YUBA COUNTY Biographies
WILLIAM F. ONKEN
Business-like, alert, energetic and genial, William F. Onken, proprietor of the North Star Hotel, is altogether an ideal hotel host. Situated fifty-four miles north of Marysville on the La Porte road, in Yuba County, with an elevation of 4200 feet above sea-level, the North Star Hotel is located in an ideal summer climate, and the people of the valley are attracted to this spot for their yearly vacations. The minimum fall of snow occurred in 1888, when only four inches fell during the winter; two years later, in 1890, the snow was seventeen feet deep, the largest fall of snow ever recorded at the North Star Hotel.
Born in Brandy City, Sierra County, Cal., on March 11, 1867, William F. Onken is the third of six children, and now the only survivor of the entire family, of Frederick and Sophia (Burdewick) Onken, both natives of Germany. Frederick Onken came around the Horn to California in 1852 and mined on Horseshoe Bar, later settling in Brandy City, where in 1856 he cleared land and planted an apple and peach orchard. He owned and operated a pack train from Brandy City to the mines for sixteen years; and in 1875 he purchased the North Star Hotel, which he conducted for the balance of his days. The teams that freighted out of Marysville found the North Star Hotel a favorite stopping-place. In 1876 he cleared land and planted an orchard of apples and pears, which are still raised here. In 1878 he bought twenty acres in the Temperance Colony at Fresno, which has since become a part of that city. Mrs. Onken passed away at the age of sixty-one, while Mr. Onken reached the venerable age of eighty-two; both passed away at the North Star Hotel.
William F. Onken attended the Strawberry Valley school. He started prospecting in the vicinity of the North Star Hotel, and later hauled supplies from Marysville to the mountains. Upon the death of his parents, Mr. Onken fell heir to 360 acres of timber land and the North Star Hotel, which he has since continued to operate.
Mr. Onken married Miss Addie Tompkins, born in Pearlton, Butte County, a daughter of William Tompkins, who was a Forty-niner engaged in mining and teaming out of Oroville. William Tompkins owned a homestead of 160 acres at Palmero, where the family was reared. Mrs. Onken passed away twelve years ago at the North Star Hotel, survived by her husband and three daughters: Sophie, Minnie and Virginia. Mr. Onken has done a great deal of county road work in the vicinity of North Star Hotel, and for many years was in charge of this district. He was trustee of Strawberry Valley school district for several years, and during the time was clerk of the board.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 1079
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