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


HENRY VAN WAMBOLD.� The lineage of the Wambold family is 
traced back through several generations to Hanover, Germany, whence the 
first of the name in America crossed the ocean to Pennsylvania and settled 
upon a farm in Bucks county. From that county, where he was born and 
reared, Harvey Wambold removed to Wisconsin while Milwaukee was yet a 
wilderness with little indication of future greatness as a metropolitan center. 
With the early development of that town he became familiar through long 
residence in one of its suburbs, where for years he acted as superintendent 
of a large flouring mill, eventually, however, removing to Waukesha county 
and settling at Eagle, where the twilight of his useful existence passed in 
retirement. After settling in Milwaukee he married Mary Barndt. who was 
born in Pennsylvania and is now, at the age of eighty-three, living at Eagle, 
Waukesha county. The parental family consisted of five children and the 
eldest of these was Henry, born at West Granville, Waukesha county. Wis., 
November 10, 1850, and trained during youth to a knowledge of the trade of 
miller. In all probability he would have chosen the mill as the scene of his 
life's activities had he been able to endure the dust, but the physical strain 
was such that he had to give up all thought of continuing at the business. At 
the age of eighteen he was employed as a clerk in the retail and wholesale 
dry-goods store of his uncle, Elias Wambold, who later promoted him to be 
bookkeeper and cashier. The sale of the large business and its change of 
management threw the young man out of a position, whereupon he spent a 
year in the dress-goods department of T. L. Kelley & Co., at Milwaukee. 

Leaving Milwaukee July 1, 1872, Mr. Wambold spent seven days on the 
train en route to San Francisco and then spent thirty days in investigating 
the country, including a trip to Los Angeles, thence back to Northern Cali- 
fornia and Ukiah. During April of 1873 he bought a claim to one hundred 
and sixty-seven acres of brush thicket on the banks of the lower of the three 
Blue Lakes, and this he cleared and improved. When the survey was com- 
pleted in 1878 he filed his homestead on it and called it Laurel Dell to distin- 
guish it from the other resort in the vicinity. In 1890 he built an hotel and 
has developed the place into one of the county's earliest and most successful 
summer resorts, making on the tract all of its present improvements with the 
exception of the Club House. This hotel he operated in connection with his 
farm and about the same time he started in the business of canning string 
beans. The efforts of himself and brother had proved the soil of Lake county 
to be well adapted to beans. In fact, the string beans produced here have 
been unexcelled by those of any section of the west. Believing that there 
might be profit in the canning of the beans, in 1891 he started a cannery busi- 
ness at Laurel Dell, building the first cannery in the county, a two-story build- 
ing 16x24, with a sixteen-foot leanto around two sides. The crop of 1891 
amounted to three hundred cases. The first merchant who consented to 
handle them was W . P. Wheeler, of Oakland. Each year the pack was in- 
creased and the familiar Blue Lakes string bean label, the outward insignia 
of a fine pack, became known throughout this section of the country. Even- 
tually Mr. Wambold sold out to the Lake County Canning Company, a con- 
cern largely resulting from his own efforts to secure a strong organization for 
developing the business. At the present time he is considering the feasibility 
of building a factory for condensing goat's milk in Lake county, an under- 
taking that, if developed, will add another important industry to the list of 
local plants. 

The marriage of Mr. Wambold united him with Miss Elizabeth Massin- 
gill, a native daughter of California, her father, William Massingill, having 
been for years a prominent farmer in San Mateo county. Where national 
and state issues are involved, Mr. Wambold is a stanch supporter of the cause 
of the Republican party, but his interest in politics has never taken the form 
of office-seeking. Efficiency and honesty have been his watchwords in the 
management of his farm, hotel and cannery, and in fact in every business 
that has engaged his attention. Intrinsic kindliness has gained for him the 
confidence and loyal co-operation of those working with him for any private 
or public enterprise. With his wife he holds membership in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church and contributes to the maintenance and missionary move- 
ments of the congregation. Naturally he has a strong hold upon the public 
regard and has risen to a fair degree of success through energy, efficiency 
and industry.