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 JOSEPH MARTIN CHURCH.� On the Canadian side of Lake Erie within fifty miles of Niagara Falls, near Brantford, Brant county, Ontario, Joseph Martin Church was born on New Year's day of 1858, the eldest son of Seth and Harriet (Harrison) Church, the former of Canadian birth and the latter of English blood. Of his immediate family there still remain in Brant county an own brother, George W., of Brantford, and a half-brother, Duncan Church, who lives on a farm ten miles west of Brantford. The original American location of the family had been in New England and Philip Church, a native of that section of country, but in young manhood a resident first at Troy, N. Y., and later at Syracuse, the same state, had been the first to establish a home in Canada, where for a long period of industrious activity he engaged in lumbering, an occupation in turn followed by Seth and Joseph Martin Church. The latter at the age of fifteen removed with other members of the family to a farm and for a year aided in the tilling of the soil. A decided bent for machinery and mechanical work led him to become an apprentice in a shop at Brantford at the age of sixteen and there he not only learned the trade of machinist, but in addition studied the principles of engineering. his wages the first year were $4 a week, the second year $7, the third year $10, while the fourth, when practically a finished machinist, he received only $12 a week, and during all of this time he paid his own board. At the end of this period of training, he began to work as machinist and engineer in Ontario and it was not until 1886, when he was twenty-eight, that he gave up work in Canada for the purpose of removing to California. During 1888 he returned to Ontario and married Miss Alpharetta Churchill of Brantford, who accompanied him to the west and presides with tactful hospitality over their comfortable home. For the first year of California residence Mr. Church ran a stationary engine for a creamery at Bakersfield owned by the Carr and Haggin interests. Coming to Lakeport in 1887, he became engineer at the Lakeport flouring mill and after seven years in that capacity he and Jabez Banks purchased the mill, which they operated under the title of Banks & Church. After a successful period of co-operation in that business, in 1906 Mr. Church sold his interest to Mr. Banks and embarked in general merchandising. He is now the proprietor of the largest department store in Lakeport, his establish- ment containing a varied assortment of dry goods, groceries, shoes, men's furnishings and other merchandise, the stock and fixtures having a conserva- tive valuation of $20,000. The closest attention is given to every detail connected with the store. Prompt payment of bills gives such advantages in discounts that prices are often much lower than in other establishments in town. Besides attractive prices, the store is also noteworthy by reason of convenience of arrangement, harmony of displays and completeness of appointments. Added to all else is the unvarying courtesy of the proprietor, whose genial but commanding presence inspires confidence and whose inter- est in the wants of patrons causes him to do all within his power to fill their orders efficiently and with promptness. Aside from his duties at his business establishment he finds leisure for the work of the local Masonic Blue Lodge, in which he is a Past Master (having been made a Mason in Hartley Lodge No. 199, F. & A. M. of Lakeport, and for the duties of steward and trustee in the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Although not a politician, he keeps posted concerning public affairs and votes the Repub- lican ticket. Versatile in abilities, with the talents that would have brought success in varied lines of endeavor, he is a splendid type of the Canadian- American citizens of California and is highly honored in Lakeport. where his devotion to the church, his interest in charities, prominence in business, combined with and inspired by a serene disposition and earnest Christian character, give him a place in the very forefront of the progressive citizenship of the place.