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 RALPH CLIFTON GREENOUGH.� The supervising principal of the Fort Bragg grammar schools has the distinction of being a native son of Mendocino county and one of the most prominent members of its efficient corps of teachers, whose success in educational work gives prestige to the county and permanence to the school system. The family of which he is an honored member has had residence in California since 1877. During February of that year his father, Dixon Greenough, arrived in Mendocino county from Massachusetts, where he had followed the trade of a stone-mason at Lowell for seven years and where he had married Miss Adelaide Perkins, a native of that state. Nova Scotia was his native land, his birth having occurred in Cumberland county in 1848 and the first twenty years of his existence having been passed uneventfully in that section of the country. Upon coming to the Pacific coast he settled at Little River. Mendocino county, where his son, Ralph C, was born September 11, 1878, and where he himself was honored as a pioneer lumberman, capable rancher and loyal citizen. For a quarter of a century he was engaged with different lumber companies in mills around Little River, Big River and Albion and in time rose to foreman and later to head sawyer, and near the latter town he also carried on ranch pursuits for five years. Since establishing a home at Fort Bragg in 1907 he has engaged in the draying business and, although now past middle age, he still displays the energy and industry characteristic of his younger years. In his family there are four children, George, Frederick, Ralph C, and Mrs. Cora Smith. Although employed for a time in a mercantile establishment at Albion and following similar lines of work elsewhere, always the aim of R. C. Greenough was to qualify for pedagogical enterprises. From youth he directed his studies toward that end. On the completion of the course in the Mendo- cino high school he entered the Ukiah Normal, where he prepared for teach- ing. During July of 1896 he successfully passed the required examination and received a teacher's certificate from the county board of education. Since 1897 he has engaged continuously in educational work. The first four years of the period were passed as teacher in the Olive Springs district, after which he remained for three years in the Albion school district and then devoted two years to the work of principal of the Mendocino grammar school. Coming to Fort Bragg in July, 1906, he was elected principal of the grammar schools. In 1912, the schools having grown to such an extent as to necessitate such an office, a supervising principal officership was created, to which he was duly elected, and he has since devoted his time and ability to the discharge of the duties connected with that responsible post. In June, 1906, he was appointed a member of the county board of education, serving four years, the last year as president of the board. His comfortable home is presided over graciously by Mrs. Greenough, formerly Miss Kate Van Allen, who like himself claims Mendocino as her native county. One son, John Wesley, blesses their union. Aside from his responsibilities as supervising principal Mr. Greenough has other activities to engage his attention, notably his work as notary public and conveyancer, treasurer of the Fort Bragg public library board and secre- tary of the board of trustees of the Baptist Church, all of which responsible associations, together with others scarcely less important, mark him as a man of prominence in the community and an indispensable factor in educational, religious and general advancement.