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 91
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 91
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The marriage of Mr. Heckendorf occurred in Ukiah, uniting him with Miss Ida Brown, who was born in Illinois, and they have one child living named Louella.
WELLS W. WEST .- But faint and vague recollections linger in the mind of Mr. West concerning the place in Erie county, Pa., where he was born September 3, 1836. Perhaps the most distinct of these memories is that of a raft built by his father out of sawed lumber. More vividly he recalls incidents of the voyage down the Alleghany and Ohio rivers as well as the aspect of the great steamer on which they sailed up the Mississippi river to the Illinois landing in Pike county, where they disembarked. The parents were Josiah and Mary J. (Hayes) West, the latter a distant relative of ex- President Rutherford B. Hayes. The father, a native of New Hampshire and a carpenter by trade, followed general farming as well as work at his trade. His wife died in Pike county, and from there in 1852 he came to California by water, settling in Amador county, where he died at the age of fifty-four years. Fight children formed the family, namely: Almina J., Jeanette, Amorette, Corydon M., William Wirt, Wells W., Henry H. and Helena. The sole survivor of the eight, excepting Wells W., is Henry H .. a farmer in Sacra- mento county.
The seventeenth anniversary of his birth Wells W. West celebrated on the plains en route to California, where he arrived during the fall of 1853. and where for several years he engaged in mining. An experience of three years as a vaquero in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys gave him a thorough knowledge of that part of the state, besides developing his skill as a "broncho buster." In those days he was one of the swiftest riders in the cowboy con- tingent, and nothing gave him greater happiness than a long ride with a fine horse. When the war broke out he began to make plans to enlist in the Union service, and during 1862 he was accepted as a member of the California One Hundred at San Francisco. The members of this troop sailed for the east via the isthmus and after arriving in New York became a part of Company A, Second Massachusetts Cavalry, their captain being the gallant J. Sewell Reed, who fell in battle in 1864 at Dranesville, Va. After having been mounted and drilled in Massachusetts, Mr. West was dispatched to Baltimore by train, thence by boat to Fortress Monroe and later by boat to Yorktown, where he was stationed on picket duty. He had his baptism in blood at the skirmish near South Anna bridge in Virginia and helped to take one hundred boys in gray prisoners of the Union. On board a transport he went to White- house and from there proceeded to the railroad, later engaging as a scout and on picket duty south of Washington. After South Anna bridge he took part in the following battles and skirmishes: Ashby's Gap, Dranesville, Aldie, Fort Stephens, Fort Reno, Rockville, Poolville. Summit Point, Berryville (where his horse was shot from under him). Berryville Pike. Charleston, Halltown (where they fought for four days), Opequon (where the encounter lasted for six days), Winchester, Luray, Waynesboro, Tomsbrook, Cedar Creek (where Col. C. R. Lowell fell and the regiment lost sixty men in killed and wounded), South Anna, White Oak Road, Dinwiddie Courthouse, Five- forks, Sailors' Creek and Appomattox Courthouse. The greater part of his service was in Virginia. Being near the seat of war, he had a most active and laborious service and gained a comprehensive knowledge of the horrors
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of such a contest. On the 24th of July, 1865, he was mustered out and in September he received final discharge.
After a visit in Illinois with an older sister Mr. West went to Chillicothe, Mo., and there married Miss Delilah J. Thompson, who was born in Living- ston county near Chillicothe. Immediately following his marriage in 1867 he began housekeeping in that town and followed the trade of a carpenter. During 1878 he took his family to Kansas, where he worked as a carpenter for four years. April of 1882 found him in California after an absence of twenty years. After a visit to St. Helena, Napa county, in the fall of 1882 he bought ten acres in the suburbs of Lakeport, Lake county. On this he has one hundred and fifty prune and pear trees besides an excellent family garden. After coming west he joined the G. A. R. post at St. Helena and always he has maintained a warm interest in the work among the boys in blue. Religion has entered his life and deepened the spiritual element of liis character. For years he has been a trustee of the Christian Church at Lake- port and recently he was ordained to the office of elder, while in the same congregation his wife is a capable assistant with the Ladies' Aid Society and the C. W. B. M., besides being a leader in the forward movements inaugu- rated by the W. C. T. U. of Lakeport.
When Mrs. West was a very small child her father, James Thompson, leaving his family behind in Missouri, started across the plains, but died of cholera at Fort Laramie. Later the mother, Angeline (Thaxton) Thompson, married again, but had no children by the second union. Of her first marriage there were four children, namely: Sarah Ann, Mrs. Richard Williams, who died at Chillicothe, Mo .; Delilah J .; Mercer Warren, who in boyhood enlisted in the southern army and was never heard from afterward, the belief being that he fell in battle and was buried in an unknown grave; and Thomas, now a blacksmith at Lathrop, Mo. Nine children comprised the family of Mr. and Mrs. West, namely: Maude A., Mrs. Alonzo Clark, a teacher living at Santa Cruz ; Mary Blanche, who married Dr. Mallory, of Santa Rosa, Cal., and has seven children; Jessie, who died at the age of twenty-four, leaving a daughter, Jessie Lee: Lester, a boat builder at Everett. Wash .; Guy H., of Santa Rosa, who married Miss Jennie Monroe and has one child; Cora, who married Charles Benson, a farmer at Kelseyville, Lake county, and has two sons ; Ray, who was born in Kansas and died at eighteen years of age. Wirt M. who was born at Lakeport and is now a carpenter at Richmond, Cal .. the home of himself and wife, formerly Miss Ada McCoy; and Dwight, who died at the age of thirteen months.
JOHN HENRY CHRISTY .- Conspicuous in Mendocino county as one of the pioneers of the section, Mr. Christy has spent his years in this county to the best advantage, lending a hand in its progression and viewing with pride the great and splendid results attained by his fellow workers in the development and improvement of the surrounding country. Inured to hard- ship, stalwart and courageous, he stood his ground against the many vicis- situdes which confronted him in the early life in California, and with it all retained a stanch heart, whose sympathy and kindliness were never-failing; his hand always ready to give and his home ever open to the less fortunate and needy.
Mr. Christy was born in Beaver county, Pa., May 24, 1832, and in that county he spent the early years of his life. Circumstances did not allow him
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to attend school for a long period, and when the family later removed to Ohio he worked with his father on the farm place until he was twenty-one years of age. Reports of the unusual opportunities on the coast attracted his attention at this time and he decided to make his way to California across the plains. The trip covered a hundred and thirty-five days, during which time he drove six hundred and sixty head of cattle, which band dwindled to one hundred head before reaching their destination, due principally to the hard- ships of the journey. In 1853 Mr. Christy arrived at Stockton, Cal., alone, a stranger in a strange land, but he immediately set to work to find employ- ment and worked in a mine in Calaveras county for some time. During his period of service there he took up a government claim in Solano county, and this land he successfully farmed for twelve years, then selling his property. It was in 1869 that he came to Mendocino county, and he has made this county his home since, never removing from the home place which he at that time purchased. It is located in Coyote valley and at the time of pur- chase was unimproved land. However, it is now under cultivation, part planted to orchard of pears, apples and prunes, while the remainder is in alfalfa and grain. A portion of the place was leased for a time to a neighbor- ing farmer, but in 1911 Mr. Christy disposed of it and divided the remainder of the land among his children, seven of whom are living of the nine born to him as follows: Jasper, David (deceased), Elizabeth (deceased), Cornelius, Mirtin, Martha, Lura, Ellen and Ruby. The mother of these children was in maidenhood Miss Lucy Huckins, a native of Illinois, who died in 1888.
Mr. Christy's politics are Republican, his interest in that party covering a long eventful period, and he takes pleasure in recounting the events of his carlier years and the many experiences of his youth, when despite the diffi- culties of pioneer life he enjoyed the exhilaration of helping in the creating of a new country and taking a potent part in that development.
GEORGE EDWARD PURCELL .- The proprietor of the only hotel in Round valley is an Iowan by birth and was born in Muscatine March 12, 1857, but at the age of six years he accompanied his parents, William and Amanda Purcell, to California. This was some years prior to the completion of the first great railroad connecting the west with the east. His first and only school experiences were gained in San Francisco, already a city of con- siderable note and large population. On the completion of the studies of the grammar grade he began an apprenticeship to the trade of carpenter, at which he served for four years, not, however, liking the occupation sufficiently to care to continue therein. Instead of attempting to secure work at the trade he found employment in a livery barn at Petaluma, Sonoma county, and remained in the position for a number of years. Next he engaged as foreman of a dairy at Del Norte, and in that responsible post he proved himself to be an efficient and intelligent dairyman.
Shortly after the arrival of Mr. Purcell in Mendocino county in 1887 he located a claim, and one year later he sold it and located in Jackson valley and engaged in raising stock, but a year later again sold and located at Cum- mings, securing a quarter-section of government land, on which in due time he proved up and secured title. The tract was suited for a stock range and to that purpose it was put by him, with such success that he began to be prospered in his enterprises. During 1904 he sold the stock range and moved into Covelo, where he opened the Windsor hotel. However, after he had
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managed the place for perhaps a year, the building was destroyed by fire. Buying the livery barn in Covelo, he conducted the business from 1906 to 1910, and then sold out to C. M. Bucknell, the present owner. Just before disposing of the livery stable he had leased eighty acres of land adjoining and in the town of Covelo, and there being a large house on the place, well adapted to hotel purposes, he started a new hotel there, which he has since managed with efficiency. As landlord he is popular with the traveling public and those who once become guests at his comfortable inn are glad to return on later trips to the valley. He also owns valuable lots and a six acre tract in Covelo, the latter of which he intends to subdivide into city lots. Besides managing his hotel and operating the land with characteristic energy, he finds time to keep thoroughly posted in public affairs and gives his stanch support to the Republican party. Fraternally he holds membership with Covelo Camp No. 635, W. O. W. His marriage took place March 12, 1887, and united him with Miss Frances Jones, a Californian, born and reared in Del Norte, and they are the parents of a daugther, Hattie Purcell. The family have many friends in Round valley and possess the fine personal qual- ities that win the regard of associates.
THE UKIAH TIMES .- The history of the Ukiah Times dates back to the year 1898, when F. W. Broback launched a magazine of sixteen pages upon the journalistic sea. As is the common lot of newspapers in villages and small cities, the new publication encountered many storms. More than once it appeared that the small bark was destined to be wrecked against the rocks of financial depression or community indifference. To the surprise of many, however, it has weathered every gale and, stronger by reason of its many struggles, now rides upon the seas of popular favor. Meanwhile many changes have been made. The original job press upon which the magazine was printed has been replaced by a large press suited to the present news- paper form, while the composition is the work of a substantial linotype machine. From a position of insignificance the paper has risen to a weekly circulation of eleven hundred, with a corresponding influence in the moral, educational and business upbuilding of Ukiah.
After many changes in its ownership the Times finally was purchased by E. A. Keller and L. V. Hufft, the present owners.
HOPLAND STOCK FARM .- The Hopland Stock Farm, which was purchased by A. W. Foster in 1890 (of which R. N. Foster was the manager from 1908 until his death), ranks among the best-known ranches not only of Mendocino county, but also of Northern California. It was established as a breeding farm for trotting horses, at that time so popular, also as a dairy ranch of extensive proportions, while still later a specialty was made of beef cattle, sheep and hogs. In whatever line of the stock industry the owners embarked, always a wide reputation came to them for skill and success. Nor has this been less noticeable in the most recent undertaking connected with the ranch. viz., the establishment of a poultry department. Some there are who attribute the gratifying results to the uniformly fine soil of the ranch, others give especial credit to the climate, but a true estimate of the matter probably would, while recognizing the advantages of soil and climate, give especial praise to the sagacious, resourceful and efficient management.
In the days when Llewellyn Peck owned the ranch a trotting track was started and a specialty made of breeding and training standard-bred trotting
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horses. A continuance of the same work was made during the early owner- ship of the farm by Mr. Foster, who, however, did not limit his enterprise to trotters, but also made a specialty of registered Percheron horses. The trotting stock most popular at the time was the Hambletonian. Wilkes and McKinley mares and Electioneer stallions. Before that period, however, Percheron mares and stallions had been sold from the farm to dealers and farmers throughout the west, and there still lingers on the place a fine Percheron stallion nearly a quarter-century old, which forms an interesting relic of the period of great activity in the horse business. There was also a decade when the dairy industry was an important feature of the ranch, and at times over one hundred cows were milked, but the enormous amount of work entailed thereby caused a change to beef cattle, hogs and sheep. Fine herds of registered shorthorn cattle, Shropshire sheep and Berkshire hogs inay now be seen on the farm. The place also has the distinction of being the only ranch in the west where Hungarian ponies are bred and raised. From eighty to one hundred head of these famous ponies are kept on the place, and a ready market is always found for the output in various parts of the Pacific coast country.
The most interesting of all is the poultry department, established in June, 1911, and since developed into probably the largest and best-equipped poultry ranch in the world. After a number of experiments had been made with different strains of chickens it was decided that S. C. White Leghorns and White Plymouth Rocks were the most profitable, hence these are the only kinds raised and kept on the farm. The department was established both for utility and educational purposes. Only standard, pure-bred stock was introduced or kept in the yards. Such has been the care and such the attention given to the business that the results have been most gratifying. From three thousand to four thousand eggs form the average daily output. To keep sanitary the colony-rearing houses, the brooder houses, incubator houses and laying houses, to care for the grounds and feed the flocks, to oversee every department of the vast industry, to gather the eggs and ship them to the markets, it is necessary to employ a large corps of workmen skilled in the poultry industry and efficient in every particular.
The farm consists of more than two thousand acres of valley and rolling land fronting one and one-half miles on the Russian river, one mile east of Hopland, Mendocino county, on the line of the Northwestern Pacific Rail- road. While, as previously stated, there are various lines of farming and stock-raising carried on, including the raising of ponies, cattle, sheep and logs, the raising of fruit and of three crops of alfalfa annually without irriga- tion, the poultry business is now a most important feature of the farm. The houses are built on the most modern and scientific plan, with cement floors and open fronts. Every essential to the production of first-class eggs and poultry has been provided. The laying houses, equipped with feed and litter carriers, sanitary roosting and dropping boards, which are cleaned daily, con- sist of two two-story buildings 24x400 feet and two one-story buildings 24x430 feet, each divided into twelve pens (unit laying houses), each house accom- modating two thousand hens. The pens have ample yards, which are fenced with wire eight feet high. The system insures a daily shipment of fresh eggs. Incubator house, brooders and rearing houses, colony houses for grow- ing surplus stock, feed and fattening houses, a complete modern mill for the
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grinding and mixing of pure feed so essential to the health of chicks and laying hens, with various other buildings, constitute a complete utility plant serviceable every month in the year, economically operated and easily super- vised. so that perfect health of stock can at all times be guarded and main- tained. Hatching eggs are shipped to all parts of the state, the balance being sent to market. The reputation established by the industry is unsurpassed for both quality and production.
GEORGE W. UPP .- The pioneer blacksmith shop at Willits now owned and operated by George W. Upp forms one of the interesting landmarks of the village and was established in a very early day by Hiram Willits, in whose honor the village was named. As an apprentice in the old shop, then owned by Jake Dobkins, Mr. Upp learned the trade, having left the ranch at the age of eighteen in order to take up work at the trade. All of his previous life had been passed on the farm in the valley near Willits, where he was born, reared and educated, and where his people had been leading pioneers. From this place he went to Ukiah and for four years worked in the shop of Dobkins & Charlton. Upon his return to Willits he formed a part- nership with Frank Vincent and embarked in blacksmithing under the firm name of Upp & Vincent. Selling his interest to Mr. Vincent November 3, 1890, he returned and purchased the old blacksmith shop established by Mr. Wil- lits, where he had learned the trade and where for years he has been engaged continuously at the trade as the proprietor of the shop. During early man- hood he married Miss Sarah C. Davidson, daughter of Allen Davidson, a pioneer stock-raiser of Mendocino county. In fraternal matters he is identi- fied with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, while Mrs. Upp is a member of the Rebekahs.
PHILIP UPP .- The identification of the Upp family with Mendocino county from June, 1858, entitles them to be classed among the very earliest settlers of the county, while to the eldest daughter of the family, Sarah A., was given the distinction of being the first white child born in Little Lake township. The head of the family, Philip Upp, was born in York county, Pa., March 21, 1827, being a son of John J. and Barbara (Lower) Upp. Upon starting out for himself he went to St. Louis, Mo., in October, 1849, and found employment at his trade of carpenter. March 23, 1856, at Lewistown, Mif- flin county. Pa., he married Miss Susan Hawker, a native of Pennsylvania, and their wedding journey consisted of a trip to California. Embarking on the steamer Orizaba, April 6, 1856, they had an uneventful voyage to Nica- ragua, but encountered numerous troubles there by reason of the progress of the Walker filibustering expedition. Only the protection of General Walker himself and of the American consul saved them from annoyances that might have developed into dangers. As passengers on the steamer Sierra Nevada they anchored at San Francisco June 8, 1856. The following day they sailed up the river to Sacramento. Near the north fork of the American river Mr. Upp secured work as operator of a threshing machine. Next he proceeded to Sonoma county and took up land five miles from Petaluma, whence in June, 1858, he came to Mendocino county, establishing a farm home near Willits. For some years he followed different lines of work in California and Washington, but in January, 1865, he returned to Willits permanently and in June of the same year formed a partnership with Archie Whitehorn in the ranching and stock-raising business. For a number of years they owned
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and operated a stock farm of nineteen hundred and twenty acres and ranked among the most extensive stockmen of the valley. In his family there were six children : Sarah A., Mrs. Davis, deceased; George W., a blacksmith in Willits; Mary F., Mrs. Shimmin, and Ida, Mrs. Smith, both of Paso Robles; Archie, who was accidentally killed by the fall of lumber in June, 1910; and Eddie, who with his wife and child, was accidentally killed by a train while crossing the N. W. P. R. R. tracks August 26, 1912.
JOHN W. SHOEMAKER .- Experiences during the era of Indian war- fare in the west give to the history of Mr. Shoemaker a touch of romance and adventure. When he crossed the plains to Oregon in company with his mother and stepfather, James Morse (his own father having died when lie was a very small child), the entire west was in the infancy of its material development. James Morse was a cousin of Morse, inventor of the telegraph. Railroads were as yet unbuilt in the west. The trail of the mountaineer and the plainsman furnished the only route of travel, while the "prairie schooner" was the sole conveyance in use by overland emigrants. Born in Grayson county, Ky., in 1840, he was a boy of twelve when the family arrived in Oregon in the fall of 1852 and at that plastic age impressions ineffaceable were made on his mind by the strange journey and the isolated environment. His the task of aiding in the cultivating of a tract of raw land in Lane county, Oregon, where without any advantages of schooling or cultured surroundings he grew to manhood, self-reliant, resolute, and fearless. In 1858 the family located near Hydesville, Humboldt county, Cal., and there he resided until the war.
With characteristic loyalty the young frontiersman offered his services to the Union at the opening of the Civil war. Early in 1861 he joined the mounted scouts. Out of seven hundred and fifty volunteers he was one of thirty picked men who served as mountain rangers. His choice for such responsible work proved his reputation for fearlessness and military skill. As quartermaster of the company, he traveled with the troops through the mountains of northern California for five years and meanwhile met the Indians on many a bloody battlefield. More than once he was wounded in these skirmishes: On one occasion he was shot in the side and in another battle a bullet passed through his horse and flattened against his shin-bone. The savages were still hostile and troublesome when he received an honorable discharge and returned to other employment. He was selected as a man suitable for the difficult task of taking a drove of cattle to Idaho, but on the way the herd was stampeded by the Indians and many of them were lost. Barely escaping with his life, he finally reached Idaho nearly dead from a wound in his right leg, but was young and hardy and soon recovered. After he had engaged in mining in various parts of that state for five years he re- turned to California in 1873 and settled in Mendocino county.
Securing a quit-claim deed to five hundred and forty acres of mountain land situated six miles west of Ukiah on the Low Gap road, Mr. Shoemaker has made his home on the property from that year to the present. It is little short of remarkable in this era of change to find a man quietly pursuing the even tenor of his way on one homestead for over forty years of uninter- rupted contentment and industry. Outside enterprises have not appealed to him. With the aid of the income from the ranch and the pension granted by the government in consideration of his services in the Civil war, he and his
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