USA > California > Sonoma County > History of Sonoma 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 time > Part 49
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One of the children born to William and Nancy (Curry) Denman was Ezekiel Denman, who was born (December 2, 1827), and reared in Sullivan
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county, N. Y., and attended the district school in pursuit of an education. His advantages in this respect were meagre, however, for the schools were in session during the winter months only, and at other times throughout the year his time and services were required on the home farm. When he was twenty years of age he began teaching school in Sullivan county, but shortly afterward was transferred to Ulster county, where he continued teaching for about three years. Following this experience in the school room he returned to Sullivan county and purchased a farm which he conducted successfully for two years, and upon which he might have continued indefinitely had not the news of the finding of gold in California swept with such telling force over the entire country. Thereafter the quiet round of duties no longer satisfied his ambitious nature and he determined to come to the west and prove the truth of the wonderful stories which he had heard. After having disposed of his farm he was ready to set out for the west about the middle of August, 1851. From New York City he took passage on the Georgia for Panama, and after reach- ing the Pacific side, embarked on the steamer Oregon for San Francisco, reach- ing his destination in the latter part of September. He went at once to the mines of Buckeye Gulch, ncar Mokelumne Hill, where he stayed about eight months, later went to Ione valley, and from there returned to San Francisco, early in the year 1852. In the metropolis he engaged in the milk business until the following June, when he came to Petaluma, Sonoma county, and was so well pleased with the outlook that he purchased a ranch and determined to make his future home in this locality. His purchase was in Two Rock valley, a part of the old Bojorques rancho, and in addition to cultivating this he also engaged in buying and selling land in the country round about. He made his home in Two Rock valley until 1869, during which time he became known as one of the most extensive ranchers on this section of country, having no less than one thousand acres in the home property, of which at one time four hundred acres were under cultivation to potatoes. Besides this ranch he also brought under cultivation about twenty-two hundred acres of other land in Sonoma and Marin counties. The home which sheltered the family in the early days was constructed of redwood, which Mr. Denman cut from the forests and prepared by hand.
Mr. Denman's identification with Petaluma dated from November, 1869. and for a quarter of a century thereafter or until his death December 16, 1894, he was no less well known in financial circles than he had previously been in agricultural affairs. For a number of years. or until 1887, he continued the management of his various ranches, but in that year he relinquished their care to tenants, and in so doing was enabled to devote more of his time to financial and public interests. He was one of the first and largest stockholders in the Sonoma County Bank, which was organized in 1866, and of which he was made first vice-president. He held this position continuously until 1886. when he was elected president. He was also one of the original stockholders in the Petaluma Woolen Mills. No one was more willing or anxious to work for the progress and upbuilding of Sonoma county than was Mr. Denman, yet on the other hand it was only after persistence on the part of his fellow-citizens that he could be prevailed upon to become an office holder. For several years he was a member of the board of trustees of Petaluma, of which he was at one
Samuel Brown
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time president, and he was also a member of the board of education. It was probably as a director of the Sonoma and Marin District Agricultural Society that he achieved his greatest success, and during his presidency of two years the society accomplished much in the betterment. of agricultural conditions.
In June, 1855, Mr. Denman returned east for a visit to his old home, and while there was united in marriage on October 3. 1855, with Nancy Louise Hardenburg, a native of Sullivan county, N. Y. She survived until January 9. 1870, having become the mother of nine children, of whom six are living, as follows: Frank H., of whom a sketch will be found elsewhere in this volume ; Nellie L .: Ida B., Mrs. George P. McNear : Carrie E., Mrs. J. Edgar Allen ; John R .; and Catherine, all residents of Petaluma and vicinity. On October 15, 1877, Mr. Deuman was united in marriage with Mrs. Isabelle St. John, who survives him and makes her home in Petaluma. Fraternally Mr. Denman was a Mason of the Knight Templar degree. Personally he was a man of unblemished reputation, his strict integrity and thoughtful consideration for the rights and happiness of others being the keynote of his character. In his death, which occurred in Petaluma December 16, 1894, he was mourned as a personal friend by all, even by those who knew him only by hearsay.
SAMUEL BROWN.
A native of Ohio, Samuel Brown was born in Zanesville, October 28, 1828, and died December 17, 1902, in Petaluma. Between these dates he ac- complished much and did his part in the upbuilding of this commonwealth. He was the son of Samuel and Mary (Spear) Brown, the former born in Ohio and the latter in Gettysburg. Pa. The grandfather. also named Samuel, came from the North of Ireland and settled in Ohio, where he married Jane Morrow and engaged in farm pursuits. Samuel Brown, the father of the gentleman whose name heads this article, was a man of considerable means, and in 1852, when he had concluded to come to California with his family, purchased a large outfit and a band of cattle and started overland for the Golden West with the aid of twenty men to look after the stock, six months being consumed in the journey. The only misfortune was the death of a daughter, Mrs. Mary Detro, who died of cholera on the Platte river. A coffin was constructed from the wagon bed and a large stone was rolled on the grave to keep it from being dis- turbed by wild animals. Arriving in California. they stopped in Sacramento and located on the present site of the state house grounds, which Mr. Brown sold to the state for the purpose for which it is now used. He died on the Brown ranch in Marin county.
Samuel Brown of this sketch was educated in the common schools of Ohio. and took an active part in the migration of the family to California. After working for a time on the ranch in Sacramento he came to San Francisco and was employed in Mission valley until August. 1854. when with his brother McAllen he located in Hicks' valley. Marin county, and purchased a part of the Borjorques ranch and engaged in dairying and the stock business until they dissolved partnership, and Samuel came to Petaluma, making this his home until his death. The ranch comprised several thousand acres which was brought to
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a high state of development and was considered a model dairy of this section. In the early days there were no fences to obstruct their journey to Petaluma, where they came to purchase supplies and market their produce. The virgin soil was so productive that the wild oats grew high enough to almost hide a man riding horseback through them. Indians were numerous in that part of the country, and these brothers were the pioneers of the locality. Samuel Brown brought butter to Petaluma to sell, and at one time he received $100 for one hundred pounds of that commodity. There being no banks, money was buried in the ground for safe keeping. Wild animals were numerous and the settlers had to carry firearms at their side to protect themselves.
Samuel Brown was married in Petaluma in 1885 to Miss Harriet A. Scott, who was born in Floyd county, Ind., the daughter of Robert and Sarah J. (Coff- man) Scott, natives of that state. Her paternal grandfather, John Floyd Scott, who was closely related to Gen. Winfield Scott, came from Delaware and be- came an early settler of Indiana. On the maternal side, Abram Coffman was born in Pennsylvania and came to Indiana, settling in Jackson county. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Scott we mention the following : Charles M., deceased. was a soldier in the Seventeenth Indiana Volunteer Infantry (Wilder's Brig- ade), serving until the close of the war; H. A. is court reporter and lives in Santa Rosa ; Mary E. is Mrs. Eldridge, of Petaluma; and Harriet A. is the widow of Mr. Brown. Mrs. Brown was reared in Indiana and made that her home until 1882, and in March of that year came to Petaluma and resided until her marriage. She became the mother of three children: Hugh, who died aged four years : Mabel M., a graduate of Irving Institute in San Francisco, who be- came the wife of Arthur Parent and died in Petaluma May 26, 1911, aged twenty-three years; and Samuel, a graduate of Hitchcock Military Academy of San Rafael.
Since the death of her husband Mrs. Brown has made her home in Peta- luma, where she erected a large residence, colonial architecture, on D street. The family own a large ranch with several sets of buildings which is leased to tenants for general agriculture and dairy purposes. Mrs. Brown is a member of the Christian church and is identified with all movements that have for their object the advancement of moral and social conditions. Mr. Brown was a very reliable man, and held the confidence and esteem of all with whom he had business or social relations.
GEORGE EDWIN PRUNK.
As an instructor of youth in his early manhood and as a minister of the Gospel in his mature years, George E. Prunk has filled a sphere of distinct use- fulness in the localities where duty called him, and as he looks back over the past he may gather encouragement and happiness from the thought that the days of his greatest physical and mental activities were given to the spiritual and educational upbuilding of the race. In the quiet routine of his self-sacrificing labors, helping the needy, encouraging the despondent, uplifting the fallen. teaching the erring and ignorant, he passed from young manhood to old age, yet he has not allowed his activities to be diminished, having merely changed their form of service. Besides he officiated as postmaster in Minnesota and as justice
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of the peace in Illinois. After coming to California in 1886 he occupied a number of pulpits on the coast, but after coming to Healdsburg he retired from the min- istry and has since been a useful citizen of his home town.
During the early history of Maryland Daniel Prunk was born in that com- monwealth in 1796, but when he was a child of two years his parents removed to Virginia, and in that commonwealth he was reared and educated. It was there that he met and married Catherine Hammond, who was born in Virginia in 1797. Later years found Daniel Prunk and his wife immigrating to the middle west, and it was while living on a farm in Putnam county, Ill., that their son George Edwin Prunk was born February 3, 1834. Until he was twenty-one years of age he remained with his parents on the home farm, in the meantime, however, receiving a primary education in the district schools of the locality and later for a year and a-half, attended the Chicago University. In early life he had decided to give his life to the cause of Christianity, and all of his studies and reading were pursued with this thought in mind. In 1859 he took up a course of study in the Chicago University, continuing his studies there until the year 1862, when owing to the illness of his father he was called home to take charge of the farm. The death of this parent followed soon afterward, in March. 1862, when he was made administrator of the estate. By the division of the prop- erty among the heirs he received one hundred and sixty acres of land, which he endeavored to till and cultivate, but not being a practical farmer the undertaking was not a success and he finally sold the property. After his marriage, which occurred in 1865, he took up his studies in earnest and in that year entered upon a course in Shurtleff College, remaining there two terms and graduating with the license to preach. His first appointment was in Chillicothe, Ill., having charge of a Baptist church there for a year and a half, when he was called to the Second Baptist Church of Peoria, Ill. He remained there two years, after which he went to Mossville, a country village near Peoria, having charge there for two years and a half .. It was at the expiration of this time that he went to Minnesota and near the village of Union Lakes, Rice county, purchased a farm which he operated for the following ten years at the same time continuing his ministerial duties. Going from there to Kansas, he had charge of a church in Wetmore until 1886, in which year he came to California, landing Christmas day. Going to Yountville, Napa county, he was chaplain of the Veterans Home there for fifteen months. After spending a year in Washington and Oregon he returned to California, locating in Colusa county, where, in Arbuckle, he had charge of two churches for two years. He then, in 1892, came to Healdsburg, and on the 20th of April of that year he purchased his present home place at No. 465 West street, where he has since lived retired from ministerial and other labors.
Mr. Prunk's marriage, which was celebrated April 20, 1865, united him with Miss Mary Jane Hatch, a native of Elmira, N. Y., who died February 17, 1911, at her home in Healdsburg, at the age of sixty-nine years, ten months and twelve days. The only child born of this marriage was George Edwin Prunk, Jr., born January 19, 1874. In June, 1906, he was married to Miss Marie Noonan, a native of California, who at her death, December 13, 1909, left one child, George Edwin Prunk III. Wherever duty has called the elder Mr. Prunk he has in-
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variably filled his obligations with the most complete satisfaction to all con- cerned, this quality being nowhere more noticeable than when he was a member of the board of Shurtleff College.
JONATHAN ECKMAN.
Rumors concerning the opportunities afforded by the United States to young men of industrious dispositions and force of character penetrated the remote and humble German home where Jonathan Eckman was born in 1844, and where, his school tasks ended, he was determining upon the location and nature of his future activities. It was not possible for him to cross the ocean as soon as he desired and anticipated for parental duties intervened and there was the further duty of discharging to his country the required period of military service. Eventually, however, he bade farewell to the old associations and the friends of early days, and took passage upon an American-bound ship for the new world. The voyage to California was made via the Isthmus of Panama and in 1869 he became a pioneer of Sonoma county, where he still makes his home. During the more than forty years of his residence on the Pacific coast he has witnessed the development of California and has given his quota toward the upbuilding of his own locality, proving himself a desirable citizen and in every respect loyal to the best interests of his adopted country. Industry and sagacity enabled him to accumulate a competence for his old age and now, in the afternoon of life's busy day, he is enjoying the fruits of former labors and the friendship of a large circle of old-time associates.
Upon coming to California and settling in this county Mr. Eckman was un- married and it was not until some years later that he established a home of his own, taking as a wife Miss Jennie Stevens, who was born at Fruitvale, this state, in 1859. Twelve children were born of their union, namely: John, who married May A. Shannon and has a son, John ; Herman ; Henry; Frank ; Albert; Minnie. Mrs. R. Holliday, who has three children, Ray. Frank and Urcell; Bertha, Mrs. Clyde Ayers, who has five children, Ward. Dallas, Eugene, Claude and Helen ; Emma, Mrs. William Miller, who has one daughter, Lena; Clara, Mrs. George Quigley, who has two children, Esther and George; Evaline, Nellie and Hazel.
Genealogical records show that the Stevens family was established in New England during an early period of our country's history. J. B. Stevens, father of Mrs. Eckman, was born in Vermont during the year 1824 and became a pioneer of California, settling at Otay, San Diego county, but later removing to Fruit- vale, Alameda county, where his daughter, Jennie, was born and reared. By his marriage to Julia Delano there were seven children, those besides Mrs. Eck- man being John. William, Robert, Fannie, Albertine and Julia. There also were two children, Josephine and Edward, by another marriage. William Stevens and his wife, Ida (Gable) Stevens, had two sons and two daughters, William, Jr., Lester, Julia and Lulu. Fannie Stevens became the wife of Charles Sissam and by that union had five children. Albertine (Stevens) Phillips had two sons, George and James.
S
a, or, Galler.
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In studying the political issues of his adopted country Mr. Eckman es- poused the principles of the Republican party and always has voted the party ticket in national elections. It has been his aim to keep posted concerning cur- rent events of importance and he is regarded as a man well-posted in the hap- penings of the day. During early life he was trained in the doctrines of the German Lutheran Church and at the stipulated age received the ordinance of confirmation, since which time he has continued to be identified with the denomi- nation and is a contributor to its charities. Many years of strenuous exertion have been given to the task of paying for his farm and improving the land. With the result he has no reason to be displeased. Seven hundred and twenty acres of land comprise his ranch near Guerneville and here he makes his home, superintending the varied branches of agriculture followed on the tract. A specialty is made of raising Angora goats and he now has a herd of one hundred and fifty head which browse in the pastures and through the dense woods. A few other head of live stock are kept for farm uses. Twenty acres of the ranch are in a vineyard which in 1909 yielded thirty tons of fine grapes. Twenty acres are under cultivation to grain and there is also a bearing orchard of four acres containing a variety of fruit adapted to the soil and climate.
ADAM W. ADLER.
A native-born son of the state and the son of a pioneer whose coming to the state antedated the earliest gold-seekers, Adam W. Adler is one of the best- known and most substantial citizens of Sonoma, Sonoma county, and is the owner and occupant of property which his father purchased over sixty-three years ago. The elder Mr. Adler, Lewis by name, was a native of Germany, was educated in London, England, and from there, in 1842, he set sail for the United States when in the full flush of young manhood. The perilous voyage to the Pacific coast by way of Cape Horn was accomplished without disaster, and in the spring of 1846 Mr. Adler debarked from the whaling-vessel in which the voyage had been made. After remaining in San Francisco for one year he came to Sonoma county, and at Sonoma opened a general merchandise store which he maintained throughout his active years. Here he bought a two-acre plot in 1848 and erected the old house which has done faithful service for so many years. It was here that his married life began in 1874, when he was mar- ried to Miss Martha Winkle, who, like himself, was a native of the Father- land. She passed away in 1900, four years after the demise of her husband, which occurred in 1896.
The only child born to his parents, Adam W. Adler was born in the old homestead in Sonoma June 12, 1876. The schools of Sonoma furnished him with the only school advantages that he received, but he has always been a constant student of current events, and is thus well informed and able to con- verse intelligently upon any topic that may be brought up. As soon as he was old enough to think of his future from a business standpoint Mr. Adler was at- tracted to the carpenter's trade, and after learning the business he followed it in Sonoma for a number of years. It was from this beginning that was devel- 25
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oped the business of which he is the proprietor today, the A. W. Adler Lumber and Mill works of Sonoma. The establishment of the business in 1904 relieved a long-felt want in the community, as it is the only plant of the kind in Sonoma or vicinity, and six men are given constant employment, the force being enlarged whenever the business necessitates it.
As a link between the past and the present is the old homestead that the father erected in the early days of his residence in Sonoma. This was before the days of saw-mills, and all of the boards that entered into its construction were hand-made, redwood timber being used throughout. In 1910 Mr. Adler began removing the old building from the site upon which it had rested since 1848 and erected in its place a beautiful modern house, in which he used some of the redwood that had done service in the old building for so many years, and is still in a perfect state of preservation. It is the most pretentious residence in Sonoma; the reception hall, which is twelve feet wide, is finished in quarter- sawed oak. The den is finished in solid mahogany and the rest of the house is finished in white enamel. Mr. Adler is a friend of education and advancement, and both as to character and attainment is one of the most thoroughly reliable citizens of whom we have any knowledge in the county.
HENRY CHEEVER BOWMAN.
The new world was still in the dawn of its splendid history when the Bow- man family became identified with its colonization and planted their name among the pioneers along the barren and stern coast of New England. Tradition is authority for the statement that succeeding generations bore an honorable part in the transformation of the wilderness into habitable cities and prosperous farms, and it is certain that at the beginning of the nineteenth century there were many representatives of the race following various lines of commercial activity in the east. The first to migrate to the Pacific coast was Arthur Welling- ton Bowman, who was born in Cambridge, Mass., in the year 1831, and whose residence in California dated from 1850, he having been drawn hither by reports concerning the mineral wealth of the west as well as its other riches of oppor- tunity. When he came hitlier he was young, energetic, ambitious and unhamp- ered by domestic ties, but as he became more prosperous he established a home of his own and his married life was long and happy. Like himself of eastern descent, his wife was Alice B. Cheever, born at Manchester, Mass., in 1845. Their family comprised six children, namely: Arthur W., who married Edith Swaile; and has two boys, one bearing his own name; Henry C .; Frank ; Alice W., Mrs. Archibald Tapson, who has one daughter, Frances N .; Adelaide E .. Mrs. Trembeth, who has two sons and one daughter; and Natalie, a graduate nurse now following her chosen occupation in San Francisco.
During the residence of the family in the village of Piedmont, in Alameda county, this state, Henry Cheever Bowman was born in the year 1876, and in the same locality he received a common-school education. In the year 1904 he married Miss Emily Boice Adams. Her father, Rev. George C. Adams, D. D., was born in Castine, Hancock county, Me., in 1850, and received superior advan- tages in youth, being a graduate of Amherst College in Massachusetts and also
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of Yale as a divinity student. The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him in recognition of his theological attainments and scholarly mind. As a minister in the Congregational denomination he labored with effectiveness in St. Louis, Mo., and in the year 1896 he was called to San Francisco, where he served as minister of the First Congregational Church. He passed away September 3, 1910. In his denomination he was recognized as a man of power and far-reaching influence, whose uplifting teachings and consecrated life imbued his parishioners with zeal in Christian work. While voting the Republican ticket and believing in the principles of the party, with him politics had been in the background and no trace of partisan spirit was apparent in even his most trivial acts; on the other hand, he was broad and liberal in views, progressive in senti- ment and patriotic in devotion to commonwealth and country.
Not a little of the effectiveness of the labors of Rev. Mr. Adams was die to the helpful spirit and gentle character of his wife, who labored by his side through the years of a long and happy marriage. She was born at Brooksville, Me., in 1849, and bore the maiden name of Mercy Perkins Shepardson. One of their ten children died in infancy and the others were named as follows: Frank M .: William S., who married May Hoffman and has one son, George C .; George : Emily Boice, who is Mrs. Bowman ; Mary, Mrs. Guy Edwards, who has one daughter, Mary; Alice, Mrs. Richard McGinnis, who has two sons, Richard, Jr., and George C .: Sarah C., Mrs. Edwin V. Krick; Mercy P. and Adelaide M.
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