Siskiyou
County
Biographies
L. Y. COGGINS
L. Y. Coggins, who is now retired
from active business and is living at 964 Indian Rock Avenue, Berkeley,
California, was formerly identified with the lumber industry of the Sacramento
valley, having successfully operated a box factory in Siskiyou County for a
number of years. Born in Maine on the 27th
of October, 1856, he is a son of Wallace and Eunice (Young) Coggins, also
natives of the Pine Tree state. The
father, who was a builder and contractor in Maine, came west on a visit in
1874, but never established his residence here.
Both parents died in Maine, the mother passing away when her son, L. Y.,
was about nine years of age. They were
the parents of eight children: Arvilla,
the wife of Louis Coggins, of Maine; Henry, Mary Ann, Emma, Charles Sanford,
Olive, Clifford and L. Y. Charles
Sanford Coggins made the first shipment of pears to St. Louis from Sacramento,
under the firm name of Gibson & Coggins.
The firm shipped five hundred boxes of pears in a cattle car,
refrigerator cars not having then been introduced, and every box but fifty was
spoiled before their arrival at their destination, these selling at five
dollars a box. That experience was
enough and they quit the fruit business then and there. Charles S. Coggins later engaged in the
planing mill business at Chico, California.
L. Y. Coggins went to Upton,
California, about 1888, and resided there about four years. He then went to Igerna, where the firm of
Coggins Brothers built the first box factory in that section of Siskiyou
County. They also owned a sawmill, from which they supplied the lumber for the box
factory. Charles S. Coggins died in 1902
and L. Y. Coggins and Clifford Coggins, his brothers, conducted the factory for
four years longer, when the quit the business, retired and have since lived in
Berkeley, and El Centro, respectively.
L. Y. Coggins still spends his summers in the old home near Weed, which
he built at the foot of Mt. Shasta many years ago.
On January 29, 1885, Mr. Coggins was
united in marriage to Miss Alice Mary Hodgkins, a daughter of Gilman B. and
Sarah H. (Gilpatrick) Hodgkins, of Scotch descent, who lived and died at La
Moine, Maine. To Mr.
and Mrs. Coggins have been born a son, Arthur Lowell, who graduated from
Tamaplais Military Academy in 1907 and from Yale University in 1911. He is now president and manager of a box
factory, in Ashland, Oregon. He married
Miss Mae Macullar of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and they have a daughter, Alice
Mary. Mr. and Mrs. Coggins have traveled
much, Mrs. Coggins having made several trips to Europe, and Mr. Coggins one
trip. They have both been to Alaska and
have visited many other points of interest to the traveler. Mr. Coggins is a member of the Benevolent Protective
Order of Elks, at Ashland, Oregon, and his religious connection is with the
Presbyterian Church. He is one of the
oldest members of the Union League Club of San Francisco and is recognized as
one of those who have contributed to the development and progress of the
Sacramento Valley, since first settling in Chico, in the spring of 1875.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 3 Pages 125-126. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Siskiyou County Biographies