Lake County
Biographies
WILLIAM A. CHRISTIE
William A. Christie, a farmer near Lakeport, is a native of Callaway County, Missouri, born in 1845. His father was a native of Scotland, and his mother of New Jersey. In the fall of 1852 his father with his family moved to Santa Clara County, California, where he engaged in farming for the following four years. In 1856 he came to Lake County. When William A. was twenty-one years old he engaged in farming, in partnership with his brother. In February, 1889, he bought the farm on which he now lives. It is located about three miles south of Lakeport, in Big Valley, and contains twenty-eight and three-fourths acres of choice land, which he devotes to the production of fruit and vegetables. He has a fine two-story residence and a good barn.
He was married in 1872, to Mrs. Catharine Bourne. They have three children: Isabel, Maggie and Carrie. Mrs. Christie has one daughter from her first marriage, Mary Ellen Bourne. Mr. Christie is a member of the order of the Iron Hall and of the A.O.U.W.
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler, July 2004.
SOURCE: Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1891. pg. 352.
HIAL N. MAYBEE
Hial N. Maybee, nurseryman and orchardist, near Lakeport, was born in Canada, August 6, 1835. His parents were natives of Dutchess County, New York, and moved to Canada, then back to Michigan.
Hial received a common-school education while at home with his parents in Michigan. He afterward attended Bacon, Bryant & Strattons’ Mercantile College in Cincinnati, where he graduated in 1859. He then went to Stevens’ Point, Wisconsin, where he engaged in the wholesale lumber business, in partnership with his brother. He remained in business in Stevens’ Point until 1865. In the spring of that year he sold out and went to New York city, where he took passage on the steamer Golden Rule, which was wrecked on Ronkador, on French Keys, May 29. There were 1,000 passengers on board, all of whom excepting one escaped to the reef, where they subsisted for eleven days. On June 9 they were rescued by the gunboat Georgia, and taken to Aspinwall, from where they came to California and arrived in San Francisco, July 1. Mr. Maybee first settled in Nevada, Marin County, where he bought land and engaged in dairying for seven years. In 1872 he sold out and went to Alameda, where he engaged in contracting and building. In 1876 he went to Buckeye Valley, five miles west of Ione in Amador County, where he engaged in farming and nursery business. He also worked some at carpentering, having secured several contracts from the railroad company. In 1881 he returned to Alameda, where he again followed the business of contracting and building for two years. In 1883 he came to Lake County and bought land two miles south of Lakeport, where he now resides. He has forty-one acres of land, which he devotes principally to nursery and small fruits. He has a nursery stock of about 50,000 trees. He has one acre planted in strawberries of different varieties, which yield an enormous quantity of luscious fruit. He also has blackberries, currants and other small fruits, the acreage of which is increasing each year. He has two fine, flowing artesian wells on his premises; also an excellent spring from which he conducts water to his residence through pipes for general uses.
Mr. Maybee has been twice married. His first wife was a Mrs. Carpenter, of Lincoln County, Maine, to whom he was married in 1873, and who lived only a short time after their marriage. In 1885 he was married to Mrs. Meyers, a native of Germany. She has two daughters from her first marriage, who are living in the old country. Mr. Maybee is a member of the I.O.O.F. and the A.O.U.W.
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler, July 2004.
SOURCE: Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1891. pg. 342-343