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 (see George Emmett Cary further down) BENJAMIN FRANKLIN SHAUL.� Numbered among the five ranchers who are operating extensively in southern Lake county are the members of the firm of Cary & Shaul, George Emmett Gary and Benjamin Franklin Shaul. Mr. Shaul is one of the leading citizens of the Mountain District precinct, formerly part of the South Kelseyville precinct, and in its business and social activities has become well known in official circles as deputy assessor under Mr. Merritt, and in all the relations of life has taken his share of responsibility and performed his duties so efficiently that he has come to be regarded as a mainstay in the community. A native of Lake county and member of one of its pioneer families, he is upholding an honorable name worthily. Mr. Shaul's father, also named Benjamin F. Shaul, came to California in 1852 from Anderson, Ind., and during the eight years following mined for gold in Grass Valley. In 1860 he came to Lake county and took up the place still known as the Shaul ranch, and in 1865 he married Miss Georgia A. Man- ning, who was born in Illinois and came to California with her parents in 1859, the family settling in Lake county in 1864. Eight children were born to this union, seven of whom reached maturity, namely: George M. is a farmer, at present engaged as head of the agricultural department at the Preston reform school ; Annie M. is the wife of George E. Cary, who is her brother Benjamin's partner, and has three children, Wesley A., Alice E. and Inez; Aaron B. is a farmer in High valley, Lake county; Benjamin F. is mentioned later; Henry B., of North Kelseyville, is engaged in teaming; Jesse S., also a teamster, resides at Lower Lake ; Ruth E. is the wife of Gilbert C. Edwards, a farmer in Big valley. The mother, now sixty-five years old, resides at Lower Lake. Mr. Shaul died July 8, 1909. Benjamin F. Shaul, son of Benjamin F. and Georgia A. (Manning) Shaul, was born January 21, 1871, in Lake county, where he obtained his education in the public schools. Reared to farming from boyhood, he has continued to make agriculture his principal interest, and is now carrying on extensive ope- rations in partnership with his brother-in-law, George E. Cary, the firm rent- ing the Cary ranch of five hundred and twenty acres in the Mountain District precinct. Thirty-five acres of this property are already in orchard, cherries, apricots, peaches, pears and apples, and Cary & Shaul are planting about five hundred fruit trees yearly, steadily enlarging their interests in this direction. They also engage in general farming on this tract, and besides operate another one hundred and sixty acres adjoining, of which they are the owners. Mr. Shaul is a man of large stature and powerful physique, capable of much exertion and blessed with executive ability which well supplements his industry. He is noted for keen judgment and common sense, and active asso- ciation with his fellow men on many matters of common interest has given him an insight into human nature and experience which makes his opinions highly valued. Having served six years as deputy assessor under Mr. Merritt he has become familiar with much of the public business of the county and has had opportunities for judging the worth of many enterprises set on foot with the object of advancing the general good, being always ready to encourage those that he considers beneficial. All matters which have the interest of the county at heart have his support, which is a live factor in promoting any un- dertaking with which he becomes associated. He has been prominently mentioned as Republican candidate for the office of sheriff, being especially popular in the southern end of the county, where he is best known. His standing as a business man has been gained by unusual success in the man- agement of his various interests. His efforts as a fruit grower have prospered phenomenally. On September 22, 1895, Mr. Shaul married Miss Minnie L. Cary, sister of George E. Cary, and a family of five children has been born to them : Irene, Raymond, Benjamin C, Adele and Vera E. In social and fraternal circles Mr. Shaul is very well known. He is a member of the Parlor of Native Sons of the Golden West at Kelseyville, and of the lodge of Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Lower Lake, having passed all the chairs in the latter body. He has been one of the active work- ers in the organization of the Mountain Improvement Association, which has a present membership of sixty, and which has proved the most popular social enterprise ever started in the neighborhood. The association has built a commodious hall, which is a convenient gathering place for local functions of all kinds where numbers are likely to congregate, and many dances, parties, theatrical performances, concerts, etc., have been held there, and it has filled a long felt want in the life of the community, which has shown its apprecia- tion by liberal patronage of all the functions held there. Mr. Cary, Mr. Shaul's brother-in-law, was also one of the prime movers in its formation, was a char- ter member, and is serving as trustee with Dr. Waldo and Roy Wilds. W. W. P. Bruton is president; LeRoy St. John, vice president; Mrs. Annie M. Cary, secretary ; and George F. Hesse, treasurer. As a social center it is one of the most valuable institutions ever established in this section of Lake county. George Emmett Cary, senior member of the firm of Cary & Shaul, exten- sive farmers and fruit growers, was born April 5, 1859, at Petaluma, Sonoma county, Cal., son of the late Thomas Benjamin Cary. The father, a native of Toronto, Canada, went to Rochester, N. Y., when yet a boy, and learned the business of tanner. In New York he married Miss Annie E. Clarke, a native of Elmira, that state, and they emigrated to California in 1852 by way of the isthmus of Panama, spending the next thirty years and more at Petaluma, Sonoma county, where Mr. Cary became a successful ranchman. Finally he sold his property there and moved to Lake county, in the year 1885, buying the extensive Cary ranch in what is now the Mountain District pre- cinct, the tract of five hundred and twenty acres now leased and operated by Cary & Shaul. Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Benjamin Cary : Clarence Adelbert, a carpenter, lives in a suburb of Los Angeles ; Flor- ence is the wife of A. L. Anthony, a professor at Hanford, Cal. ; George Em- mett is more fully mentioned below : Charles Willis, a carpenter, resides in San Francisco; Adele is the wife of N. B. Allen, a conductor on the Southern Pacific railroad, and resides at Oakland ; Frank, also a resident of Oakland, is foreman in the barn department of the Sunset Lumber Company; Minnie L. is the wife of Benjamin F. Shaul ; Fred died in Petaluma. The mother of this family is now eighty-five years old. The father died in 1890. George Emmett Gary was reared to manhood in Sonoma county, coming to Lake county with his parents. His interests for a number of years have been so closely associated with those of his partner, Mr. Shaul, that they are practically identical. Besides his interest in the operation of the Cary ranch and the one hundred and sixty acres which he and Mr. Shaul own jointly, he has two hundred acres of brush land in the vicinity, near the cele- brated Siegler Springs resort. Mr. Gary's family has always enjoyed high standing, both for integrity in business and for admirable moral and social characteristics, and he is a typical member of this good stock. He was a charter member of Lower Lake Parlor, No. 159, Native Sons of the Golden West, and one of the first presidents of that organization, and his activity in the Mountain Improvement Association has already been referred to in this article. Mr. Cary married Annie M. Shaul, daughter of Benjamin F. and Georgia A. (Manning) Shaul, and they have three children; Wesley A., Alice E. and Inez. The Cary and Shaul families live together on the Gary ranch, which lies off the Lower Lake road.