USA > California > Lassen County > Illustrated history of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra counties, with California from 1513 to 1850 > Part 26
USA > California > Plumas County > Illustrated history of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra counties, with California from 1513 to 1850 > Part 26
USA > California > Sierra County > Illustrated history of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra counties, with California from 1513 to 1850 > Part 26
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73
HON. A. P. MOORE is a native of Ohio. He came to Plumas county from Marysville prior to 1858, and engaged as clerk and book-keeper for Jerry Ford, a Quincy merchant. He was married
180
December 27, 1858, by Rev. P. Grove, to Miss Anna E. Martin, daughter of Reuben T. and Letitia M. Martin of Mississippi. He then opened a mercantile establishment with Harlow Pierson, but the firm failed in business. He subsequently made a mercantile venture in Quincy on his own account, and was reasonably successful. In January, 1864, he was appointed by Governor Low to fill the position of county judge left vacant by the sudden death of Israel Jones, and held the office till January, 1866, when he was succeeded by E. T. Hogan. Judge Moore was the democratic candidate for county judge in the fall of 1869, and was elected by thirty majority over G. C. Charles, the republican candidate. He presided over the sessions of the court till 1874, when E. T. Hogan became his successor a second time. Judge Moore was an old-line whig, and upon the breaking out of the war, espoused the cause of the Union. He was a republican until President Johnson's administration, when he went over to the democracy. His record as county judge was very fair, and for one not bred a lawyer, acquitted himself creditably. He always took an active part in politics. In 1872 he sold out his Quiney business, and upon his retirement from office, opened a store at Oakland. He is now merchandising at Geyserville, Sonoma county.
WILLIAM A. CHENEY .- This gentleman is a native of Boston, Massachusetts, and settled in La Porte in the fall of 1876, as a minister of the gospel. He remained there during the winter, and came to Quincy to attend the republican convention of 1877, entering the lists as a candidate for the county judgeship. He received the nomination over T. F. Emmons of Greenville and J. W. Walker of Taylorville. The delegation from La Porte demanded the nomination of Cheney, and the leaders of the party, remembering how, on a former occasion in 1869, a bolt had occurred under similar circumstances, whereby Pappy B. W. Barnes had been defeated by G. C. Charles, conceded the point, and put the La Porte man on the ticket. Walker, an intelligent young Louisiana man, and Emmons, a pioneer of the party in Plumas, felt greatly aggrieved, and left the convention in disgust. Jackson Uric was the democratic nominee, and though a pioneer, familiarly known, was defeated by Cheney at the election by a small majority. Judge Cheney, though not a law student, had the advantage of being a man of education. After his election, Judge Cheney moved to Quincy, abandoned the pulpit, and turned his attention to the law. In 1879 Judge Cheney ran for joint senator from Butte and Plumas counties, having opposed to him George H. Crossette, demo- cratic, of Chico, and John C. Gray, new constitution, of Oroville. Both of these he defeated by a large plurality. In December, 1879, he was admitted to practice in the supreme court. He now resides in Sacramento. His overweening self-esteem and confidence in his own superiority have not endeared him to the people of Plumas county.
THOMAS Cox, the first district attorney of Plumas county, failed to secure the nomination for a second term because of his extremely intemperate habits. A reminiscence of him is given in the history of the court of sessions. He was born in North Carolina, and at an early age removed to Nashville, Tennessee, where he married a most estimable lady, by whom he had at least one child, a son. Some reckless act committed in or near Nashville induced him to remove to California. He was nominated for congress in 1860, but was withdrawn from the ticket by the central com- mittee before the election. One night in 1862 he was on a big drunk in Quincy, and walked into William Schlatter's beer-saloon, where he deliberately fired his pistol at the proprietor, who was standing quietly behind the bar and had in no way offended. The ball struck the intended victim in the forehead, and he fell to the floor apparently dead. He was picked up, when it was found that the bullet had not penetrated the skull, but was lodged in the bone. It was extracted, and the man recovered in a short time. Cox was indicted, obtained a change of venue to Butte county, and there the indictment was dismissed. Cox afterwards removed to Nevada, and is now prac-
H. W. KELLOGG.
.
181
ticing law in Virginia City. He left Plumas, regretted by none, and seemed to have few friends even among his political associates.
JUDGE JOSEPH E. N. LEWIS .- Judge Lewis was born in Jefferson county, Virginia, in 1826, and received his education at William and Mary's College. He studied law with B. F. Washington, afterwards of the San Francisco Examiner, and was admitted to the bar of Virginia, but did not practice in that state. He came to California in 1849, in company with Mr. Washington, and settled in Butte county, where he continued to reside until his death. He was present and took part in the organization of Butte county. In 1851 Mr. Lewis was elected to fill the unexpired term of Adams as state senator for Butte and Shasta counties. In 1853 he was elected county judge of Butte, serving with great credit to himself and his party-the democratic. On the twenty-fourth of June, 1869, he was nominated by the democrats of the second district, which included Tehama, Butte, Plumas, and Lassen counties, for district judge, and that same evening died of heart disease. He was sitting on the front porch of Peter Freer's residence at Oroville, talking with Mrs. Freer, when she, noticing that he was silent for a few moments, touched him and found that he was dead. Judge Sexton, in his article on the " Past and Present of Butte County," speaks of him as follows: " Mr. Lewis was a large man, mentally and physically, and of high intel- lectual culture, of strong, positive powers of mind. He did not love study for its own sake; but when it was necessary to take hold of any question, and especially in his profession, he did not and would not give it up, though it required weeks and months of hard work, until he felt he had mastered it. He was a slow thinker, but a logical and correct one. At his death, he was justly considered one of the ablest jurists in the northern part of the state." He was frequently called to the bar of Plumas county on important cases, and was unsurpassed as an examiner in the court- room. He was leading counsel in the celebrated case of Plumas county versus R. C. Chambers et al., or the Oroville & Virginia railroad company.
PATRICK OGLESBY HUNDLEY is a native of Amelia county, East Virginia, where he was born April 13, 1822. In the fall of 1838 he went to Greensburg, Kentucky, and in 1846 was admitted to practice at law. He engaged in the practice of his profession, and in the fall of 1847 matricu- lated at the university of Louisville, from which he graduated in March, 1849, receiving the degree of B. L. In April, 1849, he left Green county, Kentucky, for California, arriving at Sacra- mento October 10, 1849. In November he went to the mines in Amador county, and remained at Drytown till June, 1850, when he removed to Deer creek, Nevada county. In the fall of 1851 he purchased an interest in the Rough and Ready quartz-mine, on Jamison creek, then in Butte county. He sunk all his means in this mine, and left the mountains in 1852. In 1853 he com- menced the practice of law at Gibsonville, and in 1854 removed to Quincy. He was admitted to the bar of Plumas in May, 1855. In the fall of that year, September 2, he was married to Cath- erine T. Russell, daughter of Henry P. Russell, in American valley. Mr. Hundley served one term as supervisor from district No. 2, resigning in March, 1856. He then associated himself in the practice of law at Quincy with Thomas E. Hayden. He was the whig nominee for county judge in 1857, but was defeated at the election. In 1859 he was elected to the assembly on the Brecken- ridge democratic ticket, and in 1861 was elected by the democrats to the office. of district attorney. In November, 1863, he resigned this office and went to Virginia City, Nevada, where he opened a law office. In 1869 he went to Oroville, and in 1875 was the democratic nominee for district judge, but was defeated by Judge Sexton. Upon the death of the latter in April, 1878, he was appointed to fill the vacancy, and in 1879 was elected superior judge of Butte county, a position he now holds.
182
JOHN R. BUCKBEE .- Mr. Buckbee's first labors in Plumas county were at mining at Smith's bar on the east branch of the north fork of Feather river. On the fourth of July, 1852, John delivered the oration at the celebration. He was a man of considerable native talent, with a fair education. He came from New York, where he had studied medicine, but never practiced in California, being engaged in mining. His legal attainments were first made known to the public some time in July, 1852, when he prosecuted the man Joshua for the murder of Bacon, before .a miner's court. In the spring of 1854 he took up his residence at Quincy, and turned h's attention to the law, and was admitted to practice at the first session of the district court held in Plumas county in July, 18.54. In the fall of that year he was elected district attorney, and held it till the spring of 1857,. when he returned to New York, married, and emigrated to Wisconsin. In 1860 he came back to Quincy and resumed the practice of law. He also associated himself with Matt Lynch in the Plumas Standard, a democratic sheet. He was a strong advocate of the right of states to secede, until the war broke ou', when he became a Douglas unionist. He ran for district attorney in the fall of 1861, and was defeated by P. O. Hundley. He was elected to the office in 1863 by a fusion of the Douglas democrats and the republicans, and was re-elected in 1865. Buckbee was retained by James H. Yeates in the lawsuit about the shrievalty which occurred at this time. S. J. Clark was the republican contestant for sheriff, and Buckbee's advocacy of Yeates got him out of favor with the old-line republicans. The county court decided in Yeates's favor, which decision the supreme court first sustained and then reversed. . Mr. Buckbee gave his whole time to politics. He took an active part in the senatorial fight between his relative, Cole, and Sargent, in which the latter was defeated. Buckbee was elected to the assembly in 1867, defeating John D. Goodwin, the democratic candidate. The Virginia and Oroville railroad aet, in which Buckbee was concerned, proved the death-blow to his political existence in Plumas. He returned to his constituents to find the people fearfully indignant, and it was apprehended by some that he would be mobbed. It was some time before the public became sufficiently tranquil to listen to Buckbee in vindicating his course. In a short time he went to San Francisco and obtained a situation in the mint. A softening of the brain finally resulted in insanity, and he was taken to the asylum in February, 1873, where he died June 29, 1873.
ROBERT I. BARNETT .- Mr. Barnett was a native of Richmond, Kentucky, but at an early age removed to Missouri. He served in the Mexican war under Colonel Doniphan of Missouri. In 1849 he emigrated to California, and came to the Plumas part of Butte before its organization into a county. Immediately after the organization he settled in Quincy, and assisted County Clerk Harbison in his office during the summer of 1854. He had been admitted to the bar in Missouri, and on the nineteenth of June, 1854, was admitted by Judge Joseph W. McCorkle to practice in the court of this district. He was elected district attorney in the fall of 1856, and served two years. He was married at Spanish Ranch, October 26, 1857, to Miss Caroline F. Doggett, by whom he had four children. Mr. Barnett resided in Quincy until 1860, when he went to San Jose, where, on the eighth of January, 1880, he committed suicide.
HIRAM L. GEAR is a native of Ohio, where he commenced life as a printer boy. He taught school for a while, after which he studied law and was admitted to practice in the state courts of Ohio. Mr. Gear came to this state in 1863, and settled in Downieville, where he married the daughter of Judge Peter Van Clief. In the fall of 1865 he came to Plumas county. Two years after, he was elected district attorney, and served one term. He left the county in the spring of 1870, and returned to Ohio, where he abandoned the practice of law ; and being of an ecclesiastical turn, was assigned a pulpit in the Baptist church, and still remains in the ministry.
183
R. H. F. VARIEL of Quincy was born November 22, 1849, at New Harmony, Posey county, Indiana. His father, J. H. Variel, was a native of East. Minor, then Cumberland county, Maine, and was born August 7, 1816; married Miss Mary A. Casey of Indiana in 1847; and in 1852 crossed the plains with his family, and settled at Camptonville, Yuba county, in 1853, and is now living in Quincy, in this county. After acquiring a common-school education at the mining town in which he was reared, R. H. F. Variel began to teach school in September, 1868, which he fol- lowed in Yuba and Plumas counties until 1873, when he was elected district attorney in the latter county; to which position he has been three times re-elected, and is now serving his fourth term. Since 1873 his undivided attention has been given to the study of the law. In June, 1876, he was admitted to practice in the district court, and in May, 1879, to the supreme court. He was married in 1876 to Miss Carrie L. Vogel of Transit, Erie county, New York, by whom he has had one daughter.
HON. WILLIAM W. KELLOGG .- The subject of this sketch was born in 1838, in Berkshire county, Massachusetts. Twenty years thereafter he came to California, settling in Plumas county in the fall of 1858, locating at Rich Bar. He engaged in mining for a few years, and became very popular. Was elected constable, and then justice of the peace, of Rich Bar township. In 1861 he was elected county assessor, and in 1863 county clerk. Was editor and publisher of the Quincy Union about eight years. In 1873 he was admitted to practice law, and is successful as a practi- tioner. In 1880 the suffrages of the people made him representative to the State legislature. This democratic assemblyman, although a resident of a pronounced republican district, was elected by a large majority. The home popularity of Assemblyman Kellogg was fully maintained at Sacra- mento, where he was an influential member, and a faithful worker in the interest of his constituents and the people. Mr. Kellogg is pre-eminently a self-made man, of that distinctive type peculiar to the Sierra; and those who know him best esteem him most. A portrait of Mr. Kellogg appears on another page.
WILLIAM S. CHURCH .- He was the eldest son of James C. Church, who settled in American valley before the organization of Plumas county. William S. was born in Kentucky. In 1873 he was elected county superintendent of schools on the democratic ticket, and was re-elected in 1875. He taught school in various districts of Plumas county until 1880, when he prepared himself for the law, and was admitted to practice in the supreme court in the winter of that year, when he opened a law office at La Porte, where he now resides.
POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLUMAS COUNTY.
The political struggles and their result form an interesting theme upon which the old residents love to dwell, as they gather round the burning logs during the long winter evenings, and " fight their battles o'er again." The gentlemen who have served the county in an official capacity pre- sent, in their biographies, a complete political history of the times in which they acted. The judges of the courts, the district attorneys, and lawyers have all been spoken of in the article on The Bench and Bar. The others will be presented in the order in which they appear in the table to be given at the end of this chapter.
JOHN HARBISON is a native of Missouri, emigrated to this state in 1849, and settled on the east branch at Smith's bar in the year 1850. For six months he kept books for the first merchants on the bar, and then engaged in mining. When the first convention was held after the organiza-
184
tion of the county in 1854, having been a county clerk in Missouri, his friends on the river, ignoring politics, instructed their delegates for him, and he secured the nomination for that office. He had no opponent in the election, and immediately removed to the American valley to assume the duties of his office, embracing those of clerk, recorder, and auditor. His office was temporarily estab- lished in the old court-room built by H. J. Bradley, but was subsequently removed to the upper story of the Bullard building, corner of Harbison avenue and Main street. During his term he made periodical visits to his old camp on the east branch to take the declarations of would-be citizens, receiving as his fee an ounce of gold-dust for each candidate. In the fall of 1854 he was re-elected over James Lewis of Nelson creek. His first deputy was R. I. Barnett, and his second, George E. Bricket, a very accomplished officer. Harbison held the office until March, 1860, when he turned it over to his successor, J. D. Goodwin, who beat him at the election in 1859. Harbison served as deputy in this office under W. N. De Haven, and returned to Missouri in 1863, where he now resides.
JOHN D. GOODWIN. See The Bench and Bar.
W. N. DE HAVEN, a Pennsylvanian by birth, upon his arrival in Plumas county, engaged at hotel-keeping at Onion valley. From there he went to Spanish Ranch, in the service of Isaac J. Harvey, having charge of the caravansary at that place. He was the unconditional-union candidate in 1861 for county clerk, against L. G. Traugh, republican, and John D. Goodwin, democratic, over both of whom he was victorious. He served until the spring of 1864, when he was succeeded by W. W. Kellogg. Captain De Haven was a warm personal friend of both the old clerks, Harbi- son and Goodwin, and made them his deputies, the latter appointment being distasteful to his radical supporters. After the close of his term, he clerked for Hosselkus & Harvey at Taylorville. He finally went to Chico, and became one of the proprietors of the Chico Enterprise. He served a term in the legislature from Butte county, and died a few years since at his home in Chico.
WILLIAM W. KELLOGG. See The Bench and Bar.
FENTON BERKLEY WHITING is a native of Virginia, and was born at Mountain View, Fau- quier county, October 1, 1827. He is the fifth and only surviving son of George Braxton and Frances Harrison Whiting. In 1831 his father removed to Fredericksburg, Virginia, resided in Alexandria in 1832, and went to Washington in 1834, where he received an appointment in the pension office, under President Jackson. He died in Washington in May, 1835. Fenton was taken to Clark county, Virginia, in 1837, by an elder brother, Francis H. Whiting, a bachelor farmer, and with him he lived until he had reached the age of sixteen, when he was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker, William Deahl, of Berryville, Virginia. Having served out his time, he emigrated to St. Louis, Missouri, in February, 1848, and worked two years as clerk in a wholesale furniture establishment. In April, 1850, he started overland for California, with the Patterson rangers of St. Louis, arriving at Sacramento July 12, 1850. Mr. Whiting resided in that city until December, being employed two months, and working at his trade three months, and then left for the mines on the north fork of Feather river, with an old school-mate, locating at Smith's bar, the traveled route then being by Onion valley. He reached that point late in February, 1851, and found many people there, caught in a heavy snow-storm. Being without funds, he engaged as clerk in a hotel kept by . McElvaney, Thomas, & Co., called the Miner's Retreat. When the storms subsided in April he was intrusted with a stock of goods to start a trading-post where now stands the town of Gibson- ville, Sierra county. Exciting reports of rich gold discoveries reaching that camp, he resigned his clerkship, and packing his mule, started with several friends for the head-waters of the middle fork of Feather river, and from there found his way over into Genesee valley, where, on the fourth of
HON. W. W. KELLOGG.
185
July, 1851, he began sinking prospect holes at Grizzly creek. Not meeting with any success, he went to a new camp called Rush creek, and from there to Soda bar on the east branch. There he found a solitary negro miner at work. He kept him company a few days, and returned to Onion valley by following the dividing ridge lying between Indian and American valleys, and discovered the body of water now known as Crystal lake. He mined on the middle fork below Rich bar the remainder of the season, was elected district recorder for mining claims, built a cabin, and spent the winter there. Early in the spring of 1852 he removed to the east branch, and engaged in river mining as a member of the Virginia company, meeting with indifferent success. He continued in that locality until the winter of 1855-56, when he was employed by Singer & Morrow, expressmen, as a mes- senger from Junction, Smith, and Rich bars to Bidwell's bar. He became one of the proprietors of the business in the fall of 1857, with H. C. Everts, continuing at this occupation for several years. During this time, with G. W. Morley and E. E. Meek, he formed Whiting & Co.'s " Feather River Express." In 1860 Mr. Whiting took the first census of Plumas county. He spent a few months in the Atlantic states in 1861, and after his return took up his residence at Quincy in 1862. In March, 1866, he received from James H. Yeates the appointment of under-sheriff, holding the place until December, when Mr. Yeates surrended his office of sheriff to the successful contestant, S. J. Clark. In the fall of 1867 Mr. Whiting was the democratic candidate for county clerk, but was- defeated at the election by John B. Overton, the republican nominee. In January, 1868, he with- drew from the express business, and was succeeded by Wells, Fargo, & Co. In April, 1868, he was again appointed under-sheriff by Sheriff Yeates, and held the office until March, 1870, when, having been elected county clerk the preceding fall, he resigned one office for the other. Mr. Whiting was re-elected in 1871, in 1873, and in 1875. In 1877 he was successfully opposed by William T .. Byers, who, in March, 1878, appointed Whiting his deputy. In the fall of 1879 Mr. Whiting was again elected county clerk, and is the present incumbent. He was married June 23, 1863, to Martha Jane Whiting, who was born in Aberdeen, Mississippi, July 17, 1843. Their union has been blessed with six children : Richard Henry, born May 11, 1864'; Fenton Blakemore, May 7, 1866; Eugene C., March 26, 1868; Randolph V., November 30, 1870; Frank Moore, July 6, 1875 ; and Pearle, December 7, 1877, all of whom are living. Mr. Whiting is a prominent member of the Odd Fellows, Masons, and other fraternal societies of Plumas county.
WILLIAM T. BYERS was born in Columbia, Boone county, Missouri, July 6, 1831, crossed the plains in 1850, and arrived at Ringgold, El Dorado county, August 9 of that year. Here he engaged in mining. He came to Plumas county June 10, 1863, and kept hotel for many years. He was elected county clerk in the fall of 1877, retiring from public life in March, 1880. Mr. Byers is one of the most public-spirited men in the county, and the people are indebted to him, not only for an efficient administration of county affairs during his term of office, but for many improvements made in and around the court-house. Mr. Byers now superintends the Plumas House in Quincy. Since living in California he has made three trips back to Missouri, the last one in 1877.
GEORGE W. SHARPE, a Missourian by birth, was engaged in the saloon business at Rich bar, east branch, in 1852. He left the river in the fall, and came to American valley, where he resided when the first election occurred in April, 1854. Sharpe was the successful candidate for sheriff. He was re-elected in the fall of 1854, for a full term. In common with many others, Sharpe was addicted to gambling, and early in the spring of 1855 it became rumored that he was not paying into the treasury the revenue he collected from foreign miners' licenses. An investigation being ordered, he absconded early in July. Though it was afterwards learned that he had made a clandestine visit to his family in May, 1856, his whereabouts was never ascertained. In 1859 his
18
186
wife applied for a divorce from him, on the ground of desertion, which was granted, and she after- wards married Elisha H. Pierce: [For further particulars, see article on Finances.]
H. P. RUSSELL .- The defalcating and absconding of George Sharpe, first sheriff of Plumas county, resulted in the succession to the office of General H. P. Russell, who was coroner, and by virtue of the law became sheriff upon a vacancy occurring in that place. The general was hardly qualified for the responsibilities of that position, and in the discharge of his official duties was much ridiculed and criticised. He was formerly a New Yorker, but at the time was a farmer in American valley. He assumed the shrievalty of Plumas county on the first day of August, 1855. His term of office was exceedingly short, lasting only until the winter, when his successor elect was qualified, he not being favored with a re-election. He then retired to his farm, called the Uncle Sam ranch, where he devoted himself to agriculture until the year 1861, when he took the Washoe fever and removed to Carson City, Nevada. Shortly after, he received the appointment of adjutant-general of the territory, and several years subsequently died in Sacramento, having failed to accumulate wealth, but being held in kindly remembrance by hundreds of friends.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.