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 57
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 57
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EUGENE PARR, who became a resident of Mendocino county in 1876, was born at Barry, Platte county, Mo., November 11, 1852, and was the elder of two sons born to Anthony and Mary J. (Vaughan) Parr, natives of Kentucky. The father, who was a blacksmith in Barry, Mo., removed to Cali- fornia and died in Kern county, while the mother's demise occurred in Tulare county.
Eugene Parr received his education in the public schools of Platte county, Mo. In 1875 he came to California, spending the first year at Vacaville. In 1876 he came to Hopland, where he was employed at ranching in Sanel Valley. Finding that some of the soda springs as well as the large fresh water springs
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were located on school land he purchased two hundred and forty acres, about 1886, and he and his wife began the improvement and development of Duncan Springs, as it was named, the original Soda Springs being located on E. H. Duncan's place. This was the beginning of Duncan Springs as a resort and he ran both his own and that of E. H. Duncan. In this undertaking he was ably assisted by his capable wife. After six years they sold the Springs and engaged in ranching on the Russian river in Sanel Valley until, with Frank Duncan, he leased the Duncan ranch which they operated for six years. They then removed to Visalia, where Mr. Parr followed teaming and draying for a year, and in 1906 they returned to Hopland. Mrs. Parr having become owner of one hundred and four acres of the Duncan estate, they located on it and began improvements. They have sold off some, but retain sixty-five acres about three-quarters of a mile south of Hopland. On the place they have erected a new bungalow with suitable barn and the necessary improve- ments, while the farm is devoted to orcharding, alfalfa and grain.
Mr. Parr was first married to Frances M. Day, who died in Woodbridge, leaving a child Verna, Mrs. Leffler of Lodi. Mr. Parr was again married in San Francisco, October 23, 1883, being united with Miss Mary Ellen Duncan, who was born at Mark West, Sonoma county, but from a little child was reared in Sanel Valley, Mendocino county, being the daughter of Elijah Hall and Elizabeth (Craddock) Duncan, honored and prominent pioneers of the valley, who are represented elsewhere in this work. Her education was ob- tained in the local schools, residing with her parents until her marriage with Mr. Parr. They have beautified their place and it is very attractive, and they are doing much to show what can be accomplished with the rich soil and natural resources of the valley. Both are well and favorably known and they have a host of friends. Politically they are firm believers in the straight- out democratic doctrines.
E. FAVRELIERE .- A member of one of the oldest and most prominent families in France, E. Favreliere was one of those whom the great San Fran- cisco fire touched severely, since in that disaster he lost all of his capital of $10,000, leaving him but $17 with which to face the future. To start anew he went to Glenn county, but as there was no opening for his trade of cook he went to work on a hay press for the entire summer, afterwards bucking sacks for two weeks. Later he became foreman at the warehouse, and in about four months had saved $450. Many years before he had homesteaded one hundred acres adjoining Ukiah, upon which he had spent about $11,000 on improvements, and in 1906 he located on it and purchased additional prop- erty until he owns one hundred and seventy-four acres. After 1906 he bought seven lots in Ukiah, upon which he built a laundry. Later he started the Depot restaurant which he successfully conducted, making the place the finest of its kind in the city.
Mr. Favreliere was born near Pieux, France. His ancestors had been resident there for over nine hundred years, and were wealthy landowners until the time of the revolution, when their position and lands were wrested from them. One of the paternal ancestors fought under LaFayette in the American Revolution and a few years later he was killed in the French Revo- lution. The subject of this sketch, born in 1866, was deprived of school ad- vantages, and he worked on the farm until he was fifteen years of age, and when he was seventeen years old he had learned the trade of cook. When eighteen years of age he entered the French army, in which he served three
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and a half years. Then, in 1890, he came to San Francisco, where he was variously employed until he was made second chef in the Palace Hotel, and later became chef in several clubs in turn. He then started in business for himself and had a restaurant at the time of the big fire. At present he is proprietor of the French-American restaurant in Ukiah. Fraternally he is a member of the Independent Order of Red Men and politically is a Democrat.
MRS. MIRANDA BARNES HASKETT .- Mendocino county's citizens would not be faithfully represented without mention being made of her edu- cators, and the most prominent of these is Mrs. Haskett, who has been identi- fied with her schools for fifty years. Mrs. Haskett is a native of Carthage, Hancock county, Ill., and the daughter of Dr. Thomas Langley Barnes, who was born in Burke county, N. C., in 1812, and who was a very prominent physician and surgeon in Illinois. He was a graduate of the McDowell Medi- cal College of St. Louis, Mo., and later he practiced medicine in Carthage and was one of the surgeons who performed the post-mortem examination over Joseph Smith and his brother. He was twice married, the first time to Laurenda Burbank, a native of Troy, Mo., the second time to Mary Doty. In 1854 he decided to remove to California, and procuring two old "prairie schooners" with good ox teams and a four-horse carriage he started out, first locating at Petaluma. While practicing his profession of medicine there he was elected county physician and located at Santa Rosa, but later moved to Redwood City and from there to Ukiah, Mendocino county, where he con- tinued to practice. While still residing in Illinois he was justice of the peace and county coroner, and it was while serving his term as coroner that he performed the inquest on Joseph and Hiram Smith. He also served in the Black Hawk war. He was the son of Michael, son of Jehu, son of James, son of Brinsley Barnes, the latter of whom served in the Revolutionary war under General Marion. Dr. Barnes' mother was Elizabeth West, of North Carolina, and Mrs. Haskett's maternal grandfather was Sylvester Burbank of Ver- mont, a member of the historic "Green Mountain Boys." Dr. Barnes in the later years of his life served as justice of the peace in Ukiah and here he passed away at the age of eighty-nine, rounding out a life full of adventure and one full of works that speak highly of his wonderful personality and ability.
Of the union of Dr. Barnes and Laurenda Burbank there were seven children, of whom Mrs. Haskett was the eldest. She received her early edu- cation in the schools of Carthage, then entering the Ladies' Seminary of Jacksonville, Ill., where she attended until her marriage. She was married March 5, 1854, to Samuel W. Haskett, who was born in Stokes county, N. C., coming with his parents at an early age to Crawfordsville, Ind., where he attended Wabash College. Immediately after their marriage they started on their honeymoon trip to California, and were among the pioneers who braved the hardships of the plains to reach that "Land of Heart's Desire." On their arrival in 1854 they located at Petaluma, where they followed stock- raising until 1860, when they moved to Potter valley and engaged in farming and stock-raising. After selling the ranch they moved to Ukiah in 1863 and engaged in the livery and stage business, later entering the hotel business, which he successfully conducted until he sold it out in 1873. However, he continued in the stage business until his health failed and he retired. He was county assessor, tax collector, and also county coroner for a number of years.
mr and Mrs. S. W. Hackett.
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He passed away in February, 1905, leaving a vacancy in the hearts of all who knew him.
Mrs. Haskett began teaching in Potter valley, and upon coming with her husband to Ukiah in 1863, she continued the work here, and being the only teacher in the public school of this place it was her duty to do all of the work. Afterwards she continued to teach in the various districts near Ukiah until October, 1913, when she retired because of defective hearing. In March, 1914, the State Board of Education, in recognition of her long life of useful- ness in educational work, granted her the teacher's pension she so well de- serves, and in May, 1912, at the Teachers' Institute at Willits, the teachers of Mendocino county presented her with a beautiful silver loving cup as a token of their undying affection for her.
Mrs. Haskett is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and all its societies and is a member of Kingsley Chapter No. 58, O. E. S., of which she is past matron. In her political views she is an ardent Democrat. She has five children, as follows: Jennie, Mrs. McCann, of San Francisco; Alice, Mrs. W. L. Bransford, of Red Bluff; Laura, who is Mrs. Hart of Ukiah; Guy, of Willits, who is represented elsewhere in this work; and Delia, who is Mrs. A. M. Rawson of Los Angeles. Mrs. Haskett was very successful as an educator and possessed wonderful tact in handling the un- trained mind of the child whose future was to be moulded by her hands. She has established a wonderful record as a teacher and to all her old pupils will always be the finest, most highly respected teacher they have ever known. Mendocino county is rightfully proud of so splendid an educator and mother. and above all a friend to those who know her. She can well be proud of her teacher's life diploma from the state Board of Education, and indeed it is a matter of just pride to be able to say that she has taught her county's schools for fifty years.
WILLIAM M. STANDLEY was born on the L. R. Standley ranch, Mendocino county, August 13, 1868, the son of L. R. and Sarah (Murray) Standley, both natives of Missouri. Crossing the plains in the early days to Sonoma county, they soon became early settlers of Mendocino county, where L. R. Standley engaged in farming and stock raising. Later he conducted a butcher business in Cloverdale and still later in Hopland, and then had a vegetable ranch on Ten Mill river. His last days were spent at Westport, where he died in 1906, his widow still making her home in that place.
Of their eight children William M. Standley was the fifth eldest in order of birth. He received his education in the schools of the district as well as Ukiah, during these years assisting his father, and when he began for himself he followed ranching until 1900. Determining to try mining in Alaska, in that year he made the trip to Nome and spent a season in the frozen north, then returning to Westport. For ten years he was deputy sheriff and constable, in which positions he served acceptably, always doing his duty in enforcing the law. In 1910 he was elected justice of the peace for Westport township on the Democratic ticket and took the oath of office in January, 1911. As the local justice his decisions have been fair and impartial, he having always endeavored to enforce the law in its best issues. Since 1911 he has been pro- prietor of the Westport Hotel, where he acts as host to the traveling public. public.
Mr. Standley was married at Caspar to Miss Alice Stayton, a native of California, and they have four children, as follows: Ruby, Mrs. Dyer of
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Latonville ; Wilda, attending the San Jose State Normal ; William, a graduate of Heald's Business College, San Francisco, and now an employe of the Union Lumber Company ; and Alma. Mr. Standley's uncle, J. M. Standley, served as sheriff for several terms and was a very prominent man in the county.
CHARLES ARTHUR McFAUL .- A veteran of the Civil war, Charles A. McFaul was born in Appleton, Wis., January 3, 1849. His father, Elijah, removed from Canada and became an early settler of New London Mills, Wis., where he was engaged in contracting and building. He and his wife, Mar- garet, spent their last days with our subject and died at Bridgeport.
Charles Arthur McFaul was educated in the schools of New London Mills, Wis. At the age of fifteen years, August 24, 1864, he volunteered and enlisted in Company A, Forty-second Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, serving until the close of the war, when he was mustered out and honorably discharged. After about a year he entered Eastman's Business College, Chicago, where he was graduated in 1867 and then returned to his old home and taught school for one year.
From 1868 to 1872 he taught at the Calumet and Hecla mine, Houghton county, Mich., after which he engaged in manufacturing extract from hemlock bark at Clintonville, Wis., until the fall of 1875. In that year he made prepa- rations for removing to California, and arrived at Little River, Mendocino county, in January, 1876. He entered the employ of Coombs & Perkins and for six years was in charge of the yards and shipping. In 1882, in partnership with Charles Keen, under the firm name of McFaul & Keen, he bought the mill at Bridgeport and engaged in the manufacture of lumber. Four years later, having sawed all the available timber they sold the mill and continued in general merchandise and tie business at Bridgeport. Mr. McFaul pur- chased a ranch of one hundred and twenty acres at Bridgeport, which he still owns but is now leasing.
In 1896 the Hardy Creek Lumber Company was organized with Mr. McFaul as manager. The wharf was built and he continued with the com- pany until 1899, when he sold his stock and retired from the company. In that year, with his sons, he bought the present place and organized the Union Commercial Company and they built the Union landing and wharf. They engage in general contracting, getting out ties and tanbark, and they make and ship ties for the Los Angeles Railway Company and the Pacific Electric Company to Los Angeles and also operate a saw mill for them on Alviso creek. This is the shipping point not only for the above named companies in schooners to Redondo and San Pedro, but for the output from Howard creek. The wharf and landing are well equipped for loading and shipping lumber, ties and tanbark, and the business has grown to large proportions under his able management, he being assisted by his sons. They have built nearly all the roads in this vicinity and are now interested in building a road to Hollow Tree for an outlet for settlers there and in the Jackson valley country. Most of the work has been done at their own expense. They built the new grade from Union Landing to Alviso creek and so well was it built that the earthquake did not create slides. Since then other roads have been rebuilt and constructed with easier grades.
In Houghton county, Mich., Mr. McFaul married Mary E. Pound, who was born in Holland, Mich., and to them have been born five children, as follows: Wilson E. resides in Fort Bragg. Charles W. and E. J. are partners of their father. Stella, a twin sister of E. J., is the wife of E. H. Dean, of
Cm. Curly
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Fort Bragg. Arthur P. is still at home. Mr. McFaul has always been inter- ested in the cause of education and has been an active member of the board of school trustees in the district. He has resided and is now clerk of the board of trustees in the Rowena district. Politically he is a staunch Repub- lican. Mr. McFaul has had many ups and downs and adversities, but he has overcome obstacles and been most successful. He is liberal and kind hearted, but his charities are all accomplished in an unostentatious manner, and his career is well worthy of emulation.
CHARLES MITCHELL CURLEY .- It may be said with truth that self-reliance was the leading element in the rise of Mr. Curley from com- parative obscurity to the position of trust which he ultimately attained. Doubtless this quality was a native possession, but certainly it was developed by experience and by the necessity of earning his own livelihood while yet only a school boy. Starting out on his own responsibility at an age when most boys are weighted with no responsibilities heavier than those connected with the studying of lessons at school or the discharge of trivial tasks at home, he manfully met the responsibilities of existence and turned his hand to the first honest labor that presented itself. He was born near Montreal, Quebec. Canada, August 13, 1842, the son of high-minded Christian parents, whose training in precept and example was the choicest bequest inherited by their son. The circumstances of the family were such that it was not possible for Mr. Curley to plan for a very extensive education and this being the case he made much of such opportunity as fell to him in the schools of Montreal. With this grounding in the fundamentals of an education he set forth at the age of twelve to make his own way in the world, and how diligently he per- formed his duties and how his eagerness to reach yet a higher round on the ladder of success the record of his life well depicts.
When he was about twenty years of age Mr. Curley turned his back on the scenes of his boyhood and set out for California, crossing the plains with ox-teams. This was about 1862, when mining was attracting more or less attention in the west, and quite naturally he investigated the possibilities of making a fortune therein. For several years the fascinations of the life held him in bond, and with good reason, for it is said that he met with splendid success in his ventures. However, he gave up the life of the miner to take up a more stable calling, at this time going to Bloomfield, Sonoma county, where he began farming operations. It was about 1874 that he came to Men- docino county and near Point Arena rented a farm which he devoted particu- larly to the dairy business. The undertaking proved a success in every sense ot the word, not only enabling him to lay by means, but also stimulated a latent ambition to become a property owner. In time he purchased a farm of cut-over redwood timber land upon which he located and at once set about making the necessary improvements. As has been intimated, it was without improvements of any kind, indeed there was not even a road leading to it. but nevertheless he determinedly set to work to clear it of timber and brush and set it to crops as rapidly as clearings were made. That he had no regrets as to his choice of a location was evidenced in the purchase of more land immediately adjoining his first purchase. Ultimately he was the owner of five hundred acres of choice land in close proximity to Point Arena, which during all these years had been the marketing place for his dairy products. Perhaps the key to his success in this line aside from his persistent energy was the
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fact that he was a splendid judge of the best dairy stock. Only the best of milk cows were accepted on his ranch, until in time he was credited with having the best dairy herd on the coast.
While dairying formed the chief interest of Mr. Curley from a business standpoint it did not claim all of his attention nor blind him to his obligations to his fellowman. Realizing the need of adequate banking facilities in the young growing town he gave his influence toward a project set on foot for the organization of what is now known as the Bank of Point Arena, himself and J. C. Halliday being the moving spirits in the enterprise. His interest in the city's welfare led to his selection as one of the city trustees, and in this office he served with credit and zeal for the best interests of the town. Realizing his own loss in the matter of education he made it one of his first duties to see that every opportunity was given the youth of Point Arena to have the best advantages possible, and in this spirit he aided every educa- tional measure promulgated, making special effort to secure the high school in Point Arena.
In San Francisco, January 29, 1889, Mr. Curley was united in marriage with Miss Mary L. Shoemaker, who was born in Oskaloosa, Iowa, the daugh- ter of Enoch Shoemaker, a native of Indiana. In that state Mr. Shoemaker married Mary Gerhart, also a native of Indiana, whence after their marriage they moved to Oskaloosa, lowa, and followed farming throughout the re- mainder of their lives. Mrs. Curley was educated in the schools and college of that place. Since the death of Mr. Curley she has continued to make her home on the ranch, although she leases the place, her own time being taken up with the care of other interests. The ranch is well improved with residence and other necessary buildings, and general farming and dairying are still carried on. The only child born of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Curley is Clarence Merwin, besides whom they reared from the age of five years a child of Mr. Curley's sister, Carrie Edna Stingley. The child was educated as lavishly as their own, besides which she was given a special musical education. She became the wife of W. M. Mckibben, D. D. S., of Turlock. Fraternally Mr. Curley was identified with the Odd Fellows, of which he was a past officer, and he was also a member of the Encampment. Mr. Curley's death occurred on his ranch near Point Arena in February, 1912, and was a distinct loss to the community which had known him so well and favorably for over forty years. Though gone he is not forgotten, for in truth his works live after him, not only in a substantial sense, but better still, in the minds and hearts of those who came into close personal touch with him and received an uplift from his noble, manly qualities.
GEORGE A. DEVILBISS .- One of the best known of the early Cali- fornia pioneers is George A. Devilbiss, who came across the plains in 1865, when he was a lad of thirteen years, and who since that time has continu- ously made this state his home. He at present resides on his home place, a splendid seven hundred-acre ranch on Cottoneva creek, where he is engaged in farming and stockraising. During the long years of his residence in Men- docino county he has been actively associated with the affairs of the county and is known throughout the region as a man of sterling qualities, reliable and trustworthy, and in every respect a splendid type of citizen.
Mr. Devilbiss is a native of Missouri, having been born at Canton, Lewis county, August 20, 1852. His father was Andrew Devilbiss, a native of Mary-
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land, who came to Missouri in an early day and engaged in farming. After the commencement of the Civil war he went to New Orleans and enlisted in the Confederate army, being assigned to the Eleventh Louisiana regiment of volunteers, with which he fought until 1864, when he was killed in a skirm- ish at Florence, Ala. The mother, Mary (Bevans) Devilbiss, was also a na- tive of Maryland. There were two children, Henry and George (the present honored citizen of Mendocino county) and after the close of the war the mother, accompanied by her sons and with W. J. Hildreth, of Ukiah, and J. P. Bevans, of Potter Valley, crossed the plains with mule teams, arriving in California in 1865. She located in Potter valley, and there was married to A. J. Lowell, having a family of two boys, A. J. and Walter Lowell, of Westport. In 1867 the family removed to Cottoneva creek, twelve miles north of Westport. Here she passed the remainder of her days, passing away in 1891, at the age of sixty-three.
The education of George Devilbiss was received in the public schools, first of Missouri, and later of Potter valley. Later he went to Westport and took up a timber claim east of the town, and engaged in cutting trees and tanbark and shipping them to the city. He remained here for some fifteen or eighteen years, and in the meantime, together with five other men, he started a store in Westport under the firm name of the Westport Commercial Com- pany, of which he was the manager for several years. He also purchased more land and had six teams running a part of the time. The panic of 1894-95 found him unprepared and he failed in business as a result. He then returned to Monroe's Landing and ran the chute for Mr. Kimball, and later rented the old home place, which he purchased in 1907.
This property is the original tract included in the filings made by Mr. Lowell and his brother Henry in the early days and for other homesteads adjoining, and consists of seven hundred acres of land on Cottoneva creek and the coast, all open range, and the finest sheep range in the county. Mr. Devilbiss is extensively engaged in the raising of sheep, and has a fine flock, producing about four hundred increase a year. He is also engaged in rais- ing cattle, and has a dairy herd of ten milch cows of graded stock. The ranch contains about five hundred acres of range land and two hundred acres of bottom or farming land, and on this latter are raised much grain and po- tatoes. and also may be found a fine family orchard. The old Monroe Land- ing chutes have been abandoned, but there is still a small saw mill on the place.
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