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 WILLIAM W. THATCHER.� The changes wrought in Mendocino county by about one-half century of progress have been witnessed and to a large degree promoted by Mr. Thatcher, a pioneer upbuilder of Hopland and vicinity. It was during 1867 that, having heard favorable reports concerning this county and further being informed of a general store offered for sale in Hopland, he came on horseback over the mountains to Ukiah and there turned southward, in due time arriving at Hopland, where in less than an hour he had purchased Conner's store. The quickness of judgment exhibited m that transaction is one of his leading characteristics, and even now, when more than four score years have laid their burden upon body and mind, he still surprises acquaintances with instantaneous decisions whose wisdom is proved by subsequent events. When once a decision is made, no later vacil- lation or regret mars his purposeful activities, and this attitude of mind appears in the fact that from 1867 to the present time he has continued to be the owner of the same store, although with advancing years he has turned over to his son, Evan, its general management. When he came here and for some years after his arrival the population was to some extent transient and not alto- gether desirable, but later the floating element sought other centers of activity and the permanent population took on its present form of thrift, energy and high principles of honor, giving to this part of the county a citizenship as desirable as it is prosperous and efficient. From early life Mr. Thatcher was familiar with privations and inured to hardships. He was born near Springfield, Clark county, Ohio, November 8, 1831, and at the age of fourteen his father. James, having died, he took up the burden of the family maintenance and the farm management. Of course it was not possible for him to attend school with any regularity, hence he is mainly self-educated. The energy and determination of the little family made possible the buying of a small farm, and this he managed until the second marriage of his mother, after which he was free to take up the trade of a carpenter under an old acquaintance, Jimmie Johnson. The fact that an uncle, Hezekiah Thatcher, had sent back favorable reports from California led him to come to the west via the isthmus in 1854, at first joining the uncle in Yolo county, sixteen miles west of Davisville. In the following decade he earned a livelihood along various lines of enterprise. Day labor as a carpenter and the building of a ferry boat to cross the tules preceded the operation of a livery barn at Placerville. On the burning down of the stable he engaged as storekeeper at the Daily ranch, seventeen miles west of Sacra- mento. Next he built an inn at Whitehall on the road from Sacramento to Virginia City, and this he conducted with fair success until the building of the railroad' took him off the regular line of daily travel, after which he changed his location to Mendocino county. In 1869 he burned the brick used in the erection of a new store room and here he has since carried on a general mercantile business. In the meantime he has bought and sold a number of ranches and has seen property double and treble in value. About 1890 he erected the Thatcher hotel at Hopland, a substantial building with large rooms, high ceilings, modern equipment and excellent accommodations for the traveling public, the place being considered at the time of its erection by far the best-built hotel in the county. In politics Mr. Thatcher has been a Republican ever since the organiza- tion of the party. Temperance principles receive his stanch support. Move- ments for the upbuilding of Hopland have his co-operation, and even now, although obliged by advancing years to forego a leading part in progressive projects, his support is none the less stanch and his patriotic spirit none the less genuine. By his marriage in Sacramento to Miss Sarah E. Roach, a native daughter of California, he is the father of five children now living, namely : .Arthur, an attorney in Eureka ; Evan, who has charge of the store at Hopland ; Millie, who married John Kemp and lives in Los Angeles ; Sarah and Edith, both of whom married attorneys, the former now in the Sandwich Islands and the latter a resident of California.