Shasta County
Biographies
DOCTOR ISAAC ATWOOD
prominently connected with several valuable mines in Shasta County, is a native of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, born September 24, 1812. His father, John Atwood, Jr., was a native of Connecticut. The Atwoods of the United States sprung from three brothers, who came from England in an early day. One located at Boston, one on the Hudson River, opposite Albany, and the third in the Green Mountain State, the first being the Doctor’s branch of the family tree. His father married Miss Nancy Lester, a native of Berkshire County, Massachusetts. She was Elihu Lester’s daughter, who was at the Boston Tea Party of Revolutionary fame. He served his country throughout that struggle as a valiant soldier, lost the sight of one of his eyes in the struggle, settled in Massachusetts at the close of the Revolution and lived there until he died. It was his misfortune to lose his other eye by an accident, and was blind several years before his death. The Doctor had eight brothers and sisters, and only himself and a sister now survive. The sister is now the wife of D. C. Wood, of Lake Mills, Wisconsin. In 1836 the family removed to Jefferson County, Wisconsin. The whole family settled there and a portion of his life he worked at contracting and building; was one of the workmen on the old capitol building of Wisconsin. For several years he was interested in and ran a saleratus factory at Lake Mills. Early in the history of Wisconsin he was in horticultural business and had one of the first vineyards in the State. For many years, too, he was interested in the nursery business. Later in his life he owned and ran a Turkish bath institution in Minneapolis, and was very successful in the same up to 1886, when he came to California. Here he spent the first nine months at San Jose. He then went to San Francisco, and was for some time interested in the sale of magnetic goods. While there he became interested in mines and mining stock, and has organized, with other Eastern capitalists, five mining companies in California, -- the Eureka, Tellurium, Annarena, Clear Creek and the Heckla. Their shares were all paid up and not assessable, and they have the money in the treasury to develop them. The work is in rapid progress. These mines have large quantities of very rich ore. At the Tellarium mine they have 290 acres of land, and the ore at two different assays has given over $33,000 of gold to the ton. Dr. Atwood owns a one-fourth interest in these mines. He intends, as a result of these mines, to found a home for aged people at some point in California.
He is both a Mason and an Odd Fellow.
He has been married thrice; first in 1838, to Miss Mary Wheeler. They had three children, born in Wisconsin, namely: George, Herbert and Emily. Mrs. Atwood died in 1852, and some years after he married Julia Whitney, by whom he had five children, three of whom are living, namely: Savel, Clara and Florence. His wife died in 1871, and in 1872 he married Mrs. Haskell, who had five children by her former husband, born in Wisconsin, namely: Charles, Helena, Byron, May E. and Alice. The Doctor affiliates with the Republican party; was a Postmaster in Lake Mills, Wisconsin, before the last war, and is an intelligent and worthy citizen.
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California,
The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
MRS. KATE F. MUSICK
the proprietor of the Millville Hotel, is a native daughter of the Golden West, being born a few miles from Millville, November 1, 1857, the daughter of John B. Hunt, a California pioneer and a native of Huntsville, Missouri. He came to California in 1849, and was married to Mary C. Boyce, a native of Tennessee, but raised in Missouri. In 1853, when eighteen years old, she crossed the plains to California and they were married at Millville. They had six children. Only Mrs. Musick and her sister Mamie are living; the latter is now the wife of Mr. Hainline, of Anderson.
Mrs. Musick was married to Charles Alonzo Musick in June, 1877, and they had six children, four of whom are living, namely: John W., Dollie, Grover A. and Pearl. Mrs. Musick is a member of the Rebekah Degree, I.O.O.F. Her husband was a native son of the Golden West, born in Yolo County, December 12, 1853, the son of William Musick, a pioneer, and now a resident of Shasta County. C. A. Musick was a respectable citizen, a kind and loving husband and father, and notwithstanding every possible effort was made to ward it off he fell a victim to consumption and died in Igo, October 10, 1889, greatly lamented by his family, relatives and a large circle of friends and acquaintances. Mrs. Musick is a refined and pleasant lady, is a good hostess, and in addition to her other property owns a residence and village lots in the growing village of Anderson.
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California,
The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
HENRY HERMAN BUTZBACH
is the “village blacksmith” of Millville, who has gained by the strong blows of his good, brawny right arm a nice home and a good shop, and in his line is the leading business man in town. He was born in Berrien County, Michigan, March 8, 1856, the same year in which the great Republican party of the country was born. It is therefore a natural consequence that he should be the stanch Republican that he is, and it may truly be said of him that he was born one. His father, Philip, and his mother, Amanda (Herman) Butzbach, were hard-working, well-to-do German people who, to improve their condition and give their off-spring a chance under the free institutions of America, emigrated to the United States in 1848, and became the parents of thirteen healthy children, twelve of whom they succeeded in bringing up.
Mr. Butzbach, the subject of this sketch and their third child, learned his trade in Michigan and worked at it for eleven years. He then emigrated to Oregon, and six months after came to California. He worked at San Jose, Pleasanton and San Francisco, but during all this time he was unsettled; and in order to settle his mind he returned East and married Miss Amanda Arnay, a native of Ohio. A year afterward he returned to California and decided upon Millville for their future home. He purchased a good home and shop, opened his business and at once stepped to the front, getting the business in Millville and vicinity and for many miles out; and now there have come to live in and enliven the home of Henry Herman Butzbach and Amanda, his wife, two happy little boys, whom they have named Harry R. and Edwin P., both born in the village of Millville, in the County of Shasta, in the beautiful State of California.
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California,
The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler