One of the men who arrived in Mendocino and helped establish it as a logging town was John Edward Chalfant. Like so many others, he came to California during the heady days of the Gold Rush. He wasn’t successful as a miner, but he happened to run into Jerome B. Ford in San Francisco. Mr. Chalfant married Martha Hayes Ford’s sister, Susan. They settled into a life on the Mendocino headlands, in a house very like that of the Fords, located near the foot of Lansing Street. Their house later was incorporated into what became the Norton Hotel, which was partially burnt down in 1879, and later rebuilt as the Occidental Hotel, which in turn caught on fire and was never rebuilt.

Black-and-white photograph of four people posing on the porch of a wood-sided house. An older man wearing a cowboy hat, vest, and boots sits on the steps beside an older woman in a dark dress. A young woman in a light-colored dress stands at left, while a young girl in a light dress with a large bow stands at right.

Chalfant family at their home in Cloverdale, 1900. L to R Alice Porterfield, teacher, Mrs. Susan Chalfant, John Chalfant and Helen Porterfield.

Mr. Chalfant became wealthy through his work with the Mendocino Mill Company. He purchased and operated a lumber schooner, the Sine Johnson. “Sine” is a fairly common feminine name among Danish and Norwegian families. The schooner seemed to have a special relationship with Albion, where it unintentionally became beached, not once, but twice. The first time occurred in 1874; the second time on November 6, 1878. Both times, the schooner was refloated. Repairs had to be made in 1878 by ship builder, Thomas Petersen, under the orders of James Brett, then superintendent of the Albion Lumber Company. The duration of Mr. Chalfant’s ownership is not certain, but after repairs were made, the schooner resumed its service carrying lumber and was renamed the Governor Perkins. Perhaps Sine Johnson was deemed an unlucky name?

The schooner Governor Perkins seems to have had a short career following the name change. According to the chronology of shipwrecks created by author Michael D. White in his book Shipwrecks of the California Coast: Wood to Iron, Sail to Steam, the Governor Perkins foundered off Cambria in December 1880. Apparently, the precise whereabouts of the ship were unknown. An article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel dated December 9, 1885, stated that Captain Jordan of the Charles O. Wilson reported a sailor who sighted the remains of a ship believed to be the Governor Perkins, which had been missing for several years. The beach where portions of the wreck were seen was “below Point Sur,” which would have roughly corresponded with foundering “off Cambria.” John Chalfant died in 1905 in Cloverdale, at the age of 80. He left a sizable fortune of $143,000 to his widow, Susan.

ART OF RESISTANCE is on display through the end of February. Mendocino artists don’t just paint history – they shape it! Come see where we’ve been, feel the passion of the fight, and get inspired to use your voice, your markers, or your paintbrush to demand the change you wish to see in the world. The Kelley House Museum is open Thursday-Monday, 11am to 3pm. Visit our event calendar for a walking tour schedule.