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 PERCY H. MILLBERRY.� To enumerate the interests that have en- listed the zealous advocacy of Mr. Millberry since he came to Lake county during September of 1905 would be to direct the attention of the reader to many important local enterprises, but to the general public he is best known as editor and publisher of the Clear Lake Press ; to students of local events he is particularly prominent through his literary work as the author of the History of Lake County; to politicians his influence comes from service on the Democratic county central committee and the Democratic state central committee as well as through the consistent Democratic policy advocated through his editorials ; to public-spirited citizens his activity as secretary of the Lakeport Improvement Association, an office he has filled ever since coming to the city, and as promoter of the Chautauqua courses he is entitled to the regard of those working for the best interests of the locality ; and to lovers of the drama he is interesting especially by reason of his strong his- trionic ability and his participation in all private theatricals and local plays with a talent surpassing the usual limitations of the amateur. The Millberry family comes of old English lineage. Franklin S. Mill- berry was born in New Brunswick and died near Fresno in 1902, after having given his active years principally to the lumbering business. His marriage to Mary Amy Ingalls, who was born in Waukegan, Ill., and died at San Fran- cisco in 1901, united him with a pre-Revolutionary family of English origin. The father of Mrs. Millberry was Judge E. S. Ingalls, founder of the Me- nominee (Mich.) Herald, and for some years probate judge of the court of that county ; he traced his ancestry to the same stock whence sprang Sena- tor John J. Ingalls, of recent fame. The Millberry family comprised seven children, one of whom died in infancy. Those now living are as follows : Frederick M., an apple-grower at Brewster, Wash.; Guy S., dean of the dental department of the U. C. Affiliated Colleges of San Francisco; Percy H., who was born at Menominee, Mich., February 15, 1875; Faith I., wife of Alvin M. Hostetter, a bank clerk at Lindsay, Cal.; Amy Irene, wife of Nathaniel G. Symonds, manager of the Chicago branch of the Westinghouse Electrical Company; and Martha Avis, now employed as a stenographer at Lindsay, this state. The Millberry family came to California during 1876 and settled at Red Bluff, near which city the father was employed as a timber cruiser in the lumber industry, but returned thence to Michigan and resumed work at Me- nominee. When Percy H. was about fourteen the family moved to Ontona- gon, Mich., and there he spent a year in the high school. Previous thereto he had been a student of the Menominee high school for two years. At the age of sixteen he entered the printing office of the Ontonagon Miner, where he learned the trade of printer. During 1892 he came to California, settling at Los Gatos, Santa Clara county, and working successively on the Mail and the News. Among his fellow-workers was George S. Walker, now insur- ance commissioner of California. During the period of his employment on the Mail he attracted the attention of Mrs. H. C. Stoddard, owner of the Mountain View Register, and she employed him to manage her paper on a salary, but at the expiration of six months he exchanged to a lease. After eighteen months with the Register he went to San Francisco in 1896 and engaged as pressman and compositor for the Levison Printing Company, later spending several months in the Wasp office. From 1898 to 1905 he was con- nected with the San Francisco postoffice service as a clerk, but with the ex- ception of those seven years he has given all of his active life to journalism and the newspaper business. A service of four out of the seven years as night clerk enabled him to take special studies in law at the University of California in the class of 1904, and later for a year he studied in the San Fran- cisco office of ex-Governor James H. Budd, but he resumed newspaper work without gaining admission to the bar and hence has never practiced the pro- fession. In November, 1909, he married Miss Sydney Maude Dinsmore, a resident of Long valley, but at the time of their marriage a teacher in the public schools of San Mateo, Cal. They are the parents of two children, Jean Elisabeth, born in 1910, and Robert Ingalls, 1912. Fraternally Mr. Millberry is connected with Lakeport Lodge No. 351, I. O. O. F., as past noble grand, and since the organization of Lakeport Camp, Woodmen of the World, in 1906, he has been retained in the office of clerk. In his printing office it is his ambition to have the most modern equipment and that ambition led him in 1912 to purchase and install a Mer- genthaler linotype, the first standard linotype in the county. Besides the publishing of the paper jobwork is done and orders are taken for fine print- ing of every kind. In the capacity of editor Mr. Millberry has promoted movements for the permanent upbuilding of the city and county. A strong anti-saloon man, he gave the support of his paper to the struggle against the sale of intoxicating liquors and deserves credit for his part in making the town "dry" at the election of April, 1912, and in causing the county to vote for the same principles at the election of the following November. On first coming to Lakeport his interest in the financial control of the paper was not sufficient to guide its editorial policy. One-half of the plant was owned by Mrs. Marcia Mayfield, and he leased her interest, his partner being David 'F. Mclntire. After two years under this management he leased the entire plant in 1907 and in September, 1913, became the sole owner, since which time the policies which he had previously inaugurated have become an in- herent part of the weekly and the permanent benefits of his optimistic, capa- ble and energetic management are in evidence. Mr. Millberry has for several years been an ardent advocate of the single tax movement, in his editorial utterances and public addresses, and is a member of the executive committee of the California League for Home Rule in Taxation.