[Archive] HENRY L. WILDGRUBE
From History of Mendocino and Lake Counties California By Aurelius O. Carpenter & Percy H. Millberry 1914
Cover of HISTORY OF Mendocino & Lake Counties CALIFORNIA,
From Historic Record Company Los Angeles, CALIFORNIA 1914
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HENRY L. WILDGRUBE— A resident of Lake county since 1856, Mr. Wildgrube may well be counted among its oldest settlers, and he is the oldest living pioneer of High valley, where he has a one hundred and sixty acre farm now cultivated by his son-in-law, Aaron B. Shaul. He started the first store at Upper Lake, and while conducting it met many of the men whose names are now linked with the history of the early days. His own experiences, typical of those times, make interesting reminiscences, and Mr. Wildgrube has a mind which has enabled him to appreciate the changes he has witnessed in his long residence in this region.  Germany is his native land, and he was born February 25th, 1835, at Ragoon, in the Duchy of Anhalt, which is entirely surrounded by Prussian Saxony. His father, Henry John Wildgrube, was a merchant at that town, which then had a population of about two thousand, and his mother was Leopoldina Volkmann ; they lived and died there. The family has always had honorable standing, the Wildgrubes being typical members of the well-to-do merchant class.
        Henry L. Wildgrube was the only child of his parents, and he received excellent educational advantages, attending public school in his hometown until he reached the age of twelve years, after which he attended private school. Besides having thorough instruction in the ordinary branches and business principles, he studied French and Latin, and he has never lost his fondness for books or his appreciation of the value of good and early training. Full of ambition, he decided to come to America to seek his fortune, and he was only a youth when he crossed the ocean, landing at Philadelphia. Having no friends, and unable to speak English, he took whatever work he could find at first, and was making good progress when his father died and he returned to the old country to claim his inheritance. At that time he was twenty, and while he was engaged in straightening out the affairs of his father’s estate he was impressed into the German military service, in which he had to remain until he received his honorable discharge. When he received his discharge he at once came back to America, and on July 1, 1856, arrived at San Francisco, having made the journey by way of New York and Panama. In Oakland he met a merchant, Mr. Stark, a Bohemian, who told him he was about to go to Upper Lake, and that there was no store at that point. On his advice Mr. Wildgrube opened a store there August 23, 1856 and made a success of the venture, but he wanted a ranch, and he soon bought the possessory right in a tract at Upper Lake (the one now owned by Mack Sleeper) from an old man, Mr. Willard, then eighty years of age, one of the last survivors of the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1805. Mr. Wildgrube paid fifty-two dollars for his right. But he did not remain long on that place, and after leaving it was on the Morrison place for a while, first coming to his present ranch in 1857 and settling there permanently in 1859. About the latter year he bought the possessory rights therein from Sam Morrison, long before the government land was surveyed, in 1869. The first house in which he lived there was one that had been used for a bear pen, but he soon erected one which has since been his home, and which has many features typical of the pioneer homes in this section. It has always been a hospitable home, and the large fireplace, built out of native stone, gives it an air of comfort and cheer long remembered by those who have been fortunate enough to enjoy its shelter. Mr. Wildgrube has fenced his property and made other improvements there besides putting the land under cultivation, in which work he has engaged until recent years, his son-in-law now renting the place and carrying on the work.
        Among the many interesting experiences which Mr. Wildgrube had in pioneer days were the frequent bear hunts, and at one time he had a very narrow escape, being but eight feet from vicious grizzly bear with her two cubs when he and his companion succeeded in killing her after an exciting encounter. Though German born, Mr. Wildgrube speaks English perfectly.  His early education has been supplemented by constant reading, and he is looked up to by all who know him as a scholar and a thinker, his conversation showing that he deserves the reputation he enjoys. He has always maintained an intelligent interest in current events, particularly the development of his own locality. When he came here to Lake county had not been formed, being then included in Napa county, so that he has watched her progress from the very beginning.
        Mr. Wildgrube was married in 1869 to Miss Mary Ann Britton, a native of County Fermanagh, in the northern part of Ireland, part of the Province of Ulster, and she died at her home, February 15th, 1878. A family of five children was born to them : One that was born dead ; William and Catherin, twins, the former dying when thirteen months old, the latter married to Jacob Pluth, of Upper Lake (they have four children, one son and three daughters) ; Julia may, Mrs. Aaron B. Shaul (Aaron B. Shaul is represented on another page in this work) ; and Henry James, who is a lawyer at Richmond. Mr. Wildgrube is a member of the German Reformed Church, and in political opinion has held to the doctrines of the Republican party. Mr. Wildgrube was married the second time to Louisa Straub, born in Germany. She died October 19, 1909.