Henry P. Larrabee

Henry P. Larrabee (c. 1830 – December 19, 1906), also known as Hank Larrabee, was a 49er, and rancher in the Eel River Valley of Humboldt County, California. In this region, he was notorious for his treatment of Native American people. Subsequently, he was a sheriff in Montana, a family man, businessman and school board member in Kansas.

History He was born in Marion County, Ohio, son of Joseph and Lucy Larrabee, and lived there until leaving for California during the 1849 California Gold Rush. He established a ranch at "Larrabee" in Humboldt County in 1859. He also owned the land around Blocksburg from the Eel River to Larabee Valley to the east. The town of Blocksburg was originally called "Larabee" or its other spelling "Laribee" Several landmarks–including Larabee Creek, Little Larabee Creek, and Larabee Valley although old maps and writings occasionally use the alternate spelling "Laribee."

An anonymous letter writer called attention to some of the abuses: "Larrabee, for his part, took offense at an Indian boy who worked for him but who would periodically run off to visit his relatives. Larrabee 'went down one morning and slaughtered the whole family of about six persons, boy and all. He then made a rude raft of logs, put the victims on it… and started the bodies down the river.'"

Leaving Humboldt County, Larrabee followed another gold rush to the Salmon River in 1862, ending up in Hellgate, Montana, where he was elected sheriff of Missoula County under the name "Henry P. Larrabie" in 1865, serving only about one year. Larrabee left Missoula in 1868 to return to Ohio at about the time his father died.

Larrabee married Catherine Linn Phillips (1849-1940) on February 14, 1869, in Indiana, with whom he had five children and moved from Indiana to Joplin, Missouri, then to Wellington, Kansas, and finally to Wichita, Kansas, where he ran an artificial stone business. Later he was a homesteader, cattle rancher, deputy sheriff and on the school board in Liberal, Seward County, Kansas, until he died on December 17, 1906, of cancer under the name "Henry Pierre Larrabee."