Biographies
1921
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GUSTAVE HEDSTROM — Much credit is due to those who have succeeded in life solely by their own efforts, and among these, Gustave Hedstrom, the enterprising and up-to-date orange and walnut grower on the Garden Grove-Anaheim Boulevard, is classed as a leader and is in every way worthy of the success he has achieved. What he has in the way of worldly goods has been the result of years of toil, and in all his labors he has had the hearty cooperation of his wife, who shares with him the esteem of all who know them.
A native of Sweden, Gustave Hedstrom was born on May 2, 1858, the son of Charles and Sarah Hedstrom, both natives of that country, whose family consisted of seven children, only four of whom are still living. Gustave received his schooling in his native country and in 1879, thinking to be able to better his condition in the new world, left home and upon arriving in America located for a short time in Knoxville, Tenn. Later he spent six months in Pittsburgh, Pa., then located in Trenton, N. J., for a year. He was looking about for a place in which to cast anchor, and in 1881, he went west to North Dakota, where he took up a homestead and for the four years that he was proving up on his property he engaged in railroad work to make what money was necessary for a living until he could raise some crops. When he disposed of his farm he removed to Joliet, Ill., and for fifteen years he was engaged in the mercantile business, meeting with success in his venture.
He had acquired considerable information about California and its opportunities and he decided to cast in his lot with this commonwealth: accordingly he disposed of his holdings in the East and in 1893 located in Los Angeles. In his younger days he had worked at the trade of carpenter and after his arrival here he contracted for buildings in Huntington Park for four years. He recalls the time when he was offered a lot where now stands the great Hamburger building for $400. He was to pay down $10 and to pay $10 per month till it was paid for, but on account of nothing in the line of improvements in that locality and being practically in the country, he could not see the proposition in the light of a good investment. Orange groves were then scattered throughout the district south of Tenth Street. He worked about Los Angeles at his trade until settling on his twenty-acre ranch, which he bought in 1906, and ever since locating on the place he has spent considerable time at his trade, in all working about twenty-five years at it in Los Angeles and Orange counties.
The place he owns was formerly the property of A. M. Nutt and was appropriately called the Nutwood Ranch, which name is still in vogue, as Mr. Nutt set out the trees. Since becoming the owner of this valuable place, Mr. Hedstrom has added many innovations of labor-saving devices and uses electricity for his fine pumping plant, which has cost him over $5,000. also an automatic pumping device, and continues making improvements in his buildings and grounds until he has made a veritable "show place" of the ranch. The walnuts are interset with Valencia orange trees. He also owns a ranch in the Imperial Valley, which is being improved under his direction.
In 1885, at Joliet, III., Mr. Hedstrom and Miss Mathilda Johnson, a native of Sweden, were united in marriage and seven children have come to bless their union: G. Edward is running the Imperial Valley ranch; Jennie M.: Edith and Esther are both teaching school in Orange County; Carl G. took a post-graduate course at the University of California and is now teaching in the Anaheim high school. He served in the World War in the Naval Officers Training School at San Pedro and is still a member of the Naval Reserves; Helen and Grace are both attending the University of Redlands. The family are members of the Baptist Church. Mr. Hedstrom belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America and to the Fraternal Aid Union; is a staunch supporter of the principles of the Republican party and believes in cooperation, holding membership in both the Walnut Growers Association and the Orange Growers Fruit Exchange at Anaheim. In every enterprise that Mr. Hedstrom has engaged in he has met with success and he is now enjoying a well-earned rest after many years of toil. He and his family are highly esteemed by all who know them and they have an ever-widening circle of friends. As a progressive citizen and rancher. Mr. Hedstrom tries to make this place a desirable locality in which to invite settlers to help build up the county.
WAYMAN K. JOHNSON — An experienced and ambitiously aggressive young farmer of much promise is Wayman K. Johnson, who is happily settled on a leased ranch two miles south of Irvine Station, where, having recently married, he is fixing up the buildings, and will soon have a comfortable, attractive home. He was born at Long Beach on June 9, 1900, and from his first year grew up on the famous San Joaquin Ranch. He attended the grade schools at Irvine, and for three years studied at the high school at Santa Ana. He was then compelled to abandon his books, but he has always been a good observer, of studious mind, so that he has already added much from practical experience with the world. He assisted his father on the farm, and when he was only seventeen he was his father's foreman and main assistant.
In 1920 he began farming for himself on the San Joaquin Ranch, and there he is working out his agricultural problems not far from the State highway. He is farming, all in all, 397 acres, sixty being devoted to the making of barley hay, another sixty to the growing of blackeyed beans, and 250 acres to the ever-popular lima bean. Taking the greatest care to put into the earth only the best quality of seed, and giving unremitting attention thereafter to coaxing from the earth those superior results and fruits such as always gladden the heart of the tiller, it is almost a foregone conclusion that Mr. Johnson cannot fail to evolve crops of which any ranchman might be proud.
On October 6, 1919, Mr. Johnson was married to Miss Jessie Huff, of Santa Ana, and a daughter of Nathan Huff of the same city. Congenial in their tastes and ideas. they are equally interested in making of their experience as Orange County ranchers only what Orange County guarantees to all who will work intelligently, and hope at the same time. Although young, Mr. Johnson seems familiar with most of the many sides of modern California ranching; and what he does not know or at once recall, the helpful intuition of his gifted young, but studious wife is likely at all times to supply.
REV. LOUIS PHILIPPE GENEST — Among the accomplished and devoted clergy of Orange County who have done so much, through their natural gifts, their industry and unselfish labors, and their high ideals and farsightedness, both to make Southern California what it is as a desirable home place, and what it promises to be, more and more, as the golden years roll by, must be mentioned, and among the first, the Rev. Louis Philippe Genest, the pastor of St. Mary's Catholic Church at Huntington Beach. He was born at Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, on September 14. 1890. the son of Arthur and Rose de Lima (Dussault) Genest, born in Quebec, whose parents came from France to Canada and were pioneers of Sherbrooke, Quebec. Reverend Genest's father was in the employ of the government civil service for many years until he was retired with a pension, and he and his estimable wife, now reside at the old home in comfortable circumstances.
Father Genest was educated, first at the school of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, and then at the Seminary of St. Charles-Borromee. At the former, he pursued the primary studies, and at the latter he received instruction in the classics and matters of theology, according to the teachings of the Catholic Church. Both of these fine institutions are at Sherbrooke, so that he was able, while studying, to remain amid surroundings altogether familiar and helpful in their congeniality to him. On June 29, 1915, he was ordained to the priesthood in the Cathedral at Sherbrooke by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Paul La Rocque, bishop of Sherbrooke, and then he was made assistant pastor of churches, first at Coaticook, then at Richmond, then Weedon, then Asbestos and finally at Wotton. For a few months, also, he was chaplain of Ursuline Convent at Stanstead, Quebec.
Owing to ill health, brought about by overwork in the devotion to his duty. Father Genest obtained leave of absence and came to California: and on January 1, 1920, he became resident pastor of St. Mary's Church at Huntington Beach. The people from Newport, East Newport and Balboa are also attended from Huntington Beach. Greatly to the satisfaction of the community, he took up the work here vigorously, and has endeavored from the first to make its advancement coincide with the expansion of the town itself — now one of the most promising settlements in Orange County. St. Mary's Catholic Church at Huntington Beach was established by and under the charge of Rev. J. A. Reardon of Long Beach. They first rented a building and remodeled it for their use. but in about 1912 they purchased the property they had under lease on the corner of Tenth and Orange streets, Huntington Beach. The first resident pastor was Rev. John Reynolds, then Father M. J. Slattery, and after him Rev.Henry O'Reilly; then came Rev, Francis Woodcutter, Rev. C. Breitkopf and Father Benson until the arrival of Father Genest, who has by his affability, scholarly attainments and kindness greatly endeared himself not only to the members of his congregation, but to all who know him. Aside from his duties as pastor he has found time to accept and fill the position of teacher of French at the Long Beach Catholic high school, a place he is filling with ability. About eighty families make up membership of the church, which is constantly growing, and which, now that Father Genest has put his hand to the helm, will be sure to increase in the healthiest manner.
CHARLES W. OLSON — The right man in the right place has more than once proven to be Charles VV. Olson, the efficient and popular foreman for the Santa Ana Sugar Company, who was born at Denver, Colo., on June 20, 188S, the son of Alfred and Carrie Olson. He was sent to school in Denver, for his parents, who came from Sweden, brought with them as a precious heritage, a high regard for education. They were pioneers in Colorado, and Alfred Olson was an engineer on the old Kansas Pacific, now called the Union Pacific Railroad. Charles W. Olson came to California in 1903, and worked for six months on a ranch west of Santa .Ana. Then he returned to Colorado, and farmed north of Denver. He had 240 acres devoted to gardening and dairying, and was for ten years superintendent of that farm.
At the time of the earthquake in 1906 Mr. Olson was in San Francisco, and he came down to Southern California to recuperate after the hardships and shock sustained in that harrowing experience. After a six-months' stay he returned to Denver, carrying with him such pleasant memories of the Southland that in 1912 he decided to locate here permanently. .Arriving here, he entered the employ of the Santa Ana Sugar Company, from its first construction, and there, his ability and fidelity more and more appreciated, he has been employed ever since. For the past six years, he has been general foreman of the entire plant, which has a capacity of a thousand tons of beets every twenty-four hours; nor could he have found anywhere a more satisfactory corporation to work for. The sugar is marketed through the Los Angeles brokers, the company making beet pulp and other by-products.
Mr. Olson has always taken a constructive interest in everything pertaining to the advancement of the community and is rated as one of its most dependable citizens. In fraternal circles he is a Knight Templar Mason and a Shriner.
WILLIAM J. RICHARDSON — An engineer of wide and varied experience who has proven to be very efficient in executive work as superintendent of the Orange Water Works, is William J. Richardson, who first came to California in 1908, two years after he had left England, his native country, in the month of April. He was born in Somersetshire, on April 30, 1872. but reared at Bradford, in Yorkshire, the son of William J. Richardson, a teamster of Bradford. There were seven children in the family, but William is the only one now on the Pacific Coast.
He attended the local public schools, and when sixteen years of age was apprenticed as an engineer and machinist to the manufacturers, the William Ramsden Company. At the end of five years, he entered the service of the city of Bradford, as engineer of the fire department, and later, for four years, he was with the Water-Lane Dye Company, as hydraulic engineer, from which he resigned in order to come to the United States.
Arriving in New. York City on May 2, 1906, Mr. Richardson was made master mechanic for the Standard Steel Works at Burnham, Pa., and discharged that responsibility until February, 1908, when he resigned and came west to California. In April, attracted by an offer from the Modern Manufacturing Company of Orange to become their die maker, he settled at Orange; and when the office of superintendent of the water works became vacant, he was appointed to the post, and accepted. He has since remodeled the plant, which had become run down, bringing it up to a high standard.
In 1912. the citizens of Orange voted a bond issue for $50,000; and of that sum $30,000 was spent in supplying cast-iron pipe and hydrants, and $20,000 for erecting new reinforced-concrete buildings and installing boilers, as well as for a 2,000.000 gallon pumping engine, and a 600,000 gallon reinforced-concrete storage reservoir. So wisely was all selected, and so successfully installed, that everything in the plant now works to perfection. During the day, the Holley system of direct pumping is employed; but at night there is storage by high pressure in two 50.000-galIon tanks. Mr. Richardson devotes all of his time to the responsible work in hand, and so is able to give entire satisfaction.
Mr. Richardson was first married in Bradford, England, when he was united with Miss Elizabeth Hannah Holmes. At the Empire Day disaster at Long Beach, on May 24, 1913, she was among those killed when the approach to the Auditorium gave way; at the time she was only thirty-eight years of age and left her husband and two children, John William, now an engineer in the merchant marine sailing out of San Francisco, and Rose Alice, a graduate of the Orange County Business College, and now with the National Bank of Orange.
At Orange Mr. Richardson was married a second time when he was joined to Miss Marie Stine, a native of Illinois, who with him attends the Presbyterian Church. He was made a Mason in Orange Grove Lodge No. 293, and long ago joined the Republican party, and declared himself for protection.
LEO. M. DOYLE — Prominent among those broad-minded, large-hearted citizens of high ideals and straightforward ways, whose integrity never was questioned and whose judgment was sought and advice followed must ever be mentioned the late Leo M. Doyle, the banker of Santa Ana, a gentleman esteemed for his thorough knowledge of banking in all its details, and also for his ability to size up and appreciate fellowmen. He was born in Gratiot, Wis., on May Z7, 1882, the son of M. M. and Joanna (Quinn) Doyle, who were farmers in that state until they removed to Dakota where Mr. Doyle was a banker. Now they make their home at Hollywood, honored by an enviable circle of devoted friends.
Leo Doyle was reared at Darlington, Wis., where he attended both the grammar and high schools, and when seventeen years of age he removed with his parents to Mitchell, S. D., where he matriculated at the Wesleyan University. Having been graduated from that excellent institution, he 'took a course at the business college in Mitchell, and on completing his studies, entered the Western National Bank in that town, as teller, both he and his father having become interested in the institution. He was also interested in farming, and grew to be a successful dealer in lands.
At Pierre, S. D.. on October 30, 1906, Mr. Doyle was married to Miss Rose Collins, a native of Wakonda in that state, and the daughter of William Collins, who was born in Dubuque. Iowa, and who had married Miss Margaret Mulvehill. Then they moved to South Dakota, where Mr. Collins was a business man in Wakonda, until his death. His widow, Mrs. Doyle's mother, still makes her home there. After his marriage, Mr. Doyle removed to Letcher, S. D., where with his father he started the Citizens Bank of Letcher, acting as cashier, while Mrs. Doyle was assistant cashier; but in December, 1913, when his father had already removed to California and liked it well, he sold his banking interest and also came out to the Coast. He settled temporarily at Hollywood, and entered the Home Savings Bank in Los Angeles to get familiar with California. Then, after traveling the state from north to south, he selected Santa Ana for his permanent location, and immediately started to organize the Citizens Commercial Savings Bank, associating with him his father, M. M. Doyle and others.
In 1917, the Citizens Commercial Savings Bank was merged into the California National Bank, and Mr. Doyle was elected cashier; and he continued active in the bank's management and on January 1, 1920, was elected its vice-president. Unfortunately, the influenza attacked him in October, 1918, and he had only partially recovered when he went back to work; but although he made his home on his ranch at El Modena, he could not regain his strength. Then he gave up regular work in the bank and went camping in the mountains for a while; but in August he purchased a residence in Monrovia and there removed with his family. He tried in vain, however, to call back his old-time strength and vigor, and on March 16, 1920, passed away, widely esteemed and beloved by all who intimately knew him. His body was interred at Calvary Cemetery.
Leo M. Doyle was a devout member of St. Joseph's Catholic Church, and was not only one of the organizers of the Knights of Columbus, but was for two terms a grand knight. He was prominent in civic affairs, and was a member of the Merchants and Manufacturers .Association and also the Chamber of Commerce, and was active in the bond and other war drives. He was also a popular member of the Orange County Country Club. On the day of his lamented demise, the Santa Ana Register said of him: "Mr. Doyle became well known, and the stamp of his personality has been left upon both business enterprises and in social circles in Santa Ana." Since her husband's death, Mrs. Doyle has moved back to Santa Ana where, surrounded by her former friends and endearing associations, she is looking after the large business affairs left by her husband. A devout Christian, she is conscientiously directing the education of her four children — Rosalie, Dolores, Kenneth and Mary Elizabeth, and is a member of St. Joseph's Church and the .Altar Society of that congregation.
JAMES THOMAS STOCKTON — Born in Jacksonville, Texas, May 8, 1862, Tames Thomas Stockton was a son of Richard and Sarah (Buggj Stockton, members of old Southern families and successful farmers. The mother died in Texas in 1867, the family moved to Washington County, Ark., and later to Ozark, Ark., where his father died. James was next to the youngest of the children of this union and was reared a farmer's boy and attended the public school in his district. When twenty-two years of age he began farming for himself.
At Ozark, Ark., December 29, 1887, Mr. Stockton was married to Cener A. Hadley, who was a native of that place, a daughter of John and Agnes A. (Miller) Hadley, natives of Alabama and Tennessee, respectively, who were early settlers of Arkansas. Later they came to Santa Ana, where the mother died. The father went to Wagner, Okla., where he died in December, 1902. There were three children born of this union: Cener, Mrs. Stockton; Minnie, Mrs. Johnston of Whittier; and L. B., a large celery grower on Jersey Island, Cal. Cener Hadley received her education in the public schools of Arkansas.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Stockton started farming and a year later, in 1888, removed to Polk County, Ark., and homesteaded 160 acres, making the improvements and proved up on it. After nine years, in 1897, they came to California and located in Orange County. They purchased twenty acres near Talbert and a few months later sold it at a profit. Next, they bought thirty acres on the Mesa near Wintersburg from Mr. Draper and later traded twenty acres of this for twenty acres adjoining the Draper twenty acres, making forty acres in a body, where they raised alfalfa and corn. Later they sold the original ten acres at a good profit to a Mr. Preston; then they bought fifty acres across the road from their home, making them ninety acres. In 1910 they sold the original Draper twenty acres to Walton Blaylock and afterwards the other twenty acres to a Mr. Pond. In the fall of 1910 they moved to Santa Ana and bought a residence on Parton Street and resided there over one year, in 1912 selling the Parton Street residence and purchasing fourteen acres on West Fifth Street, west of Santa Ana; later they bought twenty acres more across from their place on Fifth Street. In 1913 they sold the twenty acres at a profit and soon afterwards also sold the fourteen acres and bought a residence on North Bush Street, where they resided until the fall of 1914, when they sold and bought a residence at 709 South Birch Street and there they resided until the fall of 1916, when they sold it and moved back to the ranch and bought ten acres adjoining it on the north and there they were farming when Mr. Stockton died, September 14, 1919.
Mr. Stockton was indeed a progressive and enterprising man and was the first rancher to raise sugar beets in that section. With his brother Newton he raised the first crop of lima beans in his section; it was threshed on the ground and tramped out with horses pulling a disc harrow over it. In this way they showed what could be raised. He was also one of the early celery growers and was a good and successful farmer. Since her husband's death Mrs. Stockton manages the sixty-acre ranch with the assistance of her son, Everett; she also owns 320 acres in Nevada. She has lately moved to Santa Ana, where she bought a comfortable bungalow at 801 South Sycamore Street, which she sold in August. 1920, when she made a trip to Oregon and Washington and on her return purchased her present bungalow. 506 South Garnsey Street, where she now makes her home. Mr. and Mrs. Stockton had five children: Everett A. is running the home farm; Eilie, Mrs. H. J. Lamb of Santa Ana: Minnie, Mrs. E. R. Porter of Glendora; Eunice T., Mrs. J. H. Sewell of Berkeley; and Gordon Maurice is still at home. Mr. and Mrs. Stockton were members of the Church of Christ, of which she has been a member since she was fourteen years old and is still an active member.
ADOLPH T. HAMMERSCHMIDT — Some very interesting pioneer history is recalled in the story of Adolph T. Hammerschmidt and his family. He was born in Lombard. Du Page' County. Ill., on April 29, 1883. the son of William H. Hammerschmidt, a farmer and the proprietor of the Lombard Brick and Tile Company, as well as president of the Elmhurst Chicago. Stone Company, who had married Miss Elizabeth Burdorf. Adolph was the eldest of eight children and while staying with his father on the home farm, he attended first the common schools of Lombard and then the Northwestern College of Naperville. Ill., where he took a business course. After that for two terms he pursued the manual training course of the Lewis Institute in Chicago.
In 1906 he made a trip to California, and at Fullerton, on August 8, 1907, he was married to Miss Marie Burdorf, the daughter of Henry and Dorothy (Wohler) Burdorf. Her father was one of the earliest settlers of Orange County, and came from Hanover, Germany, in 1866 via the Isthmus of Panama to San Francisco. He then came down to Orangethorpe and purchased 100 acres south of Fullerton now adjoining the southern city limits, and he built the first house outside the fence at Anaheim, when the embryo town had two sections of land fenced in and it w-as decidedly a pioneer venture to build in the "wilds" outside the paling, there being no Fullerton at that time. Since then Mr. Burdorf has divided the 100 acres, so bare when he first acquired them, among his sons and daughters; and then ten acres Mr. Hammerschmidt is now living on were given to the latter's first wife. Mrs. Hammerschmidt was thus reared and educated at Orangethorpe.
After their marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Hammerschmidt returned to Illinois and lived for a year and a half on a farm near Lombard, but his wife could not stand the more severe climate, and they came back to sunnier California. They settled on the ten acres at Orangethorpe near Spadra, and improved the land by setting out trees. They planted an acre and a half to Navel oranges, three and a half acres to Valencias, and three and half acres to walnuts; and a quarter of an acre they devoted to various other kinds of fruit, and in 1908 built a handsome residence. Mr. Hammerschmidt cultivates with an All-Work tractor and markets through the Fullerton Mutual Orange Growers Association. He has a seven-inch well 175 feet deep with a Johnson Marine pump which yields forty inches of water.
On June 20, 1913, Mrs. Hammerschmidt died, the mother of four children— Doris, Leonard, Marie and Richard. Mr. Hammerschmidt's second marriage united him with Miss Annie Gerken of Santa Ana, the ceremony occurring on August 6, 1914; she was a native of Minnesota, and the daughter of John and Alvina (Eck) Gerken, who came to California when she was a little girl. Three children have resulted from this second marriage, and they bear the names of George, Bernhard and Clara. With his family he belongs to the German Lutheran Church of Anaheim of which he is a trustee, and they are pre-eminent in patriotic work for the upbuilding, as well as the building up, of the community.
In 1913, Mr. Hammerschmidt entered the U. S. mail service and assumed charge of Rural Free Delivery Route No. 2 leading out of Fullerton. This covers twenty-eight miles, and it is known to be the heaviest rural route in the state, requiring Mr. Hammerschmidt to handle over 30,000 pieces of mail a month. Not every man, perhaps, could hope to cope with the problems here presented, but Mr. Hammerschmidt thus far seems to have given satisfaction to everybody.
HARRY F. DIERKER — Fortunate in a past record of varied and enviable experience, successive, continued successes, and definite, pronounced progress, Harry F. Dierker has easily risen to prominence and influence in the short time in which he has again been a resident of the Anaheim-Fullerton district, and one of the most active workers for the upbuilding, as well as the building up, on broad and permanent lines, of Orange County. He was born at Monterey, Nebr., the son of Henry Dierker, the well-known pioneer whose interesting life story is given elsewhere in this historical work, and when seven years of age came to California with his parents. He attended both the grammar and the high schools at Orange, and was graduated from the Orange County Business College at Santa Ana, thereby topping off an unusually thorough preparation, at home and in the classroom, for a winning tussle with the exacting world.
As a young man, Harry, who from boyhood had been lucky in his helpful friendships, went into Los Angeles, where he became the office boy of the Pacific Tank Company, and later mastered the ins and outs of manufacturing wooden tanks, and two years afterward, while still advancing with that concern, he was transferred to their San Francisco office. When he had served them well for five years, the company sent Mr. Dierker to Washington, to establish their factory at Olympia; and having been made general manager, with the oversight of 200 men or more, he proved his capability in executing several contracts, some for as high as $50,000 and $60,000 worth of work, installing complete water systems where wooden tanks and piping were used. After four years in Washington Mr. Dierker returned to Los Angeles, and for the same period of time assumed the management of the Los Angeles branch of the tank-making enterprise; and continuing to meet with success, giving entire satisfaction to both the company's patrons and to his employers, he firmly established himself in the business world. Mr. Dierker next spent a year in the North Yakima country, in Washington, developing part of some land he had previously bought, and engaging in stock raising; but eventually disposing of all his holdings save forty acres, he returned to Los Angeles and organized the Chapman-Dierker Company, for the building of fine homes in the Wilshire district, in Los Angeles, and he also associated himself with the Chas. C. and S. J. Chapman Company, as superintendent of their operations in building, which have had such a marked effect on the development of the renowned Wilshire district and contributed so rapidly and effectually toward making the West End of Los Angeles one of the most desirable residential districts in all California. This experience alone, it is fair to assume, ought to prove a valuable asset in enabling Mr. Dierker, from time to time, to be of greatest service, in various ways, to the communities with which he now has most frequent relations, and which are continually facing the multiform problems of development and building for the future.
After another four years of successful work in the city of Los Angeles, Mr. Dierker severed his connection there and bought ten acres of ten-year-old Valencia orange trees in the Commonwealth school district in Orange County, not far from Anaheim, effecting the sale in 1919, and there he has built for himself a comfortable, attractive home, made and is still making many improvements, and is farming in the most scientific manner. He owns, besides, a one-half interest in sixty-two and a half acres near Richfield, which have been leased at a handsome figure for oil purposes, and he also has a one-half interest in sixty acres southwest of Anaheim, now being developed with fine prospects to oranges.
At Kokomo, Howard County, Ind., — the home-town of Elwood Haynes, the inventor, who in the early nineties designed and constructed there the oldest American automobile in existence, now one of the scientific treasures of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, — on September 25, 1907, Mr. Dierker was married to Miss Flora May Kirk, a native of that city and an accomplished lady, who has always found happiness in sociological and uplift work of all kinds, and who has become prominent in Christian Church circles. Mr. Dierker also has long been a leader in that well-organized communion; and having been' superintendent of the Wilshire Boulevard Christian Church Sunday School, in Los Angeles, and active in the programs of the church, he has already participated to the fullest degree possible in Christian Church work at Fullerton, doing what he can to make this desirable section of the Golden State still more attractive as a place in which not merely to labor, but to live.
MRS. CATHERINE J. DANERI — Interesting and often inspiring, especially to youth and the mind that is ambitious of attaining all that the New West offers to those who will work and hope, is the story of Mrs. Catherine J. Daneri, one of the truly distinguished pioneers of Orange County, and those associated, in one way or another, intimately with her life. She was born in Glengarry County, Canada West, now known as the Province of Ontario, the daughter of John Calnan, a well educated and well-to-do Catholic of the city of Cork, Ireland. He came out to Canada and there married Miss Annie McLellan. a native of Canada West and the child of Scotch Presbyterians. About the time of the breaking out of the Civil War Mrs. Calnan crossed the border into the United States and moved to Willoughby, twenty miles east of Cleveland, Ohio; at this time Mr. Calnan was in the South and joining the forces of the Confederates in the Civil War. he fought under General Stonewall Jackson. He was taken prisoner by the Federals at the second battle of Bull Run and while on parole at Camp Chase. Little Miami, Ohio, during a cyclone was struck by a falling tree limb, lopped off by lightning, and instantly killed and lies buried in the local cemetery. These worthy parents had five children — three sisters and two brothers, all of whom are deceased except the subject, who was next to the youngest in the order of birth, and who was born on May 19, 1849.
Catherine attended the public schools of her district, and came to California with her mother and two brothers, taking the steamer from Cleveland to Chicago, and the railroad from Chicago to Omaha, and a prairie schooner from Omaha to Lone Pine, Inyo County, Cal., where they arrived in February, 1870. They lived through the earthquake at Lone Pine, in 1872, losing everything they had, but escaping with their lives; notwithstanding that twenty-one victims were buried in one grave.
A general merchandise store at Lone Pine was conducted by Messrs. Daneri and Stewart, and Miss Calnan there became acquainted with one of the partners, Henry B. Stewart, and there also, on August 3, 1870, married him. He was a native of Painted Post, N. Y., and came to California with his brother, driving a large mule team across the plains, and then freighting to the various mining camps, settling" for a while at Marysville. From there, he came to Lone Pine and effected the partnership which was dissolved in 1873, after the earthquake, when Mr. and Mrs. Stewart and their two children moved north to Washington Territory. There, in Whatcom County, Mr. Stewart began to farm; but he was taken sick, met with reverses, lost everything and died there in 1879. leaving three children — Annie, Henry Alexander and Estella.
Mrs. Stewart married a second time, at San Francisco, in October, 1879, choosing for her husband John B. Daneri, at one time Mr. Stewart's partner. He was one of several brothers who were pioneer merchants at San Francisco and four other places, selling both at retail and wholesale, before John B. Daneri came to Lone Pine, so that he was a man of practical, valuable experience. He was born in Chivalry, near Genoa. Italy, on March 6, 1831, and after having lived for a while at Buenos Ayres, sailed around the Horn, and reached San Francisco on Washington's Birthday, 1849 — a genuine Argonaut.
Mr. Denari was, in fact, a merchant all his life until he went to the historic old Mission town of San Juan Capistrano in 1877 and there became a farmer, taking up the special line of the orchardist. He planted walnuts, and brought his ranch up to a high state of cultivation, and accumulated and lost several fortunes. He died, in 1907, while on a visit to his oldest daughter, Mrs. J. N. Grohe, at Sheridan, Ore., at the age of seventy-six years and was buried in the Masonic Cemetery in that place. He left four children: Angela, who owns the beautiful residence at 626 South Sycamore Street, where Mrs. Denari now lives in Santa Ana; John B.. the rancher and justice of the peace, and Luigi M. and Achille F., who run Mrs. Denari's farm at San Juan Capistrano.
Mr. Denari also held the office of justice of the peace for many terms until he resigned, some years before his death, for he was not only able to speak six languages, but could read and write them as well, and was a well-read man. During much of their residence at San Juan Capistrano, Mrs. Denari attended to matters of business, and for about twenty years she managed the farm she has now given to her children, retaining only a life interest, or lease. She is a strong and well-preserved woman — a Christian making no profession of special church association; and for years she has found her greatest pleasure in laboring for the common welfare of those about her.
WALLACE EDWIN OSWALD — One of Fullerton's most energetic young business men, possessed of the qualities that bring success in life, coupled with the ability to rightly apply them, is Wallace Edwin Oswald; and since his advent to Fullerton not only has the city been favored with an automotive battery and electrical establishment worthy of such a progressive, hustling municipality, but the surrounding country as well, which looks to the Oswald establishment for the last word in dependable workmanship, has never needed to journey farther to have its wants supplied.
Born in Sanborn County, S. D., on July 10, 1888, and coming to California with his parents when he was eleven years old, Mr. Oswald, already imbued with the "'go- ahead" spirit of the West, has kept pace with his progressive surroundings and so has come to take his proper place in the business circles of Fullerton, a community already widely known for its energy, ambition and productivity. He was educated in the schools of Santa Ana. where his parents had settled, but soon set out to make his own way in the world.
Taking to mechanical work from the start, Mr. Oswald spent some time in machine shops and automotive establishments, among them the Ford Motor Company of Los Angeles, thereby gaining a thorough knowledge of all the details of this work and the indispensable practical experience which has since stood him in good stead. When he returned to Fullerton he opened a small shop from which has grown the present large business establishment opened April 4. 1915. He distributes the Exide battery and other motor accessories and his thorough workmanship and ability to handle every phase of ignition and electrical trouble, and to give first-class automotive service in every particular, have brought him an ever-increasing business.
Mr. Oswald's marriage united him with Miss Pearl L. Ruddock, a native of Wisconsin, whose parents, Charles E. and Lila Ruddock, are represented elsewhere in this work. Mr. and Mrs. Oswald have two children, Una and Wanda. Mr. Oswald's political preferences are Republican, and fraternally he is a Knights Templar Mason. Always patriotic and public spirited, he is first, last and always for Fullerton and Orange County.
WILLIAM G. PATTILLO — Numbered among the prominent and rising young business men of Fullerton is William G. Pattillo, proprietor of Pattillo's Truck and Transfer Company. He was born at Hopkinsville, Christian County, Ky., on August 3, 1880, and was reared on the farm, educated in the public schools, and followed the occupation of farming with his father until 1900, the year he came to California. He first located at Fullerton, where he secured employment with A. V. Smith, general manager for F. and W. Thumb Company, large ranch owners in the Fullerton district and m San Diego County, and was engaged in picking fruit in their citrus groves. After becoming thoroughly acquainted with the business he became foreman, and was in the employ of the Thumb brothers for eleven years, six years of that time being foreman of their large lemon and alfalfa ranch in El Cajon Mesa, San Diego County and later at Lakeside, the same county. He returned to Fullerton in 1911, purchased a team, and began business for himself, taking care of the ranches of other people, some of whom lived in the East. He did contract work and took full charge of the development of the groves, irrigating, cultivating, fertilizing, picking fruit, etc. About two years and a half ago he gave up contracting work and established a transfer and trucking business at Fullerton. Aside from the general transfer and hauling business he is also a dealer in fertilizer and bean straw, which is distributed to the orange growers for use in their groves. His offices and headquarters are at 314 South Spadra Street and four large trucks are continually in use, so it is readily seen he has built up a profitable business.
Mr. Pattillo's father, John Pattillo. was a native Virginian who served four years in a Confederate regiment in the Civil War; he was commissioned a lieutenant, saw very active service and was wounded. After the war he settled in Christian County, Ill. He married Lydia Barbee also a Virginian, and' they still reside at the old home. Of their seven children, Wm. G. is the third oldest and the only one in California.
Since coming to California, twenty years ago. Mr. Pattillo was united in marriage in San Diego, October 14, 1909, with Miss Teresa McCarthy, a native of McCook, Nebr. Her father Thomas McCarthy was a native of Lewisburg, Ohio, and was married in Nebraska to Olivia Belle Moore of Iowa. He engaged in railroading until 1890, when he brought his family to Southern California. He was among the first realtors in Long Beach; afterwards he was one of the discoverers of the Tungsten mines at Atolia and was for some years manager of the Atolia Mining Company. He now resides at La Mesa, San Diego County, his wife having passed on in 1912. Mr. and Mrs. Pattillo are the parents of five children: Delia, Robert, Leo, Virginia and Francis. Fraternally Mr. Pattillo is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America.
MRS. ELIZABETH EISMANN — A straightforward, enterprising and altogether amiable and estimable woman, who, having been thrown upon her own resources, proved equal to the emergencies and today has a nice property valued highly, is Mrs. Elizabeth Eismann, who came to Orange at the beginning of this century, and since April, 1903, has been conducting the Depot Hotel. She was born in Westercappen, Prussia, to which district her grandparents came from Holland, the daughter of Frederick Kroener, a native also of Westercappen and a baker by trade. In 1865 he came to the United States, and for twenty-five years had a bakery business at Philadelphia, after which he removed to Lexington, Mo., where he was a farmer, and where he died, in 1918. at the age of ninety-two. The mother, Marguerite Eismann, also died in Missouri, aged eighty years. Five children were born of this marriage, among whom the subject of our review was the oldest.
The mother and her children joined the father in Philadelphia in 1868, and from her fourteenth year, Elizabeth Kroener was brought up in Philadelphia. Inasmuch as her mother was in ill health, it was up to Elizabeth to do most of the responsible work and otherwise mother the family. When, therefore, she was married in the City of Brotherly Love in 1874, to William Eismann, a native of her birthplace and a soldier in the Franco-Prussian War who had just come to Philadelphia, she was equipped with a valuable practical experience: and on their removal to Pittsburgh, Pa., where Mr. Eismann was for eight years in the Painter iron works, she easily established with him a comfortable home. In 1882 they pushed still further west, to Lexington, Mo., where they bought first one, and then another farm; and there they continued successfully agricultural pursuits.
In 1900 Mr. and Mrs. Eismann came to Orange, Cal., and here hoped to have established themselves: but Mr. Eismann was badly injured in a runaway accident, and again it was up to Mrs. Eismann to find a way to provide for 'the family. In April, 1903, she purchased the lots upon which she now resides, and there built the Depot Hotel, the oldest hostelry in Orange, and one of the oldest in Orange County, for which she has always enjoyed a liberal patronage.
In August, 1911. Mr. Eismann died, mourned by all who knew him, the revered father of five children. Only one is still living — John, a painter and contractor, who is married and has six children. Mrs. Eismann is a member of the Evangelical Association Church in Santa Ana, and extends the moral uplift work commenced there in her civic activities as a Republican.
MRS. ELLEN J. STREECH — The busy, useful life of a highly successful horticulturist who was esteemed for both his integrity and his industry is pleasantly recalled in the story of Mrs. Streech's equally successful enterprises in continuing to manage the estate she and her husband had together, as hard working helpmates, acquired. She was born at Rio, Columbia County, Wis., the daughter of Frank Gallagher of New York State, an agriculturist who went in for general farming, and who had married Miss Isabelle Halpin, born in Wisconsin, and she attended the public school at Rio. When she was sixteen years of age, her parents removed to Williams County, N. D., afterwards Divide County, and there in 1907 her father homesteaded a quarter section of land, with the result that for four years she experienced the pleasures and the inconveniences of pioneer Dakota life. There she completed her education and there, too, she formed the acquaintance with the estimable gentleman whom she afterwards married at Crosby, August 9, 1911, being united with Fred G. Streech, a native of Minnesota, where he was born on a farm near Renville, the son of Fred and Wilhelmina Streech. He attended the district school of his home place, and spent his boyhood days on his father's farm. He had been in California in 1910 and had purchased ten acres devoted to the culture of Valencia oranges on South Raymond Avenue, south of Fullerton; and as this land was under the Anaheim Union Water Company, the grove was promising in every respect. Prior to his marriage, and when he was only twenty-one, Mr. Streech had also taken up homestead land in North Dakota, and he was thus prepared to develop his new California acquisition. After their marriage they spent a few months in travel until January, 1912; they located on their Fullerton ranch where Mr. Streech cared for their Valencia grove and enjoyed the salubrious climate of Southern California, but unfortunately he was not permitted to see the culmination of his ambitions, for death called him from his labors, on July 1, 1915. He had been a consistent Methodist, and he left a widow and two children, devoted Catholics. The children are Avery V. and Wilbur J., and with their mother they are comfortably situated on their handsome little ranch.
Mrs. Streech has shown unusual ability in the management of her property, marketing her choice fruit through the Placentia Orange Growers Association, and she often looks back with fondness to the six months of travel spent with her husband before they settled down to the more serious responsibilities of life.
WALTER WRAY — A thoroughly-trained mechanic, whose ambition led him to the higher work of an engineer, and whose ability has been recognized in his appointment to a responsible public office in California, is Walter Wray, a native of Ireland, where he was born on January 4, 1868. His father was Joseph Wray, and he married Miss Jane Farel. They had nine children, and Walter w-as the youngest.
He began his schooling in Ireland, and continued it in the United States, and in both countries attended the private rather than the public institutions. When the opportunity came his way, he took up mechanical engineering, and for nineteen years followed that line of work, for the most part in Massachusetts. Success attended his labors in the East, but the lure of California drew him more and more to the shores of the Pacific.
In 1909, Mr. Wray came to the Golden State and settled at Santa Ana. He bought a ranch, and became a California orange grower. In October, 1918, the city council of Santa Ana appointed him superintendent of water and sewers, and while still retaining his orange ranch, he entered upon his present responsibilities.
Mr. Wray's marriage united him with Miss Helen Parke Doty, a lady who has demonstrated many times her especial capabilities as a companion and helpmate. Mr. Wray is a Republican in national political affairs, but both he and his public-spirited wife support all local movements for the betterment of the community regardless of partisanship.
A thirty-second degree Mason, he is a life member of the Massachusetts Consistory. He is a Knight Templar, the present commander of Santa Ana Commandery No. 36, K. T., and belongs to Al Malaikah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., at Los Angeles. He is also a member of the Odd Fellows. He is still very fond of music, and has an enviable record', from his down-east days, as musician in the First Light Artillery of Massachusetts.
No better person could have been selected for the responsible post of city water and sewer superintendent, and it goes without saying that Santa Ana has a water and sewerage system that is thoroughly up-to-date and satisfactory in every respect.
FRED ROHRS, SR — An enterprising, progressive and self-made business man, who takes a very live interest in all that pertains to the building up of both Santa Ana and Orange County, is Fred Rohrs, the realty owner and rancher of 1245 East Seventeenth Street, Santa Ana. With Christian standards to guide them, he has reared a family such as would do honor to anyone: and is therefore both a beloved husband and father. He had a truly historic beginning, if dates count for anything, for he was born in Germany on the birthday of Washington, in the memorable revolutionary year of 1848. When eighteen years of age he left his native land, sailing from Bremen for New York, having for his destination Napoleon, Henry County, Ohio. There he hired out as a farm hand, receiving at first only from six to seven dollars and his board a month. Then he removed to Kelleys Island, Erie County, Ohio, and became interested in horticulture, working among the vineyards and fruit orchards, and making wine for years. Two of his brothers followed him to America, and one, Henry W., is at present in Orange County.
On April 17, 1874, Mr. Rohrs married Miss Anna Gobrugge. a native of Germany. who had also come to America to better her conditions, After that, he took up a timber claim in the Ohio forests, and cleared some valuable land, on which he later raised grain and stock. He was not phenomenally successful, however, and could not be said to have much in return for his hard labor. Five children, however, blessed their union. Henry is a rancher in Orange; Fred, Jr., is a rancher in Santa Ana; John also has a ranch in Orange; George is farming on the home place, on Seventeenth Street; and Minnie is the wife of Charles Maier, ranching at the old home. All the sons are married, and are doing well.
When Mr. Rohrs first came to Santa Ana in the early spring of 1881, when there were no roads and no fences, he purchased a barley field of twenty-five acres, his present home place; later he added twenty acres to the home place, and also improved other acreage with the assistance of his sons. He tried first to raise grapes, then grain, then apricots; but he finally set out walnuts and both Valencia and Navel oranges. Now he has many other important interests besides his ranch home on Seventeenth Street, where he has a tractor and horses for his ranch work, and has two residences. He has built a modern, up-to-date brick business block at the southeast corner of Sycamore and Fourth Streets, 44x100 feet in size, two stories in height with a full basement, at a cost of $30,000; and he also owns another brick block, situated on West Fourth Street.
For many years Mr. Rohrs was a director of the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company, and he is at present a member of the Tri-Counties Reforestation Committee. In national politics a Republican, in his religious affiliation Mr. Rohrs is a member of the Santa Ana Evangelical Association and has always been active in promoting better citizenship and a higher class of clean living. When he came here he could ride horseback through the tall mustard to the one brick store in Santa Ana; he has seen the town grow up and has taken an important part in its development, having hauled lumber from Newport for the early buildings in Santa Ana; and has seen the town built to its present size and splendor. He has always aided in the upbuilding of the city and can well exclaim, "All of which I saw and part of which I was."
CHARLES R. NUTT — The popular and efficient city clerk of Huntington Beach, Charles R. Xutt, is a native son, born August 14, 1869, in Yankee Jims, Placer County. He is a son of Nathaniel and Helen (Keeler) Nutt, natives of Ohio and Michigan, respectively. Nathaniel Nutt was a '49er who crossed the Indian infested plains to the Golden State, where he engaged in mining. C. R. Nutt was reared at Dutch Flat and at the early age of twelve years began to work. His occupations during his career have been many and varied and include mining, saw mill and pulp mill work, railroad telegraph operator and station agent. At one time he was in the employ of the Southern Pacific Railway Company in Placer County; later he was with the San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railway, which afterwards became a part of the Santa Fe system. Mr. Nutt became agent for the Santa Fe Railway at Tulare, where he remained until 1898. Later he was associated with the Power, Transit and Light Company, stationed at Bakersfield. In 1907 he located at Huntington Beach, where for three years he filled the position of bookkeeper for the Huntington Beach Company. Afterwards he opened an electric shop and engaged in contract work and did the electric wiring in many of the residences and buildings in Huntington Beach.
In 1914 Mr. Nutt was elected to the important post of city clerk and ex-officio assessor of Huntington Beach. That his duties have been ably and most intelligently discharged to the entire satisfaction of the community is attested by the fact that he has thrice been reelected to this office, his last election being for four years. Aside from his above duties he is also acting as city tax collector. During his term of office many important improvements have been made in public works, paving, sewers and a municipal gas system were installed. Mr. Nutt is especially fond of instrumental music and has the distinction of having organized the Huntington Beach band and his artistic rendition of solos, both on the saxophone and mellophone, have delighted the citizens of this up-to-date beach city. He is very public spirited and is always ready to give his assistance to every worthy movement that has as its aim the upbuilding of the best interests of Huntington Beach. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and was clerk of the high school board for five years.
In 1891 C. R. Nutt was united in marriage with Minnie Bond, a native of Massachusetts. She was one of the organizers of the Women's Club of Huntington Beach and served as its first secretary. This union has been blessed with two children: Helen, who is now Mrs. Fountain of Los Angeles; and Charles R., Jr., who for five years has been a musician in Headquarters Company, First Infantry, U. S. Army, having the rank of corporal. Fraternally Mr. Nutt is a member of Huntington Beach Lodge No. 380, F. & A. M.; also of Huntington Beach Lodge No. 183, I. O. O. F., and is secretary of the Huntington Beach Lodge of Modern Woodmen of America.
HENRY LAE — A native son of Orange County, of French parentage. Henry Lae is making a fine success of ranching near Brea, in partnership with his brother, Louis Lae. He is the son of Joseph and Mary Lae, the father coming to America in 1885 from the Basses-Pyrenees, in the southern part of France. Sheep raising is one of the principal means of livelihood in that mountainous country and being accustomed to that work Mr. Lae became a sheep herder on the ranch of Domingo Bastanchury, known throughout Southern California as the largest sheep owner in this section, having as many as 20.000 sheep in the early days when this great industry was at its height. When the country began to be more thickly settled and the sheep ranges cut up into small ranches, the industry gradually ceased to exist commercially, and for a number of years a flock of sheep has been a rare sight in this county. Like many others who had been engaged in this business. Joseph Lae took up farming, leasing eighty acres from the Union Oil Company on the east side of the Fullerton-Brea Boulevard. Here with his sons he raised large crops of hay, continuing here until his death, which occurred in November, 1918, the mother having passed away in 1896, at their home in Fullerton.
Born at Fullerton, November 4, 1895, Henry Lae has spent all his life in this vicinity. He attended the Fullerton schools, meanwhile assisting his father in the ranching operations and early learning to do all kinds of farm work. After the death of his father, with his brother, Louis Lae, he leased eighty acres of land from the Union Oil Company and the same amount from the Coyote Land Company, this being situated on the Fullerton-Brea Boulevard, across from the tract formerly operated by the father. They have been very successful in their work here and their yearly crop of hay brings them an excellent price.
Two of the Lae brothers served in the World War, Louis being for eight months in the Coast Artillery, while Phillip saw twenty months' service in Headquarters Company of the Three Hundred Sixty-fourth Infantry, Ninety-first Division, and went through the big drives of the war.
GEORGE N. WERSEL — Of French and Dutch ancestry, George N. Wersel has inherited the thriftiness and industry that characterize both of these nations, and this heritage has had no small part in the success that he has achieved. Born in Cincinnati, December 14, 1861, George N. is the son of Frank and Mary (Wagner) Wersel. Mr. Wersel was born in Holland and Mrs. Wersel in France, both of them coming to America when they were children.
One of a family of five sons and two daughters, all of whom are living, George N. Wersel was educated in the public schools and the Academy of the Holy Cross in Cincinnati. His father had for years been engaged in the upholstering business at Cincinnati, and after his schooling was completed George Wersel took up this work, serving an apprenticeship under his father, later going into business with him, and continuing in this line for many years.
Coming to California in September, 1913, Mr. Wersel spent a few months in Los Angeles, coming from there to La Habra, where he purchased the ten-acre ranch on La Mirada Avenue which is now his home. Seven acres of the ranch are devoted to walnuts, while the remaining three acres is set to lemons, and the whole tract shows the gratifying results of intelligent care and painstaking work. Mr. Wersel has established an excellent irrigating system, water being furnished by the La Habra Mutual Water Company. He markets his walnuts through the California Walnut Growers -Association of La Habra, and his lemons through the Mutual Orange Distributors. In 1914 Mr. Wersel built a beautiful bungalow on his ranch, and here he resides with his sisters, Agnes and Estella Wersel.
Mr. Wersel is held in high esteem by the people of his locality, who appreciate his many excellent qualities, his integrity and reliability. Nonpartisan in his political views, he is nevertheless interested in the welfare of the .country in the largest and broadest sense, and believes in casting hi^ vote for the best men and measures. In fraternal circles he is affiliated with the Elks and the Knights of Columbus.
GEORGE M. EABY — That a man need not own extensive acreage in order to exercise important influence in a community is demonstrated by George M. Baby, the proud possessor of a modest but enviable grove of citrus and walnut trees, who has had a hand in the late development of La Habra and vicinity. He was born near Laton. Rooks County, Kans., on May 21, 1876, the son of .Aaron S. and Cordelia (Gregory) Eaby, early settlers of the "Garden of the West," the father, a Pennsylvanian. having moved there in 1874, a year after the mother, who came from Iowa. .Aaron Eaby was a farmer; hence, while he attended the local schools, George spent his boyhood and youth on the home farm. Later, he attended the Kansas Wesleyan University at Salina, there completing his days of schooling.
In 1896 Mr. Eaby came to California and settled at Whittier, where he worked on various ranches. The next year, on September 23, he was married to Mrs. Alice Prentice, a native of Iowa, where she was born near Des Moines. Her maiden name was Alice Hites, and she was the daughter of Joseph and Catherine Hites; and she attended the country school near Des Moines.
In 1906 Mr. Eaby purchased six acres on La Mirada Avenue, west of La Habra, three acres of which were set out to walnuts; and the remaining three acres he set out to Valencia oranges. Seven years later he built his own home there. He buys the water he needs for irrigation from the La Habra Water Company, markets his walnuts through the La Habra Walnut Growers Association, and his oranges through the Index Orchards of the M. O. D. of Redlands.
A Republican in matters of national political import, and always ready to advance the principles long set forth by that great body, Mr. Eaby is a broad-minded American, favoring the best men and the best measures, particularly in local movements, for the attainment of ends difficult or impossible when partisanship prevails. He takes a keen interest in all that happens at La Habra, having the utmost confidence in the ever-increasing prosperity of this highly-favored region.
LUCIAN T. ROGERS — An enterprising, self-made horticulturist, whose disposition to work hard when he works, and to play hard when he plays, has enabled him to become a successful citrus rancher, is Lucian T. Rogers, a native son proud of his association with the great Pacific commonwealth. He was born amid the excitement of the greatest boom Southern California has ever known, at Santa Ana, on May 29, 1888. the only son living of Joseph C. Rogers, a very successful lowan who came to California in 1884 and now lives, a retired rancher, at Long Beach. He had married Miss Margaret Voris, an admirable lady, who died at Fullerton in 1908, the mother of three children, of whom our subject was next to the youngest.
He attended the grammar school at Fullerton, and then went to the Brownsberger Business College in Los Angeles, from which he was graduated in 1908. Then he worked for Fullerton Mutual Orange Association for over two years.
When he took up ranching, he assumed the responsibility of managing and developing a twenty-eight and one-third acre ranch on East Chapman, the property of his father and, to facilitate marketing, he joined the Fullerton Mutual Orange Growers Association of which his father was president. Mr. Rogers is also a member of the Fullerton Walnut Growers Association. He also took stock in the Anaheim Union Water Company. The ranch, mostly devoted to raising Valencia oranges, may well be regarded as a model for one of its size, and the fruit he raises is also of a superior quality. Mr. Rogers also owns eight and half acres in Yucaipa Valley which he has set out to an apple orchard.
On June 12, 1910, Mr. Rogers was married at Fullerton to Miss Ida Speheger, daughter of Abraham and Rebecca (Fritz) Speheger, farmers of Bluflfton, Ind., where Ida was born. Her father died in August, 1918, being survived by his widow. Miss Speheger came to Fullerton on a visit to her brother Fred and here she met Mr. Rogers, the acquaintance resulting in their marriage. They have been blessed with one child, a son, Donald Lucian.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Rogers are interested in every worthy endeavor for the upbuilding of a community, and they gladly discharged their responsibilities toward the late war and war-work. Mr. Rogers was for some years a member of the Knights of Pythias, and a good "mixer" in every circle to which he gives his time.
JOSEPH O'DONNELL — A successful horticulturist who has attained to still higher and better things in becoming so widely esteemed for his sterling character and his genial, kindly nature, is Joseph O'Donnell, the progressive orange grower, who was born in Fayette County, Ohio, twenty-six miles from Columbus, on July 18, 1859, the son of Patrick O'Donnell, who died there, honored for his vigorous participation in the Civil War, towards the close of the great conflict. He had married Bridget Breslan, and she also died in Ohio.
The second oldest of the six children in the family — two of whom are living — and the only one in California, Joseph was taken when seven years old to the neighborhood of Indianapolis, Ind., and for a brief period sent to the public schools. He was compelled, however, to go to work early, and to get such instruction as he could in the limited winter sessions of the school. When he was fourteen, his mother died and he began to "paddle his own canoe."
For a while, he worked on a farm as a carpenter, and then for sixteen years he was with F. A. Fletcher, of the Indiana Blooded Stock Company, breeders of fine Hereford cattle, traveling for that enterprising man for eight years and placing his blooded stock for him. He shipped into Portland. Ore., thirty-four years ago the first Herefords ever consigned there, and he also sent cattle of high grade to Washington, where they were disposed of by auction sale. His full-blooded stock was, in fact, the first put up at auction in Portland, and received the highest price of any up to that time.
In 1896 Mr. O'Donnell resigned and went to Indianapolis, where he was on the police force for seven years. Then he was with the Atlas Engineering Works for another three years, serving them as a machinist. In 1906, he went to Boise City, Idaho, and there he was in the transfer business until, in 1908, when he located here.
He bought his present twenty acres, then raw, land, on Rio Vista Avenue, raised seedlings, which he budded to Valencia oranges, and set out an orchard, consisting of twenty acres of rich soil, well located. With this wonderful soil as an almost magical stimulant, Mr. O'Donnell has been able in this short time to evolve a full-bearing orchard. When he bought the place, he had only $150 with which to start, and for the first four years he raised sweet potatoes. Now he has sixteen acres of Valencia oranges, four acres of Navels, while the balance of the acreage is given up to residence and yards. Naturally, he belongs to the Mutual Orange Growers Association in Anaheim.
Mr. O'Donnell was married in Morgan County, Ind., to Miss Mary Dove, a native of that state, and they have one child. Harold, a graduate of Anaheim high school, class of 1920. She shares her husband's interest in independent political action, and is a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
MRS. PHOEBE ANN BURBANK — A well-read, deep-thinking woman with an interesting personality, who has attained, in the school of hard work an enviable self-poise, is Mrs. Phoebe Ann Burbank, the owner and manager of a well improved orange and walnut grove of thirty-one acres. She was born near Watsonville, Santa Cruz. Cal. Her father was the late John M, Bush., Sr., a native of Kentucky, where he was born on April 10, 1829; and her mother had been Sarah A. Watson, who was born in Independence, Mo., eight years later. John M. Bush migrated with his parents from Kentucky to Clay County, Mo., at the beginning of his teens; and in 1849, when the country was electrified by the startling news of the discovery of gold in California, he sought and obtained parental permission to cross the plains, and soon set out overland to seek his fortune. Having remained in the Golden State, he married in 1851; and when gold-digging petered out, he went in for farming. He farmed in Santa Cruz County and was engaged in sheep raising until about 1869, when he located in Santa Ana Canyon and purchased a large ranch and engaged in sheep raising until his death February 8, 1913, followed seven years later, by Mrs. Bush, who died March 26, 1920, aged eighty-four. She had 105 descendants — ten children, fifty-five grandchildren, and forty great-grandchildren. The ten children are Mrs. P. J. Ralls, Charles T. and Jonathan Bush, Mrs. L. J. Stone and Mrs. Lillie Holloway, all of Kern County; Mrs. Elizabeth Borden, of San Bernardino; and J. M. and T. Taylor Bush, and Mrs. Phoebe A. Burbank, of Olive, and Mrs. S. C. Howard, of Long Beach.
Miss Phoebe Bush was reared on the old Bush ranch from a child and received her education in the public schools. She was married in Anaheim to Corri N. Burbank. a native of Vermont, where he was born on February 28, 1865, and who was twenty-one when he assumed the new responsibility. He had come out to California when a mere youth, and settled in San Diego County, where he had an uncle, Mathias Stone, and for more than twenty years Mr. and Mrs. Burbank lived an ideal life until November 26, 1907, when he died, aged forty-two. Mr. Burbank learned the miller's trade in the Olive Mills under Dillen Bros, and after their marriage he continued as miller even after the Dillens sold their interest and the new mill was built. He was a splendid miller and was head miller when he quit to locate on the thirty-one acres of land Mrs. Burbank inherited from her father's estate which they set to oranges and walnuts. Since he died she continues to run the ranch, assisted by her son Raymond C. C. She is a member of the Foothill Orange Growers Association. Mr. and Mrs. Burbank had four children, all of whom are married and doing well. Phoebe Frances married J. A. Allen by whom she had one child, Edith Huldah, who is at present fourteen years old. Now she is Mrs. A. R. Balok and resides at West Park, Pa. Huldah Ann is the wife of G. E. Shell and resides at El Segundo, Cal., she has two children— Raymond E. and Evelyn P. Raymond C. C. Burbank manages his mother's ranch; he is twenty-six years of age, and the husband of Miss Nellie Shell, of Orange; they have two children, Thelma I. and Curtiss L. Burbank. Clarence M. is a pumper for the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company, and married Miss Elizabeth Breau of Long Beach. They have two children— Mildred E. and Purl M. All of these children and grandchildren shower their affection upon Mrs. Burbank.
ARCH M. EDWARDS — Among the thoroughly wide-awake business men of Orange County who are deeply interested in advancing permanently the best interests of this part of the Golden State must be mentioned Arch M. Edwards, formerly a member of the well-known firm of Edwards and Pattillo, transfer agents of Fullerton. He was born on a farm in Benton County, Ark., in September, 1884, and grew up amid the sturdy environment of that state still so much in the making. His father was A. J. Edwards, who had married Miss Jane Wilson, and they were devoted parents who sought the best for their children.
Arch, therefore, attended the rural schools while he helped his father on the farm; and at the age of twenty-one, when he had performed his filial duty, he left home. For a while he worked at various jobs, and finally he took the important step of migrating west to. California. Later he returned to his home in the East; but in 1907 he came back to Fullerton and for four years worked on a ranch here.
At the end of that period, he bought a ranch of ten acres for himself, which he has reset to Valencia oranges, and at the same time he went in for general teaming for other ranchers. He also began to care for orchards. Enjoying a reputation for both experience and conscientious industry, Mr. Edwards never had any trouble to find all that his hands and a long day could do.
In 1918, he formed the Edwards and Pattillo Transfer Company, which grew with the city and employed seven men and five trucks, all their own. and maintained a monthly payroll of about $1,100. He sold out his interest in June, 1920, to devote his time to his ranching interests.
On September 1, 1906, Mr. Edwards was married to Miss Lydia Brown of Arkansas, like himself a live and patriotic citizen, and is a member of the Fullerton Club. A Democrat in matters of national politics, Mr. Edwards is above party and partisanship particularly when it comes to local issues, and no resident of Fullerton lines up better as a consistent "booster" for both town and county.
CAYETANO CASTILLO, JR — An apt and enterprising young farmer whose success is due in part to his very thorough knowledge of the citrus industry, is Cayetano Castillo, Jr., the dry-ranch manager of Yorba, highly esteemed for his upright. Christian character. He was born on April 3, 1893, on a small ranch near Yorba, the fifth son of Cayetano Castillo, and Navarro, his devoted wife. Both parents are living on their eight acres at Yorba, where their chief crop — barley, to be made into hay — is secured by dry farming. His father came as a pioneer from Mexico to the Yorba district, but his mother was born on the Irvine ranch.
Cayetano, the lad, attended the school of the district and so grew up one of a family of eleven children, and the fifth in the order of birth. Teresa, the wife of A. Coronado. the rancher at Yorba, is the eldest, while the next is Gertrude, now Mrs. Pete Romero, the walnut and citrus rancher at the same place. Alexander married Miss Adelfina de Ruiz; Beranda is the wife of Stephen Reyes of Fullerton; Edna R., the next after Cayetano, is Mrs. Domingo Romero, a rancher; Ange is the wife of Celestine Bleecker of Orange; Theodore L. married Jennie Roderquez. and is deceased; Frank married Evelyn Robertson; he enlisted in the great World War, and was honorably discharged at San Francisco from the U. S. Army on January 19, 1919; Helen E. is at home, and so is Natalia.
Cayetano Castillo, who is at present employed by Herman F. Locke in citrus development at Yorba, never married, desiring to afford a home for his parents. For the past two years, he has also assisted the superintendent of county roads in looking after the excellent highways of Orange County. He is a Republican in matters of national politics, and belongs to the Catholic Church at Yorba. Few, if any, young men of Yorba merit and receive a larger share of the respect of their fellow-citizens than Mr. Castillo, a standing he has won by his industry and integrity.
HARRY E. MATTHEWS — Among the most substantial and popular citizens of the county, in which he has now resided for a number of years, making more than a decade, Harry E. Matthews resides on his own ranch south of Tustin, which he purchased in January, 1909. He took it when it was in an unreclaimed state, and straightway set out his orange trees and made the other needed improvements, but by hard, steady work his place is now bringing in the handsome returns for which he labored. His products are Valencia oranges and walnuts, and there are none better in the county.
Born in Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa, on August 28, 1858, Mr. Matthews is a son of Fenelon and Mary (Hogan) Matthews, natives, respectively, of South Carolina and Maryland, who were pioneer settlers of Iowa, where Fenelon Matthews became a well-known merchant and successful business man. Showing his patriotism for the Stars and Stripes, he volunteered his services in an Iowa regiment on the breaking out of the Civil War, serving until the close of the war, being honorably discharged as sergeant. He came of an old Southern family that is traced back to Welsh and French descent. Mr. Matthews spent his boyhood in Keokuk County, Iowa, where his education was acquired at the common schools. When he first began to work for a living, after his school days, he entered the mercantile field, and a mercantile career he continued even after he moved to Kiowa, Barber County, Kans., in 1877. He joined to it, however, the enterprise of stock raising, having acquired 320 acres of land; 160 he devoted to crops and the remainder to grazing.
For a number of years Mr. Matthews was under-sheriff of Barber County, Kans. He made a splendid record as an officer, and having an enviable record as a citizen, it is no wonder that when his term of office expired, he was offered the nomination for the office of sheriff. He declined the office and the honor, however, but more than ever retained his popularity, and none of this popularity has he lost since he came to the Golden State. As he was in Kansas, so he is in California; those with whom he becomes acquainted are his friends.
In 1886 Mr. Matthews was united in marriage at Kiowa, Kans., to Miss Sarah May, the daughter of Charles and Carrie (Harding) Rumsey, who were early settlers of Barber County, Kans., and later also removed to Tustin, where Mr. Rumsey died in August, 1920, his widow being spared, and still lives at her home on Main Street. The happy union of Mr. and Mrs. Matthews has been blessed with twelve children, three of whom are now deceased. The others are Gertrude, the wife of Andrew L. Cock, who resides at Delhi; Fenelon C, who is ranching near Tustin, and married Edith Stearns; Van A. is a farmer at Kiowa, Kans.; Alice is Mrs. D. C. Kiser of Tustin; Jessie is Mrs. Verne Maynard, also of Tustin; Carrie E. is wife of Glide Cooper, and resides near El Toro; George is serving in the United States Navy, while Frank and Harry are still under the paternal roof.
A Democrat in national politics, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Mr. Matthews is a member of the Masonic order, to which he has belonged for years. He is well informed, and, being a man of pleasing personality, is an interesting conversationalist. He does not regret selecting Orange County for his home and that he cast his lot here, for he finds by comparison it has the most ideal climate, and is undoubtedly the most productive and prosperous county for its size in the world.
CHARLES E.
HARVEY — Well known throughout Southern California as a
wide-awake business man and one especially well posted on orange growing
and development, Charles E. Harvey was born in Switzerland County, Ind.,
On
The marriage of Mr.
Harvey, which occurred
SAMUEL E.
TALBERT — Not many men
have the honor to be the leading citizens of their districts, or to have
an embryo town named after them, as is the case with Samuel Edmonson
Talbert, whose honored family will be celebrated in the name given to
Talbert, Orange County. He was born in
Samuel was eight
years old when his mother died, leaving eight children: Mary, the
oldest, is the wife of William Piper, and resides at Deshler, Henry
County, Ohio; Nettie became the wife of Fred Finity and died in Los
Angeles, leaving a son named James; Eva is the wife of J. B. Irwin, and
resides in Orange County Park, Orange County, Cal.; Frances married a
Missouri attorney, David McCullem, and died, the mother of three
children; Lavina resides at Chestnut. Ill., and is the wife of Joe
Miller, a farmer; Samuel E., the subject of our sketch, was the sixth in
the order of birth; T. B. Talbert, the next, is the Orange County
supervisor; and Henry E. resides at Huntington Beach, having married
Ella McGowan, by whom he has had one child, Henry Kime.
After a boyhood and
youth spent in
Father and son bought
320 acres of land, of which a cousin, W. O. Afer, took forty acres, and
now Samuel owns 178 acres of the best land at Talbert. He has eleven
flowing wells, one and two on each twenty acres, and a fine bungalow
residence, which he remodeled about four years ago; but it is rather for
what he has done for the county, than for what he possesses, that he is
best known, and most honored.
He was the main
spirit, for example, in organizing the Talbert Drainage district, and
made the first ditch, and has made nearly all the other drainage ditches
in that district since. On account of the land lying so low and near to
the water level of the Pacific Ocean, the question was asked, whether
the land could be drained at all; and when many doubted, Mr. Talbert
both said that it could, and actually drained it. Twenty-thousand
dollars' worth of bonds were voted, to build the ditches, which are
constructed on the east side of the section line, or the half-section,
as the case may be, and the dirt has been put on the west side of the
ditches, to throw the drainage down toward Newport Bay and make the
roads in the district.
The flood of 1916
filled up the bay, and a new channel was cut below
Mr. Talbert was also
the first to devise plans and later to dig ditches to keep the
With his brother, T.
B. Talbert, our subject secured the right-of-way for the Pacific
Electric Railway. He excavated the road-bed, moved houses and grubbed
trees, and graded six miles of the route from
On
Mr. Talbert has
always been working for the improvement of the county and the building
up of the farming section. He has worked honestly and conscientiously
for the public welfare, thus being in the van of progress for the great
future he saw in store for his section of
NATHAN E.
ALLEN — A successful
rancher who made a splendid record for himself in an entirely different
field prior to undertaking orange growing, is Nathan E. .Mien, who lives
at the corner of
Nathan Allen attended
the country schools of Jefferson County, where he had to "dig" for an
education, and spent his early years on a
On February 13. 1904,
Mr. Allen was married to Mrs. Mary (Knox) Peltier, a native of
NORMAN B.
TEDFORD — A visitor to Anaheim cannot help but be attracted by
the many fine homes and business blocks in that city, and also the
beautiful country places in its environs, all evidence of the wealth and
prosperity of the community, and also of the class of architects and
builders who have made this district the center of their business
interests and by their handiwork have beautified one of Nature's garden
spots of the world. Prominent among these men may be mentioned Norman B.
Tedford, contractor and builder. .A. native of Canada, he was born at
When a lad of
eighteen he started out to make his own way in life, and came to "the
States." locating in Boston, Mass., and there learned the trade of
carpenter with one of the largest and most prominent contracting firms
of that city, Mitchell and Sutherland, remaining in their employ eleven
years, during which time he assisted in the construction of many
residences for the' millionaire colony of the Back Bay district, and was
also foreman for the company in the construction of many large office
buildings in Boston. For the same firm he went to
In 1904, Mr. Tedford
came west to visit the World's Fair at St. Louis, and from there came to
Pasadena, Cal. After working a short time in the latter city he located
in Anaheim, and here entered into partnership with the late A. E.
Strehle, the well-known contractor, under the firm name of Strehle and
Tedford. In about four years this partnership was dissolved and Mr.
Tedford continued alone as a contractor and builder; his early schooling
with one of the best firms in the country made him an expert in his
line, and he has drawn designs for many of the homes he has erected, and
makes a specialty of fine residences, having completed one of the finest
in Anaheim, the John Ruther home on North Los Angeles Street. Other
evidences of his craft are the C. F. Grim residence; the H. C. Lawrence
home; four residences for Levi Mann, and the homes of Tas. O'Brien, J.
Hunter, and others too numerous to mention, besides several business
blocks and many fine homes on the ranches in the Anaheim district. His
skill has made him well known in other parts of the country, and he
erected a theater building in Yuma, Ariz., and also has done work in
Northern California. The benefits gained from having a man of wide
knowledge and ability in a community are far reaching and readily seen
in the advancement and progress made in Orange County in the past
decade, a progress phenomenal even for this rapidly growing State of
California.
The marriage of Mr.
Tedford, which occurred in Santa Ana on
ORRIN M.
THOMPSON — Among the enterprises of Fullerton long looked upon
as especially serviceable to the community must be mentioned the Central
Garage, owned and conducted by Orrin M. Thompson, at 121 North Spadra
Street. Its proprietor first saw the light in Montgomery County, Iowa,
in September, 1875, and was born into the family of W. S. Thompson, a
farmer, who had married Miss Mary Anderson. Both parents are now
deceased, but they left behind them the precious heritage of character,
industry and thrift, three factors that have contributed greatly to Mr.
Thompson's success, especially in the attainment of the esteem of his
fellow citizens of Fullerton.
He attended the rural
schools of his locality, and grew up at home until he was twenty. He was
for a number of years a railroad engineer out of Sioux City, Iowa. In
1911 he came to California, and the following August he located in
Fullerton, where he started the business he is at present expanding with
such success. He is a member of the Board of Trade, and one that never
loses a good opportunity to advertise the town, and to present it in its
most attractive but true light, as a place of safe investments. In 1914
Mr. Thompson bought land in the Richfield section, which is now
producing oil.
In addition to the
ordinary business of a garage, Mr. Thompson carries on the repairing of
automobiles and the sale of auto accessories; and for this he requires
the assistance of ten skilled men — a tangible fact that speaks much for
his claims to do the larger part of such trade in the town.
On
ALBERT
CAILLAUD — The fumigating department is one of the most
important in the conduct of our modern citrus industry. The introduction
of this system has freed the orchards from infectious diseases and
caused thousands of trees to bear bounteous crops that otherwise would
not have matured. The fumigating department of the Placentia Orange
Growers Association, at Fullerton, is fortunate in having as its
superintendent Albert Caillaud, a native son of French lineage, born at
Riverside, Cal.,
Albert Caillaud
received his education in the Riverside public schools and helped his
father in the nursery business. In 1913 he located in Orange and for one
season worked for a large fumigating company. His next move was to
Pomona, where he entered the employ of the Growers' Fumigating Supply
Company, one of the largest in the state. While with this company he
gained a thorough knowledge of the business and became so efficient that
he was made foreman of the fumigating outfits.
During the World War,
Mr. Caillaud saw twenty months of service, becoming a sergeant in the
One Hundred Sixteenth Engineers, Forty-first Division. As early as
November, 1917, he was sent abroad and remained for six months after the
close of the war, returning to the United States in July, 1919. Owing to
his ability to speak French fluently he was made an interpreter and he
also filled the position of buyer of supplies for the regiment. He spent
six months in Belgium, where he was attached to the grave registration
department, his duty being to take bodies from the battlefield to the
cemetery. Whatever duty he was called upon to perform, Mr. Caillaud gave
it his wholehearted and loyal support.
Fraternally Mr.
Caillaud is a member of Post 142, American Legion, at Fullerton and of
the San Dimas Lodge of Odd Fellows. He accepted his present position
with the Placentia Orange Growers Association in February, 1920. Mr.
Caillaud was married in March, 1920, to Miss Martha Stolle, born in
Missouri, but a resident of San Dimas.
NEWTON J.
PENMAN — A self-made, self-reliant American who has become one
of the most substantial and promising citizens of Orange County, is
Newton J. Penman, member of the firm of William W. Penman and Sons, now
enjoying the distinction of being Orange County's most extensive
individual sugar beet growers. He was born in Nevada County, Cal., on
On
Messrs. William W.
Penman and Sons are the most extensive and therefore the leading beet
raisers in Orange County, and they operate two leases on the James
Irvine, or old San Joaquin Ranch, each being separately located, but
under one management — that of William W. Penman, Sr., and his two sons,
our subject and a brother. John R. There are 920 acres in the two
leases; the father lives on the one ranch, and Newton J. Penman resides
on the other.
When one considers
the ever-fast development of the sugar beet industry in California, the
advent of such young manhood as that of Newton J. Penman augurs much for
the future contribution of the state toward this economic need of the
world. They are members of the Episcopal Church in Orange. Mr. Penman is
a member of the Knights of Pythias, while his wife is a member of the
Pythian Sisters, of which she is past chief.
JOSE
FRANCISCO VELASCO — The absorbing romance of more than one
early native family of California is recalled by the life stories of Mr.
and Mrs. Jose Francisco Velasco, long among the leading residents of the
Yorba district, and the proprietors of the one store or commercial
establishment there. Mr. Velasco was born in Tucson. Ariz., on
Jose Francisco
Velasco is the oldest son and the second child in a family of whom there
are now only three living: Dolores resides at Tucson; Jose Francisco is
the subject of our sketch; and Carlos is in business, dealing
extensively in automobiles, at Tucson. Growing up, while attending the
Tucson public schools, Jose became a typesetter in his father's printing
office, and at the same time a writer in Spanish as well as in English,
He founded a weekly newspaper at Phoenix, called "El Hijo de Fronterizo,"
and ran it for several months. Later he became foreman of that newspaper
office, which passed into the hands of his father and Benjamin Heney, a
brother of Francis Heney, the well-known lawyer. As in the case of early
California papers, this newspaper was printed in both Spanish and
English.
During this time Mr.
Velasco was married to Miss Amelia L. Davila, the ceremony taking place
at Yorba on April 21. 1897. She is the only living daughter of Pio
Quinto Davila, who married Andrea Elisalde de Yorba, who was the third
and last wife and the widow of Bernardo Yorba, then owner and proprietor
of the great Yorba rancho. Mr. Davila was born in Bogota, United States
of Colombia, and came from an eminent family there. Mrs. Velasco was
born in Los Angeles, as was her mother, her maternal grandmother, and
her great-grandmother. She was educated by an English governess, Miss
Qharlotte Knollys, and by private tutors in her father's home in Los
Angeles. She also attended the Sisters' School there, and it was while
she was on a vacation at Yorba that she met Mr. Velasco. After marriage
they removed to Arizona, and engaged in the general mercantile business;
but finding that the climate did not agree with his wife, Mr. Velasco
came back to Yorba in 1899.
The following year he
bought out the general merchandise store at Yorba Station, and since
then he has been engaged in commerce and also in taking an active part
in civil and governmen.tal affairs. Not only is he the one merchant
here, but he has found time to serve as clerk of the board of school
trustees for Yorba. He is also deputy county registration clerk, and has
filled that office with credit for years. A Republican in matters of
national moment, Mr. Velasco is too broad-minded and too much interested
in Yorba and in Orange County to allow any form of partisanship to
interfere with his loyal support of the best attainable in home affairs.
Five children have
blessed the happy union of Mr. and Mrs. Velasco: Josefita is the wife of
T. E. Woods, the interior decorator, and resides in Los Angeles, the
happy mother of one child. Thomas. Jose Francisco served for two years
in the U. S. Navy, on the Cincinnati, and is a third-class quartermaster
signalman, with an honorable discharge, and also an "honorable mention"
to his credit. By trade he is a lapidarist, and lives in Los Angeles.
Victor is a graduate of Fullerton Union High School, class of 1920, now
attending the electrical department at the Y. M. C. A. Vincent is a
sophomore in the Fullerton Union High School, and there is Louis A.
Velasco. Mrs. Velasco is a woman of interesting versatility, with a
liking and ability for the study of local history. Besides bringing up
her children, and attending to her household duties, she has written for
various publications and studied both music and art. As a well-traveled
person, she is the life of society at Yorba, where she is a general
favorite.
CHARLES A.
ANDRES — A fine grove of
twenty acres, consisting of Valencia oranges, walnuts and deciduous
fruits of many kinds, is the reward of many years of hard, diligent
effort on the part of Charles A. Andres, whose ranch is one-half mile
north of Garden Grove, although he makes his home at 1711 North Bush
Street, Santa Ana. Born in Prussia, Germany,
Mr. Andres remained
on his uncle's farm until he was eighteen, and then worked out by the
month in different places, wherever he could secure the best wages.
After he had been able to save some money, he went to Beaver Creek, Rock
County. Minn., where he rented a half section of land, farming it for
three years. In the meantime
Mr. and Mrs. Andres
decided to try their fortune in California and in December, 1903, they
arrived in Santa Ana. In the spring of 1904 he bought twenty acres on
McFadden Street, in the southern outskirts of Santa Ana, part of it
being within the corporate limits. It was an alfalfa field, full of
gopher holes, but Mr. Andres improved it, building a good house on the
west ten acres, which he sold. After building on the east ten acres, he
also disposed of this and in the fall of 1912, he purchased his present
ranch north of Garden Grove. This consisted of twenty acres, much of
which was unusually rough land. Seven acres of it had been planted to
eucalyptus trees and these Mr. Andres cut down, pulling out the stumps
with a stump puller. There were two deep sloughs across it which he
filled up and altogether it was a great undertaking and required a
tremendous amount of hard work. Finally, however, he had it leveled up
and ready for irrigation. Eight acres were set to walnuts and ten acres
to Valencia oranges, all now bearing. He also has two acres in lemons.
His walnut orchard is interset with oranges, pears, plums, peaches and
apples, and he also grew lima beans in between the rows when the trees
were young, thus helping to pay expenses.
Mr. and Mrs. Andres
are the parents of two children: Paul A., a graduate of the Santa Ana
high school and now at the agricultural department of the University of
California at Davis; and VioIa E. The family live in their attractive
home on North Bush Street. Santa Ana, which Mr. Andres erected in 1915.
The family attend the Evangelical Church at Santa Ana and Mr. Andres is
chairman of the board of trustees. He is a member of the Garden Grove
Citrus Association, the Garden Grove Walnut Growers Association and the
Garden Grove Farm Center. In political matters, he is an advocate of the
principles of the Republican party. Although he was exposed to many
hardships and temptations in his early days, he has risen above them all
by his own unaided efforts and now stands in his community as an example
of honest, exemplary citizenship.
DR. WILLIAM
M. POPPLEWELL — Among the professional men who have retired
from active professional life and engaged in the citrus industry in
Orange County, California, is Dr. William M. Popplewell. He is a native
of Missouri, born at Havana, Gentry County,
William M. is the
oldest child and was reared on his father's farm. He attended the public
schools in his native state, took a course in the Normal School at
Stanberry, Mo., and taught five terms in that state. He had always had a
desire to study medicine, so he matriculated at Ensworth Medical
College, St. Joseph, Mo., graduating with the class of 1896, receiving
the degree of M. D. He served as interne for fourteen months at Ensworth
Hospital, and after live years of successful practice at New Hampton,
Mo., took a post-graduate course at the College of Physicians and
Surgeons. New York City, specializing in eye, ear, nose and throat. He
afterward returned to New Hampton and practiced successfully until he
moved to Santa Fe. X. M., in the year 1902. where he continued until
1905. He had a keen desire to change his location to a country that had
greater natural resources, and particularly along the line of
horticulture, so in May of that year he came to Orange County, Cal..
having learned of the great possibilities of the rich soil for growing
citrus fruits.
His marriage, which
occurred in 1889, at Stanberry, Mo., united him with Mrs. Nannie
Ferguson, of Scotch descent, who was born in Tennessee and reared in
northwestern Missouri. She was a student at Park College, Parkville,
Mo., a Presbyterian school, and she also had an experience as a teacher
to her credit. Dr. and Mrs. Popplewell are the parents of two children.
Edith married Hugh Conger Thomson, a rancher in Villa Park Precinct, and
they have three children. Margery Ceiger is the wife of Elmer Horace
Ball of Downey.
After coming to Villa
Park Dr. Popplewell became prominently identified with the Valencia
orange and the lemon industries. He is a director in the Central Lemon
Growers Association, which he helped organize, and to which he gives his
best ability. He cooperates with the other progressive people of his
community in all that pertains to the general welfare, especially in the
matter of water for irrigation purposes from Santiago Creek and from
wells. He is a member of the Gray Tract Well Company and helped develop
the water for irrigating the 530 acres comprised in this tract. They
have drilled two wells and are drilling the third one. This water is
held in reserve against periods of extraordinary drought, and there is
one share of water stock to each acre of land.
Dr. Popplewell
purchased thirty-one and one-half acres of land after coming to Villa
Park Precinct, and afterwards gave his daughter. Mrs. Edith Thomson,
five and one-half acres, and retained the twenty-six acres, which is
devoted to the culture of citrus fruit, upon which he and his family
live happily. In 1919 Dr. Popplewell and his wife took a 7,200 mile auto
trip. They were gone three months and three days, traveling in their own
auto, and visited their parents and friends in their old Missouri home,
the historic and interesting places at Santa Fe and various places in
the Central West. While glad to renew old associations and enjoy a visit
with their parents and friends, they were more than satisfied to get
back to their cozy Villa Park home. Dr. Popplewell's genial ways, sound
business judgment, and keen interest in the progress of Orange County,
combined with his earnest endeavors to uplift the community morally and
socially, has made him a welcome addition to Villa Park. He has
demonstrated his reliability, public spirit and rare good fellowship,
and is a favorite among his fellow citizens.
PHILIP
HERMANN KRICK — A broad-minded and liberal-hearted resident of
Anaheim, whose splendid foresight and energy have already accomplished
so much for the development of Orange County in many lines is Philip H.
Krick, who, as a progressive educator, did much to lay the foundations
of the sound educational standards of the county. Indeed he has been
active in all movements tending to build up this section and as a
believer in the excellent doctrine of "live and let live" he can count
his friends by the score.
Mr. Krick was born in
Elcho, Ontario, Canada, about twenty miles west of Niagara Falls. After
completing the grammar schools, he entered St. Catherine's Collegiate
Institute, and following his graduation he took a course at the Hamilton
School of Pedagogy. During the years of his college course, he was
engaged in both farming and teaching, and after graduating he became a
teacher in high schools of Ontario until 1894. when he decided to
migrate to California, arriving in August of that year. Locating in
Placentia, he became principal of the Placentia school, a position which
he filled continuously until 1901. Resigning to accept a position as
secretary of the Anaheim Union Water Company, he ably filled this
position for the succeeding nine years. In the meantime he "purchased
city property on North Los Angeles Street, Anaheim, and here he still
resides. He also became actively interested in real estate, buying,
developing and selling a number of orange groves in the Placentia and
Anaheim districts, and at present is the owner of three splendid groves,
which he has developed to a high state of cultivation.
In addition to his
horticultural interests, Mr. Krick has contributed largely to raising
the dairy stock of the county to its present high standard. On one of
his ranches he maintains a dairy, and here he has what is considered the
finest herd of registered pure-bred Holstein cattle in Orange County,
comprising fifty head. One of the cows, King Pontiac Idyl Segis, holds
the Junior four-year-old record for the state of California, having
produced thirty-five and two-third pounds of butter in seven days. The
registered bull which heads the herd comes from fine producing stock,
his dam having been the first cow in the state to produce over 1,200
pounds of butter in one year. The herd contains ten of the
granddaughters of the King of the Pontiacs, the greatest Holstein sire
in the world. The Krick dairy, which is located on Garden Grove Road,
about one mile from Anaheim, is modern and sanitary in every respect,
with cement floors and all modern equipment, including milking machines.
He is a member and Orange County representative of the Southern
California Holstein-Friesian Association and also a member of the
Holstein-Friesian Association of America.
Mr. Krick's
operations are not confined alone to Orange County, but he also has
interests in several other sections of California. As early as 1905 he
became interested in farm land in Kern and Tulare counties and was a
pioneer in the development of pumping plants for irrigating in the Wasco
section of Kern County. He was a director of the Fourth Extension Water
Company, this company making the first united effort to sink wells and
by means of pumping plants put water on a large area of land. Mr. Krick
improved his land to alfalfa, also setting out a vineyard. At the same
time he also improved a ranch at Alpaugh, Tulare County, which is
irrigated from flowing wells and where he raises grain and alfalfa.
The marriage of Mr.
Krick which occurred at St. Catherine's, Ontario, in 1891, united him
with Miss Edith M. Beckett, a native of that place and the daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. William Beckett, the father being a well-known manufacturer
of woolens of St. Catherine's. Two uncles of Mrs. Krick, John and Alfred
Beckett, were pioneers of Orange County, coming here as early as 1876
and locating at Alamitos, where they were engaged in general farming and
horticulture. Representatives of old Pennsylvania Quaker stock, they
took a leading part in the building of the Friends Church at Alamitos.
and gave it their generous support. Familiarly known as Uncle John and
Uncle Alfred, they both reached the advanced age of eighty years, and
were loved and esteemed by everyone who knew them.
Always a leader in
progressive and constructive movements, Mr. Krick was one of the
organizers and a stockholder of the Anaheim Sugar Company. He was also a
charter member of the Anaheim Orange Growers Association, since changed
to the Anaheim Cooperative Orange Association, and has served as
president of the Anaheim Center of the Orange County Farm Bureau.
Fraternally Mr. Krick is prominent in Masonic circles, being a Master
Mason, a Knight Templar and a Shriner. He was initiated into Masonry at
Wardsville, Canada, and has served three consecutive terms as master of
Anaheim Lodge, No. 207, F. & A. M., and for three years was inspector of
this Masonic district.
In early days Mr.
Krick was secretary of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce, and he has never
ceased to give of his best efforts toward advancing the interests of his
community, always standing for a high standard of the moral betterment
of its citizens. Both members of the Methodist Episcopal Church of
Anaheim, Mr. and Mrs. Krick have always taken an active part in its good
works, giving generously both of their time and means to its support.
JOHN LESLIE
HAVER — What the Fullerton Meat and Grocery store is doing for
the comfort, health and prosperity of the citizens of that city, those
only who have traded there for some time are able in full to comprehend.
Its proprietor is John Leslie Haver, who came from Kansas, where he was
born at Highland on December 18. 1883, and brought with him to his task
some of the invaluable Middle West spirit, the inheritance of knowledge
and traits from a father who was a successful business man, and a
go-ahead force of his own. His father was J. H. Haver, who came from
Pennsylvania to Kansas, and he married Miss Elizabeth Vernon, whose
native place was also Pennsylvania.
The second in the
order of birth, John Leslie received his education at the grammar and
high schools of his home town, and in October, 1906, came to California.
For three years he lived at Riverside and worked for Messrs. Newberry
and Parker, and then he was in Santa Ana for a year. In 1910 he came to
Fullerton, and at the same time, in partnership with A. C. Gerrard. Mr.
Haver started the Fullerton Meat and Grocery Store. In 1916 they started
the groceteria at 243 North Spadra. known as the Fullerton Groceteria,
but in April, 1917, he bought out his associate in both stores, and
since then he has been conducting the entire business himself. In the
two places he employs ten people, and even then is kept mighty busy
catering to the wants of his many and increasing patrons. He is one of
the liveliest members of the Board of Trade.
In Santa Ana. on
HAROLD
ARLINGTON WATSON — The long-honored name of Jonathan Watson,
one of the most distinguished of Orange County's pioneers, is worthily
borne by his youngest child, Harold Arlington Watson, who may himself
boast of an enviable record for service in the great World War. As a
rancher he is a successful citrus fruit and walnut grower, operating the
home ranch in connection with his brothers. He was born in 1899, and was
a junior in the Orange Union high school when, on the declaration of war
on Germany by Congress, he enlisted on
Mr. Watson then
doffed the corporal's uniform and went to work on his father's ranch,
which had been turned over to the three boys, Floyd E.. a member of the
auto-electrical firm of Thompson S: Watson, Errol Trafford Watson and
our subject. The latter two sons assume active control, aided in various
ways by Floyd. They raise oranges, lemons and walnuts, and nowhere for
miles around may fruit of a higher quality be found. Having mastered the
details of ranch work when he was a boy, as did his brothers before him,
Mr. Watson has found no difficulty coping with the many agricultural
problems of the day.
From his father,
whose record for endurance and accomplishment is so remarkable in many
ways, Mr. Watson has inherited not only his love for the great outdoors,
but his proficiency as a marksman. He was, therefore, one of the best
five rifle shots, with Springfield rifles, in his regiment of over 3,500
men, and was a prize marksman at all the ranges. He is a member of Post
No. 132, American Legion, at Orange.
Just before leaving
for France Mr. Watson was married to Miss Bernice Wilbur, a native
daughter, of Orange, and one child was born to them, Jeanne M. Mrs.
Watson, as a popular belle, was the daughter of Dr. D. F. Royer of that
city. A most distressing accident deprived these devoted young parents
of their little daughter, Jeanne, only fourteen months old. The little
one, with their parents, was visiting at the home of the beloved
grandfather, when an automobile, backing out, ran the child down. The
baby was rushed to the Anaheim hospital for operation, but died soon
after reaching there. The tragedy brought the deepest sorrow to a host
of friends, as well as to the bereaved parents.
JOHN C. KEEFE
— A clear-headed, able-bodied man of three-score and fifteen years,
whose mental vitality is demonstrated in the valuable, patented
inventions to his credit, and whose physical vigor is equally well shown
in his personal management of a forty-acre farm, is John C. Keefe. a
type of American always an asset to any commonwealth, and especially to
a rapidly-expanding empire like that of the state of California. He was
born in Chicopee, Hampden County, Mass., on
After the death of
her husband, Mrs. Keefe moved from Chicopee to the upper part of New
York City known as Harlem, where they lived with Mrs. Keefe's sister and
John's uncle, and during this period the lad had a chance to ride on the
first car of the new street railway running from New York City proper to
Harlem, a distance of seven miles, and drawn by mules. In 1851, with his
grandfather, Timothy O'Connell, his mother, two aunts and an uncle, John
traveled further west, and lived on a timber claim of 640 acres in
Washington County, near Milwaukee, Wis., and as a sturdy boy, he helped
clear and develop that land. In 1853. the Black Hawk Indians returned to
Washington County, and they had a tribe pow-wow. He saw a good deal of
the Redskins, for their acreage was full of berries and game, and
naturally became the hunting grounds of the savages.
While thus living in
a log cabin, he worked during the summer time and went to school in
winter; and being considered a good student, at eighteen he was given a
teacher's certificate and for a couple of years taught school. In 1868,
he matriculated at the University of Wisconsin, where he was graduated
in 1872 with the B. S. degree. The next year he was made principal of
the Barton high school.
In 1873, he became
the private secretary to William E. Cramer, editor of the Milwaukee
Evening Wisconsin, and a year after that was made a reporter on the
paper, and then, in 1875, the financial editor. And in the Centennial
Year he became city editor of this paper. He has a splendid flow of
language, is well read and traveled, and with his retentive memory is an
interesting conversationalist. He writes in an easy and flowing style
and his articles, while he was a journalist, were very favorably
commented on by critics.
On
With Mr. O'Neal's
aid, Mr. Keefe built the Milwaukee Cracker and Candy Company, but in
1892, when it had so grown that it was doing a business of a quarter of
a million dollars a year, he sold out his interest, and went in for the
making of metal furniture for bank vaults and offices. He patented a
knife that would cut sheet brass, at the same time that it bent it into
a half-round shape, making a metal used in office furniture facing;
having previously made two other notable inventions: a patent oven, for
quick baking, put out in 1879, and a patent bill-file, now extensively
used in offices, and given to the commercial-stationery world in 1894.
When Mr. Keefe at
length disposed of his holdings in this metal-furniture factory, he
spent the following two years in handling realty in Milwaukee, and first
came to California and West Orange in 1900. Then he traded some iron
mine property in Northern Michigan for a ranch of forty acres, now his
home place, and there he himself has since planted five acres of walnut
trees, ten acres of Navel oranges, five acres of Valencia oranges — now
rather old trees — five acres of young Valencias, and two acres of
lemons, leaving the balance vacant land. He also built his own home. His
inventive faculty has frequently stood him well in stead, and has
doubtless inclined him to experiment in the production of new fruit,
among them a seedless lemon, as well as developing sugar pears and a new
kind of walnut from the buds of the Eureka and Placentia walnuts.
Three children have
blessed this fortunate union and Mr. and Mrs. Keefe. Edward Neil Keefe
has charge of the branch post office at the corner of First and Rowan
streets in Los Angeles, and there are Clarice and Alice Keefe, the
former named after Sister Clara Keefe, the renowned war-nurse who, with
the aid of an aged man and old horse and wagon, brought in many wounded
soldiers from the battlefield of Antietam, taking them into a hospital
at Baltimore. Mr. Keefe is a member of the Catholic Church of Santa Ana,
and while in Milwaukee was the principal founder of the Knights of
Wisconsin, a Catholic order begun in 1892 and since developed into a
large organization. While not a spiritualist in the accepted term, Mr.
Keefe has been in communication with the spirit world for the past five
years.
JOHN
PEMBERTON BAUMGARTNER — California owes much of her marvelous
and rapid development to her journalists, prominent among whom may be
mentioned John Pemberton Baumgartner, the principal owner, general
manager and editor of the Santa Ana Daily Register, the largest and
leading daily newspaper of Orange County, and the only daily published
at the county seat. Before coming to Santa Ana in 1906, he had achieved
exceptional success in the development of newspaper properties in
several of the larger Southern California towns. He published a model
and very successful weekly in Riverside for several years, and then
consolidated that paper with the Riverside Daily Press, of which he
became part owner and business manager. A few years later, when he had
greatly enlarged and improved the Press, he sold his interest and bought
the Pasadena Daily Star; and in seven years he developed the Star into a
fine newspaper property, which he then sold. A few months later he
bought a controlling interest in the Long Beach Press, and, although he
never lived in Long Beach, he directed the development of that property,
under the management of C. L. Day, into one of the finest papers of its
class on the Pacific Coast. Meantime, he had purchased the Santa Ana
Daily Register, which he was giving his personal attention, and to
which, a few years later, when he had sold the Long Beach Press, he
devoted his entire time. Since the Register passed into Mr.
Baumgartner's control it has been developed from a paper with a
circulation of 800 copies to a semi-metropolitan publication with a
circulation of nearly 7,000, and it is conceded by newspaper men to be
the biggest and best newspaper of its class in the country.
Mr. Baumgartner was
born on
His first newspaper
work in this state was as a reporter on the San Diego Union, and from
there he went to Riverside, in the spring of 1891, and after a few
months as editor of the Riverside Phoenix, he established the Riverside
Reflex, a weekly paper which, within a few months, absorbed the Phoenix.
His next progressive step was the consolidation of the Riverside Reflex
with the Riverside Daily Press. From that time on, as related above, Mr.
Baumgartner's progress as a California newspaper man has been steadily
onward and upward.
Mr. Baumgartner has
always been active in district, state and national newspaper
organizations. He was for five successive terms president of the
Southern California Editorial Association, and in 1907, at the
convention in New Orleans, he was elected president of the National
Editorial Association. The following year he presided over the
convention at Detroit and took the National Convention on an eight days'
excursion through eastern Canada. By reason of having held the office of
president of the National Editorial Association, Mr. Baumgartner became
a life member of the organization, and now holds the office of past
president.
He is essentially an
all-around newspaper man, being equally at home in any department of the
business. He is a forceful and graceful editorial writer, and as a
business builder he has few equals in country newspaper fields. Every
paper with which he has ever been connected has been not only a
business, but a journalistic success. Although often solicited to enter
public life, Mr. Baumgartner has preferred to be just a newspaper man,
and the only public office he has ever held was one involving much hard
work without pay — that of a member of the California State Conservation
Commission.
CHRISTIAN
ANDERSON — A
hard-working, self-made man who has become a very successful rancher,
partly perhaps because he believes in treating the other fellow as he
would like to be treated himself, is Christian Anderson, the youngest
son of Andres and Meta Christina (Jepsen) Thygesen, who was born in
Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany,
Mr. Anderson had
California, fortunately, for his destination, and he was also lucky to
come direct to Fullerton. In the fall of 1892, he purchased twenty acres
of open land to the east of Fullerton, and for a while his chief crop
was cabbage; but in 1894 he began to set out citrus trees, and by fall
he completed the first five acres, and he has kept setting out oranges
until the twenty acres was set to fruit. Then he purchased, in 1904, the
twelve acres adjoining, which is in walnuts. In 1900, he built for
himself on the ranch both a dwelling and the necessary outbuildings, all
of which are creditably substantial.
Mr. Anderson is a
charter member of the Anaheim Union Water Company, and he also owns
stock in the Placentia Bank. He markets his oranges through the
Placentia Orange Growers Association and his walnuts through the
Fullerton-Placentia Walnut Association. A brother, Nels Anderson, has
three wells producing oil on his land, and is fast becoming interested
in oil prospects, and Tige Anderson of Placentia is another brother. Mr.
Anderson is a Republican, and as such endeavors to elevate the standards
of American citizenship, and to increase the spirit of patriotism.
PETER STOFFEL
— The same qualities of perseverance, industry and thrift that made
possible the success of Peter Stoffel as a grain farmer and stock raiser
in Kansas have insured the gratifying prosperity which has attended his
efforts since he came to California and engaged in citrus culture.
Although not a native of the United States, Mr. Stoffel has no
recollection of any home other than this country. He was born in
Luxembourg, Germany,
In 1880 Mr. Stoffel's
brother made a visit to Anaheim. Cal., and sent such glowing accounts
back to his brother that in July, 1906, he also came to Anaheim, and was
so much pleased with the country that he decided to locate here. He
bought the Wallace grocery store on East Center Street and enlarged the
business, employing six clerks, and he also purchased his present house
and six lots at 520 West Center Street. After four years he sold out his
grocery business. In the meantime he had bought twenty-nine acres of raw
land four miles southwest of Anaheim, and there he has developed one of
the best fruit ranches in the district, five acres being in lemons and
the remainder in Valencia oranges. He paid $15,000 cash for this place,
and has since added many improvements, including a pumping plant. In
1920 the grove produced 4,000 boxes of oranges. In July, 1919, he bought
twenty acres nearby, which he leveled and which he has set to walnuts.
He gives his personal attention to the care of these places, and the
hard work that he has put in shows itself in the line grove he has
developed. He and his brother were the first men to come to Anaheim from
Sedgwick, Kans., and with his enthusiasm over the possibilities of
Orange County, Mr. Stoffel has not been content alone to reap the
benefits of climate and soil, but has encouraged a number of his former
neighbors and friends in Sedgwick County to locate here, in that way
showing them the road to prosperity and at the same time helping in the
development of the wonderful resources of the county. All the settlers
who have come through Mr. Stoffel's recommendation are well pleased with
the locality, and have bought ranches and prospered.
Mr. Stoffel's
marriage united him with Mary £. Geiger, a native of Indiana, and they
are the parents of ten children, eight of whom are living: Mrs. Johanna
Kramer of Anaheim; Bernard A., who served his country during the war,
being stationed at Camp Lewis with a machine-gun company; Mrs. Annie E.
VoIz, deceased; Joseph, deceased; Edward H.; Cora A.; Otto J., with his
father on the ranch; Victor; Clara; and Herman J. They are also rearing
a grandchild, Frank Volz, the son of their deceased daughter.
Progressive and enterprising, Mr. Stoffel occupies an honored position
in the community for his sterling and substantial qualities as a
citizen.
ALFRED
SHROSBREE — An
interesting English-American couple who, as pioneers at Huntington
Beach, have done much to lay broad and deep the foundations there, are
Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Shrosbree, who are enjoying their retirement after
many years of hard work. Mr. Shrosbree was born at London, on
Alfred attended the
common schools and was brought up in the Church of England. He learned
the ivory-carver's trade in all its branches, and was proficient in
carving, turning and flat work. Later he took up the trade of the
carpenter and builder, but suffering severely from bronchitis, at the
age of twenty-seven he determined to seek relief by a change of
residence and air — that is, to come to America. He sailed from
Liverpool on
In Nebraska, in 1883,
Mr. Shrosbree was married to Miss Elizabeth Miles, a native of
Oxfordshire, England, who had come to America several years before: and
for twenty years he worked as a contractor and builder, with
headquarters at Blue Hill, Webster County, Nebr. In 1901 Mr. and Mrs.
Shrosbree came to Long Beach and lived there a year; and then, for a
year, they lived in South Pasadena. In 1903 they came to Pacific City,
now Huntington Beach, and at the new and promising resort Mr. Shrosbree
followed his trade.
Since coming to
California Mr. and Mrs. Shrosbree have witnessed many exciting events.
They happened, for example, to be in the great disaster at Long Beach on
Empire Day, 1913, at the falling of the approach to the Auditorium, and
they fell with the crowd through the pier to the bottom. Both were hurt
— Mrs. Shrosbree sustaining two broken ankles and ribs, and Mr.
Shrosbree having his nose and right shoulder and several ribs broken. Of
the 300 people that went down thirty-seven were brought out dead, and
four of the injured persons died. Mr. and Mrs. Shrosbree showed their
magnanimity by not presenting a claim for damages.
There was no school
and no post office at what is now Huntington Beach when Mr. Shrosbree
first pitched his tent there, and as
there was also no Episcopalian Church, they joined the Baptist
denomination, of which they are members. He is a naturalized citizen, of
course, and a Republican, but in local matters is nonpartisan. At the
age of seventy-seven, he resides happily with his wife and, as a
patriotic pioneer, enjoys the esteem of a wide range of friends and
acquaintances. He was active at his trade until the Long Beach disaster,
and then he and his wife were forced to retire. Mrs. Shrosbree is found
in every good work intended for the general welfare of the community,
and as a model housekeeper takes particular pride in their Ocean Avenue
home, which abounds with art and other evidences of the refined and
cultivated mind. Mr. Shrosbree built his fine bungalow residence of
eight rooms at 630 Ocean Avenue, and this is only one of several houses
he has erected at Huntington Beach, and one of four that he still owns.
JAMES ERVIN
LUTHER — A well-posted and most interesting early settler, who
has not only contributed something definite toward the building up and
improvement of the country, but is able to boast with modest pride that
both his father and his grandfather crossed the plains in 1851 and for
three years underwent all the privations and rigors of the miner's life
here, is James Ervin Luther, who was born in Bennington, Shiawassee
County, Mich., on January 4, 1851. His father, James Martin Luther, was
a native of New York and was educated at Granville College in Ohio,
after which he married Miss Elizabeth Jacobs, who was born in New York
State. Grandfather Ellis Luther had married Amelia Ervin who was a
native of England, and the daughter of James Ervin, a sea captain, who
owned his own vessel and also a large, comfortable residence on the
ocean front in New York City from which his family could always watch
for his coming. Piloting a valuable cargo, also owned by him, he arrived
within sight of New York harbor one evening, and was sighted by his
faithful wife and children, just as a severe storm arose; and the next
morning not a vestige of ship or cargo could be seen, nor was the
veteran captain and his supposedly sturdy vessel ever heard from again.
James Martin Luther, who traces his ancestry back to the famous German
of the Reformation, Martin Luther, was a teacher until his hearing
became affected, when he became a clerk on the Erie Canal; after his
marriage they resided at Lansing, Mich., until he came west. After
mining in Nevada, he accompanied his father to San Francisco and then
back to the East by way of Panama; and he did clerical work and was
postmaster at Northstar, Gratiot County, Mich. Later still he was a
farmer, and he spent his last days with our subject in Orange County,
where he died in 1916, at the age of ninety-three. Mrs. Luther, his
beloved life-companion, gave joy to the same home circle until 1915,
when she passed away at the age of eighty-seven. Her father, Mark
Jacobs, a Vermonter, became a farmer in Michigan, and died at Brighton,
Livingston County. They had five children, all of whom grew to maturity;
and the eldest of the family, our subject is one of three still living.
James Ervin Luther
was reared at North Star, near Ithaca, and while attending the public
schools, worked on a farm, continuing to assist his father until he was
twenty-four years of age. Then he came to California and arrived at
Santa Ana in November, 1874. The place was then a mere hamlet, but a
year later he purchased ten acres, the nucleus of his present valuable
property, in the Chapman and Glassell tract on Yorba Street; and moving
onto it, he built there a small house. Three very dry years succeeded,
however, and he had to work out to tide over the critical period, while
he did his best to improve the place.
He first set out
grapes, but they died; and then he planted apricots, a few of which are
still standing and bearing. Two years later, he bought another ten
acres, and still later ten more; and having sold five acres, he now has
a fine farm of twenty-five acres. Nine acres of these are set out to
Valencia oranges, and the balance are given over to apricots; and one
year he had seventeen tons of dried fruit. He belongs to the California
Prune and Apricot Association, and also to the Santiago Orange Growers
Association, and in both of these excellent organizations he is
appreciated both for the quality of his products and his care in
preparing them for the market.
At Orange, on March
6. 1886, Mr. Luther was married to Miss Mary McClintock, a native of
Pittsfield, Ill., and the daughter of John R. McClintock, who was born
in Indiana of an old Tennessee family. He settled in Illinois and
married Nancy Cline, of Pennsylvania parentage, and became a farmer at
Pittsfield. There Mrs. McClintock died, but Mr. McClintock is still
living, at Long Beach, enjoying life in the eighty-second year of his
age. There were seven children in that family, and Mrs. Luther, who was
the eldest, received the best of educational advantages in Illinois. In
1882, she and a brother, W. O. McClintock, came out to Los Angeles, and
that same year she removed to Santa Ana. One child. Porter G. Luther,
has blessed this union, and he is foreman for the gas engine tractor
company in Bakersfield. Mr. and Mrs. Luther are members of the Christian
Science Church at Santa Ana, and Mr. Luther marches under the banners of
the Republican party.
CHRIS PAULUS
— A liberal-minded, kind-hearted and very progressive rancher who has
had many interesting, if not always agreeable, experiences in a series
of alternating "ups and downs," is Chris Paulus, who has at length
reached a. state of independence, with a fine Valencia orange orchard
and a comfortable home. He came to California in the late nineties; and
if Mr. Paulus and the Californians have any regret in the matter, it is
that he did not settle here years before. He was born in Washington
County, Wis., in 1845, the son of Chris Paulus, a farmer, who had forty
acres there, and in 1848 moved to Ozaukee County, in the same state,
where he cleared the timber land for a home. He had married Miss
Catherine Hiltz, who proved to him an excellent helpmate. They had ten
children, six of whom grew up; and among them Chris was the second
oldest child. He was reared on a farm, and sent to a log schoolhouse;
and growing up a good axeman, he helped to clear the home farm of 120
acres of solid timber, remaining home until he was twenty-three. Then he
removed to Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, where he worked for six months. He
then made his way to Sedalia, Mo., and took up farming. Then he worked
for many years at the stock yards at Sedalia, holding the position of
foreman for almost three years.
On
Once again Mr. Paulus
began all over, locating at Compton, where he rented forty acres for the
growing of beets; but at the end of the year he was $170 in the hole.
Then he rented 100 acres from the Seaside Water Company, raising
thirty-three sacks of barley per acre, but the second year the crop was
a failure. He next went to Downey and rented thirty acres, and there he
tried to raise hogs; but he lost all his hogs and traded for a house in
Los Angeles, where he worked for the Lacy Manufacturing Company,
punching washers. He forged ahead, but was laid off; and then he took up
farming again, and searched for months until he found his present
property. He traded his house and two lots for five acres on the corner
of Olive and Sunkist Avenues, and there were only eighty-one orange
trees set out; he himself set out the rest, all Valencia orange trees,
now in full bearing. He has also helped improve other orchards. His soil
is superior; he uses the best of fertilizers, and plenty of them; he has
an excellent pumping plant, originally started by the Orange Grove Water
Company, and his highly-productive ranch is now cared for by his son,
Walter, who uses a tractor and a team, and follows the latest, most
scientific and practical methods of agriculture. An example of the
increase in values is shown by the fact that he bought it for $1,850,
and he has lately refused $30,000 for it.
Eight children have
blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Paulus: William, Peter and Jacob are
in Los Angeles; Walter, as has been stated, is ranching; Charles is also
in Los Angeles; Fred is at McKittrick; Katie is Mrs. Robert Law, of the
same place; and Elizabeth is Mrs. Fred Law, and lives at Anaheim. The
family are members of the Presbyterian Church at Anaheim.
CHARLES W.
MORROW — A highly intelligent native son of California, whose
love of good reading has assisted him in working for a higher standard
of citizenship. is Charles W. Morrow, who was born in what is now Orange
County on
George C. Morrow was
born in Ohio, and as his health was poor he therefore sought outdoor
employment. Going to Iowa when a young man, he farmed there and drove a
stage, later driving a stage in Nebraska. He had come to California in
1865, when Mr. and Mrs. Wright made their second trip, remaining there
but a short time, driving freight teams from San Pedro to Los Angeles.
Upon his return to Iowa he was married to Sarah Jane Hutchings, a native
of Ohio, but who had lived in Iowa from the age of nine years. Returning
to California in 1871, Mr. Morrow settled in Los Angeles County, driving
the stage from Anaheim to Los Flores. Mr. and Mrs. Morrow had eight
children: Thomas Benton, George Clinton, Jr., Mrs. Maggie May Bowden,
Mrs. Madge Christensen, Mrs. Nellie Fenton, Mrs. Annie Wheeler,
Sylvester and Charles W. Mr. and Mrs. Morrow are still living and reside
in the Villa Park district, Orange County, the father being eighty-five
and the mother seventy-six years of age. They celebrated their golden
wedding anniversary on
Charles W. Morrow was
sent to what was then called the Mountain View school, now known as the
school at Villa Park — the name having been changed as late as 1908-09 —
and lived to serve as one of the trustees of that institution. He
acquired three acres of his own, which he has well improved and where he
has lately built a fine residence; and he is the manager of a tract of
Valencia oranges, owned by his father, set out to Valencias and lemons.
He is also a director in the Gray Tract Water Association, which is now
supplying service to 600 acres of citrus land, having plenty of wells to
insure against drought. He also belongs to the Villa Park Orchards
Association. On
Mr. Morrow is a
Democrat in matters of national political import, and yet quite
nonpartisan when it comes to doing his duty by local movements. He
belongs to the Community Church, and is honored as one of its trustees.
All in all. Orange County as well as Villa Park may congratulate itself
on such thoroughly loyal and active citizens as Mr. Morrow.
ERROL
TRAFFORD WATSON — An industrious and exceptionally able young
man is Errol Trafford Watson, the second son of the widely-known and
well-beloved pioneer, Jonathan Watson, who shares in the active
management of the Watson ranch, raising in particular oranges, lemons
and walnuts. He was born on
On
The three Watson
brothers, Floyd E., Errol Trafford and Harold Arlington, operate the
ranch of one hundred twelve and a half acres belonging to their father,
Jonathan Watson, and cultivate forty-five acres given to walnuts and the
balance mostly in oranges. The walnut trees are from four to thirty
years old. They use two tractors in operating the ranch, this being at
least so far as the Watsons are concerned, a horseless age. This is all
the more strange since Jonathan Watson, aided by his sons, was noted as
a breeder of standard and draft horses. Errol Watson is director in the
Orange County Walnut Growers Association at Santa Ana. California need
not worry when its future destiny lies at the disposal of such brain and
brawn as mark the conservative aggressiveness of these Orange County
young men.
On
Later, Mr. Myers, having sold six acres he had owned in the Placentia district, bought twenty-five acres of the original Charles Hansen tract then owned by the Thum Bros., and five acres he afterward disposed of to accommodate his mother-in-law, Mrs. Hansen. Thrift and time profitably spent on the ranch have brought Mr. and Mrs. Myers success; and he is very naturally a member of the Anaheim Union Water Company and the Fullerton Walnut Association. Although preferring his home to the best club in the world, Mr. Myers was for some years an Odd Fellow. He is out and out a loyal, enthusiastic American, and during the recent war supported the work of the Red Cross whenever and however he was able.
History of
Historic Record
Company,
Transcribed by: Marianne Swan, 7 October 2009 : Pages - 1152-1216
Martha A Crosley
Graham
Rights Reserved - 2009