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 HARRY D. LA MOTTE.� The elements of adventure and romance which glorify the hardships of pioneer life in California to readers of history as well as fiction have been very real to Harry La Motte. He has been per- mitted to bear more than the average share in opening up this state and the great northwest to civilization, and in his later years did equal service for the southwest. Danger and privation have been his to face and endure, but the splendor of the achievements in which he has had part would be ample com- pensation for bodily suffering and the hazards beyond which the explorer in any field looks to behold his object. Mr. La Motte had a heritage of fearless- ness and courage from his French Huguenot ancestors. His great-grandfather, Jean Henri de la Motte, was a refugee to Holland in the days of persecution, coming thence to Maryland, in the new world. His brother. Admiral De La Motte Pecat, was the first officer ever to salute the American flag in a foreign port, saluting the Stars and Stripes flying from Paul Jones's Bonhomme Richard as she sailed into the port of Cherbourg, France. (See Life of John Paul Jones.) Daniel La Motte. the father of Harry D.. was born in Baltimore, Md., and had a long career as a cotton manufacturer, spending the last fifty years of his life in that business. His family consisted of thirteen children, of whom we have the following record : Margaretta married Alfred Du Pont, head of the Du Pont powder works at Brandywine, Del. ; Ferdinand, who is deceased, was in partnership with his father in the manufacture of cotton ; Mary, Mrs. Houns- field, died in Wilmington, Del. ; Eleanora was the wife of the late Edwin Gil- pin, who served as chief justice of Delaware ; Daniel, deceased, was also in business with his father as a cotton manufacturer; Robert S. is more fully mentioned later; Eugenia died when seventeen years old; William, who was secretary and treasurer of the Farmers' Insurance Company, of Wilmington, Del., died unmarried in the fall of 1912; Anna died unmarried; Harrv D. is specially mentioned later; Alfred V. is engaged in fish hatching at Ukiah, Cal. ; Charles Eugene served in the Union army throughout the Civil war, becoming a general, and died unmarried; Francis died of scarlet fever when ten years old. Of the seven sons who reached maturity five served in the Civil war, all but Harry and Alfred, and one of the family treasures is a letter to their mother from Abraham Lincoln, in special recognition of the services hef sons rendered their country. The little state of Delaware had the first men in the field when the Rebellion broke out. and it was the prompt action o{ Robert S. La Motte which helped to hold Delaware in the Union when the crisis came. In anticipation of the war he had organized the Bell & Everett Rangers to stand by the government if necessary. The day before the special session of the legislature called by the governor to declare Delaware out of the Union, James A. Bayard stopped at the house of Judge Gilpin and told him of the action taken by the state executive, and the Judge sent the mes- sage : "Tell the governor if he attempts it I will hang him."' Robert S. La Motte lost no time assuring himself of the loyalty of his men, became colonel of the First Delaware Infantry without waiting for authority, and exerted sufficient influence to save the day and commit the state to the Union cause. He subsequently became colonel of the Thirteenth United States Infantry, the regiment General Sherman was commanding at the outbreak of the Civil war. Harry D. La Motte was born in Delaware county. Pa., September 6, 1831, and during most of his boyhood was instructed under private tutors, the family home being out in the country. However, he attended private school in Philadelphia for a time. He was only a youth of eighteen when he came to California in 1849. After a short stay in San Francisco he was lured to the placer mining district on the Trinity river by the extravagant reports of its possibilities, and in the spring of 1850 joined his brother Robert in an expedi- tion up the coast. Chartering the steamer Laura Virginia, under Capt. Douglas Ottinger and Elates Seneckson and Buhne, they loaded it with pro- visions and started out to find the mouth of the Trinity river, a quest made also by nineteen more vessels. Proceeding as far up as Trinidad, where they arrived April 10th, some of the party then came back southward under the leadership of Robert S. La Motte, and found the body of water since known as Humboldt bay, which name was proposed by La Motte in honor of Baron von Humboldt, for his great scientific services to the world. :meantime Harry D. La Motte continued north with a party up to Crescent City, under Capt. Numa Duperu, on the schooner Arcadia of the revenue service. On the trip five men were drowned by the capsizing of a boat, and after burying their companions the rest proceeded northward as far as the Klamath river, which was identified by one of their number, Captain Thayer, an old sealer. Finding no other river they retraced their way to Trinidad, and on April 15th entered Humboldt bay, where the provisions were unloaded and the party disem- barked for the enterprise it had set out upon. Eureka, in that vicinity, was named by Capt. Charles Thompson, who owned the schooner Eclipse, out from Baltimore. The hardy men cut a trail to the Trinity river, and Harry La Motte remained in the Humboldt bay country for two years. With three comrades he built the first house on the bay (immortalized by Joaquin Miller in "The Lost Cabin"), where elk, deer and wild ducks were plentiful in that time of primeval conditions. During his stay there he worked considerably at wood chopping. Returning to San Francisco in 1852, he soon went up to Sonoma county and engaged in farming, between Petaluma and Bodega, on the Blucher ranch, remaining there for a period of twelve years. In 1850 Mr. La Motte became a member of the old California Guard, the first military company in the state, and is proud of his connection with this earliest body of citizen soldiery on the Pacific coast, the names of many of whose members are perpetuated in San Francisco in her street nomenclature. Thus Post street was named after Corporal Gabriel Post ; Howard street after Capt. W. D. M. Howard, who was the first captain of the guard and later the first president of the Society of California Pioneers ; Bryant street after Edwin Bryant, from Louisville, Ky., a literary man, author of "What I Saw in Cali- fornia." who came across the plains in 1846; Brannon street after Samuel Brannon : Folsom street after Capt. L. J. Folsom ; Larkin street after Thomas O. Larkin. who came to California in 1828; Bluxom street after Capt. Isaac Bluxom. Subsequently Mr. La Motte joined the City Guard, and was a member of the vigilance committee in whose operations the City Guard had an important part. When John S. Ellis was elected sheriff of San Francisco county in 1860 (succeeding Charles Doane, who had been elected as candidate of the People's party), Harry D. La Motte was sent for and appointed deputy and he continued to serve under four successive sheriffs. Ellis, Henry L. Davis, P. J. White and James Adams, the last four years of the time as under- sheriff. When he returned to business pursuits after his official experience, H. D. La Motte went with General Beale on the vast Tejon ranches, taking charge of the sheep department, in which capacity he had the care of ninety thousand head, on the Tejon. Castec Los Alamos and Lievre ranches. He was thus occupied until 1878. Returning to San Francisco he was engaged for some time looking after the Horace Hawes estate, and next took a position with the Southern Pacific Railway Company, in the legal department. He acted as right-of-way agent for the company, and as such secured the right-of-way for great stretches of the Southern Pacific and Mexican Central railways � from Los Angeles to San Antonio. Texas; from Saugus to Santa Barbara; from San Francisco to Santa Barbara on the coast ; from Santa Rosa to Car- quinez; from Los Angeles to the Soldiers' Home road. His most notable industrial achievements are compassed within these years. His wonderful executive ability and skill in construction work were highly valued, and time has proved the real worth of the feats he accomplished in carrying out what to him seemed the mere responsibilities of his position. His life during this period was as rich in adventure as ever, and many narrow escapes might be recorded in the history of those years. After leaving this service, some twenty years ago. he continued to live in San Francisco for three or four years, partially employed by the Southern Pacific Company. Some seventeen years ago he came to Lake county, making his home at Lower Lake for about three, years and since at Lakeport. Since settling there he has lived practically re- tired,, though by no means inactive. Local interests have provided interest and a field, for his restless mentality, and he has given the town the benefit of his large experience and capacity for handling affairs. He was a member of the board. of town trustees of Lakeport for seven years, and chairman of that body four years. He is a member of the California Pioneers' Association. one of the celebrated figures which that organization has taken pride in enrolling. In 1861 H. D. La Motte was married, at the Yount Adobe (the first house in Napa valley, built in 1828). to Miss Catherine Clayton, sister of William J. Clayton, of Lower Lake, and daughter of Capt. George C. Clayton, an old East India sea captain, who began his career as a mariner while serving in the British navy, and later was in the British East India service, running trading vessels from Calcutta to Liverpool. He was an officer on the trans- port which took Napoleon from France to St. Helena. Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. La Motte ; Robert Smith, who is engaged i;i the Crocker Bank ; Eugenia, wife of William Andrew Riddell, of Alameda, Cal. ; Harry C, a retired navy officer, a carriage painter by occupation, now living at Lakeport, Cal. : Emily, wife of Cullen K. Sturdyvant, of Seattle, Wash. ; William, who died when two years old; and Anna, wife of George H. Neal. of Lakeport.