YUBA COUNTY
Biographies
OMAR HARTZELL MARTIN
An industry of decidedly practical value to the community of Marysville is that of Omar Hartzell Martin, known as the Auto-Painting Plant, at 424 F Street, more than ever popular on account of the recent development of motoring interests in Northern California. Mr. Martin was born in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, on October 1, 1888, the son of Richard R. and Melinda (Wolford) Martin. The mother, a charming and intellectually gifted woman, is now deceased, but the father is still active as a teacher in the State Deaf and Dumb Institution in Virginia.
Omar Hartzell Martin attended the public schools of his locality, and also the Oranda Institute, a preparatory college, and then he engaged in painting at Pittsburgh, where he learned the trade and continued for four years. Coming out to the Northwest, he worked at Portland and in other cities of the Coast. In 1907 he located at Marysville, and from there went up and down the Coast, working at hard-wood finishing.
When the World War involved the United States, Mr. Martin volunteered in defense of his country. He was sent to Camp Kearney and became a member of Company F of the 82nd Regiment, and saw eight months of service. He had previously served in the Liberty plant at Oakland and had prepared himself for his latest enterprise, the high-grade painting of automobiles; and on his return to Marysville he opened his plant here with all the latest and most approved equipment. Although he started in a modest way, he now has all that he and four assistants can do, and there is no other plant north of San Francisco that turns out the amount of work that his establishment does. He is fortunate in drawing work from various cities over all of Northern California, from the Bay region to the Oregon State line. The equipment of the plant and its up-to-date management would do credit to a town twice the size of Marysville, and it is regarded by the townsfolk with a degree of civic pride. Mr. Martin belongs to the Marysville Chamber of Commerce, in which he is a live and active member.
In Yuba City, Mr. Martin was married to Miss Mabel Hedger, a native daughter of Sutter County; and they have been blessed with one child, a daughter named Virginia Clare. In politics, Mr. Martin belongs to the Republican party. Fraternally, he is an Elk, and a patriotic member of Yuba-Sutter Post, No. 42, American Legion.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p. 755
WILLIAM T. MULLIN
A practical and progressive rancher, and a man of excellent business talent, residing two miles east of Oregon House, William T. Mullin has been intimately associated with the agricultural development and growth of this section, where he has acquired land from time to time until he now owns 1100 acres, on which he is engaged in general farming and stock-raising, though recently he has begun to sell off his choice beef stock, and plans to retire gradually from active business cares. His birth occurred near the Timbuctoo Mine, in Yuba County, September 9, 1865, and he was the fifth in a family of nine children born to Stephen G. and Harriet (Thornton) Mullin. Stephen G. Mullin was born in New Brunswick and accompanied his parents to Maine as a boy. With his family, comprising his wife and one son, Henry, he came to California in 1856 via Panama and engaged as a miner at Timbuctoo. Later he bought land in Sicard Flat, which he sold about 1867, when he took up 160 acres of land in the Oregon House district, twenty-eight miles northeast of Marysville. The mother was born in Maine, and passed away in 1887, aged forty-eight years. She was survived by her husband until 1901, who was then seventy-two years old. They had nine children: Henry, residing in Honolulu; Alfred, living near Forbestown; Mrs. Hattie Rowe, who died in Humboldt County; Howard, of Humboldt County; William T., of this review; Mrs. Sarah Fisher, who died in Siskiyou County; Bird, of Siskiyou County; Edwin, of Sonoma; and Van, also of Sonoma.
William T. Mullin was reared and educated in the Oregon House district, and was brought up on the farm and trained in agriculture, which has been the means of securing him a comfortable independence. At Marysville, on August 12, 1901, he was married to Miss Emma Forbes, a daughter of Alexander R. and Catherine (Kraker) Forbes, natives of Scotland and Germany, respectively. The genealogy of Mrs. Mullin reverts to the Scottish Highlands. For many generations the male ancestors were soldiers in the Highland regiments of the British army, chiefly the Gordon Highlanders. As an adjutant of his regiment, the grandfather, John Forbes, bore a part in numerous engagements, among them the memorable battle of Waterloo. After a service of twenty-one years in the same regiment, he resigned his commission and immigrated to Nova Scotia, Canada, where he served as an adjutant in the East Canadian Militia during the Fenian outbreak. At the time of his death he had passed his ninetieth year. Alexander R. Forbes grew to manhood in Nova Scotia, Canada, coming from that country to the Pacific Coast at an early age. For some time he followed the blacksmith’s trade, in addition to trying his luck at various mining camps. For a time he worked in Sierra County; but in 1867 he settled upon a farm, in the Oregon House Valley, Yuba County, where he added stock-raising to the growing of grain. After coming to the West he married Catherine Kraker, who was born in Germany, and came to America at twelve years of age. From the time of his arrival in California in 1851 until his death in 1897, he was warmly interested in the growth and progress of the State, in which he bore his part as a public-spirited citizen and progressive farmer. The mother survived him until 1916. They had seven children: Clarence, who died in Browns Valley; Gen. Edwin A., a prominent attorney of Marysville, and adjutant-general of California at the time of his death on June 18, 1915; William, supervisor of the fourth district, Yuba County, who resides on the Forbes Ranch; Emma, Mrs. Mullin; Gordon, in Westwood; Katie, Mrs. Thomas Yore, of Stockton; and Carrie, who died in 1904. Mrs. Mullin was born at Brandy City, Sierra County, but was reared at Oregon House. Mr. and Mrs. Mullin are the parents of one daughter, Roby, a graduate of Ursaline College, Santa Rosa, and now the wife of J. H. Skinner of Oregon Hill. Mr. Mullin was for some years a trustee of the Oregon House school district, and for the past sixteen years has served as constable of Parks Bar Township. He is a Republican and in former years was a member of the Republican County Central Committee.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p. 756-759
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