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 72
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 72
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REV. PHILEMON TOEPFER .- The superior of the Kelseyville Indian mission is a member of a German family represented among the military officers of the empire, a family that has given freely of its means and influ- ence to the upbuilding of Teutonic possessions and that has given to the church a man of broad mental endowments and supreme consecration of soul. Not without thought and prayer did Father Toepfer turn his talents from military openings to the self-sacrificing work of the church, but the decision once made, his marked executive ability, classical learning and philosophical mind were consecrated to the cause of Catholicism, the object of his dearest hopes and proudest ambitions. That he has been able to promote the work of the church has been a source of great joy and pride to him, and in Lake county, where two decades of useful service have been passed, he is known for his zealous activities in the interests of the Indian mission and the cause of religion. His influence over the Indians is beneficial. Appreciative in large degree of his sacrifices in their behalf and his devotion to their temporal and spiritual welfare, they give to him a respect and deference mingled with a deep affection.
Born at Aix la Chappelle, Rhenish Prussia, August 20, 1866, Father Toep- fer is a son of the late Heinrich and Christine (Schneider) Toepfer, the former a native of Eichsfeld, kingdom of Saxony, and the latter born in Alsace-Lor- raine, then a part of France. For twenty-four years the father was an officer in the German army and later he served in the Reserves for twelve years. While officiating as chancellor of the court of Elberfeld he died in 1903 at sixty years of age. In his family there were five sons and five daughters. The sons with the exception of Philemon became military men, lovers of the camp and the battlefield, but the one son became a man of peace, a soldier only in the army of the church, his battlefield a western parish, his sword the Word of God and his victory a bloodless one. From early life he felt himself called to the church. To that end his education was directed. At the age of eighteen he passed a very creditable examination for entrance to college. During 1884 he came to America and entered the St. Francis Solanus College at Quincy, 111., where he remained a student for six years. For two years he devoted his studies exclusively to philosophy. Four years were spent in the Franciscan
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School of Theology at St. Louis, where in 1895 he was ordained to the priest- hood of the Roman Catholic Church by Archbishop Kain of that city. After a year at St. Bernard, Platte county, Neb., he came to Lake county, Cal., as assistant to the Kelseyville Indian mission, commonly known at St. Turi- bius mission. For eight years he continued as assistant and then was pro- mnoted to be superior, which office he has filled efficiently since 1903. In addition to his work among the Digger Indians he serves the charges at Lake- port, Kelseyville, Lower Lake and Sulphur Banks, ministering to the religious needs of all Roman Catholic families in Lake county, besides a number of families in Napa county. Connected with the mission there are two hundred and thirty-five acres of farm land. In the care of the parishioners as well as the maintenance of the farm he is assisted by Father Severin Westhoff, while he also has the practical help of Brother Patrick Mann and Brother Francis Flynn. Plans have been perfected for erecting a church and monastery at Lakeport which will be made the center of Catholic religious activities in Lake county. The church owns over two acres of the Rumsay tract in the heart of Lakeport and the buildings will be large and of modern construction and architecture, and will be a decided ornament to the county seat. The architect is J. J. Foley of San Francisco, who will soon begin superintending the construction work.
PERCY H. MILLBERRY .- To enumerate the interests that have en- listed the zealous advocacy of Mr. Millberry since he came to Lake county during September of 1905 would be to direct the attention of the reader to many important local enterprises, but to the general public he is best known as editor and publisher of the Clear Lake Press; to students of local events he is particularly prominent through his literary work as the author of the History of Lake County ; to politicians his influence comes from service on the Democratic county central committee and the Democratic state central committee as well as through the consistent Democratic policy advocated through his editorials; to public-spirited citizens his activity as secretary of the Lakeport Improvement Association, an office he has filled ever since coming to the city, and as promoter of the Chautauqua courses he is entitled to the regard of those working for the best interests of the locality; and to lovers of the drama lie is interesting especially by reason of his strong his- trionic ability and his participation in all private theatricals and local plays with a talent surpassing the usual limitations of the amateur.
The Millberry family comes of old English lineage. Franklin S. Mill- berry was born in New Brunswick and died near Fresno in 1902, after having given his active years principally to the lumbering business. His marriage to Mary Amy Ingalls, who was born in Waukegan, Ill., and died at San Fran- cisco in 1901, united him with a pre-Revolutionary family of English origin. The father of Mrs. Millberry was Judge E. S. Ingalls, founder of the Me- nominee (Mich.) Herald, and for some years probate judge of the court of that county ; he traced his ancestry to the same stock whence sprang Sena- tor John J. Ingalls, of recent fame. The Millberry family comprised seven children, one of whom died in infancy. Those now living are as follows : Frederick M., an apple-grower at Brewster, Wash .; Guy S., dean of the dental department of the U. C. Affiliated Colleges of San Francisco; Percy H., who was born at Menominee, Mich., February 15, 1875; Faith I., wife of Alvin M. Hostetter, a bank clerk at Lindsay, Cal .; Amy Irene, wife of Nathaniel G. Symonds, manager of the Chicago branch of the Westinghouse Electrical
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Company; and Martha Avis, now employed as a stenographer at Lindsay, this state.
The Millberry family came to California during 1876 and settled at Red Bluff, near which city the father was employed as a timber cruiser in the lumber industry, but returned thence to Michigan and resumed work at Me- nominee. When Percy H. was about fourteen the family moved to Ontona- gon, Mich., and there he spent a year in the high school. Previous thereto he had been a student of the Menominee high school for two years. At the age of sixteen he entered the printing office of the Ontonagon Miner, where he learned the trade of printer. During 1892 he came to California, settling at Los Gatos, Santa Clara county, and working successively on the Mail and the News. Among his fellow-workers was George S. Walker, now insur- ance commissioner of California. During the period of his employment on the Mail he attracted the attention of Mrs. H. C. Stoddard, owner of the Mountain View Register, and she employed him to manage her paper on a salary, but at the expiration of six months he exchanged to a lease. After eighteen months with the Register he went to San Francisco in 1896 and engaged as pressman and compositor for the Levison Printing Company, later spending several months in the Wasp office. From 1898 to 1905 he was con- nected with the San Francisco postoffice service as a clerk, but with the ex- ception of those seven years he has given all of his active life to journalism and the newspaper business. A service of four out of the seven years as night clerk enabled him to take special studies in law at the University of California in the class of 1904, and later for a year he studied in the San Fran- cisco office of ex-Governor James H. Budd, but he resumed newspaper work without gaining admission to the bar and hence has never practiced the pro- fession. In November, 1909, he married Miss Sydney Maude Dinsmore, a resident of Long valley, but at the time of their marriage a teacher in the public schools of San Mateo, Cal. They are the parents of two children, Jean Elisabeth, born in 1910, and Robert Ingalls, 1912.
Fraternally Mr. Millberry is connected with Lakeport Lodge No. 351, I. O. O. F., as past noble grand, and since the organization of Lakeport Camp, Woodmen of the World, in 1906, he has been retained in the office of clerk. In his printing office it is his ambition to have the most modern equipment and that ambition led him in 1912 to purchase and install a Mer- genthaler linotype, the first standard linotype in the county. Besides the publishing of the paper jobwork is done and orders are taken for fine print- ing of every kind. In the capacity of editor Mr. Millberry has promoted movements for the permanent upbuilding of the city and county. A strong anti-saloon man, he gave the support of his paper to the struggle against the sale of intoxicating liquors and deserves credit for his part in making the town "dry" at the election of April, 1912, and in causing the county to vote for the same principles at the election of the following November. On first coming to Lakeport his interest in the financial control of the paper was not sufficient to guide its editorial policy. One-half of the plant was owned by Mrs. Marcia Mayfield, and he leased her interest, his partner being David F. McIntire. After two years under this management he leased the entire plant in 1907 and in September, 1913, became the sole owner, since which time the policies which he had previously inaugurated have become an in- herent part of the weekly and the permanent benefits of his optimistic, capa- ble and energetic management are in evidence. Mr. Millberry has for several
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years been an ardent advocate of the single tax movement, in his editorial utterances and public addresses, and is a member of the executive committee of the California League for Home Rule in Taxation.
CHARLES W. BINGHAM .- The Forest Glen farm in South Kelseyville precinct, Lake county, situated off the road running from Lakeport to High- land Springs, is the homestead of Charles W. Bingham, who took up this tract of one hundred and sixty acres when he was twenty-one years old and has lived there ever since. All the improvements on the property have been made by him, and he has now a fine commercial orchard of twenty acres, all in bearing, at present giving his attention principally to fruit growing. He himself cleared all the land on which his orchard stands, and set out the trees, and its ideal condition is a credit to his well directed labor and intelligent management. Mr. Bingham was formerly engaged in dairy farming, until his fruit interests demanded more attention. As a prominent worker in the Repub- lican party he is well known all over Lake county.
Mr. Bingham is of New England stock, his father, Joseph Bingham, hav- ing been a native of Lempster, N. H. In 1852, when a young man, he came to California by way of the Horn, and the remainder of his life was passed in this state, his home being at East Oakland, Alameda county, wliere he was a pio- neer wagonmaker. He was a man of industrious habits and excellent charac- ter, respected by all who knew him. His last years were spent in Los Angeles county, and he died near Westminster, in September, 1877. In 1854 he had married, at Oakland, Cal., Miss Tabitha F. Ferguson, who was born in Pleas- ant Hill, La., and came to California with her parents in 1849, crossing the Isthmus. She survived her husband many years, dying in the year 1913, when nearly seventy-four years old, at Lakeport, Lake county, whither she moved about seven years ago. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Bingham, namely : Mary E. is the wife of J. M. Jenne, a fruit grower, at Grand View, Wash .; Charles W. is mentioned below ; George M. died in childhood ; Frank J. lives at Tonsina. Alaska, where he is engaged in farming and also keeps a hotel on the Valdez & Fairbanks government road ; Sarah E., the widow of Herbert Carpenter, resides at Lakeport.
In 1877 Mrs. Bingham, with all but her eldest child, came to Lake county, and settled upon the Andrews place, which she purchased. Charles W. Bing- ham was born February 24, 1863, at East Oakland, and had passed his early life there, and in Solano county, but his health seemed to need mountain climate. They came to Lake county, as above stated, and he has found it beneficial and satisfactory. The attachment between mother and son was unusually strong. His early education was received in common school in Solano county, and he later attended the Boys' high school at San Francisco until the junior year of the course, when the family moved to Lake county as before related. Throughout the period of his residence here he has been en- gaged in agricultural pursuits, and when twenty-one he took up his present homestead, to which he has since given the principal part of his time and atten- tion. Twenty acres are in fruit, the balance devoted to stock and hay raising, and Mr. Bingham has made all his work profitable, being one of the pros- perous agriculturists of his locality.
Mr. Bingham is heartily interested in current events, and enjoys keeping up with the thought of the day through general reading. He has a good home library, and is a thinker as well as reader, having intelligent views on the questions before the public and doing his share to promote the general
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welfare. Politics have always had special interest for him, and his good work in the county has gained him considerable influence in the Republican party, on whose ticket he ran for county clerk in 1906, against Shafter Mathews, the present incumbent of the office. For a number of years Mr. Bingham has been an active member of the county central committee of his party.
FRANK EBBINGHAUSEN .- Of the various men who have come into Lake county within the last fifty years to make homes and fortunes, and in laying up wealth for themselves have also added to the value of every other man's property in the region, none has been more signally successful than Frank Ebbinghausen. Moreover, he is one of those men to whom the often misused term self-made may be rightfully applied. His immense land hold- ings, his extensive stock interests, his fine home with its attractive surround- ings, are all the result of continued and judicious effort, a steadiness of pur- pose and developed business ability which have made him a citizen of note in Morgan valley, where his home and land are situated. Coming of that frugal German stock noted for its characteristics of conservativeness and cautious investments, yet progressive in the wisest manner, he is a typical member of his race, and his large operations have not only made him prosperous, but have made it possible for others to enter upon similar enterprises though with less capital to invest.
Mr. Ebbinghausen is a native of Hanover, Germany, born May 1, 1846, the son of George and Minnie Ebbinghausen, also natives of Hanover. His father was engaged in agricultural pursuits. When a boy of only eleven years he left his native land for America, in 1857, in company with his sister Minnie (who later became Mrs. Coster, of San Francisco), embarking at Bremen and landing at New York City. After one week's stay there they sailed again, this time for San Francisco, making the long journey by way of Panama. He was present when the first two dummy engines used on Market street made their initial trips, and recalls many other incidents of the old days in the city. Though but a small boy Mr. Ebbinghausen had to work for his living, but he took advantage of the night schools and also learned the trade of butcher, starting a butcher shop of his own when he was but eighteen years of age. He carried on the business for about seven years, remaining in San Francisco until his removal to Lake county, at which time he was twenty-five years old. Meantime, when a young man of twenty-four, he had married, and his wife has been of great assistance in the conduct and management of his constantly increasing interests. Mrs. Ebbinghausen is known as one of the most proficient housekeepers in Lake county, and is a noted cook.
Mr. Ebbinghausen bought his home place of six hundred and forty acres in Morgan valley in the year 1871, and he has been improving it constantly since, one hundred and fifty acres of that place being plow-land. Here he has estab- lished a beautiful country home, with every convenience required on a ranch of the size, having a commodious residence, barn for storage purposes, sheep cor- rals and stock quarters, systematically arranged and kept in first-class order in every particular. His family orchard contains apple, pear, prune, apricot and nectarine trees, and he has a four-acre vineyard. Mr. Ebbinghausen's prin- cipal stock interests are in sheep, of which he keeps on an average from seven hundred to eight hundred head, and he raises a large number of chickens, as well as over one hundred turkeys every year.
In addition to his large home ranch Mr. Ebbinghausen has an interest in the ranch known as "The Hole," a five-hundred-acre property three miles east
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of which he owns one hundred and eighty acres, the balance being held by his son Henry F. It is all in one fence, and he and his son use it jointly for grazing their stock. His time has naturally been entirely taken up with his ranching interests, and though he has assisted materially in opening up this section he has not taken any direct part in its public affairs or political activ- ities, though he has consistently supported the Republican party.
Mr. and Mrs. Ebbinghausen were married in San Francisco, December 23, 1869. Her maiden name was Augusta Bose, and she was born in Hanover, Germany, daughter of Carl and Christiana (Bose) Bose. Her father, who was employed as foreman on a farm in Germany, died when she was but seven years old, and the widowed mother (also a native of Hanover) came to America with her two children, Augusta and Carl, when Mrs. Ebbinghausen was thirteen years old, the family sailing from Hamburg and landing at New York. After a year's residence at Wellsville, N. Y., they came out to Cali- fornia, settling at Vallejo, but Mrs. Ebbinghausen had been there only a year when she went to San Francisco to learn dressmaking, and in that city met her future husband. Her mother lived to the age of seventy-seven years, dying fifteen years ago. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Ebbinghausen : Annie is living in Morgan valley, the wife of Joseph Bond, a farmer there. She has three children: Lloyd, who is a graduate of the Stockton high school ; Alta, who graduated from school at Oakland, taught one term at Redding, Shasta county, and is now teaching the Morgan valley school ; and Raymond, who is a high school student at Oakland. Henry F., represented in the next paragraph, is a prosperous farmer in the Morgan valley. Gussie is the wife of Hazen Cheney and has two children, Anita Grace and Bettie Hazel. While a resident of Lake county Mr. Cheney was super- visor from the First district. He is now farming in Eldorado county, and is preparing to make a specialty of walnut growing. Carl, a farmer in Morgan valley, married Annie Shandon and has two children, Elwood and Floyd.
Henry F. Ebbinghausen, eldest son of Frank Ebbinghausen, bids fair to rival his successful father as a ranchman and sheep grower. Born August 14, 1873, in San Francisco, he has passed his entire life in Morgan valley, and he has been familiar with agricultural work from boyhood, having been his father's ablest assistant for many years. After gaining a good common school education he went into the buisness on his own account, and he has acquired extensive interests, being a large land- owner already. His purchases include three hundred and twenty acres from George Stanton (from which he has sold four acres), forty acres from Getz & Company, forty acres from Fuqua, one hundred and sixty acres from C. F. Chandon and forty acres of school lands. In addition to this he owns about three hundred and ten acres of "The Hole," making about nine hundred and twenty acres in all. Besides he and his father rent in partnership the Manhattan range of about one thousand acres, which is used entirely for their horses and cattle. Henry F. Ebbinghausen buys and sells stock, and ordinarily keeps for himself eight horses. He also raises cattle, hogs and sheep, of which latter he usually has about five hundred. He and his father have many joint interests.
Personally Mr. Ebbinghausen is well known and liked in his county. He has a generous nature which wins and keeps friends, and the liberal and progressive policy which he has adopted in the conduct of his important
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operations, affecting as they do a number of the residents of his section, has made him thoroughly trusted by his neighbors. He is a popular member of the Lower Lake Parlor No. 159, N. S. G. W., and his political views are those of the Republican party, in whose workings, however, he has never been actively concerned.
WILLIAM FREDERICK FULLER .- A dangerous and exciting expe- rience marked the arrival of Mr. Fuller in the west, whither he came in 1875 at the age of about nineteen, in company with a party of friends seeking employment and permanent homes. Previous to the long journey to Cali- fornia he had lived in the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he was born November 14, 1856, and where in early life he had become familiar with the perils of the deep. However, no danger witnessed on the shores of the Atlantic equalled the peril which he experienced during a voyage from San Francisco to Point Arena. Immediately after his arrival in the west he had tound employment and it was arranged that he should board a small lumber steamer, the Mary Taylor, for the destination at Point Arena, near which was the camp of his future labors. The voyage usually required only twenty-four hours, but he endured six days of storm, hardship, privation and hunger ere the destined harbor was reached by the exhausted men. The steamer was licensed to carry only ten passengers, but is owners, with a recklessness as to safety for which no excuse could be offered, had crowded sixty men into the small quarters and when the storm arose there was suffering for everyone. At Drake's bay it was necessary to land in order to secure food and water. Again at Bodega bay the same stop was found necessary. When the storm was at its highest, the passengers and crew gave themselves up for lost and therefore their joy was indescribable when a safe landing was effected after six days of terror. Many of those on board were Chinamen and the expe- rience to Mr. Fuller was therefore not only dangerous, but also weird and peculiar.
After landing at Point Arena the young Nova Scotian went to the woods at Alder creek and engaged in peeling tanbark. From time to time he fol- lowed other occupations as necessity dictated or opportunity offered, being engaged as milker in a dairy, also butter-maker, operator of a threshing ma- chine and an employe in a shingle mill and a camp for the making of railroad ties. Much of his time has been given to mercantile pursuits. For years he was employed in the store of John S. Kimball at Bridgeport, later for the same party at Cuffey's Cove and afterward was manager of the L. E. White Lumber Company's store at Greenwood. In addition he acted as agent for the Wells-Fargo Express Company at Cuffey's Cove. Having in the mean- time mastered the telegraph instrument he became telegraph operator for the express company on the Mendocino coast, continuing in this position from 1878 up to the time he settled in Fort Bragg in 1900. On going to Fort Bragg he accepted a clerkship with the Union Lumber Company and later was promoted to be manager of their store. Resigning this position in January, 1910, he then became general manager of the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company and the Western Union Telegraph Company at this point, a posi- tion which he lias since filled with recognized efficiency. Fraternally he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Point Arena. He was made a Mason in Fort Bragg Lodge No. 366, F. & A. M., and is a member
n. J.f
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of Mendocino Chapter No. 88, R. A. M., and with his wife is a member of Sapphire Chapter, O. E. S., of which he is patron.
Mr. Fuller was first married in Cuffey's Cove to Miss Florence Scott, who was born in Anderson valley and died in Point Arena, leaving three daughters, as follows: Adella, Mrs. J. T. Taylor, of Reno, Nev .; Gertrude, the wife of Elwin Boundey, of Modesto; and Alice, a teacher in the Fort Bragg schools. After the death of his first wife Mr. Fuller was married to Ruth Willis, who was born in Genoa, Cal., a daughter of Rev. F. M. Willis, a Methodist minister, and this union was blessed with one daughter, Margaret.
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