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 SULLIVAN S. RUSSELL.� Prior to the opening of the Revolutionary war by many years the Russell family came from France to America and settled in Maine, near the Atlantic coast. James Russell, the son of a Revolu- tionary officer and patriot, was born at Farmington, Franklin county. Me., and married Cordelia Gordon, a native of Phillips, the same county, and a descendant of German ancestry of colonial pedigree. Among the eleven children forming their family was Sullivan S., who was born in Maine August 5, 1837, and became self-supporting at a very early age. Schools were so few in that day and the poverty of the family so imperatively made necessary the early labor of each child that he attended school only eighteen months alto- gether. In spite of this handicap he has become a man of broad information. In acquiring knowledge he has been helped by his native wit and quick comprehension. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to Absalom Park- man, a blacksmith, at Solon, Me., under whom he spent three years of diligent application to the mastery of the trade. On the expiration of his term as an ap- prentice he started for the then unknown and undeveloped regions of Minne- sota, into which no railroad had yet been built. It was possible for him to ride on the train as far as Dubuque, Iowa, and there he boarded a steamboat to travel on the Mississippi as far as Stillwater. When the vessel reached Lake Pepin it was discovered that navigation was impossible by reason of ice, so the passengers disembarked from the boat and walked thirty miles around the lake, a most unpleasant undertaking in the chill and dampness of the early spring. The introduction to Stillwater had by the young blacksmith from Maine was no more encouraging than his experiences in the journey thither. Arriv- ing there in the latter part of March, he spent his first night on a carpenter's tool chest with six inches of water on the floor. The following day he began to work in a blacksmith shop, where he remained until October, 1858. Re- signing the position at that time, he returned east to New York and took passage on a boat that sailed via Havana to the Isthmus of Panama. From that place he sailed on another vessel to San Francisco, where he landed with $5 in his possession. However, to a young man possessed of health and in- dustry, lack of capital is not a formidable affair, and with characteristic resolution of purpose he quickly found employment. His first task was that of shoeing mustang stage horses for the Fowler Bros.' stage line running from Sacramento to Red Bluff. Next he spent a month in a blacksmith shop at Tehama, after which he worked for D. C. Huntoon on the Cottonwood for a year. Meanwhile, a new bridge having been built across that creek and the course of travel having been changed thereby, he went to a location near Bell's bridge and built a small cabin for a shop. Until October of 1862 he followed his trade at that point. From 1862 until 1886 he engaged at the trade of blacksmith at Laporte, Plumas county. Shortly after New Year's of 1886 he brought his family to Lakeport, where he bought out D. C. Nicoll, the old carriage manufacturer, wagon-maker and blacksmith. Working quietly but industriously at the forge, he made a fair livelihood and rose to a position among the efficient blacksmiths of Lake county. For eight years beginning in 1894 he served as county assessor and meantime discontinued business, but afterward built a shop and resumed blacksmithing, eventually to sell out to Mr. Eraser and retire from active work at the trade. Since casting his first vote for Abraham Lincoln, in 1860, Mr. Russell has continued to uphold the principles of the Republican party by his ballot. Upon the organization in 1862 of the Laporte Guard, Company E, he was commissioned first lieutenant. At the election of the following year he was promoted to be captain and continued as such for the next six successive years, until the company was finally mustered out of the state militia after seven years of service. Fraternally he is past grand and past chief patriarch in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Although not allied with denomi- national work, he is in sympathy with the doctrines of the Presbyterian Church, with which his wife is connected. The marriage of Mr. Russell and Miss Roxanna Carrie McMath was solemnized March 26, 1863. Eleven children were born of the union and seven of these attained mature years. The eldest, Frank B., a traveling sales- man with headquarters at Sacramento, married Emma Stanley and has three children, Mabel, Calvin and Stanley. The second, Grace E.. married J. A. Keithly, a teamster and owner of a pear orchard in Big valley, and they have five children, Glenn, Blanche, Sarah and Seth (twins) and Audrey. The third, May, married H. L. Tressel, an attendant at the Napa asylum, and they have one son, Clarence. The fourth, Ralph S., who remains with his parents, follows the trade of a blacksmith. The fifth, Archie M., married Mrs. Milli- cent (Kemp) Moran, of Oakland, is an undertaker at Lakeport, and is repre- sented elsewhere in this volume. The sixth, Bessie, is the wife of Jack Hanson, a teamster and farmer at Fairfield, Solano county. The youngest, Jessie I., is the wife of A. Beelard, a prosperous rancher at Vacaville, and they have one son, Russell. As early as 1857 Archie and Elizabeth (Kimmel) McMath, the parents of Mrs. Russell, came to California, accompanied by their three youngest children, Archie, Robert and Ella (twins). A family home was established first at Marysville, Yuba county. One of their elder children, George, had already married and established a home in Washtenaw county, Mich., but early in the '60s brought his family to California and remained in the west until his death. The two eldest children, Henry and Cyrus McMath, had preceded their parents to California, crossing the plains shortly after the discovery of gold. Henry is now deceased, and Cyrus, still living, is a resident of Willows. Two daughters had married before the parents left Michigan. Susan, the wife of Sumner Perry, then lived at Ypsilanti, Mich., but now resides at Berlin, Wis. Elsie, now deceased, was the wife of Everett Frazer, of Marquette. Mich., where she was living at the time of the removal of the parents to California. There were two remaining daughters in the family, Elizabeth (generally called Libbie), then sixteen years of age, and Roxana Carrie, then only ten. For the convenience of travel and realizing the uncer- tainties about establishing a new home in California, these two daughters were left behind in Washtenaw county, Mich., with their grandparents, Henry and Susan Kimmel, a well-to-do farming couple living near Ypsilanti. During August of 1858 the girls started to travel alone to California for the purpose of joining their parents. By stage to Adrian, Mich., and thence by railroad, they reached New York City in due time, only to find, when they inquired the price of their passage that they were short of money for the tickets. At first it seemed as if the younger girl must be sent back to the grandparents in Michigan, but they finally decided to travel second-class, instead of first-class as originally planned, which left them just enough for the steamship tickets. They sailed on the old "Moses Taylor," which took them via Havana to Panama. Thence they sailed on another vessel to San Francisco, where kind- hearted fellow-passengers paid their fares to Sacramento, and in that city their father awaited them. Thus happily ended a memorable journey. Five years later the smaller girl, grown to young womanhood, became the wife of Mr. Russell. The older daughter, Elizabeth, was married to D. A. McConnell and moved to Colorado, her present home being at Doyleville, Gunnison county.