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 56
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 56
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The marriage of Mr. Shirley in 1867 united him with Miss Nancy E. Allen, the only child of J. E. and Elizabeth A. (Kelsey) Allen, and a woman of gentle but forceful character, whose efforts ably co-operated those of Mr.
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Shirley in building up a valuable farm and educating their children. Her death in April, 1900, was a deep bereavement for the family, to whose happi- ness she had been devoted with self-forgetting affection. Another family sorrow came in January, 1910, with the death of the eldest son, Ethan A., on his farm at Upper Lake, when about forty-two years of age. Surviving him are one son, Claire, and the widow, formerly Miss Edith Helm, of Upper Lake. The remaining members of the Shirley family are as follows: Susan J., wife of S. P. Wilkinson, a fruit farmer in Lake county ; Elizabeth Ann, widow of Henry Ingram and a resident of Sacramento; Bertha, widow of James L. Wilkinson and a resident of Sacramento; John Edgar, a miner and stationary engineer, now employed in the Coalinga oil field; Mildred J., wife of Charles H. Harris, who rents and operates the Shirley farm in Big valley; Maude, wife of B. J. Pardee, a civil engineer employed by the Associated Oil Company in the Coalinga oil field; J. Paul, a farmer in Big valley ; and Myrtle, who died in infancy.
Unaided and alone, Mr. Shirley cleared the land which had a heavy growth of oak and other timber. Under his efficient labor the tract has been developed into a productive and highly improved farm, with family orchard, walnut and oak trees providing splendid shade, substantial fences, neat gates, good build- ings and modern equipment. The strict orderliness about the entire farm points unmistakably to the intelligence, industry and attention of the owner. Although he had but slight educational advantages, through study and general reading Mr. Shirley has become a well-informed man. The quality of his mind and heart is such as to mark him out as a positive force if not an absolute leader among men. Of late years careful study of political economy and national conditions has made him a socialist who seeks the uplifting of man- kind through economic and social justice with a zeal that would grace a Crusader of old. In religion he is liberal, a believer in the Golden Rule, a lover of humanity, a man whose heart beats with the truest impulses of kind- ness and helpfulness. Pioneering brought him into personal relations with nearly all of the leading men of Lake county and he has won their unqualified respect and good will. Considerate of others, helpful to the distressed, charit- able to the needy, he belongs to that type of citizenship so essential to the enduring prosperity of any community and advancement of any commonwealth.
EDWIN Y. HIMMELWRIGHT .- German descent is indicated by the name of Himmelwright. Very early in the colonization of the new world some of the family established themselves in Pennsylvania and there successive gen- erations lived and died. A nineteenth century representative married a Miss Jennings, of an old English family, and their son, Samuel, born near Trenton, became proprietor of the Redline hotel at Ardmore, Montgomery county, Pa., the only inn along the Lancaster pike and noted as a meeting place of officers during the Revolutionary period. Not far away is Malvern, Chester county, the site of one of the engagements that helped to make history in the United States. From the hotel Samnel Himmelwright moved to a farm near Bristol and there spent his last years in agricultural pursuits. By his marriage to Maria Crewe, who was born near Valley Forge of English descent and now resides at Doylestown, Pa., he had a family of six children, five of whom are now living. The youngest of the number, Edwin Yocum, was born at Ardmore, Montgomery county, Pa., April 15, 1883, and is a graduate of the E. Spencer Miller high school in Philadelphia. A love of adventure and desire to see the country have led him to many parts of the United States,
Clyde ct Piffe
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but of all the states California is his favorite and nowhere has he found con- ditions more to his liking than on the Pacific coast.
Mr. Himmelwright came to California in 1902 and since then has alter- nated between the coast and the east, in various places, but the last eight years have been spent mostly in Mendocino county with the Van Arsdale estate. He became a partner in the Rex Drug Company at Willits, in Novem- ber, 1913, since which time he has engaged with Mr. Duncan in the manu- facture of the Rex remedies and in the management of an establishment rank- ing among the thoroughly modern drug stores of the county.
CLYDE ALVIN RIFFE .- An atmosphere of romance lingers around the early identification of the Riffe family with the then unknown and un- developed west. When John C. Fremont was delegated to come to the coast as "pathfinder," blazing a trail that might be followed safely by home-seekers, he was accompanied on the expedition by a gallant young Kentuckian, Win- chester Riffe, a native of Frankfort, whose fearless courage well qualified him for successful contests with savages and for the perils of war. The entire west was at that time in a condition of danger owing to the enmity of the Indians and to the prosecution of the Mexican war. On the expiration of the war he returned to his native commonwealth of Kentucky, where in 1849 he was selected to serve as captain of a wagon train crossing the plains. For such work his western experience qualified him and he was fortunate in guiding his party through to the gold mines. without loss. One of the members of the expedition was a young lady, Miss Lucy Maxwell, a member of a colonial family of Virginia and herself a native of that state. The culmination of the long journey occurred in the marriage of the captain to Miss Maxwell, who afterwards shared in his hardships and frontier ex- periences. They lived in San Francisco when it was a small town of tents or crude huts of boards. Later they settled in San Joaquin county, where their son, James Henry, was born October 14, 1853. This son married Eliza- beth Annie Burdge, who was born in Iowa, July 13, 1860, and died June 6, 1908, in Round valley, Mendocino county, where the death of her husband had occurred August 3, 1903. They were the parents of six children, namely : Ethel, Mrs. Walter Hargraves, bookkeeper for the Round Valley Commercial Company ; Clyde Alvin, who was born at Hanford, January 17, 1887 ; Lester, a rancher at Ukiah; Bertha, attending Round Valley High School, and Loretta and Lorena (twins), who reside at Covelo.
Up to the time of his removal to Mendocino county, in 1891, James Henry Riffe had been employed as a rancher. His first move toward independence occurred with his purchase of forty acres from L. D. Montague. This tract he sold in 1901, when he bought the old Dorman place of one hundred and thirty-two acres. To make such a purchase it was necessary to incur a heavy indebtedness, and about two years later he died, leaving the property heavily mortgaged. He was a capable farmer and had he not been taken at the untimely age of fifty years he undoubtedly would have risen to inde- pendence and prosperity. With his death the elder son, Clyde A., then sixteen years of age, was forced to take up the management of the place, thus being deprived of needed school advantages. On the death of the mother in 1908 the two sons bought out the interests of their sisters, and in 1913 the elder son bought the interest of his brother, after which he sold sixty acres of the property. At the present time he owns thirty-three acres, all in alfalfa, which
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he hopes to make one of the most productive properties in Round valley. Meanwhile he clerks in the store of the Round Valley Commercial Company and is devoting his savings, as well as his leisure hours, to the improvement of the place, with the intention of ultimately devoting his time exclusively to his alfalfa ranch, to his dairy business and to the raising of stock. In politics he is a Republican, to which party all of his family have given allegiance. Interested in local affairs and particularly in any movement for the well-being of Round Valley, he is loyal to this section of the county, and believes that it compares favorably with any part of the state.
NATHAN GRAHAM .- The several members of the Graham family whose extensive land holdings and agricultural interests have made them so well known in the Bachelor Valley precinct are among the most respected residents of their section of Lake county, where Nathan Graham, the head of this thrifty family, settled over thirty years ago. He is of Scotch descent, though his parents, Robert and Catherine (Wilkinson) Graham, were both natives of England, the father born in Yorkshire. The Grahams have been farmers and stockmen for generations.
Robert and Catherine (Wilkinson) Graham were married in England, and had one child when they came to America. He had learned the trade of mason and followed it in his native country, but on settling in the United States engaged in farming, in Jefferson county, N. Y. About ten years after leaving England he returned on a visit, and also to get some money which he had inherited, but he took passage back to America on an ill-fated sailing vessel which encountered a severe windstorm when within sight of New York harbor and was wrecked on a sand bar, going down with all on board. She was so near the end of her voyage that she was waiting for a pilot to take her safely into port. In those days there were none of the con- veniences and safeguards of modern banking, and Robert Graham had all his money on his person, so that it was lost with him. His wife was left with seven children, five sons and two daughters, viz .: John, now deceased, who was a farmer in New York state: M. W., deceased, who was a farmer and ranchman in Kansas: Robert Burns, a retired merchant, living at Peabody, Kans .; Nancy, who died unmarried ; Mary E., deceased, who was married and had three children (she resided in Pinckney, N. Y.) ; Joseph B., deceased, a farmer, who lived near Watertown, N. Y .; and Nathan, who was but ten months old at the time of his father's death. The mother remarried, and lived to the age of seventy, dying at Limerick, Jefferson county.
Nathan Graham was born September 30, 1835, in Jefferson county, N. Y., and grew up on the home farm in that county, obtaining such education as the common schools of the time afforded. Meantime he also assisted with the work at home, where he remained until twenty-three years old, at which time he came west to California, engaging in farming in Merced county, where he was located for seven years. At the end of that period he returned east and was married in his native county to Miss Mary E. Richardson, who like himself was born there, daughter of John and Levantia (Brigham) Richard- son. Her parents were natives of Paris, Oneida county, N. Y., and the father lived to the age of seventy-five years, the mother dying at sixty-eight. They had two children, Mary E. and John J., the latter still living on the Richardson farm, in the house where he was born. Tilly Richardson, Mrs. Graham's grandfather, was born in Massachusetts, was a soldier in the Revolution, and lived to the advanced age of ninety-three years, bright and active to the end
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of his days. He married young, and had one hundred and twenty-three de- scendants at the time of his death.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Graham remained ten years in Jefferson county, N. Y., where he carried on farming. Selling his property he then moved with his family to Minnesota, where one of his brothers was living, but he remained there only six months, finding the climate too cold. Having another brother in Kansas, he went down to that state to investigate conditions, but concluded the windstorms there made it undesirable and took a train out from Omaha to Sacramento, Cal., where he arrived in Jan- uary, 1879. After spending three weeks in that city he proceeded to Dixon in Solano county, where he made a stay of three months, meantime learning something of the attractions which Lake county offered to settlers. He was so well impressed after looking over this section, having come to Big Valley about June, 1879, that he brought his family and soon bought an eighty-acre ranch near Finley. He improved the property considerably during the three years it remained in his possession, and then sold it at an advance of $25 per acre, moving from there to his present home, in Bachelor valley, where he purchased five hundred acres from the Farmers' Savings Bank of Lakeport, and later two hundred and sixty acres more, adjoining, from the Spring Val- ley Water Company. The place was in early days an old Indian rancheria owned by a tribe of Digger Indians, and it abounds in relics and evidences of Indian days. Twenty-nine years ago Mr. Graham set out a fifteen-acre prune orchard which is still bearing. Though he has cultivated his land to some extent he has given his attention principally to stock, and his success in all his undertakings justifies his faith in Lake county land and its possi- bilities. His motto and advice to others has been: "Get land; get land, and never let go a handful of sand." After a life of well directed industry he is still interested in the progress and development of his adopted county, and he and his wife are among its most esteemed old citizens, those who have done their share in the steady work of improvement which has been going on throughout the period of their residence here. Mr. Graham is a Socialist on public questions, a man who has the welfare of all his fellow men at heart and who has thought earnestly and deeply on matters affecting the general good.
A family of four children has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Graham: Willis N., who is a farmer and sheep raiser in Bachelor Valley ; Clinton R., also a farmer in the valley ; John J., who is engaged in agricultural pursuits in part- nership with his brother Willis; and Levantia, wife of William H. Arps, a baggageman on the Southern Pacific road and residing in Oakland.
FREDERICK L. MORRISON .- More than half a century ago the late Samuel L. Morrison founded a family in Lake county which to the present has made his name honored wherever known. His three surviving sons still live here, in the Upper Lake country, have valuable land holdings, and are among the most reputable business men of the present day. The history of the family will be found in the biographical sketch of the eldest living son, George E. Morrison. The youngest son, Fred L. Morrison, occupies his father's old homestead and owns the bulk of his landed property, having eight hundred and ten acres on the east side of Clear lake, in the East Upper Lake precinct.
Frederick L. Morrison, youngest son of Samuel L. and Fannie L. (Car- penter) Morrison, was born on the homestead May 4, 1879, and was reared
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there, attending school in the Hammond district. He has always lived on the property where he was born, having inherited eight hundred and ten acres upon his father's death, and he has proved himself a capable business man in the operation and management of this large estate. Since coming into pos- session of this he has also purchased a ranch of two hundred acres, at the head of Clover Creek valley, also in the East Upper Lake precinct, this being the property which his father-in-law, William B. McCabe, rents from him and occupies. As an extensive landowner and successful agriculturist Mr. Morrison naturally has an influential position in his neighborhood, but his personal qualities have as much to do with his high standing as any business connections he might have. Whole-souled, generous to a fault, genial in nature, he is a man who his fellows feel deserves their confidence, which he has never abused. He is a worthy member of a family whose name has always been considered synonymous with integrity and strength of character through- out its long association with the history and progress of Lake county. Mr. Morrison has taken no special part in public affairs except to give good move- ments the sympathy and support to be expected from a good citizen. On po- litical questions he is a Republican.
In 1902 Mr. Morrison was married to Miss Annie L. McCabe, who was born at Big valley, the daughter of William B. McCabe, and they have had one child, Geraldine. The home is situated about eight miles southeast of Upper Lake.
GEORGE CRUICKSHANK .- There is a very productive and valuable piece of property adjoining the town of Kelseyville on the south known as Oakdale ranch, owned by George Cruickshank, who has settled down to farm life after an unusually varied career. A native of Scotland, he passed the first sixteen years of his life in his native country, after which he entered the British army, and at the close of his service came to the United States and became a soldier in the regular army of his adopted country, where he had a number of years' experience in touch with the stirring life of the west in the old days. Upon his marriage he left the service in order to lead a more domestic existence, and has since been principally interested in agricultural pursuits.
Mr. Cruickshank was born in the Parish of Auctherlees, Aberdeenshire, January 26, 1856, the youngest of the family of seven children of William and Elizabeth (Foley) Cruickshank, both also natives of Scotland, and both now deceased. George is the only member of the family in California, and he has not seen any of the others since he left Scotland when sixteen years old. He was allowed to attend school about three or four months in the winter time until ten years old. from which age he has made his own living. After herd- ing cattle and sheep on the stony hills of Scotland for several years he con- cluded to try his fortune in America, but before coming to this country, he was a soldier in the British army for five years, being twenty-one when his services ended. Then he crossed the Atlantic, and was soon a soldier in the United States army, having joined Company G, Fourth United States Cavalry, with which he was sent to the Indian territory. During the '70s he took part with the command in many fights with the Indians, who were eventually rounded up at Red Cloud, Neb., many prisoners being taken at that point. Following his five years of service in the regular army Mr. Cruickshank became a scout and guide under Generals Mckenzie and Lawton, in Arizona and New Mexico. During this period he became well acquainted personally
George Cruickshank
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with General Lawton. After his marriage Mr. Cruickshank gave up scouting and mined for a couple of years, after which he became interested in cattle- raising on the Cherokee strip in the Indian territory. When Oklahoma was thrown open to settlers in 1889, he was in the first rush and homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres near Guthrie, proving up on that land, where he re- mained for seven years. Meantime his wife had become an invalid, and Mr. Cruickshank brought her to California in 1894, traveling three years in the southern part of the state in the hope of finding a beneficial atmosphere. In spite of all efforts she passed away, in Inyo county. Mr. Cruickshank subse- quently went back to Southern California, where he bought a walnut ranch and lived for some time. In 1906 he came to Lake county, arriving here March 7th, and was so well pleased with the soil and climatic conditions that he invested in a pear ranch in Big valley. The next year he sold that land and bought his present property, a tract of one hundred and twenty-six acres lying to the south of Kelseyville. As a fruit grower Mr. Cruickshank has planted prunes, walnuts and pears, experimenting as he goes along, and his orchards now cover twenty-five acres. The rest of his land is devoted to mixed crops. He is a member of Live Oak Grange, Patrons of Husbandry, at Kelseyville, taking an earnest interest in all movements designed to im- prove the conditions of farms and farmers and assist them in making proper progress in their work. Personally Mr. Cruickshank has gained a place in the confidence of his neighbors which is notable. He has become one of the leading workers in the Presbyterian Church at Kelseyville, holding the offices of elder and trustee, as well as superintendent of the Sunday school. His sterling moral qualities and strong influence for good, exerted in an unosten- tatious but effective manner, have won appreciation and respect from a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. He is a Democrat on political issues.
At Silver City, N. Mex., Mr. Cruickshank became acquainted with Miss Lydia Bridges, whom he married in 1882. Her father, Franklin Bridges, a Kentuckian, was a rancher there. She died as above related, leaving three children, Claude, Nora and Ruth, the son now a rancher in Oregon. Ruth lives at home. Nora is the wife of L. H. Kane, an engineer, of Portland, Ore., and has one child, Wesley. In Southern California Mr. Cruickshank married (second) Miss Alice Fletcher, of Orange county, who at her death in June, 1911, left two children, Warren and Marguerite.
HENRY THURMAN .- A Native Son of the Golden West, having been born in Point Arena, Mendocino county, December 5, 1884, Henry Thur- man is representative of the best blood of the old world transposed to the new in one generation, and is typical of the class of men who have aided so signally in the development of California, making it one of the foremost states in the Union.
His father, John Thurman, was born in Christiana, Norway; his father was a member of the Lutheran church in Norway, and for many years was a resident of Christiana. Here John Thurman received his early education, being instructed in both English and his mother tongue. When yet a lad the family removed to the United States and John continued his studies in the public and high schools of Nebraska. He was at first destined for the ministry, and pursued his studies in this line for some time. Finally, however, circumstances wrought a change of mind, and he discontinued his clerical studies and came to California, locating at Point Arena, where he purchased a farm and engaged in dairying. His ranch is one of the oldest dairy farms
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in that vicinity and he had the first creamery built in that locality. The busi- ness prospered exceedingly, and Mr. Thurman continued to follow his chosen occupation until the time of his retirement, a number of years ago. He now makes his home in Santa Cruz. His wife was Mollie Hendrickson, a native of Jolland, Denmark, who came to America when she was yet a child. She died several years ago, while the family home was still at Point Arena. She was the mother of three children, of whom Henry was the second eldest.
Born on the farm near Point Arena, Henry Thurman received his early education in the local public schools of Point Arena, attending regularly until he was some fifteen years of age when the family removed to Livermore, Alameda county, where the children again attended school. The delights of participation in the larger affairs of life as they existed all about him, how- ever, proved too strong for Mr. Thurman and he cut short his school career, on the return of the family to Mendocino county, entering the employ of a lumber company at Greenwood, where he was a band saw fitter. Even this life did not hold all the excitement that the blood of the youth craved and in 1907 he went to Nevada, eventually locating in Goldfield. Engaged in mining and prospecting, being for a time in the Wabuska country, at Yerington, the lure of the far north then claimed him and in 1909 he went to Alaska, going in by way of White Pass, to Fort Gibbon, then up the Tananah river to Fair- banks, which was his objective point. Here he opened a barber shop and met with success. He also engaged in lumbering, prospecting, and in the mining business generally, meeting with flattering success in all his ventures. The rigors of the Alaskan climate, however, did not agree with his health, and he was obliged to come out. Returning home he determined to give up the fascinating life of a rover, and make for himself a worthy place in the affairs of men. Accordingly he entered Heald's Business College in San Francisco, and on the completion of his studies there, came to Fort Bragg in the employ of the Glen Blair Redwood Company as tallyman and local salesman. His wide experience as a lumberman made him too valuable to the company to remain long in such a position, and six months later he was promoted to the office of superintendent of the Fort Bragg yards of the com- pany. This position carries with it much responsibility, as the yards are the receiving and distributing point for all of the company mills, and the volume of business which passes daily through the hands of the superintendent is very large. Nothing but systematic accuracy could successfully dispose of it. Mr. Thurman is making a distinct success of his new work since taking it over in October, 1913. Also since coming to Fort Bragg he has made a host of warm personal friends and his position in the community is one of trust and confidence among his fellows. He is an influential member of Broderick Parlor, N. S. G. W., at Point Arena.
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