USA > California > History of the State of California and biographical record of Coast Counties, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 79
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HON. M. T. DOOLING.
M. T. Dooling, judge of the superior court of San Benito county, is a native son of the state. and was born in Nevada county, in 1860. His father, Timothy Dooling, came to California in 1850, via Panama, and first located among the mines of Nevada county, where he lived until 1868. He then removed to what was then Mon- terey but is now San Benito county, and pur- chased a part of the Hollister grant or San Justo rancho, upon which he conducted general farm- ing, and where he eventually died in 1895, at the age of seventy-two years. He was a man of leading characteristics, and was well known in the county by reason of his enterprise and public-spiritedness.
When the family fortunes were shifted to Monterey county, Judge Dooling attended the public schools, and in 1878 entered the college of St. Mary's in San Francisco, from which he
was graduated in 1880 with the degree of A. B .. the following year receiving the degree of A. M. His career at the college was a brilliant one, and after completing the course he continued to re- main within the halls of his alma mater, where for two years he filled the chair of modern and ancient languages. In 1883 he took up the study of law in Hollister, in the office of B. B. McCroskey, and was admitted to practice in the supreme court in 1885. and for the following two years was associated in practice with John L. Hudner, under the firm name of Hudner & Dooling. Subsequently he was associated with H. W. Scott. and in 1802 he was elected district attorney of San Benito county, having been nominated by both Republicans and Democrats. His re-election to the same office followed in 1894. and in 1807 he resigned to assume his present responsibility as judge of the superior court, to which he had been elected in 1896. In 1902 he was re-elected without opposition. both political parties supporting him.
Ever since his first voting days Judge Dool- ing has been active in the undertakings of the Democratic party, and he is at present recog- mized as one of its foremost leaders in the county, and an advocate of its highest principles and issues. While still a student, in 1884. he was elected to the legislature, and served for one term of two sessions, and during that time took an active part as a member of the commit- tee appointed to secure a system of irrigation. Since 1888 he has attended every convention in the state, and has each time served on the com- mittee of platform and resolutions. In all other political matters he has been equally prominent, and his political services have been invariably conducted in the best interests of the people who have honored him with their confidence and votes.
The marriage of Judge Dooling and 1da Wagner occurred in 1887. Mrs. Dooling being a native of Illinois. Judge Dooling is promi nently identified with the social and fraternal organizations of the county, and is especially well known among the Native Sons of the Golden West. in which organization he has been grand trustee of the grand parlor on three different occasions. He is a member of Fremont Parlor
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No. 44vky Bilister, and is active in all divisions of the prop lly is also connected with the Workmen and Aludern Woodmen of the World. Judge Doohug is conceded to be one of the Foremost orators of the state of California and i- also noted for his lucid exposition of the law and his equitable rulings, and stands at the head of a profession in San Benito county which numbers among its followers the brightest wit and intelligence of the west.
ALFRED HUGHES.
The early youth of Alfred Hughes, one of the prominent farmers near Watsonville, was Characterized by a hard struggle for existence, and by the assumption of almost childish re- sponsibility. When but thirteen years of age he left the home farm in Jackson county, Mich., where he was born November 15, 1825, and went to live on the farms of the surrounding farmers. For nine years he was thus employed, after which he went to work on a ranch. His parents were George W. and Matilda ( Dawson ) Hughes, and his grandfather was another George W., who fought with courage and distinction in the war of 1812.
Having determined to test the possibilities of California. Mr. Hughes left St. Joe, Mo., May 5. 1850, and, with others comprising the train, crossed the plains, reaching Placerville, August 0, 1850. After two years of mining in Placer- ville he went to the state of Washington and worked in a sawmill for a year, and in 1854 re- Turned to Placerville and married Kate Bunde. who died in California in 1894. Of this union Were born the following children: John, who is a resident of Watsonville: Mary, Mrs. Burton; Tildie. Mrs. Boone : Catherine, the wife of Mr. Smith, manager for his father-in-law : Josei, Mrs. llansen : and Tillie. In 1856 Mr. Hughes came to Santa Cruz county, and in 1860 went to Mon- Terey county, where he lived for three years, lo- cating on his present farm in 1864. He is possessed of over five hundred acres of land, and also owns one hundred and fifty acres in the Pajaro valley. His home farm contains three hundred and twenty acres, and he has yet an- uther farm of one hundred and fifty acres. Ile
is one of the large land owners and successful farmers of the county, and has established an enviable reputation for thrift and enterprise.
LEWIS HUSHBECK.
Lewis Hushbeck, one of the old and honored residents and farmers of Santa Cruz county, was born in Baltimore, Md., in 1825, and was edu- cated in the public schools of his native city. His father, Henry Hushbeck, was a shoemaker by trade in his native country of Germany, and after emigrating to America engaged in the manufacture of boots and shoes in Baltimore for many years. The latter part of his life was devoted to farming, and his death occurred in Maryland in 1866. His wife, Mary, survived him a number of years.
Until his twenty-third year Lewis Hushbeck lived on his father's farm, and then came to California in 1853, two years later settling on the present farm on Lake avenue. He has fifty acres under apples, and conducts a general farming enterprise on a small scale. In politics Mr. Hushbeck is independent, and in his younger days was a Whig and quite active in the political undertakings of his neighborhood. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
The wife of Mr. Hushbeck, who was formerly Eunice Brown, was born in New York, but is now deceased. To Mr. and Mrs. Hushbeck were born ten children, of whom the following are living: Mary, Andrew, Charles, Thomas, Jane, Guss, Harcy and Hattie.
GEORGE F. PALMER.
The finely cultivated farm in Priest valley. Monterey county, upon which George F. Palmer lives, and a portion of which he owns, was set- tled by his father many years ago, and consists in all of three thousand acres. This prosperous tiller of the soil was born in Plumas county, Cal., February 15, 1862, a son of Samuel Palmer, from whom he inherits the thrift and enterprise which have brought about his success.
Samuel Palmer came overland from Michigan to California in 1852, the trip consuming six months, and being interspersed with danger and
C. S. ABBOTT
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deprivation. He started out with ox-teams, and a newly wedded wife, and the wedding journey terminated at Quincy, Plumas county, Cal., where the bridegroom prospected and mined for a short time. Mr. Palmer then went to Laporte, where he met with success, and for greater se- curity placed his savings in a San Francisco bank. When the bank failed, and he lost all that he had in the world, it became necessary for him to again engage in the mines, where he achieved moderate success until 1867. He then turned his attention to farming at Gilroy for a vear, and in the fall of 1869 came to Priest val- ley. where his son now lives, but which at that time bore all the earmarks of loneliness and want of human interest. He erected a little log cabin of two rooms and settled down to extremely pioneer conditions, his only neighbors being a Mr. Reynolds, Martin Griffin, John Green, and old man German. No one owned the land, and it was a case of squat and take your chances. Later on, when the land came on the market, Mr. Pal- mer homesteaded land and lived thereon until his retirement to San José in the fall of 1894. Through his marriage with Nancy Fox, who ac- companied him across the plains, three sons were born, of whom Frank L. is a ranchman, as is also Charles, who lives on the old homestead with George F. Samuel Palmer, who is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, has al- ways been liberal in his tendencies, and deeply interested in the welfare of the communities in which he lived.
George F. Palmer was seven years of age when the family settled in Priest valley, and his life has since been spent on the land acquired by his father. He was educated at Hollister, and at the high-school at Gilroy, and lived with his father on the ranch until the retirement of the latter in 1894. During that year George F. and Charles leased twenty-five hundred acres of the father's property, and at the present time George F. owns three hundred and twenty acres. He is engaged in general farming, cattle and hog raising, and has a thorough understand- ing of his chosen occupation. He is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of King City, and is a Republican in political prefer- ence. Mr. Palmer represents the broad minded
progressive farmer of the west, and enjoys the confidence and friendship of many of his asso- ciates in the valley.
C. S. ABBOTT.
The family represented by Mr. Abbott of Monterey county is descended from George Abbott, an Englishman, who settled in Andover, Mass., at the close of the Revolutionary war, and from whom have sprung almost all of the Abbotts of Canada and the United States. About 1700 Abiel Abbott and his four sons moved from Connectient to Lower Canada (now province of Quebec), and engaged in farming in the county of Stanstead, just north of and adjoining Vermont. Among the sons was John Abbott, who by his marriage to Lydia Boying- hon had seven sons and three daughters, all now deceased excepting the youngest, C. S., who was born February 26, 1828. When he was eight years of age the death of his mother placed him under the charge of an older brother, but when sixteen years old, being re- fused the use of the horse and buggy with which to drive a young lady to an apple paring, he ran away from home and went to Dekalb county, III., via Lake Champlain, Erie canal and the great lakes to Chicago, and from there by stage to Sycamore. the county-seat, where he lived until twenty-one years of age, mean- time working for his board much of the time. and having the privilege of going to school.
In company with a brother, Alvin, and eight other young men, in 1850 Mr. Abbott started across the plains. They crossed the Missouri river where Omaha now stands, but at that timie the now prosperous city had only one house and the only white inhabitant was a French trader named Sarpie. Several small companies joined there, not only for protection against Indians, but to lighten guard duty. About one hundred men thus banded together and continued in the same party until passing Fort Laramie. The Platte river was very high and cold from the melting snows in the Rocky mountains, besides being full of eddies, whirl- pools and quicksands. In the party there were about one hundred and seventy-five head of
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horses belonging to different men, and these horses had to be taken across the river. It was neless to wait days for the ferry, so Mr. Ab- bott, having a horse that was a fine swimmer, was directed to lead the horses over the river. Divesting himself of clothing, and taking a stick four feet long with which to guide the horse, he started at his task, not even having a strap with which to hold his horse. The other horses were crowded after him and followed for a time, but took fright in midstream and made a rush for the front horse, crowding him and his rider down and falling on top of them. When Mr. Abbott came to the surface he found himself in the midst of struggling animals. Springing on the back of the nearest one, he jumped from one to another until he had reached the one furthest down stream, and then dove and swam down stream as long as he could hold his breath. When he came to the surface the horses had their eyes on the southern shore and were striking out for California in haste. but Mr. Abbott was almost frozen and in the greatest danger by reason of a turn in the river which would carry him back to midstream. All the power and energy he possessed was brought into play. Just as he was passing the curve in the river he caught a branch of an overhanging willow and there clung until some soldiers, who had been watching him, came to his rescue, wrapped him in a blanket and placed him before a fire in an Indian hut:
Shortly after leaving Fort Laramie the party began to divide. Some did not wish to travel so fast and dropped behind. Others wished to travel with more speed and went on ahead. On reaching the Humboldt river the original com- pany of ten were again alone, and about that time their troubles began in earnest. One night nearly all their staple provisions were stolen. Then Mr. Abbott's brother came down with the cholera. To facilitate progress, Mr. Abbott took the wagon to pieces and made a cart of the hind wheels. In the morning the work was done, his brother was put in the cart and he started on with the company. His brother re- covered and was able to be about camp when 'he party reached the sink of the Humboldt. There they faced a desert of forty-five miles, the
last fifteen of which were drifting sand. They started about three in the afternoon and just before that ate their last supply of provisions, the same consisting of one ounce of dried beef and two tablespoonfuls of flour made into gruel for each. They also had six quarters of dried apples for each, putting these in their pockets and eating them to quench the thirst. At ten the next morning they were still ten miles from Carson river and all their horses but three had been left by the way, and two of these belonged to the Abbott brothers. All around them were dreary stretches of sand, covered with dead and dying cattle and horses. Ox-teams hitched to great prairie schooners were lying dead in their yokes, their owners having hurried on without waiting to unhitch them. The wagons were loaded with mining machinery and clothing, but nothing was found in the way of food. The company of ten were out of water, and it was decided that Mr. Redington and. C. S. Abbott should make the trip for water. They took a ten-gallon can and a light tent pole from one of the abandoned wagons, and waded through sand to their ankles. On the return trip they carried the can (which weighed a ton) between them on the pole. They walked ten miles to the river, but on their return trip met the others six miles out. While at the trading post they had spent their last penny for hard-tack, and this with the water was given out to the men by the doctor. At Ragtown (so called because it was made of the covers of abandoned wagons) they traded a horse for flour and dried beef. Other members of the company traded cloth- ing or pistols for food. From there they had fair luck in reaching the Mormon station, now Carson City, where they took a rest of a few clays before starting over the Sierra Nevada mountains. Alvin Abbott traded for ten pounds of hard bread a watch that had cost him $25 in the east. At Mormon station there was a relief post, where a quart of meal and flour. mixed, was given to men who were absolutely destitute. On leaving this station, the company took a bridle trail that came out near George- town instead of following the wagon road via Placerville. For five days they had as rations two tablespoonfuls of flour and one ounce of
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dried beef for each meal. When their provi- sions were gone, at the end of the five days, they subsisted mostly on hazelnuts and the buds of the wild rose. Even with the aid of a cane in each hand, they could not make more than eight or ten miles a day. Meeting a pack train. they forced the men to weigh them out one pound of hard bread each, telling them they would take a whole sack if they refused. One of the men had a few ounces of tea, so, when they came to water, they would have a feast of tea and bread. Afterward all went to sleep. The next morning they started out with high hopes, expecting to reach the trading post by eight o'clock, but the whole day passed and no trading post appeared and there were no hazel- nuts by the trail. So the men went to bed hungry and disappointed. The next morning Old John, the black horse that had swam the Platte and other streams with Mr. Abbott, had the death sentence passed on him. There being no water. they decided to go on until they came to a creek and then kill and cook the horse. To give up this faithful old animal was the hardest trial Mr. Abbott had yet faced, but he accepted it as the inevitable. Fortune, how- ever, favored Old John that time. As they fol- lowed the trail, on a steep mountain side, to their right was a deep gulch and beyond this a steep sidehill, covered with pine trees. All at once the men saw a buck, and as one of the party had retained his gun he at once fired. The deer bounded forward, ran a short distance and then fell into the gulch. The deer was packed on Old John and when they reached water, about eleven in the morning, they roasted the venison on sticks, then boiled the bones, so that nothing was wasted. The next day they reached the station, where they had supper and breakfast. About noon of the next day they reached a trading post at the head of Missouri cañon, where the trail started down to the Middle Fork of the American river at Volcano Bar.
At last the mines were reached. Old John was sold for $25. and with this money a pick, shovel and pan were bought, and then Mr. Abbott went back to the Missouri cañon to prospect for gold. He made the old-fashioned
rocker out of a hollow log. His brother, still not being strong, was yet able to do the cook- ing, although he could not work in the mines. When Sunday came the ambitious miner had about twenty-five cents' worth of gold dust and was in need of provisions, but the trader who advanced him $50 worth of provisions on start- ing out came to his relief again, and willingly accommodated him. One Sunday later he was able to pay his bill, $75. and had about six ounces of gold dust left. Success in a fair de- gree rewarded his efforts in the mines, and he was fairly well satisfied with results when he returned via Panama to Beloit, Wis., leaving California in November of 1851 and reaching New York on Christmas day. It is easy to guess the cause of his return east. It was the same attraction which took back to their okl homes so many young Argonauts of the early '50s. March 19, 1852, he married the daughter of Dr. Lewis Merriman, of Beloit. The wed- ding tour was a trip to California. Mr. Abbott bought sixty oxen, fifty cows and heifers, five wagons and ten horses, and took eighteen men as passengers, each of whom paid him $125. be- sides doing his share of camp and guard duty. This trip was far different from the last one, and he was able to sell flour, beans and bacon along the route where he had been almost starv- ing two years before.
Reaching California, Mr. Abbott settled on the Sacramento river two miles below Wash- ington, but high waters caused the loss of al- most all of his cattle, and he sold out, going to Nevada City and engaging in the dairy busi- ness. In 1858 he moved to Point Reyes, Marin county, taking his stock with him, and engaged in making butter and cheese for the San Fran- cisco market. In 1865 he moved to Monterey county with five hundred cows and bought four thousand acres of land where the sugar fac tory now stands, also buying twelve thousand acres where King City now stands. In 1870 he had a dairy of fifteen hundred cows. Twice he was elected to represent Monterey county in the assembly during the '70s. When Grant was nominated for a second term Mr. Abbott was a delegate from California to the National Re- publican convention in Philadelphia. In addi-
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tion to rominering his large ranching interests. he built the Abbott building in Salinas and was president and a large stockholder in the Mon- terey & Salinas Valley Railroad. However, through the manipulations of the dominant rail- road power of California, prices on freights were so affected that the entire company was bankrupted, including Mr. Abbott. But he is of a hopeful, optimistic disposition, and has not allowed the dampening experience of the past to discourage him. On the contrary, he is thor- oughly enjoying the afternoon of his life on his stock ranch on the Arroyo Seco.
In the family of Mr. Abbott there are four children: Donna Maria, who was educated at Mills College, Oakland, and married C. G. ( hamberlain. now postmaster of Pacific Grove. but she is now deceased; Clara, who was edu- cated at Mills College and married Dr. N. S. Giberson, of San Francisco, by whom she has two sons: Harvey E. and Francis .A., residing in Salinas, where they are engaged in the meat business and also in stock-raising. Both sons are married: Harvey has two daughters, and Francis has three sons and a daughter.
JOHN L. HUDNER.
The professional career of John L. Hudner has been a notable one, and may be taken as repre- sentative of the standing of the bar in San Benito county. As counsel on one side or the other, he has been connected with virtually every case before the courts since 1883, than which no better evidence were required of the confi- dence which his ability has inspired among all classes of people.
The accident of birth alone prevents Mr. Hud- ner from being a Californian in every sense of the word, for he was but three years of age when, in 1858, he removed from his native state of Massachusetts. llis father. James Hudner. lived in Santa Clara county until 1868, in which vear he became one of the incorporators of the San Justo Homestead Association, the great de- veloping agency of San Benito county. The company bought that portion of the San Justo ranch upon which Hollister has been since built,
and the valley part of the ranch was laid out into fifty homesteads of one hundred and seventy-five acres each. Upon one of these homesteads Mr. Hudner is still living in the vicinity of Hollister. engaged in the peaceful and remunerative occu- pation of farming. The education of John L. was acquired in the public schools of Santa Clara and Hollister, and finished at Santa Clara College, one of California's noted institu- tions of learning, from which he was graduated in the spring of 1876. Having decided to devote his life to the practice of law, he soon entered the office of Judge Archer, in San José, and later, returning to Hollister, was under the able in- struction of N. C. Briggs, his present law part- ner. After serving a term as under-sheriff of the county, in 1883 he associated himself with the late B. B. McCroskey, the then district at- torney of the county, and was made deputy dis- trict attorney for the term.
In 1885 he formed a partnership with Hon. M. T. Dooling, now judge of the superior court. and at the end of two years again became as- sociated with Mr. McCroskey, again elected dis- trict attorney, continuing the relation until the death of the latter in 1888. Mr. Hudner then entered into partnership with Mr. Briggs, who succeeded Mr. McCroskey, and in 1800 was him- self elected district attorney, which position he relinquished voluntarily at the expiration of his term.
In 1896 he was appointed district attorney to succeed Judge Dooling, who had been elected to the superior court, and in 1898 was again elected to the office for the term ending in January, 1903. Meantime his partnership with Mr. Briggs, the oldest, and recognized as the ablest member of the bar of the county, has continued, constituting a firm of lawyers whose integrity and ability are unquestioned, and whose legal business consists of the care of the largest cor- porate and private interests in the county, as well as representing the same in the courts in the county and elsewhere : their business being by no means confined to San Benito county.
Mr. Hudner while less adapted to the criminal branch of the law than to the civil, has achieved success even in that, as the records of the courts show. Though he might have had the office of
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district attorney again, without opposition, even at the polls, he declined renomination. Mr. Hud- ner is a Democrat ; and whenever he has offered to take office, has been elected ; he has been and is a member of the county committee and of the state central committee, and delegate to every state convention of his party since 1888. Mr. Hudner, while not brilliant, at the bar, is safe. astute, alert and resourceful ; he knows the law and its devices, and how to avail himself of them; and few are the times he has failed to count for his clients.
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