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


CHRIST PAULSON.� Big valley is noted for its rich soil and fine horti- 
cultural possibilities, and Mr. Paulson was influenced by these advantages 
in selecting the tract which he is developing into a valuable fruit farm and 
which is improved by a commodious modern frame residence containing all 
the comforts possible to a rural home. Upon coming to Lake county in 1906 
he bought seventy-six acres from Charles Hendricks and has since taken pride 
and pleasure in the development of the tract, eight acres of which are now 
under cultivation to Bartlett pears. The balance is utilized for general crops, 
of which corn is among the most important and profitable. In the active task 
of cultivation the owner is assisted by his eldest son, an energetic young man 
of about twenty years, and he is also benefited by the wise counsel and con- 
stant co-operation of his wife, a hospitable, motherly woman, whose kind 
heart and intelligent mind have brought her many friends, and whose devotion 
to her family has made their welfare her highest joy. 

From nineteen years of age Mr. Paulson has made his home in America, 
but Norway is his native country, his birth having occurred at Lom Gud- 
brandsdalen, May 8, 1866. When he landed at Castle Garden in 1884 he did 
not understand the English language, unfamiliar with American customs- and 
without friends to assist him in getting a start. Chance directed his steps 
to Amboy, Minn., where he found employment as a section hand. In 1888 
he went to North Dakota and continued work as a section hand. Industry 
and intelligence led to his promotion to be section boss. For seven years he 
engaged as section foreman on various divisions of the Northern Pacific 
Railroad, and for five years as foreman he had the supervision of the extra 
construction gang, with one hundred and fifty to two hundred men under him. 
After twelve years as foreman he bought three sections of land in North 
Dakota, embarked in the cattle business, laid out on his property the town- 
site Beach, from which he cleared $6,000, and five months after he had bought 
the land at $2 per acre sold it for $5. Encouraged by the successful venture, 
he bought three sections north of Sentinel Butte and started a cattle ranch, 
where he had about four hundred head of cattle at times, with perhaps fifty 
head of horses. While he was prospered far beyond his hopes when he first 
came to America, he disliked to maintain a home on the frontier where 
educational advantages were lacking, and accordingly he disposed of his 
property in 1906, which year brought him to California. Since then he has 
owned and operated seventy-six acres in Big valley, which has so greatly in- 
creased in value that it could be sold now for twice the amount of his invest- 
ment. Seven years after he first landed in America he returned to his mother 
country, making a visit of eight months to the home folks, and while there 
he was married in Christiania, October 3, 1891, to Miss Anna Gormo, a native 
of the same vicinity. The year after returning to Dakota they moved to 
Wibaux, Mont., where Mr. Paulson engaged in railroad work. They are the 
parents of six children, namely: Paul, who aids in the management of the 
home farm ; Regina, a student in the State Normal School at San Jose, class 
of 1910; Mary, Harry and Emil, who are students in the Lakeport Union high 
school ; and Clara, who died at the age of four months. The family are of the 
Lutheran faith and are deeply interested in all religious movements in their 
locality, besides being identified with educational work and the general 
development. In politics Mr. Paulson has voted the Republican ticket ever 
since casting his first presidential ballot, but his life has been so closely 
devoted to railroading and farming that he has had no leisure for participation 
in political affairs.