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 67
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 67
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and engaged in farming, his principal crop being hay, though he also raised some wheat. Land dealing also came to be one important branch of his busi- ness activities, and he bought and sold extensively. But it was the problem of irrigation and the various projects for handling it that eventually claimed most of his attention and brought him his greatest reputation. When the Tulane ditch was made in 1875 he worked on its construction for a dollar and a half a day, and from that time was connected with the construction of every important irrigation canal in Kittitas county up to the building of the Cascade undertaking, which cost three hundred thousand dollars. He was the princi- pal stockholder and became president of the Cascade Canal Company, and has been financially interested in every irrigation company in the county, having been president of the Ellensburg Canal Company and of the West Side Canal Company. Most of his investments have been in such interprises, and in his home county he was a recognized authority on the subject in all its phases, scientific and commercial, and looked to as a leader in the pro- motion and successful completion of irrigation projects. In other respects also he figured prominently in Kittitas county. He was instrumental in securing the legislation providing for the organization of the county, and in 1883 had his services recognized with appointment as one of the commis- sioners of the new county, and at the first election there was honored with the office of sheriff. In December, 1884, he resigned as county commissioner in order to assume his duties as sheriff January 1, 1885, and he served until 1889. For two terms he served as justice of the peace at West Kittitas. In 1878 he had been chosen captain of the Home Guards organized to protect the settlers from the Indians. An active factor in the development of all the resources of his county, as well as in the placing of her government affairs on a sound basis, he was heavily interested himself in valley lands, and in live stock, and had one of the most valuable ranches in the Kittitas valley, where he resided most of the time to be conveniently near certain business interests. His family, however, maintained the home at Ellensburg, where he also had various concerns.
In September, 1905, Mrs. Packwood having long been a sufferer from asthma, he removed with his family to Lakeport, Lake county, Cal., in the hope of benefiting her health, with gratifying results, her affliction having practically disappeared with the change of climate. After a brief residence in Lakeport they settled on the farm of one hundred acres, adjoining the village of Upper Lake, which Mr. Packwood purchased in 1905. He has since bought several other tracts, but has sold most of them. Mr. Packwood has acquired other interests in the vicinity, being a director in the Farmers' Savings Bank of Lakeport. Though a comparatively new resident of Lake county, he has taken his place among its most substantial citizens. The qualities which won him standing in years of successful business and public life in his old home have been well manifested at his present location. Men of his ability and vigorous mentality are acquisitions to any community, valuable for their initiative and executive qualities, and appreciated wherever their worth is known. Mr. Packwood is an Odd Fellow and a thirty-second-degree Mason. He is a Democrat in political association.
At Rocky Comfort, Mo., December 24, 1860, Mr. Packwood was married to Miss Margaret F. Holmes, who was born in the state of Mississippi and when nine years old went to Texas with her parents, Isham and Millie B.
Imr. + Pero. I. E. Dowod.
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(Jones) Holmes, the former a native of Virginia, the latter of Georgia. They moved to Missouri when Mrs. Packwood was a girl of thirteen years, and are buried in Newton county, that state. Mrs. Holmes died when fifty-seven years old, Mr. Holmes living to his seventy-third year. Their family consisted of twelve children: Mary was the wife of Robert Callahan and resided in Texas, where she died leaving five children; Sarah, deceased, was the wife of Mark Lowry and had a large family (their home was in Mississippi) ; William, a farmer, who died in Texas, was married and left children ; Stephen, who lives near Gilmer, Texas, is a widower; Jane, deceased, was the wife of Zachariah Potts, a Confederate soldier who died while serving in the Civil war, leaving her with four or five children; James, a farmer, died in Newton county, Mo., leaving a family of six children; Elizabeth, of Upshur county, Texas, is the widow of C. C. Reynolds, a farmer, and has a very large family ; Ann, who now lives with her sister, Mrs. Samuel T. Packwood, is the widow of Michael Murry, a miner, who resided at King county, Wash .; Martha and Amanda were twins, the latter, the widow of William Shannon, living in Sutton county, Texas (she has two children) ; Martha was the wife of Radford Tidwell and died leaving three children; Margaret Farnetta is the wife of Samuel T. Packwood ; Modena, whose home is at Mount Vernon, Wash., is the wife of Edward Russell, and has a family of five children
To Mr. and Mrs. Packwood have been born eleven children, four dying in infancy and six still surviving, viz .: John I., a farmer of Lake county, living one mile east of Upper Lake, is married to Miss Ida Swasey, and they have three children, Aleta, Bessie and John ; Lizzie, who died at Ellensburg, Wash., was the wife of Martin Hollenbeck and left four children, Clyde, Samuel, Harry and Martin ; Colorado (Collie) is the wife of G. H. Bradshaw, of Ellens- burg, Wash., and has four children, Nettie, Elizabeth, Lucretia and Dorothy ; Oliver Franklin, a farmer, living one mile east of Upper Lake, married Eliza- beth Bradshaw, who is from Tennessee, and has four children, Samuel, John, Carl and George; William, who lives on his father's old farm near Ellens- burg, Wash., engaged as a farmer and stockman, married Tennessee Harold, and they have two children, Delphia and Adeline; Harry and Harvey, twins, are unmarried and live at home. Mrs. Packwood is a member of the Christian Church at Lakeport.
JOHN EDWARD DOWD .- The ranching and dairying business was always ably represented in Mendocino county and prominently connected with this occupation was the late Mr. Dowd, whose sudden demise February 26, 1914, left a vacancy in the community and in the hearts of his fellow citizens that will be hard for any other to fill. He was born in Norwich, N. Y., Aug- 11st 1, 1870, the son of John Dowd, a native of County Tipperary, Ireland, who came to America as a mere lad and located in New York state, where he engaged in farming. He brought his family to California in 1877 and located at Ferndale, here also engaging in farming and stock-raising until the time of his death in 1894. His widow, Julia (Fehan) Dowd, still resides on the home place and here the children were reared and educated. John E. Dowd was the eldest of twelve children and his early boyhood was spent on the home ranch. When twenty-one years of age he engaged in the stock-raising and dairying business for himself on a farm in Ferndale, where he successfully managed a fine dairy. He married, at Ferndale, June 18, 1900, Caroline Dickson, the daughter of Charles and Jessie B. Dickson, Charles Dickson being
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a native of Truro. Nova Scotia. In 1865 he came to California, locating at Loleta, Humboldt county, where he carried on farming, and it was while living in Eureka that the daughter Caroline was born, she being the second oldest of three children. Mr. Dickson's wife died in 1902, leaving a family who deeply mourned her loss. Mrs. Dowd, after completing her schooling, obtained a teachers' certificate and engaged in teaching for two years or until she married.
Mr. Dowd purchased a ranch of four hundred acres near Ferndale and established a dairy of two hundred cows and on this property he built a fine creamery, manufacturing butter which he shipped to the San Francisco markets until 1905. In this year a serious fire broke out on the ranch, so he sold his stock and ranch and became the proprietor of the Capetown Hotel for five years. After selling this business he came to Round valley, where he purchased one hundred and sixty acres one mile south of Covelo, and again established a dairy, also putting out forty acres of alfalfa. He was in the midst of planning extensive new improvements on the place when an unfortunate accident removed him from the scene of his labors. He left a wife and two children, Charles and Julia, who deeply grieve for him. He was a Mason, a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and a member of the Presbyterian church. Politically he was a staunch Republican, always ready to enter into any movement for the general advancement of the com- munity. Mrs. Dowd is a member of Augusta Chapter, O. E. S., and is also a member of the Presbyterian Church. Personally Mr. Dowd was an excep- tionally fine man, very far-seeing and was noted for his fine business ability. Mrs. Dowd still continues to conduct the ranch, adhering closely to the lines he had been intending to follow when so suddenly taken away.
THOMAS FOSTER ROWE .- The early experiences of this pioneer of Mendocino county were more or less adventurous and gave him a knowledge of many portions of our country, primarily of Maine, where he was born in Penobscot county February 13, 1838, and where he passed the first eighteen years of existence. From the time of leaving home he made his own way in the world without assistance in any way. Not having learned a trade, he usually found employment as an unskilled day laborer at low wages. For a time he lived in Minnesota, where he first worked in lumber yards at St. Paul. With the discovery of gold at Pike's Peak he was filled with a desire to see the west and try his luck in the mines. Accordingly he joined an expedition bound for Colorado. During the summer of 1859 he crossed the plains as far as the mines and took up several claims, but the two years of prospecting and mining brought him little good fortune. Hoping to find a more favorable opening further west he left Colorado early in 1861. The first pause in the journey was at Santa Fe, N. Mex., where six months were spent working for the United States government. On the 4th of March he left Santa Fe at about the hour of the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln as president.
A journey fraught with peril and privation had its end with the arrival of the party in San Bernardino. The young man found work as a day laborer and as soon as he had saved up a small amount of money he came to the north- ern part of the state, arriving in the village of Mendocino on the 17th of September. It was very easy to find steady employment in the lumber camps and he remained there until 1862, when he was transferred to the mills at Albion. After five years in the same line of work he removed to Point Arena
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and for two years engaged with the Garcia Lumber Company. Returning thence to Albion, he took up a claim in the woods. To earn a livelihood out of the uncleared and unimproved land proved a task of the greatest diffi- culty and finally the lumber company became possessors of the property. Undaunted by the unfavorable experience, in 1878 he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of raw land lying in close proximity to Albion and here he has since remained, having, however, recently sold a portion of the property so that the homestead consists of one hundred acres. By his own hands the land was cleared and put under cultivation. How difficult the task was can be appreciated only by those who have undertaken similar tasks. The fine cultivation of the land bespeaks his industry and wise management. A valu- able orchard yields its annual tribute to his care and oversight and berries also prove a profitable adjunct to the farm. For six years or more during the early period of his residence here he carried on a confectionery store, but ultimately it became necessary to devote his entire attention to the ranch. In politics he votes with the Republican party and is active in local matters. At Manchester, this county, August 7, 1871, he married Miss Nancy Emeline Henderson, who was born at Little Rock, Ark., January 11, 1853, and at a very early age came to California with her parents, settling in Mendocino county. They are the parents of seven children, all living, namely : Lucy A., Mrs. Carlson of Fort Bragg; Thomas Frank, with the Albion Lumber Com- pany ; Charles H., of Washington ; Stephen, at home ; Eva S., Mrs. Stout, of Al- bion ; Elsie S., Mrs. Forsyth, of San Francisco, and Gus F., of Albion. The family has a high standing in the community and their pleasant home on the ridge near Albion is the scene of many gatherings of young and old.
FRANCISCO PERSICO .- The necessitous circumstances that sur- rounded the early years of Francisco Persico formed a stimulus to hard work and laid the foundation for successful effort. A native of the province of Genoa, Italy, he was born at Varezeligore, December 22, 1875, and from the age of six years was forced to make his own way in the world. To obtain a good education was an impossibility, but in the great school of experience he learned lessons of self-reliance and perseverance of inestimable value to his later enterprises. Shortly after his marriage to Julia Petronave, a native of the same village as himself, he entered the Italian army as a private in the First Mountain Artillery Regiment and served for three years, receiving an honorable discharge at the expiration of his time. Immediately afterward he and his family started for California and early in 1899 arrived at Old Sonoma, where he secured work as a gardener. Fourteen months later he removed to San Rafael, Marin county, where he continued for nine months as a gardener. It was on the 26th of March, 1899, that he left Italy, and on the 15th of March, 1902, he arrived in Willits, where since he has made his home and business headquarters.
After a period of employment on construction work with the Northwestern Pacific Railroad Company, during which time he was promoted to be fore- man, Mr. Persico resigned and embarked in freighting and teaming with a four-horse team. While thus occupied he bought an interest in a liquor store with A. Figone, to whom he later sold out and about the same time he sold his teaming outfit. For two years afterward he engaged in business with Jimmie Frardy. By fire during September of 1905 he lost the house which he and his wife had struggled bravely to buy and furnish, but since then he has been prospered in other directions and now ranks among the well-to-do
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men of his town. In 1908 he purchased the Italian hotel at Willits, which he conducted for three years. Having bought a lot on Main near Mendocino street, 391/2x150 feet in dimensions, in the fall of 1911 he built the New Italia hotel with forty-seven guest rooms and this has since developed into a very large hotel enterprise, the success of the venture representing his wise man- agement and comprehensive supervision. Since becoming a citizen of our country he has voted with the Republican party. At this writing he holds the office of deputy constable and deputy city marshal. Fraternally he is connected with the Druids. In his family there are four children, the eldest of whom, Louisa, is the wife of Primo Vintorelle, of San Francisco. The three sons, Charles, Leandro and Peter, are pupils in the Willits schools.
AURELIUS O. CARPENTER .- Aurelius O. Carpenter was born in Townshend, Vt., November 28, 1836, and was given educational advantages six months in the year until the age of fourteen, when he entered the office of The Windham County Democrat, of which his stepfather, George W. Nichols. was the proprietor. Here he mastered all the details of the newspaper business and laid the foundation of much of his life work. In 1855, when Kansas was opened for settlement, he accompanied the fourth party from the East, under the immediate charge of Governor Robinson, and in the survey of Topeka carried the chain over the future capital of Kansas. When a ยท printing office was established in Lawrence, he had the distinction of setting the first stick of type that went to make up the first newspaper in the terri- tory-The Herald of Freedom-and later assisted in the founding of another publication, The Free State. A final settlement of the family was made on Ottawa Creek, near Prairie City, where he with other residents were forced into taking an active part in defending the homes and lives of the pioneers against the raids of lawless bands of border ruffians. On June 2, 1856, he was seriously wounded in one of these encounters, at the battle of Black Jack, which was near his own home.
On Christmas day, 1856, Mr. Carpenter was married to Miss Helen McCowen, and the following year they with relatives crossed the plains in ox wagons. After a journey of four months and a half, Grass Valley, Cal., was reached and here a home was purchased, which included several acres besides mining land. Farming, mining and typesetting in the Telegraph office, furnished sufficient employment for his active disposition.
In 1859 the family moved to Potter Valley, Mendocino county, this county having but recently been set apart from Sonoma county. After assisting in the establishment of the Mendocino Herald (the first newspaper venture in the county) and becoming a partner in the same with E. R. Budd, the residence was changed to Ukiah. In 1865, during the Civil war, the appointment as United States assistant assessor of the revenue department came as a surprise, as it was entirely unsought. Mr. Carpenter was sworn in at Santa Rosa, April 13, 1865, on the same day word was received of the fall of Richmond. Staging to Cloverdale, he was compelled by change of time of the Ukiah stage to wait there three days for the conveyance or seek some other mode of transportation. Pioneer experiences led to the decision to go by "Walkers train," as that was the quickest way over bad roads, and easier than riding and walking by turns and carrying a rail to pry the stage out of the mud. He arrived in Ukiah with the news of the fall of Richmond, two days ahead of the mail, and assumed the duties of his office, which he continued to discharge, first as assessor and afterwards as deputy
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collector, through five successive administrations and for a term of eighteen years.
Although a Republican and residing in a strongly Democratic locality, Mr. Carpenter has been appointed and elected to various places of trust, and has established a record of unswerving integrity and business ability. When the Democratic party was likely to lose its organ, The Constitutional Democrat, for want of an editor, Mr. Carpenter helped the party out of its difficulty by assuming control. At various times he had charge of the mechanical and editorial departments of the Fair Daily, a paper published in the Mechanics Institute Fair in San Francisco. As superintendent of highways and road construction (from the head of Potter Valley to near Sanel, a distance of forty miles) his executive ability and thoroughness are still in evidence, after a space of nearly half a century. In service on the board of education, as deputy county assessor, deputy county recorder, etc., Mr. Carpenter has earned the commendation of all in the discharge of his public and private duties. Multifarious business interests have been constantly in hand and sandwiched in with the legitimate calling of printer and editor. In January, 1879, he purchased The Ukiah City Press and under his control the paper was a newsy sheet and had a wide circulation. The children, May, Grace, Grant and Frank L., are talented and bear witness to a mother's earnest care and cultivation. In countless ways, the family rendered pioneer life less burdensome and monotonous to their neighbors, and were accountable for very many happy occasions.
MRS. HELEN M. CARPENTER .- Among the pioneer women of Men- docino county the name of none stands out with more prominence than that of the subject of this sketch, owing to her untiring activity in social, educa- tional, musical and civic work, not only in the early history of the county, but on down through a space of half a century.
Mrs. Carpenter is of Scotch-Irish parentage and a native of Ohio. During her early life the family moved to Indiana, where she received a very liberal education at the Bloomingdale Quaker Academy, since which time her life has been spent on the frontier-two years in the Territory of Kansas and the remainder of the time in the wilds of California. Soon after the organization of Mendocino county a board of education was established, and at the first meeting of the board Mrs. Carpenter (the only woman present) was granted a certificate to teach. The first school taught was in Potter valley and as there was no school house, Henry Randlett gave up one room of his two-room domicile for school purposes. The munificent sum of $40 per month was the compensation. For ten years teaching was continued in the public and pri- vate schools of Potter valley and Ukiah, and a very liberal amount of time was devoted to Sunday school classes. For some time Mrs. Carpenter was a member of the board of education, an honor which no other woman shared for many years.
The stirring time in raising a fund for the establishment of the first church in Ukiah (the Methodist Episcopal), required the united effort of all the ladies and is well worthy of mention. For eight consecutive years and during the first struggles in building and establishing the Presbyterian Church Mrs. Carpenter served as president of the church society, where full scope was given to the admirable executive ability which has marked her career and made a success of many undertakings. Later years have been given up to writing, and fraternal work in the Order of the Eastern Star and the Rebekahs, grand
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honors having been accorded in both orders. When Cornelia Rebekah Lodge No. 205, I. O. O. F., was instituted in Ukiah, she was made the first noble grand and five years later became the president of the Rebekah Assembly of California. Through various fraternal ritualistic publications which she has is- sued her name is familiar in lodge circles from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The latest civic work was the fulfillment of a desire and effort of forty years pre- vious, to establish a public library in Ukiah. With the assistance of another lady contributions amounting to $1500 were received, with which was secured a desirable lot upon which now stands a handsome Carnegie library of 3322 volumes.
JOHN A. BLOSSER .- Throughout all that part of Mendocino county lying on every side of Willits the name of Blosser stands for high character, tireless energy and equal skill in the diversified arts of farming, stock-raising and the leading of bands and orchestras. The talents of John A. Blosser are varied. Into whatever channel of activity he turns his attention he seems to be prospered. Together with his twin brother, Tobias, who has been his partner from young manhood and who resembles him so closely that the casual observer has difficulty in distinguishing them, he has worked ener- getically in ranching and with equal enthusiasm in the starting of the organ- izations known as Blosser's band and Blosser's orchestra. The earlier of these musical companies was founded in December of 1876 and became a large factor in the success of the great gatherings and social functions of those days, while the orchestra proved equally prominent in the musical history of another decade. It was the custom of John A. Blosser to play the first violin in the orchestra, and as he found considerable difficulty in secur- ing instruments suited to his critical taste he made two violins for his own use, one of these being a close copy of a Stradivarius and a typical pattern of the Cremona violin. Other members of the family bore a part in the band and orchestra, and his wife as accompanist proved to be as gifted with the piano as he with the violin. Musical ability characterizes the entire family and brings them friends among the devotees of that art. Scarcely less notice- able is their efficiency in the practical affairs of life and as farmers and stock- raisers operating upon an extensive scale in their home county. Very naturally therefore they possess influence that is not narrowed to their own immediate neighborhood or to their own circle of agricultural enterprises.
When Jacob Blosser decided to leave Iowa for California during the spring of 1850 his twin sons, John A. and J. Tobias, who were born in Jeffer- son county, Iowa, September 6, 1849, were only seven months old, and the intimate friends at the old home viewed the departure with regret, fearing that it would be impossible to reach the west with the babies. Yet the journey was made in health and comparative comfort. The family settled near French Camp, and in 1860 came to Little Lake, where the boys were sent to school in a shanty with puncheon floors and board benches. Upon attaining man's estate they took up claims five miles southwest of Willits and began to raise Spanish merino sheep. The original claims were enlarged by purchase of adjacent property, until finally they had eleven hundred acres. From five hundred to one thousand sheep were kept on the ranch, besides a drove of cattle, and the grain and hay raised in the fields were fed to the stock. Besides their other work they ran a threshing machine for more than thirty years, beginning with horse power, but later utilizing a steamer as more practicable and efficient.
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