Butte County
Biographies
DR. WILLIAM EDWARDS MACK
DR. WILLIAM EDWARDS MACK.--In movements
tending toward the advancement of Butte
County, and in the work of
improving and cultivating the land, Dr. William E. Mack finds his time largely
occupied, although he also finds time for outside matters that often press upon
the thought and time of a public spirited man. He was born at Ogdensburg, N.
Y., February 19, 1856, a son of Captain Robert Mack, a lumberman, who was
engaged in getting out ship-timbers and shipping them down the St. Lawrence
River to Quebec and Montreal.
William
E. Mack received his education in the public schools and when fourteen years
old he left home to make his own way in the world. He went to sea as a
cabin-boy on a sailing schooner that made South American ports, gathering up
hides and tallow, and stuck to the job two years. He wanted to become a doctor
and therefore found an opportunity to study medicine in the office of Dr.
Alexander, at Massena Springs, N. Y. He remained but a short time, however,
when he went down into the Sierra Madre
Mountains in Old Mexico, via Chihuahua,
in 1873. He rode a horse across Texas, from Galveston
to El Paso, thence into Old Mexico.
While in Mexico
he struck it lucky as a placer-miner, and cleaned up eleven thousand dollars in
thirteen months. It was while he was mining that he met John Edmondson, an old
placer-miner and forty-niner, who had mined on Feather
River in Butte County, Cal., and
from him got his first information of Butte
County.
The
spare time of Doctor Mack was spent in reading medicine, he having taken some
medical text-books, Gray's Anatomy and Dalton's
Physiology, with him upon leaving New York.
Upon his return to the United States
he went to New York State,
and at Ogdensburg went into a doctor's office to study and get practical
experience. In March of 1877 he was graduated from old Eclectic
Medical College
in Cincinnati. Then he practiced
medicine a few years and again entered medical college, and in 1884, graduating
from the College of Medicine and Surgery, the old George Street College, at
Cincinnati, Ohio, the third medical college established in America. Upon
receiving his degree, Dr. Mack practiced medicine in Leadville,
Colo.; Tombstone, Ariz.;
New Mexico, and in Sonora,
Mexico. While in Arizona
he became interested, with contractors Evans and LaSheier,
in building the railway from Benson, Ariz.,
to Guaymas, Mexico.
Dr.
Mack next went to Saginaw, Mich.,
and from there made his first trip to California, in
1886, locating at Stockton. On
account of throat trouble, he came to Paradise, Butte
County, in September of that year,
and at once became very enthusiastic over the possibilities of this section.
From 1889 to 1893 he practiced his profession at Rohnerville and Fortuna, Humboldt
County, owning a drug store in each
town, which he conducted in connection with his practice. His next location was
in Chico, where he practiced
medicine from the spring of 1893 to 1896. Dr. Mack was then seized with the
Alaskan fever and went to that section of the country in 1896; he spent two and
one-half years in mining at Rampart City
on the Yukon, and two years in Nome.
While at Rampart he planted the first garden ever grown north
of Nulato. Coming out in the fall of 1901, he
spent a year in the East. In 1902 he once more came to Paradise, Butte
County, where he has lived and
labored ever since. As early as 1886 he began to develop an orchard and build a
home in Paradise by purchasing a tract of eighty-six
acres, and in 1887 he set out his first olive trees; then he further developed
this property by erecting a comfortable dwelling and necessary barns and
outbuildings for the needs of a ranch. Later he bought land in the district and
has two hundred ten acres. He had read up on the almond and olive industries,
and immediately began setting out trees and now has fifty acres in olives, and
thirty-five acres in almonds, besides thirty acres in pears and ten acres in
apples.
Dr.
Mack was the first person to set out olives in Paradise.
On the Highland Olive Grove Ranch he has erected a pickling house and olive-oil
factory, well equipped with the latest machinery. There are one hundred
eighty-six cement pickling vats of one hundred gallons capacity each, and the
whole establishment, with its cement floor and sanitary methods, shows that
cleanliness is observed everywhere. The Highland brand
of ripe olives is put up by Dr. Mack, and every package is fully guaranteed.
The most modern and sanitary conditions are employed in his establishment; only
the highest grade of olives is used for pickling and for the manufacture of
olive oil. To the intricate details of this enterprise Dr. Mack gives his
undivided attention. To Dr. Mack is due the credit of making the Paradise
section a success commercially from an horticultural
standpoint. He was the first demonstrate it, and since then hundreds of acres
have been set out and many of them are now producing. He has always encouraged
others to set out and improve orchards. In his varied enterprises he has a very
large payroll and gives employment to a large number of people.
Fraternally,
Dr. Mack was made a Mason in Table Mountain Lodge, No. 124, F. & A. M., at
Cherokee; he was exalted in Chico Chapter, No. 42, R. A. M., and was Knighted in Chico Commandery, No.
12, K. T., and is a charter member of the Masonic Club in San
Francisco. With his wife, Dr. Mack is a member of
Josephine Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star. Professionally, he is a member of
the county and state medical societies, and is a licentiate of the State Board
of Pharmacy. Dr. Mack was commissioned by Governor Markham, on March 22, 1894,
as First Lieutenant and Inspector of Rifle Practice of the Eighth Regiment of
Infantry, Fifth Brigade, California National Guard.
Dr.
Mack was united in marriage, at Los Gatos, Cal.,
with Miss Eva Simpson. The Doctor and his wife are highly respected citizens of
Butte County
and are justly popular with their ever widening circle of friends and
acquaintances.
Transcribed by Sande Beach.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 810-814, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Sande Beach.
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