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CHARLES W. SEFFENS. - Piominently identified with the lumbering interests of Humboldt county will be found Mr.
Seffens, vice president of the Eel River Valley Lumber Company, of Fortuna. He is one of California's native sons,
having been born in Dutch Flat, Placer county, October 3, 1867, and removed with his parents when a child to San
Jose. He attended the public schools of San Jose and San Francisco, starting out in life for himself as a clerk
in a grocery store in San Jose, where his parents had purchased a ranch. While attending school he found employment,
during the summer months, on the neighboring ranches, and when eighteen years of age he entered the employ of the
Southern Pacific Railway, remaining with the railroad for seven years, working up from fireman to engineer. In
1892 he first came to Humboldt county and found employment as bookkeeper and cashier for the Eel River Valley Lumber
Company, and in 1901 he was made manager of the company, which position he still holds. The Eel River Valley Lumber
Company was established in 1884 by E. J. Dodge and has been in operation for over thirty years. Mr. Seffens has
also been vice president of the company for a number of years. He has also been clerk of the school board of Fortuna
for the last twelve years; is financially interested in Porter & Hansen Company, undertakers, in Eureka, and
is a member of the Fortuna Lodge, N. S. G. W.; also the Eureka Lodge of Elks. He is a man of high standing and
influence in the county and his success is due entirely to his own persevering efforts.
Mr. Seffens' father, Charles Seffens, was raised in Ohio and while there followed the trade of stone mason, but
in 1848 he joined the historic band of Argonauts in their terrible journey, filled with hardships, across the plains
to California in search of gold. He located first at Dutch Flat and engaged in mining, and also built a hotel in
the vicinity. Two years later he returned to Ohio, and, accompanied by his wife, returned to California via the
Isthmus of Panama, locating in Dutch Flat, where they remained until their removal to San Jose in 1868; he died
in 1872. Mrs. Seffens was the first white woman to take up residence at Dutch Flat, Placer county.
From:
History of Humboldt County, California
With a Biographical Sketches
History by Leigh H. Irving
Historic Record Company
Los Angeles, California 1915
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