Biographical Sketches.
CHAPTER XII.
HON. H.P. EAKLE.
Henry P. Eakle is a native of Clay County, Tennessee, born December 6, 1832. In early life he worked as a tailor for a short time in Lawrence and Columbia Counties, of his native State. He availed himself with assiduity of every opportunity to acquire a good common-school education, and succeeded. He was engaged on a farm for three years before coming to California, reaching the State in 1857, journeying overland by the South Platte and Carson Valley route. His trip was not without its adventures. At Gravelly Ford, on the Humboldt, they were attacked by a band of Snake Indians, with whom they fought a desperate battle, lasting half a day. All his company were wounded except Eakle. The Indians lost four killed and many wounded. Like most of the emigrants of that period, he was only blessed with such of the world's goods as his hands could earn. He was bred to habits of industry and self-reliance, and, on arriving in this State, he accepted with alacrity the first opportunity for employment. He worked as a laborer and as a farm hand on the ranches in Placer and Yolo Counties, made himself conversant with the various systems of agriculture and methods of stock-raising, and at the end of nine years of unremitting toil, he came to Colusa County, bringing with him his humble but hard-earned accumulations. In December, 1867, he located in Spring Valley, in Colusa County, and engaged in stock-raising and farming. He prospered beyond expectation, and is now one of the large land-holders of the county. His possessions consist of seventeen thousand acres in Colusa County, and two thousand acres in Lassen, Butte and Yolo Counties. His home is located two and one-half miles southeast of Williams.
Mr. Eakle is a director of the Central Irrigation District, and has been for several terms one of the directors of the Cortina School District. He was nominated by the Democrats of the county for the Assembly in April, 1890, and was elected by a small majority over J.C. Campbell.
Mr. Eakle was first married, October 20, 1865, to Miss Eliza F. Edrington, of Healdsburg, Sonoma County, she dying two years after their union. On November 26, 1871, he was again united in wedlock, to Mary E. Miller, of Freshwater, his present wife, by whom he had seven children, three of whom are living.
Mr. Eakle is a quiet man, of unassuming character. Like most men who began at the lowest round of the ladder of life and achieve success, he does his own thinking, and has a mind of his own. He possesses a strong supply of nerve and will-power. One of his neighbors relates an incident of this characteristic of Mr. Eakle. He was, many years ago, driving some stock on one of his ranches when an unruly animal kicked him so violently on his right knee as to dislocate it. He was several miles from home or a physician; the pain was growing very intense, and he was now at a loss what to do. But he was equal to the emergency. He told his wife, who was with him, how to arrange some rails on a fence, under his supervision, and when this was done he inserted the swollen and painful limb therein, and coolly reset the disjointed leg by a powerful and sudden pull. After this he was able to walk home slowly and dispensed entirely with the services of a surgeon.
COLUSA COUNTY
ITS
HISTORY TRACED FROM A STATE OF NATURE
THROUGH THE EARLY PERIOD OF SET-
TLEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT,
TO THE PRESENT DAY
WITH A
DESCRIPTION OF ITS RESOURCES, STATISTICAL
TABLES, ETC.
ALSO
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PIONEERS AND
PROMINENT RESIDENTS
by Justus H. Rogers
Orland, California
1891
Page 343-465
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 7/2/2009
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