Plumas
County
Biographies
CARL GRANT HANKEL
Carl G. Hankel, the owner and
manager of the Quincy Hotel, at Quincy, Plumas County, is one of the most
capable and successful hotel men in the Sacramento Valley, and all who have
come in contact with him regard him as in every way adapted to the business in
which he is engaged. He was born in
Abilene, Dickinson County, Kansas, on the 14th of April, 1872, and
is a son of the late Herman Frederick and Marie (Hartman) Hankel. His father was born in Schwartzberg, Germany,
and came to the United States at the age of eighteen years, settling at
Madison, Wisconsin, where he was married.
His wife was a native of Graubünden, Switzerland, of the Von Hartman
aristocracy, and she came to this country with her parents, who settled at
Madison, Wisconsin, where her father engaged in farming. Sometime after his marriage Mr. Hankel and
his family migrated to Kansas, accompanied by two of Mrs. Hankel’s brothers,
traveling overland with ox teams and covered wagons. They settled twenty miles southeast of Abilene,
Kansas, where Mr. Hankel took up and improved a homestead. One of Mrs. Hankel’s brothers, who had been
in this country a number of years, was a veteran of the Civil War, in one of
the battles of which he had a leg shot off.
Mr. Hankel farmed his homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, as well
as another farm of three hundred and twenty acres, at first using oxen instead
of horses. They lived through the great
grasshopper period, during which it became necessary for Mr. Hankel to journey
to Junction City, Kansas, to obtain corn for food, his own supply of food
having become exhausted. After some
years the family sold their interests at Abilene and came to California, by
railroad emigrant train, which journey required fourteen and a half days to
Oakland. They settled in San Jose. From San Jose Mr. Hankel took his family to
Shasta County, where he homesteaded land, cleared the ground and had it all
planted. Within two months an
extraordinary heat wave struck that locality and there was no means of
irrigating the land, the vegetation all withered and died. Consequently Mr. Hankel sold his interests in
that locality in 1886 and went to Santa Rosa.
Mr. Hankel was a well educated man, and a trained horticulturist,
florist and nurseryman. His father had
been a learned German botanist and horticulturalist, and his library, a
valuable collection of botanical and horticultural works, became the property
of his son Herman, and the latter brought it with him to Santa Rosa. At that place he met Luther Burbank, since
widely known as the “plant wizard,” and entered his employ. The two worked in cooperation, Mr. Hankel
bringing his learning and experience to Burbank and rendering him valuable
assistance in the propagation of new plant varieties. He was especially useful to Burbank in the
creation of beautiful color effects in flowers through chemical action, as well
as in the use of mechanical appliances in shading and sheltering plants. They became very close friends and, while the
credit for the wonderful results produced here went to Mr. Burbank, it was
largely Hankel’s knowledge and work which brought about the results. It was really Mr. Hankel who produced the
thornless blackberry. Mr. and Mrs.
Hankel became the parents of five children, namely: Christian, who died in Kansas, at the age of
one year; Herman Frederick, Jr., who was for forty years a peace officer at
Santa Rosa, and died July 7, 1930; Carl Grant, of this review; Arzella, the
widow of Theodore Goodman, of San Francisco; and John Ulrich, of San Francisco.
When thirteen years of age, Carl G.
Hankel went to work on the Hart farm in Sonoma County, California, and was also
employed on other farms in that county, receiving a wage of fifteen dollars a
month, board and room, for which he worked from daylight until dark. Later he went to work in the Burger meat
market in Santa Rosa, where he was employed for one year, and then determined
to become an expert meat cutter. He
worked for two years for the meat firm of Hirth Brothers in Santa Rosa, after
which he went to Noonan & Towey as their meat cutter, being at that time
but eighteen years of age. He quit that
job in order to go to San Francisco and learn the meat business more
thoroughly, entering the employ of Mark Strauss, on Market Street, in one of
the oldest and best known meat markets of San Francisco. He next went to the Fred Becker Washington
market in Oakland, where he remained for some time. Quitting that place, he came to Woodland,
Yolo County, and for two and a half years worked for Chalmers Brothers, after
which he went to Santa Barbara and entered the employ of the Sherman &
Eland Company. He worked there until the
outbreak of the Spanish-American War, when he enlisted at Santa Rosa in company
E., Eighth Regiment California Volunteer Infantry. He was in training at Camp Sutter, near
Oakland, and was later stationed at Fort Point, where he was honorably
discharged at the close of the war. He
then returned to the meat business and went to work for Hobson Brothers, at
Ventura, with whom he remained for over a year, after which he returned to the
Chalmers Brothers at Woodland.
While at Woodland, Mr. Hankel was
married to Miss Georgia Brown, of Davisville, California, and they together
purchased the lease of the Burns Hotel at Woodland, which they ran successfully
for three years. They were then
divorced, Mrs. Hankel continuing the operation of the hotel. Mr. Hankel went to Arizona for the purpose of
taking over the Hotel Ondorf at Douglas, but there he met his former employer,
E. A. Tovrea, and was persuaded to work for him in the meat business at Bisbee,
Arizona. He worked there during the
ensuing five years, without even a vacation, and then became interested in
copper mines and stock, in which he made money.
On one occasion he made eighteen thousand dollars in a single day on the
rise of the value of stocks, and ended his experience in that game forty
thousand dollars ahead.
While in Bisbee Mr. Hankel was
married to Miss Cleo Ackerman, and to them was born a daughter, Zola Vivian,
now the wife of Fred J. Koegi, a native of Kansas, who is in charge of the art
department of the Santa Fe Railroad for New Mexico. Mr. Hankel divorced his second wife at Reno,
Nevada, and about ten years ago was married to Mrs. Blanche Ryan, nee Marshall,
of Henrietta, Texas. She comes from a
noted American family, prominent members of which were Chief Justice John
Marshall of the United States Supreme Court and the late Vice President Thomas
Marshall of Indiana.
After the panic of 1907 Mr. Hankel
left Douglas, Arizona, and went to San Francisco, and later to Reno, Nevada,
where he entered the employ of the Edward W. Brown Company, wholesale grocers,
becoming a traveling salesman, in which work he was very successful. He followed that line until 1924, when he
resigned his position and went to Susanville, Lassen County, California, to
take over the Susanville Country Club, formerly the home of the millionaire
miners of Nevada. While running that
club, the Quincy Hotel, at Quincy, Plumas County, was about to be built, and he
became connected with the Quincy Hotel Company, Inc. They entered into negotiations whereby Mr.
Hankel acquired a ten-year lease of the hotel, which was built after his own
plans and ideas. The house was furnished
at his expense and was opened to the public in 1925. It proved a profitable enterprise and in 1928
Mr. Hankel bought the property outright and is now the sole owner. The hotel has fifty rooms and the building is
supplied with running water, steam heat, electric lights, twin beds, with the
best mattresses, and every convenience demanded by the traveling public. Mrs. Hankel has charge of the dining room and
is well qualified for that responsibility, the table being supplied with everything
desirable that the market affords, well cooked and attractively served. Cleanliness and sanitation are carefully
looked after and everything possible is done for the comfort and enjoyment of
the hotel guests. Mr. Hankel has also
built a commodious dance hall and has erected a twelve-room rooming house
across the way from the hotel, with which it is operated. The hotel and equipment represent an
investment of one hundred and eighteen thousand dollars and Mr. Hankel is
constantly making further improvements.
He was also very active in promoting the construction of the nine-hole
golf course, owned by the Quincy Golf Club, near the hotel, on sixty-five acres
of well situated land.
Mr. Hankel is very fond of hunting
and fishing, which are to be had in this vicinity. He is an art connoisseur and the reception
hall and the office of the hotel, as well as many guest rooms, are adorned with
beautiful paintings and pictures, while the hotel lobby is adorned with the heads
of deer and other game, which is found in abundance in the vicinity of
Quincy. The hotel is surrounded by
beautiful lawns and gardens. Two tame,
pet fawns romp in the hotel yard, while a young buck and a young doe, of the
spotted deer variety, tame and pretty as a picture, are playful and great
favorites of the children who come to the hotel as guests. Mr. Hankel is the owner of one hundred and
ten acres of mountainous timber land lying immediately west of the hotel and
here skiing and tobogganing are enjoyed in the wintertime. He has still further plans for a swimming
pool and other recreational facilities.
The prices of meals and luncheons in the dining room of the hotel are
very reasonable—in fact, no higher than any other good eating house. The Quincy Hotel caters to the tourist and
commercial trade and is meeting with large patronage from all parts of the
country. Motion picture stars from
Hollywood come here to enjoy the cool, salubrious mountain air, for it is
comfortable here in midsummer, when it is uncomfortably hot in the cities of
the interior.
Mr. Hankel is a Republican in his
political views and, though a very busy man, takes a commendable interest in
public affairs. He is a member of the
Benevolent Protective Order of Elks at Bisbee, Arizona, with which he has been
identified in good standing for twenty-six years. He also belongs to the Woodmen of the
World. Mrs. Hankel attends the Community
Church and is very popular throughout the range of her acquaintance. Mr. Hankel has shown himself a man of
clearheaded judgment and in the management of the Quincy Hotel has exercised
business qualities of the highest order.
He is cordial and friendly in manner and his efforts to make the hotel a
real home for its guests have been greatly appreciated by those who have
patronized it.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 3 Pages 338 - 344. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.