Butte County
Biographies
WILLIAM CURTIS HERRICK
WILLIAM CURTIS HERRICK.—A man who is experienced and
well-posted in lumbering and sawmilling, William Curtis Herrick was born at
Fort Cook, Lassen County, November 3, 1871. His father, William
Curtis, Sr., crossed the plains in an ox-team train in the pioneer days of the
gold excitement. He followed teaming in the Sierras, and afterwards engaged in
farming, having a ranch at Fort Cook. Mr. Herrick’s mother, Hannah Holcroft, was born in England and came to San Francisco in
the early days. Her second marriage united her to Phillip Coen.
By her union with Mr. Herrick she had five children, as follows: Ellis,
residing in Washington; Robert, in Susanville; William Curtis, of this review; Vina A., Mrs. Odell, residing at Barton, Clackamas County,
Ore.; and Harry H., at Westwood. By her second marriage she had one child,
George L. Coen, who is assisting William C. Herrick
in lumber manufacturing.
When William C. Herrick
was four years of age, the family moved to Cohasset. There he was
reared, receiving his education in the Grafton district school. From a lad he
worked in the sawmill and in the lumber woods, and
thus learned lumbering and sawmilling in all of their details. For the last
twenty years he has been with the Griswold Lumber Company on North Point, in
the Cohasset district; and in 1911 he became superintendent of the mill and
woods. During these twenty years he has given his best efforts to the company.
Aside from superintending the mill, Mr.
Herrick also had charge of the ranch, and set out fifty acres of orchard to
apples and pears. In the spring of 1918, however, he took a contract to
manufacture and place a million feet of lumber a year in the Cohasset yards for
the Griswold Lumber Company. Having the use of the company’s steam sawmill,
with a capacity of twenty-five thousand feet of lumber per day, he is busily
engaged in the endeavor to fill his contract. Mr. Herrick is well posted
and thoroughly experienced in his line, and has always made a success of the
manufacturing end of the lumber business. Liberal and enterprising, he is well
liked by all who know him. Politically, he espouses the principles of the
Republican party.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
09 May 2009.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1135-1136, Historic Record Co, Los
Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Marie Hassard.
Golden Nugget Library's
Butte County Biographies