GODFREY A. HUMANN

Godfrey A. Humann, 96, the famous and very prominent South Shasta Lines Model Railroad builder of Gerber, passed away on April 15, 2009 at his home near Gerber.
Godfrey Humann was born on October 28, 1912, to Helen and Martin Humann in Lincoln, Nebraska. He was the second of three boys, and became the last family survivor.
He grew up in Nebraska as a hard working and ambitious farm boy until the age of fourteen. He remembers at the age of four moving to the 160 acre farm near Raymond, Nebraska, where he spent most of his childhood. He walked the 1 1/4 miles to a one room school, and when in season, loved tending a trap line before going to school. He caught many fur bearing animals such as muskrat, possum and skunk. He even went to school once with a skunk odor on him. He was sent home to change clothes and return, but only in time for school to let out.
Godfrey had a love for trains even as a young boy. He would go down to the train crossing to watch the trains go by whenever possible, wishing for the day that he may become a railroad engineer himself.
In January 1927, Godfrey and the family moved from Nebraska to California taking three weeks to make the trip. They settled on a small farm west of Tehama. Here he helped with most of the farm work, not able to finish his school education. When he grew older, he bought his own farm machinery and became a custom thresher man to other farmers. He was a custom thresher man for some 13 years.
He bought a farm near Gerber in the early forties, and along with his late wife, Betty and family, raised hay and grain. Godfrey and Betty farmed and were together for 54 years until her death in 1993 from cancer.
In 1950 the Humanns started the internationally known South Shasta Model Railroad. The model railroad was made up as a replica to the Southern Pacific's Shasta Division, Gerber to Dunsmuir. Mr. Humann has shown his little railroad to some 91,000 people in the past 60 years, and many people come away with amazement at what they had seen. It is now of great historical value as many things are no longer seen in real life today. They were also well known for the South Shasta Steam Threshing Bee held on Labor Day weekend from 1963 to 1987 and possibly being one of California's first threshing bees.
After Betty Humann's death, Godfrey kept the little model railroad running for the public with daughter, Freya Hanson's help. In December 2004, Godfrey married Noemi E. Halaghay to care for him and assist with the railroad too.
Mr. Humann was a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Red Bluff.
Along with his wife Noemi Humann, survivors include son Paul Humann of Eugene, OR, daughter Freya Hanson of Los Molinos, 8 grandchildren, 15 great grandchildren and 1 great great grandchild.
Visiting hours will be on Tuesday, April 21, 2009, 5 to 8 pm at The Chapel of the Flowers on Walnut Street.
Services are planned at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Red Bluff on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 1:00 pm.
During the traditional funeral procession to the Tehama Cemetery where Mr. Humann will be buried, a stop over will be made at his residence near Gerber. A steam whistle from one of his old steam tractors will be blown for his send off on the railway to heaven, then departing afterward to the Tehama Cemetery.
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