Butte County
Biographies
CAPTAIN JOSEPH HENRY GUNBY
CAPTAIN JOSEPH HENRY GUNBY.--A
leading citizen who has been associated with the lumber business ever since he
came to Chico, and who knows that line of important trade in all its ins and
outs, and its many bearings, as but few men in California, is Captain Joseph
Henry Gunby, who came to California in 1876. He was
born in Wilson County, Kans., on July 7, 1865, and in that state grew up until
the Centennial year, when his folks moved to the Pacific Coast. The Gunbys settled at Millville, Shasta County, and he
continued his boyhood experiences on a California stock farm, while he attended
a California country school. When seventeen, he came to Marysville, his parents
having again moved; and there he was employed on a ranch until about 1885, when
he came to Chico.
Here he secured employment in the yards of
the V. David Lumber Yard on Main Street, where the Armory now stands, continuing
for a period of two years. Next he was with the Sierra Lumber Company, in their
Chico yards, where he acted as shipping clerk and was in charge of the shipping
department. The yards were then located at Ninth and Pine Streets, and there
was a spur from the Southern Pacific. In time, he became foreman of the yards,
and then he was in charge of the planing mill and the
box factory. When the Diamond Match Company bought out the Sierra Lumber
Company, in 1906, Captain Gunby continued with the
new management and in charge of the planing mill; and
when that was discontinued, he was left in charge to close and dismantle the
mill, sell everything, and wreck the old flume. When that somewhat difficult
task had been accomplished, Captain Gunby was for a
while in charge of construction work at the Woodland and Yuba city yards, after
which, considerably more a master of the business by reason of his varied
experiences, he returned to Chico. The company turned the old factory into a
veneer plant, and he was given charge. Later, he was transferred to the local
sales department, at Barber, a suburb of Chico, where he was made head, and
thus he came to manage the Chico trade of the firm. When the yard was moved to
the present site, it was Captain Gunby who worked out
the plans for yards and buildings--not such an easy task, for they included a
number of important features. There were the yards and sheds, the planing mill, the railroad tracks and sheds and the apiary
department, in which all kinds of bee supplies were to be provided and stored.
Captain Gunby
and Miss Ellen Ralleigh, a native of Oakland, were
married at San Rafael; and they are the parents of one child, Mary Elizabeth.
The Captain is a stanch Republican, and was chairman of the County Central
Committee. He is also an Exempt Fireman, and belongs to Engine Company No. 1.
He is a member of Chico Lodge, B. P. O. Elks, and the Hoo
Hoos. He was also a member of Company A, Second
Regiment, California National Guard, where he rose from the rank of a private,
first to second lieutenant, then to first, and afterward to be captain of the
company. He was adjutant on the staff of Colonel Henshaw
until he was retired.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
20 May 2008.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages
982-983, Historic Record
Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Marie Hassard.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies