Orange County, CA Genealogy Trails
Biographies
| Name | Bio | Source | Transcriber |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ball, Charles Dexter, M.D. | Closely identified with Santa Ana and Orange County since 1887, Charles Dexter Ball, M.D., is recognized as one of its successful physicians as well as one of the stanch upbuilders of Santa Ana. He comes from English forbears, and his lineage is traced back to Wiltshire, England, and it was from that place that six Ball brothers came to America in 1635 on the ship Planter. Benjamin Ball, a grandson of one of these brothers, settled in Framingham, Mass., in 1703. His grandson, Dr. Silas Ball, was a surgeon in the American Army during the Revolutionary War.
Dr. C. D. Ball's father was Seth F. Ball, grandson of the Revolutionary surgeon, and he was born in Leverett, Mass., in 1822, and died in Santa Ana in 1900. He was twice married, his first wife being Arvilla Field, who died in 1884, and he was later married to Mary E. Rogers, who survives him. Two children were born of his first marriage, Charles Dexter Ball of this review, and a daughter who died in infancy. The mother was a descendant of Zachariah Field, one of the grantees of the state of Connecticut, and of Benjamin Waite, preacher, guide and Indian fighter, who was killed in the Deerfield massacre in 1704. The French and Indian wars of New England presented no more daring and picturesque character than Benjamin Waite. Seth F. Ball came to California in 1854 and remained for four years, after which he removed to Canada. He resided there until 1894. and then returned to California and settled in Santa Ana, where his last years were spent. Charles Dexter Ball was born in Stanstead, Quebec, October 5, 1859. He received his literary education at Stanstead Academy and the Wesleyan College of Stanstead; later he studied medicine at Bishops College in Montreal, completing his course and receiving his degree of M.D. in 1884. He. began the practice of his profession in his native city, but it became necessary for him to seek a milder climate, and he accordingly came to Southern California and settled in Santa Ana in September, 1887. This was before Orange County had been formed, and the territory was a part of Los Angeles County, and ever since that date he has been actively engaged in the practice of his profession here, and is now the second oldest practitioner in point of residence in Santa Ana. In 1912 Dr. Ball received the ad eundem degree from McGill University. Canada. He has been closely identified with the movements that have made Orange County one of the best-known counties in the State, if not in the United States. Dr. Ball assisted in organizing the Orange County Medical Association in 1889, and later served as its president; he was also a charter member of the Southern California Medical Society, organized in 1888. and has filled the office of president; he also holds membership in the American Medical Association. He has seen Santa Ana grow from 3 small village into one of the leading small cities of the state, and has been owner of valuable realty holdings from time to time. In 1883 Dr. Ball married Lizzie S. Bates, and she died in August, 1888. On October 24 of the following year, in San Leandro, Cal., he married Emma L. Rankin. born in Richmond. Canada, on June 3. 1861, a daughter of Zera Rankin. of Scotch descent, and a prominent business man of Richmond. Mrs. Ball's mother died when she was a babe of two months. In 1886 she came to California, and in 1888 she was graduated from the Oakland high school. Of this happy marriage four children have been born: Charles F. Ball, now first assistant chief engineer of the Holt Manufacturing Company at Peoria. 111. He married on April 26, 1917, Miss Margaret G. Weeks, and they have a daughter. Margaret Elizabeth, born October 2. 1918: Dexter R. Ball is interning at the University Hospital in San Francisco; John D. Ball is a senior in the medical department of the University of California at San Francisco. He married Isabel Jayne on June 28. 1919: and Emma Arvilla Ball makes her home with her oarents in Santa Ana. All of the children are graduates of the University of California, at Berkeley. Dr. Ball has always been a Republican and has taken an interesting part in political affairs of the state and nation, being elected a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Chicago in 1920 by a large majority. He has been president of the Abstract and Title Guaranty Company for thirty-five years, is a director of the First National Bank of Santa Ana; president of the Santa Ana library board since 1895; president of the Orange County Historical Society; a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, California Chapter; prominent in the Odd Fellows and Masons, holding membership in the various bodies of the latter in Santa Ana, and the Shrine in Los Angeles. He served in Los Angeles throughout the entire war as the medical member and referee of the Southern California District Exemption Board No. 1, giving of his best efforts to help win the war. He and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Public spirited and progressive, Dr. Ball has always been a leader in all enterprises for the upbuilding of Santa Ana and has done all that was possible to advance the social and moral welfare of its citizens. He has built up an extensive practice and is well known in the medical circles of the entire state as an able and high-minded practitioner and citizen. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Ball, Strother S. | During his forty years of continuous residence in Orange County, Strother S- Ball has witnessed the marvelous development of agriculture and citrus culture in the county, as well as the growth of villages into up-todate cities. He was born January 29, 1848, in Gentry County, Mo., the son of Hezekiah R. and Ellen (Stephens) Ball, the former a native of Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Hezekiah Ball were the parents of eight children, five of whom are living.
In 1865, after the Civil War, the family migrated, by the ox-team route, to Arizona. The indomitable spirit of the pioneer possessed this hardy family to such a degree that they determined to migrate still farther westward until the Golden State was reached. In 1866 the family arrived in San Bernardino, where they remained until 1880, when they located in what is now Orange County. In 1881 Hezekiah Ball purchased 200 acres of land at the small price of fifteen dollars an acre. Here he followed general farming until his passing away in 1909. The land was subsequently divided and disposed of, Strother Ball receiving his share of the estate. Mr. Ball occupies an established place in the community where he has so long been a resident, and stands high in the estimation of a large circle of friends. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Bastanchury, Domingo & Maria | Among the pioneer settlers of what is now Orange County, the names of Domingo and Maria Bastanchury will never be forgotten, for they were liberal supporters of all movements that had for their aim the betterment of local conditions and the upbuilding and development of the new county. Of foreign birth, Domingo Bastanchury first saw the light of day at Aldudes, Basses-Pyrenees, France, in 1839, the son of Gracian Bastanchury. Domingo never had the opportunity to obtain an education, as he had to work hard from a very early age, but what he lacked in book knowledge he made up in business sagacity, and from an humble sheep herder he rose to a position of prominence and wealth in his chosen home place. When a young man of twenty-one he left home and friends and came to America, for he knew that brighter opportunities awaited the man of energy and judgment than were to be found in his own home locality in the Pyrenees. His objective point was California and he left on a sailing vessel that took six months to make the journey from his local port around Cape Horn to California. The ship encountered many storms and the passengers suffered many hardships, but they bore them all with fortitude and eventually landed in the land of their hopes—California.
Arriving here in 1860, Mr. Bastanchury worked as a sheep herder for wages and after several years in that capacity he gradually acquired a band of his own and as these increased he became independent; at one time he was the largest sheep owner in Los Angeles County, having from 15,000 to 20,000 head that were grazed all over the southern part of the state. During the dry years when feed was scarce he would take his flocks into the mountains and try to save them from starvation. At other times the sale of wool was so slow on account of the tariff conditions that after it had been kep^ for two years it had to be sold for two cents per pound. What that meant to the sheep men, no one but themselves knew. As the ranges were diminished in size by ranchers who began to grow various kinds of crops the sheep men gradually went out of business and Mr. Bastanchury acquired large land holdings in what is now Orange County. He had 1,200 acres south of Fullerton and later had 6,000 acres northwest from that city. There still remains of the original acreage 3,300 acres. The family together have 3,000 acres planted to citrus fruits, the largest individual citrus grove in the world. All the development of the large tract has been accomplished within the past ten years, as prior to 1910 it was grazing land or barley fields. This work was done by the Bastanchury brothers, Gaston A., Joseph F., and John B., who comprise the Bastanchury Ranch Company, now owners of most of the property. Domingo Bastanchury was united in marriage in Los Angeles, on July 16, 1874, with Miss Maria Oxarart, who was born in 1848, in the same place as her husband and who came to California in 1873. Her parents were John and Martha Oxarart, farmers in Basses-Pyrenees, who raised grain, cattle and goats. The daughter obtained a limited education in her native home, but after coming to America she attended school a year to perfect her English. Mrs. Bastanchury shared with her husband all the trials and hardships incident to pioneer life on the plains of Southern California and while he was in the mountains with his sheep she was alone with her little family, her nearest neighbors being several miles away. She well remembers the country when there was no sign of the present town of Fullerton; all trading was done in Los Angeles or Anaheim. The whole country was devoted to grain raising and to the raising of stock, with the exception of the grape industry that was being developed about Anaheim. Then came the making of wine, one of the industries of note in the state at one time There were only two houses between her home place and Los Angeles, and where now hundreds of autos travel the main road between Los Angeles and Fullerton, in the early days there would not be more than one team a week. Mr. and Mrs. Bastanchury became the parents of four sons: Dominic J., who owns and lives on his 400 acres near La Habra which is planted to walnuts and citrus fruits; Gaston A., manager of the Bastanchury Ranch Company; Joseph F., and John B., all of whom reside on the ranch and assist in its care. It is marvelous to realize that when so much land is continually changing ownership that this large holding is still intact and under the highest state of development, all accomplished by the young men who have grown up in Orange County. On July 21, 1909, Domingo Bastanchury passed away at his ranch home, the house having been erected by himself and his good wife in 1906, and was counted one of the show places of this section of Orange County. Mrs. Bastanchury makes her home on her 200 acres and is in the enjoyment of the best of health and enters heartily into all movements that mean progress and better living conditions in the county. Much of the prosperity now enjoyed by the family is due to the capable management and foresight of this pioneer woman who has been a witness of the wonderful transformation of the county and Southern California since she first settled here, a young girl. She believes in living and letting live and when she can aid any worthy enterprise for bettering local conditions she is ready and willing to do so. Now in the evening of her days she can look back upon a life well spent and forward without fear, for she has done her part to make the pathways of her descendants smoother than the paths she once trod and to prepare them for the tasks that lead to success. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Belt, Mrs. Susan | Of Southern lineage, but of uncompromising Union allegiance, Mrs. Susan Belt, an Orange County pioneer and widow of James H. Belt, is a woman possessed of great strength of character and executive force. Her husband, who came of a fine family, was born in Johnson County, Ark., in 1840. His grandfather, Middleton Belt, the founder of the American branch of the family, was a native of England who settled in Maryland and afterwards removed to Tennessee, where he settled and reared his family. The father'of James H. Belt, Dotson Belt, was probably born in central Tennessee, and his mother, Miss Penelope Laster before her marriage, also was born there. The parents were planters, and James H. followed in the footsteps of his father and became a successful cotton grower. At the outbreak of the Civil War his sentiments were strongly with the Union, and perceiving that he would be conscripted he left home, taking his best horse, started for the Union lines, and with his handkerchief tied to the ramrod of his gun approached the picket line. He enlisted in Company L of the Fourteenth Kansas Cavalry and served until the close of the war. In the meantime the home folks, because of their Union sentiments, suffered terribly.
Mrs. Belt recalls some very exciting incidents that she underwent also during those trying times. She and her seventy-five-year-old father were making garden in the spring of 1863 when a band of bushwackers rode up and began shooting at them. Eight shots were fired at her father and little brother, and the father was killed by the bullets of the guerillas. Mrs. Belt's maiden name was Susan Brown, the daughter of Reuben and Martha (Hines) Brown, the father a native of Maine and mother born in Tennessee. Her parents settled in Missouri after their marriage and the father became a farmer and stockman. Mrs. Belt was born in Missouri, September, 10, 1844. the youngest girl and the eighth child in order of birth in a family of ten children, and was three years old when her parents moved to Sebastian County, Ark. She received her education in the subscription schools of Arkansas, and July 31, 1863, was united in marriage with Mr. Belt. It was thought that the war was about over, but her husband had to go back to the lines and was in several battles after that. He was in the Western army and was honorably discharged after the close of the war. Mr. and Mrs. Belt moved on to eighty acres of land in Sebastian County, Ark., given them by Mr. Belt's father. He prospered while there, but suffering from the after effects of the measles, which he contracted in the army, and which as a result of taking cold settled in his eyes and on his lungs, came to California for his health during the seventies, accompanied by his family. They settled at Bakersfield where they were taken with chills and fever, and from there went into the mountains near Tehachapi and remained a year and a half. Recovering their health they came to Los Angeles County, and later settled in the vicinity of Santa Ana, where Mr. Belt bought twenty acres of raw land on the river. Mr. and Mrs. Belt became the parents of four sons, William, Joseph, Henry and Jasper, and four daughters, Emma, Cora, Bertha and Maude; of the eight children, five are living. She has one granddaughter, Fay L. Button. Mrs. Belt is an interesting conversationalist; her reminiscences of early days, with their halo of romance and adventure, is an ever interesting topic of conversation. She has a large circle of friends by whom she is highly esteemed, and her comfortable home is noted for its good cheer and hospitality. In her political sentiments she is a stanch Republican, and a member of the Woman's Relief Corps, while Mr. Belt was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Bradford, Albert S. | No one who has recently visited the attractive and instructive orange shows held at San Bernardino will fail to have been greatly impressed by the Orange County exhibits, arranged by Albert S. Bradford, president of the Placentia National Bank, each under his scientific and artistic touch for the past ten years of differing and striking arrangement. He was born at Shapleigh, York County, Maine, on August 18, 1860, the son of William Bradford, a namesake and descendant of the famous William Bradford, who came out on the Mayflower and later was governor of Massachusetts. A. S. Bradford's father married Miss Lucy Thompson, also a member of a Revolutionary family who stood by Washington and his laudable aspirations through the thick and thin of the war, or until independence had been attained.
Albert S. Bradford was reared on a district farm where he had plenty to do every summer, although he enjoyed the usual school advantages of the rural districts in Maine during the winter; but, concluding that such a life would afford him little opportunity for the future, he ran away from home at the age of fourteen and started to paddle his own canoe in the larger, if stranger world. Arriving in Boston, he secured employment in a market garden where garden truck was raised under glass, for which labor he received six dollars a month and his board. He remained there for a number of years; but he did something more than earn a living; he kept his eyes and ears open, he studied hot-bed culture and horticulture, and by conscientious application laid a brodd and deep foundation of knowledge and practical experience of great value to him in later years. In 1881, he even started a business of his own in the outskirts of Boston. A venture of another kind, that of managing a summer resort, at Colchester on Lake Champlain, Vt., merely proved beyond question what he was best fitted for. When, therefore, he established himself at Stoneham, Mass.. and began to cultivate garden produce, he was able to give it his undivided attention and effort. About the time of the great boom in California, that is, in 1887, Mr. Bradford came to the Coast, stopping for a while at San Diego and then coming to Santa Ana, at that time in Los Angeles County, just in time to take a prominent part in the formation of Orange County in 1889. At first, he was foreman of the Daniel Halladay ranch; but in 1890 he located in what is now the Placentia district and acquired twenty acres of land on Palm Avenue—the Tesoro ranch—to which he added later, so that now he owns some fifty-five acres, all set out to Valencia and Navel oranges, under his expert direction brought to a high state of cultivation. Besides this, Mr. Bradford has other citrus land holdings, including oil-producing property. He helped to organize the Southern California Fruit Exchange, and was a director in the same, although for a number of years he was an independent .fruit packer and owned his own packing house.* Later he sold this to R. T. Davies, and he now packs through him. For fifteen years he was a director of the Anaheim Union Water Company, and chairman of the ditch committee, and he helped to organize the First National Bank and the American Savings Bank of Anaheim, and is still a director in both. Mr. Bradford's place in California history is pleasantly assured through his distinction as the founder of the town of Placentia. He bought sixty acres of land for the townsite from Richard Melrose of Anaheim in 1910, laid out the town and secured the right-of-way for the Santa Fe Railroad to build its line; and Placentia is now a busy, thriving town, with paved streets, modern business blocks and attractive homes, situated in the heart of the richest orange and oil section of Orange County. It has a modern, up-to-date grammar school and its own private water system for domestic service. The Placentia Domestic Water Works has one well ISO feet deep, and another 187 feet, with a modern pumping plant. Two large iron tanks hold 52,000 gallons, and a small tank contains 1,800 gallons, for the use of the packing houses. The largest street main is a six-inch pipe, and there are now 228 water meters installed. There are eight fire hydrants, and the town has a twenty-horsepower electric motor. It will be seen, therefore, that with clear, pure water, the water system of Placentia compares favorably with that of any other place in the county. The Placentia National Bank of which Mr. Bradford is president was organized by him in 1911, and occupies a modern brick building of its own—some evidence of its almost phenomenal success from the start. He was organizer of Placentia Savings Bank and president of it and is also a director in the Standard Bond and Mortgage Company of Los Angeles, president of the Republican Petroleum Corporation, and director in the Orange County Automobile Association. He is chairman of the County Board of Foresters, and vice-president and director in the Southern Counties Gas Company, all of them representative business associations. Since 1909 he has had charge, as has been said, of the Orange County exhibit at the annual orange show held in San Bernardino each February, and for ten season has made a new and novel design. Mr. Bradford has been married three times. The first Mrs. Bradford was Miss Fannie R. Mead before her marriage, and she was a native of Winchester, Mass., and the daughter of Captain H. Mead. The latter commanded the U. S. Gunboat Monadnock during the siege of Fort Fisher, in the Civil War, and continuing to follow the high seas, he met a tragic death in the burning of his steamer off Cape Hatteras. Four children blessed the union: Elsie G., the only daughter, grew up to graduate from the Fullerton high school, and died on March 17, 1908. Hartwell A. and Percy L. became mainstays to their parents; but the mother, who passed away on January 9, 1910, did not see the patriotic service of the younger child, Warren M. Bradford, who served in France in the World War, as first lieutenant of the Twenty-third U. S. Engineers. His was the strenuous life of the able-bodied, idealistic and enthusiastic soldier, who never was willing to do the minimum possible, and it is not surprising that he was in several of the most important and famous drives. The blow to Mr. Bradford in the death of his devoted companion threatened to unnerve and incapacitate him; but through the endeavor to overcome the ill effects, he accomplished the great work of providing for the Santa Fe cut-off from Richfield to Fullerton, through Placentia, and also for the founding of the latter town. Hartwell A. Bradford graduated from the Colorado School of Mines, and has made a name for himself as a mining expert in both the United States and Mexico. Percival Loring Bradford was graduated from the Armour Institute of Chicago, as an electrical engineer; while Warren is a musician with proficiency on the piano and cornet. The second Mrs. Bradford was Ellen R. Mead who died November 23, 1918. The present Mrs. Bradford was Mrs. Winifred Wade Bryan, born in Missouri, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Wade. Mr. Bradford is one of the most prominent Masons in California, having been made a Mason in Anaheim Lodge No. 207, F. & A. M., of which he was master three years. He was exalted to the Royal Arch degree in Santa Ana Chapter and was an organizer of Fullerton Chapter No. 90, R. A. M., and for three years was its high priest, although he did the work for five years. He is a member of the Grand Chapter of California and was deputy grand lecturer of the Nineteenth district. He is also a member of Santa Ana Council No. 14, R. & S. M. Mr. Bradford was knighted in Santa Ana Commandery No. 36, Knights Templar, and afterwards became a charter member of Fullerton Commandery. He is a member of Los Angeles Consistory, S. R., and also a life member of Al Malaikah Temple. A. A. O N. M. S., Los Angeles. Always a believer in protection and nationalism for Americans he is decidedly a Republican and has always been active and prominent in matters of political moment to the county and state. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Brooks, William H. | A very interesting pioneer- who has the distinction of being the first white man to live at Laguna Beach, also of now being the very oldest living resident of this place, his first habitation being a cabin located back of where the present postoffice now stands, is William H. Brooks, rancher and mail carrier. He was born in Ellis County, Texas, on September 9, 1855, the youngest son and child of Spencer Brooks, who was born in New York in 1823, went to Illinois a young man and there married Miss Sylvia Heminsway, a native of Vermont, where she was born in 1828, and who had gone out to Illinois in her youth. The family went to Texas and remained there two years, and not liking the country returned to Illinois and Winnebago County, where Mr. Brooks was a stockman and farmer- There he died in 1857, but his widow came west to California and died at Laguna at the age of eighty-four years. One of the sons, Oliver S. Brooks, enlisted for service in the Civil W7ar when he was sixteen, served three years, and he died at Laguna in 1897.
William H. Brooks spent his boyhood and youth on the open plains of Kansas and Colorado, became an expert with the rifle, and knew Wild Bill, Buffalo Bill and all of the scouts of those early days. In 1875 he had left home at Burlington, Kans., and arrived in Los Angeles when the now flourishing city was but a Mexican adobe village with nothing to presage its future greatness. The family had moved out to western Kansas in 1861. and they operated a stage station on the overland stage route to California. Those were the days when the country was infested with Indians and many a time this young lad stood guard with the men of the station to protect the people from the red men, and he also experienced many narrow escapes with his life. After these early experiences it was but natural that he should want to come to the Far West in search of a permanent location. Arriving in Los Angeles County, Mr. Brooks went to Downey, at that time one of the most flourishing and wide-open towns in the Southland, and here he engaged in ranching. It was that same year that he wandered down to Laguna Beach on a hunting trip, and seeing the advantageous location for ranching he took up a government claim of what is now the town site of Laguna Beach, and was joined some few months later by his brother, the late "Nate" Brooks. Some time later Mr. Brooks sold his holdings here to an uncle by marriage, Henry Goff, for the paltry sum of fifty dollars cash. At the time of the boom in the Southland Mr. Goff sold off much of the land in lots and small acreage. As Mr. Brooks took notice of the rapid trend of affairs towards the development of the place he began to buy back property as he could until he became owner of considerable town property. As the beach city grew apace he has sold off much of his holdings at very advantageous prices and invested in alfalfa land in Antelope Valley. In 1882 Mr. Brooks had finished his apprenticeship as a blacksmith under Hank Stow, of Anaheim, and established a shop of his own in Los Angeles, and for years he was the smith employed by the I. W. Hellman Street Railway Company when horses were used to draw the cars. His next shop was in Santa Ana, then at Laguna Beach, later at Calabasas and then Bakersfield. Mr. Brooks built the hotel and store at Laguna, but this was burned down in 1895, and it was then he went to Bakersfield. He served as constable of Laguna for twelve years, was deputy sheriff for two years, and postmaster for three years, and during his time he witnessed many interesting incidents that relieved the monotony of life at the little village. After being away for some years he returned in 1912 and took up his residence at Laguna, and since 1914 he has been mail carrier there. Since 1919 he has been interested in ranching in Antelope Valley, where he and his sons own valuable land. On July 4, 1878, at Downey, W. H. Brooks was married to Miss Annie Clapp. born at San Jose, a daughter of Frank Clapp, a planter of Kentucky, where he was born. Her mother was Ruth Condit before her marriage. The family located in Alameda County, Cal., in 18S6; Mr. Clapp died in Santa Ana in 1897,. and the widow died there in 1907. An uncle, Frank Hartley, was one of the officers who captured the bandit, Vasquez. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Brooks: Josephine is the wife of Maston Smith, of Corona, by whom she has two children, William and George. By her first union with Harry Kelly she had seven children, six now living, and three of these daughters are living and married and have five children. The next younger than Josephine is Robert F., who is married, but has no children; Walter R. married Miss Stevens, but they have no children; Clarence H. married Miss Throll and they have two children, Eleanor and William; Roy, the youngest son, is not married. All of the sons live and farm in Antelope Valley. Mrs. Brooks is known to her intimates as "Aunt Annie," and she has the honor of giving the name to Arch Beach, the attractive strand to the south of Laguna. Both Mr. and Mrs,, Brooks are highly esteemed by all who know them in Orange County. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Chapman, Charles C. | Genealogical records give the year 1650 as the date of the founding of the Chapman family in America by the arrival in the new world of three brothers from England, who became the progenitors of a numerous race that, taking root in Massachusetts, spread its branches throughout the growing colonies of the Central West. No representative of this family was more worthy than Sidney Smith Chapman, who was born in Ashtabula County, Ohio, in 1827. He followed the westward tide of emigration at an early age, settling in Illinois when he was a youth of eighteen and embarking in the building business. While he never achieved wealth he was singularly fortunate in gaining that which is far more enduring—the sincere regard of friends and the affectionate admiration of business associates. Into the building of houses he put the same integrity and the same patient industry that he put into the building of his fine personal character and his deep Christian faith.
After a long period of labor as a builder in Macomb, Ill., Sidney S. Chapman removed to Vermont, same state, in 1868 and later followed his trade in Chicago, where he and his first wife were charter members of the West Side Christian Church. During the World's Fair his health failed and in October of 1893 he passed from earth. His life, as it was ordered, contained not only happiness, but also sorrow and disappointment. Whatever came to him he bore with simple dignity and quiet courage, seldom giving utterance to any words save those of hope. As a workman he was not content with the mere completion of a task, but strove to finish each contract with greater skill than he had displayed in previous efforts. He was a firm supporter of prohibition, and politically a Republican. To his descendants he left the heritage of a life that was a model of uprightness and simple devotion to duty. In 1848 S. S. Chapman married Rebecca Jane Clarke, eldest daughter of David and Eliza (Russell) Clarke, both natives of Kentucky, where the daughter also was born. The family of Mr. Chapman by this marriage numbered ten children, seven of whom attained years of maturity and five are now living, viz.: Charles C., whose name introduces this narrative; Christopher C., an orange grower near Yorba Linda; Samuel James, who is engaged in the real estate business in Los Angeles; Dolla, Mrs. W. C. Harris, whose husband is a well known builder and successful architect of Los Angeles; and Louella, Mrs. J. Charles Thamer. of Placentia. Cal. The eldest son, Col. Frank M., died in Covina, this state in 1909. Emma E., Mrs. L. W. B. Johnson, died in Illinois in 1888, leaving a son and daughter. The wife and mother passed away at the family home in Chicago January 2, 1874. and later her youngest sister became the wife of S. S. Chapman, their union resulting in the birth of three children, Ira, Earl and Nina. After the death of her husband the widow remained in Chicago for several years, but subsequently removed to Los Angeles, where she died. During the residence of the family in Macomb, Ill., Charles C. Chapman was born July 2, 1853, and in that city his education was secured, but he owes more to self-culture than to text-books, more to determination and will-power than to youthful opportunities. His first employment was that of messenger boy and he recalls carrying the message that announced the assassination of of President Lincoln. Later he clerked in a store and in 1869 joined his father at Vermont, Ill., where he learned the trade of bricklayer. On the 19th of December, 1871, he went to Chicago and. immediately secured employment, first working as a bricklayer and in 1873 superintending the erection of several buildings, after which he engaged in the mercantile business. During 1876-77 he engaged in canvassing in the interests of a local historical work in his native county and during 1878 he embarked in a similar enterprise for himself al Galesburg, 111., whence the office in 1880 was moved to Chicago. The business was first conducted under his own name and after his brother. Frank M., became a partner, the firm name was changed to Chapman Brothers and later to the Chapman Publishing Company. As the business of the firm increased the plant was enlarged until it had embraced extensive quarters and a large equipment. In addition to the management of a printing and publishing business the firm erected numerous buildings, including business structures, apartments, hotels and more than twenty substantial residences. During the World's Fair they conducted the Vendome Hotel for the accommodation of many of the leading capitalists and business men of the country. The financial panic of that year caused very heavy losses to the firm. At Austin, Tex., October 23, 1884, Mr. Chapman, married Miss Lizzie Pearson, who was born near Galesburg, Ill., September 13, 1861, being a daughter of Dr. C. S. and Nancy (Wallace) Pearson. Two children blessed the union, namely: Ethel Marguerite, born June 10, 1886, now the wife of Dr. William Harold Wickett of Fullerton, and Charles Stanley, January 7, 1889. During January of 1894 Mr. Chapman went to Texas, hoping that the southern climate might benefit his wife, who was ill with pulmonary trouble. Later in the same year he came to California with the same hope, but here, as elsewhere, he was doomed to disappointment. While the family were occupying their beautiful home on the corner of Adams and Figueroa streets, Los Angeles, Mrs. Chapman passed away September 19, 1894. Noble traits of heart and mind made Mrs. Chapman preeminent in family and church circles, while her accomplishments fitted her to grace the most aristocratic social functions. Her charming personal appearance, lovable nature and graceful manner won the affectionate regard of a host of friends. Earth held so much of joy in an ideal home happiness that she could not covet the boon death proffered, yet she accepted it with the fortitude that characterized her sweet Christian resignation to intense suffering through a long illness. The present wife of Mr. Chapman was Miss Clara Irvin, daughter of S. M. and Lucy A. Irvin, and a native of Iowa, but from childhood a resident of Los Angeles until her marriage September 3, 1898. They have one child, Irvin Clarke. Mr. and Mrs. Chapman have traveled extensively, both in this country and abroad. Both are members of the Christian Church, with which Mr. Chapman united at the age of sixteen, and in which he has held all the important official positions. For years he was a member of the Cook County Sunday-school board, a member of the general board, Y. M. C. A. of Chicago, also an organizer of the board of city missions of the Christian churches of Chicago. His identification with these various activities was severed upon his removal from Chicago, but he has been equally active in the West. He has been for nearly a score of years president of the Christian Missionary Society of Southern California, and has taken part in the dedication of forty churches, being the speaker and making the appeal for money, and in a special, as well as a general, way assisted many churches. He is a director of the Christian Board of Publication of St. Louis. The largest of his philanthropic enterprises are the building of a hospital at Nantungchow, China, and his contribution to the California School of Christianity of Los Angeles. For years he has served as a member of the state executive committee of the Y. M. C. A., in 1914 was president of the state convention, and in April, 1915, was elected chairman of the state executive committee. He has been reelected annually since. He has served as president of the State Sunday School Association, and in 1911 was elected to represent Southern California on the International Executive Committee, and was vice-chairman of the Committee. In 1914 he was reelected to both positions, and continues to serve on the Committee. In 1903 he was appointed by Governor Pardee a trustee of the State Normal School at San Diego, was reappointed by him, and later by Governor Gillett, and still later by Governor Johnson, resigning after a service of ten years. In 1907 he was elected a trustee of Pomona College, serving until 1915. Upon the organization of the California School of Christianity, he was chosen a trustee and president of the board. Since coming to California Mr. Chapman has devoted much attention to building up the Santa Ysabel rancho near Fullerton, which, under his supervision, has been developed into one of the most valuable orange properties in the state. The Old Mission brand, under which name the fruit is packed, has a reputation second to none in the best markets of the country, and prices commanded have been the record prices for California oranges since 1897. He also has other valuable orange ranches in the neighborhood of Fullerton. In politics Mr. Chapman is a Republican. He has served as a member of the state central committee, and in 1912 made an unsuccessful race for nomination for state senator. He was elected one of the first trustees of Fullerton, served as chairman of the board, and was reelected for a second term. He is a director of the Commercial National Bank of Los Angeles and of the Farmers and Merchants National Bank of Fullerton. He is interested in mining and in the oil business, and has large realty holdings in Los Angeles and elsewhere. The most important of these is the Charles C. Chapman Building, a thirteen-story office building, in Los Angeles. Mr. Chapman has been closely identified with the irrigation interests that lie at the foundation of success in fruit culture. He served as director and president of the Anaheim Union Water Company for several years. He has made the fruit industry a success, has encouraged others to greater efforts in the same business, and has proved a power for good in the development of horticulture in Southern California. He has borne his share in public affairs, in religious work and in social circles, as well as in his chosen occupation of grower and shipper of fruit. Activities so far-reaching, aspirations so broad and influences so philanthropic have given his name prominence, while he has become endeared to thousands of citizens through his humanitarian views, his progressive tendencies, his gentle courtesy and his unceasing interest in important moral, educational, religious and political questions. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Copeland, Justin M. | Among the well-known educators who deserve the gratitude of posterity may well be mentioned, and in foremost place, the late Justin M. Copeland, a native of New Hampshire, where he was born on St. Patrick's Day, 1835. His father, the Rev. David Copeland, was a Methodist minister and became a pioneer clergyman in Southern Wisconsin. Justin M. began his education at Kent's Hill Seminary, Maine, later attended the Middletown College, in Middlesex County, Conn., and finished at Lawrence University, Appleton, Wis., to which town his parents had moved in 1857. When fifteen years of age he commenced his teaching in Maine, where he taught a term of school in Winthrop; then he taught in Connecticut, later in Wisconsin and then moved to Odell, 111., where he taught for two years. On his return to Wisconsin he served for several years as an instructor at Fond Du Lac, next going to Kansas, where he purchased a farm near Derby which he worked in summer, while he taught in winter. In 1876 he went south to Key West, Fla., and there conducted a school for two years, when he returned to his ranch near Derby, Kans.
In May, 1881, he came west to California and settled in Old Newport, now Greenville, and for two years he taught the district school. He also taught in other places in Orange County, among them Villa Park, Trabuco, Aliso Canyon, New Hope and Newport, and only when his eyesight failed him, and he could no longer do justice to the work, did Mr. Copeland give up a work very dear to his heart and in which he had been so signally successful—a wonderful career, having taught over forty years. On September 7, 1860, in Chicago, at the home of the bride's brother, Henry French, Mr. Copeland was married to Miss Mary E. French, a native of South Chesterville, Franklin- County, Maine, who was born March 20, 1836, the daughter of Isaac and Eliza (Brown) French, worthy Yankee farmer folk of good old Maine. Four brothers of the French family came from England to Massachusetts in 1620, in a ship of the Mayflower party, and later some of the brothers went to New Hampshire and then to Maine. Mrs. Copeland's Great-grandfather French came from New Hampshire to Maine, and her grandfather, Joseph A., and two brothers were among the founders of South Chesterville, Maine. Mrs. Copeland had two brothers in the Civil War. Captain Henry French, and Joseph French, who was in a Maine regiment of cavalry and who now lives on the old Joseph French place. She attended Kent's Hill Seminary, and when a young lady came west to Chicago, where she resided with a sister and a brother. She had made the acquaintance of Justin M. Copeland while the Rev. David Copeland was on that circuit and the acquaintance continued and resulted in their marriage. On retiring from the pedagogical field, Mr. Copeland purchased 100 acres of land in Orange County, which he disposed of to advantage during the early days of the great boom; and later he purchased twenty acres handsomely set out as an orange grove at Riverside, which has since proven very valuable ranch property. This ranch is now in charge of their only child, Joseph Eugene, who is a graduate of the University of Southern California, and married Miss Carrie Wilson, daughter of J. A. Wilson of Santa Ana. Mrs. Copeland is also the owner of a walnut grove on Grand Avenue, Santa Ana. In March, 1915, at the ripe old age of eighty, Mr. Copeland passed to his eternal reward, rich in the esteem and affection of those who best knew him. Mr. and Mrs. Copeland were firm believers in cooperation, hence they were members of both the local Citrus Association and the Santa Ana Walnut Growers Association, since their organization. Mrs. Copeland belongs, as did her exemplary husband, to the First Presbyterian Church of Santa Ana, in whose religious and social work she participates as best she can for one of her age. Public-spirited to a remarkable degree, she also took a very active part in the work of the Red Cross during the recent war, and at the age of eighty-two knit not less than 150 pairs of socks for the soldiers. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Crowther, William Henry | Throughout a long and useful life that left its impress lipon various lines of activity, William H. Crowther won and maintained the confidence of a large circle of associates, through his progressiveness and sterling traits of character. Coming of a long line of English antecedents, Mr. Crowther was himself a native of England, where he was born on October 4, 1837, in Yorkshire. His parents. John and Tamar (Bartel) Crowther, both natives of that part of England, passed their entire lives there.
The country schools of Yorkshire furnished William Crowther his early education, and this he supplemented with a course at the mechanical schools at Leeds. In 1857, at the age of twenty years, he immigrated to America, settling in Massachusetts, and here he followed the trade of blacksmithing and wagonmaking for several years, becoming a very proficient workman. Seeking another field for his activities. Mr. Crowther started on the long journey to the Pacific Coast by the way of the Isthmus of Panama, reaching San Francisco in January, 1864. Spending six months at Sacramento at his trade, he then located at Santa Clara, and there he engaged in business for himself for a number of years, manufacturing wagons, plows and a large line of agricultural implements. Coming to Los Angeles County in 1872, Mr. Crowther located at Anaheim, and there engaged in blacksmithing for some time, but seeing the great possibilities in the development of the agricultural and horticultural interests of this part of the country, he purchased 136 acres of land at Placentia in 1875. It was a raw, unpromising piece of land, used as a sheep range, and Mr. Crowther realized thoroughly the hard work that would be required before he could hope for even fair returns. Particularly did he see the necessity of irrigation, if settlers were to be attracted to this locality. He therefore entered actively into the development of waterways, and was one of the originators of the means of irrigation provided by the Anaheim Union Water Company. For many years one of its directors, and for several terms president of the company, he was of invaluable assistance in the conduct of its affairs; also did blacksmithing for the company during the first year and a half of its existence. In the meantime Mr. Crowther was also busily engaged in the development of his own ranch. Eighty acres were planted to English walnuts and about fifty acres to oranges and deciduous fruits, and through his unremitting care and intelligent cultivation it became one of the best-known ranches of the district, its abundant yield bringing in a handsome income. Since so many years of his life had been spent in a line of work far removed from horticulture, more than ever was credit due to Mr. Crowther for the outstanding success he made in this new field. In his passing away on December 16, 1916, the community lost one of its stanchest citizens, and one who could always be counted upon to give of his time and influence to every good work. The ranch property is now equally divided between his sons, Walter H. Crowther, of 202 Wilshire Avenue. Fullerton; Edward W. Crowther of Placentia, and his daughter Ruby, now Mrs. Albert Hitchen, of Beverly Hills, Los Angeles. Mr. Crowther's marriage united him with Miss Margaret Sproul, a native of Scotland, and they became the parents of four children: Sarah, who died aged forty years; Walter H.. Edward W. and Ruby. Prominent in the ranks of the Masons, Mr. Crowther belonged to the Blue Lodge at Anaheim and to the Chapter and Commandery at Santa Ana, and the Shrine of Los Angeles. A loyal Republican, he took a deep interest in the affairs of his party, taking an active part in county and state affairs, and holding local offices of importance. He also gave his services generously toward securing improved educational facilities, being clerk of the Placentia school district, of which he was one of the organizers. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Drake, David Clarence | An authority on citrus culture in California, and a prominent factor in the development of the industry in Orange County, is David Clarence Drake, whose advice, as that of a sensible man of original ideas, is often sought by growers. He comes of an interesting family, long associated with the history of Long Island, and has identified himself in an enviable way with the history of the Golden State.
He was born at Southampton, Suffolk County, N. Y., in 1864, the son of David R. Drake, who was born at Roxbury, Morris County, N. J., and reared on Long Island becoming a sea-captain, thereby maintaining an interesting tradition from the time of the English renowned explorer. For more than thirty years the master of a whaler, he sailed out of Sag Harbor, L. I., and also New Bedford, Mass., into the various oceans of the globe, touched at many foreign ports, and thus grew familiar with important places all over the world, and was indeed a well-traveled man. About fifty years ago, he quit the sea and retired to his home at Southampton. He had married Harriet Fithian, a native of that place and a member of an old Long Island family of Welsh descent, and three children had blessed their union. Two are still living, and our subject is the only one in California. Brought up in quaint old Southampton, L. I., David C. Drake was educated at the grammar schools of that neighborhood, and also at the Southampton Academy, after which, for a couple of years, he attended the Franklin Literary Institute in Delaware County; then entered Eastman's Business College at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., from which he was graduated in 1882; the pleasure of his studies leading him to move west to the Pacific Coast, and to study for two years in the Van der Nailen School of Engineering at San Francisco, where he took a course in railroad engineering and surveying, and was duly graduated with honors. On his return East and to Southampton, Mr. Drake married Miss Harriet Fordham, who had also been born in that town, of an old and prominent family; and he then engaged in the raising of fruit for the New York City market, and also for the summer trade at Little Newport, L. I. This essay in horticulture he continued until 1896, when he sold out, came west to California, and pitched his tent at Pomona. It was in truth but a temporary camp that he established, for he then traveled all over the state, and up and down the Coast, even into British Columbia, getting first-hand impressions of the great West; at the end of which varied enviable experience, he decided that Orange was most to his liking, and ever since he has been closely associated with the fortunes of the fast-developing place. He purchased his three acres on East Chapman Avenue, Orange, and made all the necessary improvements, set it out to oranges, and built his handsome, comfortable residence, and made of the whole a beauty spot. He also bought thirty acres of raw land at the corner of Seventeenth Street and Holt Avenue, where he set out twenty acres of Valencia oranges and ten acres of lemons. For many years Mr. Drake was a director.in the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company, and assisted in bringing that popular concern to its present state of high efficiency. In 1897 he joined the local organization of citrus ranchers, the Santiago Orange Growers Association, and in 1898 they built their first packing house in Orange—the parent association from which have sprung eleven different citrus associations in this vicinity, and resulted in the final formation of the Orange County Fruit Exchange. Mr. Drake, after having been a director in the Santiago Orange Growers Association, is now its president; and he is also president of the Orange County Fruit Exchange, which handled over five million dollars' worth of business in 1919. For six years Mr. Drake was trustee of the city of Orange, and all that period lie was president of the board, or mayor of the town. He started, with his associates, the building of sewers, and bought the present sewer farm, and they were starting the improvement of streets and sidewalks when he resigned. In national politics, he is a stanch Republican. A member of the First Presbyterian Church at Orange, Mr. Drake has been an elder there for the past twenty years. He was made a Mason in Orange Grove Lodge, No. 293, F. & A. M., and belongs to the Fraternal Aid Union. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Flippen, Mrs. Minerva J. | A liberal-minded, interesting native daughter, especially proud of the fact that her father was a forty-niner, is Mrs. Minerva J. Flippen, the widow of a well-known Californian, esteemed by all his associates. She is the daughter of Nathan Stanley Banner, who was born on the Catawba River, in North Carolina, in 1822, and the granddaughter of John Danner, who moved from North Carolina to Missouri, and settled as a farmer near Springfield. There his wife died; and in 1857 he crossed the great plains in an ox team train, and died in 1871 in Merced County in his eighty-fourth year. The Danners are of German extraction, the progenitor of the name in America, John Danner, coming to North Carolina before the Revolutionary War. Nathan S. Danner came across the plains from Missouri to California in 1849 as a gold-seeker, and mined in Marysville and the Sierra Mountains, down into Mariposa County, where he also had a store; and he was so successful that in 1852 he returned East by way of Panama, to Missouri. There he was married that year to Miss Minerva Pearce, who was born in Tennessee in 1835, the daughter of Edmund Pearce, of English descent, and in the year 1857 he again came to California, once more traveling by way of Panama, and located on the Tuolumne River, in Stanislaus County, where he engaged in farming and the raising of cattle. The flood of 1862 washed away his house, cattle and farm implements, and even the farm became lost in the bed of the Tuolumne River; whereupon he moved to the Merced River, in 1863. He first settled on an island, but the flood of 1867 covered it. and again he lost his crops; but he took his family away in a boat, and moved to Hopeton, six miles from Snelling. Here he farmed until October, 1872, when he and his family removed to Kern County, near Linns Valley, forty miles northeast of Bakerstield, where he followed stock raising; he improved a farm near Woody, and at Blue Mountain he opened the mine that is still being exploited. He set out big trees and otherwise improved the place, and went in for stock raising, although, since there were bear, deer and antelope in profusion, they had plenty of profitable hunting. Later he moved north into Tulare County, and owned a place on White River, where he resided until he died, in 1892. Mrs. Danner spent her last days with Mrs. Flippen, and died in 1911, aged seventy-four years. She had four children; John resides in Porterville; Minerva J., Mrs. Flippen, is the subject of our interesting sketch; Jefferson lives at Willows, Cal., and Lee J. Danner is also a resident of Orange. Of these, John Danner was born in Missouri, and the others are natives of California.
Minerva J. Danner was educated in the public schools of Merced County, particularly in the district of Woody; and there she was married on May 10, 1876, to Thomas M. Flippen, a native of Virginia, who came to California when seventeen, accompanying his father, Archer Flippen. The latter had had a tobacco factory and three plantations in Virginia, all of which were destroyed by the Civil War; but hf recuperated somewhat in taking up stock raising in California, near Woody. Mi. Flippen also engaged in the sheep raising business in Fresno County, then began raising stock in Linns Valley after his marriage; but in February, 1891, he traded his ranch for land in Orange County. The first ranch that he owned here was located near Olive, and there he went in for general farming. He set out walnuts, apricots and peaches, and three years later made a trade for the present Flippen place of twenty acres on East Chapman Avenue. He improved it in many ways, taking out the old trees and setting out Valencia oranges; and as he developed the valuable property, he became an active member of the Santiago Orange Growers Association, in which he also became a director. His lamented death, on May 19, 1913, at the age of sixty-two years, cut short a very useful career, of benefit to himself as well as to others. He was a director in the First National Bank of Orange, and a stockholder in the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Santa Ana. He was also a director in the Orange County Mutual Farmers Insurance Company. He was made a Mason in the Bakersfield Lodge during the eighties. Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Flippen. Marion S. is an orange grower of this vicinity, as are also Wade H. and Lucian, while Jeffie is in the California Art Craft School at Berkeley, and Virginia, the youngest, is a student at Stanford. Florence, next to the youngest, is a graduate of Occidental College, and the wife of Donald Smiley of El Modena. Since Mr. Flippen's death, Mrs. Flippen has continued to run the ranch and to look after the business, assisted by her children. She is a member of the Presbyterian Church and participates actively in the work of the several ladies' societies affiliated with that excellent congregational organization. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Ford, George W. | Coming to Orange County in 1876, George W. Ford is known throughout Southern California as an authority in walnut growing, having made a special study of this industry and securing results not equalled by any other grower in the county. A native of Illinois, he was born in the neighborhood of Centralia on October 21, 1848, a son of John and Louisa (Youngblood) Ford, both descendants of old Southern families, who had settled in Illinois when it was a territory. In 1897 they came to California and resided here during the remainder of their lives. They were the parents of ten children, nine of whom grew to maturity.
The oldest child of the family, George W. Ford, was reared on a farm and was educated in the common schools of that time, attending about two months during the winter, and the remainder of the time after he was old enough to work, was spent in helping on his father's farm. From the time he was a lad of fifteen, Mr. Ford was filled with a desire to see California, having read an article in a paper, written from Anaheim Landing, and he made up his mind then to visit this section some time in the future. When he was a little older he worked for a time in a country store, also helping on the farms in the vicinity of his home, and one season while working in the harvest field he was overcome by the heat. His health began to fail and in March, 1875, he decided to come to California, on the advice of a friend, who had been in this state and knew the conditions to be found here by one seeking health. Arriving in San Francisco with less than ten dollars, this small sum had dwindled almost to the vanishing point before he secured employment, but he was fortunate in completely regaining his health. In February, 1876, Mr. Ford came to Los Angeles County, first working on a ranch and then securing employment in a nursery, where he obtained his first experience in that line. Having saved up a little money he decided to invest it in real estate, and secured five acres of land at Santa Ana, and upon this small tract he started the nursery business that was destined to become one of the largest in the state. From time to time he added to his holdings, in 1884 buying a tract of twenty-three and a quarter acres. At the time of the purchase it was but little better than a sheep pasture, but the extension of the city limits made it a- valuable property. As the county settled up. his business increased in proportion and at one time he employed twenty men and did a business of over $30,000 a year. He made many of his own importations and sold in carload lots, shipping walnut trees all over California and to Australia, as well as many other fruit and ornamental trees, plants and shrubs. He was one of the first to bring the soft-shelled walnut to this part of the state, and in 1885 he originated the Ford improved soft-shell walnut and continued year after year to improve the grade. In the cultivation of walnut-groves he also made valuable contribution through his many and extensive experiments. He was one of the first growers to learn that the best results were obtained by allowing the orchards to remain unplowed, as he found that a "plow hardpan" is formed by cultivating, and also that it breaks of? the small shoots sent up by the roots to draw nourishment from the air. He also found that his yield was much increased by planting the trees much farther apart than was the custom, thinning them out until they were at least sixty feet apart. Mr. Ford continued his nursery business until 1898, when he disposed of it at a good profit. In 1892 he erected his present home and spent much time in beautifying the grounds, having the greatest variety of ornamental trees and shrubs of any home in the county, among them being some extremely fine camphor trees. A stockholder in the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company, Mr. Ford worked in 1877 on the first ditch started by that company. Coming here when Santa Ana was but a small, struggling village. Mr. Ford has seen it grow to be one of the most prosperous towns in Southern California, and in this development he has had no small part. Mr. Ford's marriage occurred in Los Angeles, when he was united with Miss Mary Teague, who was born on a farm adjoining the Ford homestead in Illinois, and came to California in 1878. They continue to reside on their old home place, once a pasture, but now in the heart of the residence district of Santa Ana. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Ford, Herbert A. | A prominent citizen of Orange County, and one who had been a factor in both the mercantile life of Fullerton since its inception as a small settlement, and who also developed a tract of land to oranges and walnuts which has since become one of the finest residence districts in the city. Herbert A. Ford was a native of Michigan, born in Wright, that state, on May 12, 1859. His parents were David A. and Jane Ford, both born in New York State, the father, now ninety-two, living in Garvanza.
In 1884 Mr. Ford came from Dakota to what is now Orange County, first settling in Placentia, where he followed horticultural pursuits and worked as a ranch manager. When the town of Fullerton was started, in 1887, he located there and started the first store, with Mr. Howell as a partner for one year, under the firm name of Howell & Ford. Later he bought his partner out and continued the business alone. During this time he had purchased twenty acres of land on West Commonwealth Avenue, from the Pacific Land and Improvement Company, and also set out several orange and walnut groves in th.e Fullerton district on shares for this company. The marriage of Mr. Ford in 1889 united him with Carrie E. McFadden, daughter of that honored pioneer, William M. McFadden, who is mentioned elsewhere in the history. Three sons blessed their union: Alvin L., dairy inspector of Kern County, is married and has a son, Herbert Alvin; Maurice E., who saw service in France for eight and one-half months in the late war in the Three Hundred Sixteenth Division, is at home; and Herbert A., a dentist of Fullerton; he was first lieutenant in the Dental Review Corps, U. S. A., stationed at a camp in Georgia. Mrs. Ford is an active member of the First Methodist Church of Fullerton, and of the W. C. T. U.; she is past matron of the Eastern Star, and a member of the Ebell Club and the Placentia Round Table, as well as prominent in Red Cross work during the war. Since the death of her husband, which occurred in 1894, Mrs. Ford has subdivided the original ranch of twenty acres, known as the Orchard Subdivision, and the property has all been sold off under her personal management and is now the choice residence district of Fullerton, many fine homes adorning the tract. Mrs. Ford completed a beautiful bungalow on a portion of the land which she retained, and there she makes her home, taking an active part in the social, church and club life of the community which she has seen grow from such small beginnings to its present rank as one of the most beautiful towns of Southern California. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Freeman, Dr. William | Among the distinguished representatives of the medical profession in Orange County whose influence for scientific progress is still felt although, as the result of years of unremitting application to his work he has been retired for nearly six years, is William Freeman, M. D., a native of Medina County, Ohio, where he was born on January 6, 1841. He attended the public schools of his home district, but when seventeen removed to DeKalb County, Ind., and continued his studies in the Auburn Academy. Having been commissioned by the school authorities to teach, he took charge of a school the next year; but in 1861, at the second call by the Federal Government for soldiers he enlisted on September 5, and joined Company H, Thirtieth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He campaigned in Kentucky and Tennessee, as a part of the Army of the Cumberland, and saw stirring action in more than one important battle or engagement. These included the battle of Shiloh, Stone River, in which he received a gunshot wound through the right hand, and the battle of Chicamauga, where he was permanently disabled by a shot through the body. He was laid up for a while in a Chattanooga hospital, from which he was transferred to Murfreesboro, where he was compelled to stay for several months. At length he was taken home by his father on a stretcher, and on his recovering to a degree, he was made sergeant of sanitary police at Totten Field Hospital in Louisville. At the expiration of his term of enlistment, he was returned to Indianapolis and honorably discharged. To such men as Dr. Freeman, the Union owes its preservation today.
Before he enlisted, our subject had commenced the study of medicine, and on once more regaining his civic freedom, he went back to Auburn, Ind., and again took up the subject under Dr. A. H. Larimore, a noted practitioner. When he was ready for a course of lectures, he went to the Cincinnati College of Medicine, and after the usual severe tests, he joined the graduating class of '67. Then he opened an office at Vevay, Ind., and later practiced at Madison, in the same state. Ambitious to still further perfect himself, he pursued post-graduate work at Indianapolis, and once more resumed practice, first at Vevay and then at Madison. Still suffering from the wounds he had received in the service of his country, and broken in health from overwork, Dr. Freeman left the Middle West in 1894 and sought relief in less frigid California. For two years he rested at San Diego, and when he had practically restored his health, he came to Orange County. He was attracted to Fullerton in particular, and there for eighteen years he enjoyed a highly remunerative practice. A man of foresight, anticipating the needs of the community, Dr. Freeman was one of the early promoters of the Fullerton Hospital, which became also an excellent training school for nurses. He invested in city property, and so showed his confidence in the future of Fullerton, and built a cosy residence, at the same time that he improved seven acres to oranges on Orangethorpe Avenue. Dr. Freeman removed to near Anaheim and bought eleven and a half acres on Santa Ana Street, where he set out oranges, there being some walnut trees on the place, and soon demonstrated his ability to succeed as a rancher. He remained there eighteen months then returned to Fullerton and bought twenty and a half acres adjoining his original seven; this he also set to oranges and kept it until 1918 when he sold it. In Fullerton, where he is a pioneer, Dr. Freeman had been health officer, administering his responsibility so well that no contagious disease was ever allowed to spread during the four years he served as first city health officer. He was one of the organizers of the Chamber of Commerce. In Anaheim he lent his experience and counsel in the direction of improved sanitation and greater assurance for public health. When in Indiana, he served his fellow-citizens for a couple of terms in the state legislature, and was also one of the directors of the Indiana State Reform School, and these experiences enabled him to be the more serviceable when he assumed citizenship in California. He was also for seven years on the Indiana Board of Pension Examiners. By his first marriage. Dr. Freeman became the father of four children—A. W. Freeman, an oil man of Oklahoma; J. A. Freeman, a produce dealer of Santa Barbara: W. A. Freeman, manager of the Mission Produce Company, at Santa Maria; and Mrs. Fred Shaw of El Centre. At Whittier, he married his second wife, Miss Belle McFadden, a native of Illinois, who was reared in Mercer County in that state. Both Doctor and Mrs. Freeman are members of the Eastern Star, and the Doctor belongs to Fullerton Lodge, No. 339, F. & A. M. He is also a member of Malvern Hill Post, G. A. R., and was chief mustering officer under Colonel Merrill, when he was department commander. He is hale and hearty, and looks back with pleasure to the arduous days in Indiana, when for twenty-five years he attended to his practice while riding horseback, often on wide circuits. Dr. Freeman belongs to the Christian Church. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Halladay, Daniel | Among the honored pioneers of Southern California who have contributed largely to the growth and advancement of this section of the state through their excellent business judgment and public-spirited service, the name of Daniel Halladay ranks high. Coming to Santa Ana in 1880, Mr. Halladay at once actively identified himself with the development of the locality, interesting himself to some extent in agriculture, but it was in the world of finance that his greatest accomplishments were achieved.
The lineage of the Halladay family dates back for several generations in the history of New England, and its representatives were always in the forefront of the progressive life of their communities. A native of Vermont, Daniel Halladay was born in Marlboro, November 24, 1826. His parents were David and Nancy (Carpenter) Halladay, both natives of the same state. Daniel Halladay's early days were spent at his birthplace, but when he was twelve years of age his parents removed to Springfield, Mass., later settling at Ware, in that state, and in these places Daniel received his education in the public schools. Always of a mechanical bent, at the age of nineteen years he apprenticed himself to learn the machinist's trade, continuing as an apprentice and journeyman for six years. During the latter half of this period he was foreman in the American Machine Works at Springfield, Mass., and the machine works of Seth Adams & Company, in South Boston, Mass. After closing his work with the last-named firm he returned to his former position with the American Machine Works at Springfield, and while there he had charge of the construction of the caloric engine invented by John Ericsson, well known to history as the designer of the famous Mdnitor. During the World's Fair in London in 1851, it was a part of the American exhibit in the Crystal Palace, Mr. Halladay superintending its erection and exhibition there. Returning to the United States, Mr. Halladay became a partner in a machine manufacturing concern at Ellington, Conn., but the connection lasted but a short time, Mr. Halladay then going to South Coventry, Conn., where he engaged in the manufacture of machinery under the firm name of the Halladay Wind Mill Company the greater part of the machines turned out being of his own invention. The company's plant was removed to Batavia, 111., in 1863, and here the business of the plant grew to a large volume, so that when Mr. Halladay decided to retire from it in order to come to California, he was able to dispose of it at a handsome figure. Locating at Santa Ana in 1880, Mr. Halladay entered at once into the upbuilding of the county, his clear vision making plain to him its great possibilities. Two years later, in 1882, when the Commercial Bank of Santa Ana was established, he was made its president, and this was the beginning of many years of service in the banking field, in which his wisdom, integrity and wide grasp had a large part in putting it on its present sound, progressive, yet conservative basis. After serving as the bank's president for a number of years he was made vice-president, always keeping a guiding hand on the affairs of the institution. He was also one of the incorporators of the Bank of Orange, serving on its directorate until it changed hands; at one time he was a director of the Orange County Savings Bank. All of these institutions benefited greatly by Mr. Halladay's wise counsel, as was evidenced by their constant growth, both in number of depositors and amounts of deposits, and his sound judgment has left its impress on their policies to the present day. Interested in every project that made for the material progress of the community, Mr. Halladay entered enthusiastically into the plans for furnishing Santa Ana with illuminating gas, being one of the incorporators and directors of the Santa Ana Gas Company. He was also instrumental in the promotion of the Santa Ana. Orange & Tustin Street Railway, and was one of its directors throughout the existence of the company. Mr. Halladay's marriage, which occurred in Ludlow, Mass., May 3, 1849. united him with Miss Susan M. Spooner, born at Belchertown, Mass., and, like her husband, a descendant of an old New England family. She passed away on December 26. 1908. at Santa Ana. One child was born to them, a son who died in infancy. Mrs. Halladay was a charter member of the Presbyterian Church at Santa Ana and very active in its circles. Mr. Halladay spent the last few years of his life in retirement from active duties, although he always maintained a wide interest in the affairs of the community and nation, being particularly concerned in the cause of temperance, of which he was ever a stanch advocate. His death occurred on March 1, 1916, at his home on East First Street, being survived by his adopted daughter, Mrs. Susie M. Rutherford. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Hansen, Peter | Horticultural enterprises have engaged the attention of Peter Hansen for a long period of successful activity, and by means of his skill in this field as well as his perseverance and industry, he has added another name to the list of prosperous fruit growers of the county and has furnished additional evidence as to the adaptability of the soil to such pursuits. He is now the only surviving member of the pioneers who settled in the Placentia district as early as 1867, a worthy representative of those hardy and intrepid settlers.
A native of Denmark, Mr. Hansen was born at Varde, Jylland, on Christmas Day, 1838. His parents were farmers, so from a lad he made himself useful about the farm, in the meantime receiving a good education in the excellent schools of Denmark. Being the next to the youngest of a family of five children, he remained at home and assisted his parents until he entered the Danish army and served the required two years' time, when he again followed farming until the breaking out of the Slesvig-Holstein War. He was called to the colors, and immediately responding, he became a member of a cavalry regiment of the Danish army and served as a corporal until the close of the war. Immediately after his discharge. Mr. Hansen resolved to emigrate to the United States, so in the fall of 1865 we find him making the long journey via the Isthmus of Panama to San Francisco, where he was employed for two years. Having heard favorable reports from Anaheim and vicinity, he came by boat to San Pedro and on to Los Angeles. The present metropolis of the Pacific Coast was then a small hamlet built around the plaza, with only a few houses and one hotel. He came on to Anaheim, where he was employed by Tim Boege at teaming, hauling freight to Los Angeles and Anaheim Landing, the latter now being known as Seal Beach. In the meantime he invested his savings in 106 acres of raw land at Placentia, then Los Angeles County; it was virgin land in what was then a wilderness, for which he paid the small sum of fourteen dollars per acre. He cleared the land of brush and wild mustard and planted rye. wheat and barley. In those days game of all kinds was abundant,'and the wild horses and cattle that roamed the plains caused Mr. Hansen much trouble, invading his ranch and destroying his crops. He purchased one of the first threshing machines used in his district, a stationary machine run by horsepower, drawn by eighteen horses, and the first year his crop yielded enough to pay for the machine, which he used all over the country threshing for others. He next set out his ranch to grapes and built one of the first wineries in the county, a brick structure 40 by 100 feet in size. After making wine for many years and selling it in casks to people who came from miles around to purchase it, he took out the vines and planted seedling and Washington Navel orange trees; later he budded his trees to Valencia oranges, his present orchard. To his brother Charles, who came from the East and worked for him on the ranch, Mr. Hansen gave fifty-three acres of the property. The brother died in 1903. In later years Mr. Hansen deeded a large part of his holdings to his children, retaining enough property to give him a competency for his retired years. Mr. Hansen's wife, who before her marriage was Christine Jensen, was a native of Abenrade, Slesvig, their marriage being solemnized at Orangethorpe in 1874. An able helpmate and a loving wife and mother, her death on March 14, 1900, made an irreparable breach in the family circle. She left five children, as follows: Mattie is the wife of Arthur Edwards of Placentia, and the mother of two children, Gladys and Hugh; Anna married Horace Head of Santa Ana and they have two children, Melville and Iris; George, who lives at Placentia, is married and has four children, Christine, Ernest, Robert and George; Charles L. also lives at Placentia; Christine is the wife of Walter C. McFarland of Placentia and they are the parents of one child, Forest Walter. Mr. and Mrs. McFarland own and reside in the old Hansen home, over which Mrs. McFarland presides gracefully, showing her loving care and devotion to her aged father, who appreciates her ministrations to his comfort and happiness. Mr. McFarland served in the World War in the Three Hundred Sixty-third Infantry at Camp Lewis until he volunteered in the Signal Corps. Aviation Section, being stationed at Kelly Field, San Antonio. Texas, and at North Island, San Diego, Cal., until after the armistice, when he was honorably discharged, returning to the peaceful pursuit of farming. In early days Mr. Hansen was a school trustee at Placentia and was one of the twelve men who founded Balboa Beach, in which he has always been deeply interested, and where he owns a fine residence, to which his fondness for the ocean causes him to make frequent visits. He was also one of the founders of the Anaheim Union Water Company. Fraternally he was a member of the Anaheim Lodge of Odd Fellows. Accompanied by his daughter Christine, in 1902 he made a trip back to his native land, from whence he came a poor boy, but richly endowed with the natural characteristics that Dame Nature is pleased to reward—indomitable energy and a spirit undaunted by the difficulties encountered on the road to life that leads to success. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Harris, Richard T. | A public official who made an enviable record that will long speak for both his high sense of integrity and his sagacity was the late Richard T. Harris, the first sheriff and tax collector, and the third treasurer of Orange County. He was born in Richmond, Va., on February 15, 1859, the son of John and Grace Harris, now deceased, who were both natives of Cornwall, England, where they were also married. They located, on first coming to America, in Richmond, Va., but, attracted by the exciting news of the discovery of gold in California, came out to California in 1860 and located in Grass Valley, Nevada County. For a while Mr. Harris followed mingn there, and then he came to Healdsurg, Sonoma County, and from there to Santa Clara County. In the Centennial year of 1876, Mr. Harris settled in the Garden Grove district, which was then in Los Angeles County, and there followed farming.
On reaching young manhood, Richard T. Harris entered the mercantile field, conducting a general merchandise store at Westminster. When Orange County was formed, he was one of those distinguished by his foresight and his helpful participation in the hard work of the project, and naturally he was elected - by a majority of 1,700 - the first sheriff and tax collector., Later he was elected county treasurer. In each of these offices he served a term and became one of the best-known men in the county. he was also interested in ranching and devoted considerable of his time to growing walnuts, oranges and celery. Politically he was a stanch Republican. On July 3, 1888, at Westmister, Mr. Harris was married to Miss Maria S. Larter, a native of Ontario, Canada, the family home being only six miles from Niagara Falls. She was the daughgter of Robert and Mary J. (Hansler) Larter, born in Norwich, England, and Canada, respectively. Mrs. Harris accompanied her parents to Westminster in 1876, her father being one of the pioneer farmers there, and this was his home until his death. His widow survives, making her home at Westminster. Mr. and Mrs. Harris were ther parents of one daughter, Geraldine May, who passed away at the age of nine years, Mrs. Harris is a cultured and refined woman, well-read and well-traveled, and this, coupled with a retentive memory, makes her a very interesting conversationalist. She is also endowed with much business acumen, which stands her in good stead inthe management of the large affairs left her by her husband, a stewardship of which she is giving a good account. Mr. Harris was a director in the Santa Ana Cooperative Sugar Company, and took a live interest in the establishment of this plant which has done so much to build up the county. He also served for a tiem as assitant postmaster at Westminster, and also started the telephone company there. During the early history of the oil industry in Southern California, he was one of the prime movers in the organization of the Fidelity Oil company, and operated in the Whittier field. his ventures were successful and he retired from that line with a considerable fortune. On his demise, on November 28, 1911, the local newspaper said of him: "A man of business affairs, he was progressive, and had been active in the promotion of several enterprises that have benefited this city and county. That he was highly esteemed and enjoyed the confidence of the public is evidenced by the fact that he held county office at two different times." |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Helms, Napoleon Bonaparte | An old resident of Orange County whose life has been fraught with interesting events is Napoleon Bonaparte Helms, who was born in Missouri on April 15, 1844, the son of Huston and Nancy Helms, natives respectively of Indiana and Missouri. A pair of twins was granted these worthy parents, and our subject was one, his brother, Lafayette, who died in May, 1919, being the other.
While yet a young man. Napoleon was to be found in Texas following the enterprise, in which so many young jnen of that day engaged, of stock raising. The Far West, however, soon proved more alluring to him; and when the opportunity was offered him to join a company of some fifty persons then being organized in Texas, each with the same ambition, namely, to reach California and the Land of Gold, he did so, and started on the venturesome trip. They trusted in the courage of their hearts and the strength of their arms, and believed that they would reach the desired-for haven, and perhaps that was why little out of the ordinary occurred on their journey of four months by ox-team, until they reached San Bernardino in November, 1859- There Mr. Helms made his home, working at various pursuits, and taking up farming by way of preference*when he could In 1867 Mr. Helms returned to Texas and with two uncles bought a herd of 1.800 steers to drive to California on speculation. Cattle at that time cost about five to eight dollars a head, and it was predicted that the Medlin Train, so-called because of the name of the leader, would realize a handsome profit on the deal. Everything went well until they pot about 120 miles from F.I Paso, in the Guadalupe Mountains, when they were attacked by the Indians; and while thev were overpowered to some extent, they lost only their cattle and all their horses. There were only sixteen men against eighty Indians, and they fought them two days. The ox-teams and their lives were saved by hard fighting, and in October, 1868, they reached California. At San Bernardino, in 1869, Mr. Helms married Miss Elizabeth Long, one of the attractive ladies then in this western country, and three children were born to them: William L.. Isabelle T., wife of William Prichard. of Laguna, and Rosie Jane, wife of Joseph Glines, of Oakdale. Six years later, in 1875, Mr. Helms came to Los Angeles, now Orange County, and located at Santa Ana, at that time a very small town with only one store for the accommodation of the few pioneers; and here, for twenty-nine years, he followed well drilling. Mrs. Helms passed away in October, 1914, at the age of sixty-five, beloved by all who knew her. Now Mr. Helms owns a trim little ranch of five acres, highly cultivated and maintained in a manner such as would do anyone credit, upon which he conducts general farming and where he is visited by his many friends; and there, too, he discusses national politics, with the enthusiastic bias of a Jeffersonian Democrat, but also as an American citizen who will always put the welfare of his community ahead of party triumphs, and who, therefore, never permits partisanship to affect him in his attitude toward strictly local measures and movements. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Hewes, George | In the annals of Southern California none of its citizens occupy a more distinctive place than the late David Hewes, whose name is indelibly associated with the great, progressive movements of the state, over a period dating from 1850 to his demise in July, 1915. A man of affairs, a successful financier and a Christian gentleman, his life was ever a power for good and an influence toward the highest ideals of manhood. His long and useful life of ninety-three years was replete with varied experiences that would furnish a volume of material for the biographer, rich in interest, but only the outstanding points of his career can be touched upon here.
Born in Lynnfield, Essex County, Mass., May 16, 1822, David Hewes was the representative of one of the old families of that state, tracing his ancestry back seven generations to the patriot, David Hewes. The death of his father when he was but five years old, with the rather rigid discipline of the New England home, early gave him a sense of responsibility, and the habits of industry that formed the foundation of his success in life. From the age of fourteen he supported himself and earned enough to secure his early education in West Reading Academy and Phillips Academy, and later he was enabled to enter Yale College. Meanwhile he had added his savings to the small inheritance left him from his father's estate and during his second year at Yale he invested his capital in galvanized iron houses which he shipped to California. Leaving his studies he started on the long trip to the Pacific Coast, via the Isthmus of Panama, arriving at San Francisco in February, 1850. While he had not expected to remain in the West, the wonderful possibilities opening up at this period made him decide to cast his lot with this new and untried land. Going to Sacramento he opened up a general merchandise store and from the first was successful, but in 1852, at the height of his prosperity, the city was practically wiped out by a conflagration, followed in January of the next, year by a disastrous flood, so that Mr. Hewes left there practically empty-handed. Realizing the possibilities of San Francisco as the future metropolis of the Pacific Coast, Mr. Hewes decided to locate there. At that time the beginning of the city's growth made necessary the leveling of the hills and the grading and filling of the streets and here he saw an immediate opportunity, though his limited capital made it necessary for him to begin operations on a very limited scale. It was not long, however, until he increased his business and he was soon engaged in the prodigious task of reclaiming the harbor, filling in blocks that are now in the heart of the city's commercial center. To the present generation it is almost inconceivable that the shore line once extended to Montgomery Street, all this section being made land. It was most fitting that Mr. Hewes was called the "maker of San Francisco" since it was through his initiative and energy that the task was undertaken and accomplished. While not actively connected with the building of the first transcontinental railroad, Mr. Hewes was one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the project and it was he who furnished the golden spike that marked the completion of the road. It was also he who planned the connection of the railroad company's wires with that of the Western Union, by which the taps of the silver hammer driving the golden spike were transmitted to San Francisco, thus signalling the accomplishment of this longwaited event. Many other activities occupied Mr. Hewes' attention in the following years, before his removal to Southern California, where he entered upon one of his greatest achievements—the development of the famous Hewes ranch near El Modena. in Orange County, which he gave the name of Anapama. "a place of rest." Originally a sheep ranch, and comprising over 800 acres, Mr. Hewes spared neither time nor expenditure in its development. A large part of its acreage was converted into a vineyard, but when Orange County was visited by the blight, it went the way of all the other vineyards. Nothing daunted. Mr. Hewes at once set about to restore the ranch by planting citrus fruit and it became one of California's noted orange groves, remaining a part of the Hewes estate after Mr. Hewes' death, until January, 1920. when it was sold for $1,000.000. The famous Hewes Park, one of the beauty spots of the Southland, was Mr. Hewes especial pride, involving an expenditure of many thousands of dollars. Formerly a -barren hill top, this knoll is now a beautiful flower garden, through which are many walks and drives, its lovely terraces ornamented with rare trees and shrubs. From its summit may be seen Catalina Island, the Sierra Madre and Santa Ana Mountains, with the snow-covered summit of "Old Baldy" in the distance. Business alone, however, did not occupy all of Mr. Hewes' time and thought, despite the great enterprises in which he was always concerned. A lover of art, he spent much time during his European trips at the art centers, and his magnificent collection of pictures, statuary and frescoes was ultimately presented to the Leland Stanford University. A trustee of Mills College for many years, he gave generously to that institution, one of his gifts being the chime of ten bells that hangs in the belfry, and his benefactions to other schools and churches were legion. The owner of largeholdings in San Francisco, when the earthquake and fire of 1906 destroyed his building at Sixth and Market streets, although he was at that time in his eighty-fourth year, he at once made plans for rebuilding, the fifteen-story structure erected on the old site costing half a million dollars, and it is considered one of the best constructed buildings in that city. Mr. Hewes' first marriage, which occurred in 1875, united him with Mrs. Matilda C. Gray, and following this they spent two and a half years in Europe. It was on their return to America that Mrs. Hewes' delicate health made it advisable to seek the more balmy climate of Southern California, and they established their residence at Tustin, Mrs. Hewes passing away there in 1887. Mr. Hewes was again married in 1889 to Miss Anna Lathrop, a sister of Mrs. Leland Stanford, the next eighteen months being spent in Europe, Egypt, Palestine and other parts of the Orient. Mr. Hewes was again bereaved of his companion in 1892, Mrs. Hewes' death occurring in August of that year. A man of remarkable energy, until he was past ninety Mr. Hewes continued to drive his own horses and went about the crowded streets of Los Angeles and San Francisco unattended, looking after his many interests. With a rich heritage of the best New England stock, he reflected in his character the unpretentious honesty and unswerving integrity of his forbears. His is a career that will never pass from the memory of those who have known him, for its influence will live for all time in the lives of those who have felt the impress of his upright manhood. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Isaac, Hubert | A most interesting pioneer, partly on account of his early history as a railway man and a miner before he came to California, is Hubert Isaac, distinguished to all who know him for his foresight and his strict integrity. He was born at Milwaukee, Wis., on February 26, 1856, the son of Francis Joseph and Anna (Schreiner) Isaac, natives of Aix-la-Chapelle; and grew up to do farm work. Going to Hancock, Mich., however, he joined a train crew, first as one of the operatives on a freight train, then as a baggageman, and then on a passenger train, on the Mineral Range Railway. For the next four and three-quarter years, he was employed in the Black Hills, weighing ore in the mining country, when he pushed on the California, via Cheyenne, Wyo., in 1879. He stopped at Los Angeles, but ran out to see El Modena, with friends, on a hunting trip.
He chanced to meet there David Hewes, the well known pioneer who has left behind him such a record for doing things, and as he needed some one to do carpenter work, he entered his employ. His first job was to build a corral enclosing a space of half an acre; and when this was satisfactorily finished, friendly relations were established and he continued to work for Mr. Hewes steadily for a year and a half. He was then under the direction of Henry Young, the first foreman of the great Hewes Ranch, on which ranch Mr. Isaac was also foreman twice. Later, he returned to Mr. Hewes' service, and was with him for twenty-seven years and nine months, so that it may safely be said that he was one of Mr. Hewes' most trusted employees. Mr. Isaac bought eleven lots in El Modena before the "boom," and there he built thirteen houses, which he rents to others. Altogether, he owns forty-two lots, and is the largest taxpayer in El Modena. Personally, Mr. Isaac is known for his sympathetic nature, his keen insight into daily life, his sense of justice, and his desire to do right and to see that righteousness is done. In many respects, while ultraconservative perhaps, he represents the dependable type of safe citizenship and financial endeavor, and. enjoys, as he well merits, the esteem and confidence of his fellow-men. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Joplin, Josiah C. | Among the men who have built up a reputation that is worthy of emulation and who have had the best interests of Orange County at heart is Josiah C. Joplin. He was born near Liberty, what is now Bedford City, Bedford County, Va., a son of James W. and Emily (Booth) Joplin, both natives of that state. The father, who was of Scotch extraction and a farmer by occupation, was born November 14. 1807, and died in Kentucky in 1900 at the venerable age of ninety-three. The years between these dates were filled with hard toil and the endurance of trials that are incident to life in a frontier country. The family was first represented in the United States by Rafe Jopling who, with two brothers, James and Thomas Jopling, emigrated from Scotland in the eighteenth century and settled in Virginia. Rafe Jopling espoused the cause of his adopted country and sacrificed his life in the Revolutionary War. James Jopling, the paternal grandfather of Josiah C., was a nephew of this soldier and a planter in Virginia. The family originally spelled their name with the final g. one of the family. Dr. Josiah, for whom the subject of this review was named, being the first to use the present spelling, dropping the g. James W. Joplin was united in marriage in Virginia with Emily Booth, who was born there on June 4, 1816, and died in the same state August 2, 1869. Nine children were born to them: Thomas M., James Benjamin, Jesse, William, Josiah C., Ferdinand, Mrs. Betty Martin, Otho and Charles. The latter was accidentally drowned at Memphis, Tenn.
Born in Bedford County, in the Old Dominion State, September 15, 1844, Josiah C. Joplin was reared on a farm and received the training accorded to children in the pioneer days. However, he had some educational advantages, though limited, in the private schools of that vicinity. He always improved such opportunities as were presented to him and by careful and extensive reading became a well informed man. Six of the Joplin brothers served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, Josiah C. enlisting in March, 1862, in Company A, Second Virginia Cavalry. They were first in Colonel Ashby's command, in Stonewall Jackson's Valley campaign, until Colonel Ashby was killed at Port Republic. After arriving at Richmond, his regiment became a part of the First Brigade, under Gen. J. E. B. Stewart, and was in the engagement at Meadow Bridge, Va., when General Stewart was killed. He served under Generals Beauregard and Robert E. Lee, participating in the battles of Antietam, Gettysburg, Richmond, and the Wilderness and others of equal importance. During his service he was slightly wounded in three different battles. After the war was over Mr. Joplin returned to Franklin County, Va., where the family had moved during hostilities. He remained there but a short time and then went to Mississippi and Arkansas, spending three years in these states. He eventually returned to Virginia, and spent three years there in agricultural pursuits. While there he was united in marriage with Rebecca C. Boyd, a native of Virginia, born June 18, 1845, a daughter of Andrew Boyd. Her uncle, Hon. W. W. Boyd, was a member of Congress when Virginia seceded and he withdrew and joined the Confederacy and became a member of the Confederate Senate. The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Joplin: Andrew Boyd, John Booth, James A., William P., Joe a"nd Otho, deceased. Four of the boys are located in this county, and James A. is at Parker, Arizona. In 1876 Mr. Joplin decided to remove his family to California and it was here that he found the land of "golden opportunity." for he found health and an opportunity to rear his children under a wider scope than he had found in the eastern country. He came direct to the present limits of Orange County, but then Los Angeles County, and has made this his home ever since. At the time of his arrival it was but sparsely populated and the thriving cities and towns of the present were but in their infancy. He located a 160-acre homestead in Belle Canyon, residing there seventeen years as a possessory claim before it was surveyed so he could file his homestead claim. He also purchased 320 acres from two settlers adjoining him and 286 acres from the Southern Pacific Railroad, and this he put under cultivation, engaging principally in stock raising and bee culture. It can be truthfully said that no man has been more interested in the development of the county than Mr. Joplin, and through participation in every progressive movement he became well acquainted with every well-known citizen within its boundaries. He has willingly given of his time and means to promote the welfare of the entire county, and no man has ever been more loyal to its citizens, for he has always guarded well every trust reposed in him. One of the most important projects fostered by Mr. Joplin and which did much to advance the interests of the county was his connection with the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. He personally collected an exhibit of the products of this county and his management of the exhibit there won for him much praise. So successful was he in this undertaking that he was chosen to superintend the exhibit of the county at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis, Mo. Mr. Wiggins, who was the superintendent of exhibits from the seven southern counties of California, gives him credit for being the first to make a success of chemically processing fruits for exhibits. Mrs. Joplin prepared a special exhibit of domestic canned fruit, for which she received a medal and diploma at the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago. Politically, Mr. Joplin has always adhered to the principles of the Democratic party, and although Orange County usually has been strongly Republican, he has served several consecutive terms as county treasurer. He was first elected in 1898, from January 1, 1899 to January 1, 1903, then he was again elected county treasurer in 1906 and has been reelected every four years, or in 1910, 1914 and 1918. The last two times he was elected at the primaries. When requests were made through the legislators to the State Legislature for an increase in salary, Mr. Joplin refused to ask for an increase, saying that the county was paying him enough. No wonder that he stands high with all parties. Mrs. Joplin by her many charitable deeds, kindness and niodesty greatly endeared herself to the people of Santa Ana and Orange County, because she always stood for truth, uprightness and a high standard of morals, and never failed to give substantial encouragement to all movements in that direction; thus she was universally mourned by everyone when she passed away on March 20. 1911. She was a faithful wife and mother, having always been the greatest help and encouragement to her husband in his ambitions and naturally very proud of his success and the political honors he had received. With the same high standard and principles in view she trained and reared her children to be God-fearing, law-abiding and useful citizens, and her great regret at passing was that she could no longer see to the ministering of comforts to them, and before her death she wrote and left a letter addressed to her children, admonishing them to live right and useful lives and follow the example of their father, who had gained such a high place in the estimation of the public. She had been ill for several years and knew that the end was coming, so in her loving and thoughtful way she made a distribution of her keepsakes and household furniture and dishes, giving each one the things she knew they liked and that she wished them to have. Always active in the interests of education, Mr. Joplin was instrumental in the organization of the Trabuco and Olive school districts. He took an active part in the founding of Orange County and his Trabuco precinct obtained the banner, because all votes were for county division and the organization of Orange County, and not one vote against it. One of the organizers of the Humane Society of Orange County in about 1900, Mr. Joplin has been its president ever since and very active In its work. He was one of the organizers and president of the first Fish and Game Protective Association of Orange County, and was one of the promoters of the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce, serving as director for several years. He is prominent in the ranks of the Odd Fellows and was one of four organizers of the Orange County Veteran Odd Fellows Association, serving as its first president, and takes an active interest in the Orange County Historical Society. Some years ago Mr. Joplin sold his large ranch and since then has bought two small ranches, comprising a little over 300 acres of land in Belle Canyon, and these he devotes to stock raising and horticulture. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Kellogg, Mrs. Mary Orilla | It seems eminently fitting that the names of the early pioneers of California should be perpetuated in such a manner that their labors, in the days of trials and hardships, may remain an inspiration and encouragement to the toilers of today. Great honor is due the names of those courageous men and women who braved the perils of the overland trail in their untiring efforts to blaze a path and establish a civilization for the generations to come. In California and Orange County, the names of Benjamin Franklin and Mary Orilla Kellogg stand out prominently.
By those who knew him during his active life, Mr. Kellogg is recalled as a man who contributed not a little to the permanent growth of the localities in which he elected to reside. No one knew better than he the terrors of the overland trail or more dearly won his right to be numbered among the most courageous of the western pioneers. He was born in Morgan County, Ill., April 31, 1822, and was the youngest of six children. A descendant of a prominent New England family, his father, Elisha, was born in Massachusetts, and settled in Genesee County, N. Y., where he was judge and sheriff. Upon removing to Morgan County, Ill., he built the first house in the county and did farming and stock raising on a large scale. Later he moved to Jo Daviess County, and there he died in 1844. He married Elizabeth Derrick, who was born in Connecticut, and died in Jo Daviess County, Ill. In his youth, B. F. Kellogg received but a limited education and was brought up to farm labor of the severest kind. In 1844 himself and brother Erwin went to the Rocky Mountains in search of a silver mine, but, failing in their quest, secured a Government contract and built Fort Laramie. They met with many uncanny and dangerous adventures, which, however, did not diminish their enthusiasm for the West. Two years later found them en route to the Pacific Coast as members of the Donner party, but few of whom ever reached their destination. The brothers parted from the original party at Donner Lake, and proceeded with others upon what proved to be a terrible and hauntingly gruesome journey. At one time, while searching for the silver mine near Fort Laramie, they were attacked by Pawnee Indians, stripped of their clothes and robbed of all they had with them. So reduced were they that they had to eat walnuts and raw frogs. The brothers were at one time separated from each other, and during this time, B. F. Kellogg, in lieu of any kind of food, and on the verge of starvation, scratched the hair from his buffalo coat and ate the hide. In time he was found by his brother, who had gone in search of help, in an almost dying condition, and was succored by some friendly Indians whom they chanced to meet. Arriving in Napa Valley, Mr. Kellogg enlisted in General Fremont's army and served six months, and was honorably discharged in April, 1847. He was also a veteran of the Mexican War. He engaged in mining with varying success, then turned his attention to farming in Napa Valley, and later in the vicinity of St. Helena. On September 5, 1864, at White Sulphur Springs, he married Mary Orilla Lillie, who was born in Fulton County, Ill., on July 15, 1832, a daughter of Luther and Orilla (Morgan) Lillie, natives of Connecticut. Her paternal grandfather, David Lillie, was also born in Connecticut, and settled first in New York, then in Ohio, and later in Indiana. In 1831 he located in Fulton County, Ill., of which he was a pioneer, and where he died at the age of eighty-two years. He served as a soldier in the Revolutionary War and the Black Hawk War. Luther Lillie was a farmer in New York, Ohio and Illinois, and was also a millwright and machinist, and had shops in the different places in which he lived. He settled in Illinois in 1831 at a time when the Indians were numerous and troublesome. He died in 1837 and his wife passed away in 1833, the mother of fourteen children. One son, Leonard G., came to California in 1850 and died in Napa Valley, and two daughters, Mrs. Rosana Evey and Mrs. Emeline Butler, came West in 1854 and 1855, respectively. Mrs. Kellogg was reared in Illinois and attended school in a little log schoolhouse with slab benches, and later in a frame building. When she was twenty months of age her mother died, and when she was seven her father passed away, and she went to live with a family named Breed. From the first she was obliged to work hard between the rising and the setting of the sun, so that school was a luxury and leisure an unheard-of commodity. In 1853 she undertook to accompany her brother, Leonard G., his wife and their five children, and her sister, Mrs. Butler, to California. The experiences while crossing the plains are vividly recalled by Mrs. Kellogg at this day, and contained much of interest and adventure. The ox-teams were outfitted at Farmington, Ill., and they 'crossed the Mississippi at Burlington on May 3, 1853, thence took the Platte route and the Green River route to Humboldt and the Southern pass route to Sacramento and Napa Valley. In the Napa Valley the brother built and operated a grist mill, and here Mrs. Kellogg lived until her marriage in 1854. On May 21, 1869, Mr. and Mrs. Kellogg brought their family of eight children to Anaheim, in the vicinity of which Mr. Kellogg bought 640 acres of land from the Stearns Rancho Company. This land was improved from the rough, built up with residences and barns, and fitted with wells and fences, and rendered generally habitable. While these improvements were being made the family lived in a tent. There were no houses between their place and Los Angeles, nor were there any towns to the south of them. Disaster followed in the wake of all this industry, for the grasshoppers and wild horses played havoc with the crops for three succeeding years. In time Mr. Kellogg became prosperous, and a prominent factor in the general growth of this locality. He gave each of his sons a tract of forty acres of land which they improved. Politically he was a Republican, and while in Napa County served as coroner and as school trustee. In Orange County, then Los Angeles County, he donated three acres of land for a schoolhouse and was one of the trustees for many years. The death of Mr. Kellogg, December 16, 1890, witnessed the passing of a thoroughly good man, and one who knew the value of opportunity and how to use it. After her husband's death, Mrs. Kellogg, with the aid of her sons, kept alive the interests of the home, and she now retains but eighteen acres of the original homestead, and this is planted to walnuts and oranges. She has divided the portion of land left to her equally among her daughters. She is a Republican in politics, and in earlier years was a member of the W. R. C. and W. C. T. U., and is a member of the Christian Church. In that calm and splendid way known only to the pioneer women who have suffered much and endured patiently, she has reared to years of usefulness nine children, to any one of whom their mother is the embodiment of all that is true, gracious and approachable in women. H. Clay is a graduate of Wilson College and is a surveyor and civil engineer at Santa Ana; Mary E. became the wife of Byron O. Clark and lives at Paradise. Butte County; Erwin F. is deceased; Louisa J. is Mrs. L. A. Evans of Orange County; Leonard G. is in Guatemala; Edward L. is ranching at Van Nuys; Lillie M. married William Dunlap and is deceased; Clara E. became Mrs. Carl F. Raab and is deceased, and Carrie A. married Richard N. Bird of Los Angeles. A splendid type of pioneer woman, Mrs. Kellogg met the trials and hardships of the early years with patience and fortitude, and now in her eighty-ninth year, still retains a remarkable degree of vitality for one of her years, and is still greatly interested in the development of the county where she has lived for over half a century. She has living thirty-three grandchildren and twenty-five great-grandchildren to call her blessed. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Kelly, James R. | In the passing away of James R. Kelly on April 17, 1908, Orange County lost one of its stanch citizens whose labors for the development of this locality in striving to enhance its progress and develop its resources entitle him to a prominent rank among its early residents.
The lineage of the Kelly family is traced back to three brothers and a sister who were born in Ulster, in the north of Ireland, and who came to America between the years of 1720 and 1730, so that they have an honored history of nearly two centuries on this side of the Atlantic. One of the brothers, Col. John Kelly, was accompanied by his wife, who before her marriage was Margaret Armour, also a native of the Emerald Isle. The young couple became pioneers of Pennsylvania, settling in Bucks County as early as 1760, and there they remained all their lives. An ardent lover of liberty, John Kelly was ever devoted to the land of his adoption, and when the Revolutionary War broke out he at once offered his services and joined in the conflict. It is needless to say that he suffered many dangers and privations during that long siege, but he never wavered in his loyalty to the cause he had espoused and through his courage and patriotism he rose to the rank of colonel in the Continental Army. Colonel and Mrs. John Kelly had a family of nine children, and one of their sons, John, who was for many years a resident of Juanita County, Pa., married Miss Rebecca Clarke, a native of Scotland, and their son, Moses Kelly, married Miss Elizabeth Patterson and reared a family of ten children in Juniata County, Pa. The seventh of their children was James R. Kelly, of this review, who was born near Mifflintown, Pa., June 28, 1835. Educated in the public schools of Juniata County and trained to a practical knowledge of agriculture, James R. Kelly became one of the intelligent and prosperous farmers of his native county, where for years he devoted himself to his chosen occupation, save for the period of his service in the Civil War. Upon retiring from general farming he removed to Kansas and established a home at Lawrence, Douglas County. Three years later, in 1888, he came to Southern California and purchased a lot and built a home at 528 Walnut Street, Santa Ana, where he resided until his death. Immediately after his arrival he identified himself with the fruit-growing business and soon became familiar with every department of the leading industry of the locality. On his ranch he raised apricots, oranges and walnuts. It was his aim to grow only fruits of the choicest varieties, so that the products of his grove might command the highest prices in the Eastern markets. Mr. Kelly's marriage on March 18. 1869, united him with Miss Jane Robinson, a native of Juniata County, Pa., and a daughter of George and Priscilla (Laird) Robinson, both of Scotch-Irish ancestry, but born and reared in Juniata County. Mr. and Mrs. Kelly were the parents of three sons: Frederick M., who was educated at the University of Michigan, is an assayer and chemist; he is one of the leading citizens of Needles, Cal., where he has been postmaster for many years. He married Miss Pearl Glenn of Springville, Iowa, a granddaughter of the first white child born in Chicago, and they are the parents of two sons, Robert Glenn and Fred; George Patterson Kelly, who was also educated at the University of Michigan, practiced law for a number of years in Chicago and while there married Miss Agnes K. Gavney of Aurora, 111. George P. Kelly passed away in 1915 at Santa Ana and his wife died in 1919. leaving one son, James T.; R. Bayard, born at Juanita, Pa., March 13, 1880, attended the public schools . Like his forbear of Revolutionary days, James R. Kelly was intensely patriotic and any mention of his life work would be incomplete without recording his war service, which put to a severe test the qualities of courage, patience and endurance possessed by him to a remarkable degree. Soon after the outbreak of the Civil War Mr. Kelly offered his services to the Union and on July 25, 1861, he was accepted as a member of Company A, First Pennsylvania Reserve Cavalry, enlisting from Juniata County. This regiment was ordered to the front at once and became one of the most famous righting units of the Federal Army. In the charge at Cedar Mountain Companies A, B, C and D went into action with 264 men and came out with only seventy-two able to report for duty. Mr. Kelly held the rank of first lieutenant in Company A and owing to the frequent absence of the captain was often called upon to command the company. In the battle of Shepherdstown, July 17, 1863, an exploding shell struck him, cutting an artery in his leg and leaving a painful wound. On another occasion he was slightly injured in battle. While in a cavalry skirmish at Samaria Church, Va., June 24, 1864, he was taken prisoner and confined in the famous Libby prison. Later he was transferred successively to Columbia, S. C., Macon, Ga., Belle Isle, Savannah, Ga., and Charleston. S. C., remaining in these prisons until the close of the war with the exception of two brief periods when escape had been rendered possible by the ingenuity of the prisoners. However, in both instances he was recaptured. It was characteristic of the man that he never complained in the midst of hardships that would have daunted any but the bravest of spirits. On the other hand, he was quick to note any humorous incidents that occurred and his cheerful disposition was a ray of sunshine to others in hours of trouble. When he was mustered out, April 25, 1865, he returned to his Pennsylvania home with the esteem of his superior officers and the friendship of his comrades. After the organization of the Grand Army of the Republic he identified himself with that work and never ceased to cherish affection for the "boys in blue." Politically he voted with the Republican party and during his residence in Pennsylvania he tilled local offices. Early in life he had become a member of the Pres.byterian denomination, and after coming to Santa Ana he officiated as an elder in the First Church, to whose philanthropies and missionary enterprises he was a generous contributor. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Kraemer, Daniel | Among the famous pathfinders bringing civilization and progress to this promising corner of the Golden State, and the first white settler to pitch a tent in the Placentia district in Orange County, and the first white family to settle outside of the willow fence inclosing the Anaheim settlement, Daniel Kraemer, who passed to his eternal reward in 1882. deserves the lasting recognition of a reverential posterity. Born at St. John, one of the most picturesquely-situated mountain resorts in the Swabian Alps, Bavaria, not far from the renowned castle of Lichtenstein, on November 17. 1816, he came to America at the age of twenty-six, and located near Belleville, in St. Clair County, 111., where he took up farming. He also married there, and in that prosperous section of the Middle West his nine children were born.
Two tedious trips were made between his Illinois home and Southern California before he made this section his permanent home: for he first came West in 1865, bought his land, and returned to Illinois. The following year he came here again, but once more found it necessary to return East. On his third trip, in 1867, he brought . his family with him. To make the journey at that time meant to take the railway from St. Louis to New York, thence by boat to the Isthmus of Panama, after that by steamer to San Francisco, and next by boat to San Pedro, from which port the tourists took wagons overland to the ranch. When he first came here, in 1865, Mr. Kraemer purchased a portion of theoriginal Mexican grant known as the San Juan Cajon de Santa Ana Rancho, his particular part being designated the Peor Es Nada Rancho, named from a Mexican village then near by, and meaning in Spanish, "Worse than nothing." Its English name, however, was "The Cajon Ranch." This strip of land comprised 3,900 acres, and its original boundaries were what is now Placentia Avenue on the west, the J. K. Tuffree Ranch on the north, the Richfield territory on the east, and the Santa Ana River on the south. Cattle and horses at first roamed freely there, but later the sheep herds crowded them out, so that really the latter made way for the farmer and the horticulturist. This great ranch remained intact until the death of its owner in 1882, and since that time most of its acreage has been sold, so that the once princely domain constitutes a large portion of the present Placentia district. On his first trip here, Mr. Kraemer found a ditch, the Ontiveros. which ran eastward from the house he bought through what is now the district of Richfield, and then through Yorba, the intake being close to the old Trinidad Yorba house; and returning from the East in 1867, he discovered that the flow from this ditch, his only irrigation supply, was being seriously interfered with. He then built a ditch of his own to the Santa Ana River, which intersected the Ontiveros ditch, one and a half miles east of his home, and this was the first individual canal to be built in this section. He was also one of the projectors of the Cajon Canal, built in 1875, which carries water through all of the Placentia district, through Fullerton and Orangethorpe, and much of Anaheim. Mr. Kraemer showed his appreciation of popular education in helping to organize the Cajon School district, in 1874, the first district in this section, and donated an acre of ground for school purposes. Five years later, this district was renamed the Placentia. He brought both the first mowing and the first sewing machine here, and before he laid aside his earthly labors, on February 6, 1882, he had splendidly improved between 400 and 500 acres of his vast estate. When Daniel Kraemer married, he took for his wife Miss Magdalena E. Schrag, a native of Battcnberg, Germany, and of Swiss parentage; a most valuable helpmate, who died on January 3, 1889. One of their daughters, Elizabeth, died on November 18, 1875. The other children are: Henry Kraemer of Placentia; Mrs. Barbara Parker of Anaheim; D. J. Kraemer of Brownsville. Texas; Samuel Kraemer. also of Placentia; Mrs. Emma M. Grimshaw of Anaheim; she has a daughter, M. Alice Grimshaw, a teacher in the Anaheim public schools; Edward M. Kraemer of Olive; Mrs. Mary K. Miller of Anaheim, and Benjamin, living on the original Kraemer home place at Placentia. A son of Mrs. Miller, Edward L. Miller, is a graduate from Occidental College, and when the World War called for his services, he enlisted. He served twenty-two months with the now historic One Hundred Seventeenth Engineer Corps, was in six important drives, and six times went "over the top." |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Lacy, Dr. John McClellan | Whenever the historian shall essay to tell the story of Santa Ana, he will find it a pleasureable duty to narrate again the career of Dr. John McClellan Lacy, the pioneer physician, who did so much in many ways for the welfare and advancement of the town. He was born at Huntsville, Ala., on Washington's Birthday, 1837, the son of Thomas H. and Mary E. Lacy, Southern planter folks who moved from Alabama to Arkansas, when John was eighteen years of age. And there, in 1861, Thomas Lacy died, the father of three boys and eight girls, worthy descendants of a family tracing its ancestry back to France. At that time, the name was de Lacy; but when the Huguenots came to America on account of religious persecution in France, this branch of the family, coming with them, changed the name to simple Lacy. Mrs. Lacy was a McClellan, and her mother's maiden name was Wallace; and she was able to trace her ancestry to Sir William Wallace of Scotland.
John McClellan Lacy attended the grammar school in Huntsville, Ala., and when old enough to do so, read medicine with Dr. William B. Welch in Arkansas. He later was graduated from the St. Louis Medical College, and still later took post-graduate work at the University of Nashville, Tenn. When the Civil War broke out, Dr. Lacy volunteered for service in the Confederate Army as surgeon to an Arkansas regiment, and from 1861, he marched and fought for four long, hard years. He had farmed and shipped cotton, while reading medicine, and so was able to hold his own in the arduous campaigning. After the war, Dr. Lacy practiced medicine in Arkansas and the Indian Territory, (later Oklahoma) and in 1879 came to California across the great plains. He made the journey in wagons, and was eight months on the road; and he and his party had many interesting experiences with the Indians, and other adventures by the way. At Cane Hill. Ark., on April 3, 1861, Dr. Lacy married Miss Eliza P. Bean, daughter of Mark Bean, and his wife, Nancy J. He was a wealthy cotton planter and factory owner, and was honored by his fellow-citizens with election to the state legislature as a representative from Washington County. Several children blessed the fortunate union. Margaret M. is the eldest daughter; and the other children are Mary L.. Mrs. William P. Vance; Maude L., Mrs. Newton Pierce; Lela, Mrs J. E. Vaughan; Laura L., Mrs. J. W. Murray; and Mark B., who married Genevieve Waffle. Dr. Lacy's youngest brother was sheriff of Orange County for sixteen years. A Democrat in matters of national politics, Dr. Lacy was a member of the city council. He belonged to the State and County Medical Societies, and served for a while as city health officer of Santa Ana. He belonged to the First Presbyterian Church, and was a Mason, having joined that order in 1860, and a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. When he died, on February 2, 1913, at Santa Ana, he was almost seventy-six years of age. Old-time friends of the deceased bore the casket, and the Rev. J. A. Stevenson paid the departed such a tribute as he deserved. He said, in part: "The working days of the physician are restless days. He knows no hours that are his own. He is the servant of suffering humanity, morning, noon and night. No man knows the weary hours that are contributed by the men that are tired almost to death. But when the restless days and nights of Dr. Lacy's working time were gone he knew a harder restlessness in the times of his own sickness. The days were long, and the nights were longer, and pain and suffering were there. Then out of the restlessness of life, God called him to the rest of a blessed eternity. Dr. McLaren has made immortal the 'Doctor of the Old School." But thank God we do not have to hasten to the distant fields of Scotland nor into the pages of literature to find the splendid hero. The cultured, kindly, unassuming, uncomplaining, self-forgetful Christian gentleman, Dr. Lacy, was an honor to the Church of Christ, a benediction to this community, and an adornment to the medical profession." |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Lamb, Mrs. Elizabeth | An extensive land owner, well endowed with this world's goods, and highly respected and loved for her many beautiful and sterling traits of character is Mrs. Elizabeth Lamb, widow of the late William D. Lamb, prominent pioneer citizen of Southern California. Her life has indeed been rich in varied experiences in that sort of interest and adventure that was the accompaniment of pioneer days, nor has it been unmixed with hardships, some of them being almost unbelievable.
Mrs. Lamb is a native of England, her birthplace being at Billings, Lancashire, June 24, 1850. Her parents were John R. and Sarah (Jolley) Holt, also of English birth. The father was a wheelwright and joiner and he followed this line of work for a number of years in his native land. They were the parents of nine children, and when Elizabeth was thirteen years of age she came to America with two sisters and a brother. They sailed from Liverpool in May, 1863, and even then Elizabeth's adventurous experiences began. After seven weeks of storm and calm they finally landed at Castle Garden, New York, coming across on the old condemned sailer "Antarctic" which was sunk on the return voyage. Their destination was Utah, and they made their way across the country as far as Omaha by train, thence to Salt Lake City by ox team, arriving there six months after their departure from Liverpool. Here they located, and later Elizabeth made the acquaintance of William D. Lamb. to whom she was married on October 12, 1868. Mr. Lamb was then only nineteen years of age, but his life had been filled with arduous experience, even at that time. Born in Onondaga County, N. Y., he was left motherless at the age of four, and lived for a time with an uncle near Grand Rapids, Mich. When he was eleven years old he set out to make his way alone, working his way through to Omaha on railroad grading work. When he was about fourteen years old his father came up from the South and the two crossed the plains in a Mormon freight train. At that time he had not even learned to read, for his life had been so full of toil that there had been no time for schooling, but after reaching Salt Lake City he managed, even in the midst of many duties, to learn the alphabet and acquire the rudiments of an education. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Lamb remained in Salt Lake City for a time, and there their eldest daughter, Mary, now Mrs. E. J. Levengood, was born. Then they decided to locate in California, and when they arrived here Mr. Lamb earned a living by chopping and hauling wood on what was later the Lucky Baldwin ranch, Mrs. Lamb and her little one making their home in their covered wagon. They then moved on to El Monte and tried farming there, but there was a long season of drought and all their corn and other produce was dried up. Their next move was to Azusa, where they lived in the canyon, afterwards named Lamb's Canyon for Mr. Lamb. Here two of their children were born, but they lost both of them and they were buried there. Mr. Lamb next bought a squatter's claim of 160 acres four miles from Huntington Beach, but in 1879, after they had lived there four years, litigation arose and he and other claimants to adjoining tracts were dispossessed, the Los Bolsas Company winning the suit. His next purchase was forty acres of the Stearns ranch at Newhope; here they settled, made many improvements and prospered. They subsequently added to their acreage, and Mrs. Lamb still owns the old home of 120 acres there. The next purchase was 220 acres at Garden Grove and, in 1892, he closed the deal for 720 acres of the Los Bolsas ranch at a very reasonable price, and here Mrs. Lamb now makes her home. At first they only ran cattle on these lands, but they have now been brought up to a high state of cultivation. They were always among the most progressive farmers of the community, as their place was always equipped with the latest inventions in farm machinery that could be obtained, and the example of their enterprise meant much for the progress and welfare of their neighborhood. For several years Mr. Lamb was the resident manager of the Los Bolsas Land Company and other large ranches, and through his work much improvement was made on the tracts under his charge. He early saw the necessity for drainage and irrigation, and with several associates purchased a dredger, the first of its kind in this territory, and thus completely revolutionized the early methods of carrying on this work. In no instance, perhaps, is his perseverance and progressive spirit more plainly shown than in the fact that after he had embarked in business for himself he employed a man to keep his books, and paid him an extra salary for his personal instruction in reading, arithmetic and the general principles of business, this arrangement continuing for three years; after that he was able to superintend every detail of his extensive business interests for himself and with marked success. Mr. Lamb passed away in March, 1911, and is buried at Santa Ana. Like her husband, Mrs. Lamb had only the most limited opportunities to secure an education, but this was fully made up through the practical business experience and "hard knocks" of pioneer days. She has always been a woman of great business and executive ability, and ever shared with her husband the burdens and responsibilities of their great undertakings, and much of his success was due to her splendid judgment and management. Mr. and Mrs. Lamb were the parents of nine children, five of whom are living: Mary, now Mrs. Edward J. Levengood of Pomona, was first married to William Hamner, by whom she had two children, Jessie M. and Anson; Wm. Anson and Vina died in childhood; Arthur, now deceased, married Mary Stephens and had one son, Leo Ford Lamb, who resides in Los Angeles; Walter D., a rancher near Santa Ana. married Gertrude DuBois, a daughter of Valentine DuBois of Santa Ana, and they have two children, Mrs. Velda May Squires and Kenneth; Laura is the wife of Gregory Harper, and they have two children, Ivan H. and Harold L.; Hugo J., a rancher near Huntington Beach, married Effie Stockton, and twp children have been born to them. Lois and Alice; Earl A. is also engaged in ranching near Huntington Beach; he married Etta Bradley, and they are the parents of three children, Rachel E., Wm. G. and Alvan; Robert died at the age of four months. Mrs. Lamb makes her home on her 720-acre ranch southeast of Huntington Beach, her son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Gregory Harper, living with her, and she is active and interested in the management of her properties and extensive business interests. A woman of great force of character, withal kindly and considerate, she is greatly beloved by her family and a large circle of friends. A true type of the pioneer woman,-her life is a record of accomplishment and good deeds that will leave their beneficent influence on the generations to come. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Larter, Robert Edwin | Numbered among the leading citizens of the Westminster district, Robert Edwin Larter has occupied a place of prominence for many years in the agricultural, commercial and financial interests of Orange County. A native of Canada, he was born in the Province of Ontario, ten miles west of Niagara Falls, September 7, 1861. His parents were Robert and Mary J. (Hansler) Larter, the latter a native of Canada; the father was born at Norwich, England, and came to Canada with his mother when a boy of fifteen. He was a millwright and cabinet maker, and later became interested in farming. He became prominent in the politics of his locality, being a man of excellent judgment, and served on the township and county councils of his Canadian home. In 1875 he made a trip to California, and while here he bought 160 acres of land; returning to Canada he remained there until the fall of 1876, when he came with his family to make California his permanent home. This was just after the completion of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and his land lay in what was then Los Angeles County, this being some years before the organization of Orange County. It was peat land, and was then a morass of willows, tules and blackberries, and it took much hard work to put it under cultivation, but it eventually became very productive. Robert Larter passed away in 1904; his widow survives him and resides at Westminster, having reached the age of eighty-four.
The first fifteen years of Ed. Larter's life were spent in Welland County, Ontario, his birthplace, and there he received his early education, attending the schools at Westminster after the family removed here. He early began to work, however, helping his father reclaim the swamp lands of their farm and breaking the virgin soil, and this practical experience he found to be of great value later in life when he took up farming on his own account. He purchased 120 acres of land and devoted it to general farming and dairying, in which he was very successful, also engaging in the celery industry when that business was at its height. Business acumen and wise investments have added to his capital and he now enjoys an affluence, the reward of industry and intelligence. Always public spirited, Mr. Larter has for years been prominent in the affairs of the community. A stanch Republican, he was chosen some years ago to represent that party on the board of supervisors, an office which he filled with great satisfaction to his constituency. He is now a member of the County Republican Central Committee, and prominent in all the councils of the party. He has always been interested in the cause of education and has given of his time to help raise the standard and equipment of the schools here, having served on the Huntington Beach Union High School Board. He was on the building committee of the Orange County Court House when that structure was under way and was prominent in the establishment of the Talbert Drainage District and the reestablishment of the Bolsa Drainage District. An authority on financial affairs in the locality, he is a director of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Santa Ana. In fraternal circles he is a charter member of Westminster Lodge No. 72, I. O. O. F. Mr. Larter's marriage, in April, 1889, united him with Miss Pearl Kiefhaber, who was born in Indiana, but who came to Westminster with her parents when but a child. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Larter, two of whom passed away in infancy. Those living are Marie L., the wife of Orel C. Hare of Westminster, whose review appears elsewhere in this work; and Lutie, who is Mrs. Will McClintock, her husband being a rancher at Garden Grove. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Lorenz, Charles | In the early period of Anaheim's history, Charles Lorenz, now deceased, located in this now up-to-date city of Orange County, his advent being on October 22, 1859, soon after the town site was first laid out. He was born in 1814, in Crossen, Germany, but removed to Berlin while quite young. He learned the trade of a machinist, and so thoroughly did he master the intricacies of that line of work that he became an expert, and to him belongs the honor of having constructed the first locomotive in that section of Germany.
In 1845 Mr. Lorenz was united in marriage with Louisa Schidler, the ceremony being solemnized in Berlin. During the year 1850 he left Germany, intending to come to California, but after being on the sailing vessel about six months decided to land in South America, where he spent two and a half years in Valparaiso, Chile, and five and a half years in Concepcion. While there they learned to speak Spanish and this helped them after coming to California. His youngest daughter, now Mrs. Louisa E. Boege. was born in Valparaiso in 1852; the eldest daughter, Mrs. Elmina C. Dorr, was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1848. During the early part of 1859, Mr. Lorenz, accompanied by his wife and two daughters, sailed from Chile for California, landing at San Francisco, where they remained but a few months and, later stopped a short time at San Luis Obispo. In October of the same year he arrived in Anaheim, coming from San Pedro with a twelve-mule team, and he soon opened the first blacksmith shop in the new town. In March, 1860, he purchased twenty acres on South Lemon Street, where he planted a vineyard and made and sold wine. He helped organize the German Methodist Church and was an Odd Fellow. Later on Mr. Lorenz sold all but one acre of his land, and here his two daughters now reside. He lived to the advanced age of eighty-five, his death occurring in 1902, his wife having passed away in 1885. His daughters, Mrs. Louis Dorr and Mrs." Henry A. Boege, are among the pioneer citizens of Anaheim, having come here over sixty years ago. At that time the country between Anaheim and San Juan Capistrano was a wilderness, as was the territory between here and Los Angeles. LOUIS DORR, a native of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Germany, married Elmina Charlotte, the eldest daughter of Charles Lorenz. He left his native country when a young man to reside in England and afterwards went to Australia. In 1862 he arrived in Anaheim, where he was engaged as a bookkeeper; he also owned a vineyard and made wine. Mr. and Mrs. Dorr were the parents of seven children, five of whom are living: Louis, the oldest member of the family, is a forest ranger and resides near Palmdale; Charles is a miner at Tonopah, Nev.; Agnes and Dorothy are living at Los Angeles, where they conduct a cafeteria; and Arthur is a mining man and is in Mexico. Mr. Dorr passed away in 1895. Mrs. Dorr lived in San Francisco and in Los Angeles for about fifteen years, then came back to Anaheim and has lived here ever since and has been a witness of the wonderful growth and development of the county. HENRY A. BOEGE was united in marriage in 1871 with Louisa Emilie Lorenz, the youngest daughter of Charles Lorenz, the ceremony being performed at the Lutheran Church, Anaheim. He was a native of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, and came to Anaheim when nineteen years of age. He opened a butcher shop and also did teaming and freighting. At one time he owned a vineyard west of Anaheim. Later on he superintended the ranch of his father-in-law and at one time was engaged in street work for the city of Anaheim. His death occurred in 1893. He was a member of the Odd Fellows Lodge. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| McPhee, George | Orange County is to be congratulated upon having, as its sealer of weights and measures, George McPhee, a man of true worth and unquestioned probity of character, one who has filled this important post for six years with credit to himself and to his constituency in the county. Mr. McPhee was born October 19, 1856, in Kent County, New Brunswick, the son of George and Roxana McPhee. The father was a millwright and George assisted him in the work until 1881, when he migrated farther westward in the great Dominion of Canada, stopping at Winnipeg, Manitoba, but subsequently locating at Birtle, where he conducted a hotel for six years.
In 1892 he arrived in California, locating at Elsinore, Riverside County, where his brother conducted a newspaper. Here he remained until 1896, when he came to Santa Ana and purchased an interest in the Santa Ana Blade, serving as the city editor of this progressive publication for sixteen years. His wise, conservative and patriotic editorials and the high ideals of citizenship advocated by the Blade wielded such a potent influence in moulding public sentiment in the county that to his efforts can be attributed the effectual solution of many of the county's difficult problems. In 1911 Mr. McPhee was nominated by acclamation for city councilman; he made no campaign, but was elected by a splendid majority, and at his second election he led the field in number of votes received. During his two terms of four years each, as councilman, Mr. McPhee was a member of the committee on public buildings and city affairs. He was always greatly interested in every worthy movement that had as its aim then upbuilding and betterment of civic conditions in Santa Ana; during the years that he served as councilman many public buildings were erected, miles of street pavements constructed, an ornamental lighting system installed and the city grew by leaps and bounds. In 1914 Mr. McPhee received the appointment of county sealer of weights and measures, and so efficiently has the work of this department been conducted that Orange County was recently complimented, by the state sealer of weights and measures, as being the banner county of the state in this line of work- The packing houses and factories of the county co-operate with Mr. McPhee in the prosecution of the work, which greatly aids him in the operation of his department. He believes in educating the public to the importance of this work and in conducting a campaign along this line. In 1888 Mr. McPhee was united in marriage with Miss Martha Anderson, a native of Ontario, Canada, and three children have been born to them: Barry H.. who is connected with the Edison Company of Santa Ana, married Miss Helen Neff; C. Ross is a prominent musician of Santa Ana and his marriage united him with Miss Grachen Denman, of Los Angeles; Muriel is married and resides in Seattle. Wash. Fraternally Mr. McPhee is a member of Santa Ana Lodge No. 794, B. P. O. Elks; also of the Modern Woodman of America. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Moulton, Lewis Fenno | The steady increase in population and the tendency toward intensive cultivation of the land have had much to do with the dividing up of the great ranches of the early Spanish grants into small tracts. Noteworthy among the few large tracts that still remain intact is the great Moulton ranch of 22,000 acres which lies southwest or El Toro. Lewis Fenno Moulton, its original proprietor and owner, still directs its affairs with the ability and energy that have always characterized his undertakings.
Prominent in the early colonial affairs of New England, the Moulton family has contributed many representatives who occupied important posts in the stirring political and military affairs of that day. One of the bravest of these was Gen. Jeremiah Moulton, who served with distinction in the Revolutionary War, and was one of the most zealous of the colonies' defenders, Sharing in this patriotic spirit were other members of the family, Samuel Farrar, who participated in the Battle of Concord, and Samuel Fenno, whose name is associated with the events that led up to the Boston tea party. In the second war with the Mother Country, Jotham Moulton, the son of Gen. Jeremiah Moulton, displayed the same spirit as his forbears, taking an active part in the conflict. Jotham Moulton, a physician by profession, married Lucy Farrar, and for many years they made their home in Bucksport, Maine. Among their children was J. Tilden Moulton, the father of Lewis F., who was born in Maine in 1808. After graduating from Bowdoin College and Harvard Law School, and practicing his profession in Cherryfield, "Maine, for several years, he removed to Chicago, Ill., where for many years he occupied a place of distinction in its legal circles. In addition to his large practice he served as a master in chancery of the United States Court at Chicago, and was as well known in its journalistic circles, being one of the first editors of the Chicago Tribune. His high professional standing brought him into contact with all the great men of that day and locality, and among the friendships he prized most was that of Abraham Lincoln, who was one of his classmates in law college. During his residence in the East he had been united in marriage with Miss Charlotte Harding Fenno, a native of Massachusetts, but who was reared and educated in Connecticut. Mr. and Mrs. J. Tilden Moulton were the parents of two children: Irving F., for many years vice-president and cashier of the Bank of California, but now retired, residing at San Francisco, and Lewis Fenno, the subject of this sketch. He was born at Chicago on January 17, 1854, and spent the first years of his life in the parental home there, one of his early and cherished memories being of Abraham Lincoln, who frequently came to the Moulton home. Unlike his father, his inclination did not lie in the way of training for a professional career, and as soon as he had completed the grammar school course he set about to earn his own living, the father's death when Lewis was but a young lad also making it expedient for him to learn to make his way in the world. His first work was packing shingles on Chicago wharfs, and later, after the death of the father, the family removed to Boston, Mass., and here he was employed by a storekeeper to run errands, earning a dollar and a half per week. At the age of fifteen he began working on the old Daniel Webster farm near Marshfield, Mass., remaining there for three years. Feeling that the Far West offered greater opportunities Mr. Moulton started on the long trip to California in 1874, making the journey by way of the Isthmus of Panama. Locating at once at Santa Ana, then Los Angeles County, but now Orange County, he began work on the San Joaquin ranch near Santa Ana, and subsequently went into the sheep raising business with C. E. French, continuing in this for several years. Going to San Francisco he established a wholesale slaughter house there, but this did not prove a financial success, so he returned after a short time to Orange County. He soon was able to start afresh, and it was but a short time until he was on the road to prosperity. His first purchase, about 1895, was a tract of 19.500 acres adjoining the San Joaquin ranch and extending to the ocean, and this has been increased by subsequent purchase until the ranch now comprises 22,000 acres. Mr. Moulton is extensively engaged in raising beef cattle for the market, mostly highgrade Durham Shorthorn cattle; so he is very naturally a member of the California Cattle Growers Association. The acreage not required for pasturage is devoted to raising barley, wheat, beans and hay, Mr. Moulton leasing it to tenants for this purpose, from ten to fifteen farmers usually being engaged on the place. Every department of the business is systematically organized and conducted, the greater part of it under the personal supervision of Mr. Moulton, whose ability as a business head and executive has been one of the chief factors in the eminent success that he has made. A well-appointed office is maintained on the ranch, and there are two commodious residences, one of which is occupied by Mr. Moulton, while the other is the home of Mrs. M. E. Daguerre, who owns a third interest in the ranch, her husband, Jean Pierre Daguerre, having been Mr. Moulton's partner before his decease. Excellent barns and outbuildings, well-kept lawns and drives add to the attractiveness of the ranch, which is always kept up to the highest state of cultivation. While the responsibility entailed by the details of this extensive business absorbs the greater part of Mr. Moulton's time, he has always been active in his support of the Republican party, and is known throughout the county as one of its most generous and large-hearted citizens in his many benefactions. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Nichols, John B. | Well known in Santa Ana as an attorney-at-law, John B. Nichols is a native of Fond du Lac County, Wis., and is the son of Thomas and Clarissa (Brown) Nichols, both deceased. Thomas Nichols was born in the State of New York and his wife was a native of Maine, their marriage being solemnized at Albion, Edwards County, Ill. The parents died when John B. was a small boy, and as a consequence he went to live with an uncle in Edwards County, Ill., for a few years, but ever since he was twelve years old he has made his own way in the world. He returned to his native state and worked out on farms near Fond du Lac and lived with an uncle there until he was about fifteen years old. then returned to Illinois. His elementary education was received in the rural school of his district during the winter time, as he was obliged to work on the farm during the other seasons of the year. He finished his high school course at the Albion high school, after which he attended the Southern Illinois State Normal University at Carbondale. from which he was graduated- Later he entered the University of Illinois at Champaign, working his way through this institution by teaching school, and after graduating he engaged in educational work in that state.
In 1897 Mr. Nichols came to Santa Ana, where he was principal of what is now the Roosevelt school three years, afterward becoming principal of the schools at Orange. From 1903 to 1907 he filled the post of superintendent of schools for Orange County, elected on the Republican ticket, and then moved to Oxnard, Ventura County, where he was principal of the Oxnard schools. Later Mr. Nichols went to Los Angeles County, where he accepted the position of principal of the Union high school at Compton, where he remained two years. In the meantime Mr. Nichols had been improving his spare moments by reading law, having always cherished a desire to enter the legal profession. While living at Urbana, Ill., he took part of a course in law and finished his course in Los Angeles and was admitted to the bar in 1915, first practicing his profession in Los Angeles. On February 1, 1919, Mr. Nichols returned to Santa Ana. where he opened his office and has since prosecuted his profession in this city. Mr. Nichols has been twice married; his first marriage was solemnized at Albion, Ill., when he was united with Miss Jane Marriott of that city. She passed away in 1903 at Santa Ana, leaving five children: Claude W.; Nora, Mrs. D. D. Dawson; Edna, Mrs. Lucien Wisser; Ruth, Mrs. C. O. Harbell, and William H. The second marriage of Mr. Nichols, in Orange, in 1908, united him with Miss Mary S. Schofield. In his religious associations Mr. Nichols is a Methodist. In politics he is a Republican, and fraternally is a Knights Templar Mason, affiliated with the Santa Ana lodges. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Oelkers, Henry | In naming the pioneers of Orange County any list would be incomplete without special mention of Henry Oelkers, who for nearly forty years was identified with the wine industry of Anaheim. He was born near Hamburg, Germany, February 17, 1856, and received his education in that country.
In 1882 Henry Oelkers immigrated to America and settled at Anaheim, where he obtained employment with his uncle, William Konig, now deceased, who came to Anaheim from Germany in 1859. Mr. Konig purchased twenty acres on South Los Angeles Street, where the Southern Pacific Railway depot is located. Here he planted a vineyard, erected a winery and continued to manufacture wine for many years. The land has greatly increased in value and is now built up with residences and business blocks. William Konig was very public-spirited and always willing to support every worthy movement that had as its ultimate aim the upbuilding of the best interests of Anaheim. One of his most noted acts—one that expressed in a very substantial way his keen interest and pride in the civic affairs of Anaheim—was the donation of the site of the public library. Being an able and successful business man, possessed of sound judgment and executive ability, William Konig was recognized by his fellow citizens and duly elected to the important office of trustee of Anaheim, which he filled with great satisfaction to his townsmen and credit to himself. He passed away in 1911, mourned by a host of friends. Henry Oelkers was associated with his uncle from 1882 to 1911, where he learned the business of winemaking and grape culture, eventually becoming the superintendent of his plant. In recent years he has been engaged in pruning and grafting and otherwise caring for orange and lemon groves, and is recognized as an expert in his line of work. During his nearly forty years of residence in Orange County he has witnessed marvelous changes—the development of the citrus industry, the growth of small villages into up-to-date and prosperous cities .and the wonderful development of the oil fields. In October, 1914, Henry Oelkers was united in marriage with Lisette Pohl, a native of Germany, but for a number of years a resident of Chicago. She had a son by a former marriage, who is now known as George Oelkers, now attending the Polytechnic High School in Los Angeles. Fraternally, Henry Oelkers is a member of Anaheim Lodge No. 199, I. O. O. F.; Concordia Singing Society; charter member of Lincoln Hospital of Los Angeles, and religiously belongs to the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Palmer, Noah | The passing away in January, 1916, of Noah Palmer, at the age of ninety-six, closed a career whose value and service to the community, indeed to the whole of Orange County, would be difficult to measure. Intimately associated with practically every enterprise that concerned the early development of Santa Ana, it is perhaps in his especial ability as a financier that he was most closely identified with the great progress made in this section of Orange County. Possessed in an unusual measure of keenness and discernment of mind, he was always quick to grasp advantages, albeit he was of a conservative temperament, so that, although his judgment was quick and decisive, he was never led into developments of a speculative character. A pioneer of '49, it was his privilege to witness such a transformation throughout the commonwealth of California as can never again take place within the confines of the United States, so marvelous has been the change that has been wrought in those years.
The Empire State was Mr. Palmer's native home, his birth having occurred September 3, 1820, at Lowville, Lewis County, N. Y. His parents were Ephraim and Hannah (Phelps) Palmer, natives of New York, and there they spent all their days. Ephraim Palmer came of a long and honored line of English ancestry, his forbears being of the Quaker faith, and he lived a well-rounded out life, reaching the age of eighty-eight years; the mother passed away in early womanhood, when Noah was but seven years of age. An older sister lived in Jefferson County, N. Y., and there Noah went to live after his mother's death. He remained there until he was eighteen years old, receiving a good education in the local schools of the vicinity. He then began life on his own account as a school teacher, continuing in this profession for ten years, first in New York, until 1840, when he went to Indiana. In 1849, when the news of the discovery of gold in California went like wildfire over the country, even to the backwoods hamlets, Noah Palmer, like thousands of other young men, was fired with an ambition to seek his fortune in this new Eldorado. Joining the Isaac Owen missionary train he set out on the long journey, and for six long, weary months they slowly wended their way acress the plains and desert, a journey that was fraught not alone with hardship but with many dangers. The hard work of mining, at Hangtown, now Placerville, however, proved too much for Mr. Palmer, so he went to San Jose and began farming, later removing to Santa Clara, where he continued ranching for many years. In 1852 he returned East and with his wife and little daughter started back to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama, making the rough trip across the Isthmus on mule back, there being no railroad in those early days. The family established their home in Santa Clara County, and for a number of years Mr. Palmer was quite active in political life, being a leader in Republican circles. For four years he served as tax collector of Santa Clara County, and represented his district in the state legislature for one term. In August, 1873, Mr. Palmer came to Santa Ana, then only a small hamlet. There was little to attract one at that time, as there had been but little improvement of the surrounding country, and this offered but scant promise of the possibilities that eventually were unfolded. With that keen foresight that was ever a dominating characteristic, Mr. Palmer felt that success awaited the pioneer here who had patience and perseverance, coupled with energy. He returned to Santa Clara, and on December 1, of that same year, he closed a deal for 1765 acres, comprising a part of the old Santiago de Santa Ana grant, originally a tract of 62,000 acres. On his return to this locality he was accompanied by a number of his friends in Santa Clara, and to them he disposed of 1065 acres, giving them their choice of location. He retained 700 acres, and this he put under cultivation and produced some of the best crops ever seen in this section. This land was all within the corporate limits of Santa Ana. now all subdivided into town lots except forty-five acres. His friends built on their various properties, and also farmed with success for years. In 1882 Mr. Palmer began his active interest in the banking field, for which his abilities especially fitted him. With W. S. Bartlett, Daniel Halladay and others he organized the Commercial Bank of Santa Ana, with Mr. Halladay the first president. After a very few years Mr. Palmer succeeded to that office, and held it until April 23, 1910, when he retired. He was one of the organizers of the Bank of Orange and served as its president until the bank was sold. He was also a director of the Bank of Tustin and of the Orange County Savings Bank—now the Orange County Trust and Savings Bank. He was active in the promotion of the Santa Ana, Orange and Tustin Railway and was the first president of the company. In each of these developments he was enabled to further the material progress of the county by stabilizing the financial foundation of the locality through his wise oversight, and by aiding those who were in need of capital to carry on the agricultural and horticultural development that has brought undreamed-of wealth to the county. While a school teacher in Franklin County, Ind., Mr. Palmer was married in March, 1843, to Miss Susan Evans, born January 28, 1824, in that county. She passed away on October 28, 1903, after a wedded life of over sixty years, in which there had been more than the usual share of eventful interest. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Palmer, two of whom are living: Emma Palmer, Mrs. George J. Mosbaugh, who is the mother of a son by a former marriage—H. Percy Thelan of Santa Ana; and Miss Lottie E. Palmer. Mrs. Almira A. Hewitt, the eldest daughter, died in March, 1912, leaving three children, Fred P.. William L., and a daughter, Mrs. Susy Deuel. Mrs. Mosbaugh and Miss Lottie E. Palmer are residents of Santa Ana, and through their loving ministrations the latter years of Mr. Palmer's wellspent life were surrounded with every care and comfort. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Pfeiffer, Mrs. Pedrilla P. | For nearly half a century a resident of Orange County, Mrs. Pedrilla P. Pfeiffer, widow of the late John A. Pfeiffer, one of the county's most honored citizens, now makes her home at 127 North Grand Street, Orange, where, now in her seventy-ninth year, she maintains an active interest in the progress of the community.
Born February 13, 1842, at Shelbyville, 111., Mrs. Pfeiffer was the daughter of Robert and Hannah (Way) Parrish, natives, respectively, of Virginia and Indiana. The father was a wagonmaker by trade, and for many years conducted a shop at Shelbyville, where he was a well-known citizen. He passed away when Mrs. Pfeiffer was but six years old. Of a family of six children, Mrs. Pfeiffer is the only one now living and the only one to take up residence in California. She grew up at Shelbyville, attended the public schools there, and at the age of twenty, on April 15, 1862, she was united in marriage with John A. Pfeiffer. A native of Germany, Mr. Pfeiffer was born at Muehlhausen on January 25, 1837. His parents were farmers in moderate circumstances, but gave their son all the educational advantages possible, and he early developed ambitious tendencies, feeling that America offered greater opportunities. In 1850, at the age of eighteen, he took passage on a sailing vessel from Bremen, and after sixty-six days reached New York. Going on to St. Louis, Mo., he secured employment in a store, improving his spare moments by attending a business college, realizing how this additional training would help him to advance in business. Securing a position with the mercantile establishment of Gen. W. F. Thornton at Shelbyville in 1855, at the modest sum of $200 a year, his worth was soon recognized, and he was rapidly advanced to a position in the banking house of General Thornton, and was steadily advanced to a salary of $200 per month and the post of cashier, an office he filled with unqualified success for twenty-eight years. As a mark of the confidence reposed in him by his employer, upon the death of General Thornton. Mr. Pfeiffer was made administrator of his estate, without bond, and he settled up all the complicated details of this large business in a most satisfactory manner. At the breaking out of the Civil War he was running a mercantile business of his own, but he sold out and offered his services to his country. On account of partial disability he was placed as a sutler. His health somewhat impaired by the heavy responsibilities of so many years. Mr. Pfeiffer and his family went to San Antonio, Texas; there he outfitted and traveled over the frontier for a time. Returning again to Illinois he resumed his position, but in September, 1881, brought his family to California. Settling in Villa Park precinct, then called Mountain View, he purchased thirty-two acres. At that early day both agriculture and horticulture were in their experimental stages, and it was not yet fully determined to what products the soil was best adapted. Many vineyards were being set out, however, and Mr. Pfeiffer set fourteen acres of his ranch with grapes. Like everyone, his vineyard suffered from blight, and he rented the ranch, moved to Highland and for two years ran a grocery store, during the building of the hospital. Returning to the ranch he planted vines a second time, but was unable to root out the disease, and gave up his efforts. After this discouraging circumstance Mr. Pfeiffer disposed of his land and removed to Orange, where he erected two bungalows on North Grand Street, in one of which Mrs. Pfeiffer still resides. He was prominent in the ranks of the Odd Fellows, having been a charter member of the lodge at Orange and treasurer of it from the date of its organization for many years. He was also a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. In 1916 Mr. Pfeiffer suffered an attack of paralysis from which he never recovered, his death occurring on August 23 of that year. An upright, energetic citizen, Mr. Pfeiffer was loyal to every trust reposed in him and his memory will ever be cherished by the many friends who appreciated his sterling character. Mr. and Mrs. Pfeiffer were the parents of six children; two passed away in infancy during their residence in Illinois; Henry O. died in San Diego at the age of twenty, and August died at Highland at the age of nineteen; Mollie Mable is the wife of Arthur S. Barker, a real estate dealer at Los Angeles; they have one son, Russell A. Barker, who served in the World War, seeing active duty in France; Mrs. Ada Meine is a bookkeeper for a Los Angeles firm. During their residence at Villa Park, Mr. and Mrs. Pfeiffer were active members of the Neighborhood Church there. Since coming to Orange Mrs. Pfeiffer has affiliated with the Christian Church at that place, having been reared in that faith. A Rebekah, she has been a faithful member of its ranks for many years in Orange. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Pleasants, Joseph Edward | Comparatively few of the men now identified with Orange County preceded Joseph Edward Pleasants in establishing associations with this locality, as he took up his residence here in 1861. He is one of the few remaining 'forty-niners in California. Among the first to bring stands of bees to this part of the country, for many years noted for its fine sage and orange honey, Mr. Pleasants has long occupied an authoritative place in that industry, being the first bee inspector of the county, a post that he has held continuously since 1902, and at the present time he is president of the California State Bee Keepers' Association.
Missouri was Mr. Pleasants' native state, and there he was born in St. Charles County, March 30, 1839. His parents were James M. and Lydia (Mason) Pleasants, natives of Kentucky and Virginia, and both were of English ancestry. The mother passed away in 1848, and the following year the father, with his two eldest sons, joined an ox-team train consisting of thirty-two wagons for the long journey across the plains. There were about 120 people in the party, Mr. Pleasants being the youngest child in the company. The trip was a long, trying one, about twenty of the travelers succumbing to the cholera en route, and six weary months passed by before they reached their destination on the Feather River. The father engaged in mining for about a year and a half, later going to the Sacramento Valley, where he engaged in farming in what is now Solano County, Pleasants Valley, where he located, being named for him. In 1856 J. E. Pleasants came to Southern California, where he made his home with the Wolfskill family, studying under H. D. Barrows, whom Mr. Wolfskill had employed as a teacher for his family, the children of the neighborhood sharing in his instruction, according to the generous custom of the times. Mr. Barrows, who was a New Englander, and well trained in the pedagogical world of his native place, was prominently identified with the educational affairs of Los Angeles for many years, serving on the school board for a number of terms. Coming to what is now Orange County in 1861 to look after some interests of Mr. Wolfskill here, Mr. Pleasants later purchased land, and he has since made this his home, a period of practically sixty years. While engaging in general farming, he was especially interested in raising fine cattle and horses, and he raised many thoroughbred shorthorns, selling them to the Irvine Company. Among the first to become interested in the bee industry, he owned at one time over 400 stands, and this brought him a handsome income. One year he took thirty tons of honey from his apiary. He gave much time to the study of bees and particularly of the diseases that affect them in this climate, and it is safe to say that there is no one in Southern California who has done as much to advance this profitable industry. He was chosen to take charge of the California bee exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in New Orleans, 1884. When the office of bee inspector was created in 1902, Mr. Pleasants was unanimously made its first incumbent and he continues to serve up to the present time. In 1888 Madame Modjeska bought his ranch of 200 acres and he then bought 400 acres of land, his present place, which he devoted to the raising of thoroughbred stock. Mr. Pleasants' first marriage united him with Miss M. Refugio Carpenter, her mother being a native Californian. She passed away in 1888, and two years later Mr. Pleasants married Miss Adalina Brown, likewise a native of this slate, born at Petaluma. Sonoma County, but grew up and received her education in Los Angeles: she is a daughter of Milton and Clarissa (Wing) Brown, natives of Kentucky and Illinois, respectively. They crossed the plains to Oregon in 1852 and two years later came down the coast to Sonoma County, and soon afterwards came to Los Angeles where they were pioneer ranchers. After his wife died Milton Brown made his home with Mr. and Mrs. Pleasants until a few days before his death at the hospital in Santa Ana in 1917. aged ninety-live years, six months. Mrs. Pleasants after reaching womanhood taught school for several years. She is intensely interested in early California history of which she has been a student and reader and is well informed and an interesting conversationalist. A member of the Bee Keepers' Club of Orange County and an active member of the State and National Bee Keepers' Associations, at the annual meeting in Los Angeles, February, 1920, Mr. Pleasants was elected president of the California, State Bee Keepers' Association, a fitting honor to his years of study and research in bee culture. Mr. Pleasants has always taken a prominent part in the activities of these organizations, promoting, in every possible way the furtherance of this industry. He has been a valued contributor to the various journals published in its interest in the United States and furnished the data for the chapter devoted to the subject appearing in this history. Now one of the oldest settlers in this county, he is living in comparative retirement at his home in Silverado precinct, and blessed with an exceptional memory, he can recall many interesting reminiscenses of the early days of Orange County. Occupying a high place in the esteem of his fellow citizens, Mr. Pleasants can look back upon a long, influential and well-spent life. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Rimpau, Frederick C. & Theodore | The wealth of pioneer achievement and tradition featuring the glowing chapters of California history one is reminded of in the life-story of Theodore Rimpau, long the oldest citizen in point of years of residence in Orange County. He was born in Hamburg, Germany, on September 28, 1826, the son of Johanas and Matilda (Henneburg) Rimpau, natives of Germany. He enjoyed, on account of his parents' social and financial circumstances, the advantages of a superior education, and unlike, many who were destined for such a career as he later followed, he studied French, German and Latin, and later pursued a practical business course. After putting in several years with a wholesale business concern at Hamburg, he decided to seek his fortune in the New World, and came to the United States in 1848.
Leaving the Fatherland about the time of the great political upheaval striving for some of the very objects recently attained in Germany, Mr. Rimpau landed in New York, and was soon employed by a leading wholesale house; and it was while he wa.' there, getting accustomed to the freer ways of the young Republic, that the news of the discovery of gold in California was heralded throughout the country. He took passage for San Francisco, via Panama, and from the Isthmus came on the first steamship that sailed for what was then called Yerba Buena. Immediately upon his arrival, he joined the hurrying throngs seeking the "yellow metal," and for a short time was fairly successful, but like many another who catered to the wants of the hazarding miner, he found the best way to riches through the avenue of trade. Mr. Rimpau soon formed a partnership for general merchandising in San Francisco; and as he prospered, he branched out to the South. He opened another store in Los Angeles, in 1850. to which he gave all of his attention when he had been burned out twice in the Bay City; his partners, Schwerin and Garbe, returned to South America, where they had formerly lived. In December, 1850, Mr. Rimpau was married to Miss Francisca Avila, the daughter of Francisco and Encarnacion (Sepulveda) Avila, and a native of the City of the Angels. She died at Anaheim in 1903, the mother of seventeen children, seven still living: Frederick, of this review; Sophie and Marie L., all of Anaheim; Frank T., of Alhambra; James A., Benjamin A. and John L., of Los Angeles. In 1851, Mr. Rimpau closed his well-known Los Angeles store and started in the stock businesj on a tract of 800 acres of land owned by his wife, and originally a Spanish grant that had been in the Avila family for nearly 100 years, and part of which is still owned by the family; and there, on what is now within the corporate limits of Los Angeles, Mr. Rimpau followed stock raising until in the early '60's. when he moved to the San Joaquin ranch. For two years there were awful droughts throughout the state, and after his cattle died, he continued in the sheep business until 1876, when another drought came, and his son, Adolph, to save the herds, drove them to Salt Lake City. Coming to Anaheim in 1865, Mr. Rimpau rented property for two years, after which he bought and planted twenty acres of land, where he later resided. He set out grapes, and manufactured wine; and this business he continued with success until 1886, when disease destroyed all the vines. Then he planted orchards and walnuts. He foresaw that the wine trade, for various reasons, was doomed, and as early as 1878 he established the dry-goods store which, as a flourishing concern, he turned over to his sons, Adolph and Frederick, ten years later. He sold half of his 800 acres of ranch and became a stockholder in the water company at Anaheim. Few men in this colony of intelligent and industrious Germans were more respected in their time than Theodore Rimpau; and the local chronicler dwells with peculiar pleasure on some of the personal incidents in his private life. His marriage ceremony, for example, was performed by Father Sanchez, one of the pioneer padres who traveled El Camino Real, or the King's Highway, from San Francisco to San Diego on foot. Mr. Rimpau lived so long and so happily with his good native wife that his friends could boast he was the first foreigner hereabouts to marry a California maiden and to celebrate with her a golden wedding. At one time he had three vessels engaged in coast trade, plying between San Francisco and San Pedro, but they were all destroyed by fire within a year. He died at Anaheim on October 3. 1913. aged eighty-seven years. FREDERICK RIMPAU was born in Los Angeles on March 13, 1855, the house being still owned by the Rimpau family, and growing up in Anaheim, to which town his foTks had removed, he attended the grammar school there. From his twenty-second until his forty-second year he clerked in stores in Los Angeles and Arizona, and for fifteen years he was a partner with his brother Adolph in the dry-goods store at Anaheim. Selling out, he went into the real estate and insurance field, and today gives his attention especially to the latter. He is a director of the Anaheim National Bank. On November 4, 1885, Mr. Rimpau married Miss Nellie Smythe of Anaheim, a native daughter, whose parents are John S. and Josefa (Yorba) Smythe. They attend the Catholic Church. Mr. Rimpau belongs to the Fraternal Brotherhood, and years ago, for three years he was a member of the California National Guard, from which he was honorably discharged. He is an active participator in all civic movements, and deeply interested in Orange County and its smiling future. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Robinson, Richard | One of Orange County's oldest pioneers, Richard Robinson is living retired at Garden Grove, after a well-rounded life filled with many adventurous experiences, having reached the age of ninety-three years. Born in the township of Edwardsburg, Grenville County, Ontario, Canada. September 9, 1827, Mr. Robinson was the son of Isaac and Margaret (Moses) Robinson, both natives of Ireland, who soon after their marriage there in County Tyrone, came to Canada, and here all their nine children were born. Isaac Robinson was a shoemaker by trade, but followed farming to a great extent, owning a farm of 260 acres. He was killed by a horse when Richard was only sixteen years of age; the mother lived to be ninety-two years old. Richard early learned the shoemaking business and from the time he was sixteen years old he took his place in the world as a breadwinner for the family. He ran a shop on the home farm, often working in the fields all day and then at shoemaking until late at night. Necessarily his schooling was limited, both from his lack of time and from the scarcity of educational opportunities, as in those days they had only subscription schools, maintained by the people of the community, the teachers boarding 'round among the families.
When he reached the age of twenty-four, Mr. Robinson made up his mind to try his fortune in California, and accordingly sailed from New York on the "Fannie Major," which was bound for San Francisco around the Horn. While off the coast of Brazil they encountered a severe storm in which the top main mast of their vessel was broken off and they had to put in to San Salvador for repairs. While there Mr. Robinson saw slavery in its worst form and has yet vivid memories of some of the horrible conditions that accompanied it in that country. Proceeding on their journey they doubled Cape Horn and again encountered a terrific gale which lasted for several days and nights during which every sail was torn to shreds. Although it was the latter part of June, zero weather prevailed and every hour it seemed as if they would surely be swallowed up by the angry waves. After miraculously escaping from being dashed to pieces on the rocky coast of Patagonia, they finally reached Tocawanda, Chile, where they procured an entire new set of sails and then continued the journey to San Francisco, reaching there in September, 1852, after a voyage of five and one-half months. From San Francisco Mr. Robinson went up to the mines on the Yuba River, later going on to Placerville, where he mined with considerable success, clearing up some money. Here he was married in March, 1854, to Miss Letty Bolton, the daughter of Richard and Lucretia (Redmond) Bolton, natives, respectively, of Ireland and Canada. She was also born in Canada, only about twelve miles from Mr. Robinson's birthplace, although they had never known each other until they met at Placerville. She had come across the plains in 1851 with the family of her brother-in-law, John Johnson. Later Mr. and Mrs. Robinson went up into British Columbia, where he mined for a time on the Fraser River, but did not meet with much success. In 1859, with his wife and child he went back to Canada to visit his old home, returning in 1862 to California, making the trip, both going and coming, by way of Panama. On reaching here he settled in Sonoma County with his wife and three children, twins having been born to them during their stay in Canada. Here Mr. Robinson purchased a farm of 230 acres five miles from Petaluma, and improved it, building a dairy barn that was at that time the finest in the county. Here he contracted tubercular trouble and, not being able to stand the heavy fogs, he sold out and bought a 200-acre farm in Colusa County, farming it for three years and completely recovering his health. In 1884, Mr. Robinson removed to Garden Grove where he has since made his home. He purchased seventy-five acres of land here and farmed it for a number of years, but he disposed of all of it except five acres where the home stood many years; he has a remarkably good memory and keen mind for a man of his years and enjoys recalling the interesting events of his past life. Mrs. Robinson died on August 23, 1920, aged almost eighty-nine. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson had nine children, eight of whom grew to maturity: Isaac resides in Stockton and is deputy county treasurer and tax collector; Chester Allington lives at Ascot Park, Los Angeles, and has five sons, one of whom. Capt. Ralph Redmond Robinson, was with the Marines throughout the whole campaign in the late war. He was with the detachment of Marines that was a part of the famous Second Division and was in action at the< Argonne, St. Mihiel and Champagne, where he saw terrific fighting. He is still serving with the Marines and is now stationed at Port au Prince, Hayti; Forest Wellington died at the age of thirty-three years, leaving one son, Chalmers, who is an oil man engaged in the Fullerton field; Mina Anna is the wife of Harvey V. Newsom, a rancher at Garden Grove, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work; Frank Bolton resides in Los Angeles; his son, Ray Albert Robinson, who is a crack shot, became a captain in the war, training troops at Quantico, Va. He was aide-de-camp to General Butler and while stationed at Brest on General Butler's staff, he lived in Napoleon's old house there. He is still in the service at Quantico, Va.; Addie May is the wife of Capt. Joseph Newell, who is captain of the largest supply ship in the U. S. Navy; they reside at West Newbury, Mass.; Richard Byron has a ranch of forty acres near Gait; Porter died at the age of four years at Colusa; Alice Bertha, the youngest of the family, resides with her father. A few years ago Mr. Robinson came near losing his life in a railway accident, and was laid up for a year. The accident happened while he was crossing the railroad tracks at Santa Ana, and by a curious coincidence he had just been on a jury in a case brought to recover damages for death and injury sustained to a family who had met with the accident at the same railway crossing in Santa Ana. For many years Mr. Robinson was a stanch Republican, casting his last vote on that ticket for James A. Garfield as President, but since that time he has been a consistent Prohibitionist. He was converted at the age of nineteen and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Garden Grove. Always on the side of that which made for the uplifting and improvement of the community, Mr. Robinson has ever stood high in the esteem and respect of a large circle of friends. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Ross, Mrs. Hattie W. | A highly-honored representative of a pioneer family of Santa Ana is Mrs. Hattie W. Ross, the rancher and landowner, whose home at 1429 North Baker Street is always the center of warm-hearted hospitality. She was born at New Madrid, Mo., the daughter of Frederick W. and Virginia Maulsby, who were cotton planters, owning between 7.000 and 8,000 acres of choice Missouri land. Mr. Maulsby received his early education in the Southern Missouri Academy, and later was clerk of New Madrid County, Missouri.
Miss Maulsby came to Santa Ana with a sister, Mrs. Kate Doyle, now of El Monte, arriving at Santa Ana in September, 188S. She thus saw both Orange and Santa Ana develop from their infancy. When the plaza in Orange was laid out she assisted in the entertainment. On August 18, 1886, at the old Doyle home near Santa Ana, she was married to U. J. Ross, oldest child of Josiah and Sarah Ross, who grew up in Santa Ana, but was born in Watsonville. He is now foreman for the Hammond Lumber Company in Los Angeles. Mr. and Mrs Josiah Ross came across the plains in an ox-team train in 1865 and settled in the Salinas Valley for a short time, coming down to Los Angeles County and settling in what is now Orange County a year later. Then there was for the most part only Mexican and Spanish settlers here, and considerable trouble was had with the natives. The early settlers' grain would be endangered by the Mexican ponies, which were allowed to graze at random, and it was necessary to kill many of these ponies before the Spanish element took any measures to keep their animals off the land they had sold to the early settlers. Josiah Ross came across the country in prairie schooners, and if anyone "had a story to tell," he certainly did. The wild mustard grew so tall that even when one stood on the driving board of the prairie schooner it was impossible to see over the fields. When dried, the mustard was used by the Ross family in place of firewood. Mrs. Eva Sweetster, sister-in-law of Mrs. Ross, was the first girl born in Santa Ana. Josiah Ross purchased 275 acres of land at one dollar an acre, and a part of this tract is now the home place of Mrs. Hattie Ross. The rest of the land is still owned by Josiah Ross' descendants. Mrs. Ross is the owner of an eight-acre grove interset with walnuts and apricots. Her house was built on this ranch in 1907. Four sons honor Mrs. Ross: Ernest F. is at home; Raymond married Miss Cora Huntington of Santa Ana; Melvin is married to Miss Cora Hazelwood, a Nebraska girl, and they live at Pasadena; and Carroll B. lives at home, a graduate of the Santa Ana high school and an employe of the Hammond Lumber Company of Santa Ana. Ernest Ross hauled the first and last loads of gravel to build the beet sugar factory at Delhi, and he was given a gold locket by the company. Raymond Ross was in the United States Navy during the late war, and did valiant service as a gunner on the U. S. S. "Dakota." |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Smith, D. Edson | A well-known pioneer, highly esteemed for his scholarship and long years of fruitful labors, is D. Edson Smith, of West Seventeenth Street, Santa Ana, whose accomplished wife is almost as favorably known for her art studies and work, particularly in experiments with architecture. He was born in Dorset, Bennington County, Vt., on January 11, 1839, and came westward with his parents when he was only a year old, residing successively in ten different states. He was a member of the first class to be graduated from the University of Iowa in 1858, and tor a while taught school in Missouri, and next served as a teacher eighteen miles southwest of Syracuse, N. Y. He also taught in Pennsylvania, and at the close of the Civil War he was engaged by the Freedman's Bureau to instruct some of the freed slaves in Virginia and North Carolina.
In 1867 he settled in the Oneida Community in New York State, where the colony made iron and steel devices, and also silverware, and there he remained until 1881, when he came to California and purchased a home. He went back to New York for a year, but in 1883 he returned to the Coast and the Golden State. For ten years he was secretary of the Pomological Society of Southern California, and he became well-known throughout the Southland as the editor of "Repute." He also edited work for the month department of the Rural Californian for three years, and then he published an article entitled, "Ten Acres Enough," in which he set forth the argument that in California ten acres handled properly was sufficient for any man to take good care of, and quite as sufficient for his prosperity. This article was widely copied, and gave Mr. Smith national fame. In 1901, Mr. Smith was sent to the Buffalo Exposition to represent the Rural Californian. A son of Mr. Smith having become manager of the Oneida Community silverware factory, with his headquarters at Niagara Falls, Mr. Smith spent some time with him during the Exposition visit. The purchase made by Mr. Smith in 1881 included ten acres, which he developed so cleverly that it became known as the Model Ranch. Then he sold his land, and moved into town. The removal involved their building a new home, and Mrs. Smith, who had made a special study of architecture, particularly the antique, designed their dwelling and created a structure that was so notable as to attract wide attention. The first Mrs. Smith was Miss Sarah Frances King before her marriage, and a member of a long-honored family in the Empire State, and their one living son is Eugene Deming Smith, who is at present in San Francisco as manager of the office there for the Oneida Community. The present Mrs. Smith, to whom he was married in May, 1888, was Ellen Frances (Hutchins) Reid, the mother of Ransom Reid, who was for twenty years superintendent of the water works of Santa Ana. The Smiths, of which our subject is such a worthy representative, date back to the Pilgrim Fathers and the famous Preserved Smith, who came from England and brought so much that was desirable to the New World. What enviable, blood they transmitted to Mr. Smith, with all of noble and ennobling sentiment such as emanates from a sound body and a sound mind, may be judged when it is stated that now, in his eighty-second year, Mr. Smith is far more supple than the average man of thirty. He can stand on the edge of a brook, for example—and the writer of these lines has witnessed him in the operation—and so lower his head to sip the purling water that he has no need of flattening out his body to get a drink, and having thoroughly studied the laws of nature, he affirms that any man can be young at eighty who eats and otherwise lives correctly. Mr. Smith was a resident of this section when it was a part of Los Angeles County. He served as president of the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company for a number of years, and was one of the organizers of the Southern California Apricot Growers Association. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Spurgeon, Granville | Prominent among the names worthy to be perpetuated in the annals of Orange County, and particularly in the development of the city of Santa Ana, is that of the late Granville Spurgeon, whose sterling life and character will ever leave its impress on the community in whose upbuilding he was so loyally interested for many years.
The Spurgeon family traces its lineage back to England, the early representatives of the family settling in Virginia. The grandfather of our subject removed from the Old Dominion State to Bourbon County, Ky.. during the days of Daniel Boone and other early pioneers, and here Granville Spurgeon, Sr., was born and reared. When he reached young manhood he was married to Lovina Sibley, who was born in Prince Edward County, Va., and who was directly descended from an influential English family. Removing to Columbus, Ind., in 1830, Mr. Spurgeon engaged in farming near there, for about ten years, when the family located in Clark County, Mo. After several years spent in agricultural pursuits there they removed to Alexandria, Mo., where Mr. Spurgeon engaged in the mercantile business and took a prominent part in the affairs of the community. It was during this period that Granville Spurgeon, Jr., the subject of this sketch, was born, on August 19, 1843, at Louisville, Ky., the family being on a visit there at the time. Granville Spurgeon was educated in the private and public schools of Missouri, and also had the advantage of a course in a business college in that state. In 1849 his father had made the trip overland to California, and engaged in mining for eighteen months. As the years went by he again felt the call of the West, and in 1864 he again set out on the long journey, this time accompanied by his family, five months being spent in crossing the plains. They settled in Solano County. Cal., and here both parents passed away. Granville Spurgeon remained in Solano County for two years, then with his brother Benjamin and a sister he went to Watsonville, Santa Cruz County. In November, 1867, these two brothers joined their older brother. William H. Spurgeon. in Los Angeles County, taking up land between Compton and Los Angeles. William H. left them the following year, purchasing a tract of seventy-six acres belonging to the old Santiago de Santa Ana Grant, and here he laid out the town of Santa Ana. On the death of Benjamin Spurgeon in 1870, Granville Spurgeon joined his brother William H., entering into partnership with him. and from that date until his death, which occurred August 7, 1901, he was continuously identified with the development of Santa Ana, taking a prominent part in every undertaking and enterprise that gave this community its well-grounded, substantial start and enabled it to take its place as one of the representative cities of Southern California, so that the name of Spurgeon will ever be indissolubly associated with its history. With his brother. W. H., Granville Spurgeon conducted the first mercantile establishment in Santa Ana. and for many years this was the leading establishment of the town. Later he established a thriving fire insurance business, continuing in this for a number of years, finally disposing of it at a good profit on account of his health. Tn later years he purchased a tract of 100 acres of peat land, devoting this to the production of celery. This was at the period when celery growing was at its height in Orange County, and Mr. Spurgeon was most successful in raising some of the finest celery ever grown here. During his early years here he acted as agent for the Wells Fargo Express Company, and later was appointed postmaster of Santa Ana, an office he filled for a number of years with the utmost satisfaction to the community. In fraternal circles Mr. Spurgeon was prominent in the ranks of the Odd Fellows, the Encampment and the Rebekahs, serving for sixteen years as treasurer of the subordinate lodge. While a believer in the principles of the Democratic party, he was essentially too broadminded to be swayed by mere partisanship, especially in local politics. At the time of his death, in 1901, he was one of the oldest residents of Santa Ana. and in his passing this city lost one of her stanch upbuilders and one who occupied a distinctive place in her development. Commencing life without means, Mr. Spurgeon's habits of thrift and industry, coupled with good business judgment, enabled him to amass a competency, and his life presents a record well worthy of emulation. Mrs. Spurgeon, who before her marriage was Miss Frederica Reinhold, is a native of Milwaukee, Wis., where she received an excellent education. Coming to California in 1875 on a pleasure trip she met Mr. Spurgeon, at that time a leading merchant of Santa Ana, this acquaintance leading to their marriage the following year. They took up their residence in the house at Sixth and Main streets that Mr. Spurgeon had erected for his bride, and this remained the family home during his lifetime. After his death Mrs. Spurgeon disposed of the property and purchased her present home on North Broadway. Now among the oldest settlers of Santa Ana, Mrs. Spurgeon well remembers the early days of this now prosperous city, when what is now the finest residential section was a wilderness of wild mustard, and bearing little promise of the beautiful shady streets, attractive homes and well-kept lawns of today. A continuous resident of this city for forty-five years, with the exception of a year spent at Manitou, Colo., for Mr. Spurgeon's health, Mrs. Spurgeon has always taken the deepest'interest in the welfare of the community, and, like her late husband, has shown a public spiritedness that has meant much to the advancement of the social and moral good of the whole neighborhood. Of the two adopted daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Spurgeon, May S. is the wife of R. H. Ballard, president and general manager of the Southern California Edison Company, and they reside in Los Angeles. They have one daughter, Harriet, who is attending Vassar College. Helen S. is training for a professional nurse at the Good Samaritan Hospital, Los Angeles. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Spurgeon, William H. | The family represented by William H. Spurgeon, the founder of Santa Ana, is of English extraction, and has been identified with America for several generations. His father, Granville Spurgeon, a native of Bourbon County, Ky., engaged in agricultural pursuits in Henry County, that state, for some years and from there removed to Bartholomew County, Ind., in 1830, and became a pioneer farmer of the Hoosier state. Ten years later he took his family to Clark County, Mo., and there, too, undertook the development of a farm from raw prairie. Admirably qualified by nature for the task of pioneering, he led a busy life in the midst of frontier surroundings that would have daunted a less adventurous spirit. In 1864, he decided to come to California, and accompanied by his family, he crossed the plains in a prairie schooner drawn by mules. After a long, tedious journey they reached Solano County, and near what is now Cordelia, settled and remained until his death, which occurred in 1867, a short time after the death of his wife, Lavinia (Sibley) Spurgeon, a native of Prince Edward County, Va., and of Scotch lineage.
It was during the residence of the family in Henry County, Ky., that their son, William H., was born on October 10, 1829. When a babe in arms he was taken to Indiana, and thence in 1840 accompanied his family to Missouri, where he was reared and received a practical common school education. At the age of.sixteen he became a clerk in a country store at Alexandria, where he was employed for several years. Shortly after the discovery of gold in California he determined to seek his fortune here, coming by way of New Orleans and the Isthmus of Panama. He spent four years in California, working in the gold mines, and met with financial success; he also served in the Rogue River Indian War. In 1856 he returned by way of Panama to New York City, and thence to Missouri, becoming connected with a mercantile business at Athens, where he remained for some time. The second journey made by Mr. Spurgeon to California was in company with his father and other members of his family across the plains in 1864. In 1867 he went to Los Angeles, and during his brief stay there his wife, Martha (Morelatid) Spurgeon, a native of Kentucky, died. Soon afterward he returned again to Clark County, Mo., and from there, in 1869, came to what is now Santa Ana. Upon his arrival he purchased seyentv-six acres of the Santiago de Santa Ana grant, which originally contained 62,000 acres. Immediately after buying this property he proceeded to lay out the present town of Santa Ana, employing for this purpose Mr. Wright, a wellknown surveyor and civil engineer. The name the town bears was given it by Mr. Spurgeon in honor of the old Spanish grant. When he located here there were but few trees in the entire valley and the country was covered with wild mustard so high that he could not look over it from horseback, and in order to view the valley that contained his purchase he climbed one of the sycamore trees. The town of Tustin had just been started and the Los Angeles and San Diego stage road lay through the town and about three miles from Mr. Spurgeon's land. In order to get the stage to come through his purchase and to get a post office established he cut a road through the mustard at his own expense. He then built a small building of redwood on what is now the southwest corner of Fourth and Broadway, and in this conducted a general store, the first in Santa Ana, and it is said that all the goods contained therein at the opening could have been hauled away in a wheel barrow. As the population grew and the needs of the community became greater he added to his stock until he carried a large variety of general merchandise, and for eighteen years conducted a successful business, during which time he became widely known throughout this section as a reliable merchant and progressive citizen'. Mr. Spurgeon put down the first artesian well in this section, which yielded an ample supply of water at 300 feet and supplied the town for some time, thus establishing the first water works here. In order to induce settlers to locate at first he 'would give one lot to anyone buying one, and in that way sold a lot at the corner of-Fourth and Main streets for fifteen dollars, and to induce the man to accept the bargain, he threw in another one of equal size adjoining. To show the wonderful growth of Santa Ana, this property has increased in value until it is now held at approximately $85,000. During his life as a merchant Mr. Spurgeon acted as agent at Santa Ana for the Wells Fargo Express Company, and also filled the office of postmaster. After the organization of Santa Ana as a city he was chosen a member of the first board of trustees and served as president of same. Scarcely an enterprise was organized for the benefit of Santa Ana with which his name was not identified, either directly or indirectly. For twenty-five years he held the lot where the courthouse stands for its present use, refusing many offers for it for other purposes. He donated the lot for the Spurgeon Memorial Methodist Church South. It was his privilege to see the city, started by his foresight and built up by the energy of such men as he, take its place among the representative cities of Southern California. How much of the credit due for this result is due to his wise judgment would be difficult to state, but it is a recognized fact that Santa Ana owes to no citizen more than it does to Mr. Spurgeon. He was always an advocate of good schools and every movement for the social and moral betterment of the community met with his cooperation. Realizing the necessity for the town to possess favorable banking facilities, Mr. Spurgeon turned his attention to the establishment of a bank and, with others, incorporated the First National Bank of Santa Ana, of which institution he was chosen president, and during the term of his service the bank secured the solid financial basis upon which its subsequent prosperity has been built. He promoted the Santa Ana Gas Company, which he served as president, was a stockholder and director of the Santa Ana Gas and Electric Company, which succeeded to the business of the former company, and he was financially interested in the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company for five years, and for three years served as its president, and also as a members of the board of directors. As a home place he owned twenty acres of land at the east end of Fourth Street, part of which he sold to the Southern Pacific and to the Santa Fe for depot and yard purposes. Realizing the value of transportation facilities he used, all his influence to get the roads to extend their lines to Santa Ana. He later owned a tract of thirty, and also one of ten acres which he, himself, planted to walnuts. Mr. Spurgeon was always a staunch Democrat, and was chosen by his party to various positions of trust and honor. He served as a member of the state assembly, representing his district of Los Angeles County, this being before Orange County was organized. He served one term as supervisor before the partition of Orange County, and after the organization of the county was again elected supervisor, serving as chairman of the board. He was an active member of the Merchants and Manufacturers Association, and also of the Chamber of Commerce of Santa Ana. Mr. Spurgeon's farsightedness and keen perception is seen when supervisor of Los Angeles County. In the early days he was riot slow to see that this end of the county was neglected and did not get the aid nor public improvement it was entitled to, so it was then the idea came to him that the proper way to get what was due in this end of the county was county division and a separate county, and in that case he saw that Santa Ana would no doubt be the county seat, and so strong was his desire in that direction and so certain was he of it, he kept the block now occupied by the court house for that very purpose, and would not consent to sell it to any one, although he had some splendid offers for it. His ambition was finally realized —Santa Ana as the county seat and his choice of block selected as the court house site was no longer a dream but became a reality, thus fulfilling his ambition. Mr. Spurgeon's second marriage occurred in Santa Ana on April 14, 1872, uniting him and Miss Jennie English, a native of New Madrid County, Mo., who came to this part of California from Santa Cruz County in 1869 with her parents. Her father, Robert English, first crossed the plains in 1850 from Missouri, and after some time spent in California, returned to his home. From there he subsequently moved with his family to Texas, from which place, in 1861, they crossed the plains from Red River to California by ox team, settling at El Monte. While on their tedious journey they were joined from time to time by different immigrants until their train numbered sixty wagons. They had several skirmishes with the Indians, but suffered no losses. Both Mr. and Mrs. English died in Santa Ana. Mr. and Mrs. Spurgeon became the parents of five children: Grace, the wife of R. L. Bisby of Santa Ana; Lottie and Mary deceased; William H., Jr., is prominent in the furniture business in Santa Ana, and Robert Granville resides at Long Beach, having served in the U. S. Navy in the World War. On February 24, 1909, Mr. Spurgeon incorporated his property under the title of the W. H. Spurgeon Realty Company, the members of his family being associated with him as directors of the corporation, and he himself being president untilhis death on June 20, 1915. During the last years of his life the company built the W. H. Spurgeon Block on the corner of Fourth and Sycamore streets, the largest and most pretentious building in the city, a fitting monument to its founder. Mrs. Spurgeon survives her husband and continues to make her home in the city she has seen built up from a stubble tield and in the development of which she has taken a woman's part, aiding and encouraging her husband in his ambition to see it a beautiful city with modern public improvements, with its paved streets, as well as being one of the principals in making it the seat of government of the county, a desire that was very keen and dear to them both. Her children are looking after the large affairs left by her husband, and by their love and devotion do all they can to shield her from worry and care. The life of Mr. Spurgeon illustrates the possibilities which Southern California offers men of energy and judgment, where the opportunities for wise investments and large returns are even greater than they were in the early days. The record of Santa Ana's founder, who started with less than $1,000, is an example that is worthy of emulation and one that will encourage many another young man in his struggle toward success. In October, 1909, during the carnival of the Parade of Products held in Santa Ana, Mr. Spurgeon was presented with a memorial—a beautiful piece of art work done in colors with a pen, setting forth his identification with the county's interests. By a happy coincidence it was the eightieth year of Mr. Spurgeon's birth, the fortieth year of the founding of Santa Ana and the twentieth year of the organization of Orange County. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Stoner, Judge Christian C. | An efficient, popular public official with a very interesting war record is Judge Christian C. Stoner, a native of Blair County, Pa., where he was born on December 27, 1844. He is the son of Jacob E. Stoner. a native of Lancaster County, Pa., who in 1849 removed to Noble County, Ind., where he was a pioneer farmer. In 1873 he pitched his tent in Cloud County, Kans., and there he continued to farm until he died, honored of all men. He had married Polly Cowen, a native of Blair County, and she also died in Kansas. They had six children, and the subject of our sketch was the fourth in the order of birth.
Reared in Noble County, Ind., on a farm, C. G. Stoner went to a log-cabin school house and sat on slab benches; later, he enjoyed more comfortable quarters in a frame school building, but left school to volunteer for service in the Civil War. In 1863 he entered Company B of the Eighty-eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and was mustered in at Kendallville, and sent to join Sherman's Army at Chattanooga. As a part of the Fourteenth Army Corps, he was with Sherman until the close of the war, and participated in the battles of Resac, Dallas, Dalton, Snake Creek Gap, Buzzard's Roost, Kenesaw Mountain, Peach Tree (where General McPherson fell), Jonesboro, Goldsboro, Bentonville and other notable places. He never received a scratch or wound, nor was he ever in a hospital; but of five relatives who enlisted when he did, he was the only one to return. A brother, David, was in the same regiment and was killed at the Battle of Bentonville, N. C. With his comrades he marched to Richmond and then on to Washington, D. C.; and there he took part in the Grand Review. At Louisville, Ky., in July, 1865, he was mustered out. and returned home. After the war, Mr. Stoner went to the home school for a couple of years, and when there was a vacancy, he taught there. He remained for two years, and "brought order out of chaos'1; then went to Wolf Lake high school, and after that taught for another two years. In 1873. he removed to Kansas, near Concordia, Cloud County, and took a homestead of 160 acres, where he engaged in farming. Seven years later, the citizens of that district selected him to teach school, and for three years he trained the young idea how to shoot; was justice of the peace of Nelson township for fifteen years, and was probate judge of Cloud County for two terms, being elected in 1890 and reelected in 1892, and served until January, 1895. In 1896, he was elected a member of the Assembly of the Kansas State Legislature, and served there during 1896 and 1897. His legal knowledge enabled him to be particularly valuable to his constituency; for while he was probate judge only two cases he had decided were appealed, and in-each of these instances the higher court sustained his decision. About 1904 Judge Stoner removed to Lincoln County, Kans., and for five years owned and edited the Lincoln Sentinel. In 1909 he located in Orange County, Cal., and bought an orange grove near El Modena, which he managed for two years, then disposed of the property, and retired. He was a city trustee for six years, and during that period was chairman of the board, or acting mayor, for four years. The night his term was up, the Judge was appointed city recorder, in April, 1918, and he has held that responsible office ever since. While in Indiana, in August, 1867, Judge Stoner was married to Miss Rachel A. Winebrenner, a native of that state, and by her he has had three children. Barbara Ellen is Mrs. Secrist of Long Beach; George, a graduate of Lincoln College, Kansas, took a course at the University of California and is now a teacher in the Orange high school; and Peter is a graduate of the State University at Berkeley and is a teacher in the high school at Pasadena. Judge Stoner is a member of Gordon Granger Post No. 138, and is at present the commander of the post. He was aide-de-camp on National Commander Somer's staff, in 1918. He belongs to the Christian Church, where he has been an elder for many years. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Taft, Charles Parkman | The ninth generation of the Taft family in America is represented by Charles Parkman Taft, of Orange County, Cal., and he was born in Mount Vernon, Ohio, July 11, 1856. His father, Henry Cheney Taft, was a native of Uxbridge, Mass., and of Scotch descent, who married Hannah Sophia Parkman of Westboro, Mass. She represented the fifth generation of the Parkman family in America and was of English extraction. The various members of the Taft and Parkman families in this country have been prominently identified with the making of American history as statesmen, scientists and scholars, many of them attaining to places of prominence in the various localities in which they have lived and labored.
Charles P. Taft is a thorough American, is a graduate from Racine College, Racine, Wis., class of 77, and after leaving college he taught school for two and onehalf years, then ca'me to California and spent a year looking about the state for a desirable place of residence. He then settled in Los Angeles County with his parents, on the ranch where he now lives, and has participated in the wonderful development of what is now Orange County. Here he has twenty-three acres of land that he has developed from its primitive condition, and is carrying on experimental work in the propagation of semi-tropical fruits, meeting with very good results in his labors as thus far developed. He has done some valuable work in originating new varieties of loquats, avocados and feijoas, demonstrating that these varieties can be grown successfully as a commercial proposition. He considers his experiments are still in their infancy and is still deeply engrossed in his experimental work. The leader in his list is the well-known variety of the "Taft Avocado," which has proven to be a commercial success, and is being widely planted throughout Southern California. The numerous varieties of the loquat that he has perfected are listed under the names of the Premier, the Early Red, which is ready for market in February and continues until the middle of June; the Champagne, the best of all; the Advance, and the Tanaka, of Japanese origin, are the strains he has improved. Mr. Taft was united in marriage on July 17, 1888, with Miss Jennie McMullan, of Oakland, and she has shared with her husband the esteem of all those who have the pleasure of knowing them. Of an unassuming nature, Mr. Taft has carried on his experimental work quietly at his ranch. Though engrossed with his labors he has never failed to assist all worthy movements for the building up of his adopted county by giving of his time and means to those ends. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Tedford, William N. | Coming to Newport Valley, then in Los Angeles County, in 1868, William N. Tedford was the first settler of the Valley, as he and his family were the only Americans here at that time. Following him were Isaac Williams, Jacob Ross, Thomas Smith and Thomas Cozad, all of whose names were associated with the pioneer days of this section.
Of Scotch-Irish extraction, the first representative of the Tedford family in this country was an early settler of Virginia, members of the family subsequently settling in Tennessee. This state was the birthplace of John Tedford, the father of our subject, and he continued the westward march of the family, removing to Randolph County, Mo. While a resident of Tennessee he had married Miss Catherine Hannah, and there Wilfiam N. Tedford was born on August 16, 1826. At the age of five he accompanied his parents to Randolph County, Mo., where he grew to manhood. Here he was married, May 19. 1852. choosing for his companion Miss Nancy Jane Baker, the daughter of Isaac and Jane (McCulIough) Baker, natives, respectively, of Kentucky and Tennessee. In 1864, twelve years after their marriage, and after five of their children were born, emulating the pioneer spirit of his forbears, Mr. Tedford, with his wife and family, started on the long journey across the plains with ox teams, reaching Solano County, Cal., in September of that year. Remaining there for two years, they removed to Monterey County, where they engaged in farming for another two years. In 1868 they came to what is now Orange County, settling on sixty acres of raw land in Newport Valley which Mr. Tedford had purchased. Although the country was wild and barren, they set to work to improve the land and make a home, and it was their privilege to see the surrounding territory transformed from its uninhabited, desolate state to prosperous ranches and orchards. It is safe to say that none of the old settlers of Orange County rejoiced in its development more sincerely than did Mr. Tedford, who had been so closely associated with its earliest days, and who did his share in helping to make it the garden spot of the country. The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Tedford: Walter B.; Edward; Mrs. Emma J. Maxwell, now deceased: Thomas F.; Mrs. Katie M. Felton; Mrs. Maggie L. Young; Charles L.; Mattie Susan, wife of Rev. C. R. Gray; George I., and Harry A., now deceased. The five eldest were born in Missouri, the younger children all being native sons and daughters of California. In 1899 Mr. Tedford sold his ranch to his son-in-law, E. W. Felton, and purchased a residence at Spurgeon and Third streets, Santa Ana, and here he made his home until his death, on November 9, 1905, Mrs. Tedford surviving him until 1919. Always a Democrat in his political sympathies, Mr. Tedford took an active part in the affairs of his party, and among other offices of trust he served as supervisor of Orange County for four years. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Wendt, William | A distinguished American artist who has added lustre to the rapid development of art in California is William Wendt. who was born in a little village in the north of Germany on February 20, 186S, and came to America at the age of fifteen, when he took up his residence in Chicago. He attended the public schools, and became interested in commercial art, spending a number of years in the shops, together with Gardner Symons.
In 1893, Mr. Wendt contributed to the Chicago Society of Artists Exhibition, and was awarded his first recognition in the granting of the Yerkes prize. He maintained a studio at Chicago, and spent the following year sketching near San Jose, in California. Later, he made another trip to California, this time to Los Angeles, after which he returned to Chicago and planned with Mr. Symons a tour of Europe. With the exception of two terms of study in the evening classes of the Chicago Art Ins.titute, Mr. Wendt is a self-taught artist. Proceeding to Europe, Mr. Wendt spent fifteen months in the galleries of London and other English centers, and in painting scenes of rural life in England; making his headquarters at St. Ives, Cornwall. Leaving his companion still luxuriating in British art environment, Mr. Wendt returned to America, and with his foreign subjects made an unusual exhibition at the galleries of the Art Institute in Chicago. A second trip to Europe was extended to a survey of the galleries and art fields of Hamburg, Berlin, Munich and Amsterdam and Paris, returning to America in 1904 to devote himself to American landscape painting. Mr. Wendt contributed to the St. Louis Exposition in 1904, and received the silver medal; and the same year he was awarded the Kahn prize at Chicago. In 1897 he had been given the Young Fortnightly Prize, and in 1901 the bronze medal of the Buffalo Exposition. The next year he was given honorable mention at the exhibition of the Chicago Society of Artists. In 1906, Mr. Wendt moved to Los Angeles, and for seven or eight years was president of the California Art Club. He exhibited at the Museum in Exposition Park, which museum later purchased his picture, "The Land of Heart's Desire." For many years, Mr. Wendt has been associated with the art development at Laguna Beach, having painted in that locality for the last seventeen years, and in 1918 he erected a well-planned studio at Arch Beach about a mile south of Laguna Beach, on the Coast. The studio is more than a working place, it is a retreat from the humdrum of everyday activities, for Mr. Wendt feels he has found at Laguna the opportunity for seclusion sought for during many years, and he expects here to complete many of his dreamed-of pictures, and to accomplish the height of his ambition. Besides having been made an associate of the National Academy of Design, in 1913, Mr. Wendt is a member of the National Art Club of New York City, the Chicago Society of Artists, the California Art Club, and the Laguna Beach Art Association and Federation of Arts, Washington. In addition to the honors already referred to, Mr. Wendt received the fine arts prize of the Society of Western Artists in 1912, the silver medal of the Panama Exposition in 1915, the Wednesday Club Medal prize, St. Louis 1910, and the grand prize of the San Diego Exposition of the same year, the Kirchberger prize. American Artists Exhibition, Art Institute of Chicago, 1913, and the Clarence A. Black prize of the California Art Club in 1916. He is represented in permanent collections of the Chicago Art Institute, the Friends of American Art, the Cliff Dwellers, the Union League of Chicago, the Athletic Club of Los Angeles, the Cincinnati Museum, the Art Association of Indianapolis, the National Arts Club, New York, and other museums and clubs. In June, 1906, the same year in which Mr. Wendt became a resident of Los Angeles, he was married to the noted sculptor of Chicago, Julia M. Bracken; their home is at 2814 North Sichel Street, Los Angeles. According to a writer in the Chicago Tribune, tinder date of May 16, 1920, the four favorite pictures in the Chicago Art Institute are, first, "The Song of the Lark," by Jules Breton; second, "The Silence of Night," by William Wendt; third, "The Flower Girl in Holland," by George Hitchcock; and fourth. "The Home of the Heron," by George Inness—usually rated the greatest of American landscape artists. "The Silence of the Night," which may perhaps rank as Wendt's masterpiece, was presented to the Chicago Art Institute by a number of the friends of that museum and school; another canvas by Mr. Wendt also hangs in this noted gallery, a landscape entitled "When All the World is Young." painted at Topango Canyon. California. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Williams, Isaac R. | As one who contributed generously to the development of Orange County, Isaac R. Williams was well-known and universally honored as one of its pioneer settlers, and his passing away, after a brief and sudden illness, on March 23, 1906, removed from the community one of its stanchest citizens, and one who had furthered every good cause during his long years of residence here.
Pennsylvania was Mr. Williams' native state, and there he was born on June 20, 1854, in Schuylkill County. His parents were Daniel and Jane (Rosser) Williams, both natives of Wales, who came to this country with their families at an early date and settled in Pennsylvania. Daniel Williams made the long journey to California in 1856, coming via the Isthmus of Panama, and after spending some time in San Francisco he engaged in gold mining in Nevada County. In 1858 his family joined him, and in 1869 they removed to what is now Orange County, where he settled on a ranch, and there made his home until his death in 1889, Mrs. Williams passing away the following year. As he was but four years old when the family came to California, and but fifteen when they came to Orange County, Isaac R. Williams had but little recollection of any other state. At the time he came here the county was but sparsely settled and ranching was yet in its infancy, and it was Mr. Williams' privilege not only to sec the wonderful development of the ensuing years, but to take an important part in bringing these changes about. He early acquired a thorough knowledge of farming, and also was interested in stock raising. His first purchase was a tract of twenty acres at Buena Park, and for some time he was successfully engaged in dairying there. He increased his holdings from time to time in this district, and in after years devoted quite a large acreage to raising sugar beets, also raising cabbage and hay in large quantities, and he continued actively on his ranch until a short time before his demise. While Mr. Williams was a leading worker in the Republican party, he was in no sense a seeker for political preferment, but as a recognition of his capability he was four times appointed road overseer of his district, an office that he filled with much credit to himself and to the satisfaction of all. In 1874 Mr. Williams was united in marriage with Miss Catherine Hunter, whose parents were John and Mary (Downing) Hunter, and they were for a number of years residents of Canada. Mr. Hunter was the postmaster and the proprietor of a general merchandise store at Bobcaygeon, and was also interested in the milling business there. Mrs. Williams' family were of Scotch and Irish descent, and many of her near relatives were prominent in the professions of law and medicine, her own father being a highly educated men. Mrs. Williams, who was the eldest of a family of four children, came to Orange County in 1871, where her father was engaged in ranching near Fullerton until his death. Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Williams were the parents of three children: Annie Jane is the widow of William Goldie, and they were the parents of two children—Mrs. Clark of Fullerton. and Margaret of Buena Park; John Walter married Miss Viola West of Fullerton and they have two children— George and Velma. He acts as manager for his mother's ranch and resides in a comfortable home on the property. He is popular in the ranks of the Fraternal Brotherhood and is one of the enterprising farmers of the Buena Park district, as is his brother. Daniel R.. who assists him in the management of the place. The latter married Miss Grace Lucas, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Lucas, and they are the parents of a son. Daniel R., Jr. They are planting a considerable acreage of the estate to citrus fruit, adding largely to its future value in this way, and besides the ninety-two acres of the home place they rent land in the vicinity, and thus carry on their ranching operations on a large scale. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Williams, Thomas J. | A native of Wales, Thomas J. Williams, one of Orange County's honored pioneer ranchers, brought with him to this country the sturdy characteristics of his Welsh forbears, the Williams family being men of powerful physique and long-lived, some of them living past the century mark. Mr. Williams was born at Carmorden, Glamorganshire, Wales, April 23, 1852, the son of John and Martha (Binon) Williams; the father was a farmer as was the paternal grandfather, John Williams, who lived to be 104 years old. Mrs. Martha Williams' father, Thomas Binon, was a carpenter of Glamorganshire, Wales, and also lived to be 104 years old. There were two sons and six daughters in the Williams family, Thomas J. being the sixth in order of birth, and the only one in America. He had only fair educational advantages, as there were no public schools in their locality, and every family had to pay tuition for each of their children, so in the case of large families, schooling was something of a luxury, and, too, his schoolhouse was seven miles away.
In early youth, Thomas J. Williams was apprenticed for four years to learn the blacksmith's trade, receiving as payment his board and clothes. His training in this work was very thorough, and included plow work and horseshoeing. During the haying and harvesting season he worked on the farms of the neighborhood, one year swinging the scythe and cradle for sixty-seven days straight. In those days their agricultural implements were very primitive, and the first threshing machine Mr. Williams ever saw he owned and operated—a flail—and the first mowing machine he was familiar with was wielded in the sweat of his brow in the form of a Welsh scythe. On December 25, 1870, Mr. Williams was united in marriage with Elizabeth Williams, who was no kin, although of the same name. She was born in the same shire as her husband and educated in the subscription schools. Her parents were James and Mary (John) Williams and she was an only child. The father was a farmer in Wales and passed away in her early childhood. Her mother married a second time to David James and they came to San Bernardino in 1853. where they farmed for a number of years; Mr. James passed away at San Bernardino, and the mother spent her last years at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Thomas J. Williams, passing away at the age of ninety years. In 1872, T. J. Williams decided to try his fortune in America, and accompanied by his wife and infant son, James, landed at Castle Garden, May 3, of that year. They went directly to Newark, Lincoln County, Ohio, and lived there for about five years, Mr. Williams working in the rolling mills there, making iron railroad rails. While in Newark, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States, and cast his first vote for Rutherford B. Hayes as president. In 1876, they came on to California, reaching San Bernardino December 26, remaining there until the following April, when they located in the New Hope district, now Orange County, then Los Angeles County, renting land belonging to the Rancho Los Bolsas. For six years he farmed on rented land, then purchased twenty acres of land, later investing in two more twenty-acre tracts, which comprises his present well-kept ranch of sixty acres. For four years he raised corn and hogs, but had to sell his meat as low as two and a half cents a pound. Later he engaged in dairying and general farming, growing alfalfa, barley, corn, beets, potatoes and chili peppers, and has set out an apple orchard of three and a half acres, besides a family orchard. He has put down two wells, one ten-inch and one seveninch, and has two pumping plants run by electric power, producing 100 inches of water, sufficient to furnish ample irrigation for all his land. He also has a well, windmill and tank for domestic purposes. 9 Mr. and Mrs. Williams hav'e had eight children: James, born in Wales, died in Newark, Ohio; John J., born in Newark, Ohio, died at San Pedro at the age of fortytwo, leaving a widow; Mary Ann, now Mrs. Swindler of Anaheim, is the mother of four children; Thomas died at the age of nine years; Martha is the wife of Will Devenney, a rancher of Orange County; Elizabeth is the wife of Fred Mersel, an orange grower and rancher of Santa Ana; they have one child; George is in the U. S. Navy, having served in Asiatic waters and now in the Philippines; he married Miss Irene Lee of Santa Ana and they have one child living; Margaret married Henry Devenney, a rancher at Wasco, Kern County and they have one child. In the early days, Mr. Williams was well acquainted with the McFadden brothers, John, Robert and James, those pioneers whose names will always be associated with the early development of Orange County. He was connected with the construction of their railroad, the Santa Ana & Newport, and also worked at loading and unloading their boats which ran between San Francisco and Newport. Always public spirited and progressive, Mr. Williams helped organize Orange County and has always been keenly interested in its development, and is now a promoter of the Santa Ana River Protection District. While a supporter of the Republican party, he is inclined to be liberal in local affairs, voting for the best men and measures. He served four years as constable of Westminster township. Mrs. Williams is a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints. Mr. Williams still looks after twenty acres of his land, which is devoted to apples and alfalfa, and rents out forty acres. He and his family stand high in the whole community, a tribute to their more than forty years of useful citizenship. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| Yorba, Mrs. Erolinda | A distinguished, highly esteemed representative of one of the oldest and most historic families in California is Mrs. Erolinda Yorba, the well-to-do widow of Vicente Yorba, whose family settled along the Coast at a very early period. His parents were Bernardo and Felipa (Dominguez) Yorba, born in San Diego and Los Angeles, respectively. Bernardo Yorba was the holder of grants aggregating over 165,000 acres, given him by the King of Spain. These grants were La Sierra, in Riverside County, and Rancho San Antonio Cajon de Santa Ana, in Orange County; and just how historical the character of the founder of this family was, may be gathered from the reference to him by his contemporary. Harris Newmark, the Los Angeles pioneer, who says in his personal reminiscences, "-Sixty Years in Southern California."
"Bernardo Yorba was another great landowner; and I am sure that, in the day of his glory, he might have traveled fifty to sixty miles in a straight line, touching none but his own possessions. His ranches, on one of which Pio Pico hid from Santiago Arguello, were delightfully located, where now stand such places as Anaheim, Orange. Santa Ana, Westminster, Garden Grove and other towns in Orange County—then a part of Los Angeles County." In McGroarty's Mission Play, one of the leading characters is Josefa Yorba, the grandmother of Vicente Yorba, who was selected because of her beautiful character and many deeds of kindness. As early as 1835 Bernardo Yorba settled and built his home—a ninety-room adobe—at what is now the town of Yorba, and a part of the old building is still standing. In it was a crude jewelry shop, harness shop, saddlery, blacksmith shop and a general merchandise store; in other words, it was a miniature city, known all over Southern California. It was a more or less dreary section then, and these worthy pioneers improved the land and the surroundings at the cost of their own lives and health. For a long time the well-known Yorba adobe sheltered the growing family, but the enterprising father never lived to see all the transformations he and others associated with and guided by him brought about. Bernardo Yorba died on November 20, 1858, and thus followed to the grave his devoted wife and companion, who had passed away seven years before. Vicente Yorba, one of the youngest of the family, was born at Yorba on February 3, 1844; and being early thrown upon his own resources, he in time amassed considerable property. He owned, for example, a fine ranch of forty-four acres on the north side of the Santa Ana River, and another ranch of 343 acres at Yorba. The old home ranch upon which Mr. Yorba passed away came to be noted for its walnuts, its vineyard and its alfalfa, and was especially famous for its productivity. The other property, on the south side of the river, was given up to general farming and the raising of walnuts. Upon Mr. Yorba's death, the family moved to this last-mentioned ranch, and there erected a large and modern residence, in which they have since resided. Although Mr. Yorba was very optimistic in his belief of a great future for Orange County, yet in his most optimistic moments he could not have dreamed of the wealth so soon to be brought from the depths under these lands; and on his original home place the Union Oil Company is now sinking wells for oil, and have been rewarded with an excellent showing. On October 25, 1876, Vicente Yorba was married to Miss Erolinda Cota, a native of Los Angeles and the daughter of Francisco Cota, another well-known native, whose family owned the Spanish grant, Rancho de Bellona, what is now the site of Venice. Her mother was Martina Machado, and her grandmother a Sepulveda. She was educated in the parish schools of Los Angeles, and there received such an excellent training that, while prepared to manage her own business affairs, she was also enabled to maintain the refinement characteristic of the highest social breeding, and to preserve a striking and natural beauty of feature, form and demeanor, scarcely altered since Mr. Yorba died, on February 24, 1913, on the ra'nch to the north of the Santa Ana River, in his fifty-ninth year. Mrs. Yorba is a member of the Catholic Church at Yorba, and is the center of an admiring and devoted circle. To Mr. Yorba's public-spiritedness is largely due the establishing of the well-equipped school at Yorba, on which he was a trustee for many years until his death. Six children blessed the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Yorba: Hortense M. is the wife of Porfirio Palomares, an extensive landowner of Pomona, now residing at Oxnard; Mantina L. is the wife of Lorenzo Pelanconi, and resides at Hollywood; Mary L. is the wife of Ignacio Vejar of Pomona; Ubenia Juanita married George Wents and lives with her mother; she has one child, Erolinda Dolores; Bernardo was in the Fortieth Heavy Coast Artillery, where he was assistant observer, and was in New York, on his way to France, when the armistice was signed, when he returned home and is now assisting his mother; he is married-to Miss Fdna Leep of Nebraska; Vicente Francisco married Lidella Walters of Placentia; they have one son, Vicente Samuel, and also reside on the Yorba ranch. Since the death of Mr. Yorba, the family continue to reside on the ranch which is owned by Mr. Yorba and which they have greatly improved with an irrigation system and with Valencia orange orchards. Here they dwell together in harmony, each assisting and cooperating to the mutual advantage of all. With the mother at the head of affairs—an honor her children lovingly accord her—she is ably assisted by them and they in turn appreciate her confidence and shower on her their love and devotion, thus relieving her from much unnecessary worry and care. |
History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
| History of Orange County California with Biographical Sketches History by Samual Armor Historic Record Company 1921 |
Vicki Hartman |
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