Heading Westward

Sometimes one piece of information can open a flood gate to a rush of facts, which can nearly drown the person looking at it. That’s what has happened in the last couple of days after I was asked to add any information I had gathered on Bridgeville, California to the town’s webpage.

It started with the last name Hufford — my Grandma Leola Olivera’s maiden name. I still haven’t gotten back to Bridgeville’s webpage.

David Hufford was born July 26, 1828 in the state of Kentucky. He was the son of Jacob Hufford Sr. and Elizabeth Ann Allen and was married twice. 

His first wife was Mary Morris, with whom he had seven children: Walter Sylvester, David, Elizabeth, Ida Rose, William, Frank L., and George Washington.

George Washington is my grandmother’s father. He died in 1950 or there about. And one of Great-grandpa George’s brothers, Frank has lengthy Humboldt County biography, which reads:

“One of the old-time settlers in the vicinity of Orick, Cal., Frank L. Hufford has made for himself a reputation there as an enterprising business man, and liberal and active in the furthering of any project for the betterment of the community where he resides. Mr. Hufford is truly a native son of California, having been born in Contra Costa county, this state, November 24, 1866, the son of David Hufford, a native of the state of Ohio, and grandson of David Hufford, a pioneer of this state who came from Ohio across the plains in 1852, and made his home in Butte county, where his death occurred.

The father of Mr. Hufford was a cooper by trade, who made the journey to California in 1849, three years earlier than his father, and followed mining in the Sierras, in which occupation he attained a good measure of success. Later he bought land and improved a farm in Contra Costa county, where he was the owner of about seven hundred acres of property whereon he raised wheat and grapes.

In 1877 he removed to Humboldt county, locating for one year at Gold Bluff, near where the town of Orick is now, going thence to Trinidad; in the same county, where he bought twenty acres of land, selling the same after four years and locating at Arcata, where he became the owner of sixty acres, which property likewise he sold, removing to Alliance and thence again to Arcata, where he died at the age of seventy-seven years. In 1888 he made butter kegs for Griffin & Swan at Gold Bluff (now Orick), for the shipping of their butter to the San Francisco market.

Of the five children by David Hufford’s first marriage, his son Frank was the fourth in age, his mother dying when he was only three years old, his brothers and sisters being: Walter, an attorney-at-law, who now lives in Oregon ; Lydia, now Mrs. Sweem, of Stockton, Cal.; Rosa, now Mrs. Ferril ; and George, who resides at Bridgeville, Cal.

By the father’s second marriage, there were four other children. Frank L. Hufford grew up on his father’s farm. He was deprived of school advantages, but by self-study and observation he has become a well-informed man, possessed of noteworthy business acumen.

At the age of eleven years he moved with his family to Humboldt county, where he assisted his father in his work, also being employed on a dairy in Orick for five years and working in the woods for four years. In 1897 Mr. Hufford started to work independently, renting a ranch from Peter Hansen where he conducted a dairy for three years.

His wife received from her father’s estate eighty acres of wild land, at the mouth of Redwood creek, two miles from Orick, which Mr. Hufford improved. He also took up a homestead of one hundred sixty acres within one-fourth miles, to which he added by a purchase, thirty-eight acres more, thus becoming the owner of two hundred seventy acres in all, upon which he engaged in the dairy business and the raising of stock.

Mr. Hufford was likewise employed for six or seven years in hauling freight from Bald Hills to Arcata with a six-horse team, and he has been for the past eighteen years overseer of roads in District No. 5, which comprised the country for fifteen miles around Orick, also being school trustee of the same town for a period of time, in all amounting to sixteen years. In his political interests he is a member of the Republican party.

Mr. Hufford’s first marriage was to Miss Ella Montgomery, a native of Humboldt county, who died leaving him two children: Floyd, of Bridgeville, this county, and Mrs. Josephine Gallon, of Clinton, Mo.

The second marriage of Mr. Hufford, to Miss Myr Griffin, took place at Eureka, June 18, 1892. Like himself, his wife is a native of California, having been born at the mouth of Redwood creek, near the present town of Orick, her father, George Griffin, having been a native of Pennsylvania, who came to this state as a pioneer.

After being engaged in gold mining at Gold Bluff for a time Mr. Griffin took up land on Redwood creek, where he also followed mining, later engaging in the dairy business upon his ranch, and afterwards taking Robert Swan into partnership, living here until his death occurred ; and here his daughter, later Mrs. Hufford, was brought up.

Mr. and Mrs. Hufford became the parents of seven children : Ida ; Blanche, wife of John Francis, a farmer living near the mouth of Redwood creek ; Vina, Walter, Leslie, Elmer and Kenneth, all of whom, with the exception of Mrs. Francis, make their home with their parents in Orick.

Mr. Hufford has built a five-thousand-foot sawmill on his property, where he engages in the manufacture of lumber, and also runs a blacksmith shop on the place. He. also engaged in mining near Gold Bluff, where he owns one hundred fifty acres, with an ocean front of three-fourths mile, and is extracting gold from the black sand on the beach.

By his business enterprises and public-spirited acts Mr. Hufford has won a high place in the esteem of all who know him. He attributes no small degree of his success to his wife, who by her aid and encouragement has been an able helpmeet in his different enterprises.”

Now back to David.

After his first wife died, he married Mary Melcher, with whom he had six more children. They are Mary, Catharine, Melvina, David Fred, Tessie, and Mantie E.

Elizabeth Ann Allen, David’s mother was born in the month of April 1803, the same year Lewis and Clark set out to explore the continent. She died in Butte County, California on October 13, 1880 and is buried in the Cherokee Cemetery in Oroville.

She and Jacob parented nine children. Their names are Sally, Surrilda, Nancy Jane, David, James, Jacob, Elizabeth, John, and Eliza

As for David Hufford, he died in Arcata on April 3, 1906. His grave can be found in the Greenwood Cemetery in Arcata.