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 MENDENHALL.� An honored resident of Lake county for over forty years, Joseph Mendenhall is the head of a family whose members are all remarkable for strength of mind, physical vigor and natural energy, characteristics which have made them active and leading citizens wherever their lot has been cast. Though endowed with the qualities which make for worldly success, it is their sterling worth, commendable enterprise and proper sense of responsibility toward their fellow men which have won them a place among the best element in the community. The Mendenhalls are of German extraction, but have long been settled in this country, Joseph Mendenhall's parents, Samuel and Amy Lee (Stevens) Mendenhall, having been natives of North Carolina, in which state they were married. They were farming people, and for a number of years lived in Indiana, from which state they went westward to Iowa in the early '50s. The mother died there. In 1864 the family made another move, from Iowa to Idaho, where they lived for nearly five years, in 1869 coming out to California and first making a settlement in Contra Costa county. Within a couple of years, however, they changed their location to Lake county in 1871, making a permanent home here. The father died in Lake county in his eighty-ninth year. His family consisted of eleven children, and of them we mention the following: Aaron died in boy- hood; Elijah, who was a farmer, died in Decatur county, Iowa, at the age of eighty-two years, survived by five children ; Isaac, also a farmer, died in Kansas in 1912, aged eighty-four years, leaving seven or eight children; Annis married Simeon Harmon, who died in Iowa, after which she came to live in Lake county, and eventually moved to the state of Washington, where she (lied; Henley, a farmer, living at Castleton, Kans., is married and has a family; Cerelda, Mrs. Miller, died leaving no children (her husband was a farmer in Wayne county, Iowa) ; Joseph is mentioned later ; John, a hotel-keeper, died in 1913 in Nebraska, leaving two children; Sylvia, the widow of Evan Evans, by whom she had eight children, lives in Decatur county, Iowa ; Nelson, a farmer of Wayne county, Iowa, is married and has one child living; Jacob Lowell, who was born in Indiana May 12, 1849, came west with his brother Joseph's family and has always continued to live with them, having never married. Joseph Mendenhall was born September 9, 1837, in Greene county, Ind., where he lived until a youth of fifteen. At that time he went with the family to Iowa, where he spent his young manhood, subsequently moving westward to Idaho and California, as above related. When they arrived in Lake county, in 1871, he settled along Scott creek in Scotts valley, in the Bachelor Valley precinct, homesteading a tract of eighty acres, and his father pre-empted another eighty acres, which Joseph bought from him later. The property is eight miles west of Upper Lake. Mr. Mendenhall continued to work steadily throughout his active years, and won a high place in the esteem of his neigh- bors for his industrious and upright life. He reared a large family to honor- able manhood and womanhood, typical descendants of the respected ancestry from which they spring. Large and energetic physically, intelligent and efficient, they have been a real force for good in their section of Lake county, and have carried a beneficial influence into the various localities where they have gone to round out their lives. Mr. Mendenhall was married in Iowa, in 1858, to Miss America Phillips, daughter of James Phillips, of that state, and their wedded life has been singularly blessed. Companions and helpmates in the highest sense, they have been permitted to enjoy considerably more than a half century together, to see all their children settled and prospering, and happy in the love and affectionate regard of a large posterity. Mrs. Mendenhall's encouragement and sympathy were her husband's best aids in the days when they were work- ing to found their home, and she has never failed in her duty and devotion to her family. Ten children were born to this couple, the seventh and young- est dying in childhood, of diphtheria ; Adolphus is one of the most successful men in Lake county, his heaviest interest being in the canning business ; Arvilla is the wife of William Harris, a carpenter, living at Cloverdale, Sonoma county, and has one child ; Olive I. is married to George Meadow, a farmer in Scotts valley; Sarah Jane, wife of Miner Eaton, living in the Red- wood valley, in Mendocino county, has three children ; Alexander, a farmer in Siskiyou county, this state, married Miss Jennie Shepherd and has two children ; Bert, who lives at home, now having charge of the paternal farm, married Miss Eleanor Kebert and has two children, Antha and Mark; Nannie is the wife of Harry Rhodes, who is in the automobile business in Arizona, where they reside, and they have three children ; Maude is married to Lou Mann, of Ukiah, who is engaged at work on the state highway, and they have two children. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Mendenhall have two great-great-grand- children, Elwell Sanborn and Carroll .Sanborn. Though he has not taken any active part in the administration of public affairs in his locality, Mr. Mendenhall has shown considerable interest in such matters, and on political questions he has supported the Democratic party.