Nevada
County
Biographies
HENRY LUKE
Henry Luke, who has served as a
supervisor of Nevada County and has been actively and honorably identified with
the growth and prosperity of Grass Valley since 1866, was born in Cornwall,
England, on the 14th of December, 1848, being the youngest of the
eight children born of William and Anna (Ward) Luke. His father and mother were descended from old
English families and the former died in 1857; but the mother survived until
1882, when she also joined the silent majority.
Henry Luke spent his youth in the
land of his nativity, and in early life began to work in mines, where his
father had been employed for many years.
At the age of eighteen he came to America taking up his abode in Grass
Valley in that year, 1866. For fifteen
years thereafter he was actively connected with the mining interests in that
section of the state, and then turned his attention to merchandising. He established a boot and shoe store and soon
afterward added a stock of dry goods, carrying on business in those lines for
fifteen years. At the present date he is
the proprietor of a well equipped “delicatessen” store on Main Street, and his
son is now the active manager of the business, the father giving his supervision
thereto but devoting most of his time to other concerns.
Politically Mr. Luke affiliates with
the Republican Party and is deeply interested in its growth and success. He became an American citizen in 1872 and has
always voted with the organization that upheld the Union during the Civil War,
that has ever stood as a protector to American institutions and that is now the
champion of the policy of expansion. In
1896 he was elected county supervisor of the second district, and prior to that
date he served for one term in the city council of Grass Valley, doing all in
his power to promote the welfare of his town.
In social relations he is a “Red Man” and a Forester, and in the former
organization he has filled many offices.
His home life is very pleasant.
He was happily married March 20, 1875, to Miss Kate A. Eddy, a lady of
English birth and a daughter of William C. Eddy, a miner of Grass Valley. Mr. and Mrs. Luke are the parents of twelve
children: William H., Lilly, John,
Albert T., Effie, Harry W., Marguerite, Richard, Clifford, Mabel, Catherine and
Fred. For more than a third of a century
Mr. Luke has resided in Nevada County.
He is a gentleman of broad intelligence, of sterling worth and
unassailable reputation, and is numbered among the honored early settlers of
this locality, a pioneer to whose energetic efforts his town and county own
their prosperity and progress in no small degree.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 430-431. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Nevada County Biographies