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 51
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 51
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Mr. Reed's marriage took place at Yreka, Siskiyou county, Cal., November 15, 1865, to Miss Lucinda E. Simpson, daughter of George and Martha Eliza- beth Simpson. Her father was a native of Kentucky, and moved with his fam- ily to Missouri when Mrs. Reed was a girl of eight years. He died there, and the widowed mother set out for California with her family of four children, James W., John W., Mary A. and Lucinda E., making the trip overland with ox teams. But she was an invalid, and her strength gave out by the time they arrived at Dayton, Nev., so they stopped there to enable her to recuperate if possible. She died at that place six months afterward, in 1862, the same year they had started westward, and Mrs. Reed was only thirteen years old when she began to keep house for her brothers at Dayton. Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Reed : Lavina Nevada is the wife of Burt W. Starr, a machinist, of Yuba City, Cal. ; William G. died when three months old ; Henry E. is now engaged in operating the home place in partnership with his brother George ; Otis T. died when twenty months old; Lena E. is the wife of Mervyn Gibson, a rancher in Bachelor valley, Lake county ; George Cyrus is working the home place in Scotts valley with his brother.
CLARENCE ALBERT BERNHARD .- The Ukiah Farmers Club, In- corporated, of which Mr. Bernhard is the secretary and the inception of which was due in no small degree to his enthusiastic co-operation, dates its existence from February 14, 1911, when a few farmers held a meeting for the discussion of matters of moment to them. Fifteen attended that first meet- ing, among them being three schoolteachers. At the meeting Mr. Mower, principal of schools, was elected temporary chairman and Mr. Bernhard secretary. Seven days later the second meeting was held and forty-one farmers attended, when J. C. Johnson and C. A. Bernhard were chosen chair- man and secretary respectively. The club grew steadily in size and influence. During November of 1911 a committee was appointed to determine upon a plan of incorporating. On the 11th of December the Ukiah Farmers Club was incorporated with J. C. Johnson president and C. A. Bernhard secretary. A start was made in a rented building, but in 1913 the present property was purchased for $10,000. From a small beginning the trade has increased steadily until now the business approximates more than $150,000 per year, which remarkable result is due to the intelligent and tactful supervision of the leaders of the movement, among whom is the first and present secretary, Mr. Bernhard. Besides his official connection with the Club the latter owns and manages a ranch of three hundred and twenty acres seven miles west of Ukiah, where he has planted fifteen acres to apples, pears, prunes and peaches, the whole forming an orchard of excellent promise for future profits.
Born in Allegheny county, Pa., in 1872, Clarence Albert Bernhard is a son of J. C. Bernhard, for years a resident of Minneapolis, Ottawa county, Kans., and now living retired at Lawrence, that state. Primarily educated in public schools, he completed the studies of the classical course in Campbell University at Holton, Kans., from which he graduated in 1894. On coming to California he engaged for three years as teacher in the University of the Pacific at San Jose, where he was at the head of the commercial department. Next he went to Stockton as head of the business practice department in the Stockton Business College. During the two years spent in Stockton he bought the ranch in Mendocino county that he still owns. About 1899 he organized a commercial department in the Yreka high school. one of the first of its kind in the state and the forerunner of many similar successful depart-
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ments in high schools. For three years he conducted the commercial classes at Yreka and then organized the commercial department in the Ukiah high school, which he conducted for eight years, resigning in July, 1912, in order to devote his entire attention to the secretaryship of the Ukiah Farmers Club. His family consists of two children, Sylvia and C. A., Jr., and his wife, who is a native of Atchison county, Kans., and bore the maiden name of Nettie Evans. In politics he votes with the Democratic party and takes a warm interest in all public movements. Fraternally he is identified with the Foresters.
JEROME MACK SLEEPER .- It is over fifty years since Jerome Mack Sleeper took up his residence in the section of Lake county where he is still living, having been a resident and voter of what is now the West Upper Lake precinct from 1863 continuously to the present. Beginning as a renter, he soon pre-empted one hundred acres, and through the various changes of buy- ing, selling and trading gradually came into possession of the rich estate which he and his sons are now cultivating, three hundred and six acres in one body, much of which is alluvial land of unsurpassed fertility. In his own words, his swamp land "is the Nile duplicated." Here the celebrated White Creaseback bush bean, a snap string bean white in color and superb for can- ning purposes, flourishes at its best. It has been Mr. Sleeper's star product for many years, for he began raising these beans twenty-five years ago, when the first seed was sent out from the department of agriculture, and has had banner crops, of which he has no trouble disposing. Besides being one of the agriculturists to whom Lake county looks for the realization of her best possi- bilities, he is a citizen esteemed for his personal qualities above the average. He is of eastern birth, a native of Vermont, where his parents, David and Caroline Jackson (McLaughlin) Sleeper, were also born.
David Sleeper was a merchant, and for a number of years conducted a general store in the city of Buffalo, N. Y. Returning from there to his native state, he embarked in the general mercantile business at Chelsea, and he lived to be over ninety years old, his death occurring in Vermont. He had married there when well along in middle age, and his wife, who was born in Chelsea, died fifteen years ago at Upper Lake, when eighty-seven years of age. Of the four children born to them, one died when six years old; Vann is deceased : Jerome Mack is the only survivor, Carolina Estella being also deceased.
Jerome Mack Sleeper was born December 17, 1840, and grew up in his native state, enjoying very fair common school advantages and also attending the academy at Chelsea. For a time he was employed as a house painter, and indeed in his youth and early manhood he turned his hand to any kind of work which could be had, working hard with only moderate returns for his labor. He taught school, bought wool for a home firm, and used his talents in what- ever enterprises the locality afforded. In the early part of the Civil war he enlisted for the Union service, but was never mustered in, his father being opposed to the idea of his entering the army. Not long afterward he came to California, making the journey by water, in 1863, on the Ariel, which on a former voyage had been captured by the Alabama, but released. Landing at San Francisco March 22, 1863, he came to Lake county, stopping at Napa on the way, and at once began farming and stock raising, renting first one hundred and twenty acres of the place he now occupies, and he has also rented other tracts in the county-considerable land all told. In 1865 he pre-empted one
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hundred acres, and in the course of his deals in land has sold about one hun- dred acres of his purchases. The three hundred and six acres which he now owns is all in one body, and one hundred and thirty acres is swamp land which he bought. Some of the land he acquired was thickly studded with timber, oak, ash, pepperwood. etc., and he has cleared from forty to fifty acres of it, his property being in most profitable condition. His swamp land lies one hundred feet lower than Scotts valley and is overflowed every winter. the sediment left by the high waters providing all the replenishment and fertiliz- ing it needs, and its fertility is apparently inexhaustible. It is famous for its profuse production of snap beans, and the White Creaseback variety to which he gives his attention is the best string bean raised in California for canning. white in color, and regarded as unexcelled. When the first seed was sent out by the government Mr. Sleeper experimented with this then untried crop, with such good results that for years he has cultivated beans on a large scale. Mr. Sleeper has not been too much taken up with business to attend to his duties as a citizen, and he has shown a live interest in the affairs of his locality. where he wields an appreciable influence because of his high stand- ing. He took an active part in the agitation over the county seat, and upholds all measures which he considers conducive to the general welfare. In politics he has been associated with the Democratic party, but his ideas are somewhat socialistic in their tendency.
Mr. Sleeper married Miss Mary Evaline Sleeper, a second cousin, and seven children were born to their union: Flora Jackson, Mrs. Ganter, of Upper Lake; Ellery D .. who operates the home farm: Mary Estella, Mrs. Mason, of Upper Lake : Van Buren, a farmer living about one mile west of Upper Lake; Roma, who died in infancy ; Macline (called Budge), wife of Albert Mason, living with her father; and Ned M., who also lives at home. Besides Mr. and Mrs. Sleeper raised two other children, who had lost their mother. Mrs. Sleeper died October 10, 1912, at the age of fifty-six. She had taken much pleasure in helping to plan the large and commodious farmhouse which Mr. Sleeper has had finished within the last year, and had long looked forward with delight to the time when she would have an up-to-date home in which to enjoy her declining years. Her death was sincerely mourned by many besides those of the immediate family circle.
ELLERY D. SLEEPER .- Ellery D., the eldest son of Jerome Mack Sleeper was born July 29, 1877, on his father's ranch, near Upper Lake, Lake county, and was brought up there. After acquiring such education as the public schools of the locality afforded he took a six months' course at Heald's Business College in San Francisco. The experience he acquired assisting his father on the home property qualified him for responsibilities from an early age, but he has widened it by working for others to some extent. For six months he was an employe on the Campbell ranch in the Suisun valley. After that he spent another year and a half on the home ranch, for one year was engaged in clerking, and also kept books for the Co-operative Association at Upper Lake. Then he returned to San Francisco, where he found employment in a planing mill and as carpenter's helper, and he was married while in that city. For some years he and his brother have taken practically all the man- agement of their father's three hundred and six acres, which requires skillful attention, the valuable crops and stock making it necessary for them to exer- cise constant watchfulness to keep the estate under proper care. Besides the
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string beans which they grow so successfully, they raise grain, hay, and alfalfa, and have fine pasture lands, raising cattle, horses, sheep, goats, hogs and poultry. Mr. Sleeper is an enterprising and alert business man, and anxious to conserve the best interests of his community as well as to conduct his own affairs successfully. His ability has been shown in everything he has undertaken, and he is considered a most reliable citizen, sound in his prin- ciples, practical in his ideas, and straightforward in all his dealings. Politics have interested his greatly, and he is one of the prominent members of the Democratic party in his section, being a member of the county central com- mittee at present. Fraternally he is an Odd Fellow and connected with Upper Lake Lodge No. 241, of which he is a past grand. His wife belongs to the Rebekahs.
During his residence in San Francisco Mr. Sleeper was married to Miss Marie Alley, daughter of John Alley, a pioneer of Middle creek, in Lake county, who died four years ago. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Sleeper : Keith E., Lenore Effie and Charlotte. Their home is near Upper Lake village, on the Ukiah road. Mrs. Sleeper is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Upper Lake, and belongs to the Ladies' Aid Society of that congregation.
VAN BUREN SLEEPER .- The name of Sleeper has been one of high standing ever since it was established in Lake county over a half century back, when Jerome Mack Sleeper, one of the ablest agriculturists in what is now the West Upper Lake precinct, came here and began farming and stock-raising. He is now operating a splendid estate of three hundred and six acres with the help of his sons, and is especially well known as a raiser of the White Crease- back bush beans, which have been proved most excellent for canning purposes and are consequently in great demand. A separate sketch of Jerome Mack Sleeper will be found elsewhere in this volume.
Van Buren Sleeper. second son of Jerome M. Sleeper, was born November 6. 1881, at the old Sleeper homestead, and grew to manhood there. He at- tended the public schools, going to grammar school at Upper Lake and later becoming a student at Sweet's business college, in Santa Rosa, for one year, graduating from that institution in 1902. For one year afterward he worked in Sonoma county, on fruit ranches, and then engaged in the butcher business at Upper Lake, conducting it successfully for four years, at the end of which period he sold out to the present proprietor, Mr. Twiggs. When he gave up butchering he became a forest ranger, and has been engaged as such for the last five years, having been assigned as guard on Bartlett mountain every summer. During the remainder of the year he and his brother devote their time to operating the father's farm of three hundred and six acres at Upper Lake. Mr. Sleeper has the substantial qualities which have come to be asso- ciated with the name, and he has never been found wanting in the responsible public service which has been found to be most valuable in the conservation of local interests and the protection of property. Like the rest of the family. he is associated with the Democratic party in politics.
In November, 1903, Mr. Sleeper was married to Miss Alma Scott, a native of the state of Pennsylvania, daughter of A. N. Scott, of Bachelor val- ley. To this union have been born two children, Lynda Geraldine and Leola Agile. Mrs. Sleeper is a member of the Presbyterian Church. The family home is about one mile west of Upper Lake on the Ukiah road in Lake
Curtis a Miller
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county, where Mr. Sleeper built a beautiful bungalow in the year 1911. It is 28x48 feet in dimensions, painted white, has modern appointments and is comfortably fitted, being one of the attractive places in the neighborhood.
CURTIS A. MILLER .- The fact that, after having become familiar with landed conditions throughout all portions of the west and even in other countries, Mr. Miller selected Mendocino county as the base of his future activities and the center of enormous investments by the company which he represented, shows that in his judgment this is a region with great future possibilities. Travel has made him familiar with almost every part of the United States, as well as with Canada, Mexico and European countries. The occupation of a mining engineer took him into remote and isolated regions and familiarized him with conditions in many different localities, so that his judgment is based on experience and his opinion takes thereby an added touch of authority. Born in Denver, Colo .. November I, 1871, he was ten years of age when the family moved to Southern California, but later he returned to Colorado in order to pursue the mining engineering course in the Colorado School of Mines at Golden, that state. On the conclusion of the regular course of study he was sent out to aid in the filling of contracts. His work took him into Mexico, South America and Africa. Besides many important tasks as a mining engineer, he was employed in railroad contracting. On the Cuernavaca Railroad near the City of Mexico he put in the largest blast ever used in railroad construction, moving in one shot with twenty-two tons of powder seventy-six thousand cubic yards. To him also was given the construction of all the cement bridges on the Mexican Central Railroad from El Paso south for a distance of one thousand kilometers, a contract of enormous magnitude and heavy responsibilities. His last work as a mining engineer was at the celebrated Lluva de Oro mines in Mexico, owned by the Rock Island Railroad Company, in whose interests he constructed a large and expensive reduction plant.
With the year 1905 Mr. Miller became associated with a Minnesota syndicate of bankers, who bought property in all parts of Canada. United States and South America, and who now own about seven thousand acres in Mendocino county. After having traveled throughout the west and in- vestigated all classes of unimproved property, Mr. Miller selected Mendocino county as offering the best opportunities to investors. The following are some of the holdings of his company: The celebrated Lane Springs, known as Morning Spring ranch, which comprises one thousand acres situated four- teen miles north of Ukiah in the Redwood valley ; the Bonnie Hills ranch comprising fourteen hundred and forty acres situated two miles north of Ukiah ; the Sunset ranch of three thousand acres, two miles from Sherwood ; and two hundred and twenty acres in the Redwood valley, two miles from Calpella, to be developed into a pear orchard. Mr. Miller has established him home in Ukiah and has opened a real estate office on North State street. it being his intention not only to handle the company properties, but also to buy and sell other realty and to act as agent for intending purchasers. While living in Minnesota he was prominent in the Star of the East Lodge No. 85. F. & A. M., at Owatonna, and Owatonna Chapter No. 13, R. A. M., and also bore a leading part in many civic movements of importance. In California he is a member of the Southern Club of San Francisco.
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Mr. Miller's marriage united him with Mrs. Isabelle (Mills) Fuller, of Toronto, Canada. His political sympathies ally him with the Republican party. He is a director of the Ukiah Realty Board and a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Board of Trade.
ANDREW JACKSON HURT .- There are many representatives of the Hurt family resident now in Lake and Mendocino counties, and though An- drew Jackson Hurt is a man in his prime he has had a part in the develop- ment of his section of Lake county from its pioneer days, for he was born there and in his boyhood had many of the experiences typical of primitive con- ditions. His home place of twenty acres is near Upper Lake, and besides that property he owns an interest in twenty-two acres belonging to the Thomp- son estate three quarters of a mile from Upper Lake which the family leases.
William Henry Hurt, the father of Andrew Jackson Hurt. was a native of Tennessee, born ten miles from Nashville, and his marriage, to Mary J. Ogan. took place in Missouri. Thence they came overland to California in 1852, trav- eling with ox teams, and first made a settlement on the San Joaquin. They attempted to raise a crop of wheat, but the hot winds destroyed it, and in 1854 they changed their location to Lake county, making their home three miles from Lakeport, in what is now Scotts valley. Being among the earliest settlers in the region, Mr. Hurt had many an adventure hunting. of which he was. very fond, killing many elk and deer. trapping and shooting grizzly bears, and similar sport. On one of his hunts, in company with his brother "Jack." William Schutter and his son Andrew J. Hurt (then a boy of thirteen ), he had the honor of killing one of the largest grizzlies ever obtained in Lake county. an enormous animal as large as a horse, weighing eighteen hundred pounds. and fat as a huge hog. William Henry Hurt died in 1912, when about eighty- one years old, and his widow, now seventy-eight years old, lives at Covelo, in Mendocino county ; she is well preserved and in excellent health. They had a family of sixteen children-one of the largest ever reared in the county : Charles Henry, a farmer, who lives at Covelo, Mendocino county : Elizabeth. who died in Colusa county, Cal. ; William Irwin. a farmer, living in Redwood valley, Mendocino county : James, a blacksmith, of Covelo: Andrew Jackson ; Malissa, who is married and lives in Covelo : Parthenia, also married and living in Round valley ; Beauregard and Levy, both farmers and stock-raisers of Round valley : Annie, Wayne and John, who are deceased; Ada and Ida, twins, the former living near Chico, Cal .. the latter in Round valley, Mendo- cino county ; and two who died very young.
Andrew Jackson Hurt was born July 4. 1857. and was reared in Lake county, receiving common school advantages in the home locality. At Upper Lake he learned the trade of blacksmith and then went to Lakeport. where he followed it for two years in the employ of a Scotchman by the name of Ross. Returning to Upper Lake, it was there he met Miss Minnie Rose . Thompson, who was born in Contra Costa county. Cal., the daughter of Judge David V. Thompson, one of the pioneers of this region. They were married October 29. 1882, and have one child, Myrtle Irene, who is now the wife of Fred Rupe, shipping clerk for the Irvine & Muir Lumber Company of Fort Bragg. D. V. Thompson was born in Tennessee and later lived in Missouri, where he taught school. In 1849 he crossed the plains to Cali- fornia and in Solano county he married Martha C. Powell, a native of Ten- nessee, who had crossed the plains with her sister. Mr. Thompson was also
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one of the early settlers of Upper Lake, which he served as justice of the peace and notary public for thirty years. For some time he was also supervisor of the county. He was an honored and respected citizen, and his death, Feb- ruary 22, 1901, was an occasion of general mourning in the community which had benefited so materially from his citizenship. He was buried with Ma- sonic honors. His wife died April 24, 1911. Of their four children only two are living, Bettie, Mrs. William Lewis, of Willits, and Minnie, Mrs. A. J. Hurt. The two sons are deceased, William L., who died February 14, 1894, in Oakland, and James L., who died in Coquille, Ore., March 13, 1913.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Hurt made their home in Alameda, Cal., for about eleven years, he being in business there, after which for one year he was engaged in mining, helping to develop the Horseshoe mine in Trinity county, a copper proposition. For some time he was employed run- ning a hoist for Davy at the old Guadalupe quicksilver mine, eight miles south of San Jose, and also helped John Stubbs to put in a water system on that mining property. However, most of his life has been passed in Lake county, and he bought his twenty-acre place near Upper Lake from his father-in-law, Judge Thompson. His success in cultivating his land has placed him among the capable farmers of his section, and personally he is regarded as one of its most estimable citizens. He served as constable for many years, and both as an official and public-spirited resident of Lake county has endeavored to do his duty to promote and advance her best interests. In politics he unites with the Democratic party.
CHARLES O. REYNOLDS .- One of the oldest flour mills in Lake county is the establishment now conducted by the firm of Reynolds & Akers known as the Kelseyville mill, and located four miles south of that town on the Cloverdale road. Its special product is the "Clear Lake" brand of wheat flour. unsurpassed by any other native brand and in popular demand, there being a steady market for the output. Charles O. Reynolds, the senior member of the firm, is also a member of the firm of Barnes & Reynolds, owners of the mill and mill property, which includes valuable agricultural and grazing lands, about one hundred and ninety acres in all: Mr. Reynolds is a native of Downey, Los Angeles county, Cal., born February 15, 1868, and has spent most of his life in his native state. He is of southern parentage, his father, Sebourn G. Reynolds, having been born in Mississippi, and his mother, whose maiden name was Martha Thompson, in Tennessee. She came to California with her parents in the year 1852, the family settling at Elmonte, Los Angeles county. that year. When Sebourn G. Reynolds came to this state, in 1853, he first settled in the town of Elmonte, and he lived to the end of his days in Los Angeles county, in 1868 making his home at Rivera, where he owned a tract of fifty acres. He followed farming, and cultivated orange and walnut trees, and he was a well known official of the county, having served fifteen years as deputy sheriff and one term as under-sheriff under William R. Rowland. His death occurred in 1910, when he was seventy-three years old. His wife died in Los Angeles county in 1902, at the age of sixty-six years. They were married in that county, and to their union was born a family of eleven chil- dren, all of whom survive. Flora, widow of James Hamilton, lives at Whit- tier; Robert, who is engaged in growing walnuts, resides at La Habra ; John is farming in Mendocino county ; William resides at Long Beach : Charles Oliver is mentioned below ; Linnie is the wife of John L. Russell, and resides at Rivera : Rena is the wife of Frank Warner, a farmer in Perris valley,
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