The Wedding Photograph of George G. Tuggle and Maud (Turner) Tuggle, 1900.

L-R: George Griffin Tuggle and his wife Maud (Turner) Tuggle, pose for their wedding photo. Taken by W.O. Amsden.

This photograph has quite the story... it was found by a non relative in a salvage shop (antiques and things) in Berkeley, California this last week. So she purchased the photograph. The image was inscribed on the back as to who the couple were. The discoverer then took it home to try to find their family online and through Ancestry.com, the discoverer was then placed in contact with a distant cousin of mine. My relative told her about me and that I am a historian in Shasta County who works for the Shasta Historical Society, the cousin then said it should go to Jeremy. After that, she found my works website online and emailed me about it telling me the unique story behind this photograph and asking me if I would like to have the original. So, of course, I said yes! Today it arrived in the mail.

This is the first photograph my family has acquired of my paternal great-great-great uncle George Griffin Tuggle (1870-1955), and the second photograph of his wife Maude (Turner) Tuggle (1872-1974) that we have. The other picture of Maud is her at a later age.

George and Maud were married in Manton, California on December 24, 1900, this is their wedding photograph taken in Redding by local photographer W.O. Amsden who was an active photographer in the area between 1899 and 1900. See his label on the lower right hand corner. George G. Tuggle’s occupation was a farmer and a millwright.

George Griffin Tuggle is a son of William Harvey Tuggle and Melinda (Ferrel) Tuggle, and Maud is the daughter of Jacob Turner and Nora Turner.  George and Maud had an infant male baby who was born in 1901 and died in 1901. Their infant male baby is buried in the Mountain Home Cemetery near Shingletown. George G. Tuggle and Maud (Turner) Tuggle are buried in the Evergreen Cemetery, in Oakland, California. It appears that the hand writing on the back of the photograph is Maud’s writing. 

This year has been a very good year so far for recovering photographs of the Tuggle family, I’m pretty stoked about it! 

Above: the back of the photograph with the original inscription, plus a sticky note from the discoverer of the photograph.

The Benton, Wengler and Buick Sawmill near Big Bend.

A concrete foundation of a building that remains on the Benton, Wengler and Buick sawmill property. These photographs were taken by Jeremy Tuggle on March 19, 2017.

In 1896, Herbert Bass owned a sawmill on Roaring Creek at the junction of Big Bend Road and Cove Road, near Big Bend. It was a water-powered mill. Bass decided to dig a ditch from Roaring Creek to convey water into the sawmill. At a later date, John Buick and Matt Wengler became interested in the property and they purchased shares from Bass. They became his new partners with the intention of relocating milling operations from Marble Creek to the Bass Mill. Together they enlarged the sawmill and erected a larger building 150 feet x 100 feet wide. 

After buying shares of the property from Bass, it became known as the Bass, Wengler and Buick Sawmill. Its owner's employed their own lumberman who conducted their tree falling operations in the nearby Flat Woods. The records show that there was a pond on the property as well. John Buick was a life-long teamster and a resident of Silver Lake, Oregon. His partner Matt Wengler was an immigrant from Germany, and at a later date he became a resident of Inwood. Wengler had an interest in the lumber industry.

After the lumber was hewed at the sawmill, a big machine called a Skidder was used to skid the lumber to the nearest river. The nearest river was the Pit. After the logs were placed into the river the drivers would drift the lumber down the river where the lumber merged with the Sacramento River. The drivers were sometimes were referred to as "river rats". The lumber drives final stop on the river was at the Benton Mill at Turtle Bay in Redding owned by Thomas Hart Benton. This method of transporting lumber was used until 1908 at the Bass, Wengler and Buick Sawmill.

After 1908, the hewed lumber was transported from this sawmill by large trucks. Then in 1910, Herbert Bass, John Buick and Matt Wengler sold their sawmill to Thomas Hart Benton who became the sole owner of this mill. 

Thomas Hart Benton was a native of California, who was born in 1862 to John Hansel Benton and Aurelia (Miller) Benton. He was a long time resident of Manton. He was sometimes referred to as T.H. Benton. On March 16, 1887, he married Katherine Lennon at Shasta. During this union they had five children born to them. 

One of their sons is Lieutenant John Benton who the Redding Airport is named after. Benton owned and operated other saw mills in Shasta County. Thomas Hart Benton died in 1919. Additional sawmills were established in Shasta County by Benton. 

Today, all that remains of this sawmill is an old logging road leading into the property, the concrete foundations of former buildings, and some smaller concrete slabs. They are covered by fallen pine needles from the numerous pine trees on the property. The Benton, Wengler and Buick Sawmill produced heavy lumber from 1896 to 1916.

Above: an additional concrete slab covered in pine needles. These photographs were taken by Jeremy Tuggle on March 19, 2017.

Above: another concrete slab emerging from the pine trees covered in pine needles. These photographs were taken by Jeremy Tuggle on March 19, 2017.

Above: an old logging road is still visible leading into the historic Benton, Wengler and Buick sawmill. These photographs were taken by Jeremy Tuggle on March 19, 2017.

RESOURCES:

Place Names of Shasta County by Gertrude Steger, published by La Siesta Press ©1966

CHIPS & SAWDUST - ©1978 by Beulah Johnson, published by Shasta Historical Society.

The 1990 Covered Wagon - ©1990 published Shasta Historical Society, "HESTAN WRIGHT REMINISCES" Collected by Joe Mazzini, pages 36-73. 

Thomas Hart Benton marriage in the Family Data Collection (Ancestry)

Find A Grave.com: Thomas Hart Benton

The Historic Free Bridge Substation

The Free Bridge Substation, June 7, 2018. Photo by Jeremy Tuggle.

The Free Bridge Substation was erected in 1897 in Redding and it served the Free Bridge subdivision as an electrical sub-station. A power source for the area. The power that was channeled through this historic building was sent from the town of Manton. Located in between Parkview Avenue and Smile Place, the substation was named after the (Old) Free Bridge which stood near it from 1884-1906.

 

In 1906 the bridge washed out. It was rebuilt in 1908 and it was kept in use until 1956. Only the remains of the Free Bridge piers exist today, and the piers still tower above the Sacramento River just off of Smile Place. Freebridge Street retains its name. There is a plaque mounted on concrete that provides its history in front of the building, but it is closed off due to a fence around the building’s perimeter.