Mendocina May Plaskett Mansfield

Mendocina May Plaskett was born September 14, 1856, in Anderson Valley — the first white child born in Mendocino County, and named for it; the family homestead there is still called Plaskett Meadows. She married Curnell H. Mansfield, the cattleman whose Pacific Valley holdings grew to four thousand acres, and was widowed in 1906 when a runaway team killed him in Pine Canyon. An inventive, practical woman, she patented a water trough of her own design in 1911. She died August 7, 1936.