Studio portrait of three of the Napoleon and Delia Bever children: Ann, Charles, and Sam, c. 1888. They are posed as if playing chess with youngest brother, Charles, standing in the back.
June 6, 1942 – Charles Bever died at the Fort Bragg hospital at the age of 66 from heart disease. Auggie Heeser, editor and proprietor of the Beacon, began Charles’ obituary, “It is with great regret we chronicle the passing of one of our boyhood friends and a Mendocino man whom all loved for his happy disposition and kindly considerate ways.”
Born at Noyo in 1876, Charles attended grammar school in Mendocino and was a member of the first Mendocino High School class in 1893. After high school, he attended a San Francisco business college.
“He followed a number of occupations as a young man: clerking in Jarvis & Nichols store for a number of years, was employed in San Francisco for some time, and later had charge of the camp store at Boyles Camp. He finally went to Fort Bragg and opened an auto-top shop and continued this most successfully for a number of years during that period when touring cars with cloth tops prevailed.”
During his last years, Charles lived at his brother’s home in Mendocino.
Funeral services were held at the Cannarr Funeral Home. Rev. Floyd J. Seaver, pastor of the Mendocino Presbyterian Church, officiated, and Mrs. C. Louis Wood sang the hymns. Mrs. Walter Ball presided at the chapel organ as accompanist. The pall bearers were Chester Walbridge, George Soeth, Emil Seman, Ted Winder, George Escola, and Elmer Woodworth. Charles was laid to rest in the family plot in Evergreen Cemetery at Mendocino.
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