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


LUTHER SHELBY BAECHTEL.� No name is more closely inter- 
woven with the early development of Little Lake valley than that of Baechtel. 
for the two brothers, Samuel and Harry Baechtel, were the first settlers in 
this portion of Mendocino county, having brought in a bunch of cattle for 
pasturage on the wide and excellent range and finding conditions so promising 
that permanent settlement followed as a matter of course. Further mention 
of the family appears on another page in the sketch of Samuel Baechtel, father 
of Luther Shelby Baechtel, the latter the youngest child and born at the old 
homestead January 29, 1872. During his boyhood educational advantages 
were far inferior to those of the present day, but through attendance upon the 
school in the Sawyer district he laid the foundation of an education that habits 
of reading and close observation have made broad and liberal. He had the 
further advantage of a complete course of study in the Lytton Springs Col- 
lege, Sonoma county, from which he was graduated with the degree of B. S. 
in 1890, at the age of eighteen years. He then entered the Willits store of 
the Standard Commercial Company, whose owners were members of the 
Baechtel family and whose interests he promoted through six years of work 
as office man and bookkeeper, and when the business was sold to Irvine & 
Muir in 1896 he devoted his time to settling the affairs of the retiring company. 

Meanwhile gold had been discovered in the Klondike, and a love of 
adventure, as well as the hope of finding some profitable mining claim for 
himself, led Mr. Baechtel to Alaska in the spring of 1898. Accompanied by 
a brother, William, he sailed from San Francisco to Dyea and thence traveled 
with pack-horses over the Chilkoot Pass to the Klondike region. During the 
course of the tedious journey a disastrous slide occurred while he was in 
camp, and he took a part in recovering the bodies of the men from the snow- 
slide. When the Yukon river was reached a boat was constructed of lumber 
which they whipsawed themselves, and in this the party proceeded as far as 
the month of the Stewart river, where he and seven other gold-seekers spent 
the summer in prospecting without results, going as far as three hundred 
ntiles up the Stewart river toward the Rocky mountains. The approach of 
winter weather forced him to go into winter camp at Dawson. In the spring 
he changed the scene of operations to a branch of the Hunker creek, but with 
little better luck than before. In the fall of 1899 he sailed down the Yukon 
and at St. Michaels secured passage on a steamer bound for Seattle. In 1900, 
with his brothers, Gordon and William, he formed the firm of Baechtel Bros., 
and embarked in the stock business in Eden valley, Mendocino county, where 
for nearly three years cattle and horses were kept on the range. In 1903 the 
business was sold to W. G. Henshaw. Since then Mr. Baechtel has engaged 
in the subdividing of lands and the sale of real estate, but also continues in 
ranching and raising stock with his brothers, owning one ranch in Round 
valley with them as partners and two ranches in Little Lake valley. In 
addition since January, 1904, he has had charge of the bookkeeping depart- 
ment of the Irvine & Muir Lumber Company. From the organization of the 
Bank of Willits he has been interested as a stockholder. 

On a hill overlooking Willits and Little Lake valley stands the comfor- 
table residence erected by Mr. Baechtel and presided over by his hospitable 
wife. May 24, 1903, he married Miss Turberg Simonson, daughter of Ole 
Simonson, represented on another page of this volume and widely honored 
as a pioneer of Mendocino county. Mrs. Baechtel was born and reared in 
Willits and taught school prior to her marriage. Their family numbers five 
children, namely : Marjorie Turberg, Richard Samuel, Harriet Luthera, 
Maxine and William Edwin. In politics Mr. Baechtel is a Republican of 
the progressive type. Devotion to civic afffairs appears in his efficient service 
as a member of the board of trustees of the town, over which he presided as 
chairman during two years, and has since been equally active in other 
capacities. Tactful as trustee, he has endeavored to create and promote a 
community spirit of mutual helpfulness and to advance progressive measures 
which his business experience convinces him would be of advantage to the 
general welfare.