Note: The following biographical sketch about Laurence was sent to the compi
ler by Susan Decious on November 25, 1998. This sketch was written whe
n Laurence was 27 years old:

HISTORY OF MENDOCINO AND LAKE COUNTIES by Aurelius O. Carpenter and Pe
rcy H. Millberry, 1914:

LAURENCE A. WEMPLE - Among the prominent hustling young business men i
n Laytonville is Laurence A. Wemple, postmaster at Laytonville, who i
s also engaged in the blacksmithing, carriage-making and automobile re
pairing business under the firm name of Downing & Wemple, and in als
o the manager of the Willits Telephone and Telegraph Company. He was b
orn at Milford, Lassen county, California, May 21, 1888, the grandso
n of Joseph Wemple, who came from Michigan across the plains with ox t
eams to California in 1860, locating in Lassen county. There he improv
ed a farm at Milford, on which he still resides. One of his sons, Joh
n B., was born at Milford, where he in turn became a farmer and marrie
d Abbie E. Winslow, who came from Vermont to California. They now resi
de at their ranch at Standish, Lassen county.

Of their family of six children, Laurence A. is the third oldest, an
d his boyhood was spent on the farm at Milford. There he received hi
s education in the public schools, after which he attended the Santa R
osa Business College, graduating in 1908 with a standing of ninety-eig
ht and five-eights per cent. The same year his father had brought catt
le and horses from the home ranch to Santa Rosa for sale, but the sal
e was so slow that he and his son brought them to Long Valley, where t
he latter looked after them until they were disposed of.

Laurence A. Wemple then started to learn the blacksmith trade with J.R
. Downing, continuing for three years