Henry Kimmel McMath

https://books.google.com/books?id=xjVEAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA991

History of Colusa and Glenn Counties, California: With Biographical Sketches ...

By Charles Davis McComish, Mrs. Rebecca T. Lambert

Historic record Company, 1918 - Colusa County (Calif.) - 1074 pages

HENRY K. McMATH

Besides an honored name, and the example of a well-directed and successful life, Henry K. McMath has inherited from his father, Cyrus McMath, a native of Detroit, those invaluable qualities so often transmitted by a pioneer, which have undoubtedly had much to do with the son’s acknowledged attainments. In the early fifties, his father came to California with his wife, traveling from New York by way of Panama, and while crossing the Isthmus had a thrilling experience such as might dampen anybody’s ardor, and which could not but contribute, when the journey was over, to the settler’s satisfaction at arriving safely in the promised land. The railroad across the Isthmus had just been completed; and when the train carrying the McMaths and their fellow passengers was making its first trip, it had a head-on collision, and some of the cars went down with a poorly constructed bridge. Many of the passengers were killed, while others were crippled for life. Mr. and Mrs. McMath arrived in San Francisco at the time when the young city was the scene of violent disorders, and when the Vigilantes were just beginning to appear and take the situation in hand; and this doubtless led them to hurry on to Sacramento, where, for a while, they were located. Later, they removed to Marysville; and it was not until the late seventies that - they took up their residence at Willows. On the lot where the Tenney and Schmidt Garage now stands, Mr. McMath opened a' livery business, which he conducted until some twenty years ago. After that, he undertook the grinding of barley and the baling of hay; and he became noted as one of the best authorities on grain and alfalfa in the valley. He also contracted for, and built, about twenty miles of the Central Canal and laterals, with steam power and graders.

Several years ago Mrs. Cyrus McMath, after long and faithfully sharing her husband’s joys and sorrows, died; and after her demise he lived with his daughter, Mrs. Kahn, where he was an interesting figure in a select family circle. His death, at the age of eighty-three, which occurred in his buggy, when he was about to drive to his work, was mourned by the community generally, and particularly by his brother Odd Fellows, who accorded him due funeral rites.

In 1867, when Henry K. McMath was two years old, he accompanied his parents and the rest of the family overland from Marysville, by way of Fouts Springs, to Gravelly Valley, in Lake County. The party was assisted over the mountains by Indians, with their pack teams. After a short time the family moved on to Cottonwood, in Tehama County, where a son, Edgar, was born, and where the subject of our sketch attended school. The family next pitched its tent at Adin, in Modoc County, where the father for a year and a half managed a hotel; and in 1875 they came back to Lake County and settled on a government claim in Elk Valley. The pioneer engaged in sheep- and cattleraising, and also built some of the first wagon roads through the mountains. With characteristic enterprise and a proper conception of the wants of an undeveloped country, he also erected two sawmills—the first of the kind seen there. \Vild animals and game then abounded. As many as fifty-three bears were killed in one summer; and it was in that neighborhood that Henry McMath, when he was only fourteen years old, had his first shot at Bruin. Later, he killed many. In various ways, while at home, Mr. McMath assisted his father, and particularly in the care of stock.

In 1889, he came to Willows, and for a short time conducted a butcher shop here, after which he went to Redding, in Shasta County, where he started the Modoc Corral, or feed stables. After three months he returned to Willows, and entered his father’s employ in the livery stable. He also worked on hay-balers and threshing-machines, and later started the Elk Horn Stables, on North Tehama Street; but when, after a couple of years, this was burned out, he went to Grass Valley, in Nevada County, and for three months managed a livery stable. Afterwards he worked for a while in a gold mine at East Harmony.

When he returned to Willows, he built the new Elk Horn Stables on the site of the old ones, that had been burned; and when he had made them a financial success, he sold out to C. B. Asher. Then he bought a house and thirty-two lots on Vine Street, for which he paid nine hundred dollars. He soon disposed of this property at a profit, receiving thirteen hundred fifty dollars. Later, he bought a place on East Wood Street, for four hundred fifty dollars, and soon sold it to Jake Beilar for fourteen hundred dollars. Mr. McMath helped his father to build the old irrigation canal, for which he ran the steam engine used in excavating. He was employed in this way on twenty miles of the canal.

Seeing a good opening in the second-hand furniture business, Mr. McMath set up shop in a barn in the rear of the Mike Kahn residence, and ran a business there for six months, when he sold out for five hundred dollars. Still later, he undertook a. larger and better furniture establishment, handling both oldland new goods. 'He has built up a thriving business; and customers come from all 'parts of the valley to trade at his establishment. He is the oldest second-hand dealer in Willows, the one, in fact, who has made the undertaking a success, having opened business on November 21, 1910, and outlived five competitors. When he bought his present place, at 201 South Tehama Street, it was a rooming-house, for which, with the lot, he paid two thousand five hundred dollars; and having improved and enlarged the place, he rented a sufficient number of rooms, for fifteen months, to pay for his property.

By his first wife Mr. McMath has two daughters, Mrs. Vernie Scott and Henrietta. The latter is still attending school. Mr. McMath is an honored and popular member of the Odd Fellows Lodge at Willows.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Jun 22 2017, 13:41:06 UTC

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• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Jul 20 2017, 16:35:59 UTC