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 58
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HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY
adjoining, making a place of sixteen hundred and ninety acres, fifteen miles from Petaluma. Here he has made valuable improvements, having two sets of build- ings. His dairy is composed of two hundred cows, besides one hundred head of other stock. The ranch is watered hy Salmon creek and numerous springs.
In 1882 Mr. Maggetti leased his ranch and moved to Santa Clara to educate his sons at Santa Clara College and his daughters at Notre Dame Academy and after the completion of their education he returned to his ranch, remaining there until 1896. In that year he turned the ranch and dairy over to the charge of his son Enio and he located in San Francisco, residing there until 1906, since which time he has resided in Petaluma, owning his home on the corner of Sixth and B streets.
Mr. and Mrs. Maggetti are the parents of four children, two sons and two daughters. The two sons, Enio and Sylvio, reside in Marin county, the former in charge of the home ranch, and the latter a merchant. Romilda, Mrs. Jel- morini, resides in Chelino valley; and the other daughter, Elvetia, died at the age of fifteen years. In 1893 Mr. Maggetti visited the World's Fair in Chicago on his trip to Switzerland, traveling through his native land as well as Italy, France, Germany and England. Mr. Maggetti looks back over his career in California with much satisfaction, in that he saw an opportunity to make a suc- cess and grasped it, acquiring a competence from which he is now enjoying the retirement and rest he so well deserves.
PETER MATZEN.
Not the least noticeable among the farms of Sonoma county is the Adobe Knoll Ranch upon which Peter Matzen is engaged in the breeding of Belgian and English shire horses, a business which he has successfully prosecuted during the entire period of his residence in the region. Throughout the county and even in localities beyond the limits of the county his name is known by reason of his identification with the raising of pure-bred animals. No better judge of horses than he can be found in the locality. At a glance he decides as to the value of an animal. A very brief inspection enables him to ascertain all the good points and to determine in what respect, if any, the animal errs from the ideal standard of perfection. His judgment concerning horses is regarded as final by people cognizant of his ability.
Descended from a long line of German ancestry, Peter Matzen was born in Fohr, Schleswig, Germany, in 1858, and received a thorough education in the excellent schools of his native country. His father, Martin P. Matzen, was a farmer. and as a boy he too learned all the details of farming, but a special liking for horses became apparent and be determined to give this subject particular study and attention. This occupied his time until he came to the United States, when, during October. 1887, he landed at San Francisco. From there he went to Haywards, Alameda county, and immediately took up ranch pursuits. After a residence of seven years on the Meeks ranch, in 1894, he came to Sonoma county and settled near Stony Point. There he engaged in farming, and two ycars later began breeding horses, and from that beginning he has worked his way up to the prominence which is liis today.
W.C. d. handling
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In 1900 Mr. Matzen located on the Bliss ranch, and as the old Adobe house is still standing and now owned and kept up by the Native Sons, he gave his piace the name of the Adobe Knoll Ranch. Here he enlarged his breeding sta- bles and has now the largest stables of full-blooded and graded Belgians and English shire horses in the county. He leases five hundred and thirty - ive acres of the Bliss ranch for farming and stock, besides which he owns fifty-one acres ore and a half miles north of Petaluma, well improved with buildings and other appurtenances necessary to the poultry business, to which the latter property is devoted. Here he has a large flock of white leghorns.
The marriage of Mr. Matzen was solemnized in 1880 and united him with Miss Theresa Duer, who was born in Fohr, Germany, in 1854, and died in Octo- ber, 1881. One son, Martin, was born of this marriage; he married Miss Sallie Hendrickson and has two children. Politically Mr. Matzen has been indepen- dent, voting for the man rather than the party and always supporting those whom he considers best calculated to represent the people. To some extent he has made a specialty of dairying and on his ranch he now has ten head of blooded Jersey cows. An enormous flock of chickens, aggregating a total of about eight thousand, brings in an annual income of gratifying proportions, while the ranch receipts are further increased by the sagacious supervision of the stock. The Berkshire hogs are of the finest strain of full-bloods and the output of pork is large. There are also forty-five head of horses on the ranch and among these are twenty-five head of blooded mares of the very best types. Being an expert judge of horse-flesh, Mr. Matzen has kept only the best and has built up a drove unsurpassed in color and individuality. At the head of the herd is an imported registered Belgian staliion, Pastule No. 21042, which for the past four seasons has been kept on the ranch, a service fee of $20 being charged. In securing this splendid animal the owner obtained the best breeding possible in the foreign breeding districts and a draft type representing the best blood- lines. Quality and style are unsurpassed, and the animal has become deservedly popular owing to the possession of these attributes, as well as such other points as are demanded of our finest importations. He also owns the full-blooded Eng- lish sire horse Redoak, a dark brown animal which has all the fine marks of breeding that are required in a horse.
WILLIAM CHARLES STRADLING.
Bristol, England, was the birthplace and early home of W. C. Stradling, a well-known mason and builder of Petaluma, where his competent services are in constant demand. He was born August 27, 1861, was given a good educa- tion in the schools of Bristol, and after the close of his school training he apprenticed himself to learn the trade of his father, who was a mason and builder in that English city. Inheriting a taste for the calling from his father, he proved an apt pupil and soon had a complete knowledge of the business and was able to be of great assistance to his father in the execution of contracts.
With the confidence born of experience and successful work accomplished in the line of his trade in England, W. C. Stradling set sail for the United States in 1883, coming directly to California, where his home has been ever
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since. Between the year mentioned and 1900 he worked at his trade in various parts of the state, coming to Petaluma in the year last mentioned, and since then the recognition of his ability as a first-class mason and builder has left nothing to be desired on his part. It is not too sweeping an assertion to say that nearly all of the business blocks erected in town in the past ten years (which covers the period of his residence here) were put up by him, and are a credit to him as well as to the town. In the list of buildings which he has erected in Petaluma the following are representative: the Gossage build- ing, D. J. Healey building, Van Marten building, Prince block, public library, Washington school, Lachman & Jacobi winery, the Petaluma incubator factory, McClay building and the McNear building. His reputation as an expert in his calling has made his services in demand in other parts of the county, and in Santa Rosa two excellent specimens of his ability may be seen in the new postoffice building and the Masonic temple. In Sonoma he built the Masonic temple and the Odd Fellows building, and in Winehaven he built for the Cali- fornia Wine Association, the building which houses their plant, this being the largest winery building to be found in the world. Following the earthquake and fire in San Francisco Mr. Stradling erected ten buildings in the reconstruc- tion of the business section of that city. Individually he has built and owns five residences on Third and Twenty-second streets.
In Oakland, Cal., in 1893, Mr. Stradling was married to Miss Annie Bar- rett, and four children have been born of this marriage, Julia, Nora, William and Elizabeth. Mr. Stradling is a member of the Masons and Builders Asso- ciation of San Francisco. He was made a Mason in Petaluma Lodge No. 180, F. & A. M., has attained the Royal Arch degree, and is also a member of the Elks, Odd Fellows and Petaluma Commandery No. 20, K. T. Though he is a busy man and has little time for outside matters, Mr. Stradling is a faith- ful and devoted citizen and as a member of the body of free-holders of Peta- luma, assisted in the drafting of the new charter for the city that was adopted by the people in the fall of 1910, and by the state legislature at the session of 1911. In April, 1911, he was elected a member of the city council and is chairman of the buildings and grounds committee and is also a member of the street committee.
HENRY HAMMELL.
Among the leading citizens of Sonoma county no one holds a higher place in agricultural circles than Henry Hammell, who is known as the cherry king in this section of country, and without any exception is the largest grower of this luscious fruit in the state north of San Francisco. Sixty-five acres are de- voted to this fruit, principally the Royal Anns, from which he averages a crop of one hundred tons, and realizes a profit of from $7,000 to $10,000 annually. The life of this well-known citizen and successful fruit-grower began in Harrison county, Ohio, where he was born December 23, 1839, a son of Charles and Sarah (Rolen) Hammell, who were also natives of that state. The other children in the parental family besides Henry were William, who also lives in Sonoma county : James, who is engaged in the real-estate business in Los Angeles; Levy, a carpenter and miner in this state; Jennie, a resident of Indiana and the wife of
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W. H. Carr; Cyrus, also a resident of Indiana; and John, deceased. The chil- (Iren were reared and educated in the locality of their birthplace in Ohio, and all grew up to an appreciation of the dignity of labor.
Henry Hammell remained on the home farm with his parents until he was seventeen years of age, and in the meantime he had made up his mind to come to California, earning the money necessary for this expedition by cutting wood in the lumber camps. In the spring of 1855 he went to New York and secured passage on a vessel bound for Panama, re-embarking there for San Francisco, which .he reached twenty-two days later. At that time he was offered $10 a day and could have bought lots on Market street for a trifle, but he ignored the offers to accomplish the desire of his heart, which was to search for the gold which he had heard abounded in the rivers and creeks of the Sierra Nevadas. From San Francisco he went immediately to Sacramento to try his luck as a miner. but his success was far from satisfactory and from there he went to Placer county to continue his efforts. There, on the middle fork of the Ameri- can river, he strove persistently to realize his dream of sudden wealth, but after a struggle of several years he was forced to abandon his efforts. Although this experience showed no financial results, it nevertheless strengthened the deter- mination of the young man, and made him more persistent than ever to wrest success from his western venture. An evidence of this determination was dem- onstrated by the fact that he walked the entire distance from Sacramento to Petaluma, Sonoma county, one hundred miles, arriving at his journey's end with just twenty-five cents in his pocket. He accepted the first work that of- fered, which happened to be on the ranch of Range Moffett, on Petaluma creek, but after working for a month and a half his employer disappeared with- out paying his help and thus he had nothing for his hard work, and this at a time too when he was in desperate straits. Other ranchers with whom he found work proved better employers and as a farm hand he was enabled to save sufficient means to purchase land and start an enterprise of his own. First, however, he rented a tract of three hundred acres at Turlock which he con- (lucted as a cattle ranch, also raising sheep and hogs. His first purchase con- sisted of one hundred acres of this land, for which he paid the owner, Harri- son Mecham, $3,000, and this continued to be the scene of his efforts until 1876. Still retaining possession of the ranch, he then went to Los Angeles county and bought two thousand acres of the Canojo ranch, which he devoted to the raising of wheat, and in addition carried on a stock and dairy business. The first year's crop proved a failure, but he continued his efforts in Southern California until he had realized $4,000, and after selling out his interests there. returned to his Sonoma county ranch and has since made his home here. Soon after his return he enlarged his possessions by the purchase of one hundred and eighty acres in Petaluma township, for which he paid $9,000, and subsequent purchases have made him the owner of three hundred and seventy-five acres of fine land. Dairying and general farming at first occupied his attention, but this finally gave place to horticulture, a specialty being made of cherries, of which he has sixty-five acres, besides forty acres in apples, peaches, plums. lemons and oranges. The raising of cherries, however, is his specialty, and it is as a grower of this fruit that he has attained such remarkable success as a horticulturist, being known as the largest cherry grower north of San Fran-
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HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY
cisco. All of the trees in his orchard were selected and planted by himself, and his success as a horticulturist is undoubtedly due to his close study of the subject and personal supervision of his ranch.
At Turlock, California, in 1866, Mr. Hammell was united in marriage with Lurana Gist, a native of Missouri, and six children have been born of their marriage, as follows: Walter, who is married and the father of five children ; Charles, a resident of Petaluma; Fred, who with his wife and three children, makes his home on a ranch near Petaluma; Etta May, the wife of D. R. Muller ; Cora, the wife of William Raines and the mother of one child; and Luma B., a resident of Petaluma. Since 1900 Mr. Hammell has made his home in town, occupying a pleasant and commodious residence at No. 505 Main street. Here with his devoted wife he is enjoying the comforts and luxuries which their life of toil and hardship together for many years has made possible.
LEWIS HERBERT.
While the distinction of being a pioneer of Sonoma county is not claimed by Mr. Herbert, he has resided here for a period sufficiently long to enable him to acquire a thorough knowledge of the soil, climate and people, and his testi- mony, based upon experience and 'observation, adds valuable information to the concensus of opinion regarding the attractions of the region. In the vicinity of Penn Grove he owns and occupies a small tract which he has converted into a poultry ranch. While he has been variously engaged during different eras of his active life, his preference is for agriculture in any of its branches, while in the department of recreation he is especially fond of fishing and many a fine catch has borne silent but effective testimony as to his skill with the line. At this writing he has on liis place two thousand hens of the leghorn breed, from which he derived a net income, over and above all expenses, of $1,400 in 1909, and in the preceding year he netted $1,600 from the flock of chickens.
The Herbert family is of French extraction and was founded in America by Francois and Marie (Anglies) Herbert, natives of France, the former born in 1805, the latter in 1810. After their marriage they crossed the ocean to Can- ada and later became farmers of Vermont, where they reared three children, having besides their son two daughters, Marie and Fanna. The elder daughter married Alexander Gadona and has five children, Frank, Moses, Emma, Julia and Caroline. Fanna became Mrs. Elmer Lincoln and has a son, Elmer, Jr. Born in Vermont in 1852, Lewis Herbert was given a common-school educa- tion in that state and there learned the principles of agriculture as conducted in that region. Upon starting out for himself he went to Nebraska in 1876 and took up a tree claim and a homestead in Greeley county, acquiring the title to three hundred and twenty acres of land in one body. During the twelve years of his residence there he became prominent in agricultural activities and also in public affairs.
Appreciating the value of his citizenship the neighbors of Mr. Herbert repeatedly called him to fill offices of trust and responsibility. For six months he acted as constable and for two years he served as township assessor, after which he held office as county commissioner for three years. Among the other
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HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY
important offices that he held were those of county clerk and clerk of the dis- triet court of Greeley county, in which capacities he labored for two years. In addition he held a position as deputy county treasurer for two years and later was commissioned postmaster of Scotia, Greeley county. At the expiration of three years he resigned the office of postmaster and in 1891 he removed to Col- orado Springs, Colorado, whence two years later he came to California. The first employment he secured in the west was as conductor on a street-car line in San Francisco. At the expiration of a year he came to Sonoma county in 1894 and settled at Cotati, later buying twelve acres near Penn Grove, where now he makes his home. For four years he served as deputy postmaster at Penn Grove and for seven years he filled the office of school trustee with char- acteristic efficiency. Since coming to this county he has joined the Fraternal Brotherhood at Petaluma and formerly he held membership with Crystal Lodge No. 180, F. & A. M., in Nebraska.
The marriage of Mr. Herbert united him with Olive Williams, who was born in Ohio in 1864 and by whom he has seven children, namely: Paul L .; Lewis, Jr. ; Walter E .; Beulah, a trained nurse and a graduate from St. Wini- fred hospital in San Francisco; Mildred L., Ruth A. and Florence J. Mrs. Herbert is a daughter of Lewis Williams, who was born in Ohio in 1828. The family of which she was a member comprised seven children besides herself, namely: Grant, Ross, Lavina, Celia, Rose, Flora and Belle. Grant is married and has three children, Charles, Florence and Lucille. Ross married Amelia Brucur and they have a daughter. Dorothy. Lavina, Mrs. James Winninger, has three children, Rillis, Charles and Blanche. Celia, Mrs. John Fleming, is the mother of two children, Rupert and Grace. Rose married Marion Stell and has five children, John, Homer, Etha, Bessie and Ruth. Flora is the wife of Tillman Jones and the mother of a daughter, Lillian, while the remaining mem- ber of the family, Belle Williams, is now the wife of Charles Fowler.
AZEL S. PATTERSON.
The patient, persistent pioneer labor that pushed the limits of civilization further toward the setting sun typifies the westward emigration of frontiers- men and the gradual removal of the center of population from the shores of the Atlantic to the valley of the Mississippi. In the western migration the Patter- son family bore a part. Numerous descendants of the original colonial stock contributed their quota to the task of transforming the virgin soil into fertile farms. Established in New England at a very early day, from the state of Vermont the parents of Azel S. Patterson removed to New York and settled at Potsdam near the St. Lawrence river in the county of that name, where he was born March 14. 1824. The next removal took the family still further toward the west and into a region then giving no evidence of future worldwide greatness. As early as 1834 they settled in what is now Chicago, then known as Fort Dearborn, near which place he remained for ten years, going from there to Milwaukee to make his home with a sister. It was not possible for him to enjoy educational advantages such as are common to the present gen- eration. Indeed, his entire schooling through all the period of his childhood and
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youth did not total an aggregate of one year, but through indomitable perse- verance he acquired a fund of information equalling that possessed by many a college-bred man.
Various occupations filled the early maturity of Mr. Patterson, his first employment having been that of clerk in a grocery, from which work he passed on to kindred pursuits. After he left his sister's home in Milwaukee he re- turned to Chicago and there was united in marriage, October 4. 1848, with Miss Mary Elizabeth Wilson, a native of Ohio and a woman of true-hearted worth, wise in counsel, affectionate in disposition and patient in the heavy be- reavement occasioned by the death of many of their children. Out of their family of fifteen only three are now living. namely: William W., born in 1853 and now employed on the railroad, with headquarters in Sonoma county ; James Henry, born in 1855, now married and living in Sonoma county ; and Martha, born in 1862, now the wife of William H. Bones, of Sonoma county. The wife and mother was taken from the home by death in 1889, and Mr. Patter- son died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Bones, March 18, 1911, aged eighty- seven years and four days. His remains were interred in Bloomfield cemetery.
When the discovery of gold attracted thousands of Argonauts to the west Mr. Patterson was among the number who determined to try his fortune in California. Young, ambitious and brave, the hardships of the journey did not daunt him and the possibility of disastrous results did not quench his enthusi- asm. During the spring of 1850 he joined a party of emigrants who crossed the plains in wagons and completed a tedious but uneventful journey by arriv- ing at Georgetown in the early autumn. Mining for gold did not prove profit- able and soon he turned his attention to other means of earning a livelihood. The year 1853 found him a pioneer of Sonoma county, where the remainder of his life was passed. Destitute of means, it was not possible for him to purchase land even at the low prices then prevailing, but he took up a leasehold and began ranch pursuits. For a long period he continued as a renter, but in 1880 he invested his savings in forty-five acres of land, which he held until 1910. In that year he retired from agricultural cares and placed his money on interest. It was his privilege to witness the gradual development of So- noma county from a wild region, inhabited principally by Indians, into a beau- tiful and prosperous country, the abode of a progressive people and the center of broad agricultural activities.
HERMANN SCHIECK.
Localities beyond the immediate vicinity of Professor Schieck's home have been brought into an admiring knowledge of his abilities as a musician through the prominence he has achieved in the art. His name is worthy of perpetuation in the annals of local musical history, which owes much to his talented devotion and unusual attainments in his chosen profession. One of his aims has been to implant in the affections of the people of the county and state a love of violin, cornet and orchestral music, which in the opinion of many offers the highest form of artistic enjoyment possible to the human race. His admirable performances display technical brilliancy as well as taste and variety and leave no doubt as to
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the player's ability, which, to the larger honor of Sonoma county, is recognized in other counties and states than in that which he calls his home.
In taking up the history of the Schieck family we find its origin traced to the ancient Teutons. The first representative in America was John G., a native of Erfurt, Germany, and an immigrant to New York in September of 1852, coming via the Isthmus of Panama and landing at San Francisco in 1858. The follow- ing year he became the first florist in that city, where for a time he remained in active business pursuits. November 20, 1859, he married a lady of German birth, who had left her home in Hamburg, Germany, in 1855, and had crossed the ocean to New York, thence coming via the isthmus to San Francisco in 1859 immediate- ly prior to her marriage. In her native land she had received a thorough edu- cation and had acquired a local reputation for skill in nursing. For forty-six years she lived in Sonoma county, first Glen Ellen at the place known as Wagner's villa. Later the family purchased and removed to a large ranch at the foot of the Sonoma mountain. After coming to Sonoma county she never refused to answer a call of sickness or distress, often fording streams during stormy weather and walking when unable to ride. Among the pioneers she was greatly beloved for her self-sacrificing labors in sickness and her remarkable skill in nursing. She survived her husband many years, and her own death occurred at the old homestead near the mountain.
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