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 EUGENE McPEAK.� The history of the McPeak family in America is indicative of that strong pioneer temperament which led the march of colonization from the Atlantic seaboard by successive steps across the con- tinent to the Pacific coast. It was Henry McPeak who transplanted the name from North Carolina to Tennessee, Vv-here he settled on a plantation in Ruther- ford county and married Nancy Fain, a native of Virginia. In their young married life they became pioneers of Arkansas, where he developed a tract of wild land into a productive plantation. On that ranch, situated near Osceola, a son, Eugene, was born March 4, 1837. From Arkansas the family crossed the line into Missouri during 1840 and settled on an unimproved tract of land thirty miles from the nearest school. There were two sons in the family, Eugene and Peter, the latter now a resident of Guerneville, Sonoma county, Cal. It was impossible for the boys to attend school owing to the great distance. Nor had they the advantage of education through contact with neighbors, for settlers were few and they were isolated to a degree un- common even in that pioneer period. Fortunately, the mother was a woman of culture and had received an excellent education in an academy near Mur- freesboro, Tenn., so that she was able to instruct her sons in the public-school branches as well as impress deeply upon their consciousness the necessity of honor, integrity and industry. The father died on the home farm near New Madrid, Mo., in 1848, and in 1852 the mother came to California, where she died at Willits at the age of seventy-five years. At the time of crossing the plains with an ox-team train, Eugene McPeak, then a rugged, stalwart youth of fifteen years, was given the charge of the cattle, and he drove the herd all the way across the plains until they were sold to a trader at the sink of the Humboldt. Arriving at Placerville he found work. In 1854 he went to Plumas county and there and in Sierra county he engaged in mining with fair success until 1857, when he took up government land four miles west of Santa Rosa. With the aid of his mother he proved up on a tract, which he devoted to general farming and stock-raising. When that place was sold he bought three hundred and twenty acres in the same vicinity. The latter farm he operated until 1877, when he sold out and came to Little Lake valley, Mendocino county. Here he bought and improved a farm of two hundred and eighty acres five miles southeast of Willits. About sixty acres were put under cultivation to grain and hay, but the principal acreage was devoted to range for cattle, sheep and hogs. In 1910 he sold the farm and retired to Willits, where he owns an acre homestead on Humboldt street, with an irrigation plant for fruit and vege- tables made possible by an electric motor of standard make. At Santa Rosa, Cal., June 19, 1870. Air. McPeak married Miss Mary J. Norris, who was born in Bloomfield, Davis county, Iowa, and came across the plains in 1859 with her parents, Charles and Martha (Harris) Norris, natives of Ohio, after successive temporary sojourns in Missouri and Iowa, Mr. Norris had decided to migrate to California and brought his family west with wagons and ox-teams as well as a drove of cattle. At the expiration of six months he landed in California and took up government land six miles from Santa Rosa, where he developed a farm and remained until his death. His widow is still a resident of Sonoma county. Of their seven children six are still living, Mrs. McPeak being the eldest of the number. For years she has been an earnest worker in the Christian Church, in the Rebekahs and in Willits Lodge No. 314, Order of Eastern Star. Together with Mr. McPeak she has been a capable worker in the interests of education and for twenty years served on the board of education in Whitcomb district. When the high-school board was organized and the building erected, Mr. McPeak was a member of the board, and his efficient services in that capacity covered eight years. For four years he was a member of the board of trustees of Willits and during two years of the time he was honored with the chairman- ship. In politics he votes with the Democratic party. He was made a Mason in Lafayette Lodge No. 126, F. & A. M., at Sebastopol, and later became a charter member of Willits Lodge No. 365, F. & A. M., besides which he has been interested in the Eastern Star. The soul of honor in all the relationships of life, he has formed heart to heart links stretching out into a circle of friendships which encompass every locality in which he has lived. Everyone speaks well of his fine qualities of character. While his life has been quiet and unmarked by stirring events, it has been none the less very useful to his community. Through high principles of honor and generosity of soul he has stood foremost among the citizens pledged to the welfare of town and county and instrumental in promoting enterprises of permanent value to both.