USA > California > Sacramento County > History of Sacramento County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, 1913 > Part 77
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The founder of the Mauldin family in California was Benjamin Francis Mauldin, who was born in Cecil county, Md., May 26, 1813, and received a fair education in that locality, where, May 5, 1845, he was united in marriage with Miss Millicent R. Brown, a daughter of Hugh Brown, one of the defenders of Baltimore. Their son, Hugh, was born at the family home in Cecil county February 9, 1848, and the second son, Lopez, was born in the same county during September of 1849. Mr. Mauldin joined General Lopez' filibustering expedition to Cuba, was dubbed colonel, and made his escape back to New Orleans and then up the Mississippi river. During 1850 he came to California by way of Panama and after landing at San Francisco in the month of July proceeded to Sacramento on the bark Winthrop. He was much pleased with the country, and the same fall returned to Maryland, in 1851 bringing his family and settling in Sacramento. Later he took up land and embarked in ranching pursuits. For a considerable period he devoted his attention closely to ranching, but during 1867 he leased his farm and removed to the city of Sacra- mento, where he interested himself in real estate and political enter- prises. When somewhat advanced in years, but still very active in business, he died while on a trip to Montana, June 10, 1882. Through all of his life he had been loyal to the doctrines of the Methodist Episcopal church and to the principles of the Democratic party. He was a member of the Territorial Society of California Pioneers. His son, Lopez, who also settled in Sacramento, entered the government service as a mail carrier and continued in that capacity until his death, which occurred June 12, 1894. The third son, Brown, born in Sacramento in 1852, still makes his home in his native city.
After having completed the studies of the Sacramento grammar and high schools, Hugh Mauldin went to San Francisco and secured employment with the jewelry house of John W. Tucker. From a humble position he rose to be a trusted salesman and eventually was chosen manager of the establishment, which position he was filling at the time of his final resignation May 1, 1883. He then engaged in the manufacture of jewelry in San Francisco and later opened a jewelry store in Los Angeles. His place of business in the Bryson block was considered the finest of its kind in the state. Subsequently 43
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he returned to San Francisco, the headquarters of his jewelry opera- tions, and there continued until 1894, when he returned to Sacramento to look after two large property interests, and has since made this his home. With his wife, formerly Miss Eve Gaylord, whom he mar- ried in San Francisco December 15, 1880, he has a host of warm per- sonal friends among the most select social circles of Sacramento. Like his mother, he cherishes a deep devotion for the doctrines of the Methodist Episcopal denomination, and like his father he upholds Democratic tenets with his influence and ballot.
STEPHEN S. DAY
New England has contributed much to the good citizenship of the Pacific coast. This contribution has been both direct and indirect, and, taken all in all, it has been almost incalculable, both in its extent and its influence. One of its direct contributions in a purely per- sonal and individual way is Stephen S. Day, of Sacramento, who was born at North Hampton, Mass., August 2, 1868. He was educated in the public and high schools of his native city, graduating from the latter in 1886. Then he acted on a well-formed determination to go west, and made his way to Omaha, Neb., where he entered the establishment of Crane Company, who handle steam and plumbing supplies, acting as stock clerk. His aptitude for business was recog- nized by his promotion to the sales department. In 1893 he was trans- ferred to their main office at Chicago, where he had a successful career as a salesman till 1903. From then until 1910 he was in charge of the company's agency at Sacramento. In September, that year, the honse established a-branch to supersede its agency, and Mr. Day was made its manager. Under his supervision they built the present building, 86x150 feet, on the corner of Front and M streets, consisting of two stories, and the company occupy the entire building. The leading products of the concern, recognized throughout the United States as the best of their kind, are valves and fittings of their own manufacture, and they are extensive jobbers of a general line of steam and plumbing supplies.
In Sacramento, September 1, 1908, Mr. Day married Miss Minnie Schaw, who was born in Australia, but came to Sacramento, Cal., when a child. He is a member of the Sutter and Sacramento clubs, and has been a director of the Sacramento Chamber of Chamber since its re-organization. In his religious alliance he is a Congregationalist, and in his political allegiance he is a Republican. While he is not an active politician in the now nearly obsolete sense of the phrase,
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he is an active politician of the new school-that, not of the office- seeker, but of the thinker and voter who considers his duty to his fellow men illy discharged if he does not plan for their welfare and vote to promote their best interests. It is such a public spirit as has been suggested that makes the modern business man a snecess and a good citizen, and Mr. Day is that to the greatest extent.
JOHN L. MAYDEN
Three generations of the Mayden family are at present identified with Northern California, the first of these being represented by John Mayden, the founder of the name in the west and a man of energy and intelligence, who came to the coast country prior to the building of the first trans-continental railroad. A native of Indiana, born Novem- ber 5, 1843, he received such advantages as the schools of his locality and day afforded. These were small indeed in comparison with the advantages now offered to the young, but he has supplemented them by observation and reading, so that he is now a man of broad general information. During 1865, at the age of about twenty-two years, he came to California via Panama and settled in Amador county, near Plymouth, where for a long period he owned extensive mining in- terests. Since his retirement in 1893 from mining operations he has lived quietly but happily at his old homestead, where he and his wife, Mrs. Mary (Thomas) Mayden, reared their family and passed many years of purposeful activity.
It was during the residence of the family at Drytown, a mining town in Amador county, that John L. Mayden was born January 28, 1875, and his earliest memories cluster around the village of Plymouth. Later the family lived again at Drytown and there he attended the public schools. After he had completed the regular public school course he attended the business college at Stockton for one year and there prepared for commercial activities, gradnating in 1891. At the age of seventeen years, in 1892, he came to Sacramento and secured employment as a bill clerk with Baker & Hamilton, dealers in carriages and farming implements. His work was so intelligent and the results so satisfactory that the firm retained him in their employ, but recog- nized his ability by promoting him until finally they appointed him department manager, in which position he served for five years, on December 25, 1911, being made general manager, and he is now filling the place with characteristic energy and capability. The business of the Sacramento house extends all over Northern California, Southern Oregon and Nevada. Fraternally he is identified with the Woodmen
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of the World and the National Union, while in politics he votes with the Republican party. In Sacramento, November 28, 1898, occurred his marriage to Miss Ella Darrow Hatch, a native daughter of this city. They are the parents of two daughters, Helen Molter and Eleanor.
CHARLES M. BECKWITH
To many the attainment of material prosperity proves a severe temptation to relax the vigilance previously exercised over the na- tural inclination to enter upon a wordly career and place in the back- ground the finer virtues, chief among which is altruism. To Mr. Beckwith, however, the struggle for a place among the most influential members of the legal profession in Sacramento served as an impetus to further arouse his sympathies for mankind in general and his de- termination to do all in his power to disentangle the legal problems of those who appealed to him, his chief concern being not the financial reward he might receive, but the true service he might render.
Mr. Beckwith is a native son, his birth having occurred June 28, 1863, in Woodbridge, San Joaquin county, where he received his pre- liminary education. Later, he attended both private and public schools in Lodi, after which he entered Oberlin college, Oberlin, Ohio, graduating in 1884. His father, F. Marion Beckwith, was born in 1830, in Mentor, Ohio, and immigrated to California in 1849 in com- pany with his brother, De Witt Beckwith, and other colonists, many of whom desired to enter the mines of Eldorado county rather than re- sume their former occupations, believing that the gold fields offered the shortest route to wealth. Many, however, soon abandoned the role of Argonaut, and, satisfied that the west held many opportunities for those who possessed perseverance, settled in various sections. Upon his arrival in California, Mr. Beckwith proceeded at once to San Joaquin county, where he combined mining and farming with fair success until his death in January, 1863. Five months after his father's death, Charles Beckwith was born, his mother, formerly Miss Betsey L. Quiggle, of Hampden, Ohio, exerting every effort thence- forward in the interests of her child. Until he was seven years old he received the benefits derived from the atmosphere of love and tenderness created by his loving mother, but her death at that time caused him to go to his uncle, Byron D. Beckwith, at Lodi, Cal., who reared him to manhood, guiding him through his formative and educa- tional period until he reached the age of twenty-one. His influence left a deep imprint on the boy, who developed a nature of rare truth and sympathy, and it is the ambition inspired by this uncle's love and
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devotion, his careful training and self-sacrifice, to which he owes his success in after life-the inspiration gained from his noble life and worthy example. Upon his return to San Joaquin county after his course at Oberlin college, Charles M. Beckwith worked at various occupations for a year, going thence to Tulare county, where he en- gaged in farming and stock raising. Two years later, having decided to enter the legal profession, he took up the study of law in Stockton, soliciting insurance during his spare time. Having completed his course, he was admitted to the bar by the supreme court of California at Sacramento, November 14, 1893, and immediately established him- self there in business, building up a practice of importance. He has not only a large clientele among the substantial citizens of the county, but also in various counties of the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys.
Mr. Beckwith's first marriage occurred in Sacramento, November 22, 1895, uniting him with Mrs. Annie M. (Ross) Hurd of Sacramento, who passed away December 31, 1907, leaving a son by her former marriage, Horatio Hurd, of Sacramento. On October 31, 1908, he married Miss Bess M. Blake, whose birth occurred in New Hamp- shire, and whose father, C. W. Blake, makes his home with them. Mrs. Beckwith is in full sympathy with her husband's interests and aids him immeasurably by her tact and comradeship. He was made a Mason in 1884 in Woodbridge Lodge No. 131, F. & A. M., of Wood- bridge, retaining his membership in the lodge where his father and uncle were members. By his prompt, decisive action and excellent judgment he has won the esteem of many friends and associates, who predict for him a future commensurate with his unquestioned ability.
F. S. PECK
The educational advantages of the east supplemented by uni- versity training in Germany afforded Mr. Peck exceptional oppor- tunities in youth, and of these he was not dilatory in acquisition, the result being that he gained a breadth of cosmopolitan culture that easily places him among the most courteous and polished gentlemen of Sacramento as well as one of the most popular members of the exclusive Sutter club. While he has been a resident of California since 1900 and meanwhile has gained the warm friendship of many commercial enterprises of Sacramento, his birth and parentage unite him with the cultured classes of the east. Into the home of Frank A. and Elizabeth R. Peck, at Syracuse, N. Y., he was born December 1, 1877, and all of his earliest recollections cluster around that influential
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eastern city. Primarily educated in its schools, he later spent a period of study at Andover, Essex county, Mass. At the age of fourteen years he was sent abroad to study, first being entered as a student in a private school at Freiburg, Germany, and later taking up a uni- versity course in an historic German institution. Upon his return to the United States, in 1896, at the age of about nineteen years, he became interested with a brother in the manufacture of china at Syracuse, N. Y., where he acquired an interest in the business and continued for several years.
Disposing of his stock in the concern in 1900, Mr. Peck removed from New York to California and settled in Tehama county, where he became interested in the buying and selling of land and the handling of real estate. During 1902 he removed to Sacramento and entered into association with the W. P. Coleman Company as manager of their country land department. In that responsible position he proved capable and efficient, but his tastes led him into other lines of enter- prise, so that he resigned at the expiration of two years in order to engage in the general insurance business. As agent for various old- line companies he acquired a wide influence in his line, but in 1906, having decided to specialize, he disposed of the life and fire depart- ments, since which he has confined his attention to the building up of a large business in accident and liability insurance. To this phase of protection, hitherto all too neglected, he has given much time and study, and his efforts to interest others have been so successful that already a large proportion of the citizens of Sacramento have availed themselves of this class of insurance. Although well qualified by na- tural endowments and educational attainments to represent the people in offices of trust, his tastes have led him to keep aloof from partisan affairs, and he takes no part in politics aside from being an ardent devotee to Republican principles. In religious belief he is of the Christian Science faith. Fraternally he holds membership with the Elks. It was not until some time after he came to Sacramento that he established a home of his own, his marriage to Miss Maud Shafer having occurred July 1, 1908, and uniting him with a young lady pop- ular in the most select circles of society in the capital city.
OTTO J. KOCH
One of the native sons of Sacramento who are achieving success in the city of their birth is Otto J. Koch, the well-known hop buyer, whose friends are many and whose business acquaintance is co-ex- tensive with the best part of Central California. Mr. Koch was born
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November 2, 1876, a son of Anton and Marie (Carrow) Koch, who came to Sacramento in 1859. When he reached school age he was sent to the local schools and continued until he was seventeen, when he was well fitted educationally to take up the task of self-support. Dur- ing the ensuing two years he was employed on his father's ranch, and at nineteen he secured a clerkship in the office of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company at Sacramento, and was continued in that relation seven years, during which period he established himself firmly in the good opinion of his superiors.
Leaving the employment of the Southern Pacific Railroad Com- pany, Mr. Koch engaged in farming and raising hops at West Sacra- mento, Yolo county. He now has five ranches leased, covering about five hundred acres, of which about a hundred and sixteen acres are in hop fields. Aside from growing hops he is a dealer in that com- modity, buying in Sacramento and Yolo counties for large eastern houses in the trade. He made such a success of this business that he may be said to have formed a permanent connection with it, and his operations have brought him in contact with hop men throughout a wide territory, where he has won a reputation for honesty and fair dealing that commend him to all intelligent growers. The amount of his business annually, could it be here stated in the figures that cannot lie, would be found to reach a large sum. It is increasing from year to year as he grows more and more successful in his specialty.
In his social affiliations Mr. Koch is an Odd Fellow and an Elk, and in his political sentiment he is a stanch Republican. He married, at Sacramento, October 15, 1903, Miss Margaret Hansen, who was born in Dallas, Texas. To them have been born three children, Gladys, a child of seven, who is attending the public school; Helen, five years, and Marian, who was two years of age on her last birthday.
ALEXANDER WYLIE MORRISON
In point of years of active service Mr. Morrison has the distinc- tion of being the oldest hotel clerk on the entire Pacific coast. Coming to the west in young manhood, accident turned him into the hotel business, and the subsequent success of his efforts proved that he was admirably qualified for the occupation in which chance or destiny had placed him. To the traveling public he is known as a genial, tactful clerk and a companionable man whose interest in his guests impels him to do everything possible to enhance their comfort during the period of their sojourn at his hostelry. As may be imagined of
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one who has been connected with the same hotel for forty-four years, his circle of acquaintances is wide, and it may be further added that his friends are as numerous as his acquaintances, for all who have once come within the sphere of his cordial interest and his intelligent, conrteons attentions consider themselves his friends and well-wishers. His personal taet and gentlemanly bearing are largely responsible for the continued popularity of the Western hotel, and when finally on New Year's of 1901 he purchased a one-half interest in this leading inn of Sacramento there were a host of patrons to step forward with timely congratulations and hearty wishes for continued prosperity.
The Morrison ancestry is traced back to Scotland, whence some of the name were forced to flee to Ireland during the religious perse- cutions in their home land. Several generations lived and labored in the north of Ireland, and there James Morrison was born at Magnire's Bridge in county Fermanagh. Early in life he migrated to Canada and settled in the province of Ontario, where he met and married Miss Abigail Higginson, a native of Lisburn, near the city of Belfast, Ireland, but from young girlhood a resident of Canada. The young conple settled at Boyd's Bridge in the township of Mountain, where a son, Alexander Wylie, was born December 15, 1846. Altogether their family numbered ten children, and seven of these are still living. During the year 1856 the father bought one of the finest farms in Ontario, this comprising a tract on the St. Lawrence river long known as the Col. James McDonald homestead. On that well-improved farm the children passed the happy years of early life and from there they started out to earn their own livelihood in the world of affairs.
After having completed the studies of the grammar school at Iro- qnois, Dundas county, Canada, and after subsequently, September 7, 1867, receiving a diploma from the Toronto Commercial college, Mr. Morrison, in Jannary, 1868, sailed from New York en ronte to San Francisco. Immediately npon his arrival he songht and found em- ployment in the American Exchange hotel, where he remained for ten months. A desire to visit relatives led him to resign his position and return to Canada, but he found himself dissatisfied amid the once loved surroundings. The spirit of the west had called to him and he was not content elsewhere. As he was abont to start back to resume his old position in San Francisco, he was asked by a friend, Mrs. Haitley, to stop over in Sacramento and see her son, Walter Haitley, in that city. He came over the route on one of the first overland trains in 1869, and in accordance with the promise made to her stopped in Sacramento on Saturday and looked up the friend. N. D. Thayer, of the Western hotel, importuned him to become his clerk, and on Monday he accepted the position in the Western hotel and never since then has he songht another position or considered a change of em- ployment. During 1880 he was united in marriage with Miss Mattie
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Martha Jones, of Sacramento, daughter of a one-time famous sea captain and descended from Welsh ancestry. In fraternal relations he is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks.
FRANK A. LAFFERTY
As the successor of his father in an important and well-known business Mr. Lafferty has become associated with commercial activ- ities in Sacramento, where for a long period he has owned and man- aged a livery and boarding stable located at No. 1510-14 J street. Until the death of his father and for some time afterward the busi- ness was conducted under the firm title of J. A. Lafferty & Son, while the management of the stables differed little from that of the present time, although recently special attention has been given to the main- tenance of pleasure vehicles suitable for excursion and tally-ho par- ties. No stable in the city surpasses this establishment in the elegance of its outfits and the beauty of its teams, nor does any excel it in the possession of a modern structure equipped with every facility for the expeditions and thorough dispatch of work. The building, indeed, represents a style of architecture admirably suited to the west, and affords visible evidence of the proprietor's wisdom in harmonizing the structure with the environment.
Membership in the Native Sons of the Golden West (in which he has been very active as president and influential worker) comes to Mr. Lafferty by virtue of his nativity in California, where his birth occurred at Colfax, Placer county, June 30, 1871, in the home of John Allen and Mary J. Lafferty. His father, who was born in Des Moines, Iowa, April 27, 1845, was brought to the west by his parents in 1850 and entered the primary room of the school at Iowa Hill. Later he completed the studies of the grammar school. When he started out to earn his own way in the world he took up teaming and for a short time followed the occupation at Colfax. Next he was employed as a brakeman with the Sacramento Valley Railroad Company. Later he drove a stage out of Colfax to various points until 1872, when he re- moved to Sacramento and embarked in the teaming business. From that beginning he drifted into the livery trade and established a large patronage, continuing at the head of the stables until his death in 1904, when he was succeeded by his son, the latter having been identi- fied with the work ever since he left school and thus being thoroughly familiar with all of its details. Besides his membership with the Native Sons previously mentioned, he is associated with the Elks and the
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Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In politics he votes with the Republican party. His marriage took place in Sacramento November 22, 1897, and united him with Miss Emma Schwartz, who was born in Sacramento, being a daughter of Benjamin Schwartz. They are the parents of two daughters, Beatrice and Frances, both of whom are pupils in the city schools.
CHARLES C. GEIGER
This well-known citizen of Sacramento, Cal., was born of German parentage at Allegheny, Pa., in 1875, being the son of William and Ernestine (Ploss) Geiger. His father was a carpenter by trade be- fore he came to America and found employment at it during his active years in this country. In 1878 he brought his family to Sacra- mento. Of his nine children, six are living. C. C. Geiger was edu- cated in public schools and at Atkinson's business college, in Sacra- mento. During his school days he was employed in the mailing room of the Sacramento Bee, and in 1893 he was employed by Scheunert Brothers, wholesale dealers in cigars, as a bookkeeper, and has re- tained the position to the present time. This is one of the reputable business concerns of Sacramento, and Mr. Geiger's position is one of confidence and responsibility.
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