George McFarlan (b. c. January 1821 - d. 25 December 1875) was an early pioneer to Humboldt County arriving with a group of Canadians from New Brunswick[3] that included Willam Carson whose sister later married another McFarlan.[4]
Like many other newcomers to the area, they sought gold first, working for a group from Arkansas to dam the Trinity River about ten miles from Weaverville to divert the flow to an old channel revealing a three-quarters of a mile long dry bed of riffled gold and pebbles in the summer of 1850.[3] As with McFarlan, most of the Canadian laborers on the dam went on to become the leading men of Humboldt County.[3]
After the gold fields, McFarlan came to Eureka and purchased large tracts of redwood timbered land, in an area south of Myrtle Avenue, to feed a saw mill that he built and operated, and once owned the land, but did not log it, that would become Eureka's Sequoia Park.[4] McFarlan street is in his former holdings.[2] McFarlan and his wife, Catharine A. McFarlan (b. c. 1838 - d. 14 July 1878),[5] lived in the home on Second street at the time it was built.[2] He was found drowned in Humboldt Bay, 24 December 1875,[4] although his gravestone says he died 25 December 1875.[5] He is buried with his wife, Catharine in Myrtle Grove Memorial Cemetery.[5]
