USA > California > San Luis Obispo County > History of San Luis Obispo County and environs, California, with biographical sketches > Part 75
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While he was running vessels he made his home in East Oakland, but after retiring from the sea, he went to Windsor, Sonoma county, and was engaged in farming until he met his death by accidentally falling from a low roof. He was aged sixty-eight at the time he died. His wife lived to be eighty-four, dying at Windsor in June, 1911. They had three children -- Selma, Mrs. Hugh Latimer of Santa Rosa, who died in Windsor ; Augusta, who married James Clark and died in Windsor; and George L. F. Michel- son, who was educated in the public schools of Oakland until he was seventeen years old, when he moved with his parents to Windsor, Sonoma county. He farmed and improved a place with orchard and vineyard, and continued to reside there for thirty-three years.
After the death of his mother, he sold the place of three hundred acres and moved to Monterey county, December, 1911, where he settled nine miles northeast from San Miguel and bought a ranch of two hundred forty acres and engaged in the dairy business in Lows Cañon.
Mr. Michelson now rents his ranch there and himself leases one hundred seventeen acres three and one-half miles south of Paso Robles, where he engages in raising grain, hay and some stock. He has been uniformly tecessful in his operations both here and in his old home in Sonoma county.
Mr. Michelson was united in marriage in Sonoma county, on September 13/ 1903, with Miss Edna Groves, who was born in Summit, San Luis Obispo Wwwhty, a daughter of Benjamin and Clara (Morehouse) Groves, pioneers WE do county, but both born in Sonoma county and married in Adelaida. 0 uis Obispo County. Mr. Groves died while on a visit to Sonoma county me to mether resides on their old home place in Summit. Charles D. More- bowe. the grandfather, was a pioneer of both Sonoma and San Luis Obispo 0009. and was a prominent citizen of the state for many years. Mrs. The liello. 's the only daughter, the third child in order of birth, in a family
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SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS
of eight children. Mr. and Mrs. Michelson are the parents of four children. These are Lois Elizabeth, Selma Lucretia, Elwood Nielsen, and Caroline. Mrs. Michelson has been a member of the Christian Church since she was sixteen years of age. Mr. Michelson is a Republican in his political affiliations. He and his wife have won a host of friends since they have become identified with this section of the county; and being natives of the state, they are in touch with conditions bearing on the development and prosperity of the country and the needs of western civilization.
VIRLIN EUGENE DONELSON .- Men possessing the fundamental characteristics to which V. E. Donelson is heir have ever been regarded as the bulwarks of the communities in which they have lived. He was born in Douglas county, Ore., May 7, 1860, a son of William Thomas Donelson, a native of Baltimore, Md., who came to the Coast country in 1851, by way of Panama, and settled in Douglas county, Ore., where he was united in mar- riage with Miss Martha Ennis, a native of Indiana and a daughter of John Ennis. The latter, born in Scotland, stopped for a while in Indiana, but crossed the plains in 1851 with ox-teams and settled in Oregon, where he farmed six hundred acres in the Willamette valley, and died at the age of ninety-one years.
After the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Donelson they settled ten miles above Portland, and there Mr. Donelson opened a blacksmith shop and farmed until 1868, when he came south to California and located in Santa Cruz, fol- lowing his trade for two years. Still looking for a permanent place to make his home, he traveled to Humboldt county, and on Salmon creek built the first shingle mill in the county, running it for a time for Burke & Hancock, until it burned down eighteen months later. From there he went to Rohner- ville and ran a shop two years, and then to Garberville, Blocksburg and Bridgeville in turn, working at his trade in shops he bought or rented. He later came to Templeton, where his son had settled, leased land and farmed for a time, and then went back to Eureka, where he passed away at the age of seventy-one years. Ilis wife died there at the age of sixty-two.
The oldest of three sons and two daughters, Virlin E. Donelson was educated in the public schools of Humboldt county, and learned the black- smith's trade under his father there, working at it with him for some years, while at times he also farmed. Ile learned the jeweler's trade under Mr. Marshall in Blocksburg, Humboldt county, and followed that and the black- smith's trade in Blocksburg and Bridgeville. At the latter place he was united in marriage with Miss Nellie B. Hazard, who was born in Los Angeles, whither the young people moved in 1886; but nine months later, in 1887, he settled in Templeton, where he went to work at his trade as black- smith, and later bought his shop, which he ran twenty-five years to a day, during which time he also did watch-repairing. In October, 1913, Mr. Donelson sold out to start a garage business and the repairing of all kinds of machinery and engines.
Mr. Donelson has been a public officer almost all the time he has been a resident of the county. He was appointed deputy under Sheriff E. T. Neal, served as a constable two terms, was elected justice of the peace on the Democratic ticket in 1902, and has been re-elected at every election for that office since, in 1906-10-14, the last time with no opposition. Ilis term expires in 1919. He has served as school trustee twelve years. The family are mem-
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SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS
bers of the Presbyterian Church. Of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Donelson seven children have been born: Dollie, Mrs. E. W. Germain, of Templeton ; Constance, Mrs. Elmer Petterson, of Santa Barbara; Pearl, Mrs. Anderson, of Paso Robles ; Vernie, a blacksmith at Atwater, Cal. ; and Chester, Dorothy and Dorris, at home.
SIMON HENLEY McKINZIE .- A man of the highest integrity, and a self-made man of a fine old family. Simon H. McKinzie is the special agent of the Standard Oil Co., of Paso Robles. He was born in Oregon in 1865. One of his forefathers, Henley McKinzie. his grandfather, was a native of Vir- ginia, born of Scotch ancestry in 1792. Henley McKinzie was a colonel in the War of 1812. From the South he came to Wisconsin, and in 1852 crossed the plains with ox teams to Oregon, where he located near Portland, taking up there a six hundred forty acre donation land claim. Later he moved to the vicinity of Eugene, and there, in 1868, he died.
Simon's father, Caswell McKinzie, was born near Lancaster, Wis., in 1842, and when he was ten years old he crossed the plains and later followed farming in Oregon until 1877. He settled for a while at Walla Walla, Wash., where he followed teaming. He afterward lived and worked at Spokane, and is now enjoying retirement in Seattle. Caswell's wife was Louisa Bell before her marriage, a native of Illinois and the daughter of Nathaniel Bell, who crossed the plains in 1853 to Oregon, located at Oregon City and spent his last days at Walla Walla. Mrs. Caswell McKinzie died at Grangeville, Ida., in 1909.
The third oldest of six children, Simon McKinzie attended the country school and helped his father on their ranch until he was twenty-one years old, when he started in the express business at Spokane under the firm name of the McKinzie Transfer Co. After some years he removd to Grangville, Ida., where he continued the same enterprise, to which he added that of freighting. Grangeville was then a far-inland town, seventy miles from the railroad at Lewistown, at the head of navigation on Snake river, and there was plenty to do in hauling goods, with four- and six-horse teams, through mud and over snow heaped fifteen and twenty feet high above the usual level of the roads, so that he frequently had thrilling adventures and many narrow escapes. This hazardous undertaking he continued from 1895 until 1903.
At Spokane, July 26, 1888, Simon McKinzie was married to Miss Hattie Dittamore, who was born in Jasper county, Ill., the second youngest daughter of James Dittamore, himself a native of Gosport, Ind., and a farmer who moved to Jasper county, Ill. Her grandfather, William Dittamore, had been born in Germany, but later settled in Indiana, and still later had made his home in Illinois. Her mother was Miss Minerva Lane, an Indianan, the daughter of William Lane, of Tennessee. Both her father and mother died in Illinois, leaving four children, all of whom are still living.
In 1903, Mr. McKinzie located with his wife and family in Paso Robles, once again engaging in the transfer business, which he sold out, in April, Four years previously, when the Standard Oil Co. opened a branch itre, he became their special agent, and has since continued in that capacity. Five children are among Mr. and Mrs. McKinzie's treasures. Bessie. who has become Mrs. Thomas II. Richards, lives at Bay City, Mich. ; Venona w adli known as Mrs. F. J. Murphy of Paso Robles; Clara is a member of Ire class of '17. Paso Robles High School ; while Thomas and Arthur are
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SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS
in the Grammar Schools. Outside of their family circle, this estimable couple find much social pleasure in fraternal societies, he being a member of the Woodmen of the World and the Knights of Pythias, while she is a member of the Women of Woodcraft and Pythian Sisters. Mr. MeKinzie is an active Republican, and is a member of the local Chamber of Commerce; and Mrs. McKinzie shows her public-spiritedness in serving, for the second term, as member and vice-president of the board of trustees of the Paso Robles Free Library, to which she gives much thought and attention.
HJALMAR HAABESLAND .- A self-made man, Iljalmar Haabestand. the assistant cashier of the Citizens Bank in San Miguel, commands the respect and admiration of those who note his progress. lte was born in Lillesand, Norway, on October 23, 1884, and is a son of Swen Ilaabesland, who was born in the year 1825, and was a tanner and leather dealer, and later a shoe manufacturer of Lillesand. Hale and hearty, the old gentleman retired at the age of ninety-one, having served his community for years as Tax Collector and Assessor. His mother was Mary Theresa Swege, who died in the same place in 1907, where she was also born. Six of the eight children of this worthy Norwegian couple are still living, two of the boys being in California and two of the girls residing in Brooklyn, N. Y.
Hjalmar was the third youngest, and was brought up at the grammar and high schools at Lillesand, where he specialized in languages and com- merce, and finished his preparation by half a year's apprenticeship with his father. In 1900, he came to the United States and to Newberry, Mich., in which town he was employed by a lumber company in the Upper Peninsula, after which he clerked for a while in a grocery store, thereby acquiring every- day English. The year 1902 smiled upon him in opening California to his vision, and by the fall he was at San Miguel, where his brother, Nicholi. already resided. For six months he worked for the S. P. R. R. Co., and then worked on the Nacimiento Ranch, where he drove teams for the great harvesters, and for five years thereafter held the reins and whipped the mules over the rough country roads. Another clerkship in a grocery store, conducted by Ellery Wilmar, opened to him, and then he was bookkeeper for the San Miguel Flouring Mill Co.
Undoubtedly Mr. Haabesland's convincing personality, as well as his proficiency with columns of figures, led to his appointment, in 1912. as Assist ant Cashier of the Citizens Bank at its San Miguel branch, a position in which he has given evidence of the qualifications necessary for the making of a success in this line of business.
In June, 1916, wedding bells in Stockton announced the marriage of Hjalmar Haabesland to Miss May Belle Eklund, a native of Vineyard Canon, Monterey county, the daughter of Olaf Eklund. then a farmer of that vicinity, but now a vineyardist near Lodi. After the usual preparatory schooling, Mrs. Haabesland had graduated from the San Jose State Normal, and had taught school for a while before her marriage, with the result that today she shares a lively interest with her husband in all matters pertaining to the educational uplift of San Miguel.
Mr. Haabesland was made a Mason in San Miguel Lodge No. 285, and is now Master of the Lodge, and he is also Past Grand of San Miguel Lodge 340. I. O. O. F. More than this, he is a member of the San Miguel Improve- ment Club. Mrs. Haabesland was a member and Past President of the Lodi
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Parlor, N. D. G. W., and was Grand Delegate to the Grand Parlor in 1914; and she is now a member of San Miguel Parlor No. 94.
MRS. MAGDALINA PINKERT .- Even travelers motoring through Paso Robles, and making no pretense to stopping there longer than to take a meal or two, will scarcely fail to climb to the top of Merry Hill, and there, amid several open acres, with a magnificent valley spread out before them, imbibe to their heart's content of the mineral water so long famous for its curative properties, and of particular benefit to those afflicted with rheuma- tism, kidney and stomach troubles, insomnia and gout.
An interesting story is revived as to how these famous mineral waters came into the possession of the present owner, Mrs. Magdalina Pinkert. Her husband, Julius H. Pinkert, was an old settler in California, whose birthplace was none other than the famous art center of Germany, Dresden, from which city, as a tailor, and while yet a young man, he came to Texas. Three years afterward he was plying his trade in San Francisco, and there, in 1894, he married Miss Magdalina Neiderstrasse, a native of Saalfelden, Austria. She was the daughter of Mathias and Anna (Hochweimer) Nei- derstrasse, who were farmers. Mrs. Pinkert attended the Austrian public schools, and with her sister, Crescentia, came to San Francisco in 1891, where she resided until her marriage.
The first venture of the ambitious couple was in the management of a hotel at Emeryville, and this Mrs. Pinkert still owns. About ten years ago Mrs. Pinkert suffered so severely from rheumatism that she came to Paso Robles for relief, and finding in the mineral waters of Merry Hill the most astonishing cure, she persuaded her husband to purchase the entire property of about six acres ; and while they lived there-having moved in the next day, and having soon after built a neat home and several houses for the springs- they put the water up in five-gallon bottles and shipped it all over the state.
On April 1, 1911, at the age of fifty-eight, Mr. Pinkert died, and was duly buried in the Paso Robles cemetery, after which his widow leased the place and returned to Emeryville. She is looking forward, however, to the day when her business affairs will permit her to return to Paso Robles. ller sister, Mrs. Catherine Merkel, is assisting her in the management of her affairs.
For the benefit of those who may be seeking such medicinal relief, it may be interesting here to give the analysis of the Merry Hill Mineral Water made by the State University :
Grs. Per Gal. 1
Parts Per 10,000
Potassium Sulphate.
5.39
.93
Sodium Sulphate (Glauber's Salt), etc.
1
Sodium Chloride (Common Salt)
4.77
.81
Himm Carbonate (Sal Soda).
1.23
.21
Calcium and Magnesium Carbonates
17.52 1
3.00
Thisabc matter and chemically combined water.
6.13
1.05
Total
35.92
6.15
6.10um Sulphate (Gypsum)
.88
.15
Mrs Maydalina Quickest
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SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS
FRED SCHUTTE. Seldom, if ever, has the progressive California horticulturist been so well represented as in the noble exhibit at the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, some years ago, when berries, with a circumference of five and six inches, won the admiration of both the layman and the specialist. The marvelous product of Nature's bounty and the skill of man was entered by Fred Schutte, now the well-known manager of the Oak Ridge Orchard Co., one of the hustling citizens of Templeton ; and among the most optimistic believers in the future of this town. Fred is a native of Westphalia, Germany, where he was born on the same day of the month as was the poet Longfellow, February 27, 1864. His father was Frederick Schutte, a merchant tailor, and his mother, Louise ( Meier ), both of whom are now dead. There were five boys and two girls in the family, Fred being the second eldest ; and two of the brothers are in America, while two others, with twelve nephews, are at the front in the German Army. Like himself. Henry and William Schutte are horticulturists.
Reared in the country of his birth, Fred went to work when only six years of age in a cigar factory, and learned the cigarmaker's trade, while he attended school at night. He next worked on a farm for three years, and when well in his teens broke away from the Fatherland and came to more promising America. In September, 1881, he landed at New York, and not long afterward found himself in St. Louis, near which city he obtained employment for several years as a gardener on a truck farm. In 1885, he abandoned Missouri and passed a year in Madison county, Ill.
Sometime in October of the following year, Mr. Schutte pushed on to San Jose, Cal., where he commenced orcharding, a vocation which he has since pursued, finally taking a course in horticulture at the Portland Correspondence School. In February, 1887, he set out a nursery at Lompoc. AAfter five years, however, he moved from there to Gardena, near Los Angeles, where he bought fifteen acres of choice land. Ile soon astonished the natives by sinking there the first Artesian well for irrigation, dropping the bore two hundred ten feet, and securing a flow of water which rose to within five feet of the surface. His pumping plant was likewise the first in Gardena, and he was soon busy raising great fields of strawberries. When he sold out. in 1892, and moved to Los Angeles, he had the largest strawberry patch in all California, devoting twenty acres to the fruit, which required forty pickers to gather, and for the delivery of which he made several trips a day to Los Angeles. In 1900, Mr. Schutte came north to the Linden district on the Calaveras river, in the San Joaquin valley, and there bought new land und started a new orchard. This time he planted or set out almond trees, apricot and peaches, filling sixty acres; and such success did he meet with that he was not only able to ship his fruit east and to sell to the great canneries, but he realized considerable profit by drying a good percentage of his products. Having thus again established his reputation as an orchardist, he sold out in 1911.
After a trip to Mexico, when, for six months, he looked over the republic to the south, and a brief stop at Huntington Beach, he came to San Luis Obispo County in 1912, and organized here the Oak Ridge Orchard t'o., with which he identified himself as manager from the start. He bought the Niels Johnson Ranch of a thousand acres, just outside of Templeton, cleared and improved considerable of it, setting out a hundred acres of pears, forty acres 35
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SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRONS
Di pimies, thong pres of apples, and twenty acres of almonds, a good part ci wliih le tem- h-posed to sell to anyone who may wish to try the estavam with him, and here be plans to establish a packing-house with Savere mol similar business enterprises. He has given half of the site for The thew lhalf -chool, and proposes to develop the undertaking on the broadest will mor attractive lines.
W Elk Grove, in Sacramento county, in 1890, Fred Schutte was married to. We- Mary (Gillett) Manthie, a native of Canada, and the daughter of J. B. Gillett, a mason, who brought his family to Chicago when Mary was four There he farmed for a while, and in 1856 moved to Blue Faith City. Faribault county, Minn., where he supported his family as a Tamer and defended them as a frontier militiaman against the threatening Wwwhans. That there was need for such alertness in respect to the savages Was be seen from the fact that the little company was but forty miles from (Tre place where the terrible New Ulm massacre occurred. Mrs. Schutte's first marriage, in 1869, also occurred in Minnesota, after which she came to California. Mr. Manthie died in Lompoc. One child, Raymond, who attends the Templeton high school, was born of the present union.
For years Fred Schutte was a popular Odd Fellow, a member of the Rebekahs and the Foresters ; but he is no longer active in these orders. For the past couple of decades both husband and wife have been Christian Scientists, and as such have organized the church at Templeton, in which they have both been readers. Mr. Schutte's popularity among business men is attested by his election to the presidency of the Templeton Board of Trade. He is a Republican.
HANSON WILLIAM TRUE .- The transformation wrought in Cali- fornia during the past forty or fifty years is due to the energy and patient perseverance of the pioneers, who, having left comfortable homes in the East, Dentified themselves with the newer West, and out of its crudity evolved the present-day civilization. Belonging to this class of men is Hanson W. True. He was born in Lower Salem, Washington county, O., December 17, 1840. a son of William B. True, a farmer, who married Jane Dutton. The True family trace their lineage back to Holland. Some members of the family came to America on the ship that followed the "Mayflower" to Plymouth Rock, Mass.
Hanson W. True was an oil operator in West Virginia until 1884, when Te came to San Luis Obispo County. Here he pre-empted one hundred sixty Deres of land and bought eighty acres adjoining, and did a general farming metil his death, on February 18, 1913.
Mr. True served in the Civil War. He enlisted in Company I, 25th Ohio V Tunteer Infantry, in June, 1861, and was mustered into service at Camp by on June 28, 1861, and took part in all the eighteen battles with his w alet until he received several wounds, the last time at Gettysburg, July 1, m bis right arm, when he had to have a part of the ulna bone taken out, Catdi 'o lost the use of it thereafter. The company went out with a hun- wel womanil only twelve came back. He was sent to Philadelphia and re- mand Biere until he was mustered out.
Www-09 W. True was united in marriage, on February 17, 1875, with Maa Mary Alice Sawyer, who was born in West Columbia, Mason county, W.Varen poril 5. 1854, a daughter of John Sawyer (mentioned in the sketch
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY AND ENVIRON:
of M. H. Brooks). She was reared and educated in her home community, and since the death of her husband has taken charge of the home place, where with the aid of her one son, Charles, she is making a success of ranch- ing. Charles is married and has two children.
Mr. True, with others, hauled the lumber from San Luis Obispo for the first schoolhouse, which was built at Union, in this section of the county. He was director of the Farmers' Alliance Business Association for many years, and for a time was president of the board, until he resigned in 1911. Ile was a Mason for over forty years, having joined the order soon after the Civil War. He was public-spirited and won a large circle of friends during his lifetime in the county.
ROYAL EUGENE BOWEN .- A pioneer in point of service with the S. P. Milling Co., as foreman of their warehouse at Paso Robles, where he has been since 1889, Royal Eugene Bowen has given his best efforts towards building up and maintaining a prosperous business for his company, and is recognized as an honored citizen of that city, in which so many years of his active life have been spent. He was born in Lawrenceville. St. Lawrence County, N. Y., August 21, 1846.
The father, Rufus William Bowen, was born in Grafton, N. H., July 5, 1814. He was a carpenter and builder, and removed to Franklin county, N. Y., where he was united in marriage at Moira, May 10, 1841, with Hannah M. Stickney, who was born there July 4. 1821. They removed to Lawrence- ville, then to Palmyra, and again back to Moira, Mr. Bowen meanwhile fol- lowing his trade. He was employed in the building business in Chicago, III., where he was accidentally struck by a Rock Island train, from the effects of which he died, July 10, 1881. Ilis wife had passed away on May 22 of the same year.
Next in line was the grandfather, William Bowen, who was born in Grafton, October 23, 1786. He was a carpenter and shipbuilder and removed to Franklin county, N. Y., and followed his trade. On September 27. 1812. he married Catherine Cass, born in 1795, a daughter of Nason Cass, who was born in New Hampshire, May 24, 1751, and who married Sarah Hoyt Poplin, on October 15, 1777. They had twelve children, of whom Catherine was the ninth in order of birth. She died at Schoolcraft, Mich. She was of the same family as General Cass of military fame. The Bowen family are of Welsh descent and were carly settlers in New England, some of the members taking part in the Revolutionary War. There are three genera- tions of the William Bowen family living in California at present.
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