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 ZACHARIAS SIMONSON.� The honored title of pioneer belongs to Mr. Simonson, who dates his identification with Mendocino county from the year 1865 and who made the unusual record of owning and operating the same farm for a period of thirty-five years. It was not indeed until August of 1910 that he sold the old homestead three miles southeast of Willits and retired into the village to enjoy during his declining days the comforts made possible through his long devotion to farm pursuits. While working to improve his own ranch he has given of his best to aid in the upbuilding of Mendocino county. It has been his privilege to see many changes in this community. The humble hut of the pioneer has given place to the modern dwelling of convenience and comfort. At the time of his arrival Indians still lingered in the vicinity and although their depredations had been stopped through force of arms, the most dangerous being removed elsewhere, the white settlers were not wholly without fear (if renewed hostility on their part. Out of such turbulent events order has been evolved and a high class of citi- zenship has been developed among the land-owners and permanent residents. Through all these years of growth he has been an interested observer of local progress and a constant contributor thereto. Although now laid aside from the heaviest of life's activities by reason of his age, he maintains the keen interest in local affairs that always characterized him and is as ready as ever to encourage projects for the public benefit or assist enterprises of value to his home town. A son of Ole Simonson, a farmer at Hegebarstad, Logndal, Norway Zacharias Simonson was born there March 24. 1833, and began to work on the home farm at such an early age that he practically had no educational advantages whatever. Observation and experience have made him a well- informed man. When his time became his own at the age of twenty-one he left Norway and crossed the ocean to the United States. From 1854 to 1864 he was employed in Illinois, first at Springfield and later near Petersburg on a farm. Having decided to come to California, in 1864 he made the voyage via Panama and secured employment on a farm in Marin county. The year 1865 found him in Mendocino county, where he rented a farm in Little Lake valley and in 1869 bought the ranch one-half mile north of Willits, where he remained until 1873, meanwhile engaging in the raising of grain and ha}', cattle and hogs. When he sold the property in 1873 he bought the ranch of three hundred acres three miles southeast of Willits, where he carried on general farming for thirty-five years. When the Baptist Church was organized at Willits he became a charter member and both he and his wife are still active in its missionary and general benevolences. In political belief as well as in principle he is a Prohibitionist, strongly opposed to the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors. At the time of coming to Mendocino county he was unmarried. Domestic ties were established with his marriage at Willits, Sep- tember 10, 1868, to Miss Mary Elizabeth Gibson, a native of Stockton, Cal., but after 1858 a resident of Mendocino county, where she attended the public schools in Little Lake valley. Her father. Miles Gibson, a Virginian by birth and ancestry, crossed the plains with an ox-team and wagon in 1853 and set- tled at Stockton, but in 1858 removed to the northern part of the state and took up land in Little Lake valley. From that time until his death he engaged in farming. Seven children were born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Simonson, namely: Mrs. Imma J. Henich, who died at Bremerton, Wash.; Mrs. Tilda M. Case, of Healdsburg; Ole Martin, a farmer near Willits; Annie Helen. Mrs. Learch, of Vallejo ; Mrs. Lola Elizabeth Carner, of Willits : Minnie Belle, who died at nine months ; and William Graves, an employe of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad at Willits.