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 58
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 58
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The marriage of Mr. Devilbiss took place in Westport, February 9, 1887, uniting him with Miss Ellen Roach, born in Hopland, Mendocino county, August 22, 1870. She is the daughter of Patrick Roach, a native of Ireland, who came to the United States when he was seventeen years of age and was one of the early California pioneers. For a time he made his home at Santa Rosa, but later took up his residence in Westport, where he farmed for many years. He is now a resident of Westport, where he is well known and highly respected. He is retired from active business, and is past the ninety year mark.
Mr. and Mrs. Devilbiss are the parents of a family of fifteen children, all living at the present. They have all been well educated and are bright and intellectual above the average. Several of the elder members are graduates of the State Normal school at Chico, and are at present engaged in teaching. They are: Alice, now teaching at Fort Bragg; Ruth, now Mrs. Simmerly
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of Redwine; Jessie, teaching at Irmulco; Henry, a blacksmith at Alder Point ; Lloyd, associated in business with his father; Mary, Milton, Claude, Madge, Nora, Edith, Frank, Homer, Dorothy and Teresa. The younger members of the family are still living at home and the family circle is a very interesting one.
During his long residence in Mendocino county Mr. Devilbiss has been closely associated with the affairs of the county and is regarded as a thoroughly progressive citizen and one who is wide awake to the best interests of the community. For many years he was a member of the board of trustees in his school district, and at present Mrs. Devilbiss is a member of the trustees and is also clerk of the board. In 1880, while he was living on Ten Mile river, Mr. Devilbiss served one term as constable and made for himself an enviable record for fearlessness and efficiency. He was made the victim of one very unhappy circumstance, and was obliged to take the life of a man in self defense. This man was named Courtwright, and was known to be in league with the band of outlaws, (Billings, Braun, and Guanz, known as the Mendocino outlaws), and to harbor them at various times. Mr. Devilbiss went at one time to the Courtwright home, together with the sheriff, Doc Standley, but they found nothing that was criminal. Courtwright, however, deeply resented the visit, and from that time carried a deep grudge against the constable and on every possible occasion tried to pick a quarrel. Finally they met in a public house, and Courtwright commenced the old wrangle, finally approach- ing Devilbiss with evident intention to do him bodily harm. The constable was too quick for him, however, and shot him before he could fire. He was completely exonerated from any blame, it being readily proven that he had acted in self-defense.
Although he is well past sixty, Mr. Devilbiss is still in the prime of his life and conducts his large interests with his customary ability. He possesses a wide circle of friends throughout the county, and is recognized as one of the leading citizens.
JOHN GUENZA, who came to Point Arena, Mendocino county, in December, 1891, was born in Piedmont, Novara, Italy, August 16, 1871, the son of Camillo and Theresa (Mancini) Guenza. He was the fifth eldest of a family of eleven children nine of whom grew up.
John Guenza's early life was spent on the farm, and he attended the public schools until twelve years of age, when he was apprenticed at the shoemak- er's trade in Piedmont for five years. Then he ran a shop of his own in his native place for two years, but on the death of his mother in 1891, he concluded to come to the Pacific coast and arrived in Point Arena, Mendocino county, in December, 1891. The father afterwards joined the children in California and died here.
On his arrival John Guenza secured employment on a dairy farm in the vicinity of Point Arena, where he continued for five years. In the meantime, through economy, he saved some money and was enabled to rent a ranch near Manchester. This he stocked with cows and continued in the dairy business for seven years, having built up a good herd. After selling his dairy herd he located at Greenwood, where he became foreman of the L. E. White dairy, but a year afterwards he resigned and located in Albion, in November, 1904, purchasing the Albion Ridge Hotel. Besides this he rented the Handly ranch and engaged in farming and dairying for nine years, when he gave it up to
Cha's F. May Leonora E. May
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devote all of his time to the hotel business, which he continued during this time. In 1905 he remodeled and rebuilt the hotel, at the same time naming it the Roma Hotel.
In Greenwood occurred the marriage of John Guenza and Mary Bianchi, also a native of Italy, and they have seven children, as follows: John, Jose- phine, Eugene, Emma, Charles, Philip and Ernest. Politically he is a stanch Republican and fraternally is a member of the Druids and Eagles having membership at Fort Bragg.
CAPT. CHARLES FREMONT MAY .- The second son of Lord May, who was born in England about the time of the war of the Roses, became the progenitor of the May family in America and settled in Virginia during the colonial era. The lineage is traced from him through William James May. of Virginian birth, whose wife, a Miss White, was a granddaughter of the illustrious Governor Randolph of the Old Dominion, and her mother a grand- daughter of the historic Indian heroine, Pocahontas. Descended from this couple was Col. Caleb May, a native of Virginia, a strong anti-slavery man, fearless in the support of what he deemed to be right and the commander of a regiment in the Kansas-Nebraska war. One of the very earliest settlers west of Atchison in Kansas, during 1869 he moved still further from the limits of civilization and established a home in Montgomery county near the Okla- homa state line. As a member of the Kansas territorial legislature he had been active in anti-slavery legislation and had given heartily of his energies to the advancement of the territory. It was due to his efforts that, when the state was admitted to the Union, its western boundaries extended one hundred miles further to the west than had been originally designed. For his con- structive efforts he is entitled to be remembered in the annals of the state of Kansas. Sixteen children were born of his marriage to Margaret Parnell, whose grandfather came from Ireland and was a relative of the great Irish agitator of that name.
The eldest of Colonel May's large family was William J., whose title of captain came through official service in the Civil war. Born at Greensboro, Henry county, Ind., and reared in Kansas, he enlisted as a private, thence was promoted to be second lieutenant, later first lieutenant, (in which position he commanded his company for two years) and finally he rose to be captain of Company F, Thirteenth Kansas Infantry. Each of the promotions came in recognition of heroic service. While acting captain he was seriously wounded at the battle of Prairie Grove, Ark., where a bullet took a piece out of the bone of his left leg. Upon his recovery he was handed a captain's commission. In the army of the west he did valiant service, engaging in twenty-three pitched battles as well as numerous skirmishes. Bushwhacking, foraging and scouting also fell to his lot as a soldier. Not only did he serve from the beginning of the war to its close, but in addition he had one brother, Enoch May, and two brothers-in-law at the front through the conflict. While he was stationed with his regiment at Little Rock, Ark., he was joined by his wife and small son, Charles Fremont, and the latter at once was adopted as the company's mascot. While traveling from Kansas the mother and son heard of the assassination of President Lincoln the morning after it occurred. They were then at Memphis, Tenn. Hurrying on to the front to meet the Captain, the boy of six years was wonderfully thrilled by the sight of a battle near Little Rock, where wounded Union soldiers were carried off the field and other Union soldiers were pursuing the fleeing Confederates toward the south.
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It was at Little Rock that the Captain was honorably discharged and mustered out of the service. Notwithstanding the exposure and hardships of that memorable war he is still hale and hearty, at the age of seventy-five, and is now a resident of Santa Paula, this state. During 1904 he lost his wife, Caro- line (Stone) May, at the age of sixty-six years. She was a relative of Barton W. Stone, who aided in the religious reformation that culminated in the organization of the Christian Church and who in the movement co-operated with Walter Scott, Alexander Campbell and his father, Thomas Campbell, as well as other men of religious fervor and deep thought.
One of a family of two children, of whom the daughter, Nellie, died at the age of four years, Charles Fremont May accompanied his parents to the southern part of Kansas a few years after the war and there his father, who had completed an honorable service in the Kansas state legislature, engaged extensively in the raising of cattle and horses. The establishment of a home on a large ranch caused the only son to enjoy a taste of cowboy life and lie became an excellent rider, able to ride standing up on his pony and to per- form the other feats usually associated with skilled horsemanship. The frontier was his school. He saw much that impressed him deeply and taught him lessons of value. In those days he personally knew the Bender family, notorious murderers, whose name became a synonym for desperate deeds in the southwest. A study of his life brings out the singular fact that it divides itself into epochs each ten years in duration and each characterized by change of location and employment. During the decade from 1863 to 1873 he had his cowboy experiences, his adventures in the war and his childish problems connected with the Kansas-Nebraska troubles and the reconstruction period. Born at the family home near Monrovia, Atchison county, Kan., February 23, 1859, he had as a neighbor in those early and little remembered years Pardee Butler. the celebrated correspondent of the New York Times, the fearless champion of state's rights, the anti-slavery agitator and the prominent Chris- tian preacher.
The decade from 1873 to 1883 was spent in the quicksilver mines of Ore- gon, with a brief preliminary attendance at the Coquille Academy in that state. Prior to attendance at the higher institution of learning, the principal teacher of the lad had been his mother, a woman of superior mental endow- ments, who had instructed him with such zeal and skill that he was easily the peer of schoolmates with excellent school records. While engaged in the mining and manufacturing of quicksilver in Douglas county, Ore., he met and married Leonora E. Todd, daughter of Rev. A. L. Todd, an own cousin of Abraham Lincoln's wife. This pioneer Christian minister of Oregon had crossed the plains with ox-teams, arriving in Oregon in 1852 and remaining there until his death at Elkhead, Douglas county, when sixty-eight years of age. Surviving him is his widow, Angeline (Tate) Todd, who at the age of eighty-two years (1914) is making her home at Cottage Grove, that state. Of her immediate family there survives a brother, William Tate, who resides in Los Angeles. The pioneer western preacher and his wife had a family of twelve children and all of these attained maturity excepting Elijah, who died at nine years. The others were named as follows: Ellen ; Lovina ; Cynthia ; Aurelias, now in Mexico, and who served as a captain in the Cuban war under General Garcia: William, who was accidentally killed in a runaway; Levi, a physician living in the Sacramento valley; Matilda, who resides at Cottage
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Grove ; Leonora, Mrs. May ; John Owen, who was accidentally shot at Shoe- string, Ore .; Thomas, who was accidentally crushed and killed by the wheels of a loaded wagon ; and Mrs. Eva Byers, of Grangeville, Ida. The only child of Captain and Mrs. May, Clara Pearl, became an accomplished artist, archi- tect and designer, and secured a position with the United States government as designing architect on the Panama canal. She is now living near Sacra- mento and is the wife of Capt. Edward Brennir, a South American sea captain who resigned his commission for the purpose of coming to California.
After a decade in Coos and Douglas counties, Ore., during which period he helped develop the profitable Elkhead quicksilver mine in Shoestring valley, in 1883 Captain May, with wife and child, also accompanied by his parents, Capt. William and Caroline (Stone) May, removed to Florida and engaged in horticultural pursuits at Eustis, Lake county, with his father and ten years later to St. Petersburg, Fla. While employed as a horticulturist contractor at Eustis he discovered and introduced a new process of budding orange trees which has been very generally adopted throughout Florida. This consists in shaving off the rough outer bark, then inserting the buds in the tender inside bark and above the buds cutting (say one-half or two-thirds) into the old trunk, then bending it over so as to give light and air to the buds. The old top is left for at least one year before entirely removing it. In this way the vitality of the roots is promoted and strength is given to the buds, which grow like a water sprout. By this method it is possible to save two or three years of growth for the tree. Twenty years ago the agricultural department published the process adopted by Captain May. Through this publicity and through the columns of the Florida Agriculturist, of Jacksonville, Fla., the method became widely known and effectively used. About this time Captain May also was a frequent contributor to the columns of the paper named, as well as other horticultural journals. While the ventures of himself and father were a success taken altogether, they suffered heavy losses by the freezes of 1887 and 1896. Meanwhile in 1893 Captain May had entered the contracting and building business at St. Petersburg, Fla., as a partner of William J. McPherson under the firm title of May & McPherson. As early as 1887 he had been prevailed upon to act as immigration agent for the Orange Belt Railroad and through his efforts the millionaire, E. H. Tomlinson, became a resident of St. Petersburg, where he engaged Captain May as architectural designer and builder of the Industrial hall and Industrial annex, donated for several years to the town by Mr. Tomlinson without any charge and finally purchased by the city to be devoted to its various needs. Besides being the architect of the first public school building at St. Petersburg, Captain May engaged in building hotels, stores, fine residences, the Woods block on Main street, the palatial home of Mr. Tomlinson and the Hotel Huntington. For some years prior to 1903 he served as architect and superintendent of con- struction for Mr. Tomlinson.
From 1903 to 1913 Captain May engaged in the real-estate business at Lakeport, having removed to California in the year first named. Through his efforts was organized the May Land & Investment Company, still in exist- ence. During this period he was president of the Lake County Real Estate Dealers Association. For a few years he had offices in the Levy block, but in 1906 he built the three-story structure, 50x60 feet, known as the May block, this having a concrete basement with steel front and ceilings and reinforced
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concrete walls. On the first floor there are two stores. On the second O. T. Griner, D. D. S., Walter Fern, M. D., and the Yolo Water & Power Com- pany have their offices. On the third are housekeeping apartments to let, as well as the private apartments of Captain and Mrs. May and his office, to- gether with a beautiful conservatory lighted by a skylight, 6x16 feet, giving the appearance of tropical luxuriance to the surroundings even in midwinter. Excellent plumbing, electric lights and water piped through the building give it the modern conveniences, while convenient stairways and an elevator give access from the basement to the third story balcony porch, where may be seen a picturesque view of Clear lake to the east with Mount Konocti in the distance, the whole forming an enchanting scene never yet portrayed by the artist's brush.
During 1912-13 Captain May built his beautiful yacht, which he launched on the Ist of May, 1913, and which is now the largest craft floating on Clear lake. The vessel he name The Pocahontas, in honor of his ancestor, the Indian princess. This modern yacht is twelve feet and ten inches beam, by forty-seven feet long, with an engine of forty horse-power. Every modern convenience was considered in the construction of the pleasure boat.
At the present time Captain May and his wife are the leaders as the people's champions in the struggle for supremacy in the ownership of Clear Lake and its tributaries under the provisions of the following act: At the 1912-13 session of the California legislature a law was enacted, entitled "An act to provide for the incorporation, organization and management of county water districts, and to provide for the acquisition of water rights or con- struction thereby of waterworks and for the acquisition of all property neces- sary therefor, and also to provide for the distribution and sale of water by said districts."
Captain May's extensive experience in different cities in the east has made him a firm believer in municipal ownership of public utilities, having seen the success in various cities where he has been an active worker in the municipalities' interests. Hence he is convinced that the county ownership of Clear lake would be of the greatest benefit to the people and future genera- tions. Assisted by Mrs. May he is very active in organizing the people's forces, sending out literature explaining the advantage it would eventually prove to the county and their activity in the matter has resulted in a petition which at this writing was presented to the board of supervisors August 5. 1914, and it is to be hoped the citizens of the county will embrace the oppor- tunity and vote to acquire this valuable asset for the county.
While still engaged in managing his lake craft and in superintending his property interests, it is the plan of the Captain to devote the decade beginning in 1913 to literary pursuits. In fact, as early at 1910 he began his association with literature by the publication of a work entitled, "The Devil's Rebellion and the Reason Why", an allegorical account of the battle between Michael with his angels and the Devil with his angels. The central theme is: "Out of the crucible of life's adverse experiences come the gems of thought which crown the brow of mortal and elevate us to a nearer relationship to the Deity." Without being denominational the book indicates a decided religious trend of thought, showing the reasons for mortal existence and the reasons for the existence of sin in the world. At present the Captain is engaged in writing a novel, "My Motor Boat Girl," introducing Lake county
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scenery and incidents. At the same time he is devoting much consideration to occultism, telepathy, transcendentalism and the psychic, for which study his own varied experiences, his moral principles of life and his keen mental endowments admirably qualify him. In political views he is a radical or ultra progressive, with prohibition sympathies. Of religion he has made a deep study and he and his wife are leading members of the Church of Christ at Lakeport, in which Mrs. May is a Sunday-school teacher and to which both contribute with accustomed generosity.
The following poem from the pen of Captain May, entitled "Our Her- itage", is dedicated to the memory of his illustrious ancestors :
O, where are "the scenes of my childhood, The loved spot which my infancy knew?" The orchard and meadow, the wild wood,
Where the walnuts and hickory nuts grew? Yes, there was "an old oaken bucket That hung in the well" dark and deep. The animals, too, I remember, The horses, the cows and the sheep. There were all kinds of barnyard fowls. And a dog that was my special pet, ---
Two playful black squirrels that were Mother's, Well do I remember them yet.
There too was a dear little sister ;
She was Father's companion and friend,
But the Angel of Death hovered o'er her,
Brought her tender young life to an end.
Nay, there was no brown-stone front mansion,
Only broad fields of golden-eared corn, And only a little log cabin
Marked the humble place where I was born.
And so time, relentless and cruel,
The long years that now intervene,
"Twixt the time of my birth and the present,
Hath removed, and no trace can be seen Of that cabin or well, e'en the forest
Trees have been cut ; their trunks are now rotten,
And the faces of dear loving friends Are but dim, are almost forgotten.
But let us turn backward and scan The historic page of our nation : We will search for the names of our sires, See whether in high or low station They wrought ere the time of our birth ; If they fought in defense of our land, The greatest republic on earth.
That until the millennium will stand. When still on, back through the ages,
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We delve deep in world's history, We find, in the annals of Holland, Our ancestor, an Earl named May. And when England's war of the Roses Was in progress, his youngest son, May, Fought under her king's royal banner, And received a Lordship for his pay. And when the new world was settled, Lord May's son made his home in this land,
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Where Pocahontas' granddaughter loved And gave our great-great-grandsire her hand.
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Again, our grandsire was a colonel, Added lustre to our banner of fame, In the war for the freedom of Kansas, Our birthplace, which passed through the flame Of fire and blood in the making. But emerged an illustrious star, Sending thousands of her sons to battle In the subsequent, rebellious war- War internal, that set free the black, Struck the death knell of slavery for aye, Bade him look up, be a man and be free, And rejoice in the birth of his day.
Then, as through this long list of our heroes We look, finding name after name, That the world hath delighted to honor, Has placed high on pinnacle's fame, We find also the name of our father, Captain May of a Kansas brigade, Whose record is written with honor, In gilt letters which never can fade.
Thus we find, and our hearts are made glad, By this legacy out of the past, The illustrious names of our sires, On history's page that will last. For, though. mortar and stone may crumble, And dust unto dust be returned, The life lived for God and for country, By the angels will never be spurned ; And high on the banner of heaven, Will their names be emblazoned in gold, And the victories they gained while on earth, Will forever and ever be told. Then what matter, if all earthly treasures Vanish into the dim distant past, And statues of marble and granite Crumble to dust at the last,
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And also if these, our frail bodies, Borrowed only for a brief space By the Spirit (a part of our God) Given life by the power of His grace, Shall smoulder, decay and be lost, In the dust of our old Mother Earth,
If we but so live that our spirits
May go back to the God of their birth.
RUSSELL W. PRESTON, M. D .- Born in Benzonia, Mich., August 19, 1879, Mr. Preston is son of Dr. Walton Preston, a graduate of Rush Medical College in Chicago, who was engaged as a practitioner in Michigan till 1894. Then he located in San Francisco, where he has practiced medicine ever since. Russell W. received his early education in the public schools of Michigan until 1894, when he came to San Francisco with his parents. Soon afterwards he entered the Collegiate Institute at Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, where he was graduated in 1898. The next year was spent as an employe in a pharmacy in San Francisco. In 1899 he entered Cooper Medical College, completing the course in 1903, and received the degree of M. D. He then spent a year as interne in the city and county hospital, San Francisco, and then six months in Lane Hospital, after which he engaged in practice in San Francisco. Dur- ing this time he was connected with Lane Hospital for three years, the Ger- man Hospital for one year, and the Polyclinic for six months. In 1910 he located in Mendocino, since which time he has been engaged in the general practice of medicine and surgery, in which he has met with success, acquir- ing a succesful and growing practice.
In San Francisco occurred the marriage of Dr. Preston and Miss Estelle Cook, who is a native daughter of Mendocino city, daughter of Capt. John Cook, one of the old settlers of Mendocino county and for many years captain of barkentine Portland. He was lost at sea in a wreck in 1906. Dr. Preston is a member of Phoenix Lodge No. 3, of San Francisco, of Waubeek Tribe No. 164, 1. O. R. M., and the Independent Order of Foresters of Mendocino. He was made a Mason in Mendocino Lodge, No. 179, F. & A. M., and is a member of Stella Lodge No. 213, I. O. O. F. In the line of his profession he is a member of the State Medical Society and Cooper Science Club of San Francisco.
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