Mendocino County
Biographies
Cunningham, W. W.
W. W. Cunningham. Born in Smith county, Tennessee, November 23, 1821, where he received his education, and at the age of fourteen engaged as apprentice to the saddler’s trade, which he completed at the age of eighteen. He then spent about three years working at his trade in different places, after which he opened a shop at his native place, Dixon’s Springs, which he continued until the spring of 1850, when, leaving his family behind, he crossed the plains to California. He came with mule-teams, and made the trip in just one hundred days, arriving at Georgetown, August 23d of the above-mentioned year. He engaged at once in mining, which he followed until the fall of 1851, when he returned via Nicaragua to Tennessee, where he spent the winter, and in the spring of 1852 once more crossed the plains, bringing with him his family, consisting of wife and three children, losing one of them on the way. He came this time with ox-teams, and was about six months on the road, arriving at Sacramento about the first of October, where they spent the winter, and in the spring went to Michigan Bluff, Placer county, were he engaged in mining and keeping hotel for ten years. We next find Mr. Cunningham in San Francisco, and at the establishment of the Democratic Press – now the Examiner. He was employed as traveling agent, which position he followed until the summer of 1865, when he came to Mendocino county and located at Ukiah, where he has since resided. The first year of his residence here he kept the “Ukiah Hotel,” and the next year he kept the “Plaza” saloon, after which he served a term as Under-sheriff under D. C. Crockett. He then engaged in the saloon business, which he followed about one year; then served a term as Deputy Clerk under James Fowzer. We next find him in Round valley engaged in saloon-keeping, which he followed about fifteen months; then returned to Ukiah, and was defeated in a race for County Recorder; after which he served a term as Under-Sheriff under S. J. Chalfant. He was then elected County Assessor, which office he held four years, the term expiring in March, 1880. Is now Justice of the Peace and Town Recorder. Married January 9, 1844, Miss Mary J. Farley, a native of Buckingham county, Virginia. They have four living children: James T., Thomas W., Elizabeth W.; and Charles.
SOURCE: History of Mendocino County, California - San Francisco, Cal. Alley, Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1880 Pp. 632
Transcribed by Pat Howard
Carpenter, A. O.
A. O. Carpenter. Was born in Townshend, Vermont, November 28, 1836, where he resided until August, 1851, attending district school summer and winter. In that year he entered the office of his step-father, George W. Nichols, Proprietor of the Windham county Democrat; where he remained until November, 1854, and then returned to Townshend for a four months’ course in the Leland Seminary. In the summer of 1855, he went to Meriden, Connecticut, and worked a few weeks with Othniel Ives, an uncle, and thence to Kansas with the fourth party from the East, under the immediate charge of Governor Robinson. Teaming and chopping wood filled in the time until the survey of Topeka was made, our subject carrying the chain over Kansas’ future capital. When the Herald of Freedom was inaugurated, young Carpenter helped to start the paper, setting the first type in the State; again assisting in the founding of another paper, the Free State, in the winter of 1855 and 1856. In February, 1856, he removed to Osawatomie, and built a log-house, and superintended a stock of goods for a short time for Samuel Geer. In May of that year, he joined other relatives and made a settlement on Ottawa creek, near Prairie City, where he remained until May 27, 1857, taking an active part in repelling border raids, and being wounded at the battle of Black Jack, June 2, 1856. In May, 1857, in company with his father-in-law, Thomas McCowen and family, and Samuel Mewhinney and family, he started for California, arriving at Nevada early in November. Mining at Selby Flat, occupied his attention until the spring of 1858, when he purchased and removed to Hill’s ranch, near Grass Valley. Ranching, teaming, and type-setting in the Telegraph office, furnished sufficient employment for his active disposition until 1859, when he was appointed Road Overseer, then being barely twenty-one years of age. Selling his ranch and resigning his office in November, 1859, he moved to Mendocino county, settling in Potter valley, where he still retains a citizenship in spirit, and a home in fact, in the shape of a fine farm of one hundred and ninety acres. In 1860, he again assisted in the founding of a newspaper, the Herald, published at Ukiah by E. R. Budd, in which paper he purchased an interest in the spring of 1862. Selling out to his partner in 1864, Mr. Carpenter went to San Francisco and entered the employ of Dewey & Co., assuming the foremanship of the office of the Mining and Scientific Press. Coming back to Mendocino county in February, 1865, on a visit to his family, he was surprised at receiving unsought the appointment of United States Assistant Assessor from the Revenue department. After urgent entreaty, only, the office was accepted, and Mr. Carpenter was sworn in at Santa Rosa, April 13th, on the same day receiving word of the fall of Richmond. Staging to Cloverdale, he was compelled by change of time of the Ukiah stage, to wait there three days for that conveyance, or seek other modes of transportation. With his mountain training, walker’s train seemed the quickest way over bad roads, and easier than riding and packing a rail as was necessary between Santa Rosa and Cloverdale. He arrived in Ukiah with the news of the fall of Richmond, two days ahead of the mail, and assumed the duties of the office, which he has continued to discharge, first as assistant Assessor, and afterwards as Deputy Collector through five successive administrations, until the present date. Making Potter valley his home, he found time in the interim of official duties to improve two farms, hauling the fencing and lumber eighteen miles, sleeping over night with his teams, and driving the pickets amid the winter’s rains. Republican though he was, and resident in a strong Democratic precinct, he was twice elected Road Overseer, and only resigned the position in 1869, to remove to Ukiah, where he built a [copy too light to read] and photograph gallery, which latter profession he continued to date. During 1862-3, he was also foreman of the Constitutional Democrat, published in Ukiah. In 1872, he was appointed Deputy County Assessor under E. Donohoe, having previously served part of two years under S. W. Haskett in the same capacity, continuing to act in this capacity two years, he declined the re-appointment in 1873, and 1874 went to San Francisco and took charge of the mechanical department of the Daily Fair Press, published in the Mechanics’ Institute Fair, during August and September, by Dewey & Co. In 1876, he again took charge of the same publication, both editorial and mechanical, as also in 1877 and 1878. Returning to Ukiah in September, 1874, he entered the office of County Recorder Denman, as deputy, which he held for two years. In 1875, and again in 1876, he was appointed Road Overseer of Ukiah district. In 1877, he was elected the first Marshal of Ukiah, then incorporated, declining a re-election the following year. In January, 1879, he purchased the Ukiah City Press, and assumed once more the editorial tripod, and in February associating with Charles S. Paine, formerly of the Petaluma Argus, and more lately on the San Francisco Evening Post. Of an active, restless disposition, Mr. Carpenter has constantly in hand multifarious business interests, and has earned the commendation of all in the discharge of his public and private duties, of which not near all can be mentioned in this brief sketch. He was married Christmas, 1856, Miss Helen McCowen, in Kansas, and an interesting and talented group of four children bear witness to a mother’s earnest care and cultivation: May, born March 15, 1858; Grant and Grace, born February 21, 1865; Frank L., born November 8, 1870.
SOURCE: History of Mendocino County, California - San Francisco, Cal. Alley, Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1880 Pp. 632 - 634
Transcribed by Pat Howard