Shasta County
Biographies
VALENTINE DOLL
Valentine Doll was a native of Stupferich, Germany, who was born to
Ferdinand and Barbara Maria Deger Doll Sr.,. Valentine was one of five
children born to them. Two of them, the eldest Ferdinand Jr., and Valentine
Doll had dreams of coming to America.
Both knew how hideous this trip to America and traveling in America
could be. But they were willing to take a chance in order to live out their
childhood dreams. Their motives for coming in 1849 were to get out of
military training in Germany and get a chance at gold mining. They came to
America on a sailing ship, as everyone did in those days, and were the
first of the Doll family to immigrate.
When the siblings first arrived in America they headed to Pikes Peak,
Colorado, seeking their fortune. When prospects began to look less than
promising, they moved on to California, presumably by wagon. In California,
they bought a mine. They worked the mine and built up a mountain of
discarded dirt and rock near the entrance. Then they sold the mine for
either $50 or $150. Word has it that the new owners soon found the mine to
be one of the richest gold mines in the area, a real Mother Lode. The
mountain of dirt which the Doll brothers had piled near the entrance was
rich in ore. The siblings were looking for yellow gold and had been
discarding the white gold in the vein they were following.
After selling the mine in California, these two brothers went their own
ways but stayed in contact and came back together in Shasta County.
Valentine Doll was first living in the Clear Creek territory of Western
Shasta in 1859. The 1860 census shows both brothers listed living in the
ramshackle mining community known as Horsetown, along what is now called
Clear Creek Road.
The sibling moved farther up Clear Creek to the Eagle Creek settlement,
which became Ono in 1883. The Doll siblings had enough money to buy
property. Valentine was attracted to the Ono area by the rolling hills and
grassy fields. The siblings bought the old Pryor ranch at Eagle Creek.
Valentine Doll was admitted to citizenship about 1865 in Shasta County.
About the time the brothers settled in, Ferdinand Doll Jr., was well aware
that women were in short supply in Shasta County, and headed back to
Stupferich, Germany to find a bride about 1871. He never returned as his
bride talked him into staying.
Valentine Doll married on August 27, 1878 to Harriett Emma Schmidt whose
surname was Americanized to Smith. She was the daughter of Shasta County
pioneers Gottlieb (George) Kaylor and Elizabeth Lamberson Schmidt. Her
family came from Pennsylvania and arrived in Shasta County by covered wagon
before 1860.
Valentine Doll was a miner who turned to farming. He was a charter
member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Welcome Lodge #209, who
held its first meeting at Piety Hill, October 1, 1872. Doll was also
affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He was a faithful
and devoted officer of the church.
In 1885, Doll with a man named John Larkin, went into business together.
They bought the butcher shop previously owned by pioneers Dunn & Dack,
located on Maine Street in the town of Shasta. They called it Doll & Larkin
Butcher. Eventually he returned to farming on his Ono ranch on Huling Creek.
Valentine Doll was a highly respected citizen of Western Shasta. On
Wednesday, March 28, 1906, he died. His funeral was largely attended by
many friends and family. Valentine and Harriett Smith Doll had six children
who was educated at the Ono Schoolhouse. Valentine's wife Harriett died in
December of 1918 and is buried next to her husband in the Ono Cemetery.
His descendants still live in present day Shasta County.
Contributed by Jeremy M. Tuggle
Resource "Rooted In Shasta County" by Jeremy M. Tuggle published by
Preserving Memories in 2003, 2nd Edition 2004.
EDMUND S. QUIRK
Edmund S. Quirk arrived in Redding, Shasta County on July 24, 1892, from
Missouri. The train ride to Redding may have been tiring. When the train
pulled into the station, there was much excitement, the first thing Quirk
saw was the hanging of the infamous Ruggles brothers!
A furious lynch mob broke into the Shasta County Jail and hung the
siblings on Shasta Street in Redding for robbing the Shasta-Weaverville
Stage and killing shotgun messenger Amos "Buck" Montgomery. It wasn't just
the robbery and murder that sparked the hanging, but legend has it, the
Ruggles brothers, were hung because they were so handsome that the women in
town started bringing them baked goods, and the men were jealous of this.
What a site that must have been! This first glimpse of Redding, Edmund,
was shown did not scare him off, as it did to many others, who were
scouting Redding out as a possible place to live. Edmund was nicknamed "Ed"
and he found work with the Southern Pacific Railroad, PG & E, and Shasta
County. In 1898 the pioneer married Jessie Mae Kidder a daughter of Shasta
County pioneers Reverend Wlliam Samuel and Mary Elizabeth McFarlin Kidder.
The Quirk family lived in the Bald Hills in Western Shasta County.
During the winter they lived in Ono and during the summer they lived on
Duncan Creek. In 1919 his sister arrived on trin 14 pulling into the
station in Redding. Quirk hadn't seen his sister, Olive Quirk Chinn, in 28
years and this sparked a happy reunion.
Jessie Mae Kidder Quirk, was a homemaker who died in 1929 and is buried
in the Ono Cemetery in the Kidder family burial plot. Edmund died in 1951,
to their union, two daughters were born. Their descendants still live in
present day Shasta County.
Contributed by Jeremy M. Tuggle
Resource "Rooted In Shasta County" by Jeremy M. Tuggle published by
Preserving Memories in 2003, 2nd Edition 2004.
A History of Shasta County by Shasta County Book Commission
The Shasta Courier, September 26, 1919