Butte County
Biographies
JOHN H. BORNHOLDT
JOHN H. BORNHOLDT.—A successful business
man whose severely hard experience as a gold seeker in Alaska contributed to
his development, and added to his invaluable knowledge of the world and
every-day affairs, is John H. Bornholdt,
the proprietor of the popular O. K. Bakery, in the conduct of which
he is so ably assisted by his equally enterprising wife. He was born at Barmstedt, Holstein, on February 1, 1871, the son
of John H. Bornholdt, a carpenter and builder, who
was for four years in the Danish army as a non-commissioned officer. In his latter years the father had retired; and he died in 1916.
Mrs. Bornholdt, the mother, was Anna Schmidt
before her marriage; and she died two years before her husband. She was the
mother of six sons, three of whom are in California.
The second eldest of these, John H. Bornholdt, was brought up in Holstein, where he attended
the excellent Danish public schools, remaining at home until he came to
America. While yet a youth he came to the United States, and stopped in San
Francisco; and having learned the baker’s trade, he followed it there for six
years, and then removed to Sacramento, where he remained a couple of years.
In 1895, affected by the excitement then
seizing thousands, Mr. Bornholdt made off for Alaska
with a party of five. They crossed Chilcoot Pass, on
the difficult trail, and at Lake Bennett built a boat to take them across the
marsh. He went to Hotalingua, and returned in the
fall to California, where he spent the winter at Grass Valley. In the spring of
1896 he went back to Alaska, and was one of the first party
that ever crossed White Pass. They went by way of Windy Arm from Tagish Lake, and over to Hotalingua,
having left three of their number at Lake Marsh with provisions; and this party
furnished provisions to the party that brought the news of the Klondike strike.
The latter had run out of food, and would never have got through if it had not
been for the aid rendered by Mr. Bornholdt’s
party. He was the one to go over to Hotalingua, and
in the spring they came through and told him. All went down to Dawson together,
and they staked their claims and mined there. He hunted moose for the market
for a season, getting fourteen moose, and selling moose meat at from fifty
cents to one dollar and twenty-five cents a pound. In 1899, Mr. Bornholdt went to Nome and mined on the beach, and in 1901
he returned to San Francisco. Later, with a restaurant outfit and the equipment
for a bakery, he once more went north, finally reaching Nome again; but his
town lots were jumped by gamblers, and he got into ruinous lawsuits. He won his
case, but at such cost that he was unable to carry out his business plans; and
as a consequence he returned to California, a sadder but wiser man.
Again at home on California soil, Mr. Bornholdt was married at Grass Valley to Miss Flora Warner,
a native of that town; and somewhat later he started a bakery in San Francisco,
which he conducted for a couple of years. Then he removed to Healdsburg, and
eighteen months later left California for Nevada. Unable to satisfy himself there,
he soon came back to San Francisco.
In 1910, Mr. Bornholdt took up his
residence in Chico. Here he bought from the Phoenix Milling Company the
O. K. Bakery, where he has continued in business ever since. He put
in new machinery and made the establishment first-class and up-to-date in every
respect, and with his new store fixtures provided for the town a bakery shop
that was a credit to the place. Now the O. K. Bakery has a capacity
of two thousand loaves a day, while the actual output is always over half that
amount. He makes his own deliveries in town, and ships his bakery products into
the country. Besides his bakery investments, Mr. Bornholdt
is interested in mining and in prospecting for mines near Magalia, and has sunk
more than one tunnel in pursuit of old mountain channels. Two children,
Dorothea and Florence, brighten his domestic life. He is a member of the Moose
and the Red Men.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
04 November 2009.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages
1296-1297, Historic
Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Marie Hassard.
Golden Nugget Library's
Butte County Biographies