About the Huff Family

Charles Edward Huff is one of several young children buried in the Gualala Cemetery. He was born to John Huff and Mary Bellinger in the fall of 1882. Sadly, his life was cut short when he succumbed to cholera on July 19, 1883 at the age of nine months. Although his headstone, recorded in 1974, no longer exists, the base of this monument and a footstone engraved with the initials “C.E.H.” remains and is thought to mark his burial site.

His father, John Huff, was born on July 15, 1845, in Alexander, Washington County, Maine. After serving seventeen months in the Union Army during the Civil War, John migrated to California with his father, sister Maggie Huff, and two brothers, Charles and Bion Huff. He fought in several key battles, including the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Courthouse, and Petersburg, where he sustained two wounds in what is considered one of the war’s most severe battles.

In 1872, the Huff family settled on the Mendocino Coast, where John and his brothers found work in the timber industry across Mendocino, Lake, and Sonoma counties. On March 16, 1877, John married Mary Ballinger in Casper, Mendocino County, California. He was well-regarded as a good citizen and a kind neighbor.

Mary Bellinger was born in April 1849 in New York and migrated to the West Coast with her family. She was a pioneer schoolteacher on the Mendocino Coast, earning her State Education Diploma in 1876. After John’s death in 1918, Mary remained on the coast until 1925, when declining health led her to move to the Relief Home for widows of Civil War veterans in San Jose, where she passed away in 1929. John, Mary, and their elder son Bion (1881-1900) are all buried at the Evergreen Cemetery.

Research compiled by Kelly Richardson, APR, AG. Anchored Genealogy. Research for this report was funded through a grant by the American Society of Genealogists.