Colusa County
Biographies
A. B. MANOR
Alexander Bonaparte Manor is a native of Lucas County, Ohio, born December 24, 1824. His parents were French Canadians. He was brought up on a farm and worked thereon till his twenty-fourth year. He then set out for California with an ox-team, crossing the plains via Salt Lake and Truckee, reaching Grass Valley in the summer of 1849. After tempting fortune in the mines unsuccessfully for two years, he turned his young energies to teaming, at which he was employed for four years. In 1855 he moved to San Francisco, where he resided until 1859, being engaged in conducting a feed store on his own account. Mr. Manor next moved to Yolo County, near Cacheville, where he farmed for eleven years. In 1872, disposing of his place here, he removed with his family to his present place of abode, on Freshwater, though he had located three thousand one hundred acres of land there two years before coming to reside thereon. He has since added to his land possessions so that he now owns four thousand one hundred and sixty-four acres.
In 1859 Mr. Manor was married to Mrs. Martha Rice, of Yolo County, daughter of Matthew Smith, of Spencersburg, Pike County, Missouri, by whom he has had three children, four other children of the household being his step-children.
“Colusa County” – by Justus H. Rogers – Orland, CA – 1891 – pp 444
WILLIAM C. MURDOCH
Among the many energetic, skilled business men of the county, few have more sensibly left the impress of their means and wise counsels thereon than the subject of this biography. William C. Murdoch is a native of Tuscumbia, Alabama, having been born there in 1852. He was educated at Poughkeepsie, New York, and came to California in 1874. His first occupation in Colusa County was as book-keeper for J. S. Wall & Co., of Princeton. In the summer of 1877 he removed to Willows and opened a banking and commission office there under the firm name of William C Murdoch & Co. He continued in this till September, 1880, when his business was merged into that of the Bank of Willows. In the new organization he was made cashier, serving in that capacity nearly nine years, when he resigned and disposed of his interest therein to the present stockholders. Since then he has made his home in San Francisco, being chiefly engaged in the insurance business. In connection with others he built the Sanhedrien Lumber Mill, located forty miles west of Willows in the Coast Range Mountains. The paid-up capital of the Sanhedrien Mill and Lumber Company is $250,000. This mill has a capacity for cutting fifty thousand feet of lumber per day. The company will construct fourteen miles of flume, to the mouth of the Grindstone, thereby to connect with the West Side and Mendocino Railroad. Of this company Mr. Murdoch is treasurer and principal stockholder. In 1877, when matters looked decidedly “blue” for the aspiring but indomitable town of Willows, Mr. Murdoch purchased eight lots south of the bank in that town and erected two-story buildings thereon, thus aiding in giving the place a new impetus. East Willows was laid out by Mr. Murdoch. In 1884 he procured the incorporation of the warehouses at Willows into what is now the Willows Warehouse Association. The residence built by Mr. Murdoch at Willows is unsurpassed in the county for beauty of architectural design and tastefulness of finish. It is now the property of S. C. Longmier.
Mr. Murdoch was married, January 2, 1881, to Miss Nannie Wilson, of Sutter County, a niece of the late Dr. Glenn. One child is the fruit of their union. He was a charter member of the first Masonic lodge instituted at Willows and one of the incorporators of the Willows Agricultural Association. Ill health, the result of sedentary occupations, caused Mr. Murdoch to leave this scene of so much business, push and thrifty diligence, very much to the regret of the community.
“Colusa County” – by Justus H. Rogers – Orland, CA – 1891 – pp 444-445
DR. A. W. KIMBALL
This accomplished and studious physician is a resident of Williams. He was born at Marysville, California, on April 28, 1858. Pursuing a course of studies in that city, he graduated in 1879 from the Marysville High School. After preparing himself by several years of arduous study in his chosen profession, that of medicine, he received his diploma in 1883 from the medical department of the University of New York, and in the following year the same honor was conferred on him by the Kentucky School of Medicine, established at Louisville, Kentucky. For some time after his admission to practice, Dr. Kimball was located in Oakland, California, but in 1884, he came to Williams, where he has since resided, and by his skill and its conscientious application he has established a fine practice. Both socially and professionally Dr. Kimball can truthfully call every man in the community his friend.
“Colusa County” – by Justus H. Rogers – Orland, CA – 1891 – pp 445
G. S. HEMSTREET
George Sanford Hemstreet was born on his father’s farm, in Colusa County, six miles south of Princeton. In 1866, his father having purchased one thousand six hundred and thirty acres of land, one mile north of Princeton, and moved his family, George was sent to attend the Princeton district school. He afterwards was a student of Woodman’s Academy, at Chico, graduating there at the age of seventeen years. He supplemented this with a one year’s course at the Placerville Academy. He now returned home and assisted in the management of his father’s farm till that gentleman’s death, which occurred in December, 1876. He aided his mother in directing the work of the farm till her death, which took place March 20, 1887, when the whole care of the place fell to him, and on which he still resides. Mr. Hemstreet was married, December, 1886, to Miss De Pue, of Sacramento, by whom he has one son, Elmo Leland, to aid in brightening an attractive and comfortable home.
“Colusa County” – by Justus H. Rogers – Orland, CA – 1891 – pp 446