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 HEESER.� The life which this review depicts began in Germany August 28. 1822, and closed in California April 8, 1906. Generations of the name had lived and labored in Rhenish Prussia near the banks of the Rhine, and there, at Coblentz, was the home of his parents, Eberhard and Julia (Heusler) Heeser, people of true worth and culture, whose high ideals were imbued by the son and became a part of his own character. Private and public schools aided him in the acquisition of a liberal education, and the University of Berlin supplemented the earlier and more rudimentary advan- tages. Additional training equally valuable but somewhat different came to him through work in the counting house of his father, but the death of the latter and his own arrival at maturity changed his plans and caused him to broaden his views relative to future work. Seeking the United States, he went from Baltimore, Md., to Providence, Ky., and opened a general store. Three years later, in 1847, he returned to Prussia, renewed the friendships of his youth, enjoyed a visit with kindred, and on returning to America brought with him several of his relatives and friends. For a time he engaged in mer- chandising in Wisconsin and Illinois. The discovery of gold in California directed the attention of the young German to the possibilities of the far west and he decided to seek an opening in this part of the country. During the spring of 1850 he left Illinois with a party of emigrants equipped with horses and wagons and landed in California August 3 of the same year. After spending some time in San Francisco, he settled in Napa county and in 1856 sold the ranch he had previously pur- chased there. September 11, 1857, he arrived at Mendocino, where he first kept a store, later owned and operated a farm, and for years before his death published the Mendocino Beacon. During the spring of 1858 he bought the W. H. Kelly ranch adjacent to town. For a time he had as partner in this enterprise his brother, August H., who was born in Germany August 10, 1829, but the interest owned by the brother he eventually purchased, after which he platted a part of the farm and sold it in town lots. As early as 1858 he became justice of the peace, the following year was appointed notary public, from 1864 to 1867 served as county supervisor, and from 1877 to 1880 filled the same office through election on the Democratic ticket. The building of roads engaged the attention of Mr. Heeser in an early day. Realizing the need of good roads aside from the Indian trails (then the only means of access to the interior) he spent much time in travel and inspection of the country, thus enabling him to locate and later build the wagon road from Mendocino to Little Lake (now Willits). Afterward he constructed the road from Mendocino to Ukiah. As road overseer and United States deputy surveyor his work was of inestimable value to the county. Personally he reaped no profit from such undertakings and at times even lost money of his own in filling contracts for roads, but he considered that he received compensation in the knowledge of a service done and in the benefit to his health derived from camping for months in the timber belt. December 18. 1865, he married Miss Laura A. Nelson, a native of Bangor, Me., who passed away July 9, 1895. Their only child, August Alfred, was born Feb- ruary 5, 1877, and survives them, continuing his father's business. The Bank of Mendocino, a mutual savings concern, was opened by Mr. Heeser in 1870, and the following year he organized the Mendocino Discount Bank. At first he officiated as president of both, but later he filled the office of secretary for many years. October 6, 1877, he and W. H. Meacham estab- lished the Mendocino Beacon, of which he became sole proprietor a year later and which he continued to publish up to his death. For a time he also owned papers at Point Arena, Fort Bragg, Westport and Kibesilah, but eventually all were sold excepting the plant at Mendocino. In addition to writing for his papers he was the author of a treatise, "About the Flood and the Universe," advancing a theory to harmonize science with the Biblical account of the Hood. For years he was an elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Mendo- cino and the teacher of a Sunday-school class. Prior to starting for Cali- fornia in 1850 he was made a Mason. About 1852 he became a member of California Lodge No. 1, F. & A. M., in San Francisco. During 1865' he aided in organizing Mendocino Lodge No. 179, F. & A. M., of which he served as master, while his Masonic affiliations were broadened through association with the Royal Arch Chapter, the Knights Templar Commandery, the Scottish Kite and the Eastern Star. His services as an editor, farmer, county officer, road builder and church man indicate that he had a high sense of the duty of citizenship, while distinctive loyalty to Mendocino county made his in- fluence potent and benignant, and invariably prompted objective confidence cjn the part of associates.