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


JAMES BRETT. � A native son of Mendocino county who, following in 
the footsteps of his father, has accomplished success and established an envi- 
able record, is James Brett, born at Noyo, Mendocino county, March 3, 1872. 
His father, also named James Brett, was born in North Carolina, and went to 
sea when twelve years of age. He sailed around the Horn to San Francisco, 
and from there went to Eureka, where he started lumbering. He was an 
early settler at Noyo, and became .sawyer in the McPherson & Weatherbee 
mill, later rising to the position of superintendent. In about 1875 he came to 
Albion and became manager of both the Noyo and Albion mills. Afterwards, 
in partnership with Carl White, he built the mill at Salmon Creek, or Whites- 
boro, operating it for three years until they sold it to L. E. White. Then he 
went to Humboldt county for one year, returning at the end of that time to 
Albion where with Mr. Weatherbee he took his old place as manager of the 
Albion mill, and continued until it was sold out. Such a favorable reputation 
had he by this time that he was made superintendent of the Fort Bragg mill 
for the Union Lumber Company, a position which he held for aljout twelve 
or fourteen years. Going then to Jenner. Sonoma county, he rebuilt a mill 
and erected a railroad, for one year remaining as manager. It was at this 
time that he went to Florence, Ore., where he reconstructed a mill. While 
planning a wharf at Santa Cruz he was taken ill and died at his home in Oak- 
land in April, 1912; his burial was at Little River. 

The mother of James Brett was before her marriage Maggie King, and 
she was a native of Ohio. She now resides in Oakland, Cal. Of her eight chil- 
dren only two are living: James; and Austin, who is a mining engineer in 
Oakland. 

James Brett was educated in the public school of Mendocino county, and 
learned the lumber business under his father in all of its details. He also 
learned the machinist trade and mill-wrighting, aside from the mills in Men- 
docino county, working at Crescent City, and in Tuolumne county, becoming 
master mechanic. In 1907 he worked in like capacity with the Albion Lum- 
ber Company, proving himself capable, and in 1910 he was made superin- 
tendent of the mill. He married, in Albion, Miss Laura Gottlieb, who was 
born in Virginia City, Nev., the daughter of Julius Gottlieb, who before com- 
ing to Mendocino county was a mining man of that city. Of this union there 
are two children : Ivah, attending the San Francisco State Normal ; and 
Florence. Mr. Brett has faithfully filled the position of school trustee of 
the Albion district, and is a Republican as to political tenets.