclusion of public matters, in which, aside from supporting Republican principles of the progressive type and holding membership with the Masonic blue lodge at Lakeport, he has no connection. During 1903 he married Vinnie Eaton Greenlaw Lanfare, daughter of the late Capt. Robert Lanfare, a native of Connecticut, who for a year was master of vessels on the Atlantic, afterwards sailing from San Francisco on the Pacific until his death in Portland. Later his widow, who bore the maiden name of Laura Alma Ford, became the wife of Frederick Winslow Greenlaw, a shipwright, now deceased. Mrs. Green- law, now fifty-six years of age, is still a resident of San Francisco, which is also the home of her son, Claire Ford Lanfare. Mrs. Brundige was born at Coos Bay, Ore., but lived from three years of age in San Francisco, where she studied vocal music under Professor Mckenzie and piano under Professor Robinson. The natural talent which she possesses has been developed by careful training and she is now proficient in the art of music.
Under the supervision of Mr. Brundige are five hundred and twenty acres in Big valley, one hundred and sixty acres near Highland Springs, fifty-seven acres two miles west of the large tract and four hundred acres forming the estate of Kono Tayee, the private summer home of Mr. Gopcevic, situated northeast of Clear Lake, in the midst of an environment of mountain and lake that creates an atmosphere wonderfully picturesque. and attractive.
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Seventy-five acres are under cultivation to wheat and barley. Twenty-five head of cattle and twenty head of horses and colts are now on the farm, beside one hundred head of goats and sheep. On the Quercus ranch the most important asset is the fruit, there being one acre in English walnuts and thirty-nine acres in bearing pears, thirty-five acres of which are in the Bartletts, while there is also a young orchard of fifteen acres in two-year-old Bartletts. During 1913 $5,000 worth of pears were sold from the ranch, and the one hundred acres in French prunes harvested $12,000 worth of that product. In addition to the large returns from fruit about $700 worth of logs were sold from the same ranch. Even in the dull season seven to twenty men are given steady employment, while in the time of fruit ripening almost one hundred pickers are kept at work until the last of the fruit has gone into the hands of the packers. To manage so many workmen is no slight task, and especially so when, as in this instance, they are mostly Indians, but the efficient superintendent with customary tact usually is able to keep all of the men happy and contented in their work.
JUDSON LIFTCHILD, M. D .- A residence of seventeen years in the county, during which time he has been in active practice, has made Dr. Judson Liftchild known to most people in this section of the country. The fact that he has held the position of county physician for eight years, despite the different political changes in the board of supervisors, speaks well for his professional and administrative ability, and would indicate the esteem in which he is held. During this time he has built up an extensive practice in Ukiah, and his activity in business, fraternal and social circles has made him a host of friends.
A native of Jersey City, N. J., Dr. Liftchild came with his family when ten years of age to Oakland, and obtained his education in the public schools of that city. . For a number of years he was employed by the Southern Pacific Company as a station agent, but journalism being more congenial to his temperament, he entered the service of the San Francisco Chronicle as a reporter, and followed this profession until he entered the California Medical College, obtaining the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1893. He practiced his profession for some time in Oakland, later joining the faculty of the Cali- fornia Medical College as assistant professor in practice and being for some time assistant editor of the California Medical Journal.
In 1897 Dr. Liftchild located in Willits, where he remained for two years until appointed government physician on the Round Valley Indian Reserva- tion, when he removed to Covelo and resided for nine years. Besides caring for an extensive practice, he opened a drug store and purchased the Willits News, which he controlled for several years. Roads were few and far be- tween and the streams unbridged, and there being no other physician within fifty miles the doctor lead the strenuous life in pursuing his vocation. His practice frequently took him into the adjoining counties of Trinity and Hum- boldt, and horseback rides of fifty miles and the swimming of the different branches of the Eel river were every-day events in his life. Receiving the appointment of county physician in 1906, he opened a practice at the county seat, and has since then served continuously as superintendent of the county hospital as well as county and city health officer. He is now in his eighth year of service, having held the position for a longer period than any of his predecessors. While devoted to his profession, he has found time for civic,
Non Ho. Mills
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fraternal and social duties, being particularly interested in the development of the public library, of which he has been a trustee for several terms. He is active in fraternal circles, being a past master in the blue lodge of Masons, past grand in the Odd Fellows, a member of the Order of the Eastern Star and physician to the Eagles, Improved Order of Red Men and the Fraternal Brotherhood.
Dr. Liftchild's family consists of his wife and son Spencer, the former having been Miss Ida Lempke, daughter of Peter Lempke, an honored pioneer and for many years under-sheriff of Mendocino county. Interest in his profession led the doctor to identify himself with the different asso- ciations connected with his school of medicine, he being a member of the National Eclectic Medical Association and the Eclectic Medical Association of California and an active contributor to Eclectic medical journals. In recognition of his merit and the deep interest he has taken in the association he was selected as president of the latter organization at the last meeting of the association in San Francisco in 1913.
MRS. LUCINDA MASON MILLS .- The ex-president of the Women's Christian Temperance Union at Kelseyville, who is also a member of the board of trustees of the Presbyterian Church and one of its leaders in mis- sionary and philanthropic enterprises as well as a potent factor in its Ladies' Aid Society, is perhaps one of the best known and most highly hon- ored women in Lake county, where since the death of her husband, William H. Mills, a gallant soldier of the Civil war. she has superintended the large estate that was their community property, the results of their united efforts and laborious toil through many years. Born and reared in the great middle west, she possesses the strength of mind and body that was not only a family inheritance, but a heritage of the sons and daughters of the vast northwest territory. Her parents, Jacob and Amanda (Harroun) Mason, natives respectively of Crawford county, Pa., and Genesee county, N. Y., married in the Keystone state and later removed to the frontiers of Wis- consin, establishing a home in Rock county. In 1855 a removal was made to Dodge county, Minn., where the young daughter, Lucinda, formed the acquaintance of William H. Mills, a member of an old eastern family of high reputation, himself a native of Jefferson county, N. Y., born March 3. 1840. At the age of sixteen years he had accompanied his parents to Wisconsin and settled at LaCrosse. When he was eighteen the family moved to Minne- sota and settled among the pioneers of Dodge county.
At the outbreak of the Civil war Mr. Mills offered his services to the Union as a private soldier. Assigned to Company M. Minnesota Heavy Artillery, he took part in the memorable engagements at Fort Donelson, Murfreesboro, Chattanooga, Resaca, Atlanta, Mission Ridge and Lookout Mountain. Numerous lesser battles also found him in the front holding his place with gallant but positive footing. Nor did he ask for discharge, even when almost exhausted by forced marches and the privations of war. Some months after the close of the war he received an honorable discharge at Nashville, September 27, 1865, and then returned to Minnesota, where, May 2, 1866, he married Miss Lucinda Mason. After their marriage they con- tinued to live in Dodge county, being for a time at Mantorville and later at Concord. In 1872 they came to California and settled in Cobb valley, Lake county, where Mr. Mills had two uncles. Removing to Big valley in October.
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1873. they bought one hundred and sixty acres, which they afterward sold. then purchasing one hundred and sixty-four acres. Before the death of Mr. Mills all but sixty-nine acres had been sold, and it is on this tract that Mrs. Mills now lives. The place bears excellent improvements, and since the death of Mr. Mills, July 18. 1904, has been under the personal control of Mrs. Mills, who directs the work of cultivation with energy and intelli- gence. Her older son. William J., is now assisting her; the second son, Charles E., who married Lucy Mathis, is engaged in ranching at Fallon, Nev .; the older daughter, Daisy L., Mrs. Walter Grantham, died, leaving one son, Harold M .: the youngest child. Ida L., is the wife of Lyon Fraser, of Lakeport, sheriff of Lake county, and they have four children.
LYON FRASER .- The sheriff of Lake county, a son of Capt. J. K. Fraser, a pioneer of the county, was born at Lakeport, August 1, 1875, and in 1883 removed with his parents to the Floyd ranch, thence at the age of sixteen to the Holmes ranch, and when only seventeen became a member of the firm of Stone & Fraser, butchers, at Kelseyville. his partner being Sol Stone. After seven months he entered the employ of the Bartlett Springs Company and acted as engineer on the old City of Lakeport, of which steamer in a short time he was made captain. From Lake county he went to Alameda county and worked in the Tesla coal mines near Livermore, being engaged in the loading of the very first carload of coal shipped out of the mines. On his return to Lake county he was employed with threshing-machines and hay-balers, but went back to the Tesla coal mines in 1899, and from there in the spring of 1900 went to Alaska in the employ of F. M. Smith, popularly known as "Borax King" Smith. The summer was spent in working for Mr. Smith at Nome, and in the fall he returned to the States, where for two years he worked in the gold mines of Trinity county. During 1904 he worked on the lake floating wood to Sulphur Banks. Other lines of work engaged his attention afterward, and in February, 1908, having returned to Lakeport the previous year. he entered the employ of Collier Bros., building boats on Clear lake.
When Sheriff George W. Kemp was murdered, May 5, 1910, Mr. Fraser. who had been serving as under sheriff since February, 1909, was appointed sheriff by the board of supervisors in session May 7. and in the fall of 1910 he was duly elected on the Republican ticket, since which time he has devoted himself to official duties. Fraternally he belongs to Lakeport Lodge of Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Eastern Star, Native Sons of the Golden West and the Woodmen. At Portland. Ore .. in Septem- ber, 1905, he married Miss Ida L. Mills, and they are the parents of four children : Donald Mills, Clara Lyon, Harriet Virginia and Robert Erskine.
CHARLES WINFIELD PHILLIPS .- Few officials in Lake county have had more substantial evidence of the confidence of their fellow citizens than Charles W. Phillips, who has been retained in the position of supervisor from the Third district since first elected, in 1898. at present serving his fourth four-year term. His sound comprehension of the needs of the people in his district, together with a thorough knowledge of the business routine gained in long experience, makes him a most efficient and reliable public servant, and the appreciation and approval his work has won have been shown in the enthusiastic support he has received at the polls.
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The Phillips family has been settled in Lake county since 1871, when James Phillips, father of Charles W. Phillips, came to the ranch of one hun- dred and sixty acres on Scott's creek, in the Bachelor Valley precinct, where he spent the remainder of his life. He and his wife lived and died in the house where their son, W. S. Phillips, now resides, and the forty acres which he owns was part of their ranch. They came to California from Nebraska, but formerly resided in Iowa, where Mr. Phillips served for years as county surveyor of Wayne county. He died in Lake county August 4, 1889, when about sixty-seven years of age, his wife passing away many years previously, at the age of forty-five. They were married in Iowa. Her maiden name was Jane Shelton, and she was of English descent, being a daughter of William Shelton. Mr. and Mrs. James Phillips had a family of four children, who reached maturity : Charles Winfield, of whom we write; Schuyler Douglass, a farmer on Scott's creek, in the Bachelor Valley precinct; William Shelton, above mentioned; and Melvina, widow of Hamilton Smith, living at Wood- land, Cal.
Charles Winfield Phillips was born October 12, 1850, in Polk county, Iowa, four miles below Des Moines, and passed his early life in his native state, moving thence with the family to Nebraska in the year 1864. They made a location on the Little Nemaha, living there for one year, crossing the plains in the spring of 1865, with horses and wagons. Starting May 15th, they arrived at Contra Costa about the 1st of October, and remained in Contra Costa county until 1871. In the spring of that year, after three dry seasons, the Phillips family was one of several who decided to leave that neighbor- hood, and as previously mentioned settled in Lake county. Charles W. Phillips was employed in various ways until his marriage, working on ranches and in sawmills, driving team, running threshing machines, headers, etc .; in fact gaining experience in most of the industrial operations char- acteristic of the locality. After his marriage he rented land and cultivated it, engaged in running threshing machines, and in 1884 went into the hop growing business in Upper Lake valley, planting ten acres of his own in hops and ordinarily renting ten or twelve acres besides. About 1892 he bought the ranch where he now resides, a tract of thirty acres three-quarters of a mile west of Upper Lake, and he operates it in practical business. fashion, making his various undertakings profitable by careful attention to the details of his work, which he manages intelligently and systematically. His ability lias been recognized by his neighbors and fellow citizens generally. A number of years ago he was elected road overseer, serving as such two years, and about six years afterward, in 1898, he was elected supervisor, for the Third district. So satisfactory were his services that he was re-elected in 1902, and again in 1906 and 1910, a statement of fact which carries enough commendation to require no comment. Six years of this time he has served as chairman of the board. During his term the controversy over the use of the waters of Clear lake has been raging, and as might be expected he has come in for criticism on a number of occasions, but he has attempted to act honestly and fairly to all concerned, doing his duty as he sees it, with the utmost regard for justice. He stands firmly for the people's interests in this cause, believing that the conservation of the waters of Clear lake for the people of the county will give the greatest benefit to the greatest number.
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Mr. Phillips is a devoted church worker, one of the most prominent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South at Upper Lake, which he serves as trustee. He is a member of Upper Lake Lodge No. 241, I. O. O. F.
In 1878 Mr. Phillips married Miss Sarah Etta Smith, daughter of Wilburn Smith, an old settler of Bachelor valley, who moved there in 1870. and died in October, 1913. Mr. and Mrs. Phillips have had one child, who died in infancy. Her religious connection is with the Baptist Church.
CHRIS. HANSEN .- The opportunities afforded by Mendocino county to young men of determination of character and energy of temperament find an illustration in the life of Chris. Hansen, a native of Aro, Denmark, born November 4, 1854, and since the spring of 1875 a resident of California. His father was a farmer in the fertile little island where Chris was reared and educated in the public schools, and he remained at home assisting on the farm until nearly twenty-one years of age, when he came to California. After two years at Stewart's Point he came in 1877 to Westport, Mendocino county, where he engaged in teaming until 1902. At that time he rented land and began farming, afterwards purchasing the ranch known as the Gordon ranch and at about the same time engaged in butchering in Westport. In about 1907 he located in Covelo, Round valley, where he purchased and improved a ranch; later, in 1910, removing to Ukiah and from there to Willits.
At this writing Mr. Hansen is the owner of a quarter section of grain land in Round valley and also owns a one hundred and sixty acre ranch of valley land adjoining Willits, the tract forming a rich, productive farm well adapted to grain, hay and potatoes, which he superintends and operates. In addition he owns a butcher shop at Willits and a slaughter house near the town, besides having a one-half interest in the Ukiah Meat Market. The management of the land and the meat business keeps him busily engaged the year round and just now his activities are rendered more important through the filling of a large contract to supply meat to the employes of the Utah Construction Company, engaged in construction work in the extension of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad to Eureka.
Fraternally Mr. Hansen was made a Mason in Covelo Lodge No. 231, F. & A. M., and with his wife is a member of Willits Chapter No. 314, O. E. S. By his marriage at Westport in August, 1887, he was united with Miss Martha Branscomb, born in Green valley, Sonoma county, the daughter of B. F. Branscomb, a pioneer of California now residing in Branscomb, Mendocino county. Mr. and Mrs. Hansen have a family of nine children, namely : Ethel (now Mrs. E. S. Bray of Willits, Cal.), Carrie, Lawrence (who is married to Kate Hurt and who assists his father), Genevieve, James (deceased), Lillabel, Mildred, Chris. J., and Lucile, all natives of Mendocino county.
ANDREW SMITH .- Were inquiry to be made among the people of Lake county as to the greatest need of this section of the state some would respond "A railroad!" Others would assert the greatest need to be a larger number of men of enterprise and patriotic spirit. The railroad is now among the certainties of the not distant future, while the presence of Mr. Smith and men of like energy and ability is a most favorable omen for a growing, high- minded and desirable citizenship. The identification of Mr. Smith with local industries is varied. Not only is he proprietor of a general merchandise store at Kelseyville and a director of the Farmers' Savings Bank at Lakeport. but in addition he has a homestead of forty acres half way between Lakeport
Abs and More Chris . Hausen
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and Kelseyville, another ranch of equal size two and one-half miles west of Kelseyville, a third tract of thirty-five acres in the former Hudson hold- ings in Big valley and one hundred and sixty acres in the mountains twelve miles east and south of Kelseyville or two and one-half miles north of Siegler's Springs, thirty-five acres of the quarter section being under cultivation to fruit, fifteen acres being in pears and the remainder in apples, peaches, plums, prunes, etc. His local holdings are increased by the ownership of two resi- dence properties in Kelseyville and two in Lakeport.
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