Alameda County CA Archives Obituaries.....Huff, Socrates September 26, 1907 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Steve Harrison raleighwood@juno.com April 5, 2010, 2:24 pm Oakland Tribune, September 26, 1907 Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) September 26, 1907 (Thursday) “SOCRATES HUFF, PIONEER, ANSWERS DEATHS SUMMONS. [portrait with caption “The Late Socrates Huff”] Noted Banker and Revered Citizen Passes Away at San Leandro Home. At 12:35 this morning the long and useful life of Socrates Huff one of Alameda Counties earliest settlers and most revered citizens came to a peaceful close at the end of a long period of sickness and in the fullness of years at his residence on Estudillo avenue San Leandro. He passed his eightieth birthday on July 1st but through his long life until a year or so ago he took an active interest in all business affairs with which he was identified. No citizen in Alameda county was more highly respected. He was a man of the highest type of character, and of sterling integrity in all of the walks of life. In business his word was as good and trustworthy as a bond. In public as well as in private life he was held in the highest esteem for uprightness and irreproachability of character. His reputation was unblemished and everybody who knew him reposed the utmost confidence in him. NATIVE OF OHIO. Socrates Huff was born in Crawford county, Ohio July 1, 1827. In 1829 his parents moved to St. Joseph, Michigan, being among the early settlers in that section, where he lived until the discovery of gold in California. When the news of this discovery was confirmed Mr. Huff and his brother [Lucien Bonaparte Huff] and four others put out for the new El Dorado in February 1849 which they reached on August 12, 1849 after many hardships locating on Bear river. Mr. Huff was first successful in placer mining but thinking business more profitable he proceeded to Sacramento, where he was interested in business for a short time. After a brief stay at Sacramento he moved to Alameda county, remaining here the rest of his life. SETTLES IN SAN LEANDRO. He went East in 1852 and a year later returned to this State by the overland route again. In 1859 he settled in San Leandro which has since been the home of himself and his family. In 1858 Mr. Huff was elected treasurer of Alameda County. He filled the position with the greatest fidelity for the following four years. Then he retired temporarily from public life to devote his time to his farming and real estate interests. He became identified at an early day with the organization and development of banking in Alameda County as one of the organizers and directors of the Union Savings Bank in Oakland. He continued to be actively identified with banking in Alameda County up to the time of his death. He was the organizer and president of the San Leandro Bank, an institution which was a success from the start and which under his careful and able management has made wonderful progress and is counted as one of the most stable financial institutions in the county. INTEREST IN POLITICS. After retiring from the office of County Treasurer in 1867, Mr. Huff retained his interest in politics, and was chosen as a delegate from this State to the National Republican convention held at Chicago in 1880 at which the martyred President Garfield was nominated. In 1886, Socrates Huff was recalled to the County Treasurership. He was subsequently re-elected in 1888 and 1890 and could have had a nomination in 1892 if he had so desired for the name of County Treasurer Huff was recognized throughout the county as the synonym of honesty and fidelity to a great public trust. From that time on, however, he gave himself up to his private affairs – the care of his farming and real estate and insurance interest and the upbuilding of the San Leandro Bank. WAS WIDOWER. Socrates Huff’s death was preceded about a year ago by that of his wife [Amelia Cassaday]. They were the parents of seven daughters five of whom survive: Mrs. J[ames] F[rench] Sloane [Ida C. Huff] of Spokane, Wash[ington]; Mrs. Orrin P. Downing [Nellie E. Huff] of San Francisco and Misses Jennie, Carrie and Mamie Huff, who reside at the family home at San Leandro, Mrs. Bush Fennell [Finnell?] [Laura Blanche Huff] of San Francisco. Mr. Huff was a member of no other organization save that of the Society of California Pioneers, of which he was at the time of death first vice president. The funeral services will take place at 2 [?] p.m. Saturday afternoon [September 28] at the family residence and the body will be interred at Mountain View cemetery [in Oakland]. Arrangements for the funeral had not been completed up to a late hour this afternoon, but it will, doubtless, be in charge of the Pioneer Society from whom the majority of the pall bearers are likely to be drawn.” END AND Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) September 27, 1907 (Friday) “DEMISE OF SOCRATES HUFF. When a citizen of the sterling character of Socrates Huff dies, it is a positive loss to the community of which he has been an active and useful member. The memory of Mr. Huff should ever be kept green in Alameda county, for he was one of its earlier pioneers and through the greater part of his life devoted his time and energies to develop its resources and build it up. In all his relations with his fellowmen Socrates Huff commanded the utmost confidence and the highest respect. He was a good citizen in the fullest sense of the phrase. His life, private and public, was irreproachable. As a public officer, he served Alameda county long and faithfully, guarding with the greatest fidelity the important trust confided to his care by his fellow- citizens. In business he was a model of honesty and square dealing. His word, once given, was as good as a bond. The association of his name with any business institution was, in fact, a guarantee of its stability. The bank which he founded at San Leandro in the later years of his life and over which he presided until the time of his death he made one of the soundest financial institutions in the county. A multitude of his old-time friends and acquaintances genuinely mourn the passing of so good a citizen as Socrates Huff, although he had long outlived the “three-score years and ten” allotted to man, and join in their sympathies for the afflicted family.” END AND Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) September 28, 1907 (Saturday) [scanned copy difficult to read] “THRONGS WEEP AT BIER OF LATE SOCRATES HUFF Pioneer Banker Is Laid to Rest, and Is Followed to Grave by Host of Loving Friends. SAN LEANDRO, Sept. 28. The funeral of the late Socrates Huff, president of the Bank of San Leandro, took place this afternoon from the family residence, on Estudillo avenue, and was one of the most impressive services of its kind which ever took place in this city. It was all the more effective, for the reason that it brought tributes of respect and esteem, not from one class of people alone, but from many classes and not solely from this section, but also from all parts of the county, and indeed, from many sections of the State. There were represented in those who gathered the extremes of classes in the battle of life – men with liberal resources behind them, and men who live from day to day – tillers of the soil and men who direct large financial institutions, and men among the most recent to establish their homes here – and men who came with the pioneers. ESTEEM FOR DECEASED But neither of these classes yielded the palm to another in the warmth of the esteem which they held for the deceased, who himself, at various times, had been a hard worker in the field of labor; who had served the community as the faithful [?] of public funds, and who after the acquirement of wealth, had made use of it to enable those with whom he had dealings to provide themselves with all the comforts desired by them in [?] their several walks of life. There were many present who would have esteemed it an honor to have performed the last services of friendship by bearing the remains of their associate to their last resting place, but that honor fell upon a few members of the Society of California Pioneers, the only organization with which Socrates Huff was associated at the time of his death. For years the deceased was one of the most devoted and enthusiastic members of the hardy band, and grieved sorely when on that [?] day in April of last year, all the property and invaluable records owned by that society of the past of California were utterly destroyed. SUCCESSFUL CAREER. [a paragraph this is generic and hard-to-read was not transcribed] THE PALLBEARERS. [etc. many names listed] San Leandro was in mourning for the dead. On the staffs of business houses flags floated dreamily in the gentle breeze and the town ensign, which has often floated on joyous occasions from the truck, waved slowly and solemnly midway between cradle [?] and peak, symbolizing the sentiment and sorrow of the people of the town. The home of the deceased is [?] by drives and walks and trees and flowers. Today they were erradiated [sic] by genial sunshine and a gentle breeze wafted the odors of [?] and orchid in a manner grateful to mourners. The air, too, was musical with birds. The grounds were early taken possession by those who had come to honor the dead and the parlors and halls were also occupied but in the main by those who had been especially intimate with the deceased in life. TOWN IN MOURNING. In his home life, Mr. Huff had always been and [sic] admirer of flowers. Flowers were a decoration of the place, and, today, a knowledge of that taste, on the part of many people, was testified to by the wealth of floral designs which garnished the chamber in which lay the departed. The remains were encased in a massive casket covered with rich black cloth with [cannot read final sentence on scan] simple story of his life and death in the inscription: “Socrates Huff. 1827-1907.” There were nothing on the features to indicate that death had claimed its own. There was a firmness in the features of Socrates Huff, in life, which showed him to be a man of affairs, a firmness which is to be found in the visage of every man who makes a success in life. That expression of firmness seemed to have been relaxed and to have been obliterated by the expression which denotes the relaxation which accompanies calm, restful slumber. On the covering of the casket was a rich pall of maidenhair fern and purple asters, the tribute of love as the part of the children of the deceased. Around were the floral offerings from beyond the confines of the home. At the head of the casket stood an elaborate “Gates Ajar” of parti-colored flowers and on the right was a standard cross of beautiful execution. On all sides angles and ingles of the parlor and adjacent halls stood easels. Wreaths, sprays and other designs into which flowers may be incorporated, with a profusion never witnessed here before. APPROPRIATE MUSIC. The services were opened by the Knickerbocker Quartet of San Francisco singing in a most sympathetic manner “Abide With Me.” Rev. Dr. E.E. Baker of the First Presbyterian Church of Oakland then read the funeral psalm, after which the quartet sang “Rock of Ages.” Rev. Mr. Baker spoke of the life of the deceased. He briefly sketched Mr. Huff’s life, his early struggles, his devotion to rectitude, his goodness of heart, his upright and irreproachable life in public and private. At the conclusion of the address the quarter sang “Good Night.” The remains were interred in the family plot at Mountain View Cemetery [in Oakland]. FLORAL TRIBUTES. [a lengthy listing, not transcribed, of companies and couples who sent floral arrangements and a description of the arrangement.] .” END Additional Comments: Note that there are three articles above reporting on the death and funeral of Socrates Huff. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/alameda/obits/h/huff100ob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/cafiles/ File size: 12.5 Kb