Q. N. Atkins – In the year of 1812 N. A. Atkins, a native of Massachusetts, and his wife, nee Lydia Waters, a native of Connecticut, both of Welsh extraction, emigrated to the Western Reserve in Ohio, then a wilderness.  Here they purchased a farm and helped to clear up the country, and here they reared their family of eight children, only two of whom now survive.  On the 20th of August 1831, their son Quintus Narcissus was born.

He received his education in Ohio, at Albion Academy, Pennsylvania, and at Poland Institute, Ohio.

At the age of twenty Mr. Atkins left school to join the ranks of the people who were coming from Ohio to the new El Dorado of the West, he arrived in California August 20, 1852.  He first mined in Gold Run and then in Grass Valley.  In June 1853, he came to Shasta, after it had been burned to the ground.  With a company he went to Horsetown.  They conceived the idea of turning the river from its bed by building a dam.  Mr. Atkins worked there, and contracted the ague, from which he did not fully recover for eight years.  The enterprise of turning the stream proved unsuccessful.  He continued to mine and at times with fair success, but, like many other miners, did not save his money.  In 1858 he was united in marriage to Miss Martha A. Hughs, a native of Wisconsin.  Her father, Andrew Hughs, a native of Missouri, came to California in 1853.  Mr. and Mrs. Atkins reared a family of fourteen children, eleven sons and three daughters, all of whom are living.  The second son and one daughter were born in Star City, Humboldt County, and all the rest were born in Shasta County.  Their names are as follows: Benjamin W., Frank M., Emma J., William J., Jesse, Warren G., Octava and Flora (twins), Irwin, Dewitt C., Clarence, Quintus Narcissus and Cleveland and Harrison (twins).

Mr. Atkins worked at the carpenter’s trade until 1862, when he went to Star City to the mines, remaining until 1864 – 65.  At that time he went to Silver Lake, Idaho, going in wagons and being three months on the road, the delay being caused by high waters and bad sloughs.  He worked there a year on the quartz mills.  The first winter he paid $20 per sack for flour.  In 1866 Mr. Atkins returned to Shasta County.  He owns 320 acres of land on Clover Creek, where he resides with this family.  He also has a mill and a home in the mountains on the Tamarack road, where his family spends the summers.  Mr. Atkins claims to be a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, but is not of Democratic stock.  Three times he has been elected County Surveyor.  He has also held the office of Deputy Assessor, has been twice elected to the office and is the present incumbent.  He is one of the old, reliable stand-bys of the county, and is deeply interested in its growth and prosperity.  Mr. Atkins is a Master Mason.

Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California, Lewis Publishing Co., 1891 Page 747
Transcribed by Pat Houser