Shasta County Biographies

QUINTUS NARCISSUS ATKINS

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

Quintus Narcissus Atkins was born in western Ohio August 20, 1831 to Narcissus 
A. and Lydia Waters Atkins, natives of Massachusetts and Connecticut. He was 
educated at Albion Academy in Pennsylvania and Poland Institute in Ohio. At 
twenty he left school to join the Gold Rush. He mined first at Gold Run and then 
in Grass Valley.
 
Quintus came to Reading Springs (Shasta) in June, 1853, just after one of the 
numerous fires of its early days, so he moved on to Horsetown. There he worked 
with a group of men who planned to divert Clear Creek by building a dam. This 
project proved unsuccessful and he contracted ague (malaria) which bothered him 
for eight years. Though the dam project failed, he had some success mining, but 
like most early miners he didn't save his money.
 
Martha Adeline Hughes was born in Wisconsin February 1842 to Andrew and Mary 
Morill Hughes. In 1853, Andrew brought his family from Missouri to Shasta 
County.
 
Martha and Quintus were married in 1858 and moved to Clover Creek. 
 
They had fourteen children:

Benjamin; b. June 1860; d. April 1939

Frank; b. Dec 1863; d. June 1927; m. Catherine Farley

Emma; b. Nov 10, 1864; d. Nov 8, 1937; m. Charles Peter Hufford

William; b. 1865; d. Nov 24, 1899; m Lulu Eddington

Jesse; b. Apr 8, 1868; d. Jan 21, 1951

Warren; b. Mar 16, 1869; d. Feb 12. 1957

Flora;b. Aug 16, 1873; d. Feb 21, 1954; m. William Hunt

Octavia; b. Aug 16, 1873; d. Feb 13, 1899; m. William Hunt

Irwin; b. Dec 16, 1875; d. July 18, 1914; m. Lizzie Phillips

Clarence; b. 1877; d. May 1961; m. Olie Medford

Clinton; b. Apr 20, 1878; d. Jan 30, 1961; m. Ruby Viola Covey
                                                                                 m. Hilda McCullough

Quentin; b. Jan 1882; d. July 1938

Cleveland; b. Dec 9. 1884; d. Apr 1929; m Myrtle Covey

Hendricks; b. Dec 9, 1884; d. Dec 20, 1966
 
All the children but Frank and Emma were born in Shasta County. Those two were 
born in Humboldt County when Quintus went out to the mines; then he went to 
Montana. Most of the rest of his life he was a farmer/carpenter in Shasta 
County. They owned 320 acres on Clover
Creek where they had a mill and raised grain for the mill and the usual crops 
for home consumption. They also had a home in the mountains on Tamarack Road 
which was where they had summer range for their cattle.
 
They participated in the school and community activities; Quintus became a 
Master Mason. He was elected to three terms as County Surveyer and served 
several terms as Deputy County Assessor, an appointed job.  Quintus died at his 
home in Whitmore, June 11, 1899.
Martha, who was well known throughout the County as a midwife, lived in their 
home in Whitmore until her death in March of 1925. Both are buried in the 
Masonic Cemetery at Millville. 
 
Source:  Shasta Historical Society - Aug 2000