I am descended from the Cuddebacks,  French Huguenots, who came to the USA from France sometime in the late 1700’s and are the people who make me a Humboldt old-timer on the maternal side of my family.

My Great-Great Grandfather, Henry Brown Cuddeback, was born in Ohio in 1825, my Great-Great Grandmother, Martha Maria Pease was born 1834 in Indiana. Henry and Martha came across the plains with their respective families to California sometime before 1850.  They met and married in Hydesville  in 1852 and raised 8 children, my Great Grandmother, Esther Cuddeback, being their second child.

The Cuddeback family obtained a land grant from Abraham Lincoln, in what was later called Cuddeback, California; where they had a farm and raised their family.  Henry was very involved in local community matters and apparently pretty well known in the small community which was quite isolated at that time.  Laura Evelyn Cuddeback pictured on the previous page is my cousin.

My Great Grandmother, Esther Cuddeback was born in Hydesville in 1862.  She met and married my Great Grandfather, John Henry Felt of Wisconsin in 1880 at Hydesville, CA.  The Felts had 6 children, one of whom was my grandmother, Jessie Helen Felt who was born in 1887.  Enter the Cox family into my genealogy.  Henry Cox, my Great-Grandfather, was born in St. George New Brunswick in 1852.    Henry was the 5th of 11 children and in 1876, at approximately age 22, he came to Humboldt
County.    A homestead and timber claim were established in his name on the South Fork of the Eel River near Garberville. In 1888 the Cox Place was just below Old Moody Road about a half mile past the old schoolhouse site.  The name was changed to the Boyer Ranch when George and Alice Boyer settled there in 1943.

After several years of homesteading, Henry Cox ran the Briceland Hotel for a year.  Then he became the proprietor of a Hotel in Hydesville where he stayed until 1909, after which he became interested in the Bridgeville property. He leased the Bridgeville Hotel and moved his wife, Maria Jane Coffron, to Bridgeville.  In 1906 Henry Cox Sr. in partnership with his son, George Henry Cox Jr, leased the Bridgeville Hotel from A. Barnum.

Maria Jane Coffron was 11 when she came to Humboldt County with her uncle and his seven children from Wesley, Main in 1877. Maria Jane Coffron raised her family when she and Henry Cox were in Briceland and continued to do so in Hydesville and Bridgeville.  In 1912 Henry purchased the Bridgeville Hotel and the surrounding 104 acres of land.  Henry worked in partnership with his son, George Henry Cox to make the purchase from the Barnum Estate, which included the town.  The town at that time included hotel, livery stable, store, blacksmith shop and saddlery.

George H. Cox and Jessie H. Felt had one child, Laura June Cox, my mother who was born and raised in Bridgeville.  Although my grandparents lived in Bridgeville; our parents lived in Eureka on 18th Street.  I was born in Eureka in 1943 and my sister was born in Eureka just before we moved.   We relocated to Bridgeville when my Father, Lloyd Pawlus, was drafted into WW11 in 1945.   I was raised in Bridgeville until I graduated from Fortuna High School.   To date there is an unbroken line of family being born in Humboldt County since Esther Cuddeback.  My son was born here and two of my grandchildren were born here.  We will see what the future brings. My Grandfather’s Parents, Henry and Maria Jane Cox, were from New Brunswick.  Grandfather George Henry Cox was Born in Bayside, CA 1889.

Just a little more about my Grandfather George Henry who graduated 8th grade from Sprowl Creek School and then attended Craddocks Business College.  Following graduation he went to work for Beckwith’s Store in Hydesville, CA.
My mom, Laura Pawlus is now deceased but I kept the old articles my mom had collected; along with a lot of other memorabilia from the place where I grew up: Bridgeville.  I feel like the town historian, because I remember when my family’s house had a hand crancked phone and we didn’t get electricity until I was 13 years old.

My great grandparents managed a two-story, 18-room hotel; they ran the general store, owned a blacksmith shop and a livery stable, rented out small houses and ran the post office.  My great grandmother, grandfather and mother all served as town postmaster.  As did my good friend, Marylin Patterson.

I moved back to Bridgeville in 1982 and lived there until 2002 becoming a member of the Bridgeville School Board and the Bridgeville Community Center Board and the Mad River Clinic Board of Directors.  What I love most about Bridgeville is the sense of community that I felt there as a child and that feeling being brought back by the Bridgeville Community Center.
Jessie Wheeler 2024