California Biographies
Mendocino and Lake Counties, California
 
Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

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

 

Source:
History of Mendocino and Lake Counties, California
With Biographical Sketches
History by Aurelius O. Carpenter And Percy H. Millberry
Illustrated, Complete In One Volume
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914


(transcriber�s note: some handwritten notes are � 
(1) Joseph is inserted after the initial �J�, 
(2) �the� is marked out
(3) �the village of� is marked out
(4) �and to the work of director in the Willits Realty Company.� Is marked out
(5) (unreadable) inserted between �the� and �board�; �of trustees� is marked out

DANIEL J. BLOSSER. � It is conceded that the majority of people 
have a hobby, but Mr. Blosser confesses to having two pronounced weak- 
nesses, one for music and the other for hunting. Like all the members of the 
Blosser family he has a natural talent for music and without special instruc- 
tion gained a thorough knowledge of the art while yet a mere lad. When the 
Blosser band was organized during the '70s he played (2) the first B flat cornet, 
and later he played the same instrument in Blosser's orchestra, with other 
members of the family developing a musical organization that stood at the 
very head of its class for the locality and day. There are many pioneers who 
still aver that the bands of the present day cannot compare in melody with 
the famous old organization established and maintained by this family. 
While hunting calls for qualities entirely different from those associated with 
the art of music, he has been no less successful as a sportsman than as a 
musician. In the earlier days when game was more plentiful than now, he 
has shot as many as three panthers in one day. He has killed many bears, 
while the number of wild cats that fell beneath his unerring aim is so large 
that no record of the same was ever kept. 

Music and hunting have been the diversions of a life of great activity as 
a farmer, stock-raiser, thresherman and land-owner. From the age of seven 
years Mr. Blosser has been identified with Little Lake valley (3) and the village 
of Willits, but he is a native of San Joaquin county and was born near French 
Camp February 13, 1853. He recalls the removal of the family from that 
section of the state to Mendocino county and the rough, unpromising aspect 
of the new settlement, which had been made desolate by depredations of the 
Indians during the latter part of the '50s. While yet a small boy he began 
to assist his father, Jacob Blosser. in the improving of a ranch and the raising 
of grain and stock. It was not possible for him to attend school with any 
regularity, although for about three months of each year he was a pupil in 
a rude shack with a puncheon floor and board benches and with text-books 
as crude as the furniture itself. Natural aptitude for reading enabled him to 
acquire a fair education without the aid of the schools, and he is now well 
posted in matters of general importance. 

Four of the Blosser brothers, viz., John, Tobias, William and Daniel, 
look up homesteads and pre-emption claims a few miles from Willits and 
during young manhood worked together in building up a cattle and sheep 
business. By pre-emption and purchase they acquired twenty-two hundred 
acres in one body. When the property was finally divided in 1902, Daniel 
J. sold his interest to William, and since then he has devoted his attention to 
his real estate and loans (4) and to the work of director in the Willits Realty
Company. Although his life is far from being an existence of leisure (for his 
interests are varied and demand considerable attention), his activities are 
far less strenuous and exacting now than in the days when he and his brothers 
owned as high as sixteen hundred head of sheep, a herd of cattle and a large 
tract of hay and grain land. The threshing of the grain was done for years 
with horse-power machine, but this was replaced eventually by a steam 
engine and separator, which the brothers continued to operate until the 
advent of the railroad. In Willits, where he owns property and makes his 
home, Mr. Blosser served for eight years as a member of the 6) board of trustees 
and meanwhile gave the most efficient assistance to movements for the welfare 
of the town. For thirty years or more he has been a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, and during much of that time he has been honored with 
the office of trustee. In common with others of his name he was reared to 
an implicit faith in the principles of the Republican party, and to these he 
still adheres, although being in sympathy with the policy of the Progressives 
during recent state and national campaigns.