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 77
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 77
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117
-
747
MENDOCINO AND LAKE COUNTIES
done less for profit than as a means of helpfulness to other men in the in- dustry, and finally the pressure of other duties forced him to relinquish all such agencies. It is no small task to develop any kind of an enterprise, and Mr. Aldrich is entitled to much credit for his success in lifting the poultry business out of the rut of failure into line with the profitable industries that bring money into Mendocino county and prosperity to many citizens.
L. J. HOLZHAUSER .- The founder of the Holzhauser family in America was a gallant soldier and fearless adventurer of fate, Frederick Holzhauser, of Prussian birth, born October 14, 1825, and who became a citizen of the United States in 1846 and a member of Company A, Fourth Infantry Regiment of Volunteers in the war with Mexico. Remaining at the front and taking part in many perilous campaigns up to and including the siege and capture of Mexico, a serious wound finally was the cause of his honorable discharge and the termination of his war services. On going back to Belleville, 111 .. he there married Miss Anna Janke, a young lady also of Prussian birth and parentage. Shortly afterward the discovery of gold direct- ing general attention to California, the young couple came across the plains with an expedition of emigrants traveling with wagons and ox-teams in 1854. The first location was at Yreka, Siskiyou county. Later a claim of land was filed upon near Etna Mills, Siskiyou county, where a stock ranch was developed and where a son, L. J., was born May 1, 1865, the youngest of a family of nine children, six now living. The mother died on that farm. After having cultivated the property for many years and in addition owning the Union mills, two miles from Etna Mills, eventually the father gave up active business and farm cares in 1877 and retired to Sacramento, where he died December 27, 1907, at a very advanced age.
On the completion of the studies of the grammar schools at the age of fourteen L. J. Holzhauser went to Sacramento to find employment. During 1884 he was apprenticed to the miller's trade with Frey Bros., at Selma. Two and one-half years later he began to work in the Starr Mills at Vallejo. Next we find him at Weldon as manager of the Kernville mill, and then in the Kern river mills at Bakersfield, where he served as head miller for four and one-half years. On resigning and returning to Etna Mills he took charge of the old Union mills and replaced the stone plant with a substantial roller system, operating the mill for twelve years. After a term of service as head miller in the Farmers' Alliance mill at San Miguel. in 1902 he came to Ukiah and aided in organizing the Ukiah Milling Company, of which he since has engaged as manager. The company furnished the Isbell mill, a combination roller concern, which was improved with a new roller process and with elec- tric power. The plant is now thoroughly modern, with a capacity of seventy- five barrels of flour and with excellent facilities for the manufacture of graham flour, cornmeal and cereals of different kinds. For the convenience of customers a store is maintained in Ukiah on Main street, where their products are kept on sale and where also hay and grain are handled. Besides a thriving local demand there is a steady trade in the northern interior towns of Mendocino, Humboldt and Lake counties, to which shipments are made in large quantities.
The Republican party has received the stanch support of Mr. Holzhauser ever since he cast his first presidential ballot. In religion he is of the Metho- dist Episcopal faith and has served the church at Ukiah in the capacity of trustee. At this writing he is the presiding officer of the Ukiah Camp, Wood-
748
MENDOCINO AND LAKE COUNTIES
men of the World, besides being a past officer in Etna Lodge No. 184, I. O. O. F., at Etna Mills, which he represented in the Grand Lodge during the period of his active association with its work. In Traver, Tulare county, he married Miss Lydia Rose Frey, who was born in Berne, Switzerland, but has lived in California from girlhood. Their family numbers five children now living, namely : Mrs. Rosalie Montgomery, of Ukiah ; Werner F., Selma C., Carl and Anita.
CLARENCE W. BROBACK .- From a very early period in the Ameri- can occupancy of the west the Broback family has been identified with the material upbuilding of California and Oregon. When quite young Charles W. Broback, a Virginian by birth and ancestry, crossed the plains in 1854 as a member of a large party of emigrants allured to the coast by the prospects of the mines. Seeking a means of immediate revenue, the young men engaged in teaming from Sacramento to the mines, and later followed the same occu- pation between Petaluma and Santa Rosa in Sonoma county. A desire to see more of the west caused him to travel extensively through this state and Oregon, and he was so attracted by the possibilities of the latter state that he first settled in Lake county, where the settlers had several battles with the Indians and succeeded in driving them out. Later he settled in the Rogue River valley, in Jackson county, Ore., when that section of the country contained very few inhabitants. Indians still roamed at will through the forests and not infrequently he had narrow escapes in encounters with hostile savages. The thriving city of Medford now stands on the original site of his ranch with its primeval cabin of logs, its rude barn and frontier environ- ment. At one time he owned seven hundred acres, which he devoted to general ranching and out of which he gave sites for churches and school houses, as well as a right of way to a railroad in process of construction. He also laid out the original site of Medford, which was named by his wife. Besides being identified intimately with the Rogue river valley he lived for a time in the Hood river valley, and for two terms represented The Dalles district in the Oregon legislature, where his intelligence, patriotism and broad knowledge of conditions and possibilities of the commonwealth made lim a valued member.
Returning to California in 1888, accompanied by his wife, Frances (Haigh) Broback, a native of Iowa, and also accompanied by their children, Hon. Charles W. Broback located at Lakeport, Lake county, where his abili- ties and energy made him a prominent factor in agricultural development. About 1890 he came to Mendocino- county and engaged in ranching near Hopland. Eventually he retired from agricultural activities and established a home in Ukiah, where in 1912 his earth life came to an end. In his family there are the following named sons and daughters: Fernando W., of Lake- port ; Walter, of San Francisco; Charles A., of Santa Rosa ; Clarence W., our subject ; Mrs. R. H. Douglas, of Sacramento; and Mrs. B. H. Miller, of Ukiah. The mother died at the old home in October, 1913. When the family came to California in 1888 Clarence W., who was born in Lake View, Lake county, Ore., July 12, 1875, was a lad of thirteen years, and his schooling, begun in Oregon, was completed in Lakeport, Hopland and Ukiah, Cal. During youth he interested himself in ranching, but since May, 1900, he has been connected with the Union Lumber Company, and now acts as foreman at their wharf in Fort Bragg. He not only possesses large executive ability and sagacious judgment, but in addition he is familiar with the lumber industry in all of its
749
MENDOCINO AND LAKE COUNTIES
details, hence fills his responsible position with unusual efficiency. Since its organization he has been a director in the First Bank of Savings in Fort Bragg.
The family of Clarence W. Broback comprises his wife, Margaret H., and two sons, Jack W. and Charles R. Mrs. Broback is a daughter of John Cummings, an honored pioneer of Mendocino county, born near Toronto, Canada, February 18, 1840, and there trained to a knowledge of carpentering. January 3, 1869, he first arrived at Caspar, Mendocino county, where he found employment as a millwright. Returning to Canada in 1872, he soon came back to Caspar, where he resumed his old position in the sawmill and was promoted to be foreman of the mill. In subsequent years of business activity he erected several sawmills along the coast of this county, among them the first mill at Fort Bragg, of which he was foreman for several years. He is now living retired in Fort Bragg. While visiting in Canada he was there married to Miss Catherine Williams, who was born and reared in that country. Their five children, all natives of California, are as follows: John A .; Lottie M .; Margaret H .; James K., who died when nine years old; and Maude, Mrs. W. C. Balfour. Mrs. Broback received her education in the schools of Mendocino county, which has been her home throughout life and in which she and Mr. Broback have a large circle of warm personal friends.
JOHN R. BANKS .- The horticultural commissioner of Mendocino county, who has filled this responsible position continuously since 1894, ranks among the leading fruit growers of Northern California and by competent judges is declared to be without a superior in the raising of pears. It is not alone long experience that enables him to handle this fruit with discretion and success, for he is further equipped for the work through a remarkable and apparently intuitive judgment concerning soils best adapted to this variety of fruit, the most satisfactory methods of handling the trees, the wisest mode of cultivation of the ground and every detail connected with the harvesting of the crop and shipping of the product to eastern markets. The first pears ever shipped out of this county to the eastern markets were some excellent Bartletts which he purchased of a grower at $20 per ton in 1892 and then sent to the east, where the fine quality attracted considerable atten- tion. It should be stated, however, that the best offer the farmers had for these pears was $6 delivered at Santa Rosa, a price so low as to prohibit the harvesting of the fruit.
John R. Banks was born in Fayette, Howard county, Mo., but from the memorable year 1849 he has been a resident of California. With his father. Aaron Banks, he started across the plains in that year, but before reaching his destination he suffered the loss of this parent, who was drowned while driving cattle across the Platte river. The rest of the way Mr. Banks came with the family of Mrs. Maupin. While still a mere boy in 1854 he planted a vineyard and a fruit orchard. He can scarcely recall the time when he first became interested in horticulture. Always it appealed to him as the most interesting of occupations. To watch the young trees start, to care for them with zeal and wise judgment, to develop better qualities of fruit, and to find the varieties best adapted to a certain soil, such work has been his "hobby" throughout life, and he has accomplished wonders in his chosen occupation, becoming a specialist at a time when the era of specialization had not dawned in California. For years he lived in Shasta county, where in the pioneer period his nearest neighbor was forty miles distant. In such an environment
750
MENDOCINO AND LAKE COUNTIES
he found much of hardship and privation, but such is the necessary lot of all upbuilders of a state.
From Shasta county removing to Napa county in 1873 Mr. Banks settled near St. Helena and planted one of the first vineyards in that section of the country. Fruit and grapes were his specialties on his Napa county farm. During 1888 he moved to Sonoma county and settled on a farm near Geyser- ville, where he remained for three years. During that time he identified him- self with the Healdsburg Lodge of Odd Fellows. In 1892 he bought a small tract of land near Hopland, Mendocino county, where he developed the raw land and made a specialty of Bartlett pears. Selling the Hopland ranch in 1901 he bought one hundred and thirty-seven acres nine miles north of Ukiah, near Laughlin Station, and here he since has labored effectively, put- ting thirty acres of the tract under cultivation to pears, peaches, apples, prunes and walnuts. In his opinion Mendocino county surpasses any part of the world for the raising of Bartlett pears. Twice he has competed against the growers from every part of the globe, and in each instance he has received the first premium on his Bartletts. Fruit growers from this county and else- where consult him frequently with reference to their orchards and rely upon his advice in the care of their trees. His own remarkable success gives weight to his opinion and authority to his decisions. When he exhibited in New York, Philadelphia, Omaha and Boston, his exhibits attracted much journal- istic comment and universal admiration. Besides shipping his own fruit he buys from growers and ships to the east, and during 1913 four hundred and sixty tons of Bartlett pears went east from the Ukiah valley. One car of these, shipped in the summer of that year to Boston and grown largely on his own farm, brought the highest price ever received for any pears sent from the Golden state, thus proving the statement he has always made, viz., that Mendocino county has no superior for pears.
Mr. Banks was married in St. Helena, Napa county, June 3, 1880, to Elvy Ettie Bruce, who was born in Trumbull county, Ohio, and came with her parents to St. Helena in 1873. To them have been born nine children, as follows: Daisy, the wife of J. S. Huntley ; Lester J .; Lew ; Harry L. ; Ethel, Mrs. Olin Nuckolls ; Mary, Mrs. Guy P. Joslin; Ernest ; Bessie ; and Lucille.
AUGUSTUS SARTORI .- Among men from the land of William Tell who have brought their inherited thrift and steadiness to the development of this part of the New World is Augustus Sartori. He was born August 18, 1867. in Giumaglio, Canton Ticino, Switzerland, where he was reared on a farm and received a public school education. When past fourteen years of age, on January 1, 1882, he landed in New York City. His brother, P. G. Sartori, was a ranchman at Tomales, Marin county, Cal., and on his brother's ranch and in his dairy Augustus was employed for four years. At the end of this time he rented the ranch for two years, when he came to Mendocino county. After working three months at Manchester he rented a ranch below Point Arena, on which he kept forty dairy cows for three years. He then rented a ranch north of Point Arena for the same length of time. Following this, at Bridgeport, he operated a dairy ranch for four years, and then at Greenwood rented the Greenwood Lumber Company's ranch for two years. In the year 1900 he purchased a ranch of one hundred and forty acres on the coast road, at Cuffey's Cove, where he kept a dairy for six years, in the meantime bringing it to a high state of cultivation. Since that time he has leased the property.
Augustus Sartori
753
MENDOCINO AND LAKE COUNTIES
In 1907 Augustus Sartori returned to Switzerland on a visit to his father, and remained for nine months, after which he came back to California. He spent four years in San Francisco engaged in the milk business, and then, in the fall of 1911, came to Navarro Flat, renting the ranch from the Pacific Coast Redwood Co. in partnership with Peter Nonella. On this place he en- gages in dairying and farming, milking forty cows, besides feeding beef cattle, also raising grain, hay and potatoes. Of the latter in 1913 he raised about forty tons, all of which was sold on the coast. He resides on the place, giving all his time to superintending it. In his political affiliations, Mr. Sartori is a Republican.
J. A. REDEMEYER .- The Vichy Springs property, owned and operated by Mr. Redemeyer, extends two miles back from Russian river along Sulphur creek and comprises fourteen hundred acres abounding in beautiful wooded scenery. Were it from the standpoint of a pleasure resort alone, it would present exceptional advantages, but these are vastly magnified by the presence of numerous springs of pronounced curative properties. Of these the most noted are the Vichy Springs, said by expert judges to possess the same properties and produce the same efficacious results as the celebrated Nauheim baths in Germany. An abundant flow of water, at all seasons of the year ninety degrees in temperature, comes from the spring twelve feet in length, five feet wide and eighteen inches deep, and accommodations are provided in the bathhouse for patients who desire to test in baths the curative value of the water. Especially have favorable results been secured in cases of rheumatism, kidney, stomach and heart trouble, although there have been many instances of benefits received by those suffering from other troubles. The fame of the water has extended throughout the entire west and its remedial qualities are appreciated by a host of persons whose favorable experience convinces them of its extraordinary value.
As the name indicates, the Redemeyer family is of Teutonic origin, but J. A. Redemeyer himself is a native son of California and a lifelong resident of Mendocino county, where he was born in Sherwood valley April 26, 1866. His father, the late A. F. Redemeyer, left Germany for America in early life and settled in St. Louis, Mo., whence he crossed the plains with oxen and . wagon during the memorable summer of 1849. Returning to Missouri, he drove a herd of cattle across the plains and started in the stock business in Sonoma county. In 1857 he became a pioneer of Sherwood valley, Mendo- cino county, where he continued to raise stock. Although after coming to Ukiah in 1868 he engaged in the banking business until his death in January, 1904, he by no means relinquished agricultural activities, but to the last owned large tracts of land and personally superintended his farm adjacent to Ukiah. In politics he voted with the Republican party and fraternally he held membership with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. After settling in California he met and married Miss Lydia Merritt, who was born in Illinois and during the '50s came across the plains to Sonoma county in company with her parents. Her death occurred in 1899. Of the ten children compris- ing the family three sons and two daughters survive, the second of these being J. A., owner of Vichy Springs. From youth he has been interested in the stock business and for perhaps eight years managed a farm owned by his father in Potter valley, where he still has extensive interests in stock- raising. On leaving that valley and returning to Ukiah he took charge of
754
MENDOCINO AND LAKE COUNTIES
Vichy Springs, which he has developed into a health and pleasure resort of widely extended fame.
The marriage of Mr. Redemeyer and Miss Martha Humphrey was solemnized at Winters, Yolo county, May 26, 1901, and has been blessed with two children, Evelyn and Whitney Humphrey Redemeyer. The Humphreys have pioneer California and eastern associations. The late E. A. Humphrey, of Virginian birth, formed one of that great throng of immigrants crossing the plains to the gold fields during the summer of 1850. He was then a mere lad, and from that time to his death he remained in California, where his widow, Catherine (Still) Humphrey, is still living. During their sojourn at Monticello, Napa county, a daughter, Martha, was born. Later the family settled at Winters, Yolo county, where she received a fair education and engaged in teaching prior to her marriage. From girlhood she had been an earnest member of the Christian Church. Of recent years she has been an active worker in Casimir Chapter No. 252, Order of the Eastern Star, in which she has been honored with official positions. The development of the springs and the supervision of large interests in- stock have left Mr. Rede- meyer little leisure for participation in public affairs, nor indeed do his tastes incline him in such directions, although he is a stanch Republican politically and always willing to discharge the duties incumbent upon public-spirited citizens. His influence is used to enhance the best interests of his native county and to promote worthy enterprises. As a representative of an honored pioneer family of the county and as a co-worker with those interested in the welfare of the people he has a merited position of esteem and regard.
JOHN SIMPSON KIMBALL .- In relating experiences of the early days in Mendocino county (and few men have at their command more inter- esting or thrilling tales of pioneer adventures in this section of the state), Mr. Kimball forgets the passing of over fifty years and again becomes a youth, filled with high hopes and seeking this timbered region for the purpose of finding employment in connection with the great lumber industry. The men he then met, the sturdy young fellows who worked by his side, the hardships of existence on the then frontier in a region with few homes aside from the omni-present logging camp, the coming of ships with supplies of food and their departure laden with lumber and shingles, all of these made an indelible impression upon his mind, and across the chasm of a half-century of success- ful activities he looks back upon those days in Mendocino county with pleasure untinged by any regret except that caused by the passing of many of the comrades of those years of toil.
The early life of Mr. Kimball was passed in Maine, where he was born in Belfast, Waldo county, June 14, 1838, a son of Charles C. Kimball, who was interested in the lumbering, mercantile and shipping business. The son had such advantages in schooling as the locality and period afforded. March 1, 1859, he left his early home to try his fortune in the California mines, and on the 23d of the same month he landed at San Francisco after an uneventful trip via Panama. For some years he mined in Eldorado county, but in the spring of 1862 he returned to his old eastern home. The west had cast its fascinating spell over him, however, and in the spring of 1863 he again came to San Francisco, this time proceeding direct to Mendocino county, where for two years he clerked in the Albion store of L. E. White & Co. During 1865 he took up mercantile pursuits at Salmon Creek and Navarro. associated with Charles Winzer. In 1869 he was united in marriage with Miss Helen
755
MENDOCINO AND LAKE COUNTIES
N. White, a native of New York and a sister of L. E. White, long and promi- nently connected with the lumber business. Five children blessed the union, Alice, Charles, Helen, Daisy and Bessie.
With the opening of the year 1870 Mr. Kimball established a business at Cuffey's Cove, where he had F. W. Welle as a partner, but in 1873 he sold out his interests and removed to Bridgeport. Three years later he returned to Cuffey's Cove and purchased his former business. Meanwhile he had become actively engaged in ship-building along the coast. At Little River, Mendocino county, he built the schooner Alice Kimball, and at Alameda he later built a steamer bearing the same name. Along the coast in Mendo- cino, Humboldt and Alameda counties, this state, as well as in the state of Washington, he built twenty or more vessels, mostly steamers, for ocean traffic, and he still has vast interests in the shipping and lumber lines, main- taining an office in San Francisco, from which city he exercises a close super- vision over the business developed by his personal sagacity and remarkable efficiency. For more than thirty years in Mendocino county he had the reputation of finding employment for every man who appealed to him, giving them work in one of his camps or yards. Mr. Kimball was one of the pioneers at Nome. In 1899 he sent one of his steamers to Nome with a cargo of general merchandise and put up the first building there, a store in which he conducted a merchandise business, and with his vessels he carried on a freighting and passenger business. In 1899 he had two vessels in service and by 1900 he had added two more. One was the passenger ship J. S. Kimball, having a capacity of one thousand tons of freight and four hundred passengers, and making monthly trips. Besides being the pioneer merchant and shipper in Nome, Mr. Kimball was also interested in mining from the time that industry was known on Seward Peninsula, and since then mining has occupied his attention almost entirely. About 1909 he built the first dredge operating at Council, on Nelson creek, later built another dredge, on Ophir creek, and a third one on Shovel creek. Later a fourth dredge was built on Solomon river, and a fifth one is now being built to be installed and operated on Shovel creek, as well as a sixth one which will be located on Arctic creek. Mr. Kim- ball and his son have large holdings on Yankee creek in Ophir district, tribu- tary of the Yukon. All of the dredging is done in partnership with the son, Charles E., who has become an experienced miner and gives his entire time to the industry. It is the consensus of opinion among miners of the region that the Kimballs, father and son, are the largest and most successful operators in the dredging business. Mr. Kimball, Sr., attributes their success io the careful mode of experting mines and also to their plans of operation. Some ten years ago Mr. Kimball bought out the Alaska Commercial Com- pany's interests in Nome, and still owns them, the holdings constituting buildings, warehouse, store, cold storage plant, hotel and wharves. The dredging operations are conducted under the name of the Flume Dredge Company of Seward Peninsula, Alaska, of which Mr. Kimball and his son. Charles E., are the owners. In 1899 Mr. Kimball chartered the steamer Albion and under contract with the United States government he brought over several cargoes of reindeer from Siberia, landing them at Seward Penin- sula. They have since increased so that there are now probably twenty thousand head in the peninsula. Charles E. Kimball has the record of driving an automobile to the most northerly point ever reached. Mr. Kimball,
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.